Jeez, has John Tamihere been on the morning sauce? On RNZ right now he is just a mess of incoherent rambling, weird denunciations, barely concealed resentment, ridiculous hyperbole and moronic dissembling.
Wondered why Boag was supporting him till I heard he wanted to privatise Watercare. Maybe the end of Auckland residential property hyperinflation means that the leisured classes are casting their eyes around for alternative gold-plated investments?
Recycling tired Nat party stances on privatising public assets – doesn't count if you only privatise 49% says Johnny. As if Auckland's mayor has that power anyway. What a clown.
"The email itself was one in a chain between mid and lower ranking officials in Treasury and the Department of Labour (DoL) about the annual minimum wage report to Ministers. By that time the report had become a summary of suggestions from a list of organisations for a new minimum wage level, with well-known views and a cut-and-and-paste-from-last-year summary of arguments offered. DoL did an estimate of the potential unemployment impact for each level using a model so opaque that the estimates were best described as ‘some’, ‘some more’, ‘even more’, etc. The whole exercise was perfunctory."
"As a Treasury adviser on labour market and welfare issues I was asked to see if DoL could be encouraged to improve the report. I thought, naively as it turned out, that if I discussed evidence in bite-sized chunks some of it might sneak into the report. This was the content of my email."
"The DoL officials ignored my email and the subsequent meeting when writing their report. Described this way I imagine the eyes of most readers glazing over. “Conversation on academic evidence between unimportant people makes no difference” is not an attention grabber. But when released through the OIA, in the midst of an election campaign, the issue turned into “Mr Key ‘sat on’ the advice for 18 months and ‘tried to fool people’ by using only a later Labour Department review to back his argument”. This version became one of the issues in a television debate between the party leaders. A cursory glance at the emails would have made clear they were not sent to ministers. They did not include any reference to a Treasury report to ministers because there was no report."
"Treasury’s response, other than the occasional stern look directed at me from Treasury old timers, was a sentence in the ‘Briefing to the Incoming Minister’ to counter any impression it had supported minimum wage rises. But that was Treasury, and the Minister of Finance was Bill English, who actively encouraged Treasury to provide challenges based on evidence. If I had still been working for the Ministry of Social Development of the mid 2000s, where more than 50 communications staff were employed to control debate about the ministry, I might have lost my job."
"Public servants experience the OIA the way savannah animals experience crocodiles lurking under the surface of a river. The animals have to go to the river but do so aware that random attacks are a moment of inattention away. If this metaphor seems over the top, I invite the reader to look over the last few weeks of everything they wrote, typed or texted. Imagine someone had a legal right to publish any three consecutive words, without context or explanation, and with the potential that you might lose your job. Would that make you a little more guarded about what you wrote? Within the public service, versions of this thought experiment are called the “Dom Post test”. Unsurprisingly public servants take steps to avoid the crocodile. The OIA is meant to include verbal exchanges, but in practice that is hard to enforce. The result is the habit of minimising the written record if there is a risk of failing the Dom Post test. This habit is so endemic it is applied semi-consciously and only noticeable when someone, usually a junior official who has not been fully acculturated, needs to be reminded to “take the discussion off-line”."
"Of course there are many occasions when it is common sense to have a quick chat rather than to draft documents and set up meetings. (And anyone who has wasted time in pointless bureaucratic meetings will wish for more of this common sense.) However, extending this to replacing written comments is not in the spirit of the OIA."
"In as much as the OIA puts pressure on public servants to only write what they are personally prepared to defend in the full glare of the public they serve, it’s a good thing. The problem is that’s not the reality of how it is experienced, which means people do not just respond by improving what they write but by trying to avoid the lurking crocodile."
Thanks for the case study, Tony. Illuminating the coercive effects of the law on public servants is indeed a public service. Well done. [Tony Burton is a former deputy chief economic adviser at Treasury.]
Listening to Paul Goldsmith, my immediate impression was that robots had made much deeper inroads into the workplace than I had realised. The OS appeared to be somewhat dated though.
Though actually, robots could be good for the economy. It depends on who owns the technology and how they choose to use it. So yeah – the chances of it actually turning out well for most people are pretty minimal.
I did, your post has reassured me that I wasn't just imagining how hopeless he was with the usual blah, blah and jargon that is all that eminates from the National Party and is very visible. It was like Kermit the Frog without the hope and vision, I'm not surprised he has remained fairly invisible till now.
Yes, I heard and saw him on the AM Show arrogant prat, But then I thought he was hilarious and certainly made my day when he came out with what I would think this year’s best joke when he made the statement that “ The National Party was the natural home for Talent”
"Nikki Kaye's a feminist, Cameron Slater's a journalist, and John Key's son's a DJ!"
Almost as ludicrous a sight as poor Ben Shapiro trying to argue with intelligent people is the embarrassing spectacle of the untalented sons of "celebrities" posing as DJs. The poster child for this particular form of idiocy is the notorious Chet Haze, son of Tom Hanks. Down here, there was Maximus Key, son of John. We'll spare you the gruesome task of having to actually watch the young Key in action; this critique of him and his father's government is far more entertaining…
Aficionadoes of "wretchedness o'ercharged" may like to investigate Tom Hanks's rapper son….
In the first clip, the whole of the audience is laughing with the comedian/rapper called Tourettes, and laughing at John Key's obnoxious and untalented son. In the second clip, the people laughing at Tom Hanks's obnoxious and untalented son are Howard Stern and his long-standing producer, Robin Quivers.
The only obnoxious and untalented person is that fuckwit Tourettes and his paid friend with the forced laugh, comedian/rapper, only in his twisted bitter little mind.
George Soros and Charles Koch get together to launch an anti-interventionist think-tank. Nothing else seems to have broken the DC enthusiasm for wading into messy foreign entanglements the US really has no business being in, so hey, worth a shot.
As time goes by under this new government who is attempting to balance the books while fixing our crumbling infrustructure, watching our roads/rail/ city sewer services and all other essential services are failing as we speak.
Winston Peters spoke to the 230 folks who turned up to his last 'pep-talk' meeting prior to the last election and I was there it was a good talk he was right on the button there.
Winston touched on this issue of national spending nothing on our crumbling infrustructure during the last national Government's nine long years who always used the term "deferred maintainence" to justify cutting costs all over NZ to make their books look fine for the election.
Now we witness what national set the next Government up for; – and boy is showing us now with a sewer pipe collapsing into the taupo lake today, and the freight train de-railed in Wairarapa,
All happend in just one day.
Government needs to heed Winstons words he spoke that Gisborne night about our crumbling infrustructure as he said "we need to follow what Michael Joseph Savage did in 1935 to get NZ infrustructure back into operation after the 1931 depression by enacting the "Reserve Bank Act" and print the funds needed for restoring all NZ's essential services."
Otherwise we as a country NZ will fail, as another examle of what happend to Greece.
Many in the last National 'government' were all about achieving their brighter future though self service. Shudder to think what would be privatised by now if that lot were still in charge – Coleman was certainly lining up the health sector, and is now lining his pockets as CEO of Acurity Health Group, a leading provider of private hospital services.
If DHBs run by generic accountants can't make ends meet then better informed managers with hospital backgrounds need to be employed. They seem to be in a similar position to the old railways, government didn't want to do its job running them, and sold off bits to supposed more effective private interests. Both sides tried to do the job on the cheap, flushing out the supposed fat on a starvation budget.
Now the government is told it needs to provide more money for health. Much of it should be garnered from the comfortably-off-to-rich from more tax not less (as in Australia just announced!) and from wealth-offering immigrants adding to our bulk of population to be serviced, and the fees from poor ones spending their life savings to come here. Government needs to listen or they won't be able to congratualte themselves for being better than weasely National and we won't be able to flaunt ourselves as a top country overseas, that is if it can't be made to care about the expected services of a so-called developed country.
One man who is both medically knowledgable and with managerial skills said this after a survey into conditions in Hawke's Bay (Te-Mata-a-Maui). This is a report from Dr Kevin Snee from December 2014 when he was Chief Executive of Hawke's Bay DHB. (He has now gone to troubled Waikato DHB.)
The report brought up issues for Maori health. Presumably as times have got harder for them the smoking is increasingly a problem, and alcohol also plays its well-known destructive role. It makes this comment:
…• It is startling that three out of four Maori will be dead before their 75th birthday, compared to one in three European. And possibly even worse, one in four Maori will die before their 50th birthday compared to one in twenty European.
I find these statistics shocking and unacceptable.
Much of the work we do in health is focused on reducing inequity, trying to reduce the gap so everyone has the same opportunities for health. It’s part of our vision for the next five years through our Transform and Sustain programme. The 11 key areas of this programme all contain elements to make sure equity is addressed, when we determine how we spend our money.
Recognising and identifying the issues through this report will help us work to reduce the gap, but the health system alone cannot solve inequity….
Is John Key not aware of the Westminster convention that former PM's stay out of politics ?
The sight of the chair of the largest bank in Australasia making public comment on the affairs of a country without the checks and balances of an upper house should make all true democrats pause.
i have no problem if Key may be "cramping Simon's style", unless it makes Simon look less of an idiot. LOL.
I certainly agree with the rest of your comment, but this is not new for Key. During his time in Parliament he never really recognised, or rather adhered to, Westminister convention etc. or the reasons to keep a distance between his and others' roles as a representative of the people as opposed to their connection to and representation of the business sector, including the finance sector.
