It irks me that Hooten’s sign off says PR and Excelcium not former National Party staffer etc etc.
He may be miffed that this latest revelation makes him look a little foolish.
To sugest that Clark and Wall not knowing equates to every Nat Health Minister and DHB Chair not knowing since 2010 is disingenous at best.
Of course the hospital is still operating. How could it not? It serves the largest population catchment in Auckland and that catchment contains many over representated in illness stats.
Were they supposed to close and send the patients to Colemans new employers private hospitals? At private rates paid for by the taxpayer?
Does the cost to fix include the cost of relocating the services within the building being repaired?
Speaking of former NActs, the greatest skill of Tony Ryall (Simpson Grierson’s head of pubic policy, Minister of Health 2008-2014) was putting in place health the targets and budget stretching that bedevil the public health services today, and walking away before the sh-ortages hit the fan.
Tony Ryall – I remember a political commentator saying that he had been adept at keeping health on low profile while he was Minister. Managing down, austerity reigns, that will get you a good outcome when you step down as a pollie.
This illustrates the awful moral hazard that faces the citizens with business reigning over us. There is no desire for government to see that anything is done well or goes well for the mass of the citizens, because there is a private company that can profit from undertaking the remedial work. It’s a factory chain of robotic ‘wealth creators’ (euphemism), and we are being passed from one work station to another.
But the work done for and on us does not have to conform to any excellence except what shows on the surface. There are no solid regulations that are practical and have teeth and are monitored and activated.
Every breath you take I’ll be watching you.
Every move you make ” ” ” ”
Oh can’t you see
You belong to me…………
No, or few regulations on business, but yes for citizens. Every step and breath that citizens take is being regulated by business through their servant entity, government. So sneer at the promise of a brave new world of neoliberalism, freemarketing and freebooting (now add freebotting).
The rights and opportunities we had achieved for us all have been given away and we are left with nothing positive just being exploited! We have swopped our magic beans for a cow! Go climb that beanstalk Jacky and steal back our golden future from the giant, and good luck to you pilgrim.
No, or few regulations on business, but yes for citizens. Every step and breath that citizens take is being regulated by business through their servant entity, government. So sneer at the promise of a brave new world of neoliberalism, freemarketing and freebooting (now add freebotting).
QFT
I’ll add this bit from Why we can’t afford the rich:
Though it never admits it, neoliberalism is a political-economic movement that seeks to legitimise widening economic inequalities and defend rentier interests above all others. Rentiers can live off others regardless of their gender, race, sexuality and so on.
The majority of us are slaves to keeping the rich wealthy. That’s how capitalism is designed.
I love a good rant grey, especially when it’s so much better than I could have done. An excellent point on our regulatory environment and the differences in it for businesses and citizens.
And some people still think politics doesn’t affect them. Only when enough citizens pay attention, will the politicians change that neo-liberal regulatory environment instead of just stitching up the fraying edges.
miravox
There was some point before one of the elections that Key denied the seriousness of some criticism saying that the naysayers were making politics out of it whatever it was. We are so green that we are like spirulina if we don’t understand that everything done and said is political and has effects on all the citizens – Politics’R US!
Wikipedia
political
adjective: political
1.
relating to the government or public affairs of a country.
“a period of political and economic stability”
Way to go – Participatory democracy – Everyone start studying politics as it is taught, so you are knowledgable when the time for making good future decisions comes.
Hooten is probably right. DHB heads might be compelled by the Nat Govt to hide that sort of information from the media but they can’t keep it out of the books. Building depreciation and deferred maintenance is financial information with an absolute requirement it be reported in the annual accounts.
The Audit Office signed off the annual report of CMDHB, if anything was deliberately missed out I’d expect to see the Audit Office descend on that DHB like a plague of locusts. Politicians might get away with bullshitting about financial matters but accountants and senior managers sure can’t (not when they’re discovered anyway).
It still surprises me that so many people can report on an issue like this without any of them even bothering to take the time to read the annual reports of the party in question. It should be the first thing interested people do, the annual accounts of all Govt departments are a free download for anyone to peruse.
No that was what I saw as the initial brouha tracey; that the Nat Govt was (allegedly) pressuring DHB heads to defer maintenance and keep quiet about it in order to make their own books look better.
The claims that have been made about costs should be in the annual report. I scanned through a few of them and saw few surprises there. The possible existence of asbestos in old buildings, for example, has been acknowledged for years in their books. They just state they’ won’t make provision for it as a liability until if/when it’s discovered and needs addressing. That’s fair enough.
The annual reports are worth reading IMO. They can contain a lot of fluff in the intro but the financial statements contained within the reports are a serious business, they make a statutory declaration on the truthfulness of those.
All of these issues result from one aspect of our society: Our desire to do everything on the cheap.
It’s why we have shoddy infrastructure, why our economic development has slowed and why farming is still a major industry.
Things is, it will cost us far more in the long run. More environmental damage by the farms and more for repairs on substandard houses and infrastructure.
But it does allow the RWNJs to cut taxes for the rich.
Audrey Young showed her true blue colours yesterday when she attacked those using the term Dirty Politics to describe the behaviour of right wing scum trolls who have attacked Clarke Gayford.
She is either an incompetent journalist or a dishonest one.
Audrey’s an enabler like the hosk etc. Shes attacking the rhetoric rather then the issue of deliberately placed malicious content for political advantage, who and why ?
That’s not even journalism of any sort that’s pushing an agenda…..removal of the term from the narrative that’s interwoven in many minds with the national party.
They really don’t like the truth or it being played out in public as that’s going to hurt further at the polls.
DP operates at two levels. At the sinister level it aims to drag all politics down to gutter politics with associated gutter ‘journalism’ and similar (and worse) shit in MSM and social media, respectively. You cannot fight it easily without falling in this trap, which is why DP is so insidious and effective! Lefties have particular difficulty with tackling DP and are very prone to becoming victims of it because they like to take and come (down) from the ‘moral high ground’. Of course, this makes the Left the ideal target of DP, in fact the only one; the Left cannot turn the tables despite RWNJs arguing otherwise.
Young suggested that when Ardern used the phrase ‘dirty politics’, Ardern was deliberately sending a dog whistle to conspiracy theorists on the left (like you) to assume it was the Nats who were responsible for the Gayford rumours and to put the boot in.
It worked a treat; just about every man and his dog (after being whistled) on this site yesterday did just that.
You were played Ed. You ended up no better than the original rumour mongers. But you served Jacinda’s purpose.
It has been a meme being pushed. Probably the most notable proponent (and probable originator – it has his style) was Hooten.
But it has been interesting watching the attempts to push the “reverse black ops” meme all over the place. Entirely done in those hushed “I have a little secret” tone that the alt-ridiculous seem to love.
Oh well I guess it makes them feel like they are in the know. And makes the suckers feel bigger than they really are
Riiiiiight grantoc, better she said nothing and just let the rumour die… oh wait is wasnt dying it was spreading, like all the dirty little rumours that swirled during Clark’s leadership.
Past behaviour is a good predictor of future etc etc
Nats and their arms lengthers have form. You are the one spinning.
What do you mean Clarke attackers? Who are you talking about?
Actual ” take the moral high ground” is something of the same strategy of these DP ers… first they swirl the rumour and watch it grow, then when someone responds, they join the chorus of vouces saying “turn the other cheek”, cos they know they win twice cos the rumour keeps swirling into more and more ears.
Scum is something that floats to the top, is mostly unpleasant in nature and if not removed spoils the flavour of the wholesome stuff underneath. As a metaphor I’m not sure it’s so badly chosen. It is somewhat inflammatory though…
Tracy Watkins opines on the dirty politics claim. She notes Clark was subject the relentless rumours while in office and Key to rumours when he left. Ardern subject in office… via her partner. Despite the pattern being
Labour rumours in office
National rumours post resignation
She concludes it isnt a strategy by a political party…
She tried to write a balanced article but that last sentence or so…
We know Nats rarely dish the dirt themselves and have a history of using arms length folk to do it. And yes it is proven james
The defining characteristics about the aging dinosaur media like Soper, Young, and O’Sullivan is chronological decrepitude, intellectual morbidity and a resulting torpid professional lassitude.
The chronological and intellectual decadence of that generation of journalists means they are much more inclined to treat dirty politics as a useful source of reliably controversial copy that relieves their aging brains of the need to think or investigate, and they can rationalise their complicity with a world weary cynicism that masquerades as sophistication for so many of our not half as clever as they think they are aging senior journalists.
I’ve thought recently that one of the more interesting pieces of meta data of a “youth-adjacent” Jacinda’s elevation to power is the sudden revelation of the creeping atmosphere of defeatism and nihilism that comes with a population that is losing it’s virility as it ages. I remember a particular conversation in the media when the previous government was asked if we could take the Manus Island refugees. The boomer minister responded with a bewildering list of reasons for why it was all just so hard and complex. Next up on the radio was Golriz Ghahraman, who immediately launched into a back of the envelope planning session on how you could squeeze the refugees into the various centres around the country. For her, the question wasn’t if we could take them, it was how we could manage them when they got here.
The difference between age and youth has seldom been so starkly illustrated. Much the same issue infests our establishment media. Far, far to many journalists are out of place and out of another time yet cling to senior jobs like shipwrecked sailors to a mast in a storm tossed sea whose movements they no longer understand or anticipate.
The real trick to getting old gracefully is knowing when to hand the reins over to the youngsters, and be relaxed and confident that the future is in safe hands when you do so.
Clearly none of our ancient brigade of senior journalists possess this skill.
Great piece Sanctuary… add in Armstrong and Roughan, the increased use of former politicians and former party hacks to write pieces. I see Hooten described a trained journalist at the herald as his colleague. Not really Sir.
The Nats are enacting their 2005 template. DP has started. Leader is saying he doesnt approve. We are on a John Key loop
By thunder Sanctuary – you really spell it out well when you get going – as here.
The defining characteristics about the aging dinosaur media like Soper, Young, and O’Sullivan is chronological decrepitude, intellectual morbidity and a resulting torpid professional lassitude.
The real crime (to me) was installing a President by fraudulent means. The fix should at least start with all involved going to court.
Shutting down the company seems necessary but impotent. There are people involved in every bit of corporate shenanigans, somehow the ‘company’ gets told off, scapegoats are fired, but no one responsible really seems culpable? The social damage (wealth shift now to the corporate/wealthy via a fraudulently elected leader = massive theft) will be enormous, let alone the psychological damage of undermining the safety and rights of women and minorities, and encouragement of various dictatorial styled leaders…
Zuckerberg’s still a billionaire with obscene power. Three steps removed mate. Corporate trickery again.
Cambridge Analytica is shutting down. Shine a light into a dark place and the rats gathered there scatter. I hope people are tracking where they’re scuttling off to.
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
This is a feature article and deserves more than a passing acknowledgement of the headlines.
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
This is a feature article and deserves more than a passing acknowledgement of the headline.
The know-all Hosking is now pontificating on how Jacinta and Clarke wrongly handled the distressing rumour mill situation yesterday. It is astounding that he thinks he is so fabulously smart and right on every aspect of life and every other mere mortal simply has no idea. What are his qualifications to have these opinions, apart from giant sized ego and arrogance. Ugh.
The police made it clear they issued their statement without the knowledge of Ardern or Clarke. Typical of the Hosking twat… blame them even when it had nothing to do with them.
He might as well add that it’s all their fault for existing.
Fair point – no – you are correct I have nothing to back it up or any proof.
It would be strange if they did it off their own backs and never mention it to anybody or sought any approval – but you are correct they very well may have done just that.
“The police made it clear they issued their statement without the knowledge of Ardern or Clarke”.
Do you, or anyone else have a link to the Police Commissioner’s statement?
I can’t seem to find the actual statement anywhere.
I’d like to see exactly what he did say.
@ Alwyn,
I can’t find it anywhere now but it was definitely on one of the online news sites late yesterday. I don’t recollect it being in the actual statement, but from memory Commissioner Bush was responding to a journalist’s question and he said something to the effect:
No, I did not seek permission from the PM or her partner, Clarke Gayford about issuing the statement.
I took that to mean the police made the decision to issue the statement independently of anyone outside of the Force.
Thank you.
That is what I thought I had heard on the radio yesterday or the day before. I would be surprised if the PMs office wasn’t given a heads-up at the minimum, even if they hadn’t asked for the statement.
I think they would have a no surprises policy in place.
media are milking it flat out for clicks/views/listeners, dirty old whale blubber is about to be on radiolive, spinning his own brand of shite on said subject.
Dirty politics enabling media revenue what a freaking surprise.
James, Hosking is a radio ranter and former tv tugger of cuffs. That is all., which does not qualify him as a respected and wise person to look up to, or on a par with the the role of Prime Minister.
What are everyone’s thoughts about the pamphlets given to high school seniors containing info about drugs etc?
Personally, I think it’s brilliant.
I often reflect if part of the drinking culture is due to a lack of information being given to teens, my generation was never schooled on responsible drinking, my parents didn’t talk about it, so as a teen when I tried alcohol I had no idea and ended up in some awful situations as a result.
Not informing and educating people especially youth on drugs and alcohol hasn’t been working, this approach is fantastic, well done to Massey High and any other high schools involved.
I am mostly in favour with a little bit of niggling reservation (but still trying to figure out why specifically).
Did you hear the interview this morning on Morning Report with the Executive Director of the Drug Foundation Ross Bell? Well worth the five minutes imo. Here is the article with the link to the recording.
There’s probably going to be a fair bit of pearl clutching going on, but so far I’m in agreement with Mr Bell.
I’m also pretty bloody sure most people don’t actually understand the extent of the problem.
“…my generation was never schooled on responsible drinking, my parents didn’t talk about it, so as a teen when I tried alcohol I had no idea and ended up in some awful situations as a result.”
Hard to discuss when its not clear which generation you’re from.
I’m edging fast towards 60 and my oldest child is in their 30s.
I learned about the potentially devastating effects of drug and alcohol use first hand from parents who blighted their children’s lives with their substance abuse.
Although we almost never talked about it.
Without the drug and alcohol abuse, at least one of my parents would have made a better fist of keeping us safe.
Even today, discussions around child protection issues fail to put the substance abuse of the parents at the top of the list of risk factors leading to child abuse, neglect and parental failure.
And it seems to me that ‘information’ such as the one in question fails as it seems to imply that there is a ‘safe’ and ‘responsible’ way of using meth.
From the people I have met whose lives,and more importantly those of their children, have been devastated by this singularly hideous drug there is no ‘safe’ way of using. Odds are it will get you (and your loved ones) sooner or later.
