Any one see any irony in the fact that Kronic and other cannabinoid drugs can be banned within a week – – – this news on the same day as we read about an alcohol-fuelled murder stabbing in Auckland ?
I’m very disappointed with Key’s position. Our kids deserve better – the Prime Minister should be leading with an all party all people approach to this.
Thing could get worse for Labour. It realistically looks like Bill English in 2002 all over again:
The Colmar Brunton Poll results from 2002
February 17 2002 – Labour 51%, National 35%.
March 17 2002 – Labour 49%, National 35%.
April 21 2002 – Labour 50%, National 34%.
May 19 2002 – Labour 51%, National 32%.
June 16 2002 – Labour 53%, National 27%.
June 29 2002 – Labour 51%, National 30%.
July 14 2002 – Labour 46%, National 27%.
July 25 2002 – Labour 44%, National 21%.
Actual election result – Labour 41%, National 21%
The major difference is that if national get 44%, how likely is it that they’ll get an extra 7% in coalition partners?
Let’s assume that this year will be a mirror of the 2002 election.
National 41%, Labour 27%, ACT 7% (REALLY? With Brash not Hyde/Pebble?), Greens 7%, MP+Mana 7% (substituting for United Future), NZ1 10% (doubtful, but I’ll only rule winston out if he is decapitated and a stake thrust through his heart. Even then I’d think it a gamble).
Without ACT getting 7% (and at the moment they need to be gifted Epsom), it is still between two 3/4 party coalitions. Without NZ1, it becomes an open race – although frankly I’d half expect the Greens to support National either way.
As McFlock illuminates, if this is 2002 all over again, then National are actually the ones in real trouble.
If their impressive lead over Labour in the polls goes down to the extent that Labour’s did in 2002 I can’t see how they could govern, assuming that ACT doesn’t do a stunning Lazarus act and the MP don’t take all the Maori seats.
According to your figures, Labour lost 20% of the people who were supporting it a month out from the election (going down from 51% to 41%). If anything like that happened this time to National’s support then we’ll be viewing a very sick looking John Key late on election night – and, in fact, it doesn’t matter to which party those votes go.
So you and John Key better pray this isn’t 2002 all over again.
Edit: I meant “If their impressive polling goes down …”
Salsy Michelle Boag buggered up forgot To mention to dumb national supporters to tick party vote in her hoardings ,And Bill English doing his calender come sex symbol trick probably didn’t help either.No wonder you guys need so many spin doctors cause you can never tell the truth.
Alcohol forms part of that blind trust shonkey’s sheckles are held in so alcohol levies being raised etc……yeah right, been there before they’ll bash some benes to compensate.
The alcohol excise tax was raised on 1st of July. It went from ~$45/litre of alcohol in spirits to ~$49/litre, or about 10%. The rise in beer and wine was less.
It’s funny how National trumpet that they cut taxes for everyone, and then go and raise an alcohol tax and somehow it’s not counted?
I like rugby. My wife, who is from Thailand, is mad keen on it. She also enjoys the cricket, but I think that has more to do with it being an opportunity for a day out in the sun to picnic, nap, read novels, and occasionally ask about the score.
I love rugby, played a lot, one eyed fan etc. The 81 tour was my lifes most schizo moment, wanted to see the Boks desparately but had to stand by conviction and protest. I am sure theres a lot more of us rugby nuts on the Standard, wouldnt be surprised if Gos and Burt lurk on the sidelines screaming the same abuse at the refs I do….
From the bank at Lancaster Park, gave up abusing refs after I reffed. There was an old dude on the bank years back who waited for the first penalty of the game, we would all go silent as he yelled, “Thats right ref, he’s been doin it all day”!
Plenty of rugby fans vto. Also plenty of places elsewhere to talk rugby!
On the issue, I thought imitation was the sincerest form of flattery. Some of the responses, along the lines of NZ somehow “owns” the rights to an all black jersey are a little precious, if not immature.
And also rather ironic given it was a typo by an English journalist that gave rise to the NZ team’s nickname.
Some of the team manipulations of jersey colours is immature too. We could end up with all teams wearing black because statistics show that black wearing teams have the most success at test rugby. And that would improve the black statitiscs even more.
They would be better off just learning to place decent rugby.
I just think it is weak. Reflects poorly on the English.
But you know, rugby has historically been wracked with cheating and underhand behaviour – on and off the field. NZ is pretty good at cheating on the field but our laidback somewhat naive approach to life in general is reflected in how we get nailed tme and again by others in the rugby world. Such as, being shafted by Aussie re the 2003 World Cup, poisoned by the South Africans in the 95 world cup, being made to wear pink off the field and non-black on the field by the Frogs who changed their colour to near-black in the 07 world cup, corrupt and bribed refs back in the ’76 South African tour, the list just goes on and on …
But we will prevail! And through use of another of our traits, namely the unassuming underdog approach. I predict a whitewash of every single game this year … tri-nations and world cup.
Ha! I like the even more surprising statistic that white wearing teams have the most success at test cricket.
I’m sure all the critics realise it’s an alternate strip and the number of times it will be seen won’t be that many. I’m sure they’ve also factored in that up until recently the All Blacks’ alternate strip was/is white and looks like we are going to have to invent a new colour to avoid being hypocrites.
My first test I ever saw live (as a 10 y.o. and can still remember well thanks to that rain) was NZ v Scotland at Eden Park in 1975 – NZ wore white and Scotland wore dark blue.
So in 36 years we’ve gone from being a host gracious enough to give up our “natural colours” to the visitors, to moaning when another team adopts black for an alternate strip, as if we own the rights to the colour.
Yep, I still call it immature.
Edit/PS: I tell my 15 y.o. stepdaughter if someone tries to copy the way she looks it’s actually a compliment because they like the way my stepdaughter dresses/ does her make-up etc etc. Maybe I’m wrong.
Slimy New Zealand “entertainment” writer publicly humiliated
One of the more unpleasant algae to slither into public view after the News of the World tipped over was a New Zealander called DAN WOOTTON. If you fancy seeing him receive a very public kicking, click HERE….
Here’s Rupert Murdoch’s worst nightmare: Nick Davies, the tenacious investigative reporter for the Guardian who has broken much of the Hackinggate story, comes to the U.S. in search of News Corp. crimes and coverup.
