"I’ve spent the past three decades, ever since I wrote The End of Nature at the age of 28, deeply committed to realism: no fantasy, no spin". Yeah, as if the end of nature is a realistic proposition. Gaia laughed.
An admirable, tough-minded stance though. I couldn't do it. I prefer a balanced mix of realism & idealism, liberally laced with fantasy for entertainment.
“I have never taken a penny from green energy companies or mutual funds or anyone else with a role in these fights. I’ve never been paid by environmental groups either, not even 350.org, which I founded and which I’ve given all I have to give.”
So Moore’s using a deceit strategy. To remind us that he’s a typical leftist, I presume. Or perhaps he will blame the film-maker: “We producers have a hands-off attitude. I just thought a critical appraisal of the Green movement is a good idea.” No problem with that – it is. Negative feedback is essential to stabilise systems, both in nature and in humanity.
So Michael Moore has discovered that pandering to the prejudices of gullible congenitally disgruntled rabid anti-capitalists with over-active poorly-aimed middle fingers turns out to be quite lucrative? Who'd'a thunk it?
McKibben: "Much has been made over the years about the way that progressives eat their own, about circular firing squads and the like. I think there’s truth to it: there’s a collection of showmen like Moore who enjoy attracting attention to themselves by endlessly picking fights. They’re generally not people who actually try to organize, to build power, to bring people together. That’s the real, and difficult, work — not purity tests or calling people out, but calling them in." https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/bill-mckibben-climate-movement-michael-moore-993073/
Yes, the downside of negative feedback: division. Polemics are effective when an exclusive point of view frames the advocacy. Yet inclusive frames are what we need. You can actually do a critique as a reality check in a constructive spirit. I think Moore, as a life-long partisan, is incapable of comprehending that the common good is enhanced by building bridges. He would rather burn them. Hasn't evolved. Still fighting as if the 1960s never ended.
Just as valid as any other generalisation, huh? Machine-politicians marketing themselves as progressive then, when elected, serving the establishment without making an iota of progress have been a feature of leftist politics all our lives. Or haven't you noticed?
Yeah, self serving bullshit comes from both left & right. Rightists tend to be more honest about selfishness though – they have an ideology exalting it. The left masks it with the label progressive, hoping nobody will notice.
Over the many years that you have been commenting here you’ve made many comments, many of which I haven’t read because they largely or solely consist of links to your preferred sources and heroes and to your own blog site. TBF, not all of your comments are of that low quality. Unfortunately, you do have a habit of sniping at the messenger and providing nothing but links to opinions of others. I would not call that a contribution but rather opinion harvesting and aggregation, which is handy if you like to build an archive of these, for example (on) your blog spot. None of those is conducive to solid and genuine debate, IMHO.
… largely or solely consist of links to your preferred sources and heroes and to your own blog site.
Fair comment, my friend. I'll try to lift my game!
TBF, not all of your comments are of that low quality.
Thank you, Incognito. What a refreshing contrast your spare and restrained, even faint, praise is compared to the abuse dished out to this writer, i.e. moi, on other fora …..
Unfortunately, you do have a habit of sniping at the messenger…
I'll try to rein in my base revanchiste desires. I think snipers are the lowest of the low, right down there with politicians, third-rate novelists—yes I'm referring to YOU, Martin Amis!!!—and dim Hollywood celebrities…
I despise Nick Cohen for the complete lies he told about Corbyn and anti-semitism-he deviously and misleadingly used his platform in the Guardian to try to destroy Corbyn.
I despise Nick Cohen for his one-eyed view on Israel, where the Palestinians don't seem to exist. (The irony that Israel has created a huge concentration camp in Gaza is lost on him).
For these reasons his journalism will, for me, for ever be tainted. How can he ever be seen to be balanced, fair or honest again?
However, he can write; the charlatan article forensically takes apart the idiots that are running the UK. He destroys them with a few choice phrases.
(Note: Scotland is actually run by a very competent politician)
He said the app was already logging users' close contacts, and that information could be accessed at a later date.
"That facility is still to go live, that will be happening during the current week," Professor Kidd said.
"But the important thing is that if people have downloaded the app and they have it running in the background on their phone, it's already gathering details of people you've been in close contact with.
Incredibly, on RNZ National's The Panel on Friday, the normally astute Paula Penfold doled out unearned praise of Tova O'Brien. She must have forgotten about O'Brien's simpering behaviour at an Orwellian outrage organized by the British High Commission last May….
She's still using that womans dead step father to justify her calls to sack Clark, that's what she got a lot of criticism for, personally I just find her untrustworthy and shallow.
Why are those who report our news having their profiles raised ? Shouldn't it be about the strength of their reporting that their profile is foundered on?
I present additional evidence ( No issues regarding the story) BUT why is there a picture and placed in high prominence of of the writer ??
These profiles are intended to build a relationship with the presenters based on familiarity (recognition), credibility, and trust. They are like social influencers who gather loads of followers, usually to generate advertising revenue (clicks and time spend on page & site). Newsreaders have always had an elevated position and profile. Remember ‘Mother of the Nation’, and Paul H. is back on our screens too with a most emotively entitled ‘show’. Hooray for the good old days.
It is a regular opinion column, not news, predicated on our confidence in the writer (whose photograph appears in each one). He just happens to be a genuinely smart guy rather than a shallow self-promoter like the ones we have all heard of.
I can appreciate that BUT with the online article why is Mike O’Donnell's picture about 1/3 of a page ? (is this a standard layout size)
Also would not the editor/sub editor decide to use this picture? If so then Stuff is building up Mike's profile. Should it not be sufficient his story and "* Mike “MOD” O’Donnell is a professional director, writer and strategic advisor. " so we can build up in our consideration of how much credence we place on the article e.g. is it from a union affiliate, Chamber of commerce, tax payers union, competing industry/brand etc.
But then on Alison Mau's opinion, there is only a thumbnail and her position. Could be the difference between contributing and paid employee templates.
If I go out in a company car and get caught dangerous driving on camera and that is shown on telly, I will very likely get fired, due to the risk of reputational damage to my employers brand in the public mind.
Letting the public see on telly the sort of car-crash that Tova O'Brien is every day at 1pm is reputationally pretty much the same thing.
That's what I don't like about this type of reporting, sure report the fact Clark drove his kids to the beach during lockdown, but then it's up to the public to make up their own minds whether they think it's "good" "bad" "indifferent". I don't need her POV, unless she wants to get into the Hosking, Garner talkshow thing?
Michael Reddell: "New Zealand’s foreign trade now is a bit less (share of GDP) than it was in 1980". https://croakingcassandra.com/
So Muldoon told NZ Inc to diversify away from commodities, the Rogernomes & all subsequent neoliberal cheerleaders held to the `yeah, do that' stance ever since, and the kiwi business community yawned & went `nah, can't be bothered'.
A 40 year flatline. NZ consistently out-performed by other small countries. [see his graph – I copied & inserted it but the site then claimed that my message was too long so I had to delete it] So much for foreign trade addiction.
Drug pusher: "Here, have a hit of this. Latest design, will get you even higher."
Drug addict: "Nah, got off a while back & I'm cool cruisin', thanks anyway. Nice of you to offer."
I have found Reddell a bit self contradictory on this point for quite some time. He constantly focuses on this productivity thing including being competitive in exports. On the other hand New Zealand has been running a trade deficit since forever and despite a fairly free and open economy, so its not something which the economy (de-regulated) then fixes for you. Also there is a strong similarity between the metrics for productivity and higher wages, but all his suggestions are riddled with things which will have a negative impact on wages (at least long term). I myself suspect one of the best ways to grow productivity is to support domestic demand and let the international trade side of things largely take care of itself. I don't know enough to demonstrate it but I suspect Reddell is laboring under a paradox of composition in his arguments for a lot of how to address New Zealands productivity.
Also (as he acknowledges) New Zealand has a high level of work force skill, but still suffers from low wages in many sectors and limited investment in capital. So its not like the cause of this problem can really be the responsibility of the New Zealand work force.
One of the Neo-liberal dreams was that we were going to become wealthy, by out exporting "competing" countries. The unspoken idea behind all these trade agreements.
Our balance of trade shows what a crock of shit, that is.
Even the fantasy that countries like China and the USA would sit back, and let us take a net profit from them, was always just wishful thinking.
Successful countries have a thriving domestic sector.
The interview on RNZ was telling. Reddell kept pushing the line that NZ property sector is over regulated and we have to free up more land. Prof Steve Keen says no, the problem is we're awash with easy credit from greedy banks and being killed by debt. So yeah Reddell thinks the market will sort everything out, despite all the evidence of failure and crashes of the last 30 odd years since deregulation.
It must be hard being a journalist. When there is no news there has to be news. You go to a press conference where there is not likely to be anything more than dry bread. If you're lucky bread and butter.
You think and think to try come up with some unique perspective. More unique than all the others who are at the same time trying to come up with some unique perspective.
You go to the conference with questions to fill out enough words for your unique piece.
Bonus points are available if it is unique enough for it to make even in the tiniest way, a headline using 'shock, or bombshell, or explosive, slams or rejects.' Questions are directed to elicit any response likely to gain those points.
Sunday, traditional day of churching. I'll just check The Book to see if there are a couple which've been overlooked …
9 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
10 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife
11 Thou wilt have new news every day
12 If thou does not have new news every day thou shalt make it up.
"…You think and think to try come up with some unique perspective…"
By sticking lipstick on the same pig and pretending it has a different name?
OK, I have got some to ask instead of forever trying to play gotcha.
1/ Does NZ plan to create and retain an ability to manufacture/develop vaccines, given we will be last in the queue for doses when one is developed for COVID-19?
2/ Does the government have a wider strategy of ensuring greater self-reliance across a range of strategic industries, for example medical equipment or light manufacturing capacity?
3/ If not, has the government learnt any lessons from this pandemic at all?
4/ Is our lack of preparedness for a pandemic effectively being paid for now by our most vulnerable workers?
5/ Do we have a long term idea of what NZ will look like when COVID-19 is eliminated/eradicated? For example, could we establish quarantine zones around around airports to allow foreign visitors to come and conduct f2f meetings in approved hotels or facilities without the need to have a 14 day quarantine?
4/ If no to 1, 2 and 5 above, how does that square with the stated desire to get back to BAU as soon as possible – for example, help tourism get restarted ASAP?
Also, go out and find and interview people who have actually lost their jobs, so far not one retail or hospo worker has really been properly interviewed – just heaps of regurgitated whining from business sector lobby groups.
Obviously the best thing would be to 'create and retain an ability to manufacture/develop vaccines, given we will be last in the queue for doses when one is developed for COVID-19.'
Developing a vaccine is a little bit of a complicated business. No doubt overseas corporations with revenue more than our GDP will be investing billions in the race to be first with a vaccine. We have the scientists and maybe one of the 'missing links' will be found here. I wonder how many scientists are available in NZ in the necessary fields and are able to redirect their efforts. And if they do come up with the goods is the manufacturing capacity here? Whoever comes up a vaccines will make more than a few bucks.
Interesting and positive story about local manufacturers investing in hi tech machinery, looking at the positive role that government contracts can play, and indicating parts of the supply chain that could be shored up or improved by some government investment. Good on them.
Then at the bottom of the story EMA (Employers & Manufacturers Assoc) chief executive Brett O'Riley decides that they also need to dump on the people like the taxpayers who are needed to support and invest in some of these projects.
"More supportive policy from the Government, such as flexible labour market, abolishing minimum wage hikes, reinstating 90-day employment trials, "
Good call – along with reducing the executive take of the total payroll – where they are undertaking management roles not entrepreneurial ones..
Interestingly though, I have seen research in the past that suggests most people distinguish pretty sharply between
" executives receiving entrepreneurial rewards for management roles" and the rewards generated ( up to a point) for the actual entrepreneur. The likes of Sam Morgan (trade me) get a bigger pass than the overpaid power company CEO. Though for the record even Sam thought he should have paid more tax.
Apparently, Judith Collins has been involved in spreading fake news again. This time about suicide:
"We're particularly disappointed some politicians such as Judith Collins have recklessly retweeted this rumour," Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson told Newshub.