And it seems to me that ‘information’ such as the one in question fails as it seems to imply that there is a ‘safe’ and ‘responsible’ way of using meth.
The article isn’t reporting the full context that the material is used in which is a health course about how to take care of yourself which includes all the negative effects of drug use.
Exactly. Read some comments of students doing the clurse. They also learn how destructive drug use is. To the user their friends and families. The pamphlet has a context. By taking it out of context the “no sex ed in schools brigade” can shut this discourse too and leave our kids to the woolves
I’m in my mid forties Rosemary 🙂 sorry should have added that,
Generation X.
Adults always drunk at bbq’s and family gatherings, never any violence or abuse (that I saw), a few ‘pearler’ moments when the adults were extra silly.
So alcohol to me equated to fun and good times was never told or shown the contrary.
If there’s article on the news about drunk teens, with footage of drunk chicks in skimpy clothing vomiting, falling over etc; I now make a point of showing the girls, so they begin to understand what ‘drunk’ looks like.
Oh God! Some of my best friends (etc etc) dreaded that ‘cops on the beat’ reality tv program in case it was their offspring featured sprawled vomiting in the gutter.
Fortunately the kids made it to their mid twenties relatively un famous. 😉 🙂
I think it is the product of getting access to resources to use in this situation without putting it into context.
The pamphlet is very appropriate for working with heavy users trying to manage the damage their drug use is causing in their lives, with a intent to reduce or eliminate drug use.
As an information source for non-users it is both inefficient and ineffective at providing the information they need in order to make good choices when the situations they will face offers them the opportunity to indulge.
Because the pamphlet was intended for drug users, the reasonable assumption was that those reading are already users – and gives information on how to accommodate that use into their lives. The damage of using, by those we would expect would participate in rehabilitation programmes would already have been experienced by those participants, and would in all their varied forms and effects would not have to be described. Their lived experience and involvement in rehab means the “conversation” about drugs, is picked up way down the line – at the management stage.
For high-school students not familiar with drugs, or users – this pamphlet drops them into the drugs conversation without context or preamble, and seemingly gives legitimacy to experimentation and drug use. Not every student will have the maturity to discuss this academically, and not every student will have the environment around them to understand the difference.
Having had a brief look at the website, I think the pamphlet was inappropriate for use for information sessions about drugs, a result of not aligning information with audience.
In terms of working with heavy drug users and addiction problems, the information and advice provided is required to reduce and minimise further harm, and is appropriate for that use.
Would be good if students had a variety of speakers who are recovering substance abusers to talk to the kids as well as handing out reading material, to add more weight and context to it all.
They used to be an alcohol-free 3 day dance party, annually I would go to in my 20’s, along with your ticket there was a plethora of safe drug taking information etc etc included.
Personally, I thought it was brilliant because it included much info about what could go wrong,
I suspect it could have put some off about taking substances.
It also allowed others to know what to do if something went wrong for themselves or another person.
Loved going to that event, attended it for 5 yrs running, no sexual abuse or getting hit on by drunk guys, no booze, no worries, it was magic.
Discussion about drugs at this time is important, and as you mention, the involvement of former addicts would add personal impact to the message they share.
However, if the discussion is around the use of the pamphlet, I think it was a resource fail in terms of not providing the right information for the right audience. Not a big deal, but a failure that should be recognised and acknowledged so that it is not replicated.
My first job while at school was in the hospitality industry, and the dry academic language used at the time regarding drug use, had absolutely no relevance to me when I was in an environment where drugs (including alcohol) was readily available. There has been much improvement since then at secondary school level.
Mike Hosking was busy explaining on that funny ZB station how he had rumours spread about him. Because he was a great celebrity. And how a marriage went pear shaped – yuk.
Unusual for him he only made two mistakes. He appears to think he has the status of the PM and her Partner.
Secondly he thinks the Police Stink. Because they had no negative information whatever on Clarke Gayford.
What a pretty little citizen he is. If I were Mike, I would walk carefully because the thinking public have had enough of political maleficence. And ZB might find itself in a dispute with ordinary people who do not have the status of one named Michael Hosking. The same people who do not think the Police stink.
@ Mike H darling. I don’t think it was because of rumours spread that a marriage went pear shaped – do you?
Maybe it was that perm? No? Darling, I do understand though your need to clutch at anything that will portray you as the perfect specimen. Maybe darling, just be thankful you now have such a loyal and dedicated family support mechanism
Mike H. Is a voice in the wilderness. He’s old. He’s old hat. He doesn’t need to write his little missives anymore. Any of us could do that for him. He is THE most predictable hack there is. Oh. I forgot to say boring. So he’s out in the wilderness. If he utters a word in the wilderness does he make a sound?
the digital info gave it away – 750k users, 3millon hours a month. Looks impressive.
So a few thousand regular users nationally and a pile of barely-actives, otherwise every “listener” is dialing up for only a few hours every month. Maybe once a week if that, lol. And how many of them really want to hear hosking as opposed to background noise? 3 million listers hanging on his every word, my arse.
I recall years ago an advertiser telling me that the half page ads in a student magazine were more expensive than a full page ad in a nationally-distributed publication. And worth it, because an outlet where you can be something to a few thousand is better than an outlet where you can be irrelevent to ten or twenty times that number.
“..with listeners now hitting 3.39 million,..”
Doesn’t make sense to me especially since National Radio has the biggest audience around 500,000 I seem to remember. But the Herald has to boost their ratings with a disregard for reality in a Donald Trump sort of way.
That’s across all their radio stations. And if it’s picked by a survey going “which stations have you listened to in the past month?”, someone who owns half a dozen stations in the list is going to do well out of name rec alone lol.
Northland’s sand dune lakes and peaty wetlands are a rare and special habitat. But valuable wetlands are being destroyed by swamp kauri mining, leading to polluted waterways and habitats laid to waste.
Timber millers are currently exploiting a loophole by claiming wet slabs of wood are finished table tops. Miners are plundering native wetland ecosystems to make quick and dirty money.
Northland Environmental Protection Society is going to the Supreme Court over the level of protection provided to swamp kauri. They are standing up for nature. It’s amazing what they are doing to fight for nature in Northland.
90% of our wetlands have already been destroyed in New Zealand. Our nature has been up for grabs for too long. Northland Environmental Protection Society is working to protect their wetlands.
(P.S. wasn’t swamp Kauri mining what caused one of the big outages of power leading up to the election… when a digger cut through the cable, not really talked about of course, because people like Judith Collins are all for profiting from this loophole of Kauri mining.)
But….but….iwi interests, AND Shane Jones….who also happens to be from that iwi…. AND Minister for Getting the Nephews in the Regions off their arses and into work…
There are two, maybe three distinct things going on here….
Firstly, the extraction of swamp kauri logs which Fiona and team have been battling not only the damage done in the digging and extracting to the environment and the waterways, but also the illegal selling of unprocessed timber overseas.
And thirdly, the rather alarming expansion of the avocado industry in the Far Far North. I was privileged to sit in on the consent hearing in Kaiatia weeks ago…some extraordinarily knowledgeable and dedicated locals committed to finding out the truth, the facts and educating those with poor understanding of the issues.
Linking all three of these things is the Kaimaumau Wetland….the second most significant remaining wetland in the country. DOC put up good arguments against the water extraction based on their studies and concerns about the Kaimaumau Wetland…but appeared to be backing away after a break in proceedings.
Strongest impression of the hearings was how awfully less than honest, open and transparent were the applicants. Thought the locals were all thick hillbillies and wouldn’t see through their BS. Much less investigate, gather their local experts and shout it from the rooftops…(or the street corner, as the case may be.)
Years ago my father was involved with a hapu business in Northland digging clay. They wanted to utilise it, and used the profits for personal objectives like having an overseas trip, not a bad thing, but did not service their trucks and keep things in working order, thus running down the business. In the end I think they leased the business to someone else.
It is easy for an iwi leader to say that they want business and to create jobs because that is what all developers say. How many jobs, for how long, what skills will be learned and is the business entity going to be a Maori trust with everyone taught business and development principles so the people understand the short and long term plans and can make informed opinions?
Mike has been used to snugging up against the behind of John Key – a truly magic man – sent down on earth to please and appease ZB inhabitants. Hosking, Soper et al.
Yes, John Key – The magic man – also a fetish man – and a money man – and cafe maid bully man – and a Golf man – and an Obama man – with a fondness for very young blonde pigtails – is difficult to keep up with John Key. Poor Hosking.
Especially with the mighty Farrar out the back of Kiwi Blog raving on about “Dykes” with a capital “D”.
Our National Brethren are so fortunate to have many twisted – I almost said “bent” – personnel guiding the greedy of Aotearoa – and at the same time young Simon. Simon has to achieve only but one thing. Namely: Line his pockets. Like his beloved Colleagues.
Even if he does have to take humiliating lessons from ChinaDoll Collins.
It will be a Century before National ever appoints a straight “non pocket lining” MP.
Hosking. The king of ZB blue radio. Where closed minded old farts love to moan and closed minded listeners believe everything they hear, because they struggle to think for themselves.
I’ve met Hosking on many occasions through bussiness. He’s the most arrogant, self absorbed rude prick I’ve ever met.
James must be of similar character, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered linking to the story. James loves to shit stir, just because he can. He probably has nothing more constuctive to do with his time.
If he gets really good he’ll get closer to RNZ’s listening audience!
He’s king of talkback? How many in an average morning are on his show in a ‘talkback’ situation? I don’t listen to him but he used to be on air from 6-8.30 am. There was a spell of about 10-11 minutes around the hour with ads and news there used to be quite a few other ads. Somewhere along the line he does some sort of monologue. Just wondering.
Middlemore problems highlighted in 2010 report
Radio New Zealand Thursday, 3 May 2018, 3:47 pm
Article: RNZ
The Counties Manukau DHB has said it was first alerted to leaking buildings in 2012 but, in fact, it was warned in early 2010.
“The cladding system to the lower levels of the building appears to be failing,” the February 2010 report by surveyors Dalton said, after it took off cladding at five spots on the south wall of the Scott building, which also houses cardiac care.
It photographed advanced brown rot and light rot in wood frames it rated as “un-sound” and described “widespread incipient decay” caused by leaking.
“The use of untreated timber and established decay at corners and sheet edges demonstrates that the [three] lower level storeys are at risk of real future failure.”
Counties Manukau DHB acting chief executive Dr Gloria Johnson said that when she told the public in March this year that they were first alerted to the leaks in 2012, she was not aware of the 2010 report.
The Dalton report includes a photo of a fece-stained first-floor sewage pipe, where leaking caused “serious damage” to framing. Board’s chair Rabin Rabindran, a board member Mark Darrow and the DHB itself have all said media reports of sewage leaks were overplayed. It’s now known there were at least four such leaks of raw sewage.
(Labour introduced dodgy spray on protection for interior timbers and continued after leaky homes.) http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0507/S00239.htm
Labour fails homeowners in timber treatment scam
Monday, 11 July 2005, 5:13 pm
Press Release: New Zealand National Party
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10328966
Battle over blame in leaky homes
4 Jun, 2005 12:56pm
…National MPs Nick Smith and Richard Worth are barking at the Government’s indifference in the absence of incoming Building Minister Chris Carter. It’s the first meeting of the Leaky Homes Action Group and a chance to score pre-election points – but everyone knows the rot started under National’s watch.
Is this one of those cases when it’s a low-regulation neo-liberal government cock-up and Labour has fallen for it on this occasion though it could have happened to National if they had been in power at this period? And is Middlemore the putrid off-colour meat in the sandwich?
Look I hate to tell James and sad sack Hosking – and tongue tied Simon – that Capitalism has failed.
The tag along Audreys and money chasers – Capitalism has failed.
You lot have dredged the money from the ordinary honest people, and stuffed it into your own piles – often in hidden accounts. You have condoned every dirty thing Key and English did.
The ordinary citizen has no hope of owning a house . Nor much hope of paying your exorbitant Rents. You are theives. That’s what you Capitalists are.
Your jacked up Panels; Your Corins; Your so called “Professionals”; Your Hootons are just shallow shaggers. Your Fletchers. Your Fonterras.
Capitalism is Crime in action. The Banks you support are based in Australia. Criminals in Action. Yet you attack the ordinary struggling man and his family.
It was a late milking drying cows off so I missed my morning Am show post it a beautiful day in Putaruru bit of a frost I will put up more post later today Ka kite ano P.S. its taken 7 years to get bee killing pesticides banned from use in Europe thanks to the Avaazers movement
Good evening Newshub I’m a bit late tonight we were watching the Mokopunas playing netball. That’s a shame that the people of Vanuatu have to leave their Island ECO MAORI gives all the best wishes for there move to another Island.
Many thanks to our Labour lead coalition Government for helping all the homeless people. This is a problem cause by the previous Government.
Many thanks to France and all there good people for there monument that houners the young men who fought for OUR freedom. Ka pai I have seen some of the French cultures and the way they run there society ECO MAORI is quite impressed Ka kite ano
The Crowd Goes Wild good evening Makere weres WAI.?
The Chief playing the Jaguar in Rotorua I’m on the farm at the minute is that were WAI is a watching the game it will be a good game I wish I was there ECO MAORI mite steal all the lime light lol yea right.
Josh the wave breaks in Raglan are world renowned to a lot of surfers there is a awesome wave breaks At WAI piro Bay Te tairawhiti.
Ka kite ano
by Don Franks This talk was given to the Wellington Anti Capitalist Alliance, fifteen years ago. The ultimate weapons of mass destruction so far seen on this planet have been used just twice, 60 years ago this month. August 6 and August 9 1945 witnessed the US atomic bombing ...
After I noticed that my name had been taken yet again in vain by my friendly antagonist Tom Hunter over at No Minister, I went over to see what the fuss was about. Nothing much, but then I discovered a post about the Operation Burnham Inquiry by Psycho Milt. I ...
The COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 was extended today, until December 1st or the tenth sitting day following the resumption of Parliament after the election. It seems like a necessary extension. While we currently have eradicated the virus in New Zealand, it is still banging at the door, and ...
One of the government's key policies - extracted by NZ First as part of its coalition agreement - is the "Provincial Growth Fund": $1 billion a year spent on creating jobs in rural New Zealand. Yesterday the Auditor-General issued a report on the fund, finding that it lacks transparency, and ...
