Bumped into a chap I used to work with on my stroll from the bus stop to work this morning. He left my previous employer to get into realestate about two years ago, and now he is applying for jobs as a project manager again because the housing market has utterly tanked and he can't make a living selling houses anymore.
Falling market is no fun for people that bought an overpriced suburban dump in the last year or two.
Agents can cream it both ways dealing with vendors and buyers, and they do a lot more hours than some imagine with psychology involved for the skilled ones. But really it is a disreputable occupation when it comes down to it.
No doubt he's made a packet over the last couple of years, and will now be in high demand as a project manager again (plenty of scope with all of the government and local government projects being rolled out).
What real estate agents like is a high volume property market – lots of buying and selling – they don't really care whether the prices are trending upwards or downwards. Each individual sale is only a few hundred more or less on their commission.
According to the ODT, 3 April 2023, almost 5,000 NZ nurses have registered to work in Oz. Pay rates are almost as much (for top jobs) as the rates creamed by the consultants who flocked to work (?) on the now defunct RNZ/TVNZ merger:
" … short-term contracts ranged from about $3500 to about $8000 Australian dollars a week, depending on factors including seniority, expertise and the length of the contract.”
Nice to see a bit of parity for our hard-pressed health workers for once, but the NZ health system continues to decline.
So Hunter where is the money coming from higher taxes or maybe Australia can afford to pay higher wages for nurses because all the profit from Australian owned NZ branches goes to Australia no tax paid in NZ ie banks countdown etc billions of dollars Top income earners in NZ pay less.So our govt hasn't got the money to compete just as the developing world can't afford to pay our wages so for example Australia steals our best nurses and we steal The Phillipines nurses . Covid interupted the the supply lines of Labour.The Australian govt kept bringing in in seasonal workers during covid while NZ closed its border
The latest from Russia one of Putins top psychophantic bloggers blown up in a restaraunt most likely by Putin as he was critical of Putin not doing enough .Putin will blame Ukrainian spies! The age of propaganda ie Fake news looks like is taking over as the internet superceding real news gathered by genuine reporters.Add in artificial intelligence and the Human race is in deep peril of its own making.Unscrupulous power hungry narcissists are taking over. Ironically Eion Musk is asking for a halt to AI ,as if anyone is going to stop ie China or Russia or big business will listen
Hunter, the vast bulk of Australian nurses are on money only about 10% better than NZ. Try and find out about what the high paying jobs really are, but anecdotally from a nurse I know they are in isolated and not that nice a places, and short term to cover for holidays pregnancy etc Ask yourself why the Aussies are paying such big money, it may well be because of the same problems as here, not enough staff, shitty conditions and long hours. An experienced NZ nurse in NZ doing 12 hour shifts with extra call backs gets well in excess of 100-120k p.a. The real rate is very hard to access as it varies weekly because every nurse is working in different conditions I.e, expertise and hours. Keep in mind also that you are reading headlines, click bait for the terminally aggrieved reader, subtract a copious amount of bullshit and you may get close to the truth.
Adrian, you are correct. most of the high paying jobs for Nurses in Australia are in remote communities working with indigenous communities. Places Aussies just will not go to.
The Practice Nurse interviewed on RNZ this morning leaving her 9 to 5 Monday to Friday role for Australia could make just about as much here by returning to shift work in New Zealand.
Correct, a fair number of the Australian jobs for nurses will be in locations like Woop Woop or the Black Stump. No surfing after work.
It's not just pay. From my experience as a hospital patient, I suspect an increase in staff numbers on the wards would keep a lot of our nurses here, so the workload is spread a bit more.
i see the 'dangeorus' 'woman' fugitive is no longer a "women" but is now a pensioneer. Never mind that this 'women' is a male and his crimes are those of a male.
Police are still looking for a “dangerous” pensioner who was convicted of murdering an elderly woman and kidnapping and robbing a law student in the past 30 years.
Police are appealing for sightings of Bronwyn Warwick who has a parole recall warrant.
They say she is considered dangerous and should not be approached."
snip
But a friend and ex-prison mate of Warwick’s, self-styled “jailhouse lawyer” Arthur Taylor, has described her as a “pretty intelligent” bone carver who was settling “quite well” in the community.
“Back in the ‘90s, she was still transitioning from being a man to a woman. I never saw her be violent during my time there with her.
yeah, bro, i guess being a strong healthy penis haver will have that effect on a murderer who killed and old women* and who harmed a male law student. Essentially a common garden variety violent thug of the male sex.
People are pretty good at perceiving the sex of other people. Insisting that this violent person is a woman, may result in people identifying them correctly as a male, but not reporting is because they are being told that they are not male.
100% re insisting this violent man is a women could put people off the track and prevent them realizing that this man is dangerous and needs to be reporting to the police.
But of course misgendering is such a heinous crime…………………
This 'ghost bus' problem is becoming a daily 'feature' on local FB pages.
Regular commuters having bus after bus cancelled (one recently posted a photo on the northern busway of 7 services in a row cancelled). And then, when a bus finally does arrive, it sails on past, as it's too full to stop. Some are resorting to using cars again – just to get into work.
Note: this more than 1,000 trips per day in Auckland being cancelled is *after* AT already trimmed 10% of scheduled services.