Biden's anything but a good candidate, but he's better than "Mayor Pete"
Still not over @PeteButtigieg smugly saying "I trust you to figure out your health care" and then a few months later millions of people losing their health care
Hi, Ad. The level of comments at Kiwiblog, the new WO and The Daily Blog have remained the same or, in KB's case, increased over the years. The reason comments have dropped so dramatically here at TS is not Twitter, though a clue might be found in Incognito's response to your comment.
It depends what your time horizon is. And what you’re looking at.
Comments are only one part of the framework, and only a small proportion (<10%) of our readers actually leave comments.
The short answer is that we’ve slightly reduced in our overall readership since the 2017 election – which is pretty much what always happens to ‘government’ blogs. We’ve massively increased in our regular readership compared to 2014 or 2017. The bounce rate is way down and the overseas reads are diminishing – mainly reflecting the slow changes in the google search algorithms. The number of people who read us daily and weekly is up.
It is all a far cry from pre-2014 levels (ie pre-Dirty Politics) because the sustained active level of readers is much higher. But less than the period including and between 2014 and 2017 when there were more authors and more posts because the political temperature was much higher.
You should probably get me to add you to the analytics at the back end.
The Left is acting a bit calmer now that "our" parties are in government and doing a good job. It's not like the days when Key, Collins, Bennett and the gang were lying to the nation on a daily basis and wrecking the lives of their victims.
Now the right wing blogs are losing their shit and spinning desperate narratives about how the socialists are going to steal their children, or something
We tend to have several general modes that run. There are topics that are
societal and specific (say the corona virus ones) and tend to have quite large numbers of longer comments or
more philosophical ones that usually attract a small audience and few very long comments or
humour like posts that
immediate political issues that have twitter like comments.
The latter generate a lot of comments, but most of them could be regarded as of little value to any debate. So you'll get posts that have 400 comments and another post with less than 100 – but with same total numbers of words in each post's comments in total. When I look at them with a lexical analyzer, there is completely different pattern to the complexity of the content.
But the types of issues that the right have been trying to raise over the last two years tend to be somewhat ludicrous. They're almost pathetically petty and inane or they are just made up (like Hooten's Greens-Left leadership thing a few days ago) and not really worth bothering with getting involved in – classic silo messaging preaching to the base (and having little voter political effect).
Comments at TDB are low quality and Bomber's moderation makes it slow to publish, like a day later if at all. They don't really have much discussion there, just a sequence of disconnected screeds from the regulars.
I do read a few things at TDB but the site design is a complete mess. Bomber's intemperate rants are entertaining and well informed.
When writing, I pay more attention to the reader stats than the number of comments. In part because it's always hit and miss which posts will get lots of comments. It's pretty easy to write an inflammatory post to garner more comments if that's what one wants, but I want the people reading the post and thinking about it and that's often in the quality of responses rather than the quantity. I'll take people engaging with the post over lots of shitposting and/or arguments, although when commenting I also love much of the hard debate too.
It was always pretty variable just how many comments we got on posts.
There was and is a correlation between the number of posts and the number of comments we received in total during a day.
There was and is a correlation between a low number of posts in a day and the number of comments in the day's OpenMike.
There was and is a correlation between the number of comments and a political event like an election of a scandal. Conversely there has always been an inverse relationship between the height of a political event and the average number of words per comment. Same for the average lexical analysis score per comment (basically the spluttering did little for the quality of the content).
There is certainly a correlation between an issue not covered in a post and comments on that issue in that day's Open Mike, however that doesn't explain the huge drop off of overall comments in the last couple of years.
I agree that the lack of engaging posts in recent times has contributed to the fall in comments, however the problem is wider than that. If, as Incognito indicates, some TS folk are actively discouraging engagement then that seems to me to be far more likely to explain why commentary on the site is fading away.
It's really simple; keep telling people to go away and eventually they will.
… as Incognito indicates, some TS folk are actively discouraging engagement then that seems to me to be far more likely to explain why commentary on the site is fading away.
Yes.
There is a tendency nowadays for a small group of learned technocrats to indulge in lengthy debates only the qualified can understand. While it may absorb those debating, it is off-putting for everyone else. Rather than introduce another topic of conversation, I suspect many have gone away and found another source of more general stories to discuss.
Don't get me wrong. The 'debaters' I'm referring to contribute enormously to the whole sum of the information we glean from a blog site such as TS, but sometimes they do get carried away.
Also, as Weka has repeatedly pointed out, women have not always been welcomed with open arms here. Unintentional though it may have been, there has been the odd macho tendency to drown out the female voice. Some of us can shrug our shoulders and move on but others have found it hard to overcome.
There is a tendency nowadays for a small group of learned technocrats to indulge in lengthy debates only the qualified can understand.
Yes I've often contemplated that myself. And pondered my own contribution to it.
I'm not going to pretend I fully understand why we've narrowed the commentariat here down so much. But my sense is that the barrier to entry for new participants has become too high. It now takes considerable skill and experience to navigate the undercurrents that swirl in the background here that novices all too often fall afoul of. We just don't make new voices all that welcome, and are too unforgiving of their faux-pas'.
As for whether TS is more or less welcoming for women I cannot speak to directly. Only women themselves can really answer that. But the reason originally given was the unattractive aggro and pissing contests that characterised so many of the threads here for at least the first seven or so years of TS's existence crowded out and silenced the feminine voice. So we set about changing that with what were good intentions. Over time moderation has definitely scrubbed us up a lot; but I'm still seeing women participate at about the same level as they always did.
But in doing so we too often moderated on content not behaviour (see trp’s comment at 14.3 below for a proximate example), and that has an unavoidably chilling effect on open, robust debate. If you look at that marathon 461 comment thread, most of the names on it are long gone.
… the unattractive aggro and pissing contests that characterised so many of the threads here for at least the first seven or so years of TS's existence crowded out and silenced the feminine voice.
I attempted to put it a little more politely but your summing up is accurate. 😛
I think the main culprits have gone now but there is still a tendency among some male commenters to be a bit 'nonchalant' of the experiences and problems many women (but its not entirely confined to women) have to contend with.
We've seen a number of court cases of young women reporting profoundly serious sexual assaults within both the Defence Force and the Police Force in recent times – the outcomes of two of them in just the past fortnight. What those young women had to go through in order to achieve justice was mind boggling and distressing to read. It serves to confirm that the macho culture inside both organisations has still a long way to go before it is deemed acceptable.
This is a topic we could and should discuss in a more in-depth way from time to time – preferably by people who have knowledge and experience of them. In particular, how to change the mindset of authority and the judicial system in general so that the victims – regardless of the nature of the crimes committed against them – can trust they are going to be taken seriously and proper investigations undertaken if they choose to come forward.
Thanks Anne. The ways that women don't want to comment and write here are still very real. Lynn has said that as far as he can tell (via general stats) women readers have increased, so that's a good sign. Still hopeful that at some point more of the dudes will get on board with having women's content being a good thing (politically and for the site) and be willing to support that.
Also appreciate the point about the technical debates putting some off. It's something I'm familiar with with US political discussions here, but do you think it's broader than that? Any thoughts on what might make a difference? eg more Lefties on the Standard, or How to Get There type posts?
To be clear, TS in the past five years has lost at least 5 solid feminist authors, some of whom contributed a great deal, because of the cultural issues here around gender (front and back end). Even the current regular female author doesn't write feminist posts atm. This is an obvious *decrease in women's involvement in TS.
This is an obvious *decrease in women’s involvement in TS.
I’d agree that there has been a decrease in women authors. And specifically because of ‘cultural issues’ (nice phrase).
However, if you look at analytics you’ll find that as a percentage of users and authors there has been a significiant shift in gender participation in the site.
In 2014 from when google analytics started reporting on gender, we had between a quarter and a third of the sessions being female – generally closer to a quarter. These days it has tended to be higher – usually above a third and recently more like 50:50.
Of course this depends on where the gender data comes from (they have dropped from having about 45% of the data gendered to having 25% since 2014). But I’ve been happier that it has been steadily getting more balanced.
It is also the same trend that I get when I’m looking in the comments and based on what I know about commenters.
Yes, I agree. And it's not just technocrat discussions. I read some posts if the topic interests me.
There's a core of males who comment frequently here, often with long comments. Some of them I just scroll through – same old sense of being an authority on some topics, with or without supporting references.
There always seems to be more guys putting lengthy comments out there than women. Don't know where their motivation or sense of having important things to say comes from. But it gets boring. I'm now very selective about whose comments I read ie whether I think it's going to be informative, something a bit new, etc.
And it's not just technocrat discussions. I read some posts if the topic interests me.
My usual fast scroll through through tends to be on topics that I cannot be bothered with. Either I can't see their application to the current world (I refer to them as 'pin-dancing' comments for the theological reference), or they are well worn subjects reprising material that I read through on usenet.
I read heavily on topics that I don’t know enough about. But often what I’m looking for is supporting links as much as the argument.
Some of them I just scroll through – same old sense of being an authority on some topics, with or without supporting references.
I'm definitely one for long comments when I have time – usually on topics that I'm digging into at the time.
I find that leaving links is a particularly effective way of leaving a notes trail for myself. Coupled with the search system I can usually find the damn things later on when they become relevant again.
It is a single button 'Open Mike' on the moderation side, and anon because I didn't code the handle in. As much as anything else because the handle is currently free-form things like "MS".
I had to code it to not only move the comment, but also all of the replies down the hierarchy, and to handle replies that were in the process of being written. By the time I got that level of complexity working I wasn't up to doing the finesse elements.
Yeah, fair enough, Lynn. It's a good tool, when used intelligently. However, I note that the moderator in question remains anonymous and has failed to front up either here on this thread nor on the back channel request for clarification. I assume they now realise that moving the original comment was an error 😉
I quite like it being anonymous. It depersonalises it and the automatic note makes it clear that it's a general, somewhat superficial moderation that doesn't need a lot of work or engagement. A mod can add a note if there's something more that needs to be said, and the commenter whose comment was moved can ask if they want clarification.
If you go on CV's Twitter feed he it still singing the same old song.
For me, any reason for religion vanished when the great Charles Darwin published his findings.
FYI: They dont teach evolution in Israel but do in Iran.
And this whole BS about religion being needed because it give people ‘meaning’. Heaps of people get meaning from other places. The hundreds and thousands of medical workers who are stopping COVID from cutting great swathes through our population, their lives have meaning.
And yes, I would close down all the Catholic schools and have athiest schools in their place. And they will teach LGB rights and evolution.
CV isn't the best example to support your argument…
Religion isn't just about abstract philosophy or supernatural beliefs, not all of us live in our heads. Religion also provides community, culture, identity, and a moral code. As well as hope and meaning.
“PIPPIN: I didn't think it would end this way.
GANDALF: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.
PIPPIN: What? Gandalf? See what?
GANDALF: White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.
The virus is wiping out care homes in Sweden (which they're blaming on the foreign workers looking after the elderly), and of course their death rate per million etc. I'd rather be here.
Farrar, that slimeball, has just compared those violent right wing loons who stormed the Michigan state parliament to anti-fascism protestors.
Call me old fashioned but I don’t regard armed people who storm a parliament as “very good people”. They should be treated the same way as if armed antifa activists stormed a state capitol.
I read in an American paper that anti-vaxxers are prominent in the protests. Kind of ironic putting everyone at risk of the virus being spread and they might be there protesting about a vaccine for Covid-19 being produced.
The carrying of guns draw comments of course, like who are they going to shoot?
One Former Republican Governor of Pennsylvania has interesting views:
Tell you what… I'd vote for that man if he was still in politics. Shows there are always good people on both sides of the political spectrum who can sort the wheat from the chaff. The US is the poorer for not having enough of them.
I think David Farrar is being very honest about this armed crowd & treating them the same way as Anti-fa activists. You seem to think they are right wingers therefore bad, but Antifa & its appalling violence is OK cause they are left wing & anti-fascist.
Farrar denounces both groups which is the right thing to do, but your comments indicate you’re happy with violence if it’s your preferred political group.
Ah. This would be the mythical "concrete milkshake" incident.
His fa-adjcaent compadres broke someone's back with a baton in the same protests. By definition, antifa is a response to the fa.
Seems to me antifa use proportionate and reasonable force against aggressors. I tend not to blame defenders too much when they stick to reasonable force.
Farrar, that slimeball, has just compared those violent right wing loons who stormed the Michigan state parliament to anti-fascism protestors.
