Remilk, an Israeli pioneer of bio-brewing “dairy-identical” proteins, has just announced plans to build a large plant on Zealand with an output equivalent to the milk from 50,000 cows a year. It estimates its process, compared with farming, will use 1 percent of the land, generate 4 percent of the greenhouse gases and use 5 percent of the water.
ReMilk’s big leap into commercial production is well-backed by investors. A few months ago, it raised US$120 million in its Series B funding. It’s in good company. Perfect Day, Real Deal Milk, Change Foods, Imagindairy, Formo and betterland foods are just some of the other companies abroad making rapid progress on animal-free and climate compatible dairy foods.
Rod's referring to "the Danish island." I thought Abel Tasman named this country after a Dutch province, but perhaps the name gets around a fair bit. Anyway, Muldoon told the nation to wean itself off traditional dependency on Britain, so it switched to dependency on China instead. Rod's pointing to a way traditionalists here could get off switching from one tit to another and become independent instead.
But why would ReMilk invest in Kalundborg, a town of 16,000 people in Danish dairy country 100km west of Copenhagen? Because for some decades the town and its businesses have been on a journey towards deep sustainability. In doing so, they are very strategic, highly collaborative and fully commercial long-term thinkers and doers.
The town calls its project The Symbiosis because waste products, surplus energy and other by-products from some 20 businesses become inputs for others. Just in the past five years, these relationships have saved 4 million cubic metres of groundwater by using surface water, cut CO2 emissions by 586,000 tonnes and recycled 62,000 tonnes of residual materials.
Danes smart, kiwis dumb. No, I take that back. Kiwi capitalists, National & Labour parties – the establishment – dumb.
Since 2015, Symbiosis members have cut their CO2 emissions by 80 percent and the local energy supply has become CO2 neutral. The main power plant, owned by Ørsted, is the largest in Denmark and once the largest coal-fired one, now runs on biomass. It supplies electricity and heat to local homes and businesses, and steam to two local pharmaceutical plants. The relationships in The Symbiosis are all commercial and mutually-beneficial ones negotiated between the parties.
They extend well beyond the industrial park to include the likes of some farmers, a soil remediation company, a fish processing plant, recycling facilities, other businesses and the municipal government. This large commercial community is renowned for its high degree of trust and collaboration…
Our resource use, production systems and supply chains remain unrelentingly linear and wasteful. Thankfully, though, we have some pioneers. One is the Sustainable Business Network, which recently launched the country’s first Circular Economy Directory; another is Āmiomio Aotearoa, a circular economy research project at Waikato University. A third to watch is the Ngāwha Innovation and Enterprise Park under construction outside Kaikohe in the Far North.
Thank you Frank. We need more of these Circular economies and less of the Contact Acts race to the bottom model.
Learning to see money as an exchange mechanism and resources as finite.
Investing needs to be in areas that sustain not destroy.
Every industry changes and the thinking evolves pressured by better ways, and people drive that change in spite of the diehards.
The Ngawha Industrial Park got $20m for the Provincial Growth Fund, so this government can claim it. The western and central Far North need all the help that they can get.
The most complete agricultural research-led city we have is Palmerston North, where Massey University has massive research foundations and spinoffs that rotate around DairyNZ and Fonterra's global R&D headquarters.
The rate of patent growth and spinoff production is remarkably small for what is put into it. And there's not a native tree in sight for many kilometres.
Well, let's see the minister in charge actually doing so to the media & public! I recall Anderton promoting regional development, so it ain't as if mainstreamers are incapable of seeing the need – it's more as is there's a problem with the doing.
Nothing wrong with govts marketing their achievements as models & exemplars of how to make progress. I've had the distinct impression with this govt that pandemic focus has too much distracted them from general governance – they need to get a balanced perspective on things. No point deferring pr, then doing a boast in election year. Embed perception of achievements in the public mind now.
Many Maori have been held back over the years from better jobs because of that saying. Unwilling to convey at interview how good they were and what skills they have.
Some of the fault lies with a western style of interview but I've seen really good people miss out many times on jobs they should have got and incompetent people who can promote themselves at interview well get the job instead.
Ok, thanks. I wonder why the spelling got changed. That must have happened in the 18th century, presumably. Map-makers, English, not Dutch. Map used by Cook.
From the "Win Friends and Influence People (not)" file:
Russia's Foreign Minister, Lavrov really upset the Israelis by claiming that Hitler had Jewish origins. The point of the claim was to make a case that Ukrainian president Zelensky could also be a Nazi, despite having Jewish ancestors.
Up until now Israel had remained neutral with respect to the Ukraine conflict due to co-operation between Israel and Russia with respect to the local conflicts that Israel has an interest in. However, this sort of comment from Lavrov probably is the most inflammatory thing he could say to swing Israel behind in Ukraine.
Given Israel's own military expertise and innovation forged in existential conflicts against much larger forces over the last 70 years, Russia probably doesn't need Israel sharing its knowledge with Ukraine, arming them with weaponry, or offering training to Ukrainian forces.
The actions of Israel itself towards the Palestinians leans more towards ethnic cleansing than moral rectitude
They are certainly forgiving of Zelensky's terrible gaffes.
Likud MK Yuval Steinitz said it “borders on Holocaust denial.”