Well, it’s come true. Davies arrives in New York today. He’ll be there until Friday, and then he’s going to Los Angeles in pursuit of hacking-type practices that might have been carried out on U.S. soil by Murdoch’s U.S. reporters, by his U.K. reporters working in the U.S., or by private detectives hired by News Corp.
Putin’s Army: tearing off their clothes for victory
They call themselves “Putin’s Army”. They are young, female, and urging others to “rip for Putin” – rip off some of their clothing, that is.
A remarkable bit of video propaganda starring these cleavage-baring footsoldiers has been circulating furiously around Russia, and beyond. Some see it as the handiwork of Nashi, a frankly rather scary Kremlin-supported youth group devoted to exalting Vladimir Putin and demonising (harassing, too) his enemies.
The new campaign can only boost speculation that Putin, now prime minister, will stand again for the presidency in March next year – in doing so moving the centre of power back to that post.
“I’m just crazy about the man who changed our country,” enthuses the young star of the video, according to a translation at GlobalVoices.com. “He is a great politician and an amazing man. He is Vladimir Putin. And although there are millions who admire him, there are some who pour dirt on him, perhaps because they are scared of him or because they themselves are weak and will never be able to take his place.”
A blog for Putin’s Army puts it like this: “We will show that many beautiful and smart young women support Mr Putin! We all share the opinion that Putin is a decent and honest politician, as well as an AMAZING man!
Objective: “Putin – President!”
We accept only young women without complexes! Our campaigns will be roaring across all Russia! Each participant will become an Internet star! Are you ready to show everyone how cool YOU are and how great is YOUR president? Join PUTIN’S ARMY!!!
As a post at Radio Free Europe reminds us, it all suits the careful efforts to project the image of a desirable leader. Tom Balmforth writes:
Vladimir Putin is no stranger to offbeat forms of public veneration. His image adorns T-shirts. Billboards in Moscow and online comic strips have portrayed him as a James Bond-like action hero. And a cult in Siberia worships him as the reincarnation of St Paul …
Putin has cultivated the image of a hard man through a myriad of highly choreographed feats of manliness, including sedating a polar bear and burning rubber at a race track behind the wheel of a Formula One race car.
Why “rip for Putin”? Clearly there is the salacious idea of tearing ripping off clothing, but the phrase rip for in Russian has another, more sinister meaning. According to an analysis in the Moscow Times, it also suggests a threat along the lines of “I’ll rip your head off”.
“The Sexy Soldier in Putin’s Army rips her T-shirt in a (possibly ironic) gesture of threat,” writes Michele A Berdy, “describing what she’s doing and (possibly) promising to beat the daylights out of anyone who insults her idol or (possibly) swearing to do anything to see him win his (possible) electoral campaign.”
Based on previous years data for this site, I’m unsurprised to see that the mid-winter slump in july affects almost all of the blog sites listed at Open Parachute. But out of the sites that I compared, if you look at No Right Turn in May I/S managed to slightly increase his audience.
I’ve never quite figured out why we get a mid-winter slump. But it has happened every year that we have been operating including election year in 2008 (although that was more of a flattening off of exponential growth). It doesn’t appear to be particularly related to numbers of comments.
They come from a public statscounter or sitemeter on the site.
If there isn’t such a counter or Ken doesn’t have the link to the public counter then they aren’t on the site – so Brown or Slater or or Edwards or Trotter or quite a few others are not on it. But what it is is a simple method of looking between sites without any of the interesting algorithms that show up on scubones or other sites.
Louden has a vertical nutter constituency offshore who read his site. Steve Gray, I’d guess has a offshore readership. Both consequently have some quite severe spiking in their monthly readership – Louden’s page views dropped down to half the volume between June and July which was rather extreme. This site gets over 95% of its human readers from NZ.
We did a large drop in page views after May, but that was mostly because of a glitch at Facebook for weeks in April/May that was bumping up the page views. Facebook eventually fixed their irritating servers that were sucking up our bandwidth.
The “visits” calc is a bit subjective as it depends entirely on what is defined as a “visit” in the meter. Visits in google analytics are vastly different to those in sitemeter, which is different to statcounter. It also depends on the layout of your site. On this site we get some pretty long visits according to google because people tend to leave it running pressing refresh periodically to look at who is commenting. Our page view time tends to be pretty long as well. You can get a distorted idea looking at alexa compared to other sites.
I tend to look at the page views as being the least susceptible to site variability. These are the actual loads of the main page, post pages, and ancillary pages like policy etc and ignoring all of the includes of css, images, js, etc (of which there are millions per month) and the robots which do at least 2x the number of page views (currently on the US server only). It is certainly the closest to how I see the NZ server working.
Excluding the bots and spammers. They are about 2-3x the size of the humans if we counted them….
The US based server now gets all of the bots (and acts as the offshore warm site) and the NZ server gets almost all of the humans. Shifting the US one to the cloud and leaving the NZ one as a dedicated box.
Reading things like the Hitchhikers Guide..Galaxy its like a brainstorming session on our conceptions of life. I like this bit when we are introduced to Zaphod Beeblebrox who wants to be Galactic President which sounds very important.
Adams writes – Only six people in the Galaxy knew that the job of the Galactic President was not to wield power but to attract attention away from it.
“You describe yourself as a hero, as a knight. You are no hero,” Ivar Benjamin Oesteboe, who lost five friends in the shootings, said in the letter addressed: “Dear Anders Behring Breivik.”
“But one thing is certain, you have created heroes. On Utoya on that warm July day, you created some of the greatest heroes the world has seen, you united the people of the world,” the teenager wrote.
“We are not responding to evil with evil as you wanted. We are fighting evil with good. And we are winning.
Maybe you think you’ve won. Maybe you think you’ve destroyed the Labour Party and people around the world who stand for a multicultural society by killing my friends and fellow party members.
Know that you failed,”
The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station seems to go from bad to worse.
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has detected 10,000 millisieverts of radioactivity per hour at the plant. The level is the highest detected there since the nuclear accident in March.
Not the 10,000 mS (=10 sieverts) radiation level, which is enough to provide a lethal dose to most people within one or two minutes.