Does seem a bit unfair. After all, the gun-toting alt-right wingnuts don't seem to have actually smashed anything while they were there, which would be very unusual for Antifa wingnuts.
"Warren Buffett, the legendary American investor, has sold his firm’s entire holdings in the four major US airlines, warning that the “world has changed” for the aviation industry because of the coronavirus crisis."
True, but unusually slow off the mark for old Warren. I told readers here that it was time to disinvest in airlines & tourism back when the news broke of the epidemic in Wuhan about five months ago. As soon as the rate of spread got reported. And I'm no economic prognosticator, just someone quick to spot a trend & intuit the apparent trajectory.
Dennis you financial whizz & predictor of future events ! No doubt you also warned people of the threats due to SARS & MERS & told people to disinvest in tourism & airlines back then, but neither had any effect on those industries. I guess if you make enough premonitions then eventually one will come right.
I don’t think Warren Buffet was slow off the mark. when he sells he has to unload a massive amount of shares so large buyers have to be lined up before a sale can be put through.
It happened at the very start of April, so at about the time it was becoming obvious the shit was going to hit the fan in the airline industry. And about the last point there was going to be a buyer for that amount of airline stock.
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by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...
The latest opinion poll is out, and it’s more bad news for the National Party, with Roy Morgan putting them on only 26.5% support, against Labour’s 56.5%. You can see the details here: Roy Morgan May opinion poll. Roy Morgan is regarded as less accurate than other polling companies, and the ...
When miners pillage conservation land, they are typically required to "rehabilitate" it afterwards. Its not much compared to the damage they do, but its something. But apparently even that is now too much to expect. NZG Limited, a company owned by Oravida directors James Blackwell, Julia Jiyan Xu, Stone Shi, ...
Like everyone else, I've spent too much of the weekend watching the protests in America, and the increasingly brutal response to them. The overwhelming impression is of a nationwide police riot, as people speaking out against a murder and demanding change are beaten, gassed and shot by racist, militarised thugs ...
In mid-April, as New Zealand entered its fourth week of alert level 4, the Prime Minister warned us not to make comparisons with other countries over our Covid-19 pandemic response. This extraordinary advice came after Simon Bridges had urged the government to adopt a less-stringent lockdown similar to those in ...
Wales has lowered the voting age to 16: 16 and 17 year olds can now officially vote in Wales for Senedd elections. Votes at 16 & 17 come into force on Monday, as part of the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020. Next year’s Senedd elections will ...
The government announced more changes to the ETS today, including to the emissions budget for 2021 - 2025. The overall budget for that period will stay at 354 million tons of CO2-equivalent. But the ETS component of that - stockpile reduction, free allocation, and credits to be auctioned - budget ...
The new National Party leader, Todd Muller, had been at pains to portray himself as a solid, serious, safe pair of hands, in contrast to the increasingly Trumpian leanings of Simon Bridges, who Muller deposed in a leadership coup last Friday. But after an uneventful, if uninspiring, first press conference, ...
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...
Becoming the leader of a political party is a bit like having a baby. Not so much the screaming and sleepless nights, as the fact that you’ve waited and hope and planned for something and it’s finally here. And when that wonderful gift finally arrives, you want to be ready, ...
The US appears to be headed towards what Antonio Gramsci and other Italian political theorists call an “organic crisis of the State.” It involves the simultaneous and compounded fractures of economy, society and politics, which together constitute a tipping point in a nation’s history. Social contradictions are exacerbated, class and ...
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...
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Climate concerns as Siberia experiences record-breaking heatHeat wave sparks concerns about devastating wildfire season and melting permafrost.Satellite ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 24 through Sat, May 30, 2020Editor's ChoiceAntarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level RiseA study of seafloor ripples ...
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk A banner on the International Energy Agency website spells it out in bold font: “The global oil industry is experiencing a shock like no other in its history.” As the response to the coronavirus pandemic upends the lives of billions of ...
The ownership of newspapers and televison channels is in turmoil, and they want to redisorganise public broadcasting. *Three years ago, I expressed concern in a column about the future of the (traditional) media. Nothing has happened since to reduce the concern. It was based on an earlier column which ...
Australia's High Court has ruled that the "palace letters" between the queen and then-Governor-General John Kerr are public records rather than private papers: Historian Jenny Hocking has won her High Court bid to access the letters exchanged between then governor-general Sir John Kerr and the Queen around the time of ...
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...
New Zealand and its prime minister Jacinda Ardern have received international attention and praise, rightly so, for decisive leadership, clear communication and scientific management of the coronavirus pandemic. Observers point out that the nation has been through multiple crises under Ardern’s leadership – such as the Christchurch terrorist attack and ...
…a lot of things unrelated to the pandemic were happening. Relatively little attention was given to some major events on the global stage, so I thought I would do a quick recap of some of the high (or low) -lights, starting with something familiar. The common theme throughout is human ...
Labour's talk of gutting the RMA to push through "shovel ready" projects to boost employment after the pandemic predictably has every half-arsed pipe-dream crawling out of the woodwork demanding special treatment. Today, it's the West Coast inbreds, who are demanding a host of laws be rescinded so they can dig ...
"I can't breathe, Mama. I'm dying." - Last words of George Floyd.LOOK HARD at this image. Think about what it depicts. Ask yourself how one human-being could behave so brutally when so many eye-witnesses – and very soon millions of people online around the world – were there to watch ...
Since the government announced its pandemic wage subsidy, there have been regular stories about companies taking it and then sacking or refusing to pay their workers - essentially committing fraud. But how often does this happen? The Minister just doesn't want to know: Government ministers are not receiving up to ...
"You call that a conservative?Nah, this is a conservative!" New Zealanders are in the market for a quiet and reassuring small-c conservative political centrist. The critical question, however, is which politician is currently playing that role? Who has mastered the art of relaxed, informal and intimate political communication? Who ...
I’VE OFTEN WONDERED if South African immigrants passing through towns like Kerikeri and Kaikohe ever wonder how we do it. In their homeland, through the bitter years of Apartheid, keeping the races segregated required pass laws, Alsatian dogs, tear gas, rubber bullets and, all-too-often, live rounds. Not here. Not in ...
Below is the list of gender-critical material which appeared on Redline from July 31, 2019 to September 30, 2019. Sports categories must be by sex, not gender identity Queer theory glossary Woke misogyny and homophobia: a gay critique of trans ideology Another unfortunate experiment? New Zealand’s transgender health policy and ...
Smart Energy Europe: A Plan to provide 100% of ALL ENERGY using Renewable Energy to EuropeIntroductionAll Energy renewable energy systems are often commented on here at Skeptical Science. Many comments suggest that it will be difficult, expensive or impossible to use renewable energy to power the world. To ...
The government released its Action for Healthy Waterways package today, ostensibly with the goal of cleaning up our rivers and making them swimmable within a generation. Doing that, of course, requires confronting the cow in the room: the dairy industry which causes most of the pollution. But while they've imposed ...
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.nzI would like to know if New Zealand’s carbon emissions ...
Simon Lamb, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Timothy Stern, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonBack in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with buoyant ...
Remember KiwiBuild? Previously the government's flagship policy, it was supposed to build thousands of new homes every year for kiwi families. But instead of flooding the market, we've got a pathetic dribble: The Government's former flagship housing policy is so far behind schedule it will take more than 400 years ...
Don Franks Now Covid-19 restrictions allow gatherings of a hundred, an urgent hui needs calling. A special conference of the Council of Trade Unions. Today, workers face the greatest attack on employment, pay and conditions since the depression, we need a strong united union voice. As it stands now, organised ...
George Henderson New Zealand schools have introduced a climate change resource that suggests children “eat less meat and dairy”, even though teachers will not know how much meat or dairy any child in their care has eaten. Opinion pieces in the papers have called for the reduction of meat and ...
Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number ...
The emergence of a new National party leader, seemingly out of nowhere, has – not surprisingly – raised a number of questions as to who Todd Mulller actually is and what makes him tick. He has been an MP for some time but seems to have hidden his light under ...
Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to recognise same-sex marriage: The first same-sex weddings have taken place in Costa Rica, the first Central American country to equalise its marriage legislation. A lesbian couple became the first to tie the knot in a ceremony that took ...
There's a new twist in the Winston Peters secret donation story. It appears that a significant chunk of NZ First's secret laundered donations goes straight into the pockets of the people administering the scheme: Tens of thousands in donor's funds given to the New Zealand First Foundation were spent paying ...
Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate but conservative neighbour. There’s almost a ...
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...
Let's Roll! The easy victory over a Bridges-led National Party which the Left had every cause to anticipate just a few days ago is no longer in the offing. Our enemy’s position has changed. His numbers are swelling. A rapid thrust to the left, followed by an audacious outflanking manoeuvre ...
New National Party leader Todd Muller has been interviewed about his policies, and has promised to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration if elected: The Bay of Plenty MP rolled former leader Simon Bridges last week, but says the party has not changed its stance on previous promises. "That is ...
Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...
It was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is ...
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...
Watching Todd Muller make his first speech as the newly minted Leader of the Opposition after Simon Bridges’ defenestration on Friday brought to mind a headmaster addressing a school assembly. He showed no particular desire to ingratiate himself with his audience although the occasional flash of self-deprecating humour indicated a ...
The government has announced another income support scheme for people affected by the economic aftershocks of the pandemic: a $490 a week tax-free payment for the newly unemployed, which you can get even if you have a working partner. Which is great, because its supporting people who need help, but ...
The Greens have released their party list, and it contains a few surprises. The one that's getting all the news is that the membership are clearly fans of Chlöe Swarbrick, and she has worked hard to earn that. But they've also favoured incumbent protection over new blood, and in the ...
age credit:Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Matthew Parry, Dr Ayesha Verrall, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Martin Eichner (author details*)This blog details a recent modelling study we conducted. In it we estimated that it would take between 27 and 33 days of no new detected cases of COVID-19 for there to be ...
The 2015 Schol Bio paper included a question about a group of birds known as honeycreepers, specifically, the 56 species endemic to the Hawaiian islands. (Or, were endemic: 18, or perhaps 19, are still living; the others are extinct.) Students who’ve already had a look at this paper as part of ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the PandemicExtreme weather presents an even bigger threat ...
Todd Muller has made a good start to his leadership, though it would obviously be pretty stupid to extrapolate too much from the first couple of days. Nevertheless, as a matter of speculation, it is interesting to think what success on his part might say about the preferences of the ...
A guest post by Hamish Price.“A leader is a dealer in hope.”— Napoléon BonaparteCatholics have a name for potential successors to a dead pope. Papabile. The small coterie of distinguished cardinals who have what it takes to step up. Todd Muller has always been one.I first met Muller at a National ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 17 through Sat, May 23, 2020Editor's ChoiceMore than 80 killed in India and Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan heaps misery on coronavirus-hit areasA man salvages items from ...
Two poor political polls within the same week had seen National for the first time in over a decade dropping major support in the face of a competent and assured COVID-19 health response from the Coalition government. Step forward the relatively unknown Todd Muller, who by Friday afternoon had secured ...
SUNDAY MAY 24The Luminaries (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There are an awful lot of indeterminate accents in The Luminaries; even lead Eve Hewson seems undecided about being Irish, and she is Irish. Fair play, accents can go badly wrong, so perhaps not over-egging was a consideration. Marton Csokas, always impeccable, and Himesh Patel ...
SUNDAY MAY 24The Luminaries (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There are an awful lot of indeterminate accents in The Luminaries; even lead Eve Hewson seems undecided about being Irish, and she is Irish. Fair play, accents can go badly wrong, so perhaps not over-egging was a consideration. Marton Csokas, always impeccable, and Himesh Patel ...
Let’s be honest; Simon Bridges was a disaster of a political leader. If he wasn’t attempting to criticise the Government’s perfectly good policy initiatives that the public generally supported, he was fudging his lines after getting caught out in yet another lie. When Jami-Lee Ross said Bridges “is a flawed individual ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First is disappointed that the removal of the spousal deductions has had to be delayed by the Ministry fo Social Development, due to COVID19 workload pressures. “New Zealand First has always stood for fairness when it comes to superannuation ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First On the steps of Parliament today the Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters received a petition from registered nurse Anna Maria Coervers, requesting an amendment to the Protection for First Responders Bill which will ensure the legislation also include registered ...