Mind you,, Key is nowhere in the league of Trump and his favourite daughter, Ivanka and their performance at the G20 meeting in Japan a few days ago!
fire on a russian nuclear submarine boat ' aka a science vessel' kills fourteen but we are assured by the russians that there are no nuclear leaks. No siree, non what so ever……
“Fourteen submariners have died of poisoning by fumes from the fire,” Shoigu told Putin during a televised meeting. “The fire was extinguished thanks to the crew’s resolute action.”
Putin ordered Shoigu to fly to the Arctic port of Severomorsk, the main base for Russia’s Northern Fleet where the vessel was brought, to oversee the investigation and report back to him personally.
“It’s a huge loss for the navy,” Putin said. “I offer my sincere condolences to the families of the victims.”
He added that the vessel had a special mission and an elite crew.
A fire broke out at the Russian nuclear submarine Losharik {AS-12}. 12 His crew were burned to death. Russia declared an emergency. While Russia announced that there was no nuclear leak, American satellites detected nuclear leak at the scene of the fire.#politicopic.twitter.com/zcLEdrp21t
Here is a good post debate piece from FAIR looking at the US MSM freaking out over the Bernie induced sharp pivot to the Left by 80% of the Democratic runners..it warms my heart.
Warning to Progressive Dems: You’re Leaving Corporate Media’s Comfort Zone
Those of us still around in 20 years will look back at the Sanders candidacy as a lost opportunity of historic proportions. Maybe not so much 'lost' as 'denied' – because he won't be allowed to win if it looks like he actually might. All the problems he talked about will be so much worse by then.
An $11 million, fully immersive dark sky experience is now open in Tekapo combining Māori astronomy and science.
Dark Sky Project, formerly Earth and Sky, opened the doors to its new 1140sqm building on the Tekapo lakefront on Monday and is a joint venture between Ngāi Tahu Tourism and co-founders Graeme Murray and Hide Ozawa.
Mana whenua from Arowhenua, Waihao and Moeraki rūnanga blessed the building named Rehua on Monday while Governor-General of New Zealand, Dame Patsy Reddy, opened the new experience.
…
The centre will tell the stories of local iwi and runanga's relationship with the night sky, and how it has developed.
It is located at the heart of the Aoraki/Mt Cook Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve – the largest dark sky reserve in the world and the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Kaiwhakahaere Lisa Tumahai said the $3m in government funding provided by the Tourism Growth Partnership fund in 2016 was the kick-start the $11 million development needed.
"It will further enhance the Ngāi Tahu contribution to regional development and job creation – mō tātou, ā, mō ka uri ā muri ake nei. I truly commend mana whenua and all involved in the creation of an authentic experience that will see our ancestors' stories told to the world."
As an aside I got the telescope out the other night and showed my son Jupiter and some of his moons – he said it was cool and that made me feel pretty good. Saturn also looked amazing with the rings and stuff.
The observatory at Mt John is awesome, as is Tekapo and the Dark Sky Park. I have been twice and it is one of the best things I have experienced in my life – the night sky is something most of us in the "first world" have lost. I'll be visiting this new centre for sure.
Great to see the contracting system still working despite… Previous research had said there should be a commissioner and it should be separate from ACC, he said, but the corporation and the government decided to go with a contractor relationship.
In the meantime, those with impairments who are not under ACC await word from the Current Mob as to the plan to make Funded Family Care Fairer.
Cabinet has agreed to consider changes to Funded Family Care, with options and timeframes for changes to be presented to Cabinet later this year.
“The Government intends to repeal Part 4A of the Act that was introduced by the previous National Government,” Minister of Health Dr David Clark says.
“There have been consistent calls for Part 4A to be repealed because it is discriminatory. In particular, Part 4A has been inconsistent with human rights legislation because it denies families the right to complain about breaches of their human rights relating to family care policies,” Acting Associate Health Minister James Shaw says.
“The previous Government’s Funded Family Care policy has been a nightmare for the families involved. Today’s announcement is the first step towards a kinder and fairer agreement with carers.
“Over the next couple of months the Government will run targeted consultation with affected families and stakeholders on the key issues within Funded Family Care. Consultation will cover issues of eligibility, pay rates for carers, the employment relationship, and the type of care covered,” says James Shaw.
The puckish part of me was going to send him a pair of boxing gloves and a spine. Anyone taking on the task of undoing over two decades of sociopathic mismanagement of Health in general and disability in particular will need both. However its not much point if the heart's not in it, and the government is not committed.
It struck me right from the beginning of his tenure that he had already acquired the possum in the headlights look displayed by both Ryall and Coleman. Almost as if they'd had a quick shufti inside the inner sanctum of the Ministry of Health executive and decided it was a beast best left to its own devices.
Auckland officials want to fast-track moves to take more water from the Waikato River, to stave off the threat of a regional water shortage.
Residents are being urged to take shorter showers as reservoir levels drop after unseasonably warm conditions and six months of below-average rainfall.
Despite the belated arrival of winter rain, total storage is sitting at almost 60 per cent of capacity. The historic average for June is 84 per cent.
Seeing as Tracey Martin and Jacinda haven't viewed the recent uplift video, perhaps they can find the time to read this harrowing account of another family's treatment by Oranga Tamariki
How many hours of the day do you believe ministers and the Prime Minister should devote to perusing fine details of disputes between individuals and government departments, and how do you propose prioritising which disputes should be reviewed? It could hit 24 hours a day without breaking a sweat, so some rationing system would be essential, not to mention some means of measuring the opportunity cost to the country of their spending their time on that.
How many hours of the day they should devote to perusing fine details of disputes between individuals and government departments is up to them. Nevertheless, the more informed a misister is the more effective they are likely to be.
However, most would expect them to at least be aware (and to have read/seen) the top ones that make the news, especially when it's to do with matters relating to their own ministerial portfolio.
Actually, no on both counts. Or at least not necessarily.
An abundance of operational information can masquerade as knowledge of strategic issues. The issue here isn't how a particular baby was taken, rather the issue is the overrespresentation of Māori children being taken and the equity, appropriatness, and justice questions this raises. You don't need to see the video to understand this.
Unless the issue is the behaviour of the people taking that specific baby (e.g. the US border concentration camps), the video might be emotive but it adds little to deciding how the system should be improved.
I didn't state necessarily. I said the more effective they are likely to be.
An abundance of operational information is part of being informed.
The issue here is how a particular baby was taken and how systemic that process is. Along with the over representation of Māori children being taken, the equity, appropriateness, and justice questions this raises.
Viewing the video uplift first hand is a little more insightful than merely reading about it. And in this case, the behaviour of the people taking that specific baby was/is of issue.
Yeah your weasel words of concern are always vague, but the fact remains that an abundance of operational information often or even usually gets in the way of strategic decision making.
If the issue is how the baby was taken, that's an operational matter that the minister should leave to the employment personnel. But the issue is one of systemic bias, which is a strategic matter, so what specifically does the video add to aid decision-making for that issue?
Yeah your weasel words of concern are always vague…
Resorting to taking potshots so soon. You really try to appeal to the mugs on here, don't you.
An abundance of operational information is part of the knowledge one requires to make strategic decisions. At the end of the day, the two are often interrelated. Alignment of strategic priorities and integration of operations etc. But you can continue to dance on the head of that pin if you like.
One of the issues is how the baby was taken. Moreover, the harrowing behaviour of Oranga Tamariki staff has been reported as being systemic. Therefore, while it's an operational matter it is one the minister ultimately oversees and at the end of the day is accountable for. The buck stops at the top.
The video could be used as an example in future staff training of what not to do.
what specifically does the video add to aid decision-making for that issue?
How would it help the minister to watch the video?
Material for training courses doesn't cut it. If the behaviour is "harrowing" that requires training, that's an operational/HR matter involving a bad job that's being done badly. The bad job needn't be done at all but the system requires it, so that's a systemic issue for the minister and how the job is done is irrelevant because the role of the minister is to stop it being done in the first place.
How would it help the minister to watch the video?
First off, they (the PM and the Minister) would have avoided the outrage not viewing it has caused.
Secondly, just as the bias is systemic so are the operational flaws. thus strategic goals have to integrate with operational strategy to formulate on the ground. The video is a good example of this failure, thus can be learned from. Helping the Minister to come up with solutions going forward.
How the job is done is far from irrelevant. Outcomes largely rely on how the job is being done. And when the job is being done poorly and it's systemic, the oversight extends to the Minister in charge.
As for the Minister being able to completely stop it, she doesn't have the capacity in her role alone. Lifting benefits would go a long way in reducing the frictions that lead to family violence, child abuse etc.
Again, there is no outrage because the pm didn't watch a video. You're just pretending there is to suit your nat agenda narrative.
Money isn't the be all and end all to any solution for bad parenting, violent abuse of children or neglect. Millionaires can be shit parents, too, though they might be able to afford better lawyers. An extra $50 a week to a selfish parent doesn't benefit a child at all, not in the sense of protecting them from selfish parents that is.
Once again you've taken a swing and a miss. Next nat talking point, please.
Still no outrage, not at the pm any way. The system, perhaps, but that's relative.. Each case on it's merits and all that.