When AT demonstrably can't manage to deliver on their already contracted services, it beggars belief that they'll be able to deliver on the *increased* services that are proposed in order to meet climate change targets.
Is this a failure of management? Of priorities? Of competence?
Whatever it is – it is even further damaging the reputation of AT, and the belief of Aucklanders that this is an organization which needs increased funding, in a time of reduced budgets.
My wife gets busses from Silverdale to North Shore Hospital. It is very much hit and mis whether a bus turns up at all. When they do cancel them, (regularly) it is at the very last minute, so the next one is often full.
I know there are issues with driver numbers, and availabilty. If AT had better communication skills a lot of the angst could be mitigated. Better still, if they funded properly. Fat Chance.
The information they have not given us is whether there is a difference between the contractors. We find that the Ritchie's bus services are much more regular than the NZBUS ones. The buses are cleaner and in better shape, and the drivers seem happier.
NZBUS are shocking. They regularly put buses on the road with malfunctioning or nonfunctioning air conditioning, the buses are dirty, one I travelled on recently had sopping wet seats because the roof leaked, and the drivers could not care less.
Most people don't have a choice. The contract for their suburb is let to one operator – and that's what you get.
I guess there are a few suburbs with an overlap (going north it's X, going south, it's Y) – but that would be the exception rather than the rule.
The comments I get to see are in relation to the Northern Busway (so I guess Ritchies), and local bus services to the CBD, Takapuna and north to Albany (also, I suspect, Ritchies).
I'd like to see their management and executive team taking shifts on the buses to fill the gaps. They can opt for either a morning or afternoon rush-hour shift, and then do the rest of their work around the bus-driving.
Give them a real incentive to improve conditions to attract drivers.
Yes, slightly tongue-in-cheek, but based on real-life story.
In the dim and distant days, when I was a child, and we had our own local bus company – I recall the owner arriving one day driving the scheduled bus. He'd had a driver call in sick (probably in the middle of a shift), and couldn't get a replacement. My Nana introduced us all, and thanked him for coming out. That was a real commitment to customer service.
AT have been a joke for years. They were ideologically captured, and never managed to shake it,. And in his usual ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ pantomime mayoralty, Goff did SFA to fix it. A new GM started today at AT. He has a huge job ahead of him.
If anyone saw the Warriors incredible 32-30 comeback win against the Sharks yesterday, Shaun Johnson's halftime chat when they were 20 points down must have been really something.
Hipkins should hire him to give the Labour caucus a rev-up.
Tough break Sanna Marin losing the Finnish election.
The no-immigrants-from-outside-EU that the Finnish nationalists will now insist on is at least as tough as the Danish approach. Presumably that's another home the Ukrainian refugees can't go to.
I must admit that I haven't been following the Finnish election.
From a complete outsider's perspective, I'd think that the Russia/Ukraine war would have had a massive impact on the election and potentially on the results.
This may not be everyone's cup of tea, humour-wise and may be incomprehensible to those who have not been following all the permutations around KJM. Nazis & her visit to NZ
China’s defence budget is rising heftily yet again. The 2025 rise will be 7.2 percent, the same as in 2024, the government said on 5 March. But the allocation, officially US$245 billion, is just the ...
Concern is growing about wide-ranging local repercussions of the new Setting of Speed Limits rule, rewritten in 2024 by former transport minister Simeon Brown. In particular, there’s growing fears about what this means for children in particular. A key paradox of the new rule is that NZTA-controlled roads have the ...
Speilmeister:Christopher Luxon’s prime-ministerial pitches notwithstanding, are institutions with billions of dollars at their disposal really going to invest them in a country so obviously in a deep funk?HAVING WOOED THE WORLD’s investors, what, if anything, has New Zealand won? Did Christopher Luxon’s guests board their private jets fizzing with enthusiasm for ...
Christchurch City Council is one of 18 councils and three council-controlled organisations (CCOs) downgraded by ratings agency S&P. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories shortest:Standard & Poor’s has cut the credit ratings of 18 councils, blaming the new Government’s abrupt reversal of 3 Waters, cuts to capital ...
Figures released by Statistics New Zealand today showed that the economy grew by 0.7% ending the very deep recession seen over the past year, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “Even though GDP grew in the three months to December, our economy is still 1.1% smaller than it ...
What is going on with the price of butter?, RNZ, 19 march 2025: If you have bought butter recently you might have noticed something - it is a lot more expensive. Stats NZ said last week that the price of butter was up 60 percent in February compared to ...
I agree with Will Leben, who wrote in The Strategist about his mistakes, that an important element of being a commentator is being accountable and taking responsibility for things you got wrong. In that spirit, ...
You’d beDrunk by noon, no one would knowJust like the pandemicWithout the sourdoughIf I were there, I’d find a wayTo get treated for hysteriaEvery dayLyrics Riki Lindhome.A varied selection today in Nick’s Kōrero:Thou shalt have no other gods - with Christopher Luxon.Doctors should be seen and not heard - with ...
Two recent foreign challenges suggest that Australia needs urgently to increase its level of defence self-reliance and to ensure that the increased funding that this would require is available. First, the circumnavigation of our continent ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, The Atlantic-$, The ...