But the fact that the radiation level is measured at that because it’s all that the instrumentation they have there goes up to.
That’s right, the radiation levels are completely off the charts and their instrumentation is reading offscale maximum.
Japan is frakked, IMO they are hiding how badly they have been hit, there are dangerous levels of hot particles 100km-200km from the Fukushima plant, if not further.
It is an Election. We all populate the pantomime of participation. We are all willing extras and we want to hear the leads orate on the grand desires that spin doctors deign to be good enough for our democracy to discuss. It matters what the last soundbite is before a beer commercial. It is important that the camera cuts away to show glazed possums behind the podiums when an off-script moment leaps out. On a more serious note…This Election year a full debate is more important than usual. The Global situation and our place within that structure is still negotiable.
I propose a radical restructuring of the concept of a Leaders’ Debate. The Leaders’ Debate should be a full engagement with all balloted parties being represented in a week long series of random groupings of three, drawn from a hat a week before in a nationally televised draw, using the ‘lotto rules’ would be good. They are fair, tried and true and the symbolism is not without its mirth.
here is how the draw works:
All parties are put in the hat. The first draw of three is done, those three are left out, next draw, those three are left out, etc,. When the hat is empty, irrespective of how many empty slots remain in the debate being drawn, all parties so far removed are put back in. The process continues until the debate roster is complete. Five nights, three debaters, fifteen slots, all will get representation and none should be favoured over any other
The series of debates are using questions from wherever. It does not really matter, what matters is the draw of the participants. Until we see the ballot we will not know final numbers obviously, but a rotating roster of debates where the Greens may be on stage with just ACT and United would be a good debate. National up against Mana with Progessive along for conscience would have its moments. Labour and Greens and Maori Party would be a riot and i suspect a hasty unforseen event would cause transmission to be interrupted soon into the broadcast.
Give it some consideration. The media driven Election campaigns warrant an event of this scale. More and more influence is attributed to Tv Media so it makes sense for the Public to find a way to ask that the media become a constructive particpant and not just a manipulative tool.
The series of debates are using questions from wherever. It does not really matter, what matters is the draw of the participants. Until we see the ballot we will not know final numbers obviously, but a rotating roster of debates where the Greens may be on stage with just ACT and United would be a good debate. National up against Mana with Progessive along for conscience would have its moments. Labour and Greens and Maori Party would be a riot and i suspect a hasty unforseen event would cause transmission to be interrupted soon into the broadcast.
Give it some consideration. The media driven Election campaigns warrant an event of this scale. More and more influence is attributed to Tv Media so it makes sense for the Public to find a way to ask that the media become a constructive particpant and not just a manipulative tool.
Idiot/Savant has a noce breakdown of this over at NRT:
Instead, National and Labour have colluded to exclude all other parties from the debates, thus denying them coverage – and votes. Its a fine example of their dirty oligarchical tendencies, and why we need to keep them under control.
Yeah, the whole point of MMP was to have better representation but it doesn’t look like we’re getting it from the two main parties. Neither of which wanted MMP in the first place.
They really are just awful people at heart, but even accepting that, you’d think they might realise that all the ‘bad’ mps they show are elected under the fpp electorate system.
You might want to take another look Lanth; the ACT bit is there as the sexy straight non-creepy non-crippled alternative to MMP. It’s not a subtle message.
“The government announced today that it’s changing it’s emblem to a CONDOM, because it more accurately reflects the government’s political stance. A condom allows for inflation, halts productions, destroys the next generations, protects a bunch of dicks, and gives you a sense of security while you’re being screwed. It just doesn’t get more accurate than that.”
Been doing the rounds since 2010 – I think the original was.
‘The Government today announced that it is changing its emblem from an Eagle to a CONDOM because it more accurately reflects the government’s political stance… A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of dicks, and gives you a sense of security while you’re actually being screwed!’
US inspired obviously but can be applied to most governments.
Most Kiwis have no interest in the Rubber Wool Cup. About as many people loath it as actually want to watch it – the rest are neutral.
The poll showed 37 percent of Kiwis were keen for the Rugby World Cup to kick-off, while 35 percent were not looking forward to it and 29 percent were neutral.
Wonder what would have happened if this had been put to a referendum…
Fuck no. It is an absolute saviour in any of those awkward enforced social situations where you have to try to find something useful to say to some 60 year old guy. A working knowledge is an easy out.
Trust me Oleole, that 60 yr old guy doesn’t want to talk to you either. You’re just making it weirder for everyone.
Besides, if you’re not a completely boring cnut you won’t find it a problem just being yerself.
And if you weren’t wasting your time maintaining your working knowledge for the supposed benefit of men who don’t want to talk to you anyway, you could be well on your way to being a less boring cnut.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 18.2.1.2.1
I will always remember a very sad event in 1981 that I heard of in the news. A boy, the son of a diplomat from South America, ended up with permanent damage in a – is the word ‘ruck’? That was the first (but not the last time) I had heard of that happening. Now I am very thankful that my brother and my sons all somehow managed to avoid being forced to play rugby at school!
More brain injuries than those caused by traffic “accidents” we don’t need!
The numbers will probably change once it’s under way.
I’m not interested in all the lead up stuff to any major sports events, including opening ceremonies, but I enjoy the sport once it gets under way, and it’s good to get out and meet people visiting the country – that was the highlight for me in the last RWC here.
But I guess we could try and stop anything from happening if in advance the majority of the population aren’t interested in it.
yeah – the Romans knew that you needed to provide BREAD as well as circuses, otherwise the peasants will still rebel. DonKey’s only doing half the distraction/pacification routine – good for the Left.
I have a project going to it first public outing at the end of October. I can’t go on holiday or die before then. Does feel a bit unusual for me to be scheduled on a project with a major milestone in an election year. But my time schedule plans got scuppered in the financial chaos at the end of 2009.
So I will have to put up with the RWC idiocy, especially since Eden park is too damn close.
Debate it all you want – just use facts. Oh, that’s right, you can’t because all the facts show that MMP is the best system of representative democracy available.
But, that’s not all:
I am a believer in the cornerstone of neo-democracy in such a large welfare state that New Zealand now has is that there should be no representation unless you pay net taxation.
Yep, she doesn’t want all those poor people* voting even though it is their society and should have a say in it’s direction.
