"Some of those people who have been going around the country moaning about co-governance: One, they don't know what they are talking about; and two, they are people that I've always described as the sour right.
"They don't like change, they dream of a world that never was and never could be, they ignore the facts unless it suits them, they are utterly miserable."
Chris Finlayson describes the ACT Party and its voters.
1. All citizens of New Zealand have the same political rights and duties
2. All political authority comes from the people by democratic means including universal suffrage, regular and free elections with a secret ballot
3. New Zealand is a multi-ethnic liberal democracy where discrimination based on ethnicity is illegal
Delusional defiance of contract law won't get them far. Treaty principles can only be identified in Te Tiriti, not by collective hallucination. Racial harmony in Aotearoa depends on what Maori believe they contracted into in 1840.
I suspect ACT's attempt to define what the principles of the treaty mean will serve an important (if controversial) purpose….who can honestly say what the phrase "Priciples of the Treaty of Waitangi " means in practice?
If we are to use the Treaty as a basis for how we are governed then it might be important to determine exactly what it means.
I agree, but that triad of theirs looks suspiciously like a blatant attempt to escape from reality. Seymour is gambling on viability of their reframe but on what basis would it get traction? Pakeha solidarity? Not a chance.
If the principles were durable nowadays it would be evident to many; contemporary wordings would already be circulating. More than 30 years of contemplation hasn't distilled into anything like that. Co-governance hasn't been proclaimed nationwide as a treaty principle – yet it is a feasible contender, having accumulated a bunch of laws implementing the notion…
The principles of the Treaty are ours to work out. That's because by talking about the principles we have pragmatically retreated from the actual words of the Treaty. In particular from the Maori version of Article 2 because it emphasises the "status and authority" of Maori over lands and taonga – a notion that is intolerable to the contemporary non-Maori majority because it implies something greater than mere property rights.
The important thing is not to let the ACT Party decide what the principles are.
"The Māori version of article 2 uses the word 'rangatiratanga' in promising to uphold the authority that tribes had always had over their lands and taonga. This choice of wording emphasises status and authority."
Your link
I suspect that most people would have no firm position on article 2 as there is no agreement/.understanding of what that entails….indeed there isnt even a consensus on the meaning of rangitiratanga.
If you object to the use of the 'principles' of the Treaty as opposed to the meaning of either/both versions then you will likely make any agreement even more improbable as the principles were determined to allow the Treaty to be applied in contemporary context.
I don't object to the talking about "the principles". I think we are stuck with them just as you say – because the actual wording is unclear and open to very different and maybe quite radical interpretations. By talking about the principles we have an opportunity to de-radicalise the discussion and to acknowledge the practical implications of nearly 200 years of history since it was signed.
But we can still mess it up badly. And it seems to me that the political opportunism of NACT in wanting to regain office at all costs this year, has made it more likely that we do.
What is interesting about it is the lack of co-governance: the Crown is specified as sovereign. The partners refer to Crown plus chiefs who signed, so the relevance to now is questionable.
While ACT may have intended its referendum as a vote catcher they may in fact end up doing the country a favour in that a discussion about the place of the ToW in NZ governance may result….and not necessarily in the way they intended.
Precisely. Consciousness-raising is good. Folks get to clarify their thinking and discuss any opaque points.
We ought to retain the original intent of the British govt along with acknowledging what the chiefs believed they signed up to, but relevance today is more in spirit than letter of the law to me.
That said, can't deny legal precedence established in court, which can only be replaced by parliamentary majority.
I can't see how anyone acting in good faith could take issue with people wanting to know and have defined exactly what 'the principles' are. This is not a racist or anti Maori or any other. It is a perfectly reasonable position to hold and is simply a request for information and clarity.
If you can't tell me what the principles are then don't expect me to abide by them….How could I, I don't know what they are…..
Then there's the legal side of things…..
All that aside I don't agree with what is documented here as the ACT party's principles. I think Iwi should come up with a definition of the principles that they all agree with and then pass this onto parliament for debate, voting or whatever process is needed. Obviously anything to do with defining the principles of the treaty would require widespread agreement from all parties including the crown.
ACT's underlying paranoidic fear is that the sins of their Mr Monopoly ancestors will come back to haunt them and they are determined to shut the Maoris up and prevent that from being publicised.
Give it a chance I'm sure once rimmer, Baldrick etc strike a deal after results are finalised the wealth transfer, public transport knee capping, cuts to already underfunded area's etc will resume.
National has totally hoodwinked the electorate if they believe this new government will be one of change. National is not and never has been a party of change.
I'm pretty sure that the National Party led some pretty significant changes.
Not saying they were necessarily 'good' changes – but pretty significant movement on the social and political landscape.
Also, remember, that it was this National Government which passed MMP. Not to say they wanted it – but to do them credit, they implemented the will of the electorate following the referendum.
It was a binding referendum, so they had to implement it.
It would be fair to say they didn't have to hold the referendum in the first place (although Bolger had promised one, so it would have been a very unpopular U-turn). But after the result the decision was no longer theirs to make.
Given the other policies that Bolger did a quick U-turn on, holding a referendum (when the National Party very clearly did not want a change away from FPP) – would have been just another broken promise. At the very least, to change from binding to indicative referendum (at 53.8%, they could have made an argument that the desire for change wasn't 'overwhelming')
And, equally fair to note, that the Lange government did not go to the polls in 1987 with a referendum, nor did the Palmer/Moore government in 1990.
Once a government is formed, only its policies and actions will matter. Not one single voter will cast a vote at the next election "because they took too long 3 years ago".
New Zealand households send 18% of their income to enrich the largely Australian shareholders of the major banks, but everything is fine and perfectly normal in our little economic colony of Australia.
"…The Reserve Bank yesterday said by mid 2024, New Zealand households will be spending around 18 per cent of their income on interest payments…"
Does it really matter where the shareholders are from?
At the end of the day they are large banks and whoever owns them doesn't change the fact that they are ……..(list descriptive expletives here)
But to be fair, banks can (mostly) only behave within the rules and laws that our politicians set for them.
I guess you have to be fair to the politicians as well in that we are the ones who elect them so some blame may lie with us.
Although to be fair to us, I can't think of any parties or people up for election who were advocating the sort of things that I think should happen to the banking sector
So I blame the banks and banking / monetary system, which I always have and always will detest; and to a certain extent gutless politicians.
Jacinda and Ashley (and co) were so wonderful in the Covid response. History will be kind to them. Luxon would have caved in to business and opened the borders.
Compare and contrast NZ with the UK and its disastrous Covid response and huge death toll.
"As the pandemic approached, then raged, no one – from the prime minister to the cabinet secretary to the health secretary – seems to have realised how bad they, specifically, were at their own jobs. Now that we’re seeing some of the receipts for their backstage chaos and deadly incompetence, the major takeaways are this country’s systemic inadequacy and the sheer monumental unsuitability of the specific set of people charged with dealing with the crisis. It’s like putting the Real Housewives in charge of the Manhattan Project.
I do, however, think it was notable in this day and age that every single Downing Street pandemic press conference bar one was fronted by a male politician. Covid decision-making didn’t pass the Bechdel test. The mood was months and months and months of guys who knew best standing at a podium telling the public they had it all under control. Look, you know, I’m a big advocate for this kind of positive discrimination, but hearing about the backstage bitching, the emotionalism, the cliques, the endless drama … well, like me, you may be wondering if men are really suited to these important jobs. Might they not be happier simply staying at home?"
we learned from the diary of the government’s former chief scientist, Patrick Vallance, that Johnson came to believe that Covid was “nature’s way of dealing with old people”. Yes, if you were one of the many, many old people who voted for Boris Johnson in 2019, this week was the moment it formally emerged that he was extremely relaxed about you moving on to the great suckers convention in the sky.