According to RNZ’s embedded reporter, the importance of Winston Peters’ talks in Washington this week “cannot be overstated.” Right. “Exceptionally important.” said the maestro himself. This epic importance doesn’t seem to have culminated in anything more than us expressing our “concern” to the Americans about a series of issues that ...
Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of "Climate Fresk" and at a guess, this will also be the case for many of you. I stumbled upon it in the self-service training catalog for employees at the company I work at in Germany where it was announced ...
Japan and Australia talk of ‘collective deterrence,’ but they don’t seem to have specific objectives. The relationship needs a clearer direction. The two countries should identify how they complement each other. Each country has two ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the OPC’s decision to issue a code of practice for biometric processing. Our view is that the draft code currently being consulted on is stronger and will be more effective than the exposure code released in early 2024. We are pleased that some of the revisions ...
Australia’s export-oriented industries, particularly agriculture, need to diversify their markets, with a focus on Southeast Asia. This could strengthen economic security and resilience while deepening regional relationships. The Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on ...
Minister Shane Jones is introducing fastrack ‘reforms’ to the our fishing industry that will ensure the big players squeeze out the small fishers and entrench an already bankrupt quota system.Our fisheries are under severe stress: the recent decision by theHigh Court ruling that the ...
In what has become regular news, the quarterly ETS auction has failed, with nobody even bothering to bid. The immediate reason is that the carbon price has fallen to around $60, below the auction minimum of $68. And the cause of that is a government which has basically given up ...
US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have dominated headlines in India in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Trump announced that his reciprocal tariffs—matching other countries’ tariffs on American goods—will go into effect on 2 April, ...
Hi,Back in June of 2021, James Gardner-Hopkins — a former partner at law firm Russell McVeagh — was found guilty of misconduct over sexually inappropriate behaviour with interns.The events all related to law students working as summer interns at Russell McVeagh:As well as intimate touching with a student at his ...
Climate sceptic MP Mark Cameron has slammed National for being ‘out of touch’ by sticking to our climate commitments. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories shortest:ACT’s renowned climate sceptic MP Mark Cameron has accused National of being 'out of touch' with farmers by sticking with New Zealand’s Paris accord pledges ...
Now I've heard there was a secret chordThat David played, and it pleased the LordBut you don't really care for music, do you?It goes like this, the fourth, the fifthThe minor falls, the major liftsThe baffled king composing HallelujahSongwriter: Leonard CohenI always thought the lyrics of that great song by ...
People are getting carried away with the virtues of small warship crews. We need to remember the great vice of having few people to run a ship: they’ll quickly tire. Yes, the navy is struggling ...
Mōrena. Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, The Atlantic-$, ...
US President Donald Trump’s hostile regime has finally forced Europe to wake up. With US officials calling into question the transatlantic alliance, Germany’s incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, recently persuaded lawmakers to revise the country’s debt ...
We need to establish clearer political boundaries around national security to avoid politicising ongoing security issues and to better manage secondary effects. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) revealed on 10 March that the Dural caravan ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have reiterated their call for Government to protect workers by banning engineered stone in a submission on MBIE’s silica dust consultation. “If Brooke van Velden is genuine when she calls for an evidence-based approach to this issue, then she must support a full ban on ...
The Labour Inspectorate could soon be knocking on the door of hundreds of businesses nation-wide, as it launches a major crackdown on those not abiding by the law. NorthTec staff are on edge as Northland’s leading polytechnic proposes to stop 11 programmes across primary industries, forestry, and construction. Union coverage ...
It’s one thing for military personnel to hone skills with first-person view (FPV) drones in racing competitions. It’s quite another for them to transition to the complexities of the battlefield. Drone racing has become a ...
Seymour says there will be no other exemptions granted to schools wanting to opt out of the Compass contract. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories shortest:David Seymour has denied a request from a Christchurch school and any other schools to be exempted from the Compass school lunch programme, saying the contract ...
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, U.S. President Bill Clinton, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, and British Prime Minister John Major signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in ...
Edit: The original story said “Palette Cleanser” in both the story, and the headline. I am never, ever going to live this down. Chain me up, throw me into the pit.Hi,With the world burning — literally and figuratively — I felt like Webworm needed a little palate cleanser at the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler(Image credit: Antonio Huerta) Growing up in suburban Ohio, I was used to seeing farmland and woods disappear to make room for new subdivisions, strip malls, and big box stores. I didn’t usually welcome the changes, but I assumed others ...
Myanmar was a key global site for criminal activity well before the 2021 military coup. Today, illicit industry, especially heroin and methamphetamine production, still defines much of the economy. Nowhere, not even the leafiest districts ...
What've I gotta do to make you love me?What've I gotta do to make you care?What do I do when lightning strikes me?And I wake up and find that you're not thereWhat've I gotta do to make you want me?Mmm hmm, what've I gotta do to be heard?What do I ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, The Economist-$ ...
Whenever Christopher Luxon drops a classically fatuous clanger or whenever the government has a bad poll – i.e. every week – the talk resumes that he is about to be rolled. This is unlikely for several reasons. For starters, there is no successor. Nicola Willis? Chris Bishop? Simeon Brown? Mark ...
Australia, Britain and European countries should loosen budget rules to allow borrowing to fund higher defence spending, a new study by the Kiel Institute suggests. Currently, budget debt rules are forcing governments to finance increases ...