Of course I'm aware of friction from having no money, I'm fucking poor after all, so out of touch I certainly am not, but whatever the deal, no matter how much cash I haven't had, I've always fed my babies and never once taken out my anger and frustration upon them. Main reason is personal pride, to look after ones younglings, secondary is not to be my old man and screw it up. I certainly don't blame the pm or her ministers like you do.
When I knew I couldn't afford to do it all, I stopped smoking, drinking, eating fast food, just like most people do in the same situation. Extra money for me would have eased financial pressures, but made no difference to the emotional and physical well being of my spawn. They were, and are, already well sorted.
Of course I'm aware of friction from having no money,
Then you would know how this friction can quickly turn ugly in some family environments, leading to mental stress and causing some to snap too easily. Albeit, it hasn't happen to adult you, but perhaps (by the sound of it) you may have been victim to it as a lad. Perhaps helping you from going down that same path as a dad.
Poverty has many adverse effects and in many ways is a driver of many of our social ills.
Firstly, I had a quick look to stuff for any expression of "outrage" that Ardern and Martin haven't watched the video. Seems to have disappeared from their political section already (although the issue of "uplifts" has not). There is an article posted on Newsroom on Tuesday, onenews doesn't seem to rate the waves of outrage as newsworthy, RNZ News seems to have missed the barricades in the streets that the hopi polloi have raised because the PM and minister didn't watch the video, so really the main source of "outrage" seems to be you. Even Newsroom only said "shocked". But I'm sure people will take to the streets tomorrow unless the PM watches the video. /sarc
Secondly, "operational flaws" operating a policy that itself needs drastic changes are not really a priority. You can't have a bad attitude while taking newborns if you're not taking newborns in the first place.
Should the people assessing benefit rates also watch the video? Or need it only be an intructional tool for administrators of policy, as well as the ministers who determine the policy, but not the administrators of policy determination? Can you answer that, or would that be one for the people who determine the administration of the determination of policy, and their administrators?
Secondly, "operational flaws" operating a policy that itself needs drastic changes are not really a priority.
In this case the operational flaws are so embedded and systemic they can't be left to be overlooked as they are a large part of the problem that will negatively impact on any new policy change.
As for the outrage out there, it was reported on. I've already posted a link to it. But here it is again.
Moreover, there is "a tide of unrest in Maoridom" over the large number of child uplifts and Jacinda not viewing the clip was seen by many as a slap in the face.
Again, operational flaws in a flawed policy can be eliminated by eliminating the flawed policy.
Also, ain't it interesting how newsroom are the only outlet noticing the tide? And even that was a couple of days ago?
Oh, and you, of course. But you're very adept at spotting tides of outrage against this government. Especially tides that are undetected by anyone else.
… most would expect them to at least be aware (and to have read/seen) the top ones that make the news….
How do you know they were not already aware of these circumstances TC?
How do you know they had not already seen… and been told of similar stories?
In fact, according to Jacinda Ardern she has recently seen and heard about similar stories and I'm sure Tracey Martin will have too. So they didn't need to spend precious time perusing another one which is no doubt the reason why they chose to so promptly set up an inquiry to find out what is going on.
Your constant tendency to jump on the critical band-wagon before all the facts are at your disposal belies your claim you are to the left of centre. I’ll go further and say you are a right wing troll who comes here to disrupt the flow of rational dialogue.
How do you know they were not already aware of these circumstances TC?
I didn't claim they were unaware of the circumstances in this instance, Anne. I pointed out how they are being publicly slammed for not viewing the video.
Moreover, I didn't claim they had not already seen and have been told of similar stories.
And on that point, Jacinda got an easy ride on the Nation the other day. She should have been asked what are these other similar events she has claimed to have seen? Moreover, if they have known for so long as Jacinda has claimed (on the Nation) why haven't they acted with more pace?
Spending the short time to view the clip would have given them a good insight into the staff behaviour and operational flaws taking place under their watch.
Moreover, have you not seen the backlash from this (their not viewing it)? They have offended many in Maoridom. All that could have been avoided if they merely took the short time to view the clip.
I’m not a right wing troll, I’m a lefty constantly disappointed by Labour’s poor performance. So deal with it, because I’m far from the only one.
Relentlessly soggy ("constantly disappointed"), and as transparent as a transparent thing ("Labour’s poor performance").
The Chairman is a self-proclaimed "lefty" who is "more left than most", yet has a strong aversion to complimenting Labour and/or Green MPs, in government or in opposition.
The Chairman is also extremely reluctant to turn their withering gaze on the behaviour and policies of National party MPs, in government or in opposition.
The Chairman's protestations of 'lefty' credentials are bogus (as is the identity), but that's just my opinion – others can judge for themselves.
I reckon he’s got two left hemispheres and he’s so left that the right one’s gone. It just left, out of his right ear it went and kept going till it was lost, forever. That’s how it got there, the right hemisphere, and how it’s left.
It's my view that politics is like a simple circle and when standing at the top of the circle the lefties will swing clockwise and the righties swing anti-clockwise. They will inevitably meet at the bottom and become one and the same. Eg. Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.
And as I just said to Anne above (reposted below).
And on that point, Jacinda got an easy ride on the Nation the other day. She should have been asked what are these other similar events she has claimed to have seen? Moreover, if they have known for so long as Jacinda has claimed (on the Nation) why haven't they acted with more pace?
Nevertheless, the more informed a misister is the more effective they are likely to be.
However, most would expect them to at least be aware (and to have read/seen) the top ones that make the news, especially when it's to do with matters relating to their own ministerial portfolio.
So the PM is fully aware of the situation, and your smear attack in 20.1.1 has been busted wide open by her very quote in the link you provided as a weapon to beat her with.
Clearly, I was speaking generally in the quote you used there. Nevertheless, while they were aware in this specific case, they both admitted to not viewing the actual clip.
Evidently, with both failing to see how bad that was going to look, especially to Maroidom.
So? I didn't watch game of thrones but I knew all about it, who was in it, how it played out.
You're reaching, as usual, and making a drama where none exists to push an anti government agenda.
Most people realise kids aren't taken away from families unless there's a good reason. The general statistic, where maori are concerned, is a worry, but that's not Jacinda's fault, nor does her not watching a video make her guilty of any crime, percieved or otherwise.
“So? I didn't watch game of thrones but I knew all about it, who was in it, how it played out.”
Knowing about it and watching it are not one in the same.
Nevertheless, and more importantly, you aren't the PM, nor was the high profile clip a mere TV show.
I'm not reaching, you are evidently out of touch with the outrage this has caused, just as the PM failed to see it coming. This lot have become arrogant real fast.
Out of interest, what do you believe are the drivers behind the reasons children are having to be taken?
How many hours of the day they should devote to perusing fine details of disputes between individuals and government departments is up to them.
And yet, here you are concern-trolling them for not devoting the time to it that you'd prefer they did.
Nevertheless, the more informed a misister is the more effective they are likely to be.
Sure, who could argue with that? The question is, informed about what? Informed in great detail about one individual's dispute with a government department isn't necessarily helpful to a minister's work, and leads us straight back to the issues of the time needed to gain that irrelevant state of informed-ness and how to prioritise which individuals to become so deeply informed about.
However, most would expect them to at least be aware (and to have read/seen) the top ones that make the news…
And they are aware of them. Thank you for your heartfelt concern.
If Chairman, running true to form, still protests innocence after blowing his cover for multi-multiple times, I have an offer of 49% of shares in a state-owned bridge in which he may be interested…
First off, I'm not concern trolling. Evidently, you are blind to the outrage out there and how offending and arrogant this is looking. Secondly, as I said, how much time they want to devote to these things is up to them, but considering it's high profile, this is one short clip many were surprised, shocked and offended Jacinda couldn't find the time to see.
The question is, informed about what? Informed in great detail about one individual's dispute with a government department isn't necessarily helpful to a minister's work…
The thing is the staff behaviour and operational flaws taking place in the video and written piece linked to are said to be systemic (thus not just one individual being negatively impacted) giving the Minister a very good insight into how things are playing out on the ground in real life (and not merely what has been internally fed to them). Thus one would expect they would find it extremely helpful seeing it from both sides when coming up with solutions.
I respect many a genuine "lefty", particularly those that are "more left than most" – so what is it about The Chairman's "relentessly soggy" criticism of left-leaning political parties and MPs that is so distasteful and deceitful?
Surely The Chairman is not blind to the impression such criticism creates. If I described Bridges/National in such terms, and then claimed to be a 'more right than most' conservative, how credible would I be?
"publicly slammed"
"Jacinda got an easy ride" x2
"as Jacinda has claimed" x2
"the PM failed to see it coming"
"This lot have become arrogant real fast."
"blind to the outrage"
"offending and arrogant" surprisedJacinda couldn't find the time shockedJacinda couldn't find the time offendedJacinda couldn't find the time
The Chairman's relentlessly soggy critique of Labour/Ardern/Greens et al. is not helpful, but then it's not intended to be, is it.
Please do continue (this is a genuine request) – you (The Chairman) serve as an object lesson in right-wing duplicity, not that another lesson is needed!
And please, could The Chairman show a little respect for our Prime Minister by using her family name – that's another little tell you might want to work on, BTW
Surely The Chairman is not blind to the impression such criticism creates.
Good old Labour scared of the impression being criticised creates.
Tell you what, if they don't like being criticised, play a better game.
Moreover, if a party can't hold its own against criticism, then their problems are far bigger than me having a go at them.