Bad maths. About 75% of Covid deaths occurred in those over 70, who wouldn't have been taxpayers, but would have been on National Super. At about $25,000 per year, it would have saved $375,000,000
The UK's response was disastrous by what measure? Cumulative excess deaths (the only measure that matters) stands at around 10%, about the same as Spain, Italy and Singapore. Another group of countries are clustered around 5%, including Norway, Sweden and Australia. Over the course of the pandemic the UK was at the upper end of stringency of pandemic restrictions comparing with other developed countries. Interestingly, there is almost no correlation between stringency of restrictions and excess death rate. Sweden never closed its schools and never locked down, and yet its results are better than most developed countries.
New Zealand is unique in that it closed itself off from the world completely for a long period. No other developed country could do that to the same extent, except for Australia. It had the odd side effect of making excess deaths significantly negative for a long period as we skipped two flu seasons. If you remove that effect then our excess deaths sit at around 5%.
It's very fashionable to comment about how disastrous the UK response was, but little of the commentary is based on data. Most of it appears to spring from a dislike of Boris Johnson.
Read the Guardian reports on the UK Covid enquiry Patrick…it turns out that the UK response was a complete shambles. (Anybody paying attention knew this already)
I calculated on a pro-rata population basis that NZ would have had 14,000 extra deaths if we had mimicked the UK response. Other people say 20,000.
But forget the deaths and cast your mind back to our economy working well with the closed borders. Rugby and cricket games attended by many thousands without fear of infection. The economy cranking along.
We were so lucky to have Jacinda and Ashley there, and not some slave to business like Luxon/Johnson. Try to back away from your political prejudice and look at the actual numbers.
Now, Christchurch scientists Chris Oze and Megan Danczyk have a carbon-free way to pull them from olivine. The pair needs $10 million to build their first plant before their idea could “reverse” climate change, Oze said.
From next year, the proposed $10m pilot plant could transform one tonne of olivine per day into refined minerals – saving up to three tonnes of carbon pollution. Olivine – “the most abundant rock on Earth” – is combined with acidic liquid, and transformed into an elemental soup using renewable electricity, Danczyk said. The iron, silica and magnesium are separated and can be sold – replacing other mining operations.
Typically, cement factories emit lots of carbon dioxide when they transform limestone into lime – but the team’s silica can replace up to 30% of the lime required. “Cement’s one of the largest carbon dioxide emitters, globally,” Danczyk said. The iron could go to steel-making factories, again helping to reduce the impact of these high-emitting facilities.
But the magnesium has got the project the most attention – even catching the eye of the X Prize, a global climate tech competition sponsored by Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk. Fellow billionaire Bill Gates is also supporting Aspiring Materials through his green tech programme.
The scientists are American but doing Green tech here in Aotearoa, An enterprise worth developing for our future, with US/NZ collaboration.
As we await the election's final results tomorrow, here's where we're at:
Labour’s woes are, though, just one example of a wider malaise facing political parties the world over, especially on the left. It is almost a cliché in some circles to talk of the “interregnum”, but that is where political parties find themselves: in a world where neoliberalism, however defined, is near-dead, but no coherent political platform has emerged to replace it.
Author Max Rashbrooke is a senior research fellow in the School of Government at Victoria University. I presume he discounts the Green alternative due to the 30 years the Greens have spent failing to impress it into the minds of influential academics. The Greens in parliament would probably suggest lack of relevance for that.
Across the Atlantic, “Bidenomics” is reinvigorating industrial policy, lifting working-class incomes and driving action on climate change
If so, Biden will win a 2nd term. Is his formula applicable here? Yes, with a tweak or 2. The Greens have established the basis for using the 2nd & 3rd elements of that triad, so we just need Labour to provide the first.
I’ve always looked at his stuff warily. He’s not as bad as Bryce, but he’s not enormously interested in helping out the lower echelons with any urgency.
Whenever I've heard him on RNZ in the past he has seemed to have socialist interests at heart. I see there's a youTube talk he gave to the Fabian Society (where leftists were hanging out a century ago).
Re your reference to lack of urgency, that could just mean he's typical Labour, eh?
The Greens have picked up a new MP, Kahurangi Carter, who was 14th on the party list. She ran for in the Christchurch Central electorate, which was won by Labour’s Duncan Webb.
Dunno if this got covered yesterday- but welcome to National world where workers entitlements are paid because of charity and a generous ‘donation’.
Unwrapping this a bit- if the workers were working and the company didn’t have the money to pay their salaries and holiday pay, then there should be convictions. We’re talking about theft in my book, done by trading while insolvent.
We’re going to see more absconding of responsibility. We’ve already seen that their climate change strategy is na-uh. We’ve heard Bill English priming charities to pick up the human cost leaving beneficiaries 17K behind will do.
Here there’s talk of an investor ‘pulling out’, but surely the buck has to stop with somebody? They’re in a business and that sounds like a BS excuse to me.
These are contractual rights, workers property which they’ve already worked for being transferred to someone else. It’s not a gift or a donation. It is someone partially covering theft by someone else.
I think this is to do with the insolvency provisions – where staff and contractors are considered to be unsecured creditors – and only get paid out after the secured creditors (typically banks, and other finance companies) have had their cut.
I've felt for a long time that this is wrong. We see it happening every time one of the developers goes broke – the sub-contractor tradies don't get paid, can't retain (unpaid-for) goods and materials, and often struggle to even get their tools back off site.
I'd like to see a law change, which would require companies to:
Bank annual leave entitlements as/when they are accrued – in a trust account.
Personal liability from directors/owners if staff payments (e.g. IRD PAYE, Kiwisaver, annual leave entitlements) are not correctly accounted for and transferred [It's too easy for companies to 'raid' this money to cover up profitability issues]. And, if that means that the director/owner loses their house, my grief would be controllable.
Pay tradies/sub-contractors, in full, first, out of progress payments (not last, after the banks)
Ownership of goods/materials remains with the subcontractors, until paid for by the developer. Lack of timely payment can attract penalties.
In insolvency cases, direct liability to staff (wages) and subcontractors (work to date) is paid for, before secured creditors. If there is not enough in the current accounts to do this, then this can be clawed back from directors/owners. This should be administered by the Insolvency Practitioner, and immediate liens placed on all property owned by (or in a beneficiary trust for) the directors/owners, until this charge is fulfilled.
Director responsibility should be backdated 6 months – no resigning the week before, to get out of the responsibility.
And the kind of financial sleight of hand, where all of the business assets are owned by one ‘company’ while the staff are paid by another (with no assets) – should be a legal fiction so far as the Insolvency Practitioner is concerned (i.e. it might make financial sense for a profitable company, but shouldn’t be a way of evading responsibilities for one being wound up).
I haven't been personally affected either, but had many conversations with friends and family who are in the 'tradie' economy. The way that developers continue to (legally) rort them is astounding (AND has a major impact on building costs- since the builders have to cover the costs incurred as a result of the poor-business-practice of the developers).