The NZCTU remains strongly committed to banning engineered stone in New Zealand and implementing better occupational health protections for all workers working with silica-containing materials. In this submission to MBIE, the NZCTU outlines that we have an opportunity to learn from Australia’s experience by implementing a full ban of engineered ...
The Prime Minister has announced a big win in trade negotiations with India.It’s huge, he told reporters. We didn't get everything we came for but we were able to agree on free trade in clothing, fabrics, car components, software, IT consulting, spices, tea, rice, and leather goods.He said that for ...
I have been trying to figure out the logic of Trump’s tariff policies and apparent desire for a global trade war. Although he does not appear to comprehend that tariffs are a tax on consumers in the country doing the tariffing, I can (sort of) understand that he may think ...
As Syria and international partners negotiate the country’s future, France has sought to be a convening power. While France has a history of influence in the Middle East, it will have to balance competing Syrian ...
One of the eternal truths about Aotearoa's economy is that we are "capital poor": there's not enough money sloshing around here to fund the expansion of local businesses, or to build the things we want to. Which gets used as an excuse for all sorts of things, like setting up ...
National held its ground until late 2023 Verion, Talbot Mills & Curia Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)If we remove outlier results from Curia (National Party November 2023) National started trending down in October 2024.Verion Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)Verian alone shows a clearer deterioration in early ...
In a recent presentation, I recommended, quite unoriginally, that governments should have a greater focus on higher-impact, lower-probability climate risks. My reasoning was that current climate model projections have blind spots, meaning we are betting ...
Daddy, are you out there?Daddy, won't you come and play?Daddy, do you not care?Is there nothing that you want to say?Songwriters: Mark Batson / Beyonce Giselle Knowles.This morning, a look at the much-maligned NZ Herald. Despised by many on the left as little more than a mouthpiece for the National ...
Employers, unions and health and safety advocates are calling for engineered stone to be banned, a day before consultation on regulations closes. On Friday the PSA lodged a pay equity claim for library assistants with the Employment Relations Authority, after the stalling of a claim lodged with six councils in ...
Long stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy:Christopher Luxon surprises by announcing trade deal talks with India will start next month, and include beef and dairy. Napier is set to join Whakatane, Dunedin and Westport in staging a protest march against health spending restraints hitting their hospital services. Winston Peters ...
At a time of rising geopolitical tensions and deepening global fragmentation, the Ukraine war has proved particularly divisive. From the start, the battle lines were clearly drawn: Russia on one side, Ukraine and the West ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, Newsroom-$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 9, 2025 thru Sat, March 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. We are still interested ...
Max Harris and Max Rashbrooke discuss how we turn around the right wing slogans like nanny state, woke identity politics, and the inefficiency of the public sector – and how we build a progressive agenda. From Donald Trump to David Seymour, from Peter Dutton to Christopher Luxon, we are subject to a ...
The Government dominated the political agenda this week with its two-day conference pitching all manner of public infrastructure projects for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest in our political economy this week: The Government ploughed ahead with offers of PPPs to pension fund managers ...
You know that it's a snake eat snake worldWe slither and serpentine throughWe all took a bite, and six thousand years laterThese apples getting harder to chewSongwriters: Shawn Mavrides.“Please be Jack Tame”, I thought when I saw it was Seymour appearing on Q&A. I’d had a guts full of the ...
So here we are at the wedding of Alexandra Vincent Martelli and David Seymour.Look at all the happy prosperous guests! How proud Nick Mowbray looks of the gift he has made of a mountain of crap plastic toys stuffed into a Cybertruck.How they drink, how they laugh, how they mug ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is waste heat from industrial activity the reason the planet is warming? Waste heat’s contribution to global warming is a small fraction of ...
Some continue to defend David Seymour on school lunches, sidestepping his errors to say:“Well the parents should pack their lunch” and/or “Kids should be grateful for free food.”One of these people is the sitting Prime Minister.So I put together a quick list of why complaint is not only appropriate - ...
“Bugger the pollsters!”WHEN EVERYBODY LIVED in villages, and every village had a graveyard, the expression “whistling past the graveyard” made more sense. Even so, it’s hard to describe the Coalition Government’s response to the latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia Research poll any better. Regardless of whether they wanted to go there, or ...
Prof Jane Kelsey examines what the ACT party and the NZ Initiative are up to as they seek to impose on the country their hardline, right wing, neoliberal ideology. A progressive government elected in 2026 would have a huge job putting Humpty Dumpty together again and rebuilding a state that ...
See I try to make a differenceBut the heads of the high keep turning awayThere ain't no useWhen the world that you love has goneOoh, gotta make a changeSongwriters: Arapekanga Adams-Tamatea / Brad Kora / Hiriini Kora / Joel Shadbolt.Aotearoa for Sale.This week saw the much-heralded and somewhat alarming sight ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, The Economist-$ ...
By international standards the New Zealand healthcare system appears satisfactory – certainly no worse generally than average. Yet it is undergoing another redisorganisation.While doing some unrelated work, I came across some international data on the healthcare sector which seemed to contradict my – and the conventional wisdom’s – view of ...