“War is always a terrible thing… but every comparison between a regular war, as difficult as it is, and the extermination of millions of Jews in gas chambers in the framework of the Final Solution is a complete distortion of history,” he said in a statement.
A number of Religious Zionism MKs also criticized Zelensky, with the far-right opposition party’s leader, Bezalel Smotrich, slamming the Holocaust comparisons and accusing the Ukrainian leader of trying “to rewrite history and erase the involvement of the Ukrainian people in the extermination of Jews.”
Yes, I realise my post could branch off into the Palestinian issue.
I am not well qualified to comment on that so won’t, other than to say that Israel and Russia co-operate around Syria. So, I guess, from a Palestinian perspective, any breakdown between Russia and Israel has to be positive for them if it means Israel has to focus more of its own resources on its issues with Syria.
To reach Gorge River head south from Haast & walk for a couple of days. Chris Long gives us a glimpse into life as a child there:
One of my earliest memories is of helping Mum and Dad collect sedge-grass seed to make flour. Sedge grass grows along the sides of the airstrip and on each spiky stalk is a marble-sized seed that looks a bit like a light brown, fluffy ball. We would dry the seeds in a metal camping pot behind the chimney of our wood fire. Once they were dry, Mum would grind them into flour. If we had wheat, she would also dry and grind that to make heavy wholegrain flour and I would watch intently as she mixed some of it together with the sedge-grass flour, yeast, salt and water in her stainless- steel bowl to make a thick brown dough. Mum would leave the dough to rise for an hour while she stoked the fire with dry wood and placed a large aluminium camp oven on top of the firebox to preheat.
Then she’d bake the bread for two hours in a round enamel baking pan, turning it over just before it was done to finish cooking the top. The bread from that camp oven smelled so good and tasted delicious with its thick, crunchy crust. We didn’t always have much to put on the bread when I was young, but we might have some butter or jam or canola oil and that was extra exciting. We always had Vegemite because hunters would leave it in the hut next door.
We also ate bull kelp. The huge ten-metre swells that come straight from the Southern Ocean regularly tear clumps from the rocks and after a big storm we would always search the beaches for freshly washed-up kelp. My favourite way to eat it was to dry 30-centimetre lengths behind the fire for a few days until it was crunchy. I loved the salty flavour that tasted like the sea. Mum would also grind it up to make kelp powder, which I see is now very expensive in some shops. Dad liked to make a pudding out of fresh kelp tentacles chopped into three-centimetre lengths that floated in a milky broth.
Almost all the food we ate in the early years came from the wilderness around Gorge River. This was not only because we wanted to be self-sufficient but also because with an income of just $2000 a year we couldn’t afford to fly food in from the supermarket by plane.
While Mum did most of the gardening, Dad would do the fishing (with me always by his side). Whenever the weather allowed, he would set a gill net in the river mouth at low tide, and he would retrieve it the next morning. A net is more efficient than a fishing rod at Gorge River and in summer he would usually return with a few yellow-eyed mullet or a big kahawai in the bucket. During the winter months it’s harder to catch fish in the river and he would often have to go to the south end of the airstrip to catch ‘kelpies’ (blue-striped wrasse) on a hand line in the rock pools on the incoming tide. Some days he would stand down there surrounded by crashing waves for hours through the middle of a cold southerly storm just to catch us enough fish for dinner. He would never give up.
I saw the tv story on NZ's remotest family years ago. Chris has since become a globetrotter, travelling to 66 countries so far. His dad dropped out of medical school & travelled in India before settling in the hut in 1980. His mum was a microbiologist. Both his parents have since had their autobiographies published.
As it happens the reason why Robert found Gorge River is because I told him about the place and gave him a map of the area. An old 1 inch to the 4 mile map titled Cascade.
Robert grew up in Toowoomba and is the cousin of a very old friend of mine. We met in Auckland sometime around 1976 just after I got back from a season tramping and climbing in the SI. We naturally connected and spent the evening looking at maps. He asked a lot of questions and it was when I suggested to him that the Cascade River was really the last major SI river without a road bridge anywhere along its length that I think he became intrigued by the area. I had also seen the mining company hut at the mouth of the Gorge River and showed him a picture of it.
He left a day or so later and I never heard much more of him until 2001 when I had taken a break from work that summer and was travelling down the West Coast on my own. Spent a night at Haast and decided it might be interesting to visit. The two day walk down the coast is a very cool tramp (read – major boulder hop). When I finally got to GR it was late in the day and the tide was full slack, so I waded chest deep across the lagoon entrance and plodded dripping wet the 60m or so up to their home.
Robert was in his little workshop at the entrance, looked up, immediately recognised me – and said 'So you want your map back?'
Stayed a couple of days before returning to the road end via a much more challenging route up the GR, crossing over into the upper Cascade and pack-floating down the three major gorges.
During the winter months it’s harder to catch fish in the river and he would often have to go to the south end of the airstrip to catch ‘kelpies’ (blue-striped wrasse) on a hand line in the rock pools on the incoming tide. Some days he would stand down there surrounded by crashing waves for hours through the middle of a cold southerly storm just to catch us enough fish for dinner.
The memory most clearly stuck in my mind was fishing for those exact same kelpies on those rocks one evening with their son Christian, who was about 10 at the time. We both used handlines and within about 20 min had at least 6 fish for dinner and breakfast.