The Warehouse, one of New Zealand's biggest retailers, has decided to stop selling coal. Good. Coal is a dirty, polluting fossil fuel, and the less of it we have out there, the better. Retailers choosing not to sell it sends a clear message that this is not a fuel we ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and they show that unemployment actually dropped last quarter. All told, there are 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when the government took office. But before anyone thinks that the pandemic hasn't put people out of work, remember that this is for ...
Judy KavanaghI’m OK with wearing a CovidCard. But are you? There’s no point me doing it alone.The author modelling a (fake) CovidCard. I didn’t know much about the CovidCard proposal until I read Dave’s latest blog post. You would wear the card visibly on your person. It ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy can’t I use the battery from my electric car ...
As many good things come in threes (as the saying goes), we are happy to announce a third partnership between Skeptical Science and other websites. Fakebook.eco in Brazil is joining Klimafakten.de in Germany and Nauka o Klimacie in Poland to leverage translated rebuttal material and to make the information readily available in other ...
This interview on RNZ with Ross Tucker, the scientist who headed a review of transgender athletes playing in women’s rugby, discusses the findings of the review and what it means for women in sports. The review that World Rugby undertook had a broad range of independent experts and included a ...
Siouxsie WilesThe restrictions in place for metropolitan Melbourne now are in some ways stricter than those that were in force during New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown. A curfew is in place and most people have to wear masks when they leave their home – neither of which happened in New ...
On Friday the Hit and Run inquiry delivered a devastating report which found that NZDF had systematically misled Ministers over civilian deaths. The report called into question civilian control of the military (and indeed, military control of the military), a fundamental principle of our democracy. So you'd expect our politicians ...
Let's Do This Again: What else can Jacinda do in a political environment so bereft of imagination and courage but seek a continuance? If she trades upon the extraordinary personal qualities that she has, miraculously, carried with her into the office of Prime Minister, then I, for one, will offer ...
How corrupt are the New Zealand Police? This corrupt: On 10 February 2019, Police attended a family harm incident. The suspect attempted to run the attending officers over in a driveway with his car, narrowly missing them, before fleeing the scene. A short pursuit followed, ending when the suspect stopped ...
Parliament's triennial Review of Standing Orders was released today, and it contains a number of welcome, if minor, improvements. The ones that caught my are: A move to encourage "pre-legislative engagement" - the government consulting widely on legislation before it is introduced - by promising easier passage (e.g. with ...
Lauren Vargo, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonGlaciers around the world are melting — and for the first time, we can now directly attribute annual ice loss to climate change. We analysed two years in which glaciers in New Zealand melted the most in at least four ...
Caroline Shaw, Anja MizdrakE-bikes are everywhere. Sales are booming and predicted to overtake sales of new cars in a few years. There were three times as many e-bikes and e-scooters imported into NZ in 2019 alone as there are e-cars in the entire country. You can’t go out in ...
New Zealand First is facing a difficult struggle to get re-elected, but Josh Van Veen, who was once a researcher for Winston Peters, argues that there is still a very significant section of cultural conservatives who oppose mass immigration and political correctness and might yet be won back over to ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk Many Americans these days seem unable to avoid controversy on practically any topic, so why not embrace the discord and wade into the especially volatile arena of nuclear energy? Advocates claim it’s the only way to meet global climate goals, ...
Can we trust New Zealand’s military? There must now be serious doubt, given the landmark report released on Friday concluding the investigation into allegations made in the book Hit and Run by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson about a 2010 SAS killing raid in Afghanistan. The most recent Colmar Brunton ...
In New Zealand, we've just had the report of the Hit and Run inquiry, which found that a New Zealand led raid had accidentally killed civilians, including a child. meanwhile, around the same time, the British SAS was conducting its own raids in Afghanistan, and theirs were a hell of ...
In addition to establishing a process for setting emissions reductions plans, the Zero Carbon Act established a process for managing the risks of climate change. The first part of this is the preparation of regular risk assessments, looking at the risks to our economy, society, environment, and ecology. The first ...
Over on The spinoff, Amnesty International's Meg de Ronde has a response to Friday's release of the Hit and Run report. And in response to Attorney-General David Parker's claim that the government was being "transparent" by releasing the report, its titled "we shouldn’t have to work this hard to get ...
Story of the Week... Opinion of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Rising Seas Could Menace Millions Beyond Shorelines, Study FindsAs climate change raises sea levels, storm surges and high tides will ...
There's an election next month, so you'd be expecting political parties to be telling us what they stand for and what they'd do if they'd win. But while the Greens have given us a detailed policy platform, and National has talked about roads and austerity, Labour, currently leading the polls ...
"Who's youse accusin' of innference?" Without the timely intervention of a team of top American political consultants and campaign experts, Boris Yeltsin would never have won his second term as President of the Russian Federation. The Russians waited 20 years to return the favour.WHEN IT COMES to the disinformation game, ...
As polling day in the American presidential election draws closer, things are looking bad for Donald Trump. The polls show that he is tracking well behind his Democrat rival. Most people assume that the President will be striving might and main to avoid what looks increasingly likely to be a ...
Our health professionals do an amazing job. Image credit: Wikipedia – Cardiac surgery. Finally, I have got back to these rankings. A long period in hospital and computer problems meant the June 2020 rankings were abandoned. Now, with a new personal defibrillator implanted in my chest and a new hard ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, July 26 through Sat, Aug 1, 2020Editor's ChoiceThe four types of climate denier, and why you should ignore them allThe shill, the grifter, the egomaniac and the ideological ...
Over the last few days, reports have emerged of people travelling from New Zealand and testing positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at their destination. First in South Korea and now in Australia. What might these positive tests mean?They’re false-positives As Toby Morris and I have explained before, there are ...
Former National Minister - Wayne MappYou could tell that the Hit and Run book by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson was right on the money by the way former National Party Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp, reacted to its now largely vindicated claims.Even though the recent inquiry into ...
So, the Hit and Run inquiry has reported back, and found some appalling shit at NZDF and NZSIS. And while they quibble a few of the details - the name of a dead child - they basicly uphold Hager and Stephenson's version of events. The SAS went to those villages. ...
We are failing to think though the interdependencies in an economy. We miss economist Bryan Philpott (1921-2000). I miss him personally – we used to have such great discussions – but this column is about how the nation misses his economic experience and wisdom. We tend to ...
Michelle Boag - LeakerThe Heron report (PDF) was released yesterday, and it was a bit disappointing to say the least. It correctly found that former National Party president Michelle Boag and National Party MP Hamish Walker were politically motivated in leaking peoples private medical information, but didn’t look further into ...
On different trajectories and from different ends of the political spectrum, last night’s One News/Colmar Brunton poll has the Green Party and ACT converging around the five percent mark. And, as odd as it may sound, they head into the election campaign with a lot in common.Putting the Greens and ...
Janet Stephenson, University of OtagoA proposed multibillion-dollar project to build a pumped hydro storage plant could make New Zealand’s electricity grid 100% renewable, but expensive new infrastructure may not be the best way to achieve this. New Zealand’s electricity generation is already around 80% renewable, with just over half ...
Truth In Advertising: Labour, it would seem, is the party that knows nothing about running the economy right up until the moment that it does. HOW DID LABOUR acquire its reputation for being a poor economic manager? As with most things political and historical, it’s a long story.In the beginning, the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Government rulemakers looking to decide how much money to spend to avoid adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere need a good estimate of what a warming climate will cost in social damages, for example through more extreme weather events. That point makes ...
Fact Check: New Zealand’s own relationship with China might, however, be salvageable if our own Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was willing to equip its minister, Winston Peters, with a few facts. Legislating for the protection of national security – the very action our Foreign Minister is decrying – ...
I hope we can all agree that charging only certain returning expats for isolation costs is the right call. Instead of a blanket fee, which may have resulted in a small number of Kiwis deciding not to return home because of financial reasons, the Government has chosen to implement a ...
Back at the beginning of this government, the Greens made a foolish decision to support the Electoral Integrity Act - demanded by Winston Peters to keep his own backbench in line as part of his coalition deal with Labour - as an act of good faith within the coalition. It ...
SATURDAY AUGUST 1Artefact (Prime, 7.30pm). The series presented by Dame Anne Salmond screened on Māori Television, but is totally worth revisiting if you saw it the first time. Dame Anne tells the stories of taonga that highlight the history of Aotearoa. Further reading: this 2013 interview with Dame Anne by the lovely ...
Have unions and the Government sold workers short with their attempt at fixing the so-called “Hobbit Law”? Unionist Ian Powell argues that the union movement has been outmanoeuvered, and the Government has agreed to a new piece of anti-worker legislation that retains the principles of the previous National Government’s hated ...
Most of the claims made by anti-fluoride propagandists are simply wrong. Image source:Fluoridation and the ‘sciency’ facts of critics Anti-fluoride propagandists continually cite studies from areas of endemic fluorosis in their arguments against ...
An article in the EETimes suggests that advances in autonomous vehicles are not moving as quickly as expected because those working on them have confused complicated problems with complex ones. Engineering can only take you so far in complex worlds. Complicated systems tend to have fairly predictable inputs, processes and outputs. Complex systems (like ...
Last week, after Judith Collins announced that National would be cruel and vicious to kiwis caught overseas by the pandemic, and rob them at the border if they returned home, Labour looked like it was falling all over itself to cry "me too". But now, it looks like kindness has ...
If entry into New Zealand from abroad is safe, it should be allowed. People arriving from places that are Covid-free, or no more risky than New Zealand, and who get here on flights that do not intersect with risky places, should return to normal travel arrangements. Currently, the Cook ...
Liz SlootenScientists from the University of Otago, working with colleagues from around the world, have found that New Zealand right whales are doing much better than right whales in other parts of the world. The research was published as the feature article in the journal Marine Ecology Progress ...
Back in 2019, the government asked for a comprehensive, independent review of the Resource Management Act and associated legislation. That review has now reported back and recommended a complete repeal and re-enactment. Despite the headlines, this is not a "scrapping" - we're still going to have a resource management law, ...
By Associate Professor Mik Black, Department of Biochemistry, University of OtagoThe increased availability of complex biological data sets means that analysis and computation are becoming critically important skills for New Zealand’s future scientists. Because of this, we need to be doing everything we can to help our students develop ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIs humanity doomed? If in 2030 we have not reduced ...
Britain's spy agencies are supposedly overseen by various watchdogs, including the investigatory powers tribunal. But it turns out that MI6 at least has contempt for those watchdogs, and attempted to interfere with the operations of the tribunal by concealing evidence from its judges: MI6 has been accused of “inappropriate interference” ...
Daphna Whitmore So far this year over 7.4 million people have died from preventable communicable diseases. There were 4.3 million children who died under the age of five. Nearly one million people have died of HIV/AIDS in the past six months. A similar number of people have died from malaria ...
Four weeks ago I wrote about the last time a sizable asteroid hit our planet – the ‘Tunguska Event’ of 1908, when an object about 50 metres across exploded above the Siberian taiga – but smaller cosmic rocks shoot close by Earth fairly frequently. In the past 42 hours ...
Last month, China imposed a new "national security law" on Hong Kong. The law imposes a penalty of life imprisonment for secession, subversion, and "colluding with foreign forces" - which basicly means peacefully advocating for democracy or independence. It has been used to crush peaceful protests and interpreted by the ...
Powerful Connection: Neoliberalism is the antithesis of everything that has traditionally been associated with the feminine aspects of human nature. Kindness and compassion, nurturance and inclusiveness: such qualities have no place in the neoliberal order. When Jacinda proclaimed her determination to practice the “politics of kindness”, she was, wittingly or ...
The bad news: Jacinda Ardern still wants to bill exiled kiwis for returning home. The good news: it would require a law change, which the Greens won't back, so she'll need to go grovelling to National. The other good news: she's running out of time to do it. This ...
. . For the mainstream media, today (22 July) was even a better day than yesterday. More Sex. More Politics. More Sex AND Politics. Yesterday, the msm dealt with Andrew Falloon. The obscure backbench MP had been found to have sent pornographic images to at least four women. The woman’s ...
If you want to understand what is happening in this year’s election campaign, it’s worth looking to the past for guidance. Colin James delves into recent contests and finds some interesting parallels. July 28 is 53 days before the 2020 election. Just 53 days before the 2017 election ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters Wildfires burned much less acreage in the U.S. than average during the first half of the year, but with hot and dry conditions expected over much of the nation in the coming months, fire activity is likely to ramp up. ...
Today a full bench of the High Court is hearing Andrew Borrowdale's challenge to the legality of the COVID-19 lockdown. That lockdown ended two months ago, so the point seems moot - but it was never about ending it. Instead, as Andrew Geddis points out, its about a key principle ...
So far, this has been a relatively policy-free election campaign. The government has been trying to keep a low profile, on the basis that anything they say will only piss someone off, so better to say as little as possible. When its not knifing its leader, National has promised roads, ...
I hardly ever comment on polls, because horse-race politics is superficial and boring and most changes are statistically meaningless and so unworthy of attention (let alone the excitement they provoke amongst mathematically illiterate political journalists desperate to fill airtime). But we've now had two polls in a row showing Labour ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on its inquiry into the operation of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020. As you'd expect, they find that the law was "necessary and appropriate", but would like to see a permanent replacement providing for health emergency powers as the Health ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... John Cook in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Major new climate study rules out less severe global warming scenariosAn analysis finds the most ...
It hasn’t taken long for the advent of Judith Collins as National party leader to change the tone of the political debate. After several days of headlines and airwaves dominated by reports of a National MP sending pornographic images to young women, the National leader had had enough of that ...
Don Franks An already fired up general election looks like getting even edgier. When final votes have been counted, a rather unlikely coalition government now seems possible As National and Labour implode with sexual proclivities while New Zealand First fling their last toys from the cot, others show more maturity. ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, July 19 through Sat, July 25, 2020Editor's ChoiceThe Climate Expert Who Delivered News No One Wanted to Hear From 2009: How a scientist known as the “father of global ...
There’s ultimately two key narratives overall that are seeking to take front row in order to reshape the world as a whole going forward from the COVID pandemic. The first is a very desperate attempt to reimpose “a return” to what is perceived as “the old normal”, quite impossible. ...
Henry Anderson-Elliott, University of CambridgeOn the morning of August 31 2017, I didn’t meet a remarkable polar bear. It was my third week of fieldwork-based out of Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, studying the conservation of the bears on the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Having spent a few days transcribing interviews in ...
SUNDAY JULY 26Country Calendar (TVNZ 1, 7.00pm). Tonight, kiwifruit growing in the King Country. Crazy!Normal People (TVNZ 1, 10.30pm). Holy cow, if you thought it was slow on a binge-watch, imagine what it's like in weekly doses. Nevertheless, it's like Richard Linklater's Boyhood – you don't really see the scope of ...