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he knew that he was upending Europe’s security order. But this was more of a tactical gambit than a calculated strategy ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Over the last year, I’ve been warning about Luxon’s pitch to privatise our public assets.He had told reporters in October that nothing was off the cards:Schools, hospitals, prisons, and ...
When ASPI’s Cyclone Tracy: 50 Years On was published last year, it wasn’t just a historical reflection; it was a warning. Just months later, we are already watching history repeat itself. We need to bake ...
1. Why was school lunch provider The Libelle Group in the news this week?a. Grand Winner in Pie of The Yearb. Scored a record 108% on YELP c. Bought by Oravida d. Went into liquidation2. What did our Prime Minister offer prospective investors at his infrastructure investment jamboree?a. The Libelle ...
South Korea has suspended new downloads of DeepSeek, and it was were right to do so. Chinese tech firms operate under the shadow of state influence, misusing data for surveillance and geopolitical advantage. Any country ...
Previous big infrastructure PPPs such as Transmission Gully were fiendishly complicated to negotiate, generated massive litigation and were eventually rewritten anyway. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesLong stories shortest: The Government’s international investment conference ignores the facts that PPPs cost twice as much as vanilla debt-funded public infrastructure, often take ...
Woolworths has proposed a major restructure of its New Zealand store operating model, leaving workers worried their hours and pay could be cut. Public servants are being asked how productive their office is, how much they use AI, and whether they’re overloaded with meetings as part of a “census”. An ...
Robert Kaplan’s book Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis paints a portrait of civilisation in flux. Drawing insights from history, literature and art, he examines the effect of modern technology, globalisation and urbanisation on ...
Sexuality - Strong and warm and wild and freeSexuality - Your laws do not apply to meSexuality - Don't threaten me with miserySexuality - I demand equalitySong: Billy Bragg.First, thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday’s survey. Some questions worked better than others, but I found them interesting, ...
It’s been revealed that the Government is secretly trying to bring back a ‘one-size fits all’ standardised test – a decision that has shocked school principals. ...
The Green Party is calling for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, a 77-year-old kaumātua on hunger strike at the Spring Hill Corrections Facility, after visiting him at the prison. ...
The Green Party is calling on Government MPs to support Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence and illegal actions in Palestine, following another day of appalling violence against civilians in Gaza. ...
The Green Party stands in support of volunteer firefighters petitioning the Government to step up and change legislation to provide volunteers the same ACC coverage and benefits as their paid counterparts. ...
At 2.30am local time, Israel launched a treacherous attack on Gaza killing more than 300 defenceless civilians while they slept. Many of them were children. This followed a more than 2 week-long blockade by Israel on the entry of all goods and aid into Gaza. Israel deliberately targeted densely populated ...
Living Strong, Aging Well There is much discussion around the health of our older New Zealanders and how we can age well. In reality, the delivery of health services accounts for only a relatively small percentage of health outcomes as we age. Significantly, dry warm housing, nutrition, exercise, social connection, ...
Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...
Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is disappointed the Government voted down Hūhana Lyndon’s member’s Bill, which would have prevented further alienation of Māori land through the Public Works Act. ...
The Labour Party will support Chloe Swarbrick’s member’s bill which would allow sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. ...
The Government’s new procurement rules are a blatant attack on workers and the environment, showing once again that National’s priorities are completely out of touch with everyday Kiwis. ...
With Labour and Te Pāti Māori’s official support, Opposition parties are officially aligned to progress Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in Palestine. ...
Te Pāti Māori extends our deepest aroha to the 500 plus Whānau Ora workers who have been advised today that the govt will be dismantling their contracts. For twenty years , Whānau Ora has been helping families, delivering life-changing support through a kaupapa Māori approach. It has built trust where ...
Labour welcomes Simeon Brown’s move to reinstate a board at Health New Zealand, bringing the destructive and secretive tenure of commissioner Lester Levy to an end. ...
This morning’s announcement by the Health Minister regarding a major overhaul of the public health sector levels yet another blow to the country’s essential services. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that will ensure employment decisions in the public service are based on merit and not on forced woke ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ targets. “This Bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. ...
Police have referred 20 offenders to Destiny Church-affiliated programmes Man Up and Legacy as ‘wellness providers’ in the last year, raising concerns that those seeking help are being recruited into a harmful organisation. ...
Te Pāti Māori welcomes the resignation of Richard Prebble from the Waitangi Tribunal. His appointment in October 2024 was a disgrace- another example of this government undermining Te Tiriti o Waitangi by appointing a former ACT leader who has spent his career attacking Māori rights. “Regardless of the reason for ...
Police Minister Mark Mitchell is avoiding accountability by refusing to answer key questions in the House as his Government faces criticism over their dangerous citizen’s arrest policy, firearm reform, and broken promises to recruit more police. ...
The number of building consents issued under this Government continues to spiral, taking a toll on the infrastructure sector, tradies, and future generations of Kiwi homeowners. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to rule out joining the AUKUS military pact in any capacity following the scenes in the White House over the weekend. ...