His natural self-composure, competence and ease in the landscape made me realise that while I was comfortable visiting – he was totally at home. That growing up with the natural world, encountering hardship and risk, learning to accept and manage this was something most children in the modern world are very much missing out on.
While Robert had clearly chosen to turn away from modernity as much as he could, they were never hermits. They enjoyed my visit as much as I did, and there was never a sense of rejecting the outside world. Indeed they saw many visitors, trampers, pilots and fishermen during the course of a year. During periods of rough weather they would be isolated physically – but never socially or intellectually. Part of their success I think is this realisation that they could control their relationship with the outside world, but not sever it entirely. Indeed they recognised their ongoing dependence on it.
When I was there they had just started installing solar and were moving beyond the early primitive stage of their life. The children were going to leave home one day, and they understood the need to make that transition possible for them. Of course both parents were highly educated and had diligently worked to pass much of this on.
Interesting comment Dennis – I could write a great deal more about that visit. Of all the things Robert and Catherine did, I suspect their children would be what they could be most proud of.
This archived story from 12 years back includes the visitor thing (something strange happened to the photo in the archive process). Having the airstrip adjacent is remarkable – wonder what originated that. Did he tell you?
Great story Red. As someone who has tramped the "major boulder hop" with a friend from the Cascade River to Gunn's Camp in 1985 (and then up the Deadman's Track to Glenorchy) I can relate to this. We heard about Robert on the way, I think when we stayed in the Gorge River hut.
Robert’s son Christian Long, who wrote the book quoted by Dennis above, was interviewed on RNZ a few weeks ago-I think it was on nine to noon-it was really interesting and backs up your post as to his self-composure and that the family never really tried to leave civilisation behind. Indeed Christian went to Mount Aspiring college here in Wanaka for a year.
I've watched a few videos on this family with some envy. Not sure if it's covered in the book but I wonder how he has, or if he requires permission to occupy this hut and live on the land. Assuming he doesn't own either.
So there must have been a caretaker living there once upon a time! The tramper's hut is adjacent – a separate building – photo of that on the DOC website. The airstrip gets used regularly (according to the Longs) by those who can afford to fly in – they probably stay in that hut. Not many squatters achieve long-term habitation, eh?
Thank for that info Dennis. That really is quite incredible. Amazing that no-one has taken the pip somewhere along the line and booted them out. Good on them, they have made the most of it.
I remember a film about the takeover of Greece by an army coup that likened the left wing in Greece as a cancer that needed cutting out.
The title escapes me now but the central image of a cancer invasion really stayed and should serve as a warning , too, that the use of allusion and comparative imagery is a two-edged sword.
Words are a sword according to how they are arranged.
That is why I said ''it seems''. But other sources are saying similar if you have a look around. I guess all will become clear if Putin goes off the scene in a few days and the other guy takes his place as is speculated.
Pipsqueak has problems: "I have a problem with poverty, I have a problem with people lacking opportunity…"
"Where does that come from," Swarbrick interjected, "that comes from that inequality." But Seymour disagreed saying, "No, it comes from having an education system that is not engaging kids, it comes from having an infrastructure funding regime that makes it hard to get homes built and it comes from a lack of investment and innovation that creates high paying interesting jobs that are globally connected."
Those three groups that are causing his problems: education bureaucrats & teachers stuck in the 19th century, politicians & capitalists providing too little funds, and capitalists lying down on the job instead of investing & innovating.
Which rather points to another problem he's got. Inability to tell the media that these groups are making his life difficult. Could be that he doesn't want to alienate them? Obfuscate instead. Problem: obfuscating makes voters think he's Labour. Poor bugger, he's surrounded by them. It's like a boxthorn thicket. Perceptive viewers probably thought he was mental. "Hey, dude's just advocating more neoliberalism like National & Labour. Why would anyone think he could do it any better?" Still, if he can split the neoliberal vote three ways, he's providing a classic re-run of divide & rule – which will appeal to conservatives. Chloe didn't notice.
If she had, pointing out that almost 40 years of neoliberal failure produced the inequality problem would have impressed plenty of viewers. They would reflect on it later: "Hmm, things have indeed got worse since the mid-1980s." They'd been getting worse under Muldoon too, however. It's the system, not the ideology.
Useful reminder from Minister Roberston this morning on the recycling of proceeds from the Emissions Trading Scheme into the Climate Emergency Response Fund.
This will fund the programmes required to meet the targets set by the Climate Commission. The big polluters paying in will be the likes of Fonterra and BP and whomever now owns Z.
It will work very much like the National Land Transport Fund for transport projects, where fuel excise and road user charges are fully dedicated to transport investment. ie can't be robbed for other projects.
It's going to generate $4.5 billion to 2025.
I'd expect we'd get quite a bit more detail in the budget beyond the first go from Ardern's initial 'emissions reduction plan' which seems to have mostly gone on subsidising new electric cars. Ideally we'll get a first list of projects.
Not quite sure how it will work together with other funds like NLTF and Green Infrastructure Finance. Nor exactly which Department will administer and choose the projects. Likely the Infrastructure Commission will have a strong say, hopefully not MfE.
But if you want to think big and bold, here's a big new funding pot to grab.