The call of the dictator is the cry of property rights which is Acts central theme and Cactus Kate has just proved that Act is bunch of dictators by saying that she wants only her preferred people voting.
* Who are only poor because of the policies Act promote.
I am a believer in the cornerstone of neo-loyalty in that if you leave NZ in your 20’s to chase bucks then your opinion on NZ affairs means diddly-squat and you should STFU
@RobC – How can young people know the world from just staying in the country facebooking or watching videos for experience. You yourself have to go and live it. When you are over there it’s in your face, there is no avoiding the reality as it hits you. Also going overseas to do advanced study enriches the graduate’s expertise and if we can get them back then we have increased our IQ.
Just staying in NZ would lead us back to the narrow-minded types we were before the Second World War caused thousands of our people to do an OE and thousands of displaced Europeans and others to come here and show us their culture and way of thinking.
Hi Prism, you’ve read too much into my comment – I just find it rather amusing that someone who has lived/worked overseas until just recently (?) and probably has paid F.A. net tax in NZ comes out with no representation without paying net taxation.
But if only net taxpayers can vote that means Sam Morgan can’t vote, virtually all the farmers can’t vote (perhaps that is an angle for the left), and the only voters left are the working, hard slogging wage and salary earners.
Or perhaps we take Cactus Kate (never read her but she sounds horrid) approach and extend it a little so that a person gets a number of votes, that number rising or falling depending on the proportion of their income that ends up in the government coffers… smokers and boozers would get the most votes … equals Cactus Kate equals zombie.
I see that the Nat government is going to pay to those red-zoned homeowners with insurance, if they accept the governments offer to purchase, a deposit of up to 50% (max $50,000) once signed… if that aint an election stimulant I don’t know what is. I betcha the cheques arrive well in time.
And btw, what was the reason for only insured homeowners receiving the governments offer?
Boscowen – someone tell him that the word is horrific not hirrofic. Perhaps if he spoke from within rather than reading a prepared script he might be a little more credible, (especially as he repeated the same error when re-reading the phrase).
Ilargi over at Theautomaticearth posted this today and it pretty much sums up the world and the state of our polity today. its a DIRE WARNING.
Once a society or country allows money to enter its politics, the outcome is inevitable: the money interests will come to rule that country. This is evident all over the western world, whether you look at the Greek, Irish and other EU bail-outs, or at the debt dungeon debate the US is presently digging its way into ever deeper, with the respective bills handed to the people and their children.
As we speak, and as we watch the wall-sized media coverage of the debt dungeon chasm, municipalities and counties are on the cusp of bankruptcy. Services will be cut across the board. That is our future.
A future that won’t involve growth, but which be all about austerity and cutting back and outright poverty for rapidly increasing numbers of people. Just not for the politicians and their puppeteers, not for those who get to decide who will hurt the most.
That is the main issue today. Who are you going to let decide how bad your future will be? If you opt for Washington, anyone in Washington, or Brussels if you’re in Europe, your future will hurt something bad. When it comes to that future of yours and, of your offspring, the debt dungeon debate is the wrong focus. There’s nothing beneficial for you in there.
This is nothing less than outright class warfare where those with the means are stealing ours and our childrens future and liberty.
I can’t get through the code word barrier to send a Contact message. I have tried three times and am sure I was correct the last two. I wear glasses but thought I was seeing well the last two times. I was trying to say that none of my personal posts show up since July 31. Cheers
Obama got nothing except forcing Republicians to agree to reductions in militrary spending in return for keeping the unfordable tax cuts for the richest. Obama delayed the debate until after the pay off, mid term elections, where military constituencies will make Repubalicians pay for their greed.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) 2 The Life of Dai by Dai Henwood and Jaquie Brown (HarperCollins, $39.99) 3 A Life Less Punishing by Matt Heath (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) 4 Waitohu by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $35) ...
Any one see any irony in the fact that Kronic and other cannabinoid drugs can be banned within a week – – – this news on the same day as we read about an alcohol-fuelled murder stabbing in Auckland ?
Grass clippings sprayed with nasty chemicals…yuck.
Kids don’t need to be smoking that shit eh.
good riddance
why do people go to the shop for Dairy Whip when there are plenty of cows in the field
Jiggling the cows makes them angry.
Time to moove on, methinks.
Ry Cooder sings: No banker left behind
Just like to reiterate a message from yesterdays “All the world a square”.
Innocent bankers, innocent financiers, innocent politicians, innocent police, innocent media!
Guilty citizens.
Thats how the powers who be portray their culpable guilt, pure denial and blame others. Its psycho behavoir.
Yep, blame the victim, works with rape and in a round about sort of way this is rape too!
Clare Curran touches on it here: The essentials
And I expand on it: Key, knee, jerk
I’m very disappointed with Key’s position. Our kids deserve better – the Prime Minister should be leading with an all party all people approach to this.
“Ultimately parties are going to have to campaign on what they believe is the right solution for those problems.”
And where is National’s policy? A Green paper with responses (and consideration) deferred for 7 months – well after the next election.
Oerhaps that is just part of the “plan for New Zealand” that is making him so popular.
Thing could get worse for Labour. It realistically looks like Bill English in 2002 all over again:
The Colmar Brunton Poll results from 2002
February 17 2002 – Labour 51%, National 35%.
March 17 2002 – Labour 49%, National 35%.
April 21 2002 – Labour 50%, National 34%.
May 19 2002 – Labour 51%, National 32%.
June 16 2002 – Labour 53%, National 27%.
June 29 2002 – Labour 51%, National 30%.
July 14 2002 – Labour 46%, National 27%.
July 25 2002 – Labour 44%, National 21%.
Actual election result – Labour 41%, National 21%
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/jessica-mutch-polls-could-get-worse-labour-4328514
See my comment above…guilty media. No fucker there tells the truth.
The major difference is that if national get 44%, how likely is it that they’ll get an extra 7% in coalition partners?
Let’s assume that this year will be a mirror of the 2002 election.
National 41%, Labour 27%, ACT 7% (REALLY? With Brash not Hyde/Pebble?), Greens 7%, MP+Mana 7% (substituting for United Future), NZ1 10% (doubtful, but I’ll only rule winston out if he is decapitated and a stake thrust through his heart. Even then I’d think it a gamble).