This isn't China, yet and political criticism isn't hate speech. So as much as they want to shutdown freedom of speech, they will find it will only turn against them.
So instead of you highlighting my many criticisms, try defending against them if you can. I'm not saying anything that isn't true.
"Good old Labour scared of the impression being criticised creates." – penned by The Chairman, a self-proclaimed "lefty" who is, in their own words, "more left than most".
Just for info, I'm a little left of current Labour party's policies – why The Chairman (on this site) repeatedly and pointedly puts the boot into Green party policies and MPs is beyond me. For example, three months after the 2017 election, here's The Chairman suggesting that Gareth Hughes would be an improvement on Shaw as Green party (co-)leader. /open-mike-26-12-2017/#comment-1430363
No doubt The Chair had their reasons, but a friend of the left, really?
The current coalition government is making a genuine effort to reverse the damage done by NINE LONG YEARS of National party "brighter future" policies, damage on which The "lefty" Chairman has been strangely silent. I'm so relieved than NZ had a change of government in 2017; another three year of 'governance' by the simply awful collection of self-serving no-hoper National MPs would have been the last straw. Does The "more left than most" Chairman agree?
Politics may be a game to The Chairman [“play a better game“], but I respectfully decline their 'invitation' to lay off highlighting their constantstream of comments undermining left-leaning parties and politicians, now numbering in the thousands on this site.
Others can judge whether I'm saying anything that isn't true.
…this is one short clip many were surprised, shocked and offended Jacinda couldn't find the time to see.
Unless she happens to be a close personal friend of yours and you'd like to humble-brag about it on this thread, she's "Ardern," "Jacinda Ardern" or "the Prime Minister" to you. Otherwise, calling her by informal or pet names is a right-wing tactic to reinforce their "silly little girl" meme.
Also: "many" at this point seems to equate to you, Martyn Bradbury and right-wing commentators with a propaganda agenda.
The thing is the staff behaviour and operational flaws taking place in the video and written piece linked to are said to be systemic…
The "alleged" flaws are "claimed" to be systemic – by you, at least. Still not seeing why the Minister and the Prime Minister need to be devoting time to minor operational details.
So this mayor is hit with a disaster, and goes and spends up big on helicopter flights. Misused funds, isn't there a law against that. Any reasonable Mayor would first assess the damage, less the damage kept getting worse. Nets over the river, dig out the dump move to a new location..
…but seriously this guy hasn't resigned at least? Showing remorse.
Tracey Martin and Jacinda have been publicly slammed (see link below) for failing to view the recent uplift video. How do the Labour Party defenders on here feel about that?
I think those demanding Ardern and Martin should have watched that video should be given consultancy roles on the payroll for them. Their particular job would be to tell them all the stuff they should read, all the people they should talk to and what media things they should do.
They of course would make sure that the two be interviewed daily by Garner and Hosking.
Actually they should also tell Martin and Ardern what to think as well, it'll save of a lot of anguish and stuffing around.
No doubt after a committee meeting, and an inchoiry between Kiwirail, Metlink, Transdev, and a few contractors somewhere in a 'war room', there'll be a number of 'learnings going forward'.
(One of which might be, for example, why we couldn't have run trains from both Hutt and Kapiti lines to the Kaiwharawhara station and scheduled them outbound again from there. And yes!, I understand there might be overhead electrical supply problems, but fuckall that couldn't be temporarily adjusted).
Ekshully, whilst I await comment from all the sperts as to why it couldn't happen, I came across that tragedy of photo of Laidlaw that always appears in the media. Says a lot really.
I just have to ask myself when it was that imagination bypass surgery and community agency became trumped by the risk managers and the stifling of ingenuity. Can someone put a date on it for me please?
Let's hope we don't have another Wahine disaster because the loss of life is likely to be tenfold
Parents on drugs, Parents on Booze, Parents on Bashing their wives up, Parents who have put themselves in Jail, Parents who have not taught their children anything …The Parents who are merely wastrel Gang Mugs. Parents on Marijuana. Killing each other on the Road.
The spoon feeding has to stop. No amount of tattoos or money is going to fix anything. We have had a couple of centuries trying out that.
The sadness is, that the Population of New Zealand is less and less Maori. More and More English, More Asian and South American. European .Populations that do well.
Do we want Maori to Die off Like Kauri ? The answer to that is, make sure Parents live a decent Life.
Over the past month we've heard some horrificstories about bullying in the police. The police's response? Try to bully people into silence:The police have told a whistleblower to retract his statements to RNZ about being bullied or face legal action. The demand came just hours after Police Commissioner Mike ...
Today is a Member's Day, which should see the final part of the committee stage of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. The big question today is the referendum clause: will it be necessary, or can the bill pass without it? While the majorities for his amendments during the ...
One of the key arguments used by trans ideologists is that some male-bodied people (ie men) are women because they ‘feel’ they are women. To make this hocus-pocus sound a bit more credible, some will argue that such men have a ‘female brain’. But this is thoroughly anti-scientific too. . ...
Canadians went to the polls today in parliamentary elections, and appear to have re-elected blackface wearer Justin Trudeau. Unfortunately, they use first-past-the-post, and they've provided a perfect demonstration of how unfair this system is:PartySeats% Seats% VoteLiberal15746.4%33.1%Conservative12135.8%34.4%Bloc Québécois329.5%7.7%New Democratic Party247.1%15.9%Green Party30.9%6.5%Other10.3%2.4% [Results from Elections Canada] Yes, the Liberals got fewer votes ...
A few days ago, a friend sent me a link to a health-related FB page that had published a post from a homeopathist, offering homeopathic “vaccination”¹ against measles (using something called a “Morbillinum nosode” at a “potency” of 200C, which I’ll explain shortly). I followed the link, left a comment ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This year marks the 20th anniversary of the La Gabarra massacre. The community organised an event to remember the most well-known of the horrendous heart-breaking events that befell the communities of this area of the municipality of Tibú: the massacre carried out on August 21st 1999. ...
There was another police chase in Christchurch this morning, resulting in a crash which killed one person and injured five more. Because someone died, the chase is being investigated by the Independent Police Conduct Authority. And based on previous reports by the IPCA, we know how it will go: the ...
Just a month ago we saw the biggest protest in a generation as people marched to demand stronger action on climate change. A core demand of the protesters was to strengthen the Zero Carbon Bill's target to net-zero by 2040. So what is the government's response? Judging by the ...
Back in 2010, I wrote about the strange tale of the zombie ants, which do the bidding of their fungal overlords. (They’re not an isolated example; a range of parasites change their hosts’ behaviour. See here and here for example – though as you’ll find, the toxoplasmosis story may be ...
Shouldn't That Be: "Wrong White Crowd"? Rather than apportion guilt, would it not have been wiser for the makers of Land Of The Long White Cloud to accept that the Pakeha of 2019 are not – and never will be – “Europeans”? Just as contemporary Maori are not – and ...
One, Two, Many Truths: With the collapse of “actually existing socialism” in 1991, the universities of the West found themselves saddled with a new mission. With their ideological competitors now soundly defeated they were no longer required to demonstrate the superiority of capitalist values. Their job now was to cement ...
by the Council of Disobedient Women We call on the Council of Trade Unions to show some fortitude and take a stand with your sisters. Unionists know that there is a material world, otherwise workers could simply identify out of poverty. They could declare themselves Well Paid. Why stop ...
I spent some time reading the Regulatory Impact Statement and Bill of Rights Act advice for the government's odious control order scheme today. I am not impressed with either of them. Starting with the RIS, it is built on some pretty questionable assumptions. For example:Unless individuals have been convicted of ...
#NoFly: Walking the talk on climate change, by Shaun Hendy. BWB Texts, 2019. Reviewed by Robert McLachlan In June 2018, Swede Maja Rosén founded We stay on the ground with a pledge not to fly in 2019, and a goal of persuading 100,000 other Swedes to join her. In August, ...
We all know that NZ First is a party of and for old people who hate the young. But they've topped their previous pedophobia with a proposal that all young people be forced to do 100 hours community work:NZ First wants all young people to do 100 hours of community ...
A couple days ago the NZ Herald published a story with the headline, “Science says Bella Hadid is world’s most beautiful woman“, and followed up with the ridiculous statement that Supermodel Bella Hadid has been declared as the world’s most beautiful woman following a scientific study into what constitutes as ...
A Sustainable Proposition: With as much as 18 percent of the electorate declaring itself “undecided” about who to vote for, there is obviously plenty of space for a party like former Green Party member, Vernon Tava's, about-to-be-launched "Sustainable NZ Party" to move into. The most hospitable political territory for such ...
Keir Starmer has hinted that Labour might vote in favour of the Johnson government's shoddy deal, with the proviso that a second referendum is attached:Speaking to BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, he said: “We will see what that looks like but it makes sense to say that by whatever ...
In 1994, I was the editor for an issue of Planet magazine focused on cannabis, its culture and the prospects for the end of its prohibition. Part of that issue was an interview with 'Ringo', an experienced cannabis dealer.I recently posted my essay from that issue, and I figured it ...
Dr Helen Waite, sports sociologist and former elite athlete, on the invasion of women’s sport by men and the anti-scientific and misogynist ideology used to rationalise it. ...