The comparison between Robertson's grasp of the way forward and Luxon's griping speech with no concrete suggestions. The Herald and other Publications "moved on", and have enlarged on Robertson's take.
I think the next Poll might show a slackening in the slide. The answers you wanted are rolling in Ad.
If Roberston goes the usual Labour-Green way of big spending promises way into the future, versus National's way of short term tax cuts, National will win the next election.
It's not whether Robertson is generating an answer, it's whether he has the right question.
The American Taliban strikes again, and why elections matter.
The US Supreme Court is about to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and if Alito's comments are any guide is pretty open on turning back the clock on decriminalising homosexuality and getting rid of same-sex marriage.
Does anyone know why Winston Peters has been been trespassed from the Parliament grounds for a period of two years?
Are all people known to have simply visited the area at the time of the protests also being trespassed? I presume all those known to have actually occupied the area for days have received the same order.
If occupying the grounds was illegal, is merely visiting there punishable in a lesser way by a trespass order?
The Green Party has removed a rule which requires one of its co-leaders to be male, which the party says affirms its commitment to provide leadership opportunities for non-binary and intersex people.
The party originally had a requirement to have one male co-leader and one female co-leader. One co-leader still needs to be female, however now the other person can be of any gender. They have also included a rule that one co-leader is Māori.
The move was part of constitutional considerations decided at a special general meeting. It was also decided to adopt a te ao Māori organisational framework within the party, create a new party council to provide leadership and to formally recognise the role of Green Party members who are on local councils.
So it's the end of the era in which the Greens envisaged gaining broad public support. Life on the margins of politics is their terminal choice. Sad. Their learning around the consequences of using an extreme-left posture has been zero – all the periods when they rose above the initial 7% of 1990 were proven to be a bubble, blown away by a fresh political wind a few years later.
Can they survive as the Cinderella party, perpetually dependent on ugly sisters for a role in govt? Possibly – that depends on other minor parties failing to become centrist or the dumb & dumber mainstreamer parties exhibiting sufficient competence to impress centrists again. The pc vote is only worth a few per cent so it's an own goal.
Niche marketing. Doesn't really work in politics, where traditionally the broad church ethos prevails – that's why Labour & National copy each other all the time.
So late the year before last they censored an 80 yr old feminist & I decided not to renew my membership. Discriminating against women is stupid.
Now they're sending the signal that they want to discriminate against men too. As if men hadn't already been alienated by years of petty drivel from the Greens! Apparently they felt there weren't enough nails in the male vote coffin.
It has never talked to males in the language they understand. It hasn't even tried to do that. Okay, I'll concede that Rod Donald did eventually figure it out – but Russel Norman never did & James only does so on pragmatism – not via lingo – and that isn't sufficient (due to him not doing centrist framing). Female Green leaders have also been blind to the problem, of course.
Tonal, mainly. I suspect it emerged from biological signalling originally. Operates similarly to emotional intelligence (which most men lack). But I agree that the two points you made are part of the whole.
If one co-leader is required to identify as a female – they could end up with 2 blokes. It will be interesting to see how they define "female". I bet they won't be able to define "woman".
constitution currently uses the term female (which isn't defined), and doesn't say anything about identifying. Am very interested to see what the new wording is.
Greens are tracking at 9% and would need a managerial fuckup of 2017 proportions not to get more seats than last time.
Their vote is so solid they could constitutionally require every candidate to be a trans-sexual dolphin sucking harpooned whale blood and they'd still poll 9%.
I tend to agree. Mostly it's about whether current Labour voters will go Green in 2023, and that will be affected by many factors including those outside of the GP's control. eg how well Ardern and Labour are doing.
I am someone who has voted left my entire life starting with Values, been a Green Party member off an on, and done a stint as a branch co-convener. I am a grey hair who tried to do the mahi and contribute, not just talk. But in recent years I have lost confidence in the party and its leadership and consider it has lost its way.
I have progressively pulled back as it has continued to disappoint as it has shot itself in the foot again and again.
I then switched my energy to XR but it imploded.
I continued to vote Red/Green but can't anymore.
When the total focus should have been on climate collapse Davidson was reclaiming the C word. Gender issues are important but I sense that the Greens will be be pleased with their focus on gender/sex issues while the world drowns or goes up in flames around them.
I now have no party to vote for. Labour are unrepentant neoliberals who habitually over-promise and under-deliver while the Greens for me have become a joke. I tried to hang in there Weka, I really did.
I will vote on climate at the next election, there's just no question for me of not voting and allowing Labour or National to have all the power.
Gender issues are important but I sense that the Greens will be be pleased with their focus on gender/sex issues while the world drowns or goes up in flames around them.
This makes me wonder what you see? Is it what is in the MSM? The membership emails? The MP speeches or twitter or FB? Gender/sex is a pretty small part of what they do. Climate is a huge part of what they do.
Nice limb you've parked yourself out on the end of. Will the next poll saw it off? Put it this way, if the Green vote holds up they will feel vindicated, and you could be right. In that case I would reserve judgment until the poll after that. Folks often take a while to digest political changes. They mull stuff over awhile. I do agree that the sea-level news would tend to spook more people into supporting the Greens though.
Someone needs to tell the Russians it is not a good idea to smoke in an ammunition factory. Especially one that produces critical ammunition and components for the Russian war effort.