Without ACT getting 7% (and at the moment they need to be gifted Epsom), it is still between two 3/4 party coalitions. Without NZ1, it becomes an open race – although frankly I’d half expect the Greens to support National either way.
As McFlock illuminates, if this is 2002 all over again, then National are actually the ones in real trouble.
If their impressive lead over Labour in the polls goes down to the extent that Labour’s did in 2002 I can’t see how they could govern, assuming that ACT doesn’t do a stunning Lazarus act and the MP don’t take all the Maori seats.
According to your figures, Labour lost 20% of the people who were supporting it a month out from the election (going down from 51% to 41%). If anything like that happened this time to National’s support then we’ll be viewing a very sick looking John Key late on election night – and, in fact, it doesn’t matter to which party those votes go.
So you and John Key better pray this isn’t 2002 all over again.
Edit: I meant “If their impressive polling goes down …”
Salsy Michelle Boag buggered up forgot To mention to dumb national supporters to tick party vote in her hoardings ,And Bill English doing his calender come sex symbol trick probably didn’t help either.No wonder you guys need so many spin doctors cause you can never tell the truth.
Alcohol forms part of that blind trust shonkey’s sheckles are held in so alcohol levies being raised etc……yeah right, been there before they’ll bash some benes to compensate.
The alcohol excise tax was raised on 1st of July. It went from ~$45/litre of alcohol in spirits to ~$49/litre, or about 10%. The rise in beer and wine was less.
It’s funny how National trumpet that they cut taxes for everyone, and then go and raise an alcohol tax and somehow it’s not counted?
Alcohol levies up: Doesn’t count.
Tobacco levies up: Doesn’t count
GST up: Doesn’t count.
ACC levies up: Doesn’t count.
Petrol levies up: Doesn’t count.
Car registration up: Doesn’t count.
PAYE down a couple of bucks a week: Fucking economic miracle!
lovin it
I thought the whole point of joining the navy was to get very drunk in foreign ports.
He’s had the rum, now comes the sodomy and the lash …
The England rugby team playing in all black makes them so very lame. Weak lame pussies, no longer the lion hearts.
Not that many on here semm to be rugby fans …
I like rugby. My wife, who is from Thailand, is mad keen on it. She also enjoys the cricket, but I think that has more to do with it being an opportunity for a day out in the sun to picnic, nap, read novels, and occasionally ask about the score.
I love rugby, played a lot, one eyed fan etc. The 81 tour was my lifes most schizo moment, wanted to see the Boks desparately but had to stand by conviction and protest. I am sure theres a lot more of us rugby nuts on the Standard, wouldnt be surprised if Gos and Burt lurk on the sidelines screaming the same abuse at the refs I do….
I was a ref – where did you scream abuse??
I’ve also played a lot too, before and after I refereed. Going to the first Foobar Stadium game, North Otago versus West Coast this Sunday.
From the bank at Lancaster Park, gave up abusing refs after I reffed. There was an old dude on the bank years back who waited for the first penalty of the game, we would all go silent as he yelled, “Thats right ref, he’s been doin it all day”!
Look at my gravatar ‘:wink:’
Ex A grade player 12 years
Ex ref before I got too old
Eden park is my hangout when I can afford it (and when it’s not too cold – piss weak I know but I’m getting a bit old lol)
i object, the battles i have finding a good stream on test nights is totally worthy of a supporter’s pin
Plenty of rugby fans vto. Also plenty of places elsewhere to talk rugby!
On the issue, I thought imitation was the sincerest form of flattery. Some of the responses, along the lines of NZ somehow “owns” the rights to an all black jersey are a little precious, if not immature.
And also rather ironic given it was a typo by an English journalist that gave rise to the NZ team’s nickname.
Some of the team manipulations of jersey colours is immature too. We could end up with all teams wearing black because statistics show that black wearing teams have the most success at test rugby. And that would improve the black statitiscs even more.
They would be better off just learning to place decent rugby.
I just think it is weak. Reflects poorly on the English.
But you know, rugby has historically been wracked with cheating and underhand behaviour – on and off the field. NZ is pretty good at cheating on the field but our laidback somewhat naive approach to life in general is reflected in how we get nailed tme and again by others in the rugby world. Such as, being shafted by Aussie re the 2003 World Cup, poisoned by the South Africans in the 95 world cup, being made to wear pink off the field and non-black on the field by the Frogs who changed their colour to near-black in the 07 world cup, corrupt and bribed refs back in the ’76 South African tour, the list just goes on and on …
But we will prevail! And through use of another of our traits, namely the unassuming underdog approach. I predict a whitewash of every single game this year … tri-nations and world cup.
I predict a whitewash of every single game this year … tri-nations
Maybe that’s possible.
and world cup.
Are you serious? I wonder if you realize that France is in the same first round pool as the All Blacks?
Ha! I like the even more surprising statistic that white wearing teams have the most success at test cricket.
I’m sure all the critics realise it’s an alternate strip and the number of times it will be seen won’t be that many. I’m sure they’ve also factored in that up until recently the All Blacks’ alternate strip was/is white and looks like we are going to have to invent a new colour to avoid being hypocrites.
My first test I ever saw live (as a 10 y.o. and can still remember well thanks to that rain) was NZ v Scotland at Eden Park in 1975 – NZ wore white and Scotland wore dark blue.
So in 36 years we’ve gone from being a host gracious enough to give up our “natural colours” to the visitors, to moaning when another team adopts black for an alternate strip, as if we own the rights to the colour.
Yep, I still call it immature.
Edit/PS: I tell my 15 y.o. stepdaughter if someone tries to copy the way she looks it’s actually a compliment because they like the way my stepdaughter dresses/ does her make-up etc etc. Maybe I’m wrong.
Not sure if that would improve the black wiining figures PeteG, it may actually worsen them if the team is pathetic.
don’t tell Don Brash pete it could be a very bad move if that statistic transfered to politics
Slimy New Zealand “entertainment” writer publicly humiliated
One of the more unpleasant algae to slither into public view after the News of the World tipped over was a New Zealander called DAN WOOTTON. If you fancy seeing him receive a very public kicking, click HERE….
http://www.listener.co.nz/commentary/hackgate-twitterspat-flamewars-moran-wootton-monbiot-aaronovitch/
Watch out Rupert, The Guardian’s investigative reporter Nick Davies is off to the USofA.