With the June 2020 quarter showing underemployment increasing, the Green Party is calling for a Guaranteed Minimum Income and an increase to the abatement threshold to ensure everyone has a dignified income. ...
We went hard and we went early in our health response to COVID-19, and we did everything we could to cushion the economic impact too. In fact, we can fill every letter of the alphabet with the steps we took to fight COVID-19 and ensure we were in a position ...
Investing in our people, backing businesses, and upgrading infrastructure and housing throughout the country - it's been another week of progress for New Zealanders as we deliver our plan to recover and rebuild. ...
July was another busy month, packed with key investments aimed at progressing our economic recovery as we rebuild New Zealand. We extended support for businesses, helped create jobs through local infrastructure projects, and kept working to clean up our waterways so Kiwis can access safe clean water. Check out the ...
The Green Party is calling for the Defence Force Chiefs in place between 2010-2017 to front up and explain how dishonesty, process and policy failures within the Defence Force led to ‘a series of incorrect statements in briefings to ministers and public releases’ regarding alleged breaches of international torture prevention ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
The Green Party are ensuring that New Zealanders who were overseas when COVID-19 hit will not be charged for the cost of isolation or quarantine if they return home to live. ...
It's been another week of creating jobs, supporting local businesses, and investing in infrastructure up and down the country - all of which are helping to keep our economy moving post-COVID-19. ...
Law changes to end tenure review and provide for better management of Crown pastoral lands in the South Island high country were considered by Parliament today with the first reading of the Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill says Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage. ...
The Green Party have secured legislative amendments in a bill expected to pass third reading this week, to ensure better rules for school teachers and staff, so they can de-escalate children with diverse needs and cognitive differences, such as autism, rather than using unnecessary and often traumatising force. ...
New Zealand needs to be more aggressive in pursuing economic opportunities and resist the short-term thinking affecting some of its major industry, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says.Mr Peters told Wellington Chamber of Commerce members this morning that the planned closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will have ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has ridiculed the National Party "circus", with the politician saying it was in "chaos" after the resignation of another MP.Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon announced on Monday he would retire from politics after he allegedly sent inappropriate pornographic images to a young woman. Following a ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters today outlined what he saw as the requirements to re-open New Zealand's borders for tourists and travellers. If New Zealand was dealing solely with an Australian state such as Tasmania, we wouldn't need a vaccine, said Mr Peters, but these moves were complicated by the ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters appears to have prompted last-minute alterations to proposed legislation for commercial landlords and their tenants. Mr Peters told reporters on Wednesday said that he was making sure the proposed bill was in step with what the parties had actually agreed to. He said he ...
Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprise and New Zealand First List MP Shane Jones attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new NZ Post "super depot" in Wellington. The state-owned postal service, which got $280 million from the Coalition Government last month, is expanding its operations to handle surging parcel volumes. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First CHECK AGAINST DELIVERYIntroduction Good afternoon. Welcome to you all here today and party supporters watching from around the country. We appreciate your hard work keeping New Zealand First strong; thank you for keeping the faith. Sixty-three days out from Election Day, ...
The diversity of conservation boards around Aotearoa is increasing with 47 appointments to 14 of the 15 conservation boards across New Zealand announced today by the Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage. ...
The Green Party is honoured to be remembering former co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons today at a public memorial service in the heart of Wellington at the Cathedral of St. Paul’s. Following her passing in March, this celebration of her life brings together her friends, family and colleagues to honour her life ...
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has announced a $2.5 million boost for South Westland to help a regional alliance of local businesses and government agencies provide nature based jobs. ...
Investing in infrastructure is one major way we can create jobs, stimulate the economy, and keep New Zealand moving post COVID-19. That's why this week we rolled out a massive number of infrastructure announcements - in Tairāwhiti, Wairarapa, Otago, Southland and more! ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters says the National Party’s Auckland Transport announcement today is a breath-taking plan on the never never. While it is promising to see that National all of a sudden has rediscovered railways in Auckland, including trains ...
The Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has congratulated the Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB) programme on its major milestone of connecting more than 1 million New Zealand households and businesses to UFB. “This milestone has been 10 years in the making and demonstrates the popularity of the UFB network. “Uptake ...
Landmark legislation passed today puts New Zealand on track to saving thousands of lives and having a smokefree generation sooner rather than later, Associate Health Minister, Jenny Salesa says. The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill regulates vaping products and heated tobacco devices. “There has long been concern ...
A discriminatory law that has been a symbol of frustration for many people needing and providing care and support, has been scrapped by the Government. “Part 4A of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill (No 2) was introduced under urgency in 2013 by a National Government,” Associate ...
Kiwi motorists are set to reap the benefits of a more competitive fuel market following the passing of the Fuel Industry Bill tonight, Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says. “This Act is where the rubber meets the road in terms of our response to the recommendations made in the ...
The Government has delivered on its promise to New Zealanders to modernise tenancy laws with the passing of the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill 2020 today, says Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing), Kris Faafoi. “The Residential Tenancies Act 1986 was out-dated and the reforms in the RTA modernise our ...
New rules to protect and restore New Zealand’s freshwater passed into law today. Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor welcomed the gazetting of the new national direction on freshwater management. “These regulations deliver on the Government’s commitment to stop further degradation, show material improvements within five years and ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced the appointment of Jeremy Clarke-Watson as New Zealand’s new Consul-General in Los Angeles. “New Zealand and the United States share a close and dynamic partnership, based on a long history of shared values and democratic traditions,” Mr Peters said. “Mr Clarke-Watson is a ...
Victims of family violence can end a tenancy with two days’ notice Landlords can terminate tenancies with 14 days’ notice if tenants assault them Timeframe brought forward for limiting rent increases to once every 12 months Extension of time Tenancy Tribunal can hear cases via phone/video conference Reform of New ...
Two employment schemes – one new and one expanded – going live today will help tens of thousands of people continue training on the job and support thousands more into work, the Government has announced. Apprenticeship Boost, a subsidy of up to $12,000 per annum for first year apprentices and ...
The Government is funding a significant infrastructure package at Omokoroa which will create 150 new jobs and help transform the Western Bay of Plenty peninsula, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the Government is investing $14 million towards the $28 million roading and water package. This ...
The Bill allowing the Government to recover some costs for managed isolation and quarantine passed its third reading today, with charges coming into force as soon as regulations are finalised. Putting regulations into force is the next step. “The COVID-19 Public Health Response Amendment Bill and its supporting regulations will ...
Today’s unemployment data shows the Government’s plan to protect jobs and cushion the blow for businesses and households against the economic impact of COVID-19 was the right decision, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ said today that New Zealand’s unemployment rate in the June quarter – which includes the ...
A new role of New Zealand Reading Ambassador for children and young people is being established, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Internal Affairs and for Children, Tracey Martin announced today. The Reading Ambassador, announced at a Celebration of Reading event at ...
Community Law Centres will receive a funding boost to meet the increased need for free legal services due to COVID-19, Justice Minister Andrew Little said. The $3.5m funding is for the next three financial years and is additional to the almost $8 million for Community Law Centres announced in Budget ...
New Zealand has joined Canada and Chile in a new trade initiative aimed at increasing women’s participation in global trade. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker, together with Canada’s Minister for Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng, Chile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrés Allamand, and Chile’s Vice ...
Building owners around New Zealand have benefited from the latest round of Heritage EQUIP funding with grants totalling $2,230,166. “The Heritage EQUIP grants for seismic strengthening assist private building owners to get the professional advice they need to go ahead with their projects or support them to carry out the ...
• New paediatric facilities, including a Special Baby Care Unit • Up to 50 extra inpatient beds • New lab facilities Northland babies and their whānau will soon have access to improved hospital care when they need it with Health Minister Chris Hipkins today confirming new paediatric facilities and more ...
People walking and cycling between Featherston and Greytown, or along Wellington’s Eastern Bays will soon have a safe shared path, as part of a $220 million shovel-ready cycleways package announced by Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter. “During lockdown we saw many more families and kids out on their bikes, ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today extended New Zealand’s condolences following the death of Vanuatu’s High Commissioner to New Zealand, Johnson Naviti, who passed away yesterday afternoon in Wellington. “Our thoughts are with the High Commissioner’s family and colleagues during this difficult time. This is a terrible loss both to ...
The Government has today set out the regional allocations of the $761 million Three Waters stimulus and reform funding for councils announced by Prime Minister Hon Jacinda Ardern this month. "I want to thank Councils around the country for engaging with the Central Local Government Steering Group who have been ...
Students with high and complex learning needs, as well as their teachers and parents, will benefit from a substantial increase to Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding, Associate Education Minister Martin announced today. “Nearly $160 million will go towards helping these students by lifting their base support over the next four ...
Funding for innovative projects to connect Kiwis with affordable, safe and wholesome food, reduce food waste, and help our food producers recover from COVID-19 has been announced today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “COVID-19 has seen an increasing number of families facing unprecedented financial pressure. Foodbanks and community food service ...
Eight shovel-ready projects within Kāinga Ora large-scale developments, and the Unitec residential development in Auckland have been given the go-ahead, Minister for Housing Dr Megan Woods announced today. Megan Woods says these significant infrastructure upgrades will ensure that the provision of homes in Auckland can continue apace. “The funding announced ...
The Government is funding a new separated walking and cycleway path along Napier’s Chambers and Ellison streets to provide safer access for local students and residents across Marine Parade and State Highway 51, Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Police Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Funding of $2.7 million has been ...
More than 13,000 people have been employed so far thanks to the Coalition Government’s Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has today announced. The number of jobs created by Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investments has outstripped the 10,000 jobs target that the Government and Provincial Development Unit ...
Scientists and innovative fishing operators from Stewart Island and Fiordland to Nelson, Marlborough and Wellington have been honoured in the first ever Seafood Sustainability Awards. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash has congratulated the winners of the inaugural Seafood Sustainability Awards held at Parliament. “The awards night honours six winners, from a wide ...
The Government is providing an investment totalling more than $100 million for regions to protect against and mitigate the effects of climate change, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones have announced. Six regions will receive funding from the $3 billion allocated to infrastructure projects from the ...
Three major local projects at Te Kuiti and Otorohanga have been given the money to get moving after the impact of Covid 19, says the Minister of Māori Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta. The projects range from a Sports Centre for Te Kuiti, a redevelopment of the Otorohanga Kiwi House and ...
The Coalition Government has extended three New Zealand Defence Force deployments to the Middle East and Africa by two years, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “These deployments promote peace in the Middle East and Africa by protecting civilians and countering the spread of ...
The release of the National Climate Change Risk Assessment shows that the progress this Government has made to solve the climate crisis is essential to creating cleaner and safer communities across New Zealand. “Because of this report, we can see clearer than ever that the action our Government is taking ...
The second round of the Community Resilience Fund is now open for applications for sport and recreation organisations experiencing financial hardship between 1 July and 30 September 2020. “The fund opens today for five weeks – closing on September 6. The amount awarded will be decided on a case-by-case basis ...
Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today declared Rakitū Island, off the coast of Aotea/Great Barrier Island, predator free. “I’m delighted to announce that with rats now gone, Rakitū is officially predator free. This is a major milestone because Rakitū is the last DOC administered island in the Hauraki Gulf Marine ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing $8.75 million to restore significant historic sites at Ōhaeawai in the Far North, upgrade marae and fund fencing and riparian planting. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones made the announcements following a service at the historic St Michael’s Anglican Church at Ōhaeawai today. Just ...
The Chatham Islands will receive close to $40 million for projects that will improve its infrastructure, add to its attraction as a visitor destination, and create jobs through a planned aquaculture venture, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced. “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the islands, first ...
The Government is delivering more initiatives to reduce energy hardship and to give small electricity consumers a voice, Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods said today. “In addition to the initiatives we have already delivered to support New Zealand families, we are responding to the Electricity Price Review with further ...
Government, iwi, NGOs and rehabilitation groups are working together to turn around the fortunes of the nationally endangered hoiho/yellow-eyed penguin following a series of terrible breeding seasons. The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage helped launch the Five Year Action Plan at the annual Yellow-Eyed Penguin symposium in Dunedin today. “I ...
The membership of the Tourism Futures Taskforce has now been confirmed, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced at an event at Whakarewarewa in Rotorua today. “The main purpose of the independent Tourism Futures Taskforce is to lead the thinking on the future of tourism in New Zealand,” Kelvin Davis said. Joining ...
More than $300 million in funding has been approved to protect strategic tourism businesses, drive domestic tourism through regional events and lift digital capability in the tourism industry, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. A $400 million Tourism Recovery Package was announced at Budget 2020, and with today’s announcements is ...
From 2021 permits will be required for New Zealanders wanting to export hard-to-recycle plastic waste. The Associate Minister for the Environment, Eugenie Sage, today announced the requirements as part of New Zealand’s commitments to the Basel Convention, an international agreement of more than 180 countries which was amended in May ...
The building and construction sector is still showing strong growth, with the number of new dwellings consented up more than 8 per cent compared to last year, reflecting a welcome confidence in the Government’s COVID-19 response package, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. “While it is still too ...
Brooke van Velden – newly-minted Deputy Leader of the Act Party – spoke at a community event last Monday night in Epsom, Auckland, which was attended by several Euthanasia-Free NZ supporters. Unfortunately Ms van Velden’s presentation was heavy ...
“Labour’s plan is to win the election at all costs by politicising the border and keeping New Zealanders in a state of fear,” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “It’s putting politics above people by locking the border and wrecking the economy ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Many stories told by latest unemployment figures, Bloomfield says return of community transmission almost inevitable, and major tenancy reform package passes.First of all, it’s pretty clear that the top-line unemployment figure going down is a misleading picture of the state ...
Annaleese Jochems and Paul Little review new fiction by New Zealand authors David Coventry and Carl NixonAnnaleese Jochems on Dance Prone: David Coventry’s second novel Dance Prone is the story of a post-hardcore band touring through the American Southwest – a roadie novel. Initially its chief pleasures are similar ...
New Zealand needs to review its handling of Covid-19 'to do better next time' as global diseases are going to keep coming, warns Helen Clark. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark wants a full review into New Zealand's preparedness and handling of the Covid-19 pandemic - and is calling for the next government ...
It's time to lay extreme partisanship aside and for parties to prove their ingredients are worthy - not just that their packaging makes us feel good, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell Extreme partisanship has always perplexed me. I’m not judging but perhaps, as an opinion writer, I’ve come to hold my own opinions ...