Yet to see any political party brave enough to address this issue. Right won't – because it would be a 'bar' to legitimate capitalism – and they don't want to piss-off the major developers, banks and financiers involved; the Left won't – because they regard self-employed as mini-capitalists – and it's much less important than the chardonnay-socialist issue of the day.
This is the kind of ‘working class’ policy which really matters in West Auckland (and the equivalents in other cities).
It’s the mindset of how that is reported too which prevents any change.
People are considered ‘lucky’ to have a job, rather than they have skills which the employers need.
Here we’ve seen a kind ‘donation’ to cover someone’s IMO verging on criminal negligence. The focus is on how plucky the company is and how good the donator is rather than the basically theft of pay and holiday pay.
We’re told an investor went for cigarettes and didn’t come back. How is that allowable? I’ve not seen that questioned or explained.
We’ve seen the slow pace of justice with Mainfreight. We need to see a change in reporting and mindset to allow a climate for any other changes. As you say without action by unions and worksites, don’t expect anything to happen. This election was a classic of what couldn’t be done.
I don't think there was any assumption in the original comment over whether the donor was left or right. However, having 150K in ready money, may inform that conclusion.
Headline, coming soon … the future of the "waka jumping law".
It's gone under the radar so far, but if/when there is some kind of deal between National and NZF, there might be some amusing amnesia:
National Party electoral spokesman Nick Smith said the bill was “the worst” of the entire term of Parliament and was passed solely because Peters was worried about a repeat of his term in power in the late 1990s, when several of his MPs split off to keep the Jenny Shipley-led government intact.
“This law change is the product of the paranoia of one member who simply wants the power to be able to fire his caucus as a consequence of his personal experience in 1996, and never in a democracy should our electoral law be dominated by one particular person's vendetta and experience.”
The Waka jumping law is one of those things everyone in the governing elites hate because it dares to hold them to a standard of behaviour that the vast majority of ordinary people find completely reasonable.
Her third objection is “a referendum at a time when the descendants of the rangatira who signed Te Tiriti are a relatively small minority in the wider population would give them relatively little say in the matter”.
I wouldn't believe Luxon on many things, but I do believe him when he says he won't have a Treaty referendum. Buying a huge row, to achieve nothing? Not just a question of principle: among the many negative consequences, he'd be losing members of his own caucus.
Luxon is in a prime position to form the pathway to our bicentennary with the Treaty just 17 years away. If anyone remembers Sesqui 1990.
Ardern did her honourable best to build a new bridge to engagement with te ao Maori with the formation of Matariki.
If the last two years have shown us anything, it's shown us some really dumb ways to engage the broader population about the Treaty (not assisted by bad faith actors from within parts of Maori and European alike touring and marching up and down the country).
I expect Luxon will concentrate on fiscal and economic rectitude issues, alas.
I have a lot of faith in the whole of the people of New Zealand that we can hold an intelligent conversation about our constitutional arrangements, and that they include the Treaty.
It took both sides of the House to show we did it with MMP, we did it with the Honours system, we did it with the Supreme Court.
If Labour, Greens and Maori Party said that together they are preparing for 2040 in a manner that won't silence people and will lead to a clear constitutional platform, then the collective left would immediately have something to work on together going into 2025.
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A Maori Party post on Instagram invited party followers to …. Tangata Whenua, Tangata Tiriti, Join the REVOLUTION! & make a stand! Nationwide Action Day, All details in tiles swipe to see locations. • This is our 1st hit out and tomorrow Tuesday the 5th is the opening ...
The RBNZ governor is citing high net migration and profit-led inflation as factors in the bank’s hawkish stance. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Tuesday, December 5, including:Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says high net migration and ...
Willis has accused labour of “economic vandalism’, while Robertson described her comments as a “desperate diversion from somebody who can't make their tax package add up”. There will now be an intense focus on December 20 to see whether her hyperbole is backed up by true surprises. Photo montage: Lynn ...
The City Rail Link has been in the headlines a bit recently so I thought I’d look at some of them. First up, yesterday the NZ Herald ran this piece about the ongoing costs of the CRL. Auckland ratepayers will be saddled with an estimated bill of $220 million each ...
Is this the most shambolic government in the history of New Zealand? Given that parliament hasn’t even opened they’ve managed quite a list of achievements to date.The Smokefree debacle trading lives for tax cuts, the Trumpian claims of bribery in the Media, an International award for indifference, and today the ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis late yesterday stopped only slightly short of accusing her predecessor Grant Robertson of cooking the books. She complained that the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU), due to be made public on December 20, would show “fiscal cliffs” that would amount to “billions of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The year was 2015. ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars was at the top of the music charts. Jurassic World was the most popular new movie in theaters. And decades of futility in international climate negotiations was about to come to an end in ...
As a heads-up, I am not one of those people who stay awake at night thinking about weird Culture War nonsense. At least so far as the current Maori/Constitutional arrangements go. In fact, I actually consider it the least important issue facing the day to day lives of New ...
Strong Words: “We do not consent, we do not surrender, we do not cede, we do not submit; we, the indigenous, are rising. We do not buy into the colonial fictions this House is built upon. Te Pāti Māori pledges allegiance to our mokopuna, our whenua, and Te Tiriti o ...
Some days it feels like the only thing to say is: Seriously? No, really. Seriously?OneSomeone has used their health department access to share data about vaccinations and patients, and inform the world that New Zealanders have been dying in their hundreds of thousands from the evil vaccine. This of course is pure ...
Buzz from the Beehive After $21.8 million was spent on investigations, the plug has been pulled on the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro electricity scheme, The scheme – that technically could have solved New Zealand’s looming energy shortage, according to its champions – was a key part of the defeated Labour government’s ...
If those elected to the Māori Seats refuse to take them, then what possible reason could the country have for retaining them?Chris Trotter writes – Christmas is fast approaching, which, as it does every year, means gearing up for an abstruse general knowledge question. “Who was ...
The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.Brian Easton writes – The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he ...
The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out – for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable ...
As Deb Te Kawa writes in an op-ed, the new Government seems to have immediately bought itself fights with just about everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Monday December 4, including:Palau’s President ...
Let’s begin today by thinking about job interviews.During my career in Software Development I must have interviewed hundreds of people, hired at least a hundred, but few stick in the memory.I remember one guy who was so laid back he was practically horizontal, leaning back in his chair until his ...
New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he left off. Peters sought to align ...
Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost ...
The first big test of the new Government’s approach to Treaty matters is likely to be seen in the return of the Resource Management Act. RMA Minister Chris Bishop has confirmed that he intends to introduce legislation to repeal Labour’s recently passed Natural and Built Environments Act and its ...
Time to revisit something I haven’t covered in a while: the D&D campaign, with Saqua the aquatic half-vampire. Last seen in July: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2023/07/27/the-song-of-saqua-volume-ii/ The delay is understandable, once one realises that the interim saw our DM come down with a life-threatening medical situation. They have since survived to make ...
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 26, 2023 thru Dec 2, 2023. Story of the Week CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate changeDaily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more ...
Affirmative Action was a key theme at this election, although I don’t recall anyone using those particular words during the campaign.They’re positive words, and the way the topic was talked about was anything but. It certainly wasn’t a campaign of saying that Affirmative Action was a good thing, but that, ...
It was at the end of the Foxton straights, at the end of 1978, at 100km/h, that someone tried to grab me from behind on my Yamaha.They seemed to be yanking my backpack. My first thought was outrage. My second was: but how? Where have they come from? And my ...