The Green Party is appalled by the Government’s plan to disestablish Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM) roles, a move that takes another swing at kaupapa Māori education. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rossana Ruggeri, Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow, Queensland University of Technology KPNO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURAB / Tafreshi The universe has been expanding ever since the Big Bang almost 14 billion years ago, and astronomers believe a kind of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Elms, Senior Lecturer, School of Accountancy, Queensland University of Technology Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock Steering a large company successfully is no mean feat. As companies grow more complex in an increasingly turbulent business environment – so, too, do the responsibilities of their board ...
Analysis: Peters heads home from Washington DC armed with fresh intel on what the new US administration is thinking, and the impact it might have on New Zealand and the wider Pacific. ...
The application to the ERA asks it to decide rates of remuneration for probation officers that are free from gender-based discrimination. The ERA has the power to fix those rates. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cosette Saunders, PhD candidate, Sydney Placebo Lab, University of Sydney Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock In 1998, shortly after arriving for work, a Tennessee high-school teacher reported a “gasoline-like smell” and feeling dizzy. Soon after, many students and staff began reporting symptoms of chemical poisoning. ...
NZDF told staff today of plans for a major restructure of the civilian workforce resulting in a net reduction of 374 roles. This comes on top of cuts late last year which saw 144 civilian workers take voluntary redundancy. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Smith, Associate Professor in American Politics and Foreign Policy, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney US President Donald Trump has exploited American nationalism as effectively as anyone in living memory. What sets him apart is his use of national humiliation as ...
The Hīkoi is intended to pressure the Government and Ministry of Health to reverse moves towards restrictions, and guarantee access to puberty blockers and hormones. Protesters are set to assemble at 10am at Waitangi Park, before marching through ...
Three different sporting codes share the same venue over the space of four days. Here’s how they all stack up. Is it too late to reschedule Friday night’s Warriors game to a Sunday afternoon kickoff at Eden Park? This is all it would take to create a total sporting eclipse: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Whittle, Director, Data61, CSIRO Anton Vierietin/Shutterstock In February this year, Google announced it was launching “a new AI system for scientists”. It said this system was a collaborative tool designed to help scientists “in creating novel hypotheses and research plans”. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Haswell, Professor of Practice (Environmental Wellbeing), Indigenous Strategy and Services, Honorary Professor (Geosciences) at University of Sydney & Professor of Health, Safety and Environment, Queensland University of Technology, University of Sydney Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has indicated a Coalition government would ...
Alex Casey reviews The Rule of Jenny Pen, a new local nightmare set within the four walls of a rest home. Mortality and danger seep in from the very first scene of The Rule of Jenny Pen. As Judge Stefan Mortensen ONZM (Geoffrey Rush) squashes fly innards into his judge’s ...
Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense, but New Zealand doesn’t have a dedicated disaster loss database – and this lack of data is increasingly detrimental to our long-term prosperity. Following the Trump administration’s abrupt cuts to USAID funding last month, the online international disaster database EM-DAT ...
I’ve been turned down once. Should I confess my love again? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,Writing in with a common lesbian problem. I have a friend – let’s call her B. We have been friends for a few years now. Fairly early into our ...
Outgoing Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has today released a report about his reflections over the past nine years, on the Official Information Act 1982, along with separate investigations into seven agencies, and two new case notes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron Camens, Lecturer in Palaeontology, Flinders University Musky rat-kangaroo.Amy Tschirn In the remnant rainforests of coastal far-north Queensland, bushwalkers may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a diminutive marsupial that’s the last living representative of its family. The musky ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Visitor, School of History, Australian National University The world had its eyes on Sydney in 2000. A million people lined the harbour to ring in the new millennium (though some said it was actually the final year of the old ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland The most striking feature of the Australian economy in the 21st century has been the exceptionally long period of fairly steady, though not rapid, economic growth. The deep recession of 1989–91, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Moran, Lecturer in the Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, University of Adelaide German Vizulis/Shutterstock If you peruse the philosophy section of your local bookshop, you’ll probably find a number of books on Stoicism – an ancient philosophy enjoying ...
An 11-storey timber building planned for the thoroughfare has been denied consent, and it’s not just the passionate yimbies who are up in arms, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. K Road developer to appeal council decision ...
Going into the Prime Minister’s first trip to India, NZ Indian Central Association president Narendra Bhana said one of the key indicators of success would be whether or not New Zealand managed to secure a direct flight to India.“The absence of direct flights between New Zealand and India makes travel ...
The government wants to streamline regulations, but marine advocates worry the changes would make fishing less transparent and expedite destruction of the ocean. ...
‘Eggsurance’ is increasingly common, especially among single women waiting for the one. It’s a costly and invasive process – and most frozen eggs never end up being used. So is it worth it? Gabi Lardies investigates. ‘I really wanted to have children. I wanted to be a mum,” says Sandra*. ...
With economic uncertainty comes investing jitters, but it can also be an opportunity, writes Frances Cooke. Checked your Kiwisaver balance lately? Yeah, it’s probably not looking great. Well, at first glance, anyway. Your Kiwisaver going down can actually be a good thing for the future – yes, I’m serious. But ...
Every time tenacious lock Tanita Garnett charges onto the rugby field for the Tasman Mako, she’s playing for an 11-year-old girl.A kid fighting a rare cancer for the second time; so drained by chemotherapy and other treatments, walking’s a struggle, let alone running.That 11-year-old girl was Tanita Garnett.Today, Garnett is ...