On the campaign trail, Judith Collins is fully embracing every 'you're only about roads' barb people throw at her National Party leader Judith Collins couldn't have picked a more on-brand venue. The building was blue. The audience was blue. And the parking was free. Collins continued her roll-out of tunnelling announcements ...
Kiwi Winter Olympian and mountain explorer, Janina Kuzma, has become a film-maker, shining a light on gutsy female freeskiers. Sometime about now, Janina Kuzma would have been skiing down the shrinking faces of the world’s last tropical glaciers in Papua, Indonesia. The two-time Winter Olympian should have been filming the third movie in ...
The Health Minister expresses confidence in a troubled board that continues to be rocked by resignations. David Williams reports Chris Hipkins is putting a brave face on ructions at the Canterbury District Health Board, despite another senior resignation yesterday and divisions within the board itself becoming painfully obvious. The Health ...
How do we discourage politicians from gambling with our futures? Nicholas Agar looks at the 'Hail Mary' tactic, arguing politicians must own their misjudged forecasts Recent polls suggest this could be a very one-sided general election. It is useful to be forewarned about some of the tricks available to aspiring ...
On the 75th anniversary of the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we must redouble efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons once and for all, write Vincent Ochilet of the ICRC and Niamh Lawless of the New Zealand Red Cross.Today marks the 75th anniversary of the use of atomic ...
There are no incumbents in the south Auckland seat of Takanini, for this is a completely new electorate. Justin Latif goes to meet some of the voters, and the fascinating bunch desperate for their support. The name of New Zealand’s newest electorate can be traced back to a prominent Te Ākitai ...
The prime minister is no free-market ideologue or social traditionalist, but there is a conservative streak to her leadership, and that delights committed conservative Liam Hehir. Jacinda Ardern has advised us not to expect a whole lot of big promises from Labour this year. The announcement was undoubtedly frustrating for ...
How does a 4 percent unemployment figure gel with estimates that soon there will be whole neighbourhoods of people in South Auckland without work? A shock drop in official unemployment numbers caps off the "weirdest quarter" in New Zealand's economic history. "Beware" and "unbelievable" were the first words Kiwibank's chief economist Jarrod ...
Internal Revenue officials are moving ahead with plans to consult on and, eventually, adopt recommendations from the Tax Working Group on environmental taxes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison will unveil on Thursday a cyber security package to give greater protection to critical Australian infrastructure and bolster the powers of the Australian Federal Police to pursue criminal networks on the dark web. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A rumour that Victoria’s high profile chief health officer Brett Sutton was quitting caused a flurry in state government circles on Wednesday afternoon. Sutton has been one of the medical hardliners during the pandemic, at ...
Parliament has just passed a new law that will leave renters with a sense of relief. But many landlords aren’t too pleased. What’s all this then?The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill passed under urgency this evening. It amends existing law around renting to increase rights for tenants. According to associate housing minister ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Noble, Education Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University From tomorrow (Thursday, August 6) only children of permitted workers will be able to attend childcare in Melbourne, which is under stage 4 restrictions. Parents and providers have been waiting to understand what ...
Gone By Lunchtime’s Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas denounce new poll results that very slightly contradict their opinions.The height of the summit for the National Party? A poll came out last week with Labour at 53%, and that was considered good news for Judith Collins and the Strong ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Melatos, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Sydney Virgin Australia’s plan to sack about 3,000 of its 9,000 staff, axe its budget brand Tigerair, streamline its fleet to only Boeing 737s and suspend long-haul international flying indefinitely should come as no ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Reilly, Professor, University of Western Australia In international affairs, words are bullets, according to an old diplomatic saying. If so, Australia in recent years has begun firing new ammunition. In his address to the Aspen Security Forum today, Prime Minister Scott ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aisling Rayne, PhD candidate, University of Canterbury Whakapapa [genealogy] binds tākata whenua [people of the land] to the mountains, rivers, coasts and other landscapes, linking the health of the people with that of the environment. Like humans, species have whakapapa that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel da Silva, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne The Lebanese capital Beirut was rocked on Tuesday evening local time by an explosion that has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands more. The country’s prime minister Hassan Diab ...
The MacDiarmid Institute DiscoveryCamp gives Māori and Pasefika high school students a taste of life as a scientist. Teuila Fuatai finds the experience often leads to much more. Eden Skipper loves eeling. “It is a family tradition,” he says proudly. The 22-year-old of Ngāi Tahu descent grew up on the east ...
Te Tari Taiwhenua, Department of Internal Affairs, has announced Allot Limited as the new service provider for the Digital Child Exploitation Filter (DCEF) from 1 August 2020. The filter operates as a service provided to most New Zealand Internet ...
In the wake of National’s leadership woes, The Spinoff sat down with the party’s most popular face in recent history to talk Covid-19, Judith Collins – and why he thinks our border should be more ‘flexible’.John Key is confident about our country’s future.In part, that’s because he tunes in each ...
The new National Policy Statement and National Environmental Standard for Freshwater, gazetted by the Government today, is a significant step forward in reducing pollution in our rural and urban waterways caused by intensive farming and through regional ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David McCooey, Professor of Writing and Literature, Deakin University In our series Art for Trying Times, authors nominate a work they turn to for solace or perspective during this pandemic. One day in 1984, a friend and I went to have lunch ...
Data released by Stats NZ today shows the impact of Covid-19 on New Zealand jobs during the June quarter was disproportionately felt by women. Mary Jo Vergara from KiwiEconomics breaks down what it all means.Women have historically fared well in times of war and crisis. During the Second World War, ...
The Sir Julius Vogel Awards last Thursday were meant to be a celebration of some of our best genre writers. It didn’t turn out that way, as Casey Lucas, one of the winners, explains. This is the story of how the nominees and recipients of the 2020 Sir Julius Vogel ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Jeffrey, Director and CEO of the Australia India Institute; Professor of Development Geography, University of Melbourne In recent days, the Indian government approved a new education policy — the first for 34 years. The policy comes after an expert group produced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Elliott, Executive Director, National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce, and Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University With cases of COVID-19 on the rise, many Australians are asking: what happens if I test positive? With no known cure ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Professor Marcia Langton, Foundation Chair in Australian Indigenous Studies, University of Melbourne This is an edited transcript of the 2020 Thea Astley Address delivered by Marcia Langton at the Byron Writers Festival. It’s a longer read at 4,500 words. You can listen ...
As Auckland business leaders and the city’s economic development agency hold a day-long summit to thrash out a Covid-19 economic recovery plan, Finance Minister Grant Robertson is singing from a different song- book. He reckons NZ’s economy is doing well and “ … as we look ahead, there are ...
The National Party says it would create a new Auckland Transport-like authority and green-light a second Terrace tunnel National Party leader Judith Collins has announced National would give greater government funding for the Wellington region's existing transport plan and for a new agency to end the region's transport bickering. Collins made ...
Latest from the Beehive – The public debt is among the victims of the Covid-19 epidemic. According to the 2020 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update, in the current year and the next two fiscal years, operating deficits (operating balance before gains and losses) average around $28 billion while net core ...
The latest round of economic data won’t carry Judith Collins and the National Party into the promised land, and she’ll need to come up with something else to save her chances, writes political commentator Ben Thomas.The government has delivered an economic miracle! How else to describe today’s labour market statistics ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage John PerryFrom Masaya, Nicaragua An extraordinary leaked document gives a glimpse of the breadth and complexity of the US government’s plan to interfere in Nicaragua’s internal affairs up to and after its presidential election in 2021. The plan,[1] a 14-page extract from a ...
The Cook Islands language video.Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk The Cook Islands episode in AUT’s Pacific language video series – “Adapting to a changing world, shaping resilient futures” – is out now. The video is narrated in Cook Islands Māori (with English subtitles) to acknowledge the language being celebrated in ...
Community Law Centres welcome the additional Government funding announced to help address increased demand for free legal services due to COVID-19. Minister of Justice Andrew Little today announced an additional $3.47m over three years for Community ...
New Zealand’s unemployment rate has just fallen, defying experts and flying in the face of everything we expected. But according to Stats NZ, the devil is in the detail.What’s all this then?In a bizarre turn of events, New Zealand’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has actually fallen from 4.2% to 4% ...
The outgoing immigration minister, Iain Lees-Galloway, has told MPs income criteria imposed on residents who want their parents to join them are "far too high". ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty is calling on the Government to increase abatement thresholds and lift benefits to liveable levels to support people affected by the growth of unemployment due to COVID-19. “Unemployment numbers do not tell us whether ...
A national survey of public drinking fountains around Aotearoa, recently undertaken by RefillNZ , has shown that, on average, there is only one drinking fountain for every 3,303 people and as few as one fountain for every 17,000 people in the worst-affected ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Ortmann, Professor, UNSW Sweden has become something of a cautionary tale for what happens when you attempt to tackle coronavirus without lockdowns. In The Conversation last week The Grattan Institute’s Stephen Duckett and Will Mackey said its freer approach caused almost ...
In the June 2020 quarter, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.0 percent, down from 4.2 percent last quarter, while underutilisation rose, Stats NZ said today. ...
A conference on Auckland and the Covid-19 crisis hears calls for flexibility from the Government, including a loan to fund big projects and allowing foreign students into university quarantine Former Prime Minister John Key is urging the Government to throw out the rulebook and give Auckland Council a big, interest-free ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk The safe reopening of entry points into six Pacific Islands countries amid the covid-19 pandemic is being discussed at a meeting in Fiji this week. The virtual roundtable is being convened by the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank with representatives from Solomon Islands, Kiribati, ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is welcoming confirmation from the National Party that income tax bracket indexation remains party policy. However, suggestions that the National Party has no plans to cut income taxes will come as a major disappointment ...
The Executive Director of the New Zealand Maori Council, Matthew Tukaki, has said unemployment in New Zealand will rise significantly over the next quarter and the figures out today are just the tip of a very fast-moving iceberg. Tukaki has said ...
Aggrieved members of the Firearms Community - from all over Canterbury and beyond - will once again take to the streets of Ashburton in good numbers this Saturday, 8th August. They continue to protest against the government’s Firearms Law Firearms ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Senior Lecturer, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide What does a pandemic smell like? If dogs could talk, they might be able to tell us. We’re part of an international research team, led by Dominique Grandjean at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Smith, Senior Lecturer in American Politics and Foreign Policy, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney Americans were alarmed last week when their president suggested on Twitter that the November 3 presidential election should be delayed because mail-in ballots would be fraudulent. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Mullan, Associate Professor, School of Medicine, University of Wollongong According to 2016 Census data, 3.5% of Australians have limited English proficiency. When they’re receiving health care, it’s essential these Australians have access to interpreters. Research has shown professional interpreters facilitate effective ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aliza Werner-Seidler, Senior Research Fellow in Mental Health & Clinical Psychologist, UNSW Access to mental health support has never been more important, as Melburnians are hit with a stage 4 lockdown and much of the rest of Australia braces for a potential ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Osman, Scientist, Energy Efficiency & Renewables, CSIRO Yesterday, Australia’s eastern states felt a vicious cold snap, and these wintry blasts make hunkering down in isolation at home a little easier. But as the temperature rises at home, so does our carbon ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Brent, Professor and Chair in Sustainable Energy Systems, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Prestridge, Senior Lecturer, Griffith University In early July, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced government school students in prep to Year 10 — in Metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire —would learn from home for term three. Students in Years 11 and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgia Cervin, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Western Australia The new Netflix documentary Athlete A details how Larry Nassar, the US women’s gymnastics team doctor, was brought to justice after sexually abusing hundreds of gymnasts. Since its release, gymnasts around the world ...
Welcome to Election Live for August 5, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other breaking news. For key dates in the election season click here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Get in touch at ...
The Social Services and Community Committee is calling for public submissions on the Oranga Tamariki (Youth Justice Demerit Points) Amendment Bill, which was referred to the committee on 21 July 2020. This Member’s Bill would introduce a youth demerit ...
Ryman Healthcare's plans in Australia's Covid-19 hit state of Victoria prompt a note of caution, plus the Super Fund buys New Zealand's major lab testing company ...
Open Mike 03/05/2018 
by Don Franks This talk was given to the Wellington Anti Capitalist Alliance, fifteen years ago. The ultimate weapons of mass destruction so far seen on this planet have been used just twice, 60 years ago this month. August 6 and August 9 1945 witnessed the US atomic bombing ...2 hours ago
After I noticed that my name had been taken yet again in vain by my friendly antagonist Tom Hunter over at No Minister, I went over to see what the fuss was about. Nothing much, but then I discovered a post about the Operation Burnham Inquiry by Psycho Milt. I ...16 hours ago
The COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 was extended today, until December 1st or the tenth sitting day following the resumption of Parliament after the election. It seems like a necessary extension. While we currently have eradicated the virus in New Zealand, it is still banging at the door, and ...16 hours ago
Judy Kavanagh I’m OK with wearing a CovidCard. But are you? There’s no point me doing it alone.