There’s no news to be gleaned from the government’s official website today – it contains nothing more than the message about the site being under maintenance. The time this maintenance job is taking and the costs being incurred have us musing on the government’s commitment to an assault on inflation. ...
Don’t you sometimes wish they’d just tell the truth? No matter how abhorrent or ugly, just straight up tell us the truth?C’mon guys, what you’re doing is bad enough anyway, pretending you’re not is only adding insult to injury.Instead of all this bollocks about the Smokefree changes being to do ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action. When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week: Site under maintenanceBeehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your ...
Labour’s immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford is calling on the Government to follow the example of Australia and help New Zealanders’ close family members stuck in Gaza to escape and take shelter here. ...
The Green Party is urging the Government to recognise its commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi so our tamariki and mokopuna can grow up in an Aotearoa where their language is celebrated, their health is prioritised, and their whenua is protected. ...
By scrapping Aotearoa’s world-leading smokefree laws, this government is sacrificing Māori lives to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. Not only is this plan revolting, but it doesn’t add up. Treasury has estimated that the reversal of smokefree laws to pay for tax cuts will cost our health system $5.25bn, ...
Figures showing National needs to find another $900 million for landlords highlights the mess this coalition Government is in less than a week into the job. ...
Community organisations, mana whenua and the Greens have written to the incoming Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to call for the progression without delay of the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill. ...
"On behalf of the Labour Party I would like to congratulate Christopher Luxon on his appointment as Prime Minister,” Labour Party Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
NZ First has gotten their wish to ‘take our country back’ to the 1800s with a policy program that will white-wash Aotearoa and erase tangata whenua rights. By disestablishing the Māori Health Authority this Government has condemned Māori to die seven years earlier than Pākehā. By removing Treaty obligations from ...
Te Pāti Māori have called for the resignation of the Ministry of Foreign and Trade chief executive Chris Seed following his decision to erase te reo Māori from government communications. While the country still waits for a new government to be formed, Mr Seed took it upon himself to undermine ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joined Cyclone Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell and Transport and Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, to meet leaders of cyclone and flood-affected regions in the Hawke’s Bay. The visit reinforced the coalition Government’s commitment to support the region and better understand its ongoing requirements, Mr Mitchell says. ...
New Zealand has joined the UK and other partners in condemning malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Government, Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau Judith Collins says. The statement follows the UK’s attribution today of malicious cyber activity impacting its domestic democratic institutions and processes, as well ...
The Government has begun the process of disestablishing Te Pūkenga as part of its 100-day plan, Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds says. “I have started putting that plan into action and have met with the chair and chief Executive of Te Pūkenga to advise them of my ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will be leaving for Dubai today to attend COP28, the 28th annual UN climate summit, this week. Simon Watts says he will push for accelerated action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, deliver New Zealand’s national statement and connect with partner countries, private sector leaders ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins yesterday announced New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM). “Having just returned from this year’s meeting in Nouméa, I witnessed first-hand the value of meeting with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security and defence matters. I welcome the opportunity to ...
The Government is committed to lifting school achievement in the basics and that starts with removing distractions so young people can focus on their learning, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. The 2022 PISA results released this week found that Kiwi kids ranked 5th in the world for being distracted ...
Today I met with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to set out my expectations, which he has agreed to, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Under section 16(1) of the Policing Act 2008, the Minister can expect the Police Commissioner to deliver on the Government’s direction and priorities, as now outlined in ...
New Zealand needs a strong and stable Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that is well placed for the future, after emission units failed to sell for the fourth and final auction of the year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. At today’s auction, 15 million New Zealand units (NZUs) – each ...
With 2022 PISA results showing a decline in achievement, Education Minister Erica Stanford is confident that the Coalition Government’s 100-day plan for education will improve outcomes for Kiwi kids. The 2022 PISA results show a significant decline in the performance of 15-year-old students in maths compared to 2018 and confirms ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today departed for New Caledonia to attend the 8th annual South Pacific Defence Ministers’ meeting (SPDMM). “This meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security matters and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Pacific,” Judith Collins says. ...
Putting more money in the pockets of hard-working families is a priority of this Coalition Government, starting with an increase to Working for Families, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “We are starting our 100-day plan with a laser focus on bringing down the cost of living, because that is what ...
Most weeks, following Cabinet, the Prime Minister holds a press conference for members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. This page contains the transcripts from those press conferences, which are supplied by Hansard to the Office of the Prime Minister. It is important to note that the transcripts have not been edited ...
The Government has axed the $16 billion Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme championed by the previous government, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “This hugely wasteful project was pouring money down the drain at a time when we need to be reining in spending and focussing on rebuilding the economy and ...
New Zealand welcomes the further one-day extension of the pause in fighting, which will allow the delivery of more urgently-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza and the release of more hostages, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said. “The human cost of the conflict is horrific, and New Zealand wants to see the violence ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today expressed on behalf of the New Zealand Government his condolences to the family of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has passed away at the age of 100 at his home in Connecticut. “While opinions on his legacy are varied, Secretary Kissinger was ...
Every child deserves a world-leading education, and the Coalition Government is making that a priority as part of its 100-day plan. Education Minister Erica Stanford says that will start with banning cellphone use at school and ensuring all primary students spend one hour on reading, writing, and maths each day. ...
I would like to begin by echoing the Prime Minister’s thanks to the organisers of this Summit, Fran O’Sullivan and the Auckland Business Chamber. I want to also acknowledge the many leading exporters, sector representatives, diplomats, and other leaders we have joining us in the room. In particular, I would like ...
Good morning. Thank you, Rosemary, for your warm introduction, and to Fran and Simon for this opportunity to make some brief comments about New Zealand’s relationship with the United States. This is also a chance to acknowledge my colleague, Minister for Trade Todd McClay, Ambassador Tom Udall, Secretary of Foreign ...
Good morning, tēnā koutou and namaskar. Many thanks, Michael, for your warm welcome. I would like to acknowledge the work of the India New Zealand Business Council in facilitating today’s event and for the Council’s broader work in supporting a coordinated approach for lifting New Zealand-India relations. I want to also ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has laid out the Coalition Government’s plan for its first 100 days from today. “The last few years have been incredibly tough for so many New Zealanders. People have put their trust in National, ACT and NZ First to steer them towards a better, more prosperous ...
A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
A landmark Waitangi Tribunal report into injustices suffered by Ngāpuhi will strengthen the iwi's case as it looks to restart its stalled Treaty settlement negotiations, a hapū leader says. ...
In just 18 months, the Auckland-based YouTube channel has gone from working from home and out of cafes to a brand new multi-million dollar studio. Sam Brooks asks the trio how they pulled it off, and what they’re planning to do with it.On December 4, a video called “The ...
The Anika Moa Unleashed host unleashes her thoughts on After the Party, Paul Holmes, The Walking Dead, stalking celebrities and more. Anika Moa has a proud history of angering strangers online, whether it’s due to her tattoos, her love life, or something else entirely. When she sits down with The ...
Searching widely for ways to overcome deep opposition by fossil fuel nations to a phase-out of their products, the President of COP28 enlisted an ally while negotiators sought subtler language yesterday. “We have been asked by the UAE presidency to help find common language that will be acceptable ...
With a topic so universal, it’s almost always about something bigger. Consider the contents of your fridge. What kinds of fruits and vegetables are in your crisper drawer? How much did that block of cheese set you back? Where did you source most of this kai from? Are there ingredients ...