Interesting
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11930547/ONE-Americans-dont-think-Trump-indicted-new-poll-shows.html?ito=push-notification&ci=ekBJbRD5OK&cri=F1Uf_SH-5_&si=6OBwHRJCjiW2&xi=2c004021-41ee-4c4f-8c26-c9875d351c78&ai=11930547
If and when Trump is charged with something to do with attempting to pervert election results in Georgia I'm sure the percentages will be similar.
I suppose such charges would be 'politically motivated' because they'll be about a politician politically motivated to change election results.
Pandoras box. Open it to your own detriment.
Bumped into a chap I used to work with on my stroll from the bus stop to work this morning. He left my previous employer to get into realestate about two years ago, and now he is applying for jobs as a project manager again because the housing market has utterly tanked and he can't make a living selling houses anymore.
Falling market is no fun for people that bought an overpriced suburban dump in the last year or two.
Agents can cream it both ways dealing with vendors and buyers, and they do a lot more hours than some imagine with psychology involved for the skilled ones. But really it is a disreputable occupation when it comes down to it.
No doubt he's made a packet over the last couple of years, and will now be in high demand as a project manager again (plenty of scope with all of the government and local government projects being rolled out).
What real estate agents like is a high volume property market – lots of buying and selling – they don't really care whether the prices are trending upwards or downwards. Each individual sale is only a few hundred more or less on their commission.
According to the ODT, 3 April 2023, almost 5,000 NZ nurses have registered to work in Oz. Pay rates are almost as much (for top jobs) as the rates creamed by the consultants who flocked to work (?) on the now defunct RNZ/TVNZ merger:
" … short-term contracts ranged from about $3500 to about $8000 Australian dollars a week, depending on factors including seniority, expertise and the length of the contract.”
Nice to see a bit of parity for our hard-pressed health workers for once, but the NZ health system continues to decline.
Really, why do we still have to ask for links, to your verbatim quote from ODT (and to RNZ)?
Sorry for the omission – ODT link is https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/thousands-nurses-heading-australia
I guess when your country is an open caste mine you can pay top wages.
So Hunter where is the money coming from higher taxes or maybe Australia can afford to pay higher wages for nurses because all the profit from Australian owned NZ branches goes to Australia no tax paid in NZ ie banks countdown etc billions of dollars Top income earners in NZ pay less.So our govt hasn't got the money to compete just as the developing world can't afford to pay our wages so for example Australia steals our best nurses and we steal The Phillipines nurses . Covid interupted the the supply lines of Labour.The Australian govt kept bringing in in seasonal workers during covid while NZ closed its border
The latest from Russia one of Putins top psychophantic bloggers blown up in a restaraunt most likely by Putin as he was critical of Putin not doing enough .Putin will blame Ukrainian spies! The age of propaganda ie Fake news looks like is taking over as the internet superceding real news gathered by genuine reporters.Add in artificial intelligence and the Human race is in deep peril of its own making.Unscrupulous power hungry narcissists are taking over. Ironically Eion Musk is asking for a halt to AI ,as if anyone is going to stop ie China or Russia or big business will listen
Hunter, the vast bulk of Australian nurses are on money only about 10% better than NZ. Try and find out about what the high paying jobs really are, but anecdotally from a nurse I know they are in isolated and not that nice a places, and short term to cover for holidays pregnancy etc Ask yourself why the Aussies are paying such big money, it may well be because of the same problems as here, not enough staff, shitty conditions and long hours. An experienced NZ nurse in NZ doing 12 hour shifts with extra call backs gets well in excess of 100-120k p.a. The real rate is very hard to access as it varies weekly because every nurse is working in different conditions I.e, expertise and hours. Keep in mind also that you are reading headlines, click bait for the terminally aggrieved reader, subtract a copious amount of bullshit and you may get close to the truth.
Adrian, you are correct. most of the high paying jobs for Nurses in Australia are in remote communities working with indigenous communities. Places Aussies just will not go to.
The Practice Nurse interviewed on RNZ this morning leaving her 9 to 5 Monday to Friday role for Australia could make just about as much here by returning to shift work in New Zealand.
Correct, a fair number of the Australian jobs for nurses will be in locations like Woop Woop or the Black Stump. No surfing after work.
It's not just pay. From my experience as a hospital patient, I suspect an increase in staff numbers on the wards would keep a lot of our nurses here, so the workload is spread a bit more.
i see the 'dangeorus' 'woman' fugitive is no longer a "women" but is now a pensioneer. Never mind that this 'women' is a male and his crimes are those of a male.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/dangerous-wanted-74yo-south-auckland-pensioner-bronwyn-warwick-still-missing/ULQO42L4TNAXNLORSSU743K7U4/
snip
yeah, bro, i guess being a strong healthy penis haver will have that effect on a murderer who killed and old women* and who harmed a male law student. Essentially a common garden variety violent thug of the male sex.
*Women – female humans.
People are pretty good at perceiving the sex of other people. Insisting that this violent person is a woman, may result in people identifying them correctly as a male, but not reporting is because they are being told that they are not male.
Welcome back Sabine.
100% re insisting this violent man is a women could put people off the track and prevent them realizing that this man is dangerous and needs to be reporting to the police.