As many good things come in threes (as the saying goes), we are happy to announce a third partnership between Skeptical Science and other websites. Fakebook.eco in Brazil is joining Klimafakten.de in Germany and Nauka o Klimacie in Poland to leverage translated rebuttal material and to make the information readily available in other ...2 days ago
Let's Do This Again: What else can Jacinda do in a political environment so bereft of imagination and courage but seek a continuance? If she trades upon the extraordinary personal qualities that she has, miraculously, carried with her into the office of Prime Minister, then I, for one, will offer ...2 days ago
New Zealand First is facing a difficult struggle to get re-elected, but Josh Van Veen, who was once a researcher for Winston Peters, argues that there is still a very significant section of cultural conservatives who oppose mass immigration and political correctness and might yet be won back over to ...2 days ago
As polling day in the American presidential election draws closer, things are looking bad for Donald Trump. The polls show that he is tracking well behind his Democrat rival. Most people assume that the President will be striving might and main to avoid what looks increasingly likely to be a ...3 days ago
Our health professionals do an amazing job. Image credit: Wikipedia – Cardiac surgery. Finally, I have got back to these rankings. A long period in hospital and computer problems meant the June 2020 rankings were abandoned. Now, with a new personal defibrillator implanted in my chest and a new hard ...4 days ago
Former National Minister - Wayne MappYou could tell that the Hit and Run book by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson was right on the money by the way former National Party Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp, reacted to its now largely vindicated claims.Even though the recent inquiry into ...5 days ago
We are failing to think though the interdependencies in an economy. We miss economist Bryan Philpott (1921-2000). I miss him personally – we used to have such great discussions – but this column is about how the nation misses his economic experience and wisdom. We tend to ...6 days ago
TUESDAY AUGUST 4Grand Designs UK (Three, 7.30pm). ...7 days ago
Most of the claims made by anti-fluoride propagandists are simply wrong. Image source: Fluoridation and the ‘sciency’ facts of critics Anti-fluoride propagandists continually cite studies from areas of endemic fluorosis in their arguments against ... 1 week ago
. . For the mainstream media, today (22 July) was even a better day than yesterday. More Sex. More Politics. More Sex AND Politics. Yesterday, the msm dealt with Andrew Falloon. The obscure backbench MP had been found to have sent pornographic images to at least four women. The woman’s ...1 week ago
There’s ultimately two key narratives overall that are seeking to take front row in order to reshape the world as a whole going forward from the COVID pandemic. The first is a very desperate attempt to reimpose “a return” to what is perceived as “the old normal”, quite impossible. ...2 weeks ago
The Green Party is celebrating the passing of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, calling it a win for people who rent. ...12 hours ago
We went hard and we went early in our health response to COVID-19, and we did everything we could to cushion the economic impact too. In fact, we can fill every letter of the alphabet with the steps we took to fight COVID-19 and ensure we were in a position ...2 days ago
New Zealand needs to be more aggressive in pursuing economic opportunities and resist the short-term thinking affecting some of its major industry, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr Peters told Wellington Chamber of Commerce members this morning that the planned closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will have ...2 weeks ago
The Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has congratulated the Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB) programme on its major milestone of connecting more than 1 million New Zealand households and businesses to UFB. “This milestone has been 10 years in the making and demonstrates the popularity of the UFB network. “Uptake ...15 mins ago
Brooke van Velden – newly-minted Deputy Leader of the Act Party – spoke at a community event last Monday night in Epsom, Auckland, which was attended by several Euthanasia-Free NZ supporters. Unfortunately Ms van Velden’s presentation was heavy ...14 mins ago
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Many stories told by latest unemployment figures, Bloomfield says return of community transmission almost inevitable, and major tenancy reform package passes.First of all, it’s pretty clear that the top-line unemployment figure going down is a misleading picture of the state ...60 mins ago
Annaleese Jochems and Paul Little review new fiction by New Zealand authors David Coventry and Carl Nixon Annaleese Jochems on Dance Prone: David Coventry’s second novel Dance Prone is the story of a post-hardcore band touring through the American Southwest – a roadie novel. Initially its chief pleasures are similar ...1 hour ago
New Zealand needs to review its handling of Covid-19 'to do better next time' as global diseases are going to keep coming, warns Helen Clark. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark wants a full review into New Zealand's preparedness and handling of the Covid-19 pandemic - and is calling for the next government ...2 hours ago
A bill giving the police the power to conduct random roadside saliva drug testing has passed its first reading. ...2 hours ago
Stringent guidelines for goods with potential military uses in countries like China are on the way. ...2 hours ago
It's time to lay extreme partisanship aside and for parties to prove their ingredients are worthy - not just that their packaging makes us feel good, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell Extreme partisanship has always perplexed me. I’m not judging but perhaps, as an opinion writer, I’ve come to hold my own opinions ...2 hours ago
On the campaign trail, Judith Collins is fully embracing every 'you're only about roads' barb people throw at her National Party leader Judith Collins couldn't have picked a more on-brand venue. The building was blue. The audience was blue. And the parking was free. Collins continued her roll-out of tunnelling announcements ...2 hours ago
Kiwi Winter Olympian and mountain explorer, Janina Kuzma, has become a film-maker, shining a light on gutsy female freeskiers. Sometime about now, Janina Kuzma would have been skiing down the shrinking faces of the world’s last tropical glaciers in Papua, Indonesia. The two-time Winter Olympian should have been filming the third movie in ...2 hours ago
The Health Minister expresses confidence in a troubled board that continues to be rocked by resignations. David Williams reports Chris Hipkins is putting a brave face on ructions at the Canterbury District Health Board, despite another senior resignation yesterday and divisions within the board itself becoming painfully obvious. The Health ...2 hours ago
How do we discourage politicians from gambling with our futures? Nicholas Agar looks at the 'Hail Mary' tactic, arguing politicians must own their misjudged forecasts Recent polls suggest this could be a very one-sided general election. It is useful to be forewarned about some of the tricks available to aspiring ...2 hours ago
The truth about the unemployment statistics, plus a fishing firm closes a Tauranga plant costing 65 jobs ...3 hours ago
How does a 4 percent unemployment figure gel with estimates that soon there will be whole neighbourhoods of people in South Auckland without work? A shock drop in official unemployment numbers caps off the "weirdest quarter" in New Zealand's economic history. "Beware" and "unbelievable" were the first words Kiwibank's chief economist Jarrod ...3 hours ago
Internal Revenue officials are moving ahead with plans to consult on and, eventually, adopt recommendations from the Tax Working Group on environmental taxes. ...3 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison will unveil on Thursday a cyber security package to give greater protection to critical Australian infrastructure and bolster the powers of the Australian Federal Police to pursue criminal networks on the dark web. ...7 hours ago
New Zealand First and the Greens are facing the reality of the 'support partner' curse ...16 hours ago
As Auckland business leaders and the city’s economic development agency hold a day-long summit to thrash out a Covid-19 economic recovery plan, Finance Minister Grant Robertson is singing from a different song- book. He reckons NZ’s economy is doing well and “ … as we look ahead, there are ...18 hours ago
The National Party says it would create a new Auckland Transport-like authority and green-light a second Terrace tunnel National Party leader Judith Collins has announced National would give greater government funding for the Wellington region's existing transport plan and for a new agency to end the region's transport bickering. Collins made ...18 hours ago
Latest from the Beehive – The public debt is among the victims of the Covid-19 epidemic. According to the 2020 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update, in the current year and the next two fiscal years, operating deficits (operating balance before gains and losses) average around $28 billion while net core ...18 hours ago
A conference on Auckland and the Covid-19 crisis hears calls for flexibility from the Government, including a loan to fund big projects and allowing foreign students into university quarantine Former Prime Minister John Key is urging the Government to throw out the rulebook and give Auckland Council a big, interest-free ...20 hours ago
Ryman Healthcare's plans in Australia's Covid-19 hit state of Victoria prompt a note of caution, plus the Super Fund buys New Zealand's major lab testing company ...1 day ago
Well, well. Ignored 2010 DHB report includes photo of shit leaking inside hospital building: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/356501/middlemore-problems-highlighted-in-2010-report
Which is odd when the recently dismissed board member said the feces was one incident in 2014…
Someone tell Matthew Hooton. He thinks it is all a big political beat up
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12031349
It irks me that Hooten’s sign off says PR and Excelcium not former National Party staffer etc etc.
He may be miffed that this latest revelation makes him look a little foolish.
To sugest that Clark and Wall not knowing equates to every Nat Health Minister and DHB Chair not knowing since 2010 is disingenous at best.
Of course the hospital is still operating. How could it not? It serves the largest population catchment in Auckland and that catchment contains many over representated in illness stats.
Were they supposed to close and send the patients to Colemans new employers private hospitals? At private rates paid for by the taxpayer?
Does the cost to fix include the cost of relocating the services within the building being repaired?
“Were they supposed to close and send the patients to Colemans new employers private hospitals? At private rates paid for by the taxpayer?”
Of course.
(Although they might be a tad on the busy side with the potential of thousands of Ngati Whatua privately funded patients joining the queue…https://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/article/undoctored/ngati-whatua-orakei-announces-free-private-health-insurance-hapu-members )
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?
GREAT initiative indeed
Speaking of former NActs, the greatest skill of Tony Ryall (Simpson Grierson’s head of pubic policy, Minister of Health 2008-2014) was putting in place health the targets and budget stretching that bedevil the public health services today, and walking away before the sh-ortages hit the fan.
Tony Ryall – I remember a political commentator saying that he had been adept at keeping health on low profile while he was Minister. Managing down, austerity reigns, that will get you a good outcome when you step down as a pollie.
This illustrates the awful moral hazard that faces the citizens with business reigning over us. There is no desire for government to see that anything is done well or goes well for the mass of the citizens, because there is a private company that can profit from undertaking the remedial work. It’s a factory chain of robotic ‘wealth creators’ (euphemism), and we are being passed from one work station to another.
But the work done for and on us does not have to conform to any excellence except what shows on the surface. There are no solid regulations that are practical and have teeth and are monitored and activated.
Every breath you take I’ll be watching you.
Every move you make ” ” ” ”
Oh can’t you see
You belong to me…………
No, or few regulations on business, but yes for citizens. Every step and breath that citizens take is being regulated by business through their servant entity, government. So sneer at the promise of a brave new world of neoliberalism, freemarketing and freebooting (now add freebotting).
The rights and opportunities we had achieved for us all have been given away and we are left with nothing positive just being exploited! We have swopped our magic beans for a cow! Go climb that beanstalk Jacky and steal back our golden future from the giant, and good luck to you pilgrim.
QFT
I’ll add this bit from Why we can’t afford the rich:
The majority of us are slaves to keeping the rich wealthy. That’s how capitalism is designed.
No wonder Bridges skipped ANZAC Day… they have eroded so many things those folks died for
I love a good rant grey, especially when it’s so much better than I could have done. An excellent point on our regulatory environment and the differences in it for businesses and citizens.
And some people still think politics doesn’t affect them. Only when enough citizens pay attention, will the politicians change that neo-liberal regulatory environment instead of just stitching up the fraying edges.
miravox
There was some point before one of the elections that Key denied the seriousness of some criticism saying that the naysayers were making politics out of it whatever it was. We are so green that we are like spirulina if we don’t understand that everything done and said is political and has effects on all the citizens – Politics’R US!
Wikipedia
political
adjective: political
1.
relating to the government or public affairs of a country.
“a period of political and economic stability”
Way to go – Participatory democracy – Everyone start studying politics as it is taught, so you are knowledgable when the time for making good future decisions comes.
Hooten is probably right. DHB heads might be compelled by the Nat Govt to hide that sort of information from the media but they can’t keep it out of the books. Building depreciation and deferred maintenance is financial information with an absolute requirement it be reported in the annual accounts.
The Audit Office signed off the annual report of CMDHB, if anything was deliberately missed out I’d expect to see the Audit Office descend on that DHB like a plague of locusts. Politicians might get away with bullshitting about financial matters but accountants and senior managers sure can’t (not when they’re discovered anyway).
It still surprises me that so many people can report on an issue like this without any of them even bothering to take the time to read the annual reports of the party in question. It should be the first thing interested people do, the annual accounts of all Govt departments are a free download for anyone to peruse.
Did Hooten say the Nats forced the DHB Heads to hide stuff?
No that was what I saw as the initial brouha tracey; that the Nat Govt was (allegedly) pressuring DHB heads to defer maintenance and keep quiet about it in order to make their own books look better.
The claims that have been made about costs should be in the annual report. I scanned through a few of them and saw few surprises there. The possible existence of asbestos in old buildings, for example, has been acknowledged for years in their books. They just state they’ won’t make provision for it as a liability until if/when it’s discovered and needs addressing. That’s fair enough.
The annual reports are worth reading IMO. They can contain a lot of fluff in the intro but the financial statements contained within the reports are a serious business, they make a statutory declaration on the truthfulness of those.
All of these issues result from one aspect of our society: Our desire to do everything on the cheap.
It’s why we have shoddy infrastructure, why our economic development has slowed and why farming is still a major industry.
Things is, it will cost us far more in the long run. More environmental damage by the farms and more for repairs on substandard houses and infrastructure.
But it does allow the RWNJs to cut taxes for the rich.
Audrey Young showed her true blue colours yesterday when she attacked those using the term Dirty Politics to describe the behaviour of right wing scum trolls who have attacked Clarke Gayford.
She is either an incompetent journalist or a dishonest one.
Audrey’s an enabler like the hosk etc. Shes attacking the rhetoric rather then the issue of deliberately placed malicious content for political advantage, who and why ?
That’s not even journalism of any sort that’s pushing an agenda…..removal of the term from the narrative that’s interwoven in many minds with the national party.
They really don’t like the truth or it being played out in public as that’s going to hurt further at the polls.
Didn’t take you long to fall off the wagon.
Ed doesn’t need your snarkiness, thanks very much.
Really, I thought he was running a bit low ?
Thanks Maui.
Is dirty politics Dirty Politics or not?
Stunned
I did not read the Herald.
I heard about Young’s comments on this site.
You will notice I have not linked .
By the way, as a right wing troll, were you part of the rumour mill about Clarke?
I thought you were ignoring my comments Ed – that’s a double fall off the wagon. What are the rumors about Gayford ?
At Ed.Yep! Incompetent and dishonest.
She reminds me of the MSM’s stern old Ward Matron of yesteryear who is always right and has her pet patient.
DP operates at two levels. At the sinister level it aims to drag all politics down to gutter politics with associated gutter ‘journalism’ and similar (and worse) shit in MSM and social media, respectively. You cannot fight it easily without falling in this trap, which is why DP is so insidious and effective! Lefties have particular difficulty with tackling DP and are very prone to becoming victims of it because they like to take and come (down) from the ‘moral high ground’. Of course, this makes the Left the ideal target of DP, in fact the only one; the Left cannot turn the tables despite RWNJs arguing otherwise.
… and money. Arms length Nat elves seem to have more money to help keep sources protected
You’re spinning it Ed.
Young suggested that when Ardern used the phrase ‘dirty politics’, Ardern was deliberately sending a dog whistle to conspiracy theorists on the left (like you) to assume it was the Nats who were responsible for the Gayford rumours and to put the boot in.
It worked a treat; just about every man and his dog (after being whistled) on this site yesterday did just that.
You were played Ed. You ended up no better than the original rumour mongers. But you served Jacinda’s purpose.
“no better than the original rumour mongers”
Nice false equivalence you have there. Where did you read it?
It has been a meme being pushed. Probably the most notable proponent (and probable originator – it has his style) was Hooten.
But it has been interesting watching the attempts to push the “reverse black ops” meme all over the place. Entirely done in those hushed “I have a little secret” tone that the alt-ridiculous seem to love.
Oh well I guess it makes them feel like they are in the know. And makes the suckers feel bigger than they really are
And allows them to excuse their part in sharing the rumour with friends and family
Riiiiiight grantoc, better she said nothing and just let the rumour die… oh wait is wasnt dying it was spreading, like all the dirty little rumours that swirled during Clark’s leadership.