As Brexit comes to a grisly conclusion (perhaps) people on all sides are saying intemperate and uwise things. Some, like the Daly Mail, have been doing it for years.People as normally level headed as Jon Lansman are calling for automatic deselection of MPs who vote against a (likely) Labour three ...
I've got one source saying more Labour MPs than expected are mulling whether to vote for the deal - including names who were not on the letter to Juncker and Tusk— Emilio Casalicchio (@e_casalicchio) 17 October 2019 I've compiled a list of possible reasons why Labour ...
On Wednesday, the government was loudly telling us that it needed to legislate to allow it to impose "control orders" - effectively a parole regime, but imposed without charge, prosecution, conviction or real evidence - on suspected terrorists because they couldn't be prosecuted for their supposed crimes. Today, it turns ...
On Monday, the Hit and Run inquiry heard from NZDF's former director of special operations, who claimed that the defence Minister knew everything about the Operation Burnham raid. Today, the inquiry heard from that (former) Minister - and it turns out that he didn't know nearly as much as NZDF ...
Yoga gurus and cult leaders – I’ve seen a few. Two weeks ago, I unknowingly joined an alleged new-age cult at the Kāpiti coast, together with a giant kraken and some neatly dressed pensioners who would make any book club proud.They were among the two hundred people of all ages ...
The last decade has seen a trend of increasing weapons availability to police. Assault rifles. Tasers on every hip. Guns in cars. And following the march 15 massacre, pistols on every hip, all over the country. At the same time, its also seen an increase in the abuse of force: ...
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...
by John Edmundson The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) have recently reposted a February article, by Romany Tasker-Poland, explaining ISO’s position in the “trans rights” debate. It is available on their website and on their Facebook Page. The article sets out to explain why “socialists support trans rights”. It reads more ...
"Auckland City Mission: 10% of Kiwis experiencing food insecurity", RNZ, 16 October 2019:About half a million people are experiencing food insecurity, according to new research from the Auckland City Mission. Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food. The City Mission said over the last ...
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...
There is plenty of evidence of the way the business mentality has permeated every level of society since the recrudescence of market liberalism 35 years ago. You only need to think of how citizens in need of help from their government, their state, their country, are now routinely described as ...
John MacCormickOver the last 40 years, New Zealanders – and people in other countries – have experienced big changes in the jobs they do and where they live and work. These changes include: a decline in manufacturing jobs an increase in jobs in ‘information-intensive’ industries (which are better paid ...
Nick Wilson, Leah Grout, Mereana Wilson, Anja Mizdrak, Phil Shoemack, Michael BakerProtecting waterways has the benefits of: (1) protecting water from hazardous microbes; (2) minimising cancer risk and other problems from nitrates in water; (3) avoiding algal blooms that are hazardous to health; (4) protecting mahinga kai uses (cultural ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...
After a brief dalliance with 'hard Revoke' it looks like the Lib Dems are changing ground on on Brexit, with leader Jo Swinson reverting to calling for a second referendum on Johnson's deal.The party has tabled an amendment to the Queen’s speech requesting that any deal brought back from Brussels ...
The government has decided that someone has done Something Bad. But despite their belief, there seems to be no evidence that they have actually broken the law. So the government's solution is to pass a retrospective law allowing them to be punished anyway, on a lower standard of proof. If ...
So, Judith Collins has done a Facebook rant about climate change, peddling the same shit National has been shovelling for the past twenty years: the impacts are overstated, there's no need to do anything about it, and its too hard anyway (oh, and its so unfair that people who peddle ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThere is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...
I came across this song quite by accident. If it isn't one of Greta Thunberg's favourites - it should be.Video courtesy of YouTube.This post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Last month, NZDF's shoddy coverup of what it knew about civilian casualties in Operation Burnham began to fall apart, with the revelation that a report on the matter, which NZDF claimed not to have, had been sitting in an NZDF safe for the past nine years. Yesterday, the man responsible ...
While many imagine that countries like the USA and Europe dominate space activities, in fact India is now a major player on this stage. It launches satellites for its own purposes and also commercially, and has constellations orbiting our planet and returning data of vital importance to that nation in ...
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...
For the past week, Extinction Rebellion has been peacefully protesting in London to demand action on climate change. The British government's response? Ban their protests:Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s ...
An essay by Judith Collins MP reported on Carbon News yesterday seems to show an alarming shift in attitude within the National Party. Collins argues against the Zero Carbon Bill, the Paris Agreement, and downplays the magnitude of climate impacts. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and ratified ...
When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Hassan Vally, La Trobe UniversityWho doesn’t want to know if drinking that second or third cup of coffee a day will improve your memory, or if sleeping too much increases your risk of a heart attack? We’re invested in staying healthy and many of us are interested in reading ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
Journalist Andrew Dickens, reporting from the 2019 New Zealand First Conference, states that the Party once again proved “they are more than a sideshow”. In his op-ed article for NewstalkZB, Mr Dickens said he has always been an admirer of the Party, saying they are “a true centrist party”. “[NZ ...
New Zealand First's potential policy of compulsory community service for ages 15-19 years old has been getting support from those in the industry. A policy remit was passed during their recent Conference in Christchurch, gaining the support of a majority of its membership. Party leader Winston Peters has been talking ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the Party hopes to decide it’s stance pill testing at music festivals "before the season of concern", with festivals generally held during the summer months. Mr Peters' comments come in an interview with TVNZ's Q+A and follow a remit from the party's youth ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says he has been told to be "alert" to potential cost blowouts for the light rail project in Auckland. Mr Peters said no such concerns were raised with him from ministerial colleagues, including Transport Minister Phil Twyford of the Labour Party. He suggested that ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters Leader of New Zealand First The Benefits of having New Zealand First in the Centre: Security, Experience & Balance 2.00pm, 20th October 2019 Ladies and Gentlemen Thank you all for your warm welcome to this, the party’s 26thConvention. Speaking on behalf of caucus colleagues, it’s great to ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Fletcher Tabuteau is travelling to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu this week to continue toadvance important bilateral relationships in our region consistent with thePacific Reset. Mr Tabuteau will engage in a range of bilateral meetings and visit New Zealand development ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Consumers will benefit from changes to the electricity market that will see a level playing field for smaller independent retailers, greater transparency over the big power companies, increased competition in the market and more support for consumers to shop around for better ...
The Government is investing in ambitious research that will digitise Te Reo, grow the low-carbon protein efficient aquaculture industry, help interpret environmental trends, and large data sets says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. The four projects range from teaching Siri to speak Te Reo to crunching large environmental ...
A new education-to-employment brokerage service to strengthen connections between local employers and schools. Funding for more trades focused ‘speed-dating’ events to connect schools with employers. Promotional campaign to raise profile of vocational education. The Government is taking action to increase the number of young people taking up vocational education and ...
A Bill to improve prison security and ensure the fair, safe, and humane treatment of people in prison while upholding public safety has passed its third reading. Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says the Corrections Amendment Bill makes a number of changes to ensure the Corrections Act 2004 is fit for ...
Minister for Māori Development, Nanaia Mahuta, has selected Arihia Bennett MNZM, Chief Executive Officer of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, as the Te Puni Kōkiri appointed representative on the New Zealand-China Council. The New Zealand-China Council (the Council) was established in 2012 as a New Zealand led and funded organisation ...
Responsibility for processing the small number of Southern Response claims still to be settled will be transferred to EQC by the end of the year. “As claim numbers reduce, it no longer makes sense for the Crown to have two organisations processing the remaining Canterbury claims,” Grant Robertson says. “Since ...
Health Minister David Clark is encouraging Whanganui residents to take up the opportunity for free bowel screening, which can detect cancer early when it’s easier to treat. Over the next two years 12,000 Whanganui locals, aged 60 to 74 will be invited to participate in the National Bowel Screening ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, heads to Oslo today to represent New Zealand at the sixth Our Ocean Conference, which is being hosted by the Norwegian Government from the 23-24 October. “The Our Ocean Conference mobilises real action on issues like marine plastic pollution and the impacts of ...
Two secondary-school initiatives are being expanded as part of the Government’s plan to see more young New Zealanders take up a trade to help close the skills gap. This includes the largest single increase in Trades Academy places in recent years. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris ...
Session 4: Pacific Connectivity – Youth, Media and New Opportunities Kia ora tatou katoa and Warm Pacific greetings to one and all. Representatives of Tainui, the local people of the land, or manawhenua – the indigenous peoples of this area – have welcomed you this morning in accordance with ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
He Kākano Ahau is a podcast by writer and activist Kahu Kutia (Ngāi Tūhoe) that explores stories of Māori in the city, and weaves together strands of connection. In episode one: the legacy of urban marae Tapu te Ranga.I grew up where the tarseal on the road crumbles away into ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Australians are divided over whether the nation’s universities have too many foreign students, according to the Australian National University’s ANUpoll, released Wednesday. In the polling, 52.8% said the mix between foreign and domestic students was ...
National's leader Simon Bridges says a bill imposing restrictions on people returning after fighting for extremist groups would only keep New Zealanders "half safe". ...
Alex Casey talks to Leigh Hart about the return of Late Night Big Breakfast, the finest morning TV parody show New Zealand has ever made. Late Night Big Breakfast is set to return to TVNZ in 2020 after a five year hiatus, creator and comedian Leigh Hart has confirmed. Filmed in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Gordon, PhD candidate. Sydney University Physics Education Research (SUPER) group, University of Sydney If you want to get good marks in your exams, there’s no substitute for study. So do past exams, go over your notes, read what you need to ...