Here’s Rupert Murdoch’s worst nightmare: Nick Davies, the tenacious investigative reporter for the Guardian who has broken much of the Hackinggate story, comes to the U.S. in search of News Corp. crimes and coverup.
Well, it’s come true. Davies arrives in New York today. He’ll be there until Friday, and then he’s going to Los Angeles in pursuit of hacking-type practices that might have been carried out on U.S. soil by Murdoch’s U.S. reporters, by his U.K. reporters working in the U.S., or by private detectives hired by News Corp.
Look out Nick, they have lots of guns in the USA and they know how to use them.
http://www.listener.co.nz/commentary/putin-army-rip-for-putin-russia-election-president/
Putin’s Army: tearing off their clothes for victory
They call themselves “Putin’s Army”. They are young, female, and urging others to “rip for Putin” – rip off some of their clothing, that is.
A remarkable bit of video propaganda starring these cleavage-baring footsoldiers has been circulating furiously around Russia, and beyond. Some see it as the handiwork of Nashi, a frankly rather scary Kremlin-supported youth group devoted to exalting Vladimir Putin and demonising (harassing, too) his enemies.
The new campaign can only boost speculation that Putin, now prime minister, will stand again for the presidency in March next year – in doing so moving the centre of power back to that post.
“I’m just crazy about the man who changed our country,” enthuses the young star of the video, according to a translation at GlobalVoices.com. “He is a great politician and an amazing man. He is Vladimir Putin. And although there are millions who admire him, there are some who pour dirt on him, perhaps because they are scared of him or because they themselves are weak and will never be able to take his place.”
A blog for Putin’s Army puts it like this: “We will show that many beautiful and smart young women support Mr Putin! We all share the opinion that Putin is a decent and honest politician, as well as an AMAZING man!
Objective: “Putin – President!”
We accept only young women without complexes! Our campaigns will be roaring across all Russia! Each participant will become an Internet star! Are you ready to show everyone how cool YOU are and how great is YOUR president? Join PUTIN’S ARMY!!!
As a post at Radio Free Europe reminds us, it all suits the careful efforts to project the image of a desirable leader. Tom Balmforth writes:
Vladimir Putin is no stranger to offbeat forms of public veneration. His image adorns T-shirts. Billboards in Moscow and online comic strips have portrayed him as a James Bond-like action hero. And a cult in Siberia worships him as the reincarnation of St Paul …
Putin has cultivated the image of a hard man through a myriad of highly choreographed feats of manliness, including sedating a polar bear and burning rubber at a race track behind the wheel of a Formula One race car.
Why “rip for Putin”? Clearly there is the salacious idea of tearing ripping off clothing, but the phrase rip for in Russian has another, more sinister meaning. According to an analysis in the Moscow Times, it also suggests a threat along the lines of “I’ll rip your head off”.
“The Sexy Soldier in Putin’s Army rips her T-shirt in a (possibly ironic) gesture of threat,” writes Michele A Berdy, “describing what she’s doing and (possibly) promising to beat the daylights out of anyone who insults her idol or (possibly) swearing to do anything to see him win his (possible) electoral campaign.”
http://www.listener.co.nz/commentary/putin-army-rip-for-putin-russia-election-president/
You’ll give Johnny boy ideas.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/5373516/Computer-failure-hits-papers
oh dear the propoganda machine got busted and the locals get to see how little of their news is actually written by anyone in their local Newspaper.
Yep, and it also shows the weakness of outsourcing sub-editing to Oz and design and technical back up to India.
Weekly NZ Lefty paper please. 12 pages long, $1 per copy, half goes to the seller. Pick volunteer from worth causes.
News, interviews and analysis and nothin’ but.
Oh, except half a page of very funny cartoons alongside half a page of very interesting political economic NZ history.
Based on previous years data for this site, I’m unsurprised to see that the mid-winter slump in july affects almost all of the blog sites listed at Open Parachute. But out of the sites that I compared, if you look at No Right Turn in May I/S managed to slightly increase his audience.
I’ve never quite figured out why we get a mid-winter slump. But it has happened every year that we have been operating including election year in 2008 (although that was more of a flattening off of exponential growth). It doesn’t appear to be particularly related to numbers of comments.
Eh? Trevor Louden gets more views than Kiwiblog or The Standard? And Russel’s dinner party doesn’t feature at all?
What kind of stats are these?
They come from a public statscounter or sitemeter on the site.
If there isn’t such a counter or Ken doesn’t have the link to the public counter then they aren’t on the site – so Brown or Slater or or Edwards or Trotter or quite a few others are not on it. But what it is is a simple method of looking between sites without any of the interesting algorithms that show up on scubones or other sites.
Louden has a vertical nutter constituency offshore who read his site. Steve Gray, I’d guess has a offshore readership. Both consequently have some quite severe spiking in their monthly readership – Louden’s page views dropped down to half the volume between June and July which was rather extreme. This site gets over 95% of its human readers from NZ.
We did a large drop in page views after May, but that was mostly because of a glitch at Facebook for weeks in April/May that was bumping up the page views. Facebook eventually fixed their irritating servers that were sucking up our bandwidth.
The “visits” calc is a bit subjective as it depends entirely on what is defined as a “visit” in the meter. Visits in google analytics are vastly different to those in sitemeter, which is different to statcounter. It also depends on the layout of your site. On this site we get some pretty long visits according to google because people tend to leave it running pressing refresh periodically to look at who is commenting. Our page view time tends to be pretty long as well. You can get a distorted idea looking at alexa compared to other sites.
I tend to look at the page views as being the least susceptible to site variability. These are the actual loads of the main page, post pages, and ancillary pages like policy etc and ignoring all of the includes of css, images, js, etc (of which there are millions per month) and the robots which do at least 2x the number of page views (currently on the US server only). It is certainly the closest to how I see the NZ server working.
Ah so.
95% from NZ is amazing! Good to know about the winter slump as well.
Excluding the bots and spammers. They are about 2-3x the size of the humans if we counted them….