Past behaviour is a good predictor of future etc etc
Nats and their arms lengthers have form. You are the one spinning.
Paracetamol for grantoc please.
Scum is dehumanising word that adds nothing to a discussion or arguenrnt left or right, using it simply lowers you to level of Clarke attackers
What do you mean Clarke attackers? Who are you talking about?
Actual ” take the moral high ground” is something of the same strategy of these DP ers… first they swirl the rumour and watch it grow, then when someone responds, they join the chorus of vouces saying “turn the other cheek”, cos they know they win twice cos the rumour keeps swirling into more and more ears.
Accurately describing people helps understanding.
Failing to do so doesn’t.
Scum is something that floats to the top, is mostly unpleasant in nature and if not removed spoils the flavour of the wholesome stuff underneath. As a metaphor I’m not sure it’s so badly chosen. It is somewhat inflammatory though…
Is ‘lying sacks of shit’ more or less dehumanising than ‘scum’ beewee?
Tracy Watkins opines on the dirty politics claim. She notes Clark was subject the relentless rumours while in office and Key to rumours when he left. Ardern subject in office… via her partner. Despite the pattern being
Labour rumours in office
National rumours post resignation
She concludes it isnt a strategy by a political party…
She tried to write a balanced article but that last sentence or so…
We know Nats rarely dish the dirt themselves and have a history of using arms length folk to do it. And yes it is proven james
She knows the pattern.
But it’s her job to speak do the bidding of international finance.’
Must be hard to sleep at night.
The defining characteristics about the aging dinosaur media like Soper, Young, and O’Sullivan is chronological decrepitude, intellectual morbidity and a resulting torpid professional lassitude.
The chronological and intellectual decadence of that generation of journalists means they are much more inclined to treat dirty politics as a useful source of reliably controversial copy that relieves their aging brains of the need to think or investigate, and they can rationalise their complicity with a world weary cynicism that masquerades as sophistication for so many of our not half as clever as they think they are aging senior journalists.
I’ve thought recently that one of the more interesting pieces of meta data of a “youth-adjacent” Jacinda’s elevation to power is the sudden revelation of the creeping atmosphere of defeatism and nihilism that comes with a population that is losing it’s virility as it ages. I remember a particular conversation in the media when the previous government was asked if we could take the Manus Island refugees. The boomer minister responded with a bewildering list of reasons for why it was all just so hard and complex. Next up on the radio was Golriz Ghahraman, who immediately launched into a back of the envelope planning session on how you could squeeze the refugees into the various centres around the country. For her, the question wasn’t if we could take them, it was how we could manage them when they got here.
The difference between age and youth has seldom been so starkly illustrated. Much the same issue infests our establishment media. Far, far to many journalists are out of place and out of another time yet cling to senior jobs like shipwrecked sailors to a mast in a storm tossed sea whose movements they no longer understand or anticipate.
The real trick to getting old gracefully is knowing when to hand the reins over to the youngsters, and be relaxed and confident that the future is in safe hands when you do so.
Clearly none of our ancient brigade of senior journalists possess this skill.
Great piece Sanctuary… add in Armstrong and Roughan, the increased use of former politicians and former party hacks to write pieces. I see Hooten described a trained journalist at the herald as his colleague. Not really Sir.
The Nats are enacting their 2005 template. DP has started. Leader is saying he doesnt approve. We are on a John Key loop
By thunder Sanctuary – you really spell it out well when you get going – as here.
The defeatism is just a mask for antipathy sanky. It wouldn’t do to come out and say we don’t want them here.
Wonderful piece, and so true – thank you, Sanctuary.
Exactery! Some of the old hacks would be funny if they weren’t so bloody dull
OnceWasTim, “Would be funny if they weren’t so dull….. no no .. dangerous.!!”
They confirm memes and attitudes. Soper and Duplicity Allan particularly.
Audrey is nasty and her body language when she “interviewed’ Jacinda ahead of the election was “disbelief she could be PM.”
When anyone on the Left queries their writings, they are accused of “over reacting,”
I have said several times that “memes were being repeated and the writing was unbalanced”. Micky proved that!!
I also felt the appearance of key phrases showed collusion of some type, or an echo chamber follow the leader team tag.
They are dangerous because they poison discussions and create traps.
Cambridge Analytica to shut down.
Not sure if I’ve got this?
The real crime (to me) was installing a President by fraudulent means. The fix should at least start with all involved going to court.
Shutting down the company seems necessary but impotent. There are people involved in every bit of corporate shenanigans, somehow the ‘company’ gets told off, scapegoats are fired, but no one responsible really seems culpable? The social damage (wealth shift now to the corporate/wealthy via a fraudulently elected leader = massive theft) will be enormous, let alone the psychological damage of undermining the safety and rights of women and minorities, and encouragement of various dictatorial styled leaders…
Zuckerberg’s still a billionaire with obscene power. Three steps removed mate. Corporate trickery again.
And… Facebook is a dating agency now:
Obscenity, meet shame.
That is how capitalism is designed. It protects the guilty from the consequences of their immoral actions – if they’re rich.
DTB
You could add that capitalism finds ways to make profit from all popular movements of whatever kind. Politics, religion and so it goes.
Cambridge Analytica is shutting down. Shine a light into a dark place and the rats gathered there scatter. I hope people are tracking where they’re scuttling off to.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/02/politics/cambridge-analytica-closure/index.html
I think you mean closing the company, rebranding, renaming and starting a new company 😉
Yes. And possibly also a way to avoid the cost of legal action.
That too
True AB, after all, builders in Auckland and elsewhere have been doing that for years.
+1
They’ll be at it again in a couple of months at most just with a different brand.
Exactly that
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12044361
As noted above by prickles, you called it exactly right. Your award is…
https://uncexchanges.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/chocolate-fish.jpg
Israel is ramping up its involvement in the Syrian conflict
Netanyahu is given the power start conflicts without the okay from the Israeli parliamement
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/netanyahu-granted-greater-war-powers-israeli-parliament-1557931233
Another worthy effort from Kirsty Johnston and Chris Knox in the Herald this morning. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12042963
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
This is a feature article and deserves more than a passing acknowledgement of the headlines.
Another worthy effort from Kirsty Johnston and Chris Knox in the Herald this morning. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12042963
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
This is a feature article and deserves more than a passing acknowledgement of the headline.
Sigh
This is an article that tells it how it is. The system must change.
Cambridge analytical word for word used exactly the same rebuttal as Trump.
Link?
The know-all Hosking is now pontificating on how Jacinta and Clarke wrongly handled the distressing rumour mill situation yesterday. It is astounding that he thinks he is so fabulously smart and right on every aspect of life and every other mere mortal simply has no idea. What are his qualifications to have these opinions, apart from giant sized ego and arrogance. Ugh.
When God handed those tablets down to Moses did anyone ask “Who the hell are you? What’re your bloody qualifications?”
Hosking just Is.
What the Prime Minister’s name is, her partner’s, and good underwater image.
JACINDA ARDERN AND CLARKE GAYFORD
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/102115903/jacinda-arderns-partner-clarke-gayford-pinned-against-boat-by-shark
The police made it clear they issued their statement without the knowledge of Ardern or Clarke. Typical of the Hosking twat… blame them even when it had nothing to do with them.
He might as well add that it’s all their fault for existing.
Someone, somewhere must have given an ok – else the police would. E breaking all sorts of rules – privacy for one.
Hold on there james! Got proof to back that statement? Didnt think so.
Did you miss the last 9 years? Privacy is so overrated and passe.
Fair point – no – you are correct I have nothing to back it up or any proof.
It would be strange if they did it off their own backs and never mention it to anybody or sought any approval – but you are correct they very well may have done just that.
Such a backlog of privacy complaints about police actions. Maybe intentional?
Wasn’t it authorised by the commissioner?
that gets around most of the rules. I’m sure the people involved can complain about the privacy breach is he wants, lol
Can’t see there is any privacy breach in saying that they are not nor have they investigated the guy.
Well, if he was a rapper they might have ruined his street cred when they said he hadn’t been charged with anything, ever lol
edit: his handle was MC Newspaper… because he’s a fish rapper 👿
“The police made it clear they issued their statement without the knowledge of Ardern or Clarke”.
Do you, or anyone else have a link to the Police Commissioner’s statement?
I can’t seem to find the actual statement anywhere.
I’d like to see exactly what he did say.
@ Alwyn,
I can’t find it anywhere now but it was definitely on one of the online news sites late yesterday. I don’t recollect it being in the actual statement, but from memory Commissioner Bush was responding to a journalist’s question and he said something to the effect:
No, I did not seek permission from the PM or her partner, Clarke Gayford about issuing the statement.
I took that to mean the police made the decision to issue the statement independently of anyone outside of the Force.
I’ve found this Alwyn but it only mentions Gayford not Ardern. Don’t know if its the same one I saw yesterday.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/05/police-did-not-ask-clarke-gayford-s-permission-to-quash-rumour.html
Thank you.
That is what I thought I had heard on the radio yesterday or the day before. I would be surprised if the PMs office wasn’t given a heads-up at the minimum, even if they hadn’t asked for the statement.
I think they would have a no surprises policy in place.
Agreed.
media are milking it flat out for clicks/views/listeners, dirty old whale blubber is about to be on radiolive, spinning his own brand of shite on said subject.
Dirty politics enabling media revenue what a freaking surprise.
If CS is being asked for comment, nothing has changed since DP was published
For sures.
“ What are his qualifications to have these opinions, apart from giant sized ego and arrogance.“
If you listened to the comment you would know. He was very clear about it and his personal experience being on the receiving end.
You need a tshirt
“Still loving Mike
Since Forever”
and you need one that says
“Ideologically blinded by hatred of mike”
Why are you so determined to protect Dirty Politics?
James, Hosking is a radio ranter and former tv tugger of cuffs. That is all., which does not qualify him as a respected and wise person to look up to, or on a par with the the role of Prime Minister.
never said he was wise or on a par with the job – but the point he made is completely valid.
What are everyone’s thoughts about the pamphlets given to high school seniors containing info about drugs etc?
Personally, I think it’s brilliant.
I often reflect if part of the drinking culture is due to a lack of information being given to teens, my generation was never schooled on responsible drinking, my parents didn’t talk about it, so as a teen when I tried alcohol I had no idea and ended up in some awful situations as a result.
Not informing and educating people especially youth on drugs and alcohol hasn’t been working, this approach is fantastic, well done to Massey High and any other high schools involved.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/103554805/parent-outraged-after-methuse-guide-distributed-to-school-students?rm=m
I am mostly in favour with a little bit of niggling reservation (but still trying to figure out why specifically).
Did you hear the interview this morning on Morning Report with the Executive Director of the Drug Foundation Ross Bell? Well worth the five minutes imo. Here is the article with the link to the recording.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018643262/meth-use-advice-at-massey-school-drug-foundation-responds
PS – thanks for your support re the loss of my little troublemaker with a big T. He’s left a big hole but lots of wonderful memories.
There’s probably going to be a fair bit of pearl clutching going on, but so far I’m in agreement with Mr Bell.
I’m also pretty bloody sure most people don’t actually understand the extent of the problem.
Me too…
“…my generation was never schooled on responsible drinking, my parents didn’t talk about it, so as a teen when I tried alcohol I had no idea and ended up in some awful situations as a result.”
Hard to discuss when its not clear which generation you’re from.
I’m edging fast towards 60 and my oldest child is in their 30s.
I learned about the potentially devastating effects of drug and alcohol use first hand from parents who blighted their children’s lives with their substance abuse.
Although we almost never talked about it.
Without the drug and alcohol abuse, at least one of my parents would have made a better fist of keeping us safe.
Even today, discussions around child protection issues fail to put the substance abuse of the parents at the top of the list of risk factors leading to child abuse, neglect and parental failure.
And it seems to me that ‘information’ such as the one in question fails as it seems to imply that there is a ‘safe’ and ‘responsible’ way of using meth.
From the people I have met whose lives,and more importantly those of their children, have been devastated by this singularly hideous drug there is no ‘safe’ way of using. Odds are it will get you (and your loved ones) sooner or later.
So, no. The pamphlet, as it stands, is a fail.
The article isn’t reporting the full context that the material is used in which is a health course about how to take care of yourself which includes all the negative effects of drug use.
Exactly. Read some comments of students doing the clurse. They also learn how destructive drug use is. To the user their friends and families. The pamphlet has a context. By taking it out of context the “no sex ed in schools brigade” can shut this discourse too and leave our kids to the woolves
I’m in my mid forties Rosemary 🙂 sorry should have added that,
Generation X.
Adults always drunk at bbq’s and family gatherings, never any violence or abuse (that I saw), a few ‘pearler’ moments when the adults were extra silly.
So alcohol to me equated to fun and good times was never told or shown the contrary.
If there’s article on the news about drunk teens, with footage of drunk chicks in skimpy clothing vomiting, falling over etc; I now make a point of showing the girls, so they begin to understand what ‘drunk’ looks like.
Oh God! Some of my best friends (etc etc) dreaded that ‘cops on the beat’ reality tv program in case it was their offspring featured sprawled vomiting in the gutter.
Fortunately the kids made it to their mid twenties relatively un famous. 😉 🙂
Lmao !!! 🙂 I say to them…. “no one wants to be ‘that’ girl”
I think it is the product of getting access to resources to use in this situation without putting it into context.
The pamphlet is very appropriate for working with heavy users trying to manage the damage their drug use is causing in their lives, with a intent to reduce or eliminate drug use.
As an information source for non-users it is both inefficient and ineffective at providing the information they need in order to make good choices when the situations they will face offers them the opportunity to indulge.
Because the pamphlet was intended for drug users, the reasonable assumption was that those reading are already users – and gives information on how to accommodate that use into their lives. The damage of using, by those we would expect would participate in rehabilitation programmes would already have been experienced by those participants, and would in all their varied forms and effects would not have to be described. Their lived experience and involvement in rehab means the “conversation” about drugs, is picked up way down the line – at the management stage.
For high-school students not familiar with drugs, or users – this pamphlet drops them into the drugs conversation without context or preamble, and seemingly gives legitimacy to experimentation and drug use. Not every student will have the maturity to discuss this academically, and not every student will have the environment around them to understand the difference.
Having had a brief look at the website, I think the pamphlet was inappropriate for use for information sessions about drugs, a result of not aligning information with audience.
In terms of working with heavy drug users and addiction problems, the information and advice provided is required to reduce and minimise further harm, and is appropriate for that use.
Would be good if students had a variety of speakers who are recovering substance abusers to talk to the kids as well as handing out reading material, to add more weight and context to it all.