Otago University academic Chris Brickell wonders whether his new book on LGBT objects ought to be the sort of thing bookshops would want to have on their shelves. ...
South Aucklanders from Mangere to East Tamaki will be riding their Go Bus services to work for free tomorrow morning, as FIRST Union bus drivers opt out of collecting fares for their employer in an industrial action designed to show the wider public ...
What do we make of the Air New Zealand decision to quit the Auckland-Los Angeles-London route? Nothing much as it simply reflects the changing dynamics of the airline industry. Gone are the days when Air NZ took the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 into the fleet and began flying Los Angeles, then ...
Was the SkyCity Convention Centre construction site at higher risk of fire than any other construction site or building? Alex Braae asks the experts.A fire at the SkyCity Convention Centre construction site has continued to burn this morning, after a night of lighting up the Auckland CBD sky.The fire, which ...
Sky City and Fletcher Building see another "material delay" to opening of International Convention Centre as fire still rages. Plan B needed for APEC in November 2021, says Goff ...
First it was KiwiBuild, now it’s Auckland’s light rail that’s looking increasingly shambolic. Jenée Tibshraeny from Interest asks what’s going on, and how thin is that ice that transport minister Phil Twyford is skating on.The Opposition’s latest attack phrase aimed at the government is set to be one of its ...
At last, a break in the clouds for NZ’s dairy farmers : Fonterra suppliers could be looking at a sharp lift in income, as the co-op revises its forecast range for the milk price to $6.55-$7.55 kg/MS.And the signals are strong enough to underpin projections the milk price will rise ...
Members of the Indian community are angry at an immigration policy change making it harder for to bring spouses to NZ - but Shane Jones says anyone not happy should "catch the next flight home." ...
On October 7, New Zealand’s Labour Party-led coalition government announced draconian class-based restrictions on immigration. From February 2020, the government will reopen the Parent Category visa nearly four years after the previous National Party ...
Organise Aotearoa joined a rally held by the Chilean expatriate community on Tuesday outside the Chilean Embassy in Wellington, following widespread repression and brutality against protesters by President Sebastián Piñera’s armed forces. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Shine, Robinson Fellow, University of Sydney Have you ever sat down to complete your morning crossword or Sudoku and wondered about what’s happening in your brain? Somewhere in the activity of the billions of neurons in your brain lies the code ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mehmet Ozalp, Associate Professor in Islamic Studies, Director of The Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation and Executive Member of Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University The five-day ceasefire negotiated by US Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyib ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne The unprecedented blackout of front pages by Australia’s newspaper publishers this week is a highly significant event in Australian political and media history. It represents the completion of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Hansen, Chief of Staff, The Conversation In recent years coconut water has left the palm-treed shores of tropical islands where tourists on lounge chairs stick straws straight into the fruit, and exploded onto supermarket shelves – helped along by beverage giants ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Petterson, Professor of Geology, Auckland University of Technology CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University A Greenpeace video of me plugging a trackless tram that went viral with 4 million hits has caused a few eyebrows to be raised over whether I think light rail is dead. So let me ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Asher, Associate Professor, UNSW Here’s the boldest idea the government’s inquiry into retirement incomes should consider but might not: no longer exempting all of the value of each retiree’s home from the pension assets test. The test would merely exempt part ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Sernack-Chee Quee, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building, University of Technology Sydney 1973 was a remarkable year for Sydney, with the opening of two major cultural icons. The first was the Sydney Opera House. The second, possibly more important ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: In today’s edition: Serious ramifications likely from SkyCity fire, dozens of partnership visas being denied, and yet another police pursuit death.The fire at the SkyCity Convention Centre construction site has continued to burn overnight. Fire crews were forced to abandon the roof, ...
Orange-fronted parakeets will still get protection but some mohua populations miss out as DoC reduces the area of forest being covered by 1080 poison. ...
The main way small countries like New Zealand can lead on climate change is through our ideas. Policies developed here may help other countries with similar issues, writes David Frame. ...
By Rebecca Ananian-Welsh Australians picked up their morning papers yesterday to find heavily blacked-out text instead of front-page headlines. This bold statement was instigated by the “Your Right to Know” campaign, an unlikely coalition of Australian media organisations fighting for press freedom and source protection. A key reform advocated by a ...
Surrounding sites evacuated and one reported hospitalised in serious condition as blaze rips through two floors of the under-construction building in the Auckland CBDLast updated: 6.30pmParts of central Auckland have been brought to a standstill this afternoon after a major fire broke out shortly after 1pm at the Sky City ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Phil McManus, Professor of Urban and Environmental Geography: Head of School of Geosciences, University of Sydney In the wake of a shocking ABC report on the dismal end of many racehorses’ lives in slaughterhouses, many Australians are questioning whether the horse racing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohiuddin Ahmed, Lecturer of Computing & Security, Edith Cowan University Machines and the internet are woven into the fabric of our society. A growing number of users, devices and applications work together to produce what we now call “big data”. And this ...
After an unusually nasty campaign for their country, Canada has gone to the polls. They’ve decided that Justin Trudeau will continue as prime minister, but just like in New Zealand, he’ll have to work with coalition politics. What’s happened?After a brutal and at times humiliating campaign, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has ...
“The Prime Minister must publicly support an immediate ban on Gay Conversion Therapy . If I was Jacinda I would feel morally obligated to give more confidence on where I stand, when I have asked for, and received, support from that community.” ...
New abortion law marks significant and needed progress for reproductive rights in New Zealand Amnesty International has today made its submission to the Abortion Legislation Committee in Wellington. The rights at stake in the legislation include the rights ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Transport Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): NZ Transport Agency to Phil Twyford: We should have done better ...
Crisis of Safety and Confidence in our Engineering, Building and Construction Industries Please find attached a copy of an Open Letter from Professor Maan Alkaisi, Spokesperson CTV Families Group. This was sent a short time ago to the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, ...
Safe speed limits are survivable speed limits and this is what AT has endorsed in its step change decision today. This decision is a landmark that sets the scene for a new focus on road safety in New Zealand. ...
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) says the inadequate treatment of urology patients in Southern District Health Board is distressing and should serve as a broad reminder to DHB management to listen when specialists raise concerns. ...
Informed via telegram that Netflix has released a full trailer for the new season of The Crown, Tara Ward puts on her best boxhat and white gloves to find out what round three will bring. The good Lorde told us we’ll never be royals, so the first full trailer for the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has some sobering reading to do over the coming weeks: an 88-page Senate report into the government-sponsored bill to repeal the medevac law that allow refugees and asylum seekers in Papua ...
Eric Crampton has fun imagining a version of MBIE that worried it could be subject to cartel criminalisation provisions for the anticompetitive regimes it has established. ...
Criminologist Antje Deckert has just completed a two-year study of how women offenders are portrayed in New Zealand newspapers. The results show that journalists are telling very different stories abut Māori and Pākehā. That our criminal justice system is in desperate need of reform and that we need to reduce the ...
China continues its march into the Pacific with a China-Pacific Island Countries Economic Development and Cooperation Forum in Samoa this week. Ahead of the forum, Beijing has signed seven new agreements with Samoa covering education, trade, e-commerce, investment, infrastructure and agriculture. China’s Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua heads his delegation in Apia ...
It might be tempting to yell, but there are more effective ways to talk to doubters about the value of vaccines, write Julie Leask and Maryke Steffens.Your neighbour is telling you about his new baby. He feels nervous about vaccinating, and says he’s considering delaying Lucy’s vaccines.Your mother’s group is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debra Wain, Academic in Professional and Creaive Writing, Deakin University Why do we tell stories, and how are they crafted? In this series, we unpick the work of the writer on both page and screen. Anna Spargo-Ryan’s debut novel, The Paper House ...
The Movies, a documentary series that celebrates movies and their impact on culture, is available on TVNZ OnDemand today. Sam Brooks pulls some of the best quotes from its galaxy of stars.Ever wanted to get a snapshot of cinematic history without leaving the comfort of your couch, or even your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ronald F Pol, Senior researcher NZ, La Trobe University Money laundering rarely gets as literal as the case in Thailand last week, where police raided homes of a ring suspected of laundering a billion baht (about A$48 million) of drug proceeds and ...
The NZTA chair has acknowledged the agency dropped the ball in its early handling of Auckland's light rail project, as the NZ Infra proposal grips ministers. ...
On Friday it was announced that Armed Offenders Squad patrols will be trialled in Counties Manukau, Waikato and Canterbury over the next six months. The data suggests this will increase police violence and unfairly target Māori, writes Emilie Rākete.Police Commissioner Mike Bush announced on Friday that cars of Armed Offender ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Court’s judgment. It does not comprise part of the reasons for that judgment. The full judgment with reasons is the only authoritative document. The full text of the judgment and reasons ...
There’s something about the feeling of wind whipping my face that brings me out of my head and into the moment. Once a month we pedal as a group: recreating the feeling of childlike glee riding our bikes together, writes Helen King.The first bike I learned to ride belonged to ...
More than 10,000 school support staff around the country have begun two weeks of paid union meetings to discuss progress on pay equity, and next steps following the Ministry of Education's failure to present a collective agreement offer. ...