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
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TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
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In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
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Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
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Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
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Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
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Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
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Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
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Economist Rod Oram:
Rod's referring to "the Danish island." I thought Abel Tasman named this country after a Dutch province, but perhaps the name gets around a fair bit. Anyway, Muldoon told the nation to wean itself off traditional dependency on Britain, so it switched to dependency on China instead. Rod's pointing to a way traditionalists here could get off switching from one tit to another and become independent instead.
Danes smart, kiwis dumb. No, I take that back. Kiwi capitalists, National & Labour parties – the establishment – dumb.
Rod visited that last one, a model regional development, and goes into a bit of detail about it. Welcome good news! https://www.newsroom.co.nz/rod-oram-old-zealand-teaches-new-zealand-to-use-its-natural-resources-fully-without-waste
Thank you Frank. We need more of these Circular economies and less of the Contact Acts race to the bottom model.
Learning to see money as an exchange mechanism and resources as finite.
Investing needs to be in areas that sustain not destroy.
Every industry changes and the thinking evolves pressured by better ways, and people drive that change in spite of the diehards.
The Ngawha Industrial Park got $20m for the Provincial Growth Fund, so this government can claim it. The western and central Far North need all the help that they can get.
The most complete agricultural research-led city we have is Palmerston North, where Massey University has massive research foundations and spinoffs that rotate around DairyNZ and Fonterra's global R&D headquarters.
The rate of patent growth and spinoff production is remarkably small for what is put into it. And there's not a native tree in sight for many kilometres.
this government can claim it
Well, let's see the minister in charge actually doing so to the media & public! I recall Anderton promoting regional development, so it ain't as if mainstreamers are incapable of seeing the need – it's more as is there's a problem with the doing.
Nothing wrong with govts marketing their achievements as models & exemplars of how to make progress. I've had the distinct impression with this govt that pandemic focus has too much distracted them from general governance – they need to get a balanced perspective on things. No point deferring pr, then doing a boast in election year. Embed perception of achievements in the public mind now.
The kumara does not sing of its own sweetness, as Shane Jones often said.
Many Maori have been held back over the years from better jobs because of that saying. Unwilling to convey at interview how good they were and what skills they have.
Some of the fault lies with a western style of interview but I've seen really good people miss out many times on jobs they should have got and incompetent people who can promote themselves at interview well get the job instead.
Before you get to the interview, you have to get through the first filter first and be shortlisted and selected …
That too.
Zealand is the large Danish island that Copenhagen is on.
Zeeland is the Dutch province.
Ok, thanks. I wonder why the spelling got changed. That must have happened in the 18th century, presumably. Map-makers, English, not Dutch. Map used by Cook.
From the "Win Friends and Influence People (not)" file:
Russia's Foreign Minister, Lavrov really upset the Israelis by claiming that Hitler had Jewish origins. The point of the claim was to make a case that Ukrainian president Zelensky could also be a Nazi, despite having Jewish ancestors.
Up until now Israel had remained neutral with respect to the Ukraine conflict due to co-operation between Israel and Russia with respect to the local conflicts that Israel has an interest in. However, this sort of comment from Lavrov probably is the most inflammatory thing he could say to swing Israel behind in Ukraine.
Given Israel's own military expertise and innovation forged in existential conflicts against much larger forces over the last 70 years, Russia probably doesn't need Israel sharing its knowledge with Ukraine, arming them with weaponry, or offering training to Ukrainian forces.
Israel may have had a change of heart about supporting Ukraine.
https://youtu.be/_CoeRNJFcgo
Great if this is true. The recent comments by Lavrov may have made the decision a lot easier for them.
Going back to 2018 before this conflict…
Rights groups demand Israel stop arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine – Israel News – Haaretz.com
I imagine also the U.S is leaning on its dependencies to come to their…'party'.
Probably a bit outshone by the fact that Putin is behaving more like a Nazi than anyone else.
Hmmm
The actions of Israel itself towards the Palestinians leans more towards ethnic cleansing than moral rectitude
They are certainly forgiving of Zelensky's terrible gaffes.
“War is always a terrible thing… but every comparison between a regular war, as difficult as it is, and the extermination of millions of Jews in gas chambers in the framework of the Final Solution is a complete distortion of history,” he said in a statement.
A number of Religious Zionism MKs also criticized Zelensky, with the far-right opposition party’s leader, Bezalel Smotrich, slamming the Holocaust comparisons and accusing the Ukrainian leader of trying “to rewrite history and erase the involvement of the Ukrainian people in the extermination of Jews.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-lawmakers-tear-into-zelensky-for-holocaust-comparisons-in-knesset-speech/
And of course the Palestinians and Jews for Peace were singularly unimpressed
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/palestinians-slam-zelenskys-speech-knesset
https://www.jpost.com/bds-threat/article-700881
Yes, I realise my post could branch off into the Palestinian issue.
I am not well qualified to comment on that so won’t, other than to say that Israel and Russia co-operate around Syria. So, I guess, from a Palestinian perspective, any breakdown between Russia and Israel has to be positive for them if it means Israel has to focus more of its own resources on its issues with Syria.
The official opposition falls into line.