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says alert level 2 restrictions have to be discussed during today's Cabinet meeting. Thousands gathered across the country, including at Parliament, yesterday forBlack Lives Matter marcheswhere social distancing and mass gathering rules were flouted. Mr Peters said the breaching of Alert Level 2 rules at ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State Owned Enterprises KiwiRail’s Northland rail upgrade steps up another gear today and will help Northland recover from the impacts of COVID-19, State Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters says. The Government is investing $204.5 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to ...
“Today and every day we stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family, friends and community who feel pain and fear about his untimely death at the hands of Minneapolis police”, said Green Party Co-leader and Māori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson. ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Hon Eugenie Sage, Minister of Conservation The West Coast forests of Mount Te Kinga at Kotuku Whakaoho/Lake Brunner are the latest predator free project to receive Government funding, announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party has begun the process for a Select Committee inquiry into student accommodation, which has been exposed during COVID-19 as an under-regulated sector that straddles students with unfair debt. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again.Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...
The Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones has introduced a Bill to Parliament that he says will "force more transparency, integrity and respect" for the domestic wood-processing sector through the registration of log traders and practice standards. The Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill had its first reading in ...
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is joining over 300 lawmakers from around the world in calling on the big banks and the IMF to forgive the debt of developing countries, in the wake of the COVID crisis. ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones says concerns that carbon foresters are planting pine trees that will never be harvested are the result of "misinformation". "The billion tree strategy is an excellent idea, unfortunately from time to time it's tainted by misinformation spread by the National Party or their grandees, hiding in scattered ...
The Green Party welcomes funding in the budget to reunite more refugees with their families, ensuring they have the best chance at a new life in Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
This year’s Budget is about rebuilding New Zealand together in the face of COVID-19. Jobs are central to how we’re going to do that.There’s a lot of targeted investment for employment in this year’s Budget, with announcements on creating new jobs, training people for the jobs we have, and supporting ...
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash has issued the following statement in response to charges filed against three Police officers this morning in the New Plymouth District Court. “Any incident involving a loss of life in Police custody is taken very seriously. The charges today reflect the gravity of the ...
Further temporary changes to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) will support senior secondary school students whose teaching and learning have been disrupted by COVID-19. “The wellbeing of students and teachers is a priority. As we are all aware, COVID-19 has created massive disruption to the school system, and the Government ...
Minister for Racing Winston Peters today announced that the terms for the directors of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) have been extended to 30 June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the transition period has been extended to ensure that the Racing Industry Bill can complete its progress through ...
The deadline for landlords to include detailed information in their tenancy agreements about how their property meets the Healthy Homes Standards, so tenants can see the home they are renting is compliant, has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 December 2020. The Healthy Homes Standards became law on 1 July 2019. The Standards are ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little today announced details of further appointments to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “I am pleased to announce Paula Rose QSO OStJ as Deputy Chief Commissioner for a term of five years commencing on 15 June 2020,” said Andrew Little. “I am also pleased to announce the ...
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will pay costs of learners of all ages to undertake vocational education and training The fund will target support for areas of study and training that will give learners better employment prospects as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19 Apprentices working in all industries ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will finally start to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution as it was originally intended to, because of changes announced today by the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw. The changes include a limit on the total emissions allowed within the ETS, rules to ensure ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List provides an abundance of examples that Pacific people’s leadership capability is unquestionable in Aotearoa. “The work and the individuals we acknowledge this year highlights the kind of visionary examples and dedicated community leadership that we need ...
The Government is backing a new $27 million project aimed at boosting sustainable horticulture production and New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our economy. During and ...
Applications have opened for 2021 Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships, which will support more Māori and women to pursue careers in forestry science, says Forestry Minister Shane Jones. “I’m delighted Te Uru Rākau is offering Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships for the third year running. These ...
The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List once again highlights the dedication by many to looking after our native plants and wildlife, including incredible work to restore the populations of critically endangered birds says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Anne Richardson of Hororata has been made an Officer of the New ...
The Government will invest $10 million from the One Billion Trees Fund for large-scale planting to provide jobs in communities and improve the environment, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Forestry Minister Shane Jones have announced. New, more flexible funding criteria for applications will help up to 10 catchment groups plant ...
Organisations that support women are invited to apply to a new $1,000,000 fund as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. “We know women, and organisations that support women, have been affected by COVID-19. This new money will ensure funding for groups that support women and women’s rights,” said Minister for ...
Healthier waterways are front and centre in a new project involving more than 300 King Country sheep, beef and dairy farmers. The Government is investing $844,000 in King Country River Care, a group that helps farmers to lift freshwater quality and farming practice, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Yesterday ...
A major funding package for libraries will allow them to play a far greater role in supporting their communities and people seeking jobs as part of the economic recovery from COVID-19. “Budget 2020 contains over $60 million of funding to protect library services and to protect jobs,” says Internal Affairs ...
A jobseekers programme for the creative sector and four new funds have been set up by the Government to help our arts and music industry recover from the blow of COVID-19. Thousands of jobs will be supported through today’s $175 million package in a crucial economic boost to support the ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has welcomed the First Reading of a Bill that will make legislative changes to further improve the veterans’ support system. The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill No 2, which will amend the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, passed First Reading today. The bill addresses a number of ...
Views sought on Order in Council to help fast track the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Poto Williams, will be seeking public written comment, following Cabinet approving the drafting of an Order in Council aimed at fast-tracking the reinstatement of the ...
The law setting out New Zealanders’ basic civil and human rights is today one step towards being strengthened following the first reading of a Bill that requires Parliament to take action if a court says a statute undermines those rights. At present, a senior court can issue a ‘declaration of ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today reiterated the deep concern of the New Zealand Government following confirmation by China’s National People’s Congress of national security legislation relating to Hong Kong. “New Zealand shares the international community’s significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand ...
Thousands of artists and creatives at hundreds of cultural and heritage organisations have been given much-needed support to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern announced today. “The cultural sector was amongst the worst hit by the global pandemic,” Jacinda ...
Key New Zealand assets will be better protected from being sold to overseas owners in a way contrary to the national interest, with the passage of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Bill. The Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, also cuts unnecessary red tape to help attract ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister and Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, has today announced the appointment of Tristan Gilbertson as the new Telecommunications Commissioner and member of the Commerce Commission. “Mr Gilbertson has considerable experience in the telecommunications industry and a strong reputation amongst his peers,” ...
The Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa have agreed to settle the pay equity claim for teacher aides, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This will see more than 22,000 teacher aides, mostly women, being valued and paid fairly for the work they do. “Teacher aides are frontline ...
Subcontractors will have greater certainty, more cashflow support and job security with new changes to retention payments under the Construction Contracts Act says Minister for Building and Construction, Jenny Salesa. A recent review of the retentions money regime showed that most of the building and construction sector is complying with ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have marked the first anniversary of the New Zealand-Singapore Enhanced Partnership with a virtual Leaders’ Meeting today. The Enhanced Partnership, signed on 17 May 2019, provides the framework for cooperation across the four main areas of trade, defence and ...
On 17 May 2019, New Zealand and Singapore established an Enhanced Partnership to elevate our relations. The Enhanced Partnership – based on the four pillars of trade and economics, security and defence, science, technology and innovation, and people-to-people links – has seen the long-standing relationship between our countries strengthen over the ...
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters has welcomed KiwiRail’s announcement that it is seeking a preferred shipyard to build two new rail-enabled ferries for the Cook Strait crossing. “This Government is committed to restoring rail to its rightful place in New Zealand. Bigger, better ships, with new technology are yet another ...
Better protection for seabirds is being put in place with a new National Plan of Action to reduce fishing-related captures, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The National Plan of Action for Seabirds 2020 outlines our commitment to reduce fishing-related captures and associated seabird ...
Almost $1 billion in interest-free loans for small businesses More than 55,000 businesses have applied; 95% approved Average loan approx. $17,300 90% of applications from firms with ten or fewer staff A wide cross-section of businesses have applied, the most common are the construction industry, accommodation providers, professional firms, and ...
Thousands of children will have healthier lungs after the Government’s ban on smoking in cars with kids becomes law, says Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa. This comes after the third reading of Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Bill earlier today. “This law makes it ...
The special Epidemic Response Committee (ERC) has successfully concluded its role, Leader of the House Chris Hipkins said today. The committee was set up on 25 March by the agreement of Parliament to scrutinise the Government and its actions while keeping people safe during levels 4 and 3 of lockdown. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced four diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s Ambassador to Belgium, High Commissioners to Nauru and Niue, and Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism. “As the world seeks to manage and then recover from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever,” Mr Peters said. “The ...
New Zealanders will be better protected from online harm through a Bill introduced to Parliament today, says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “The internet brings many benefits to society but can also be used as a weapon to spread harmful and illegal content and that is what this legislation targets,” ...
New Zealand’s world-first plan to eradicate the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis is on track the latest technical data shows, says Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor. “Two years ago the Government, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand and industry partners made a bold decision to go hard and commit ...
Further support for New Zealanders affected by 1-in-100 year global economic shock 12-week payment will support people searching for new work or retraining Work programme on employment insurance to support workers and businesses The Government today announced a new temporary payment to support New Zealanders who lose their jobs due ...
The Provincial Growth Fund will play a vital role in New Zealand’s post-COVID-19 recovery by creating jobs in shorter timeframes through at least $600 million being refocused on projects with more immediate economic benefits, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The funding is comprised of repurposed Provincial Growth ...
With half a million members, the New Zealand Made Products Facebook group has become a national phenomenon, thrusting small-time businesses into the national gaze. But what makes a post stand out among thousands of others? When scrolling through the seemingly endless visual extravaganza that is the New Zealand Made Products Facebook ...
Intensive care specialist David Galler remembers the time he tried and failed to save a New Zealander restrained in the same way that caused the death of American man George Floyd. Content warning: This article contains distressing descriptions of police violence and death. Thirty years ago, soon after I started my ...
Transmission Gully has been in the planning stages for over a century. It's been plagued with problems and the pandemic has dealt it another blow. The first shovels broke dirt on the planned Transmission Gully Motorway in 2014. But nearly six years later, the project creating an inland route connecting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government will provide eligible owner-occupiers with a grant of $25,000 to build a new home or extensively renovate an existing one. The scheme – estimated to cost up to $688 million – will not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Purnendra Jain, Adjunct Professor, Asian Studies, University of Adelaide Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will finally hold a virtual summit this week after efforts to meet in person were scuttled by the bushfires and coronavirus. The meeting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Popular Entertainment Studies and Science in Fiction Studies, Australian National University Bloodsucker, leech, tick – few things have a reputation worse than parasites. But these biological hangers-on also have a comic cultural history. In biology, a ...
By RNZ News The organisers of Black Lives Matter protests in several main centres will not be prosecuted. On Monday, thousands gathered at several events around the country for Black Lives Matter marches in solidarity with protesters in the United States after the police killing of George Floyd. The protests ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Fletcher, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington One of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s favourite exhortations is that we all “be kind” to one another. It’s part of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University A go-slow on spending sent the economy backwards 0.3% in the first three months of this year, only the fourth such decline since Australia was last in recession in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Heidi Zimmer, Research associate, Southern Cross University As bushfires blackened forests last summer, one tree species was protected by a specialist team of firefighters: the Wollemi pine. These trees have a deeply ancient lineage dating back to when dinosaurs walked Gondwana 100 ...
Children's Minister Tracey Martin says she was never officially asked to do anything about the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki commissioned by Whanau Ora. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Whittaker, Research Fellow, University of Technology Sydney You probably know the details of the death of George Floyd. He was a doting father and musician. He was killed when a police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for nearly nine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, The University of Queensland Here is a line from the latest safety advisory for reporters issued by the US-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ): Taking into account the increased levels of violence ...
Aaron Ironside is the new spokesperson for the Say Nope To Dope campaign. Aaron Ironside rose to prominence in the 1990’s as the anchor of Radio Hauraki’s popular Morning Pirates breakfast show. The young rock DJ fully embraced the Sex, Drugs and ...
AgResearch chairman Dr Paul Reynolds said the Government’s capital contribution of $45 million towards a new education, science and innovation precinct in Lincoln is a huge boost for New Zealand’s COVID 19 recovery plan and the contribution to ...