You can read the full story, plus see photographs from Craig McKenzie, in the November-December issue of New Zealand Geographic magazine, or on their website. The bittern’s eerie, booming call sounds like a lament, a tangi ringing across the marshes. Now, the birds themselves are in trouble. ...
Opinion: You may have been there, waiting your turn, wearing an ill-fitting hospital gown, surrounded by a flurry of staff, the smell of disinfectant in the air. If you’ve ever undergone surgery, you probably know the nervous, stress-laden pre-op feeling. What may come as a surprise is that ...
1. In the evening and in the night, I sit on the balcony and think of you. I can’t see the water but I know it’s there, soft and slow. We bathed in it that last day, you and I, when the dusk hung heavy as cloth of gold ...
Alex Casey unearths the origin story of an New Zealand icon – featuring a surprise cameo from an international comedy megastar. At first glance, the Facebook post from a Waipu cafe reads like any other heartfelt change in ownership announcement. “George and Amber have reflected on their involvement in our ...
This week on Their house, my garden, why my spinach plant has grown suspiciously tall, and how to deal with your own over-eager plants. Beginner gardeners would be forgiven for thinking a plant growing tall is reason to celebrate. We are, after all, the kind of species who mark door ...
Luxon drove the crumbling SH2 with a handful of MPs on Friday morning to reach the small town, gauge progress of its recovery, and learn what it needs from the new government. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bianca Baggiarini, Lecturer, Australian National University Last week, reports emerged that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are using an artificial intelligence (AI) system called Habsora (Hebrew for “The Gospel”) to select targets in the war on Hamas in Gaza. The system has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Johan Lidberg, Associate Professor, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University The most significant recommendation in the Senate inquiry report on the functionality of the Commonwealth FOI system is this: move the federal Freedom of Information (FOI) function from the Office ...
Analysis: The government was under attack on multiple fronts during a week of relentless criticism and then faced its first Question Time in Parliament, Peter Wilson writes. ...
Well, it’s 4.30pm on a Friday which feels as appropriate time as ever to say goodbye. The Spinoff’s live updates have come to an end, almost four years after they were first switched on. If you missed my explainer this morning of what’s going on, here it is. In short: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Winkler, Adjunct Associate Professor, La Trobe University Shutterstock A home – in the physical and emotional sense – is foundational to living an ordinary life with a feeling of inclusion. National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants with the highest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Roberts, Conjoint Associate Professor in clinical pharmacology and toxicology, St Vincent’s Healthcare Clinical Campus, UNSW Sydney Veronika Kunitsyna/Shutterstock Red imported fire ants are a particularly nasty type of ant because they are aggressive, and inflict painful stings that may ...
Christopher Luxon says the new government is going to continue everything that the previous one put into place to help with the recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Te Whatu Ora is continuing to investigate after a data breach that saw vaccine-related information shared online last week. The agency is liaising with the Privacy Commissioner and said it will make “any appropriate notifications” if individuals were impacted by the breach. “Alongside the work to identify the material allegedly ...
Live - Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been in Wairoa this morning to gauge progress of the town's recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle. Watch a media conference with him here. ...
Sam Brooks reviews a new immersive film experience at Auckland’s planetarium.Journalists get invited to review things all the time. Books, films, shows, exhibitions, all of it. I say yes to a lot of them and “no, sorry” to a bit more. Very rarely do I go, “Absolutely I need ...
Waka Kotahi has begun the process of re-adopting its former name, the New Zealand Transport Agency (or NZTA). It follows a directive from the new government that public agencies should have their primary name in English and not te reo. This came as part of the coalition deal between National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Pavlovich, Senior lecturer in the School of Accounting and Commercial Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington The new coalition government has announced a suite of tax reforms, including reintroducing the ability for property investors to deduct the interest ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1The Bee Stingby Paul Murray (Hamish Hamilton, $37) The runner-up for the 2023 Booker Prize ...
A new poem by Ōtepoti poet Jasmine O M Taylor. a retreat if you find a chance before they’ve all melted into the air find time to get on a glacier and find a cave in the glacier and go inside the cave inside the glacier it will speak to ...
Our award-winning podcast assesses the opening stanza of the Luxon-led government. After the long, serene political gap as coalition talks went on, politics has roared back with plenty of shouting and not so much rizz. Toby Manhire, Ben Thomas and Annabelle Lee-Mather assess the early exchanges, including Winston Peters’ ...
“The new government has a clear choice to make before Christmas. Do they live up to their stated intention of governing for all New Zealanders, or do they dash the hopes of tens of thousands of kiwi workers by unilaterally abolishing Fair Pay ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kimberley Reid, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Atmospheric Sciences, Monash University titoOnz, Shutterstock You’ve probably heard El Niño brings hot and dry weather to the eastern states, but what about the rest of Australia? Are we all in for a scorcher ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Currie, Professor of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Heatwaves are a major public health hazard. Socially disadvantaged people are especially exposed to extreme heat and other impacts of climate change. Many people experiencing homelessness – more than 120,000 ...
The Free Speech Union has sent 14 Cabinet Ministers a comprehensive Briefing to the Incoming Government, outlining five key areas of policy that the Government must address in order to protect and expand Kiwis’ speech rights. We look forward to ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis says she has already met twice with KiwiRail bosses over a "major cost blowout" in the project to replace the Interislander ferries. ...
With the new government gaining international infamy for its climate policy, for rangatahi Māori like Kaeden Watts, attending climate conferences is more important than ever. Every year world leaders meet for the annual Conference of the Parties (Cop), the world’s most powerful climate crisis conference. Despite Cop being criticised for ...
Accidental Partridge is one of my favourite Twitter (I am never going to call it X) accounts, and given today is the last day of live updates I think it’s absolutely fair I include a video from it. If you don’t know why it’s called Accidental Partridge, go watch all ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the National Party to front up to consumers who will face 15% higher prices for some services from the likes of Uber, Airbnb and food delivery apps after their app tax U-turn rather than trying to erase all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Fujak, Lecturer in Sport Management, Deakin University While 2023 was a watershed year for Australian women’s sport due to the Matildas’ stirring run at the Women’s World Cup, netball is going through its worst period ever. Netball Australia and the ...
The prime minister is spending the day out of Wellington, touring parts of cyclone-damaged Hawke’s Bay and meeting with senior leaders in the community. Christopher Luxon began the day in Wairoa, where he met with mayor Craig Little. Later, he’ll head to Napier for a meeting with regional council members. ...
How will the new government look at our television? Duncan Greive reflects on this year’s awards ceremony. This is an excerpt from The Spinoff’s weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. The NZ TV Awards took place in downtown Auckland on Tuesday, which coincided with Te Pāti Māori’s National Māori ...
Responding to news that Wellington City Councillors have voted down a proposal to reduce business rates in the capital, Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said: “When Mayor Tory Whanau comes out with a line like ‘I couldn’t in good ...
The new tertiary education minister says Te Pūkenga will be replaced with eight to 10 individual institutions, and hopes legislation will be in place within eight months. ...
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission has today launched a short film calling for the public and government to champion and protect human rights ahead of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “Seventy-five years on, ...
The parliamentary motion passed today , a full two months after Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians began, says: "Express grave concern at the ongoing violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories, unequivocally condemn ...
To replace $700 million a year of revenues lost from a foreign buyers tax, the new coalition government is dumping the previous government’s smokefree 2025 goal. This relaxing of policies will keep more people smoking for longer, costing thousands of lives per year and at least $10 billion is extra ...