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1521187952461762566
To reach Gorge River head south from Haast & walk for a couple of days. Chris Long gives us a glimpse into life as a child there:
I saw the tv story on NZ's remotest family years ago. Chris has since become a globetrotter, travelling to 66 countries so far. His dad dropped out of medical school & travelled in India before settling in the hut in 1980. His mum was a microbiologist. Both his parents have since had their autobiographies published.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/tv-guide/69742208/meet-new-zealands-most-remote-family
As it happens the reason why Robert found Gorge River is because I told him about the place and gave him a map of the area. An old 1 inch to the 4 mile map titled Cascade.
Robert grew up in Toowoomba and is the cousin of a very old friend of mine. We met in Auckland sometime around 1976 just after I got back from a season tramping and climbing in the SI. We naturally connected and spent the evening looking at maps. He asked a lot of questions and it was when I suggested to him that the Cascade River was really the last major SI river without a road bridge anywhere along its length that I think he became intrigued by the area. I had also seen the mining company hut at the mouth of the Gorge River and showed him a picture of it.
He left a day or so later and I never heard much more of him until 2001 when I had taken a break from work that summer and was travelling down the West Coast on my own. Spent a night at Haast and decided it might be interesting to visit. The two day walk down the coast is a very cool tramp (read – major boulder hop). When I finally got to GR it was late in the day and the tide was full slack, so I waded chest deep across the lagoon entrance and plodded dripping wet the 60m or so up to their home.
Robert was in his little workshop at the entrance, looked up, immediately recognised me – and said 'So you want your map back?'
Stayed a couple of days before returning to the road end via a much more challenging route up the GR, crossing over into the upper Cascade and pack-floating down the three major gorges.
During the winter months it’s harder to catch fish in the river and he would often have to go to the south end of the airstrip to catch ‘kelpies’ (blue-striped wrasse) on a hand line in the rock pools on the incoming tide. Some days he would stand down there surrounded by crashing waves for hours through the middle of a cold southerly storm just to catch us enough fish for dinner.
The memory most clearly stuck in my mind was fishing for those exact same kelpies on those rocks one evening with their son Christian, who was about 10 at the time. We both used handlines and within about 20 min had at least 6 fish for dinner and breakfast.
His natural self-composure, competence and ease in the landscape made me realise that while I was comfortable visiting – he was totally at home. That growing up with the natural world, encountering hardship and risk, learning to accept and manage this was something most children in the modern world are very much missing out on.
While Robert had clearly chosen to turn away from modernity as much as he could, they were never hermits. They enjoyed my visit as much as I did, and there was never a sense of rejecting the outside world. Indeed they saw many visitors, trampers, pilots and fishermen during the course of a year. During periods of rough weather they would be isolated physically – but never socially or intellectually. Part of their success I think is this realisation that they could control their relationship with the outside world, but not sever it entirely. Indeed they recognised their ongoing dependence on it.
When I was there they had just started installing solar and were moving beyond the early primitive stage of their life. The children were going to leave home one day, and they understood the need to make that transition possible for them. Of course both parents were highly educated and had diligently worked to pass much of this on.
Interesting comment Dennis – I could write a great deal more about that visit. Of all the things Robert and Catherine did, I suspect their children would be what they could be most proud of.
Wonderful anecdote…Red.
Excellent, very much appreciated!
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serendipity
This archived story from 12 years back includes the visitor thing (something strange happened to the photo in the archive process). Having the airstrip adjacent is remarkable – wonder what originated that. Did he tell you?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/visitors-keep-coming-for-faraway-family/YMM5PIXIOKHEMVZAARG43QCEUM/
Oh, and they have a website now: http://gorgeriver.org/index.html
Great story Red. As someone who has tramped the "major boulder hop" with a friend from the Cascade River to Gunn's Camp in 1985 (and then up the Deadman's Track to Glenorchy) I can relate to this. We heard about Robert on the way, I think when we stayed in the Gorge River hut.
Robert’s son Christian Long, who wrote the book quoted by Dennis above, was interviewed on RNZ a few weeks ago-I think it was on nine to noon-it was really interesting and backs up your post as to his self-composure and that the family never really tried to leave civilisation behind. Indeed Christian went to Mount Aspiring college here in Wanaka for a year.
Epic!
I've watched a few videos on this family with some envy. Not sure if it's covered in the book but I wonder how he has, or if he requires permission to occupy this hut and live on the land. Assuming he doesn't own either.
Looks like they're allowed to live there:
So there must have been a caretaker living there once upon a time! The tramper's hut is adjacent – a separate building – photo of that on the DOC website. The airstrip gets used regularly (according to the Longs) by those who can afford to fly in – they probably stay in that hut. Not many squatters achieve long-term habitation, eh?
Thank for that info Dennis. That really is quite incredible. Amazing that no-one has taken the pip somewhere along the line and booted them out. Good on them, they have made the most of it.
It seems that cancer is suffering from Putin and is going under surgery to have Putin removed from it. Hopefully cancer makes a full recovery.
Very clever TS. Never thought to sympathise with Cancer.
Rogue cells. The body politic has them, too.
I remember a film about the takeover of Greece by an army coup that likened the left wing in Greece as a cancer that needed cutting out.
The title escapes me now but the central image of a cancer invasion really stayed and should serve as a warning , too, that the use of allusion and comparative imagery is a two-edged sword.
Words are a sword according to how they are arranged.
Very good mac.
From your link…
'
Asked about the report Monday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said it could not be confirmed.