Dunedin writer Victor Billot on America's "President Cheezel". Go Big or Go Home Prezident Cheezel deletes lockdown, deletes the World Health Organization, deletes the memory of George Floyd, then hunkers in his hunker bunker, hunkers with freedom fries at midnight, a lights out party at the House of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Locke, Research Associate, LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney Prime Scott Morrison last week outlined a plan to create jobs and revitalise the economy post COVID-19. Part of this so-called Jobmaker plan includes an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Willand, Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University Stay-at-home orders and the economic crisis have increased the burden of energy costs on lower-income Australians. Poor housing quality and unequal access to home energy efficiency are hurting our most ...
Jacinda Ardern has unveiled details of the changes New Zealanders can expect when we move from level two to level one. What will it mean for businesses, hospitality and day-to-day life? Level one! At last, life is finally back to normal.Not so fast. We’re still in level two, and will be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kantha Dayaram, Associate Professor, Curtin University The number of Australians working from home has soared during the COVID-19 crisis. Latest data from the Australian Bureau of Stastistics shows 46% of the workforce worked from home in late April and early May. By ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Economic Life, Economics and EconomismKeith Rankin. When things go wrong with economic life, it’s easy to blame economics; that is, the academic discipline called ‘economics’. We all live economic lives, and use metaphors to give meaning to that amorphous thing we call ‘the economy’ ...
National survey asks New Zealanders If They Support Recognition For the Contribution of Our Service Personnel and their Families The Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association (RSA) said today that it supports the proposal for a Kawenata which is ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says there will still be strict controls on the border, but all current rules and restrictions on businesses and services will be "essentially lifted" under alert level 1. ...
ANALYSIS:By Philip Russo of Monash University The death of African-American man George Floyd at the hands of police has sparked protests across the United States and inspired many people to reflect on our own history of police violence against Indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand. After thousands marched ...
The New Zealand Police Association is supporting the three officers who are now facing manslaughter charges in relation to the death of a man in the Hawera Police Station cells in June last year. Association President Chris Cahill says the officers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University As we have been cooped up at home during coronavirus lockdown, reports of image-based abuse have skyrocketed. According to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, it received more than 1,000 reports of image-based abuse between ...
In the third part of our series with Kiwibank answering your questions about Covid-19’s impact on New Zealanders’ finances, two readers at different ends of their saving journeys ask what to do with their KiwiSaver account. Melissa Vasta, Kiwi Wealth GM retail and product, responds.Hi Melissa, My KiwiSaver ‘growth’ fund has ...
Landlords have been given a break – well, a bit of a break – according to the latest bunch of Beehive pronouncements. Other announcements by the Beehive Bugle Brigade tell us: People wanting to train for employment– or retrain – will be given a helping hand. But funding “will ...
“The Government’s bill to regulate vaping won’t bring New Zealand any closer to its smokefree ambition, unless MPs now get in behind the many submitters and intervene to drive down the country’s smoking rates,” says Jonathan Devery, spokesperson ...
Covid-19 has not stopped a North Island Iwi from continuing to ready itself for a vote this year, that if ratified will be one of the largest Treaty settlement to date. Whakatōhea is located in the eastern Bay of Plenty region centred around ...
New Zealand ranks first in a new global food security index produced by multinational real estate company Savills. The company has compiled its Food Security Index as part of its latest global Impacts research, which looks at the factors shaping the ...
“A huge opportunity has been missed to make risk-reduced vaping products more accessible to smokers in order to reach the SmokeFree 2025 goal set by government,” says Nancy Loucas, Director of the Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA). Her ...
Noel Edmonds is a British TV legend with a 50 year career in broadcasting. So why did he move to Matakana and launch a radio station? Like an over-excited Mr Blobby, Tara Ward gave him a call to find out. When Noel Edmonds answers the phone from his home north ...
New statistics released by the New Zealand Police show Māori were disproportionately subject to police proceedings - including court proceedings and receiving warnings - during March and April, Marc Daalder reports As a debate heats up over racial bias in New Zealand policing, new statistics show that Māori were more ...
The Matariki and Puanga stars are due to rise this month, signalling the Māori New Year. Rehua will set in the west at the exact time Puanga rises. So how do we see them and what are the best dates? With thanks to Matua Rereata Mākiha for We often hear about Matariki ...
Here’s The Spinoff’s weekly round-up of data tracking the effects and response of Covid-19 around the world – and how New Zealand stacks up.Our weekly summaries of data and visualisations use Our World in Data’s work on the Covid-19 pandemic, which is freely available for re-use. Not all data is ...
Pacific Media Centre The Vanuatu Council of Ministers has agreed at its meeting held in Luganville, Santo, to postpone the hosting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting due in August 2020, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post. The decision followed the recommendations of the National Task Force based on ...
The National Party leader says the Black Lives Matter protests were a mockery of Covid-19 alert levels, but thinks the country should move to alert level 1 now. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wayne Hope, Professor of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology How many media analysts predicted it? In 2018 Australia’s Nine Entertainment absorbed Fairfax Media and its New Zealand subsidiary Stuff. Just under two years later chief executive Sinead Boucher bought Stuff from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abby Mellick Lopes, Associate Professor, Design Studies, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney Home cooks have been trying out their skills during isolation. But the way food tastes depends on more than your ability to follow a recipe. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeremy Moss, Professor of Political Philosophy, UNSW Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan on Monday night denied suggestions the government subsidises Australia’s fossil fuel industry. The comments prompted a swift response from some social media users, who cited evidence to the contrary. Canavan ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ralph Sims, Professor, School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Massey University 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.If you have a question you’d ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Marshman, Honorary Principal Fellow, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne Most of Australia’s universities have adequate cash and investment reserves to deal with the immediate impact of a downturn in international student revenue in 2020. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sameer Hasija, Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management, INSEAD “This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away.”– WHO executive director Mike Ryan, May 13 Vaccine or not, we have to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Assistant Professor, School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Later today we’ll know what the bushfires and the coronavirus did to the economy in the three months to March: whether gross domestic product grew (as is usual) or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dawson, Professor and Chair of Anthropology, University of Melbourne June, 1980, Laibach was formed. Soon, they became the musical wing of the Slovenian arts collective Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), or New Slovenian Art. Comprising visual artists, theatre companies and a unit ...
"George Floyd was not the first, nor will he be the last, to have been denied his human rights as the police officers murdered him. Their names, overseas and in New Zealand are so many, over so many years, and their stories are all so different ...
The National Party is surprised New Zealand immigration officials didn't consult their Australian counterparts before granting a visa to refugee author Behrouz Boochani. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Strotz, Professor, Northwest University, Xi’an The COVID-19 outbreak has put into stark relief the disruption parasites can cause, both in human society and ecosystems. Researchers have long sought to better understand the evolutionary importance of parasites, to help lessen their impact. ...
More than half of a $30 million emergency welfare fund has been spent in just over a month, and many of those in need are foreigners and migrant workers who can't get a home. ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Significant new support announced for trainees and apprenticeships, more level one detail coming, and long-delayed changes made to ETS.Significant new support has been announced for trainees and apprentices, with thousands of dollars worth of costs being removed for each student. The ...
A Government okay for foreign crews to come here to train is likely shortly, Auckland's Mayor says America's Cup teams' hopes of winning border exemptions to get their crews to Auckland to prepare for next summer's big event should be met soon - with applications under consideration by officials and ...
Can anything stave off 'highly undesirable' cuts to services and projects in Auckland caused by the economic crisis? Will Wellington step in? Tim Murphy reports. For the second time in a year, Auckland Council needs to find half a billion dollars in a hurry to meet its financial commitments. After ...
Sewage fungus, bad smells and insinuations of ignored good faith clauses swirl in a dairy processing wastewater consent application heard in Hamilton last week New Zealand’s second largest dairy processor wants to discharge wastewater into the polluted Waitoa River, including during summer when flows are low. Open Country Dairy’s application for ...
Bubbles, tails, embers, mountains: The PM's deft use of metaphors has helped guide us in the battle to eradicate Covid-19 New Zealand’s success at containing the coronavirus has benefitted from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s clear communication during her daily media briefings. One aspect of what made this effective was her ...
Medical scientist Anona Pak won't let coronavirus wipe out her chances of playing badminton at the Tokyo Olympics, and an innovative national league will keep her on her toes. Two years ago, Anona Pak was playing badminton purely for the love of the game. The thought of representing New Zealand at ...
Former Woman’s Weekly editor Jenny Lynch on the Bauer-exterminated magazine that may yet rise again. It was born in 1932 at the height of the Depression and laid to rest in 2020 the middle of a global pandemic. In the intervening years the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly became a national ...
The country’s coronavirus restrictions might be coming to an end sooner than you think. Justin Giovannetti looks at what level one rules mean for you.Crowded stadiums and restaurants filled to capacity could be reality in New Zealand as soon as next Wednesday as the government eyes an early move to ...
Waitomo is a town built on tourism. But as overseas visitors, who have been flocking to its spectacular network of glow-worm caves for over a century, dry up, the future looks uncertain.More than 130 years ago, the eruption of Mount Tarawera killed an estimated 153 people and buried Te Otukapuarangi ...
Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of thousands of jobless migrants and beneficiaries struggling through the Covid-19 crisis, Bernard Hickey argues Over the last year since the March 15 attacks, our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has become a paragon of virtue for many ...
There's the law; then there's what's right. Our national carrier has been battered with complaints that it's hanging on to customer cash for flights it grounded. Jon Duffy's first week as head of Consumer New Zealand is a memorable one - the consumer watchdog was swamped with complaints from Air ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards The latest opinion poll is out, and it’s more bad news for the National Party, with Roy Morgan putting them on only 26.5% support, against Labour’s 56.5%. You can see the details here: Roy Morgan May opinion poll. Roy Morgan is regarded as less accurate than ...