Government ministers are adamant New Zealand’s economic fundamentals are solid, unemployment is at a record low, growth is faster than in Australia, and the surplus in the government accounts and low debt present further opportunities to strengthen the economy. Yet, across the road from the Beehive, the view from the ...
Wellington's mayor-elect Andy Foster says talk about a recount is causing a "distraction" for the council at the start of their term, but the incumbent Justin Lester says it's essential for a democratic process. ...
Police Commissioner Mike Bush has today announced an independent review of the systems and processes NZ Police has in place to address complaints of bullying. ...
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry has formalised an integrated pathway for survivors to seek justice for the abuse they suffered in State care or in the care of faith-based institutions. ...
The small-claims mediation process is meant to give real people a voice, but the financial and emotional sacrifice just isn’t worth it, writes Jai BreitnauerWhen we moved to the semi-rural dreamland of Te Henga (Bethell’s Beach) in 2017, we couldn’t imagine that anything would be able to tarnish the beautiful ...
The New Zealand Bar Association welcomes a Court of Appeal decision which gives detailed guidance on sentencing people convicted of offences related to the importation, manufacture and supply of methamphetamine. ...
Methamphetamine (meth) dealers who can prove their own addiction caused their drug offending could have their sentences cut by 30 per cent, according to a landmark judgement released by the Court of Appeal. The role of an offender in a drug network ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, Senior Lecturer, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland Australians picked up their morning papers yesterday to find heavily blacked-out text instead of front-page headlines. This bold statement was instigated by the “Your Right to Know” campaign, an ...
Open mike 03/07/2019 
Over the past month we've heard some horrific stories about bullying in the police. The police's response? Try to bully people into silence:The police have told a whistleblower to retract his statements to RNZ about being bullied or face legal action. The demand came just hours after Police Commissioner Mike ...1 hour ago
One of the key arguments used by trans ideologists is that some male-bodied people (ie men) are women because they ‘feel’ they are women. To make this hocus-pocus sound a bit more credible, some will argue that such men have a ‘female brain’. But this is thoroughly anti-scientific too. . ...2 hours ago
A few days ago, a friend sent me a link to a health-related FB page that had published a post from a homeopathist, offering homeopathic “vaccination”¹ against measles (using something called a “Morbillinum nosode” at a “potency” of 200C, which I’ll explain shortly). I followed the link, left a comment ...19 hours ago
1 day ago
by the Council of Disobedient Women We call on the Council of Trade Unions to show some fortitude and take a stand with your sisters. Unionists know that there is a material world, otherwise workers could simply identify out of poverty. They could declare themselves Well Paid. Why stop ...2 days ago
Keir Starmer has hinted that Labour might vote in favour of the Johnson government's shoddy deal, with the proviso that a second referendum is attached:Speaking to BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, he said: “We will see what that looks like but it makes sense to say that by whatever ...2 days ago
In 1994, I was the editor for an issue of Planet magazine focused on cannabis, its culture and the prospects for the end of its prohibition. Part of that issue was an interview with 'Ringo', an experienced cannabis dealer.I recently posted my essay from that issue, and I figured it ...4 days ago
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...6 days ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz There is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...1 week ago
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...1 week ago
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...1 week ago
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...1 week ago
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...2 weeks ago
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...2 weeks ago
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...2 weeks ago
Journalist Andrew Dickens, reporting from the 2019 New Zealand First Conference, states that the Party once again proved “they are more than a sideshow”. In his op-ed article for NewstalkZB, Mr Dickens said he has always been an admirer of the Party, saying they are “a true centrist party”. “[NZ ...1 day ago
We're rebuilding our hospitals, protecting our oceans, and taking mental health seriously. ...5 days ago
The Government is investing in ambitious research that will digitise Te Reo, grow the low-carbon protein efficient aquaculture industry, help interpret environmental trends, and large data sets says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. The four projects range from teaching Siri to speak Te Reo to crunching large environmental ...4 hours ago
He Kākano Ahau is a podcast by writer and activist Kahu Kutia (Ngāi Tūhoe) that explores stories of Māori in the city, and weaves together strands of connection. In episode one: the legacy of urban marae Tapu te Ranga.I grew up where the tarseal on the road crumbles away into ...43 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Australians are divided over whether the nation’s universities have too many foreign students, according to the Australian National University’s ANUpoll, released Wednesday. In the polling, 52.8% said the mix between foreign and domestic students was ...53 mins ago
National's leader Simon Bridges says a bill imposing restrictions on people returning after fighting for extremist groups would only keep New Zealanders "half safe". ...55 mins ago
Otago University academic Chris Brickell wonders whether his new book on LGBT objects ought to be the sort of thing bookshops would want to have on their shelves. ...2 hours ago
South Aucklanders from Mangere to East Tamaki will be riding their Go Bus services to work for free tomorrow morning, as FIRST Union bus drivers opt out of collecting fares for their employer in an industrial action designed to show the wider public ...2 hours ago
What do we make of the Air New Zealand decision to quit the Auckland-Los Angeles-London route? Nothing much as it simply reflects the changing dynamics of the airline industry. Gone are the days when Air NZ took the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 into the fleet and began flying Los Angeles, then ...2 hours ago
Sky City and Fletcher Building see another "material delay" to opening of International Convention Centre as fire still rages. Plan B needed for APEC in November 2021, says Goff ...4 hours ago
The Sky City Convention Centre fire burns on this morning, with the Prime Minister planning to visit firefighters today. ...7 hours ago
Orange-fronted parakeets will still get protection but some mohua populations miss out as DoC reduces the area of forest being covered by 1080 poison. ...8 hours ago
Changes to how courts deal with meth-related offending can only go so far thanks to current laws. And that's how it's going to stay. ...8 hours ago
Like the All Blacks, Kellie Bailey is hitting Japan this week at the top of her game - as a judge on the Olympic canoe slalom course. ...8 hours ago
David Seymour won't return a donation from a man who threatened to destroy mosques. ...8 hours ago
Sportsroom editor Steve Deane asks himself why he starts foaming at the mouth at the sight of a twit in a white shirt with a red rose on it. ...8 hours ago
The main way small countries like New Zealand can lead on climate change is through our ideas. Policies developed here may help other countries with similar issues, writes David Frame. ...8 hours ago
England's chirpy Aussie coach is in his element ahead of the World Cup semifinal. ...8 hours ago
The hugely disproportionate number of disabled people on benefits is hidden by our low unemployment figures. ...9 hours ago
Eric Crampton has fun imagining a version of MBIE that worried it could be subject to cartel criminalisation provisions for the anticompetitive regimes it has established. ...23 hours ago
China continues its march into the Pacific with a China-Pacific Island Countries Economic Development and Cooperation Forum in Samoa this week. Ahead of the forum, Beijing has signed seven new agreements with Samoa covering education, trade, e-commerce, investment, infrastructure and agriculture. China’s Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua heads his delegation in Apia ...23 hours ago
Fonterra has increased its forecast farmgate milk price for the current dairy season, sighting strong demand for the co-op's milk. ...1 day ago
Otago can boast having the cleanest air in NZ but it’s not in the mountains of Central Otago or on the windswept beaches of Dunedin. ...1 day ago
Jeez, has John Tamihere been on the morning sauce? On RNZ right now he is just a mess of incoherent rambling, weird denunciations, barely concealed resentment, ridiculous hyperbole and moronic dissembling.
Wondered why Boag was supporting him till I heard he wanted to privatise Watercare. Maybe the end of Auckland residential property hyperinflation means that the leisured classes are casting their eyes around for alternative gold-plated investments?
Recycling tired Nat party stances on privatising public assets – doesn't count if you only privatise 49% says Johnny. As if Auckland's mayor has that power anyway. What a clown.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018702406/tamihere-proposes-selling-half-of-watercare
Whereas Goff was on RNZ earlier sounding entirely coherent. Tamihere is toast.
So thats just normal for tamihere
Strangly the standard has returned to full functionality on my tablet
Has there been a reversion?
Tony Burton provides an insight into the govt/media/politics nexus based on his personal experience in the public service. He sent an email & it caused controversy when obtained via OIA & used out of context. https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/01-07-2019/crocodile-in-the-river-how-public-servants-avoid-being-eaten-by-the-oia/
"The email itself was one in a chain between mid and lower ranking officials in Treasury and the Department of Labour (DoL) about the annual minimum wage report to Ministers. By that time the report had become a summary of suggestions from a list of organisations for a new minimum wage level, with well-known views and a cut-and-and-paste-from-last-year summary of arguments offered. DoL did an estimate of the potential unemployment impact for each level using a model so opaque that the estimates were best described as ‘some’, ‘some more’, ‘even more’, etc. The whole exercise was perfunctory."
"As a Treasury adviser on labour market and welfare issues I was asked to see if DoL could be encouraged to improve the report. I thought, naively as it turned out, that if I discussed evidence in bite-sized chunks some of it might sneak into the report. This was the content of my email."
"The DoL officials ignored my email and the subsequent meeting when writing their report. Described this way I imagine the eyes of most readers glazing over. “Conversation on academic evidence between unimportant people makes no difference” is not an attention grabber. But when released through the OIA, in the midst of an election campaign, the issue turned into “Mr Key ‘sat on’ the advice for 18 months and ‘tried to fool people’ by using only a later Labour Department review to back his argument”. This version became one of the issues in a television debate between the party leaders. A cursory glance at the emails would have made clear they were not sent to ministers. They did not include any reference to a Treasury report to ministers because there was no report."