London has always been a hard place to live, but in 2023, it’s almost impossible. Charlotte Doyle, a New Zealander currently living in London, explores why we keep heading there. “You’re dreaming,” the letting agent tells me impatiently over the phone. “A one-bedroom for £1,500 per month is a needle ...
With The Project wrapping up last week (you can read Duncan Greive’s excellent reflections on that here), Warner Bros Discovery has announced broadcaster Ryan Bridge will host a brand new current affairs show for Three. The currently unnamed show will focus on live news and interviews and is a return ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew H. Holden, Lecturer, School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland Dot-underwing moth (_Eudocima materna_) found in the researchers’ yard.Matthew Holden, CC BY-NC We are biodiversity researchers – an ecologist, a mathematician and a taxonomist – who were locked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Bennett, Disability Program Director, Grattan Institute The long-awaited NDIS review has looked far beyond the National Disability Insurance Scheme, taking a bird’s eye view of disability services in Australia. Critical to the future of the NDIS are services for people with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca J McLeod, Senior Research Fellow in Marine Ecology, University of Otago Climate change might not be high on its immediate agenda, but New Zealand’s new government does have one potentially significant and innovative policy. Recognising the marine environment’s ability to remove ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Happé, Graduate researcher in art history and material culture studies, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock As we get closer to Christmas, your family will probably have some kind of gathering. You will reunite with people who you might not ...
Te Whatu Ora IT worker Barry Young had a “relatively muted” digital presence prior to his arrest last week over a massive Covid data breach, Stuff reports. Young has since become something of a cause celebre among vacccine sceptics, appearing on online shows hosted by local conspiracy theorist Liz Gunn and ...
After an 11 year hiatus, legendary Aotearoa hip-hop group Home Brew are back today with their first new album in over a decade, Run it Back, and will continue that reunion at Laneway Festival in February. Breaking their indefinite hiatus, Run it Back comes off the back off the 2023 ...
There may be less than a fortnight left in the political year, but politicians seem determined to make the final days count, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Question time is ...
Labour's leader says O'Connor is "incredibly passionate" about the issue but party policy is that relevant international bodies will determine whether Israel's actions are lawful. ...
The Spinoff’s live updates editor reflects on three-and-a-half years in the role, and looks forward to what’s next. Today marks the final day of live updates on The Spinoff. It’s a big day for me given I have been editing the live updates since mid-2020, but it’s also a big ...
On a quiet morning before the first parliamentary question time of the new term, Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon took a moment to analyse and reflect on their election campaigns. When Chris Hipkins was sworn in as prime minister on January 21, 2023, he had a feeling of optimism and ...
Liv McGoverne has just returned from an enjoyable season playing rugby in England, but playing there in a Black Ferns jersey, on the sport’s biggest stage, remains the ultimate goal. McGoverne, 26, played the 2022-23 campaign for Exeter Chiefs in the Premier 15s competition. Coached by former England half-back ...
FICTION 1 The Girl from London by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $37.99) An ideal Xmas present for the commercial fiction reader who would relish a wartime story of a shipboard romance. 2 The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35) An ideal Xmas present for the ...
After most of a billion dollars and six years’ work, the Puhoi to Warkworth section of State Highway 1 has been warmly received by long-distance motorists no longer slowed down by small town traffic lights. Where once cars would back bumper to bumper on a Sunday evening, now the ...
The first regular sitting day of the new Parliament took place on Thursday and the country got a peek at what Question Time will look like over the next three years. The sitting started with a rare moment of cross-party unity, when the Government adopted Labour MP Phil Twyford’s ...
It could be the most consequential international climate change conference yet, but it’s being held in the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s major oil producers and led by one of the country’s top oil bosses. Newsroom journalist Rod Oram is attending COP28 and joins The Detail from ...
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Opinion: Courts are halls of justice, but they are also well-financed institutional purchasers of goods and services, outsourcing much of their work to private consultants and contractors, including lawyers, advocates, psychologists, social workers, and drug counsellors who earn their living from court contracts. Though there is nothing inherently wrong ...
Analysis: The United Nations’ COP28 climate negotiations have begun their final phase with only five days or so left to agree a wide range of measures designed to accelerate nations’ climate responses in coming years. While the draft text prepared by government officials over the past week has some ...
Phasing out fossil fuels is the subject of much negotiation at Cop28 this week. But the wording will be fiercely debated, and the presence of fossil fuel lobbyists looms large.This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof, brought to you by AMP. Sign up here. The government’s plans ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wesley Morgan, Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University Fiji was flooded by a severe cyclone in 2016.ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock The federal government has announced an extra A$150 million for climate finance – including $100 million for the Pacific to help protect its ...
Chris Finlayson describes the ACT Party and its voters.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/11/election-2023-what-stands-in-the-way-of-the-act-party-s-plan-for-a-treaty-of-waitangi-referendum.html
ACT is using this triad:
Delusional defiance of contract law won't get them far. Treaty principles can only be identified in Te Tiriti, not by collective hallucination. Racial harmony in Aotearoa depends on what Maori believe they contracted into in 1840.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/11/election-2023-what-stands-in-the-way-of-the-act-party-s-plan-for-a-treaty-of-waitangi-referendum.html
I suspect ACT's attempt to define what the principles of the treaty mean will serve an important (if controversial) purpose….who can honestly say what the phrase "Priciples of the Treaty of Waitangi " means in practice?
If we are to use the Treaty as a basis for how we are governed then it might be important to determine exactly what it means.
I agree, but that triad of theirs looks suspiciously like a blatant attempt to escape from reality. Seymour is gambling on viability of their reframe but on what basis would it get traction? Pakeha solidarity? Not a chance.
If the principles were durable nowadays it would be evident to many; contemporary wordings would already be circulating. More than 30 years of contemplation hasn't distilled into anything like that. Co-governance hasn't been proclaimed nationwide as a treaty principle – yet it is a feasible contender, having accumulated a bunch of laws implementing the notion…
The principles of the Treaty are ours to work out. That's because by talking about the principles we have pragmatically retreated from the actual words of the Treaty. In particular from the Maori version of Article 2 because it emphasises the "status and authority" of Maori over lands and taonga – a notion that is intolerable to the contemporary non-Maori majority because it implies something greater than mere property rights.
The important thing is not to let the ACT Party decide what the principles are.
"The Māori version of article 2 uses the word 'rangatiratanga' in promising to uphold the authority that tribes had always had over their lands and taonga. This choice of wording emphasises status and authority."
Your link
I suspect that most people would have no firm position on article 2 as there is no agreement/.understanding of what that entails….indeed there isnt even a consensus on the meaning of rangitiratanga.
If you object to the use of the 'principles' of the Treaty as opposed to the meaning of either/both versions then you will likely make any agreement even more improbable as the principles were determined to allow the Treaty to be applied in contemporary context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi
I don't object to the talking about "the principles". I think we are stuck with them just as you say – because the actual wording is unclear and open to very different and maybe quite radical interpretations. By talking about the principles we have an opportunity to de-radicalise the discussion and to acknowledge the practical implications of nearly 200 years of history since it was signed.
But we can still mess it up badly. And it seems to me that the political opportunism of NACT in wanting to regain office at all costs this year, has made it more likely that we do.
That heptad from 1987 seems to be viewed as the status quo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi
What is interesting about it is the lack of co-governance: the Crown is specified as sovereign. The partners refer to Crown plus chiefs who signed, so the relevance to now is questionable.