Open mike 03/05/2020 
74 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Surface-Energy-Balance Closure over Land: A Review (open access) Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Human influence has intensified extreme precipitation in North America (open access) Observation-derived ice growth curves show patterns and trends in maximum ice thickness and ...3 hours ago
Last month I noted that the public policy debate was all about how we deal with covid-19. That’s changing now, and will change more over the next couple of months as the buffering impact of the wage subsidy disappears and we see starkly the economic hole out of which we ...7 hours ago
The mission of the New Zealand Police is to make this country the safest nation in the world. To achieve that aim, there is one important step the police need to take at the end of this month. When the evaluation of the Armed Response Teams’ trial is completed, the ...8 hours ago
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...13 hours ago
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...15 hours ago
The CTU is planning to mount a campaign to double sick leave, from 5 to 10 days a year. Good. We've all just had an extremely strong reminder of the need to stay at home when sick, and of the effectiveness of doing so (the lockdown, social distancing, and responsible ...17 hours ago
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.nz If we stopped oil, gas and coal extraction immediately – ...20 hours ago
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...1 day ago
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...2 days ago
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...3 days ago
Image credit: Writing an Article vs. Writing a Blog Post: What’s the Difference? I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is ... 3 days ago
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...5 days ago
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...6 days ago
6 days ago
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...1 week ago
age credit: Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ... 1 week ago
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First is disappointed that the removal of the spousal deductions has had to be delayed by the Ministry fo Social Development, due to COVID19 workload pressures. “New Zealand First has always stood for fairness when it comes to superannuation ...2 days ago
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...2 days ago
“Today and every day we stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family, friends and community who feel pain and fear about his untimely death at the hands of Minneapolis police”, said Green Party Co-leader and Māori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson. ...3 days ago
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...14 hours ago
With half a million members, the New Zealand Made Products Facebook group has become a national phenomenon, thrusting small-time businesses into the national gaze. But what makes a post stand out among thousands of others? When scrolling through the seemingly endless visual extravaganza that is the New Zealand Made Products Facebook ...12 mins ago
Transmission Gully has been in the planning stages for over a century. It's been plagued with problems and the pandemic has dealt it another blow. The first shovels broke dirt on the planned Transmission Gully Motorway in 2014. But nearly six years later, the project creating an inland route connecting ...23 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government will provide eligible owner-occupiers with a grant of $25,000 to build a new home or extensively renovate an existing one. The scheme – estimated to cost up to $688 million – will not ...5 hours ago
A new bill has forest owners fuming, but it could be the tip of the iceberg for them if NZ First are re-elected to Government ...9 hours ago
Children's Minister Tracey Martin says she was never officially asked to do anything about the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki commissioned by Whanau Ora. ...11 hours ago
...13 hours ago
The mantra for economic and social change in the wake of Covid-19 is strong, but it is not yet clear whether it will amount to much ...14 hours ago
Dunedin writer Victor Billot on America's "President Cheezel". Go Big or Go Home Prezident Cheezel deletes lockdown, deletes the World Health Organization, deletes the memory of George Floyd, then hunkers in his hunker bunker, hunkers with freedom fries at midnight, a lights out party at the House of ...14 hours ago
Landlords have been given a break – well, a bit of a break – according to the latest bunch of Beehive pronouncements. Other announcements by the Beehive Bugle Brigade tell us: People wanting to train for employment– or retrain – will be given a helping hand. But funding “will ...17 hours ago
New statistics released by the New Zealand Police show Māori were disproportionately subject to police proceedings - including court proceedings and receiving warnings - during March and April, Marc Daalder reports As a debate heats up over racial bias in New Zealand policing, new statistics show that Māori were more ...19 hours ago
After dodging HNA's bullet from China thanks to an OIO block, ANZ finally sells UDC for $762m to Japan's BBB+-rated Shinsei Bank ...23 hours ago
A Government okay for foreign crews to come here to train is likely shortly, Auckland's Mayor says America's Cup teams' hopes of winning border exemptions to get their crews to Auckland to prepare for next summer's big event should be met soon - with applications under consideration by officials and ...23 hours ago
Can anything stave off 'highly undesirable' cuts to services and projects in Auckland caused by the economic crisis? Will Wellington step in? Tim Murphy reports. For the second time in a year, Auckland Council needs to find half a billion dollars in a hurry to meet its financial commitments. After ...23 hours ago
Sewage fungus, bad smells and insinuations of ignored good faith clauses swirl in a dairy processing wastewater consent application heard in Hamilton last week New Zealand’s second largest dairy processor wants to discharge wastewater into the polluted Waitoa River, including during summer when flows are low. Open Country Dairy’s application for ...24 hours ago
Bubbles, tails, embers, mountains: The PM's deft use of metaphors has helped guide us in the battle to eradicate Covid-19 New Zealand’s success at containing the coronavirus has benefitted from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s clear communication during her daily media briefings. One aspect of what made this effective was her ...24 hours ago
Medical scientist Anona Pak won't let coronavirus wipe out her chances of playing badminton at the Tokyo Olympics, and an innovative national league will keep her on her toes. Two years ago, Anona Pak was playing badminton purely for the love of the game. The thought of representing New Zealand at ...24 hours ago
Former Woman’s Weekly editor Jenny Lynch on the Bauer-exterminated magazine that may yet rise again. It was born in 1932 at the height of the Depression and laid to rest in 2020 the middle of a global pandemic. In the intervening years the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly became a national ...24 hours ago
Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of thousands of jobless migrants and beneficiaries struggling through the Covid-19 crisis, Bernard Hickey argues Over the last year since the March 15 attacks, our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has become a paragon of virtue for many ...1 day ago
There's the law; then there's what's right. Our national carrier has been battered with complaints that it's hanging on to customer cash for flights it grounded. Jon Duffy's first week as head of Consumer New Zealand is a memorable one - the consumer watchdog was swamped with complaints from Air ...1 day ago
Rolling Stone has a response from Bill McKibben to the Michael Moore polemic: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/bill-mckibben-climate-movement-michael-moore-993073/
"I’ve spent the past three decades, ever since I wrote The End of Nature at the age of 28, deeply committed to realism: no fantasy, no spin". Yeah, as if the end of nature is a realistic proposition. Gaia laughed.
An admirable, tough-minded stance though. I couldn't do it. I prefer a balanced mix of realism & idealism, liberally laced with fantasy for entertainment.
“I have never taken a penny from green energy companies or mutual funds or anyone else with a role in these fights. I’ve never been paid by environmental groups either, not even 350.org, which I founded and which I’ve given all I have to give.”
So Moore’s using a deceit strategy. To remind us that he’s a typical leftist, I presume. Or perhaps he will blame the film-maker: “We producers have a hands-off attitude. I just thought a critical appraisal of the Green movement is a good idea.” No problem with that – it is. Negative feedback is essential to stabilise systems, both in nature and in humanity.
So Michael Moore has discovered that pandering to the prejudices of gullible congenitally disgruntled rabid anti-capitalists with over-active poorly-aimed middle fingers turns out to be quite lucrative? Who'd'a thunk it?
McKibben: "Much has been made over the years about the way that progressives eat their own, about circular firing squads and the like. I think there’s truth to it: there’s a collection of showmen like Moore who enjoy attracting attention to themselves by endlessly picking fights. They’re generally not people who actually try to organize, to build power, to bring people together. That’s the real, and difficult, work — not purity tests or calling people out, but calling them in." https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/bill-mckibben-climate-movement-michael-moore-993073/
Yes, the downside of negative feedback: division. Polemics are effective when an exclusive point of view frames the advocacy. Yet inclusive frames are what we need. You can actually do a critique as a reality check in a constructive spirit. I think Moore, as a life-long partisan, is incapable of comprehending that the common good is enhanced by building bridges. He would rather burn them. Hasn't evolved. Still fighting as if the 1960s never ended.
What's this 'typical leftist' horseshit denden? Is it your praxis to smear so broadly?
Just as valid as any other generalisation, huh? Machine-politicians marketing themselves as progressive then, when elected, serving the establishment without making an iota of progress have been a feature of leftist politics all our lives. Or haven't you noticed?
Just left'ist' politics denden? Sounds like self serving bullshit to me.
Yeah, self serving bullshit comes from both left & right. Rightists tend to be more honest about selfishness though – they have an ideology exalting it. The left masks it with the label progressive, hoping nobody will notice.
You mean they pretend to be "Left" to get votes rather.
Even right wing politicians do that.
Trump's saying he will look after the working class is just one, example.
Watch New Zealand's National party crocodile tears about "the recently jobless" lately.
And in "clusterfucks we have lately sidelined", the UK is still being a dick about post-Brexit trade protocols. The sneaking suspicion that bojo wants to go back to the 1980s seems to be becoming more solid.
Opinion on the idiots running England https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/02/the-british-charlatan-style-has-been-sent-packing-by-too-much-reality
That was written by one Nick Cohen. Even in the horrible world of British journalism, he is one of the most horrible.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/03/nick-cohens-hate-speech/
Your contributions to the discourse have been dutifully noted.
Make snide remarks about messenger.
Provide link to another messenger ‘in support’.
Nothing of any substance.
End of ‘contribution’.
Incognito, I was not being snide about Nick Cohen. I was serious, as was Craig Murray in the article I linked to.
Are you suggesting that I routinely contribute "nothing of any substance" to this forum?
Finally, the penny has dropped, or has it?
You obviously haven't read many of my contributions to this forum.
Over the many years that you have been commenting here you’ve made many comments, many of which I haven’t read because they largely or solely consist of links to your preferred sources and heroes and to your own blog site. TBF, not all of your comments are of that low quality. Unfortunately, you do have a habit of sniping at the messenger and providing nothing but links to opinions of others. I would not call that a contribution but rather opinion harvesting and aggregation, which is handy if you like to build an archive of these, for example (on) your blog spot. None of those is conducive to solid and genuine debate, IMHO.
… largely or solely consist of links to your preferred sources and heroes and to your own blog site.
Fair comment, my friend. I'll try to lift my game!
TBF, not all of your comments are of that low quality.
Thank you, Incognito. What a refreshing contrast your spare and restrained, even faint, praise is compared to the abuse dished out to this writer, i.e. moi, on other fora …..
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/02/breen-drug-fuelled-obsessive-and-lone.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-tribute-to-redbaiter-rip-oct-16-2011.html
Unfortunately, you do have a habit of sniping at the messenger…
I'll try to rein in my base revanchiste desires. I think snipers are the lowest of the low, right down there with politicians, third-rate novelists—yes I'm referring to YOU, Martin Amis!!!—and dim Hollywood celebrities…
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/07/that-foul-bag-of-wind-dr-phil-mcgraw.html
A work in progress or a hopeless case? Time will tell …
Only three links to your own blog spot this time but I assume this was one of your humorous comments.
I despise Nick Cohen for the complete lies he told about Corbyn and anti-semitism-he deviously and misleadingly used his platform in the Guardian to try to destroy Corbyn.
I despise Nick Cohen for his one-eyed view on Israel, where the Palestinians don't seem to exist. (The irony that Israel has created a huge concentration camp in Gaza is lost on him).
For these reasons his journalism will, for me, for ever be tainted. How can he ever be seen to be balanced, fair or honest again?
However, he can write; the charlatan article forensically takes apart the idiots that are running the UK. He destroys them with a few choice phrases.
(Note: Scotland is actually run by a very competent politician)
Totally agree.
Too compromised by his disgraceful smears of Corbyn.
You nailed it, Ed, again!
Anniversaries
https://markdoran.wordpress.com/2020/04/30/30-april/
Australia's covid tracing app still not working
It's working fine at the app end.
A puff piece about Tova O’Brien on a rivals website.
Is the press gallery feeling under pressure from their televised performances?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300000983/political-muckraker-tova-obrien-take-a-step-back-before-you-have-a-go
Incredibly, on RNZ National's The Panel on Friday, the normally astute Paula Penfold doled out unearned praise of Tova O'Brien. She must have forgotten about O'Brien's simpering behaviour at an Orwellian outrage organized by the British High Commission last May….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/05/these-people-are-representative-of-new.html
She's still using that womans dead step father to justify her calls to sack Clark, that's what she got a lot of criticism for, personally I just find her untrustworthy and shallow.
Untrustworthy, shallow, and as shown by her appearance at that farcical British High Commission event last May, way out of her depth.
Here we go again 🙁
Have you forgotten that time in high school!
It feels like it was only yesterday and the similarities are striking! It is déjà vu all over again!
She asks the stoopid questions so noone else has to.
Media organisation in search of a merger.
Why are those who report our news having their profiles raised ? Shouldn't it be about the strength of their reporting that their profile is foundered on?
I present additional evidence ( No issues regarding the story) BUT why is there a picture and placed in high prominence of of the writer ??
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121367602/opinion-supermarkets-may-regret-their-pennypinching
Good points.
These profiles are intended to build a relationship with the presenters based on familiarity (recognition), credibility, and trust. They are like social influencers who gather loads of followers, usually to generate advertising revenue (clicks and time spend on page & site). Newsreaders have always had an elevated position and profile. Remember ‘Mother of the Nation’, and Paul H. is back on our screens too with a most emotively entitled ‘show’. Hooray for the good old days.
It is a regular opinion column, not news, predicated on our confidence in the writer (whose photograph appears in each one). He just happens to be a genuinely smart guy rather than a shallow self-promoter like the ones we have all heard of.
I can appreciate that BUT with the online article why is Mike O’Donnell's picture about 1/3 of a page ? (is this a standard layout size)
Also would not the editor/sub editor decide to use this picture? If so then Stuff is building up Mike's profile. Should it not be sufficient his story and "* Mike “MOD” O’Donnell is a professional director, writer and strategic advisor. " so we can build up in our consideration of how much credence we place on the article e.g. is it from a union affiliate, Chamber of commerce, tax payers union, competing industry/brand etc.
They use the same photo each time. No idea who sets the width in the publishing platform – but it sure isn’t him. 🙂
But then on Alison Mau's opinion, there is only a thumbnail and her position. Could be the difference between contributing and paid employee templates.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300002750/alison-mau-sacrificing-fastfood-workers-in-our-coronavirus-hunger-games
But there does appear tom me a growing trend to include the reporter (Kiwi celebrities) into the story 🖖
He is neither a reporter, nor a celebrity.
Mau is spot on.
Maybe they pay guest writers in publicity.
O'Donnell…'So for a person who managed to pull in $20 an hour for the last month, suddenly they find themselves back at $18.20.'
The minimum wage is $18.90 an hour.
One of the most appalling examples of raising their profiles was the "Wendy, she's hot!" campaign on Television One.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/02/does-wendy-petrie-ever-think-about-what.html
If I go out in a company car and get caught dangerous driving on camera and that is shown on telly, I will very likely get fired, due to the risk of reputational damage to my employers brand in the public mind.