“I have seen nothing that could help us corroborate that,” he said.
That is why I said ''it seems''. But other sources are saying similar if you have a look around. I guess all will become clear if Putin goes off the scene in a few days and the other guy takes his place as is speculated.
Be best for the world to have cancer win a battle with PooTin
Pipsqueak has problems: "I have a problem with poverty, I have a problem with people lacking opportunity…"
Those three groups that are causing his problems: education bureaucrats & teachers stuck in the 19th century, politicians & capitalists providing too little funds, and capitalists lying down on the job instead of investing & innovating.
Which rather points to another problem he's got. Inability to tell the media that these groups are making his life difficult. Could be that he doesn't want to alienate them? Obfuscate instead. Problem: obfuscating makes voters think he's Labour. Poor bugger, he's surrounded by them. It's like a boxthorn thicket. Perceptive viewers probably thought he was mental. "Hey, dude's just advocating more neoliberalism like National & Labour. Why would anyone think he could do it any better?" Still, if he can split the neoliberal vote three ways, he's providing a classic re-run of divide & rule – which will appeal to conservatives. Chloe didn't notice.
If she had, pointing out that almost 40 years of neoliberal failure produced the inequality problem would have impressed plenty of viewers. They would reflect on it later: "Hmm, things have indeed got worse since the mid-1980s." They'd been getting worse under Muldoon too, however. It's the system, not the ideology.
Useful reminder from Minister Roberston this morning on the recycling of proceeds from the Emissions Trading Scheme into the Climate Emergency Response Fund.
This will fund the programmes required to meet the targets set by the Climate Commission. The big polluters paying in will be the likes of Fonterra and BP and whomever now owns Z.
It will work very much like the National Land Transport Fund for transport projects, where fuel excise and road user charges are fully dedicated to transport investment. ie can't be robbed for other projects.
It's going to generate $4.5 billion to 2025.
I'd expect we'd get quite a bit more detail in the budget beyond the first go from Ardern's initial 'emissions reduction plan' which seems to have mostly gone on subsidising new electric cars. Ideally we'll get a first list of projects.
Not quite sure how it will work together with other funds like NLTF and Green Infrastructure Finance. Nor exactly which Department will administer and choose the projects. Likely the Infrastructure Commission will have a strong say, hopefully not MfE.
But if you want to think big and bold, here's a big new funding pot to grab.
The comparison between Robertson's grasp of the way forward and Luxon's griping speech with no concrete suggestions. The Herald and other Publications "moved on", and have enlarged on Robertson's take.
I think the next Poll might show a slackening in the slide. The answers you wanted are rolling in Ad.
If Roberston goes the usual Labour-Green way of big spending promises way into the future, versus National's way of short term tax cuts, National will win the next election.
It's not whether Robertson is generating an answer, it's whether he has the right question.
It appears we are paying for covid and inflation. Let us hope the budget has an affect.
The American Taliban strikes again, and why elections matter.
The US Supreme Court is about to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and if Alito's comments are any guide is pretty open on turning back the clock on decriminalising homosexuality and getting rid of same-sex marriage.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473
Does anyone know why Winston Peters has been been trespassed from the Parliament grounds for a period of two years?
Are all people known to have simply visited the area at the time of the protests also being trespassed? I presume all those known to have actually occupied the area for days have received the same order.
If occupying the grounds was illegal, is merely visiting there punishable in a lesser way by a trespass order?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/convoy-protest-fallout-winston-peters-says-hes-been-trespassed-from-parliament-blasts-banana-republic-decision/VYJQGFNHVBPSQ7KEUHMJNKEL4Q/
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Winston would have been even more offended if he had not been trespassed.
Winston gets the political gift he sowed at the protest.
They just need a 4% showing in the next poll and it's HE'S BAAAAAACKK!!!
News flash!
Politicians make complete dicks of themselves….meanwhile in the real world shit happens.
This is hilarious! Winston Peters trespassed from Parliament!
Convoy protest fallout: Winston Peters says he's been trespassed from Parliament, blasts 'banana republic' decision – NZ Herald
This will be an interesting decision for the judge to make.
Gunpoint stand-off before teen burglar's finger cut off, court hears | Stuff.co.nz
Greens lunge for the pc vote:
So it's the end of the era in which the Greens envisaged gaining broad public support. Life on the margins of politics is their terminal choice. Sad. Their learning around the consequences of using an extreme-left posture has been zero – all the periods when they rose above the initial 7% of 1990 were proven to be a bubble, blown away by a fresh political wind a few years later.
Can they survive as the Cinderella party, perpetually dependent on ugly sisters for a role in govt? Possibly – that depends on other minor parties failing to become centrist or the dumb & dumber mainstreamer parties exhibiting sufficient competence to impress centrists again. The pc vote is only worth a few per cent so it's an own goal.
what's the problem exactly? (other than that you think it's a mistake politically).
what's the problem exactly?
Niche marketing. Doesn't really work in politics, where traditionally the broad church ethos prevails – that's why Labour & National copy each other all the time.
So late the year before last they censored an 80 yr old feminist & I decided not to renew my membership. Discriminating against women is stupid.