While ACT may have intended its referendum as a vote catcher they may in fact end up doing the country a favour in that a discussion about the place of the ToW in NZ governance may result….and not necessarily in the way they intended.
Precisely. Consciousness-raising is good. Folks get to clarify their thinking and discuss any opaque points.
We ought to retain the original intent of the British govt along with acknowledging what the chiefs believed they signed up to, but relevance today is more in spirit than letter of the law to me.
That said, can't deny legal precedence established in court, which can only be replaced by parliamentary majority.
100%
I can't see how anyone acting in good faith could take issue with people wanting to know and have defined exactly what 'the principles' are. This is not a racist or anti Maori or any other. It is a perfectly reasonable position to hold and is simply a request for information and clarity.
If you can't tell me what the principles are then don't expect me to abide by them….How could I, I don't know what they are…..
Then there's the legal side of things…..
All that aside I don't agree with what is documented here as the ACT party's principles. I think Iwi should come up with a definition of the principles that they all agree with and then pass this onto parliament for debate, voting or whatever process is needed. Obviously anything to do with defining the principles of the treaty would require widespread agreement from all parties including the crown.
ACT's underlying paranoidic fear is that the sins of their Mr Monopoly ancestors will come back to haunt them and they are determined to shut the Maoris up and prevent that from being publicised.
Good gravy just give us the Specials already. And a coalition agreement.
Well and truly time we had a clear government again.
Labour still in charge, Hipkins still the PM. The situation shows the propaganda that NZ voted for change is a myth.
Give it a chance I'm sure once rimmer, Baldrick etc strike a deal after results are finalised the wealth transfer, public transport knee capping, cuts to already underfunded area's etc will resume.
National has totally hoodwinked the electorate if they believe this new government will be one of change. National is not and never has been a party of change.
The 90s are calling!
I'm pretty sure that the National Party led some pretty significant changes.
Not saying they were necessarily 'good' changes – but pretty significant movement on the social and political landscape.
If reactionary and regressive policies count as change I guess you are right.
Change is change.
Also, remember, that it was this National Government which passed MMP. Not to say they wanted it – but to do them credit, they implemented the will of the electorate following the referendum.
It was a binding referendum, so they had to implement it.
It would be fair to say they didn't have to hold the referendum in the first place (although Bolger had promised one, so it would have been a very unpopular U-turn). But after the result the decision was no longer theirs to make.
Given the other policies that Bolger did a quick U-turn on, holding a referendum (when the National Party very clearly did not want a change away from FPP) – would have been just another broken promise. At the very least, to change from binding to indicative referendum (at 53.8%, they could have made an argument that the desire for change wasn't 'overwhelming')
And, equally fair to note, that the Lange government did not go to the polls in 1987 with a referendum, nor did the Palmer/Moore government in 1990.
Everyone was so over the current crew, that they voted for the other crew, not expecting any change.
And fwiw, i think Chippy rather spend some times with his new Coalition partner then with his party and his government.
You sound like Paddy Gower.
The result doesn't arrive faster if we sit in the back seat and ask daddy "Are we there yet?".
Graeme Edgeler patiently explains:
Final vote delay criticisms not fair, but daily updates could work – Edgeler | RNZ News
Once a government is formed, only its policies and actions will matter. Not one single voter will cast a vote at the next election "because they took too long 3 years ago".
New Zealand households send 18% of their income to enrich the largely Australian shareholders of the major banks, but everything is fine and perfectly normal in our little economic colony of Australia.
"…The Reserve Bank yesterday said by mid 2024, New Zealand households will be spending around 18 per cent of their income on interest payments…"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/301000306/newsable-tricky-times-might-prompt-wave-of-small-new-businesses
Does it really matter where the shareholders are from?
At the end of the day they are large banks and whoever owns them doesn't change the fact that they are ……..(list descriptive expletives here)
But to be fair, banks can (mostly) only behave within the rules and laws that our politicians set for them.
I guess you have to be fair to the politicians as well in that we are the ones who elect them so some blame may lie with us.
Although to be fair to us, I can't think of any parties or people up for election who were advocating the sort of things that I think should happen to the banking sector
So I blame the banks and banking / monetary system, which I always have and always will detest; and to a certain extent gutless politicians.
Half the shares in their banks are owned by international funds …
Jacinda and Ashley (and co) were so wonderful in the Covid response. History will be kind to them. Luxon would have caved in to business and opened the borders.
Compare and contrast NZ with the UK and its disastrous Covid response and huge death toll.
"As the pandemic approached, then raged, no one – from the prime minister to the cabinet secretary to the health secretary – seems to have realised how bad they, specifically, were at their own jobs. Now that we’re seeing some of the receipts for their backstage chaos and deadly incompetence, the major takeaways are this country’s systemic inadequacy and the sheer monumental unsuitability of the specific set of people charged with dealing with the crisis. It’s like putting the Real Housewives in charge of the Manhattan Project.
I do, however, think it was notable in this day and age that every single Downing Street pandemic press conference bar one was fronted by a male politician. Covid decision-making didn’t pass the Bechdel test. The mood was months and months and months of guys who knew best standing at a podium telling the public they had it all under control. Look, you know, I’m a big advocate for this kind of positive discrimination, but hearing about the backstage bitching, the emotionalism, the cliques, the endless drama … well, like me, you may be wondering if men are really suited to these important jobs. Might they not be happier simply staying at home?"
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/01/boris-johnson-dominic-cummings-covid-inquiry-no-10
A fun estimate of the tax paid from those that survived is abt 300 m per yr
(20000 people at est ave tax of 15 k each)
Bad maths. About 75% of Covid deaths occurred in those over 70, who wouldn't have been taxpayers, but would have been on National Super. At about $25,000 per year, it would have saved $375,000,000
Point abt ages fair,
[please fix the typo in user name in your next comment, thanks – Incognito]
Mod note
OOPs sorry.
Sloppy fingers
Nat Super is Taxed though
The UK's response was disastrous by what measure? Cumulative excess deaths (the only measure that matters) stands at around 10%, about the same as Spain, Italy and Singapore. Another group of countries are clustered around 5%, including Norway, Sweden and Australia. Over the course of the pandemic the UK was at the upper end of stringency of pandemic restrictions comparing with other developed countries. Interestingly, there is almost no correlation between stringency of restrictions and excess death rate. Sweden never closed its schools and never locked down, and yet its results are better than most developed countries.
New Zealand is unique in that it closed itself off from the world completely for a long period. No other developed country could do that to the same extent, except for Australia. It had the odd side effect of making excess deaths significantly negative for a long period as we skipped two flu seasons. If you remove that effect then our excess deaths sit at around 5%.
It's very fashionable to comment about how disastrous the UK response was, but little of the commentary is based on data. Most of it appears to spring from a dislike of Boris Johnson.
Read the Guardian reports on the UK Covid enquiry Patrick…it turns out that the UK response was a complete shambles. (Anybody paying attention knew this already)
I calculated on a pro-rata population basis that NZ would have had 14,000 extra deaths if we had mimicked the UK response. Other people say 20,000.
But forget the deaths and cast your mind back to our economy working well with the closed borders. Rugby and cricket games attended by many thousands without fear of infection. The economy cranking along.
We were so lucky to have Jacinda and Ashley there, and not some slave to business like Luxon/Johnson. Try to back away from your political prejudice and look at the actual numbers.