Letting the public see on telly the sort of car-crash that Tova O'Brien is every day at 1pm is reputationally pretty much the same thing.
That's what I don't like about this type of reporting, sure report the fact Clark drove his kids to the beach during lockdown, but then it's up to the public to make up their own minds whether they think it's "good" "bad" "indifferent". I don't need her POV, unless she wants to get into the Hosking, Garner talkshow thing?
Michael Reddell: "New Zealand’s foreign trade now is a bit less (share of GDP) than it was in 1980". https://croakingcassandra.com/
So Muldoon told NZ Inc to diversify away from commodities, the Rogernomes & all subsequent neoliberal cheerleaders held to the `yeah, do that' stance ever since, and the kiwi business community yawned & went `nah, can't be bothered'.
A 40 year flatline. NZ consistently out-performed by other small countries. [see his graph – I copied & inserted it but the site then claimed that my message was too long so I had to delete it] So much for foreign trade addiction.
Drug pusher: "Here, have a hit of this. Latest design, will get you even higher."
Drug addict: "Nah, got off a while back & I'm cool cruisin', thanks anyway. Nice of you to offer."
I have found Reddell a bit self contradictory on this point for quite some time. He constantly focuses on this productivity thing including being competitive in exports. On the other hand New Zealand has been running a trade deficit since forever and despite a fairly free and open economy, so its not something which the economy (de-regulated) then fixes for you. Also there is a strong similarity between the metrics for productivity and higher wages, but all his suggestions are riddled with things which will have a negative impact on wages (at least long term). I myself suspect one of the best ways to grow productivity is to support domestic demand and let the international trade side of things largely take care of itself. I don't know enough to demonstrate it but I suspect Reddell is laboring under a paradox of composition in his arguments for a lot of how to address New Zealands productivity.
Also (as he acknowledges) New Zealand has a high level of work force skill, but still suffers from low wages in many sectors and limited investment in capital. So its not like the cause of this problem can really be the responsibility of the New Zealand work force.
One of the Neo-liberal dreams was that we were going to become wealthy, by out exporting "competing" countries. The unspoken idea behind all these trade agreements.
Our balance of trade shows what a crock of shit, that is.
Even the fantasy that countries like China and the USA would sit back, and let us take a net profit from them, was always just wishful thinking.
Successful countries have a thriving domestic sector.
+1
john key made a lot of people rich and fulfilled their wet dreams by selling out the remnants of our tattered economy to his foreign masters
neocons and neoliberals are a rotating roster of fools and thieves eroding the common wealth of this land
The interview on RNZ was telling. Reddell kept pushing the line that NZ property sector is over regulated and we have to free up more land. Prof Steve Keen says no, the problem is we're awash with easy credit from greedy banks and being killed by debt. So yeah Reddell thinks the market will sort everything out, despite all the evidence of failure and crashes of the last 30 odd years since deregulation.
Economists Michael Reddell and Steve Keen on Covid big picture (27min): https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018744947/top-economists-back-trans-tasman-bubble-concept
It must be hard being a journalist. When there is no news there has to be news. You go to a press conference where there is not likely to be anything more than dry bread. If you're lucky bread and butter.
You think and think to try come up with some unique perspective. More unique than all the others who are at the same time trying to come up with some unique perspective.
You go to the conference with questions to fill out enough words for your unique piece.
Bonus points are available if it is unique enough for it to make even in the tiniest way, a headline using 'shock, or bombshell, or explosive, slams or rejects.' Questions are directed to elicit any response likely to gain those points.
Sunday, traditional day of churching. I'll just check The Book to see if there are a couple which've been overlooked …
9 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
10 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife
11 Thou wilt have new news every day
12 If thou does not have new news every day thou shalt make it up.
"…You think and think to try come up with some unique perspective…"
By sticking lipstick on the same pig and pretending it has a different name?
OK, I have got some to ask instead of forever trying to play gotcha.
1/ Does NZ plan to create and retain an ability to manufacture/develop vaccines, given we will be last in the queue for doses when one is developed for COVID-19?
2/ Does the government have a wider strategy of ensuring greater self-reliance across a range of strategic industries, for example medical equipment or light manufacturing capacity?
3/ If not, has the government learnt any lessons from this pandemic at all?
4/ Is our lack of preparedness for a pandemic effectively being paid for now by our most vulnerable workers?
5/ Do we have a long term idea of what NZ will look like when COVID-19 is eliminated/eradicated? For example, could we establish quarantine zones around around airports to allow foreign visitors to come and conduct f2f meetings in approved hotels or facilities without the need to have a 14 day quarantine?
4/ If no to 1, 2 and 5 above, how does that square with the stated desire to get back to BAU as soon as possible – for example, help tourism get restarted ASAP?
Also, go out and find and interview people who have actually lost their jobs, so far not one retail or hospo worker has really been properly interviewed – just heaps of regurgitated whining from business sector lobby groups.
Why would NZ be at the back of the queue? You mean those billionaire boltholes, hobbit employment contracts and foreign trusts count for nothing?
Who in government is proposing that we "get back to bau.."?
Simon
In reply to no1 Bloomfeild has stated we will be testing and can manufacture
Obviously the best thing would be to 'create and retain an ability to manufacture/develop vaccines, given we will be last in the queue for doses when one is developed for COVID-19.'
Developing a vaccine is a little bit of a complicated business. No doubt overseas corporations with revenue more than our GDP will be investing billions in the race to be first with a vaccine. We have the scientists and maybe one of the 'missing links' will be found here. I wonder how many scientists are available in NZ in the necessary fields and are able to redirect their efforts. And if they do come up with the goods is the manufacturing capacity here? Whoever comes up a vaccines will make more than a few bucks.
Strong advocacy from NZ scientists who have skin in the game, as you’d expect:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/121016049/coronavirus-relying-on-other-countries-for-vaccine-wrong-approach-top-scientists-say
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/04/nz-cannot-afford-to-wait-for-covid-19-vaccine-scientists-say.html
If MoH buys PPE, should it be sold for profit to DHBs and NZ citizens?
If MoH undertakes COVID-19 tests, should they charge a premium to NZ citizens?
If MoH distributes flu shots across the county, should they be sold at a premium?
If the State funds research into development and manufacturing of vaccines, should these be used to make a profit on the backs of Kiwis?
Peter:
Your comment should be writ on every bill board in the country! 🙂
Interesting and positive story about local manufacturers investing in hi tech machinery, looking at the positive role that government contracts can play, and indicating parts of the supply chain that could be shored up or improved by some government investment. Good on them.
Then at the bottom of the story EMA (Employers & Manufacturers Assoc) chief executive Brett O'Riley decides that they also need to dump on the people like the taxpayers who are needed to support and invest in some of these projects.
"More supportive policy from the Government, such as flexible labour market, abolishing minimum wage hikes, reinstating 90-day employment trials, "
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/prosper/121177344/coronavirus-manufacturing-can-be-the-backbone-the-covid19-economic-recovery
He didn't mention abolishing executive severance packages. Must've slipped his mind.
Good call – along with reducing the executive take of the total payroll – where they are undertaking management roles not entrepreneurial ones..
Interestingly though, I have seen research in the past that suggests most people distinguish pretty sharply between
" executives receiving entrepreneurial rewards for management roles" and the rewards generated ( up to a point) for the actual entrepreneur. The likes of Sam Morgan (trade me) get a bigger pass than the overpaid power company CEO. Though for the record even Sam thought he should have paid more tax.
Apparently, Judith Collins has been involved in spreading fake news again. This time about suicide:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/05/mental-health-foundation-shuts-down-irresponsible-suicide-claims-being-made-on-social-media.html
She's similar to Trump.
Turns out Judith replied to the original comment and Lizzy Marvelly of all people retweeted it.
I think Lizzy needs some good people around her because repeating fake news is not a path you want to go down.
Wouldnt mind knowing how many people killed themselves when National were in power.
Oh that's right they were beneficaries and low paid workers, who are expendable, not farmers, exporters and business owners.
Biden's anything but a good candidate, but he's better than "Mayor Pete"
Good piece from Matt talking about censorship and the problems of the finger waving brigade.
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/temporary-coronavirus-censorship?
Hi, Adam. If you reckon Bill is cutting up rough, for Christ's sake don't click on this link:
https://thestandard.org.nz/god-botherer/
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Back in the pre-Twitter era when we could get 400+ comments here
Every cloud has a silver lining. As far as I’m concerned, some ‘popular topics’ here could move permanently to Twitter. Just my 2 cts.
Hi, Ad. The level of comments at Kiwiblog, the new WO and The Daily Blog have remained the same or, in KB's case, increased over the years. The reason comments have dropped so dramatically here at TS is not Twitter, though a clue might be found in Incognito's response to your comment.
That is just damn depressing.
Why is The Standard being out-competed for commenters against Kiwiblog and The Daily Blog?
I do my best with contributions, so it is immensely frustrating to see us simply become less important in the media.
I certainly don't want to waste my time here if our viewership is in sustained decline.
It depends what your time horizon is. And what you’re looking at.
Comments are only one part of the framework, and only a small proportion (<10%) of our readers actually leave comments.
The short answer is that we’ve slightly reduced in our overall readership since the 2017 election – which is pretty much what always happens to ‘government’ blogs. We’ve massively increased in our regular readership compared to 2014 or 2017. The bounce rate is way down and the overseas reads are diminishing – mainly reflecting the slow changes in the google search algorithms. The number of people who read us daily and weekly is up.
It is all a far cry from pre-2014 levels (ie pre-Dirty Politics) because the sustained active level of readers is much higher. But less than the period including and between 2014 and 2017 when there were more authors and more posts because the political temperature was much higher.
You should probably get me to add you to the analytics at the back end.
I don't have access to this 'back end'.
Mickey should introduce me I'm sure.
Thanks for the slightly more positive commentary concerning readership.
It would be good to hear of the topic areas that are more popular for readers. So I can get cracking on them.
The Left is acting a bit calmer now that "our" parties are in government and doing a good job. It's not like the days when Key, Collins, Bennett and the gang were lying to the nation on a daily basis and wrecking the lives of their victims.
Now the right wing blogs are losing their shit and spinning desperate narratives about how the socialists are going to steal their children, or something
The left is calmer, and I think that's one of the major reasons.
The other is, in my opinion, more strict moderation results in fewer comments.
Not saying the policy, or the enforcement of the policy, is wrong but it does have a dampening effect. The site is tidier, but quieter.
People aren't perfect and moderation which sort of asks them to be is daunting.
We tend to have several general modes that run. There are topics that are
The latter generate a lot of comments, but most of them could be regarded as of little value to any debate. So you'll get posts that have 400 comments and another post with less than 100 – but with same total numbers of words in each post's comments in total. When I look at them with a lexical analyzer, there is completely different pattern to the complexity of the content.
But the types of issues that the right have been trying to raise over the last two years tend to be somewhat ludicrous. They're almost pathetically petty and inane or they are just made up (like Hooten's Greens-Left leadership thing a few days ago) and not really worth bothering with getting involved in – classic silo messaging preaching to the base (and having little voter political effect).
Comments at TDB are low quality and Bomber's moderation makes it slow to publish, like a day later if at all. They don't really have much discussion there, just a sequence of disconnected screeds from the regulars.
I do read a few things at TDB but the site design is a complete mess. Bomber's intemperate rants are entertaining and well informed.
("Bomber" = Martyn Bradbury)
that's what I see on the occasions I pop over there. Pete seems to have better conversations under his posts than TDB.
I seldom read the comments at TDB these days.
The ones at YNZ are actually not bad on current topics.
When writing, I pay more attention to the reader stats than the number of comments. In part because it's always hit and miss which posts will get lots of comments. It's pretty easy to write an inflammatory post to garner more comments if that's what one wants, but I want the people reading the post and thinking about it and that's often in the quality of responses rather than the quantity. I'll take people engaging with the post over lots of shitposting and/or arguments, although when commenting I also love much of the hard debate too.
It was always pretty variable just how many comments we got on posts.
There was and is a correlation between the number of posts and the number of comments we received in total during a day.
There was and is a correlation between a low number of posts in a day and the number of comments in the day's OpenMike.
There was and is a correlation between the number of comments and a political event like an election of a scandal. Conversely there has always been an inverse relationship between the height of a political event and the average number of words per comment. Same for the average lexical analysis score per comment (basically the spluttering did little for the quality of the content).