Now they're sending the signal that they want to discriminate against men too. As if men hadn't already been alienated by years of petty drivel from the Greens! Apparently they felt there weren't enough nails in the male vote coffin.
so your main objection is that this change discriminates against men?
how have men been alienated by the party in the past?
It has never talked to males in the language they understand. It hasn't even tried to do that. Okay, I'll concede that Rod Donald did eventually figure it out – but Russel Norman never did & James only does so on pragmatism – not via lingo – and that isn't sufficient (due to him not doing centrist framing). Female Green leaders have also been blind to the problem, of course.
Men speak a transactional language and view relationships and thus politics as closed & exclusive and a zero-sum game.
Women speak a relational language and view relationships and thus politics as open & inclusive and unlimited.
That it? Or are you referring to some other way of stereotyping of the sexes – there are so many to choose from.
Tonal, mainly. I suspect it emerged from biological signalling originally. Operates similarly to emotional intelligence (which most men lack). But I agree that the two points you made are part of the whole.
that's the start of an interesting post.
Yes, it would be interesting to read, but not easy to write.
Do they not grunt enough?
what would be some examples? I don't quite get what you mean other than very generally.
It's not the sort of thing one can readily give examples of. Not stereotypical stuff either. More subtle than that…
If it can't be named, how could people in the party address it?
By knowing that you need good male leadership as much as good female leadership. And selecting for both.
you haven't explained why though. Other than to say that you don't like the change and you believe that a significant number of men won't like it too.
If one co-leader is required to identify as a female – they could end up with 2 blokes. It will be interesting to see how they define "female". I bet they won't be able to define "woman".
constitution currently uses the term female (which isn't defined), and doesn't say anything about identifying. Am very interested to see what the new wording is.
https://elections.nz/assets/Party-rules/Green-Party-Rules-and-Constitution-May-2020.pdf
Here's Shaw from this afternoon,
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/james-shaw-on-green-party-constitution-changes/7VCMHFLRZ5NKV4FQR3ORWQ43XM/
Greens are tracking at 9% and would need a managerial fuckup of 2017 proportions not to get more seats than last time.
Their vote is so solid they could constitutionally require every candidate to be a trans-sexual dolphin sucking harpooned whale blood and they'd still poll 9%.
Lol, not quite, but I agree it's unlikely they would be out of parliament next election. Unless they did something like Turei's speech in 2017.
I think Denis is pointing to the idea that the Greens could grow over time. Does this policy make 20 MPs at some point more or less likely?
Depends much more on the Shaw Show in 2 weeks.
I tend to agree. Mostly it's about whether current Labour voters will go Green in 2023, and that will be affected by many factors including those outside of the GP's control. eg how well Ardern and Labour are doing.
Yeah I agree with that. Multiple influential factors at play, some cancelling each other out.
Way less likely. The Greens are going backwards.
I am someone who has voted left my entire life starting with Values, been a Green Party member off an on, and done a stint as a branch co-convener. I am a grey hair who tried to do the mahi and contribute, not just talk. But in recent years I have lost confidence in the party and its leadership and consider it has lost its way.
I have progressively pulled back as it has continued to disappoint as it has shot itself in the foot again and again.
I then switched my energy to XR but it imploded.
I continued to vote Red/Green but can't anymore.
When the total focus should have been on climate collapse Davidson was reclaiming the C word. Gender issues are important but I sense that the Greens will be be pleased with their focus on gender/sex issues while the world drowns or goes up in flames around them.
I now have no party to vote for. Labour are unrepentant neoliberals who habitually over-promise and under-deliver while the Greens for me have become a joke. I tried to hang in there Weka, I really did.
Its not an uncommon story.
what do you think the purpose of voting is?
I will vote on climate at the next election, there's just no question for me of not voting and allowing Labour or National to have all the power.
This makes me wonder what you see? Is it what is in the MSM? The membership emails? The MP speeches or twitter or FB? Gender/sex is a pretty small part of what they do. Climate is a huge part of what they do.
Nice limb you've parked yourself out on the end of. Will the next poll saw it off? Put it this way, if the Green vote holds up they will feel vindicated, and you could be right. In that case I would reserve judgment until the poll after that. Folks often take a while to digest political changes. They mull stuff over awhile. I do agree that the sea-level news would tend to spook more people into supporting the Greens though.
Details published of the horrific Malachi Rain Subecz murder case.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tauranga-child-killer-who-beat-burnt-5yo-malachi-subecz-was-his-carer/7I2CPADDM7P4A72QBXUBONVOFE/
Hard to read, but nothing compared to what that small boy to live through
This put me in mind of wee Ngatikaura Ngati. When death is a blessing. And not one person stepped between him and his murderer.
No words here.
Once again, Luxon turns up at QT in parliament with a pocket knife for the gun-fight.
Easy meat for Jacinda.
And Willis thinks that a deadpan face and a serious tone makes up for lack of hitting power in questions.
https://ondemand.parliament.nz/parliament-tv-on-demand/?itemId=224833
https://ondemand.parliament.nz/parliament-tv-on-demand/?itemId=224835
Yes she knows her stuff.
Someone needs to tell the Russians it is not a good idea to smoke in an ammunition factory. Especially one that produces critical ammunition and components for the Russian war effort.
Brutal.
https://twitter.com/Glitterbeauties/status/1520031289251962881
https://www.tiktok.com/@yankaayankaa/video/7090647440138800426