But of course misgendering is such a heinous crime…………………
Yep. Welcome to the new world where scientific facts are not real, only what someone feels or decides is real for them is real.
Which is fine until us 'ordinary' people are told we have to go along with it.
This 'ghost bus' problem is becoming a daily 'feature' on local FB pages.
Regular commuters having bus after bus cancelled (one recently posted a photo on the northern busway of 7 services in a row cancelled). And then, when a bus finally does arrive, it sails on past, as it's too full to stop. Some are resorting to using cars again – just to get into work.
Note: this more than 1,000 trips per day in Auckland being cancelled is *after* AT already trimmed 10% of scheduled services.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ghost-buses-hundreds-of-services-cancelled-every-day-in-auckland-and-wellington/HGLVPLN56NBVFDC7A2V2QUI4F4/
When AT demonstrably can't manage to deliver on their already contracted services, it beggars belief that they'll be able to deliver on the *increased* services that are proposed in order to meet climate change targets.
Is this a failure of management? Of priorities? Of competence?
Whatever it is – it is even further damaging the reputation of AT, and the belief of Aucklanders that this is an organization which needs increased funding, in a time of reduced budgets.
My wife gets busses from Silverdale to North Shore Hospital. It is very much hit and mis whether a bus turns up at all. When they do cancel them, (regularly) it is at the very last minute, so the next one is often full.
I know there are issues with driver numbers, and availabilty. If AT had better communication skills a lot of the angst could be mitigated. Better still, if they funded properly. Fat Chance.
The information they have not given us is whether there is a difference between the contractors. We find that the Ritchie's bus services are much more regular than the NZBUS ones. The buses are cleaner and in better shape, and the drivers seem happier.
NZBUS are shocking. They regularly put buses on the road with malfunctioning or nonfunctioning air conditioning, the buses are dirty, one I travelled on recently had sopping wet seats because the roof leaked, and the drivers could not care less.
Most people don't have a choice. The contract for their suburb is let to one operator – and that's what you get.
I guess there are a few suburbs with an overlap (going north it's X, going south, it's Y) – but that would be the exception rather than the rule.
The comments I get to see are in relation to the Northern Busway (so I guess Ritchies), and local bus services to the CBD, Takapuna and north to Albany (also, I suspect, Ritchies).
I'd like to see their management and executive team taking shifts on the buses to fill the gaps. They can opt for either a morning or afternoon rush-hour shift, and then do the rest of their work around the bus-driving.
Give them a real incentive to improve conditions to attract drivers.
Yes, slightly tongue-in-cheek, but based on real-life story.
In the dim and distant days, when I was a child, and we had our own local bus company – I recall the owner arriving one day driving the scheduled bus. He'd had a driver call in sick (probably in the middle of a shift), and couldn't get a replacement. My Nana introduced us all, and thanked him for coming out. That was a real commitment to customer service.
Hmmm. They should take some from out East. Every single bus I see in Pakuranga, east tamaki etc is either empty or has maybe 3 or 4 passengers at most
In fact i cant remember the last time i saw a full bus and i do a bit of driving during the day
AT have been a joke for years. They were ideologically captured, and never managed to shake it,. And in his usual ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ pantomime mayoralty, Goff did SFA to fix it. A new GM started today at AT. He has a huge job ahead of him.
If anyone saw the Warriors incredible 32-30 comeback win against the Sharks yesterday, Shaun Johnson's halftime chat when they were 20 points down must have been really something.
Hipkins should hire him to give the Labour caucus a rev-up.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/shaun-johnson-on-the-halftime-talk-that-inspired-the-warriors-to-comeback-win-over-cronulla-sharks/RGJL7AH2GRHEXHQG3SIVL6FZD4/
Warriors greatest win ever.
Tough break Sanna Marin losing the Finnish election.
The no-immigrants-from-outside-EU that the Finnish nationalists will now insist on is at least as tough as the Danish approach. Presumably that's another home the Ukrainian refugees can't go to.
I must admit that I haven't been following the Finnish election.
From a complete outsider's perspective, I'd think that the Russia/Ukraine war would have had a massive impact on the election and potentially on the results.
Is that your understanding?
The NATO membership still has huge internal popularity.
No I think it's a straight-out rejection of the leadership and of the centre-left. They got third.
Pretty similar to how Ardern was taking Labour.
Not only Finland, but Holland, Sweden….and France is currently imploding.
People don't like partying PMs.
They can stand for lying, cheating, bribing, corrupt PMs but not partying.
No no no.
I think Sanna Marin kind of found herself in the same hole as Jacinda Adern, her success was her downfall because it made too many people jealous.
Israel creates state sanctioned death squads that will allow extremist settlers to kill Palestinians with impunity.
Will they wear Brown Shirts?
They will probably be wearing US-style military jackets and kippahs.
This may not be everyone's cup of tea, humour-wise and may be incomprehensible to those who have not been following all the permutations around KJM. Nazis & her visit to NZ
https://www.captiongenerator.com/v/2287613/hitler-learns-posie-parker-isn't-a-nazi?fbclid=IwAR0eby4cHWL1NohGyHfAYIdVmok3pFq4H78D5V7CSoY0uspg4UNUSKQVvQ0
No bad language, just an extended skit and playing with all the pronouncements about what KJM ‘is’