There is certainly a correlation between an issue not covered in a post and comments on that issue in that day's Open Mike, however that doesn't explain the huge drop off of overall comments in the last couple of years.
I agree that the lack of engaging posts in recent times has contributed to the fall in comments, however the problem is wider than that. If, as Incognito indicates, some TS folk are actively discouraging engagement then that seems to me to be far more likely to explain why commentary on the site is fading away.
It's really simple; keep telling people to go away and eventually they will.
Yes.
There is a tendency nowadays for a small group of learned technocrats to indulge in lengthy debates only the qualified can understand. While it may absorb those debating, it is off-putting for everyone else. Rather than introduce another topic of conversation, I suspect many have gone away and found another source of more general stories to discuss.
Don't get me wrong. The 'debaters' I'm referring to contribute enormously to the whole sum of the information we glean from a blog site such as TS, but sometimes they do get carried away.
Also, as Weka has repeatedly pointed out, women have not always been welcomed with open arms here. Unintentional though it may have been, there has been the odd macho tendency to drown out the female voice. Some of us can shrug our shoulders and move on but others have found it hard to overcome.
There is a tendency nowadays for a small group of learned technocrats to indulge in lengthy debates only the qualified can understand.
Yes I've often contemplated that myself. And pondered my own contribution to it.
I'm not going to pretend I fully understand why we've narrowed the commentariat here down so much. But my sense is that the barrier to entry for new participants has become too high. It now takes considerable skill and experience to navigate the undercurrents that swirl in the background here that novices all too often fall afoul of. We just don't make new voices all that welcome, and are too unforgiving of their faux-pas'.
As for whether TS is more or less welcoming for women I cannot speak to directly. Only women themselves can really answer that. But the reason originally given was the unattractive aggro and pissing contests that characterised so many of the threads here for at least the first seven or so years of TS's existence crowded out and silenced the feminine voice. So we set about changing that with what were good intentions. Over time moderation has definitely scrubbed us up a lot; but I'm still seeing women participate at about the same level as they always did.
But in doing so we too often moderated on content not behaviour (see trp’s comment at 14.3 below for a proximate example), and that has an unavoidably chilling effect on open, robust debate. If you look at that marathon 461 comment thread, most of the names on it are long gone.
I attempted to put it a little more politely but your summing up is accurate. 😛
I think the main culprits have gone now but there is still a tendency among some male commenters to be a bit 'nonchalant' of the experiences and problems many women (but its not entirely confined to women) have to contend with.
We've seen a number of court cases of young women reporting profoundly serious sexual assaults within both the Defence Force and the Police Force in recent times – the outcomes of two of them in just the past fortnight. What those young women had to go through in order to achieve justice was mind boggling and distressing to read. It serves to confirm that the macho culture inside both organisations has still a long way to go before it is deemed acceptable.
This is a topic we could and should discuss in a more in-depth way from time to time – preferably by people who have knowledge and experience of them. In particular, how to change the mindset of authority and the judicial system in general so that the victims – regardless of the nature of the crimes committed against them – can trust they are going to be taken seriously and proper investigations undertaken if they choose to come forward.
Thanks Anne. The ways that women don't want to comment and write here are still very real. Lynn has said that as far as he can tell (via general stats) women readers have increased, so that's a good sign. Still hopeful that at some point more of the dudes will get on board with having women's content being a good thing (politically and for the site) and be willing to support that.
Also appreciate the point about the technical debates putting some off. It's something I'm familiar with with US political discussions here, but do you think it's broader than that? Any thoughts on what might make a difference? eg more Lefties on the Standard, or How to Get There type posts?
To be clear, TS in the past five years has lost at least 5 solid feminist authors, some of whom contributed a great deal, because of the cultural issues here around gender (front and back end). Even the current regular female author doesn't write feminist posts atm. This is an obvious *decrease in women's involvement in TS.
This is an obvious *decrease in women’s involvement in TS.
I’d agree that there has been a decrease in women authors. And specifically because of ‘cultural issues’ (nice phrase).
However, if you look at analytics you’ll find that as a percentage of users and authors there has been a significiant shift in gender participation in the site.
In 2014 from when google analytics started reporting on gender, we had between a quarter and a third of the sessions being female – generally closer to a quarter. These days it has tended to be higher – usually above a third and recently more like 50:50.
Of course this depends on where the gender data comes from (they have dropped from having about 45% of the data gendered to having 25% since 2014). But I’ve been happier that it has been steadily getting more balanced.
It is also the same trend that I get when I’m looking in the comments and based on what I know about commenters.
Yep. You should be able to see
https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/#/report/visitors-demographics-gender/a3049909w5683011p5865057/_u.date00=20180101&_u.date01=20200503&explorer-graphOptions.primaryConcept=analytics.visits&explorer-graphOptions.selected=analytics.nthMonth&explorer-graphOptions.clearCompareConcept=true/
I can't see that. Still need a login/password from what I can tell. Can you set that up for me now?
Sent you an email about it.
replied now (and just seen the earlier one too). had some problems with the login.
Yes, I agree. And it's not just technocrat discussions. I read some posts if the topic interests me.
There's a core of males who comment frequently here, often with long comments. Some of them I just scroll through – same old sense of being an authority on some topics, with or without supporting references.
There always seems to be more guys putting lengthy comments out there than women. Don't know where their motivation or sense of having important things to say comes from. But it gets boring. I'm now very selective about whose comments I read ie whether I think it's going to be informative, something a bit new, etc.
Socialisation? That speaking is more important than listening?
My usual fast scroll through through tends to be on topics that I cannot be bothered with. Either I can't see their application to the current world (I refer to them as 'pin-dancing' comments for the theological reference), or they are well worn subjects reprising material that I read through on usenet.
I read heavily on topics that I don’t know enough about. But often what I’m looking for is supporting links as much as the argument.
I'm definitely one for long comments when I have time – usually on topics that I'm digging into at the time.
I find that leaving links is a particularly effective way of leaving a notes trail for myself. Coupled with the search system I can usually find the damn things later on when they become relevant again.
First time I've seen that thread. Certainly one way of outing the ranch sliders.
Dear anonymous moderator, the comment was on topic and relevant. Get a grip.
Don't blame the mod for the anon..
It is a single button 'Open Mike' on the moderation side, and anon because I didn't code the handle in. As much as anything else because the handle is currently free-form things like "MS".
I had to code it to not only move the comment, but also all of the replies down the hierarchy, and to handle replies that were in the process of being written. By the time I got that level of complexity working I wasn't up to doing the finesse elements.
Yeah, fair enough, Lynn. It's a good tool, when used intelligently. However, I note that the moderator in question remains anonymous and has failed to front up either here on this thread nor on the back channel request for clarification. I assume they now realise that moving the original comment was an error 😉
Who knows. I could find out. But I think I’d prefer to just put the handle into the automatic note.
I quite like it being anonymous. It depersonalises it and the automatic note makes it clear that it's a general, somewhat superficial moderation that doesn't need a lot of work or engagement. A mod can add a note if there's something more that needs to be said, and the commenter whose comment was moved can ask if they want clarification.
I'm guessing that there will be more drama if the mod's name is known every time.
That is what it was designed to be. Fair enough
If you go on CV's Twitter feed he it still singing the same old song.
For me, any reason for religion vanished when the great Charles Darwin published his findings.
FYI: They dont teach evolution in Israel but do in Iran.
And this whole BS about religion being needed because it give people ‘meaning’. Heaps of people get meaning from other places. The hundreds and thousands of medical workers who are stopping COVID from cutting great swathes through our population, their lives have meaning.
And yes, I would close down all the Catholic schools and have athiest schools in their place. And they will teach LGB rights and evolution.
Your comment is steeped in ignorance, intolerance, and insensitivity. As to your ignorance:
Catholic Schools are integrated schools since 1983 and must teach the NZ Curriculum.
https://seniorsecondary.tki.org.nz/Science/Achievement-aims/AOs-by-strand/AOs-Biology
As I recall in my Catholic school, we weren't even taught creationism let alone banning evolution theory.
There were a lot of issues with that place, but anti-evolutionism wasn't one of them.
CV isn't the best example to support your argument…
Religion isn't just about abstract philosophy or supernatural beliefs, not all of us live in our heads. Religion also provides community, culture, identity, and a moral code. As well as hope and meaning.
"Religion also provides community, culture, identity, and a moral code. As well as hope and meaning.".
Thousands of New Zealanders find it on Saturday mornings each winter (and summer) then they involve themselves in grassroots sport.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/495823-the-pandemic-winner-will-it-be-sweden-or-new-zealand
We seem to be a bit of a curiosity in the States, quite happy being here in the comments there are a few kiwis sticking up for us.
The odds are stacked.
The article implies that herd immunity is not proven but then goes on to assume it is when assigning handicaps.
The virus is wiping out care homes in Sweden (which they're blaming on the foreign workers looking after the elderly), and of course their death rate per million etc. I'd rather be here.
David P. Farrar's vile propaganda never stops
Farrar, that slimeball, has just compared those violent right wing loons who stormed the Michigan state parliament to anti-fascism protestors.
I read in an American paper that anti-vaxxers are prominent in the protests. Kind of ironic putting everyone at risk of the virus being spread and they might be there protesting about a vaccine for Covid-19 being produced.
The carrying of guns draw comments of course, like who are they going to shoot?
One Former Republican Governor of Pennsylvania has interesting views:
Tell you what… I'd vote for that man if he was still in politics. Shows there are always good people on both sides of the political spectrum who can sort the wheat from the chaff. The US is the poorer for not having enough of them.
I think David Farrar is being very honest about this armed crowd & treating them the same way as Anti-fa activists. You seem to think they are right wingers therefore bad, but Antifa & its appalling violence is OK cause they are left wing & anti-fascist.
Farrar denounces both groups which is the right thing to do, but your comments indicate you’re happy with violence if it’s your preferred political group.
maybe I have misinterpreted your stance on this ?
OK.
From what I've seen plenty in Atifa just seem to want to rumble !!
https://quillette.com/2019/06/30/antifas-brutal-assault-on-andy-ngo-is-a-wake-up-call-for-authorities-and-journalists-alike/
well, yeah, you read quillette.
Best place to get pizza recipes – or is that the other guys.
Antifa's appalling violence? What violence? Against whom?
see comment above
Ah. This would be the mythical "concrete milkshake" incident.
His fa-adjcaent compadres broke someone's back with a baton in the same protests. By definition, antifa is a response to the fa.
Seems to me antifa use proportionate and reasonable force against aggressors. I tend not to blame defenders too much when they stick to reasonable force.
Farrar, that slimeball, has just compared those violent right wing loons who stormed the Michigan state parliament to anti-fascism protestors.
Does seem a bit unfair. After all, the gun-toting alt-right wingnuts don't seem to have actually smashed anything while they were there, which would be very unusual for Antifa wingnuts.
"Warren Buffett, the legendary American investor, has sold his firm’s entire holdings in the four major US airlines, warning that the “world has changed” for the aviation industry because of the coronavirus crisis."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/03/warren-buffett-dumps-us-airline-stocks-saying-world-has-changed-after-covid-19
Well thats a serious vote of no confidence
True, but unusually slow off the mark for old Warren. I told readers here that it was time to disinvest in airlines & tourism back when the news broke of the epidemic in Wuhan about five months ago. As soon as the rate of spread got reported. And I'm no economic prognosticator, just someone quick to spot a trend & intuit the apparent trajectory.
Sadly investors dont tend to follow the wisdom of DF from down south.WB on the other hand….
Dennis you financial whizz & predictor of future events ! No doubt you also warned people of the threats due to SARS & MERS & told people to disinvest in tourism & airlines back then, but neither had any effect on those industries. I guess if you make enough premonitions then eventually one will come right.
I don’t think Warren Buffet was slow off the mark. when he sells he has to unload a massive amount of shares so large buyers have to be lined up before a sale can be put through.
It happened at the very start of April, so at about the time it was becoming obvious the shit was going to hit the fan in the airline industry. And about the last point there was going to be a buyer for that amount of airline stock.
Wonder how the buyers feel right now….
And he has just published a very good Opinion piece:
Donald Trump's four-step plan to reopen the US economy – and why it will be lethal
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/03/donald-trump-reopen-us-economy-lethal-robert-reich