The US based server now gets all of the bots (and acts as the offshore warm site) and the NZ server gets almost all of the humans. Shifting the US one to the cloud and leaving the NZ one as a dedicated box.
Reading things like the Hitchhikers Guide..Galaxy its like a brainstorming session on our conceptions of life. I like this bit when we are introduced to Zaphod Beeblebrox who wants to be Galactic President which sounds very important.
Adams writes – Only six people in the Galaxy knew that the job of the Galactic President was not to wield power but to attract attention away from it.
all six parts of that trilogy fall into the rare cadre of books that you can never read too many times
Dune by Frank Herbert…
From and open letter to the Norwegian killer:
“You describe yourself as a hero, as a knight. You are no hero,” Ivar Benjamin Oesteboe, who lost five friends in the shootings, said in the letter addressed: “Dear Anders Behring Breivik.”
“But one thing is certain, you have created heroes. On Utoya on that warm July day, you created some of the greatest heroes the world has seen, you united the people of the world,” the teenager wrote.
“We are not responding to evil with evil as you wanted. We are fighting evil with good. And we are winning.
Maybe you think you’ve won. Maybe you think you’ve destroyed the Labour Party and people around the world who stand for a multicultural society by killing my friends and fellow party members.
Know that you failed,”
The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station seems to go from bad to worse.
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has detected 10,000 millisieverts of radioactivity per hour at the plant. The level is the highest detected there since the nuclear accident in March.
I’ll tell you something hilarious*.
Not the 10,000 mS (=10 sieverts) radiation level, which is enough to provide a lethal dose to most people within one or two minutes.
But the fact that the radiation level is measured at that because it’s all that the instrumentation they have there goes up to.
That’s right, the radiation levels are completely off the charts and their instrumentation is reading offscale maximum.
Japan is frakked, IMO they are hiding how badly they have been hit, there are dangerous levels of hot particles 100km-200km from the Fukushima plant, if not further.
*in a horrific graveyard kind of way
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/5374887/Key-I-ll-only-debate-Goff
i smell roast tory in the oven
who the fuck do these politicians think they are?
It is an Election. We all populate the pantomime of participation. We are all willing extras and we want to hear the leads orate on the grand desires that spin doctors deign to be good enough for our democracy to discuss. It matters what the last soundbite is before a beer commercial. It is important that the camera cuts away to show glazed possums behind the podiums when an off-script moment leaps out. On a more serious note…This Election year a full debate is more important than usual. The Global situation and our place within that structure is still negotiable.
I propose a radical restructuring of the concept of a Leaders’ Debate. The Leaders’ Debate should be a full engagement with all balloted parties being represented in a week long series of random groupings of three, drawn from a hat a week before in a nationally televised draw, using the ‘lotto rules’ would be good. They are fair, tried and true and the symbolism is not without its mirth.
here is how the draw works:
All parties are put in the hat. The first draw of three is done, those three are left out, next draw, those three are left out, etc,. When the hat is empty, irrespective of how many empty slots remain in the debate being drawn, all parties so far removed are put back in. The process continues until the debate roster is complete. Five nights, three debaters, fifteen slots, all will get representation and none should be favoured over any other
The series of debates are using questions from wherever. It does not really matter, what matters is the draw of the participants. Until we see the ballot we will not know final numbers obviously, but a rotating roster of debates where the Greens may be on stage with just ACT and United would be a good debate. National up against Mana with Progessive along for conscience would have its moments. Labour and Greens and Maori Party would be a riot and i suspect a hasty unforseen event would cause transmission to be interrupted soon into the broadcast.
Give it some consideration. The media driven Election campaigns warrant an event of this scale. More and more influence is attributed to Tv Media so it makes sense for the Public to find a way to ask that the media become a constructive particpant and not just a manipulative tool.
Excellent ideas! 🙂
Idiot/Savant has a noce breakdown of this over at NRT:
Yeah, the whole point of MMP was to have better representation but it doesn’t look like we’re getting it from the two main parties. Neither of which wanted MMP in the first place.
This shit makes me mad.
Courtesy of Boganette we have some of Vote for Change’s reasons for changing from MMP.
If you have a weak stomach or have just eaten I suggest not looking.
They really are just awful people at heart, but even accepting that, you’d think they might realise that all the ‘bad’ mps they show are elected under the fpp electorate system.
Comes across as mostly anti-Labour.
Guess they threw in the ACT bit as a way to deflect.
You might want to take another look Lanth; the ACT bit is there as the sexy straight non-creepy non-crippled alternative to MMP. It’s not a subtle message.
That was the bit that forced me to write the warning…
Sent to me courtesy of my daughter lol
😆
🙂 🙂 🙂
Been doing the rounds since 2010 – I think the original was.
‘The Government today announced that it is changing its emblem from an Eagle to a CONDOM because it more accurately reflects the government’s political stance… A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of dicks, and gives you a sense of security while you’re actually being screwed!’
US inspired obviously but can be applied to most governments.
Yeah, thought I’d seen it before but couldn’t remember where or when.
, Thanks! I needed a laugh.
Most Kiwis have no interest in the Rubber Wool Cup. About as many people loath it as actually want to watch it – the rest are neutral.
Wonder what would have happened if this had been put to a referendum…
The comments under the article, especially the ones about haters and wreckers are hilarious 😆
Should veneration of a contact sport as part of good social stupification be a criminal offence in NZ?
Fuck no. It is an absolute saviour in any of those awkward enforced social situations where you have to try to find something useful to say to some 60 year old guy. A working knowledge is an easy out.
What? Why don’t you just talk about heroin or buttsex like a normal person would.
Won’t be having Mr awkward convo for long. Gauranteed.
And it’ll give him something to be shocked about to his mates.
Win/Win
Trust me Oleole, that 60 yr old guy doesn’t want to talk to you either. You’re just making it weirder for everyone.
Besides, if you’re not a completely boring cnut you won’t find it a problem just being yerself.
And if you weren’t wasting your time maintaining your working knowledge for the supposed benefit of men who don’t want to talk to you anyway, you could be well on your way to being a less boring cnut.
What is a cnut?
It’s a vile little mis-print! (Or so Rik Mayall’s character Adolphus Cnut was told in the sitcom Believe Nothing.) 😀
If it weren’t the national sport, I’m sure it would be considered child abuse to send children along to such a dangerous activity.