Seems like a potential Green solution:
The scientists are American but doing Green tech here in Aotearoa, An enterprise worth developing for our future, with US/NZ collaboration.
As we await the election's final results tomorrow, here's where we're at:
Author Max Rashbrooke is a senior research fellow in the School of Government at Victoria University. I presume he discounts the Green alternative due to the 30 years the Greens have spent failing to impress it into the minds of influential academics. The Greens in parliament would probably suggest lack of relevance for that.
If so, Biden will win a 2nd term. Is his formula applicable here? Yes, with a tweak or 2. The Greens have established the basis for using the 2nd & 3rd elements of that triad, so we just need Labour to provide the first.
Rashbrooke is NZ institute or some such isn’t he?
I’ve always looked at his stuff warily. He’s not as bad as Bryce, but he’s not enormously interested in helping out the lower echelons with any urgency.
Could be getting him wrong though: https://www.maxrashbrooke.net/
Whenever I've heard him on RNZ in the past he has seemed to have socialist interests at heart. I see there's a youTube talk he gave to the Fabian Society (where leftists were hanging out a century ago).
Re your reference to lack of urgency, that could just mean he's typical Labour, eh?
Haha very good. Yes, what with the specials favoring the left it was a bit pointed that Labour got none of them.
And so far the media is scarcely reporting, if at all, that the Greens have picked up a seat.
Here she is…
Dunno if this got covered yesterday- but welcome to National world where workers entitlements are paid because of charity and a generous ‘donation’.
Unwrapping this a bit- if the workers were working and the company didn’t have the money to pay their salaries and holiday pay, then there should be convictions. We’re talking about theft in my book, done by trading while insolvent.
We’re going to see more absconding of responsibility. We’ve already seen that their climate change strategy is na-uh. We’ve heard Bill English priming charities to pick up the human cost leaving beneficiaries 17K behind will do.
Here there’s talk of an investor ‘pulling out’, but surely the buck has to stop with somebody? They’re in a business and that sounds like a BS excuse to me.
These are contractual rights, workers property which they’ve already worked for being transferred to someone else. It’s not a gift or a donation. It is someone partially covering theft by someone else.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/133220032/supie-workers-to-receive-final-pay-after-substantial-anonymous-donation
I think this is to do with the insolvency provisions – where staff and contractors are considered to be unsecured creditors – and only get paid out after the secured creditors (typically banks, and other finance companies) have had their cut.
I've felt for a long time that this is wrong. We see it happening every time one of the developers goes broke – the sub-contractor tradies don't get paid, can't retain (unpaid-for) goods and materials, and often struggle to even get their tools back off site.
I'd like to see a law change, which would require companies to:
And the kind of financial sleight of hand, where all of the business assets are owned by one ‘company’ while the staff are paid by another (with no assets) – should be a legal fiction so far as the Insolvency Practitioner is concerned (i.e. it might make financial sense for a profitable company, but shouldn’t be a way of evading responsibilities for one being wound up).
https://archive.ph/LGjf4
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/supie-collapse-why-online-supermarket-didnt-have-enough-cash-to-pay-staff/LSRPISR3AZERLCUZ7HPDDPFUHU/
I'm with you Bella. I've been fortunate enough to never have been affected.
But I've seen so many of my workmates and tradie colleagues go to the wall that I'm surprised more violence hasn't occurred.
Something has to change or we peasantry won't survive
I haven't been personally affected either, but had many conversations with friends and family who are in the 'tradie' economy. The way that developers continue to (legally) rort them is astounding (AND has a major impact on building costs- since the builders have to cover the costs incurred as a result of the poor-business-practice of the developers).
Yet to see any political party brave enough to address this issue. Right won't – because it would be a 'bar' to legitimate capitalism – and they don't want to piss-off the major developers, banks and financiers involved; the Left won't – because they regard self-employed as mini-capitalists – and it's much less important than the chardonnay-socialist issue of the day.
This is the kind of ‘working class’ policy which really matters in West Auckland (and the equivalents in other cities).
Agree Belladonna. That would be responsible.
It’s the mindset of how that is reported too which prevents any change.
People are considered ‘lucky’ to have a job, rather than they have skills which the employers need.
Here we’ve seen a kind ‘donation’ to cover someone’s IMO verging on criminal negligence. The focus is on how plucky the company is and how good the donator is rather than the basically theft of pay and holiday pay.
We’re told an investor went for cigarettes and didn’t come back. How is that allowable? I’ve not seen that questioned or explained.
We’ve seen the slow pace of justice with Mainfreight. We need to see a change in reporting and mindset to allow a climate for any other changes. As you say without action by unions and worksites, don’t expect anything to happen. This election was a classic of what couldn’t be done.
What makes you. presume a Nat paid the donation..? More a leftie action I would have thought..
I don't think there was any assumption in the original comment over whether the donor was left or right. However, having 150K in ready money, may inform that conclusion.
Case 11 of the UNGA oversight of UNSC dereliction of purpose
Russia begins its end of year bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67283305
Headline, coming soon … the future of the "waka jumping law".
It's gone under the radar so far, but if/when there is some kind of deal between National and NZF, there might be some amusing amnesia:
National Party electoral spokesman Nick Smith said the bill was “the worst” of the entire term of Parliament and was passed solely because Peters was worried about a repeat of his term in power in the late 1990s, when several of his MPs split off to keep the Jenny Shipley-led government intact.
“This law change is the product of the paranoia of one member who simply wants the power to be able to fire his caucus as a consequence of his personal experience in 1996, and never in a democracy should our electoral law be dominated by one particular person's vendetta and experience.”
Dead rat spat back up: Green Party vote to repeal waka jumping law with National, infuriating Winston Peters | Stuff.co.nz
It's such a bad law that Luxon will
scrap itaccept it.The Waka jumping law is one of those things everyone in the governing elites hate because it dares to hold them to a standard of behaviour that the vast majority of ordinary people find completely reasonable.
Dame Anne Salmond has written a piece against holding a referendum on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/dame-anne-salmond-on-treaty-referendum
Her third objection is “a referendum at a time when the descendants of the rangatira who signed Te Tiriti are a relatively small minority in the wider population would give them relatively little say in the matter”.
I agree with this objection 100% (cf. my comment https://thestandard.org.nz/seymours-bad-faith-treaty-policy/#comment-1969019).
I wouldn't believe Luxon on many things, but I do believe him when he says he won't have a Treaty referendum. Buying a huge row, to achieve nothing? Not just a question of principle: among the many negative consequences, he'd be losing members of his own caucus.
Luxon is in a prime position to form the pathway to our bicentennary with the Treaty just 17 years away. If anyone remembers Sesqui 1990.
Ardern did her honourable best to build a new bridge to engagement with te ao Maori with the formation of Matariki.
If the last two years have shown us anything, it's shown us some really dumb ways to engage the broader population about the Treaty (not assisted by bad faith actors from within parts of Maori and European alike touring and marching up and down the country).
I expect Luxon will concentrate on fiscal and economic rectitude issues, alas.
I have a lot of faith in the whole of the people of New Zealand that we can hold an intelligent conversation about our constitutional arrangements, and that they include the Treaty.
It took both sides of the House to show we did it with MMP, we did it with the Honours system, we did it with the Supreme Court.
If Labour, Greens and Maori Party said that together they are preparing for 2040 in a manner that won't silence people and will lead to a clear constitutional platform, then the collective left would immediately have something to work on together going into 2025.