They used to be an alcohol-free 3 day dance party, annually I would go to in my 20’s, along with your ticket there was a plethora of safe drug taking information etc etc included.
Personally, I thought it was brilliant because it included much info about what could go wrong,
I suspect it could have put some off about taking substances.
It also allowed others to know what to do if something went wrong for themselves or another person.
Loved going to that event, attended it for 5 yrs running, no sexual abuse or getting hit on by drunk guys, no booze, no worries, it was magic.
Discussion about drugs at this time is important, and as you mention, the involvement of former addicts would add personal impact to the message they share.
However, if the discussion is around the use of the pamphlet, I think it was a resource fail in terms of not providing the right information for the right audience. Not a big deal, but a failure that should be recognised and acknowledged so that it is not replicated.
My first job while at school was in the hospitality industry, and the dry academic language used at the time regarding drug use, had absolutely no relevance to me when I was in an environment where drugs (including alcohol) was readily available. There has been much improvement since then at secondary school level.
NZ’s forgotten boy
Mike Hosking was busy explaining on that funny ZB station how he had rumours spread about him. Because he was a great celebrity. And how a marriage went pear shaped – yuk.
Unusual for him he only made two mistakes. He appears to think he has the status of the PM and her Partner.
Secondly he thinks the Police Stink. Because they had no negative information whatever on Clarke Gayford.
What a pretty little citizen he is. If I were Mike, I would walk carefully because the thinking public have had enough of political maleficence. And ZB might find itself in a dispute with ordinary people who do not have the status of one named Michael Hosking. The same people who do not think the Police stink.
@ Mike H darling. I don’t think it was because of rumours spread that a marriage went pear shaped – do you?
Maybe it was that perm? No? Darling, I do understand though your need to clutch at anything that will portray you as the perfect specimen. Maybe darling, just be thankful you now have such a loyal and dedicated family support mechanism
I dont recall his vitriol at the police over their illegal handling of the Hager raid
^^^ THIS ^^^
@ tracey (13.2) … or the Dotcom raid either.
And I bet the small minded Hosking would have certainly supported police intervention over the ridiculous tea pot tapes BS!
Hosking is a first class no nothing, full of pissing importance twit of the highest order.
Mike H. Is a voice in the wilderness. He’s old. He’s old hat. He doesn’t need to write his little missives anymore. Any of us could do that for him. He is THE most predictable hack there is. Oh. I forgot to say boring. So he’s out in the wilderness. If he utters a word in the wilderness does he make a sound?
LOL
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12044263
Facts would prove you wrong.
lol
the digital info gave it away – 750k users, 3millon hours a month. Looks impressive.
So a few thousand regular users nationally and a pile of barely-actives, otherwise every “listener” is dialing up for only a few hours every month. Maybe once a week if that, lol. And how many of them really want to hear hosking as opposed to background noise? 3 million listers hanging on his every word, my arse.
I recall years ago an advertiser telling me that the half page ads in a student magazine were more expensive than a full page ad in a nationally-distributed publication. And worth it, because an outlet where you can be something to a few thousand is better than an outlet where you can be irrelevent to ten or twenty times that number.
“..with listeners now hitting 3.39 million,..”
Doesn’t make sense to me especially since National Radio has the biggest audience around 500,000 I seem to remember. But the Herald has to boost their ratings with a disregard for reality in a Donald Trump sort of way.
That’s across all their radio stations. And if it’s picked by a survey going “which stations have you listened to in the past month?”, someone who owns half a dozen stations in the list is going to do well out of name rec alone lol.
Facts in the hiddle jimbo? Novel.
Lmao… James, that should never ever happen, but it just did. Crack up.
From Forest and Bird
Northland’s sand dune lakes and peaty wetlands are a rare and special habitat. But valuable wetlands are being destroyed by swamp kauri mining, leading to polluted waterways and habitats laid to waste.
Timber millers are currently exploiting a loophole by claiming wet slabs of wood are finished table tops. Miners are plundering native wetland ecosystems to make quick and dirty money.
Northland Environmental Protection Society is going to the Supreme Court over the level of protection provided to swamp kauri. They are standing up for nature. It’s amazing what they are doing to fight for nature in Northland.
90% of our wetlands have already been destroyed in New Zealand. Our nature has been up for grabs for too long. Northland Environmental Protection Society is working to protect their wetlands.
https://www.facebook.com/NorthlandEPS/?fref=mentions
(P.S. wasn’t swamp Kauri mining what caused one of the big outages of power leading up to the election… when a digger cut through the cable, not really talked about of course, because people like Judith Collins are all for profiting from this loophole of Kauri mining.)
But… but… but MONEY
But….but….iwi interests, AND Shane Jones….who also happens to be from that iwi…. AND Minister for Getting the Nephews in the Regions off their arses and into work…
Activists will be pushing it uphill on this.
There are two, maybe three distinct things going on here….
Firstly, the extraction of swamp kauri logs which Fiona and team have been battling not only the damage done in the digging and extracting to the environment and the waterways, but also the illegal selling of unprocessed timber overseas.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/325665/bid-to-stop-swamp-kauri-exports-fails
Secondly, they are reviving the kauri gum mining industry….which according to locals left the land unusable for years…..
http://www2.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=12038405
And thirdly, the rather alarming expansion of the avocado industry in the Far Far North. I was privileged to sit in on the consent hearing in Kaiatia weeks ago…some extraordinarily knowledgeable and dedicated locals committed to finding out the truth, the facts and educating those with poor understanding of the issues.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/353022/avocado-growers-water-take-divides-northland-communities
Linking all three of these things is the Kaimaumau Wetland….the second most significant remaining wetland in the country. DOC put up good arguments against the water extraction based on their studies and concerns about the Kaimaumau Wetland…but appeared to be backing away after a break in proceedings.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/355644/iwi-in-peat-mining-venture-says-wetland-is-a-wasteland
Strongest impression of the hearings was how awfully less than honest, open and transparent were the applicants. Thought the locals were all thick hillbillies and wouldn’t see through their BS. Much less investigate, gather their local experts and shout it from the rooftops…(or the street corner, as the case may be.)
Long history of kauri in the far Far North…best told here…https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/swamp-kauri/
Years ago my father was involved with a hapu business in Northland digging clay. They wanted to utilise it, and used the profits for personal objectives like having an overseas trip, not a bad thing, but did not service their trucks and keep things in working order, thus running down the business. In the end I think they leased the business to someone else.
It is easy for an iwi leader to say that they want business and to create jobs because that is what all developers say. How many jobs, for how long, what skills will be learned and is the business entity going to be a Maori trust with everyone taught business and development principles so the people understand the short and long term plans and can make informed opinions?
Marriage problems at Kellogs Time
Mike has been used to snugging up against the behind of John Key – a truly magic man – sent down on earth to please and appease ZB inhabitants. Hosking, Soper et al.
Yes, John Key – The magic man – also a fetish man – and a money man – and cafe maid bully man – and a Golf man – and an Obama man – with a fondness for very young blonde pigtails – is difficult to keep up with John Key. Poor Hosking.
Especially with the mighty Farrar out the back of Kiwi Blog raving on about “Dykes” with a capital “D”.
Our National Brethren are so fortunate to have many twisted – I almost said “bent” – personnel guiding the greedy of Aotearoa – and at the same time young Simon. Simon has to achieve only but one thing. Namely: Line his pockets. Like his beloved Colleagues.
Even if he does have to take humiliating lessons from ChinaDoll Collins.
It will be a Century before National ever appoints a straight “non pocket lining” MP.
What is the elderly Soper waffling on about now? Labour has orchestrated the last 24 hours he says. Want to know but can’t bring myself to click on.
Don’t do it. You’ll likely suffer a rage induced aneurysm and hurl your laptop out of the window.
Been there almost done that.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12044263
Despite what some on here might think of him – Hoskings retains talkback crown for ninth straight year.
and why would that change what we think of him?
Just tells me there are other people worthy of derision. Mike is the king though of course.
And he’s rich, drives fancy cars and hates poor people – I am sure you are a fan James.
Hosking. The king of ZB blue radio. Where closed minded old farts love to moan and closed minded listeners believe everything they hear, because they struggle to think for themselves.
I’ve met Hosking on many occasions through bussiness. He’s the most arrogant, self absorbed rude prick I’ve ever met.
James must be of similar character, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered linking to the story. James loves to shit stir, just because he can. He probably has nothing more constuctive to do with his time.
If he gets really good he’ll get closer to RNZ’s listening audience!
He’s king of talkback? How many in an average morning are on his show in a ‘talkback’ situation? I don’t listen to him but he used to be on air from 6-8.30 am. There was a spell of about 10-11 minutes around the hour with ads and news there used to be quite a few other ads. Somewhere along the line he does some sort of monologue. Just wondering.
Arhh talkback that doyenne of critical thought and intellectual pursuit.
Alternatively mike and talk back listeners….like attracting like. Being the king of talk back hardly anything to crow about
When does Simonmania begin ? I can’t wait.
It’s classified more as a Bridgephilia
Slimeon has yet to climb that mountain.
Middlemore problems highlighted in 2010 report
Radio New Zealand Thursday, 3 May 2018, 3:47 pm
Article: RNZ
The Counties Manukau DHB has said it was first alerted to leaking buildings in 2012 but, in fact, it was warned in early 2010.
“The cladding system to the lower levels of the building appears to be failing,” the February 2010 report by surveyors Dalton said, after it took off cladding at five spots on the south wall of the Scott building, which also houses cardiac care.
It photographed advanced brown rot and light rot in wood frames it rated as “un-sound” and described “widespread incipient decay” caused by leaking.
“The use of untreated timber and established decay at corners and sheet edges demonstrates that the [three] lower level storeys are at risk of real future failure.”
Counties Manukau DHB acting chief executive Dr Gloria Johnson said that when she told the public in March this year that they were first alerted to the leaks in 2012, she was not aware of the 2010 report.
The Dalton report includes a photo of a fece-stained first-floor sewage pipe, where leaking caused “serious damage” to framing. Board’s chair Rabin Rabindran, a board member Mark Darrow and the DHB itself have all said media reports of sewage leaks were overplayed. It’s now known there were at least four such leaks of raw sewage.
(Labour introduced dodgy spray on protection for interior timbers and continued after leaky homes.)
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0507/S00239.htm
Labour fails homeowners in timber treatment scam
Monday, 11 July 2005, 5:13 pm
Press Release: New Zealand National Party
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10328966
Battle over blame in leaky homes
4 Jun, 2005 12:56pm
…National MPs Nick Smith and Richard Worth are barking at the Government’s indifference in the absence of incoming Building Minister Chris Carter. It’s the first meeting of the Leaky Homes Action Group and a chance to score pre-election points – but everyone knows the rot started under National’s watch.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/48HansS_20060905_00001352/smith-nick-standards-and-conformance-bill-second-reading
5 September 2006 –
(Nick Smith lays out his argument and concern about the dangerously light treatment of framing timber, amounting to shoddy and dishonest.
Is this one of those cases when it’s a low-regulation neo-liberal government cock-up and Labour has fallen for it on this occasion though it could have happened to National if they had been in power at this period? And is Middlemore the putrid off-colour meat in the sandwich?
OnceWasTim, Somehow this has not attached as an answer… sorry.
“Would be funny if they weren’t so dull….. no no .. dangerous.!!”
They confirm memes and attitudes. Soper and Duplicity Allan particularly.
Audrey is nasty and her body language when she “interviewed’ Jacinda ahead of the election was “disbelief she could be PM.”
When anyone on the Left queries their writings, they are accused of “over reacting,”
I have said several times that “memes were being repeated and the writing was unbalanced”. Micky proved that!!
I also felt the appearance of key phrases showed collusion of some type, or an echo chamber follow the leader team tag.
They are dangerous because they poison discussions and create traps.
‘
A public talk by acclaimed US/Palestinian author Ramzy Baroud
Dr Ramzy Baroud’s NZ speaking tour itinerary – 18 to 24 May 2018. Hosted by the NZ Palestine Solidarity Network
https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2018/05/01/ramzy-barouds-new-zealand-speaking-tour/
Out they Go
Look I hate to tell James and sad sack Hosking – and tongue tied Simon – that Capitalism has failed.
The tag along Audreys and money chasers – Capitalism has failed.
You lot have dredged the money from the ordinary honest people, and stuffed it into your own piles – often in hidden accounts. You have condoned every dirty thing Key and English did.
The ordinary citizen has no hope of owning a house . Nor much hope of paying your exorbitant Rents. You are theives. That’s what you Capitalists are.
Your jacked up Panels; Your Corins; Your so called “Professionals”; Your Hootons are just shallow shaggers. Your Fletchers. Your Fonterras.
Capitalism is Crime in action. The Banks you support are based in Australia. Criminals in Action. Yet you attack the ordinary struggling man and his family.
You Capitalist Bastards.
It was a late milking drying cows off so I missed my morning Am show post it a beautiful day in Putaruru bit of a frost I will put up more post later today Ka kite ano P.S. its taken 7 years to get bee killing pesticides banned from use in Europe thanks to the Avaazers movement
This is how men abuse the power they have bestowed on them using it to abuse people here’s the link.
Four brave women
OPINION: Allegations a trusted GP initiated sexual relationships with vulnerable patients bear all the hallmarks of a #metoo case.
Ka kite ano P.S image how much stuff is hidden at the sandflys lair
Here is another.
‘His DNA on toilet cam’
51 min ago
DNA found on an SD card links one of NZ’s former top naval officers to a camera in a bathroom, prosecution says.
This is the future of cargo ships Ka pai Ka kite ano
What will ships look like in 30 years? Yea
Good evening Newshub I’m a bit late tonight we were watching the Mokopunas playing netball. That’s a shame that the people of Vanuatu have to leave their Island ECO MAORI gives all the best wishes for there move to another Island.
Many thanks to our Labour lead coalition Government for helping all the homeless people. This is a problem cause by the previous Government.
Many thanks to France and all there good people for there monument that houners the young men who fought for OUR freedom. Ka pai I have seen some of the French cultures and the way they run there society ECO MAORI is quite impressed Ka kite ano
The Crowd Goes Wild good evening Makere weres WAI.?
The Chief playing the Jaguar in Rotorua I’m on the farm at the minute is that were WAI is a watching the game it will be a good game I wish I was there ECO MAORI mite steal all the lime light lol yea right.
Josh the wave breaks in Raglan are world renowned to a lot of surfers there is a awesome wave breaks At WAI piro Bay Te tairawhiti.
Ka kite ano