Brain injuries sustained from contact sports probably play a part in underachievement at school.
I will always remember a very sad event in 1981 that I heard of in the news. A boy, the son of a diplomat from South America, ended up with permanent damage in a – is the word ‘ruck’? That was the first (but not the last time) I had heard of that happening. Now I am very thankful that my brother and my sons all somehow managed to avoid being forced to play rugby at school!
More brain injuries than those caused by traffic “accidents” we don’t need!
Yeah Vicky now you can understand why they all end up in the National party!
Good point, mik e! 🙂
veneration of a contact sport
Actually rugby is more of a running, jumping and kicking sport than a contact sport. If you want to see a violent contact sport, watch THIS…
The numbers will probably change once it’s under way.
I’m not interested in all the lead up stuff to any major sports events, including opening ceremonies, but I enjoy the sport once it gets under way, and it’s good to get out and meet people visiting the country – that was the highlight for me in the last RWC here.
But I guess we could try and stop anything from happening if in advance the majority of the population aren’t interested in it.
The numbers WILL probably change once it is underway. Which WAY they will change is the question 🙂
yeah – the Romans knew that you needed to provide BREAD as well as circuses, otherwise the peasants will still rebel. DonKey’s only doing half the distraction/pacification routine – good for the Left.
Channel Four is positioning itself as the channel of No Rugby in their latest advertising campaign. Some of the ads are actually pretty funny.
Gets my watch. In fact the less I see of the RWC the happier I will be.
I was planning to exit the country for a month, unfortunately my plans have been scuppered.
I have a project going to it first public outing at the end of October. I can’t go on holiday or die before then. Does feel a bit unusual for me to be scheduled on a project with a major milestone in an election year. But my time schedule plans got scuppered in the financial chaos at the end of 2009.
So I will have to put up with the RWC idiocy, especially since Eden park is too damn close.
I am one of the loathers! I am very much not looking forward to it.
And Cactus Kate is up to her normal bigotry.
Debate it all you want – just use facts. Oh, that’s right, you can’t because all the facts show that MMP is the best system of representative democracy available.
But, that’s not all:
Yep, she doesn’t want all those poor people* voting even though it is their society and should have a say in it’s direction.
The call of the dictator is the cry of property rights which is Acts central theme and Cactus Kate has just proved that Act is bunch of dictators by saying that she wants only her preferred people voting.
* Who are only poor because of the policies Act promote.
I am a believer in the cornerstone of neo-loyalty in that if you leave NZ in your 20’s to chase bucks then your opinion on NZ affairs means diddly-squat and you should STFU
@RobC – How can young people know the world from just staying in the country facebooking or watching videos for experience. You yourself have to go and live it. When you are over there it’s in your face, there is no avoiding the reality as it hits you. Also going overseas to do advanced study enriches the graduate’s expertise and if we can get them back then we have increased our IQ.
Just staying in NZ would lead us back to the narrow-minded types we were before the Second World War caused thousands of our people to do an OE and thousands of displaced Europeans and others to come here and show us their culture and way of thinking.
“Chasing bucks” vs “OE”.
Hi Prism, you’ve read too much into my comment – I just find it rather amusing that someone who has lived/worked overseas until just recently (?) and probably has paid F.A. net tax in NZ comes out with no representation without paying net taxation.
On the flip side, if votes were apportioned to how much net tax you paid, say 1 vote for every $10k, we’d probably see less tax evasion.
But if only net taxpayers can vote that means Sam Morgan can’t vote, virtually all the farmers can’t vote (perhaps that is an angle for the left), and the only voters left are the working, hard slogging wage and salary earners.
Or perhaps we take Cactus Kate (never read her but she sounds horrid) approach and extend it a little so that a person gets a number of votes, that number rising or falling depending on the proportion of their income that ends up in the government coffers… smokers and boozers would get the most votes … equals Cactus Kate equals zombie.
“neo-democracy”. pffft.
Sounds like “new coke” to me.
I see that the Nat government is going to pay to those red-zoned homeowners with insurance, if they accept the governments offer to purchase, a deposit of up to 50% (max $50,000) once signed… if that aint an election stimulant I don’t know what is. I betcha the cheques arrive well in time.
And btw, what was the reason for only insured homeowners receiving the governments offer?
Boscowen – someone tell him that the word is horrific not hirrofic. Perhaps if he spoke from within rather than reading a prepared script he might be a little more credible, (especially as he repeated the same error when re-reading the phrase).
Ilargi over at Theautomaticearth posted this today and it pretty much sums up the world and the state of our polity today. its a DIRE WARNING.
Once a society or country allows money to enter its politics, the outcome is inevitable: the money interests will come to rule that country. This is evident all over the western world, whether you look at the Greek, Irish and other EU bail-outs, or at the debt dungeon debate the US is presently digging its way into ever deeper, with the respective bills handed to the people and their children.
As we speak, and as we watch the wall-sized media coverage of the debt dungeon chasm, municipalities and counties are on the cusp of bankruptcy. Services will be cut across the board. That is our future.
A future that won’t involve growth, but which be all about austerity and cutting back and outright poverty for rapidly increasing numbers of people. Just not for the politicians and their puppeteers, not for those who get to decide who will hurt the most.
That is the main issue today. Who are you going to let decide how bad your future will be? If you opt for Washington, anyone in Washington, or Brussels if you’re in Europe, your future will hurt something bad. When it comes to that future of yours and, of your offspring, the debt dungeon debate is the wrong focus. There’s nothing beneficial for you in there.
This is nothing less than outright class warfare where those with the means are stealing ours and our childrens future and liberty.
I can’t get through the code word barrier to send a Contact message. I have tried three times and am sure I was correct the last two. I wear glasses but thought I was seeing well the last two times. I was trying to say that none of my personal posts show up since July 31. Cheers
Obama got nothing except forcing Republicians to agree to reductions in militrary spending in return for keeping the unfordable tax cuts for the richest. Obama delayed the debate until after the pay off, mid term elections, where military constituencies will make Repubalicians pay for their greed.
US is in a political and economic death spiral. The aim is to get re-elected, not lead the country or help the people.