"Treasury’s response, other than the occasional stern look directed at me from Treasury old timers, was a sentence in the ‘Briefing to the Incoming Minister’ to counter any impression it had supported minimum wage rises. But that was Treasury, and the Minister of Finance was Bill English, who actively encouraged Treasury to provide challenges based on evidence. If I had still been working for the Ministry of Social Development of the mid 2000s, where more than 50 communications staff were employed to control debate about the ministry, I might have lost my job."
"Public servants experience the OIA the way savannah animals experience crocodiles lurking under the surface of a river. The animals have to go to the river but do so aware that random attacks are a moment of inattention away. If this metaphor seems over the top, I invite the reader to look over the last few weeks of everything they wrote, typed or texted. Imagine someone had a legal right to publish any three consecutive words, without context or explanation, and with the potential that you might lose your job. Would that make you a little more guarded about what you wrote? Within the public service, versions of this thought experiment are called the “Dom Post test”. Unsurprisingly public servants take steps to avoid the crocodile. The OIA is meant to include verbal exchanges, but in practice that is hard to enforce. The result is the habit of minimising the written record if there is a risk of failing the Dom Post test. This habit is so endemic it is applied semi-consciously and only noticeable when someone, usually a junior official who has not been fully acculturated, needs to be reminded to “take the discussion off-line”."
"Of course there are many occasions when it is common sense to have a quick chat rather than to draft documents and set up meetings. (And anyone who has wasted time in pointless bureaucratic meetings will wish for more of this common sense.) However, extending this to replacing written comments is not in the spirit of the OIA."
"In as much as the OIA puts pressure on public servants to only write what they are personally prepared to defend in the full glare of the public they serve, it’s a good thing. The problem is that’s not the reality of how it is experienced, which means people do not just respond by improving what they write but by trying to avoid the lurking crocodile."
Thanks for the case study, Tony. Illuminating the coercive effects of the law on public servants is indeed a public service. Well done. [Tony Burton is a former deputy chief economic adviser at Treasury.]
Did anyone else hear Paul Goldsmith on the radio this morning?
My first thought was the 1990s called and wanted their neoliberal technocrat back.
What an utterly colourless Don Brash mini-me.
No wonder he got made finance spokesman, no threat to Simon there.
Yes I heard slimy little Paul Goldsmith lying again on RNZ saying 'Robots are good for our economy,' – but I wondered about us?????
Goldsmiths world is one without us humans it appears.
I turned radio NZ off afterthat rubbish.
Listening to Paul Goldsmith, my immediate impression was that robots had made much deeper inroads into the workplace than I had realised. The OS appeared to be somewhat dated though.
Though actually, robots could be good for the economy. It depends on who owns the technology and how they choose to use it. So yeah – the chances of it actually turning out well for most people are pretty minimal.
"The OS appeared to be somewhat dated though."
Yep, that selfish old Windows Me
I've watched him asking questions in Parliament over a period and thought, "This guy's actually written books?!"
I did, your post has reassured me that I wasn't just imagining how hopeless he was with the usual blah, blah and jargon that is all that eminates from the National Party and is very visible. It was like Kermit the Frog without the hope and vision, I'm not surprised he has remained fairly invisible till now.
Yes, I heard and saw him on the AM Show arrogant prat, But then I thought he was hilarious and certainly made my day when he came out with what I would think this year’s best joke when he made the statement that “ The National Party was the natural home for Talent”
'Gifted' offspring of privilege have input into design of special school….
….plans emerge for ivy- covered aviary channeling the Flintstones.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/113918033/auckland-couple-reveal-10m-building-plans-for-boutique-age-school
"Nikki Kaye's a feminist, Cameron Slater's a journalist, and John Key's son's a DJ!"
Almost as ludicrous a sight as poor Ben Shapiro trying to argue with intelligent people is the embarrassing spectacle of the untalented sons of "celebrities" posing as DJs. The poster child for this particular form of idiocy is the notorious Chet Haze, son of Tom Hanks. Down here, there was Maximus Key, son of John. We'll spare you the gruesome task of having to actually watch the young Key in action; this critique of him and his father's government is far more entertaining…
Aficionadoes of "wretchedness o'ercharged" may like to investigate Tom Hanks's rapper son….
That first video is just embarrassing
I am guessing the one person who seems to be laughing is the blokes sister or mother?
In the first clip, the whole of the audience is laughing with the comedian/rapper called Tourettes, and laughing at John Key's obnoxious and untalented son. In the second clip, the people laughing at Tom Hanks's obnoxious and untalented son are Howard Stern and his long-standing producer, Robin Quivers.
The prof cough's up another fur ball.
The only obnoxious and untalented person is that fuckwit Tourettes and his paid friend with the forced laugh, comedian/rapper, only in his twisted bitter little mind.
The prof cough’s [sic] up another fur ball… [snip angry ranting]
Yeah right. John Key's no-hoper son is a DJ. Goddit.
Strange times. Strange bedfellows.
George Soros and Charles Koch get together to launch an anti-interventionist think-tank. Nothing else seems to have broken the DC enthusiasm for wading into messy foreign entanglements the US really has no business being in, so hey, worth a shot.
https://www.vox.com/2019/7/1/20677441/soros-koch-end-interventionist-wars-military
Good on them. For once, one of the Koch brothers is doing something worthy.
As time goes by under this new government who is attempting to balance the books while fixing our crumbling infrustructure, watching our roads/rail/ city sewer services and all other essential services are failing as we speak.
Winston Peters spoke to the 230 folks who turned up to his last 'pep-talk' meeting prior to the last election and I was there it was a good talk he was right on the button there.
Winston touched on this issue of national spending nothing on our crumbling infrustructure during the last national Government's nine long years who always used the term "deferred maintainence" to justify cutting costs all over NZ to make their books look fine for the election.
Now we witness what national set the next Government up for; – and boy is showing us now with a sewer pipe collapsing into the taupo lake today, and the freight train de-railed in Wairarapa,
All happend in just one day.
Government needs to heed Winstons words he spoke that Gisborne night about our crumbling infrustructure as he said "we need to follow what Michael Joseph Savage did in 1935 to get NZ infrustructure back into operation after the 1931 depression by enacting the "Reserve Bank Act" and print the funds needed for restoring all NZ's essential services."
Otherwise we as a country NZ will fail, as another examle of what happend to Greece.
Good comment.
Many in the last National 'government' were all about achieving their brighter future though self service. Shudder to think what would be privatised by now if that lot were still in charge – Coleman was certainly lining up the health sector, and is now lining his pockets as CEO of Acurity Health Group, a leading provider of private hospital services.
If you read the Grauniad uncritically, you are no better than a Fox News true believer.
The Guardian..the guard dog of the status quo.
uncritically is a very good word – only the pitiful don't read everything and anything with a critical eye.
True, marty, very true.
Are those fellows Guardian readers Morsissey?
Latest report on DHBs from 2.7.2019. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/393457/dhbs-report-shows-funding-population-woes-senior-doctors-union-head
If DHBs run by generic accountants can't make ends meet then better informed managers with hospital backgrounds need to be employed. They seem to be in a similar position to the old railways, government didn't want to do its job running them, and sold off bits to supposed more effective private interests. Both sides tried to do the job on the cheap, flushing out the supposed fat on a starvation budget.
Now the government is told it needs to provide more money for health. Much of it should be garnered from the comfortably-off-to-rich from more tax not less (as in Australia just announced!) and from wealth-offering immigrants adding to our bulk of population to be serviced, and the fees from poor ones spending their life savings to come here. Government needs to listen or they won't be able to congratualte themselves for being better than weasely National and we won't be able to flaunt ourselves as a top country overseas, that is if it can't be made to care about the expected services of a so-called developed country.
One man who is both medically knowledgable and with managerial skills said this after a survey into conditions in Hawke's Bay (Te-Mata-a-Maui). This is a report from Dr Kevin Snee from December 2014 when he was Chief Executive of Hawke's Bay DHB. (He has now gone to troubled Waikato DHB.)
https://www.baybuzz.co.nz/2014/12/08/health-inequity/
The report brought up issues for Maori health. Presumably as times have got harder for them the smoking is increasingly a problem, and alcohol also plays its well-known destructive role. It makes this comment:
…• It is startling that three out of four Maori will be dead before their 75th birthday, compared to one in three European. And possibly even worse, one in four Maori will die before their 50th birthday compared to one in twenty European.
I find these statistics shocking and unacceptable.
Much of the work we do in health is focused on reducing inequity, trying to reduce the gap so everyone has the same opportunities for health. It’s part of our vision for the next five years through our Transform and Sustain programme. The 11 key areas of this programme all contain elements to make sure equity is addressed, when we determine how we spend our money.
Recognising and identifying the issues through this report will help us work to reduce the gap, but the health system alone cannot solve inequity….
Is John Key not aware of the Westminster convention that former PM's stay out of politics ?
The sight of the chair of the largest bank in Australasia making public comment on the affairs of a country without the checks and balances of an upper house should make all true democrats pause.
John may be cramping Simon's style
i have no problem if Key may be "cramping Simon's style", unless it makes Simon look less of an idiot. LOL.
I certainly agree with the rest of your comment, but this is not new for Key. During his time in Parliament he never really recognised, or rather adhered to, Westminister convention etc. or the reasons to keep a distance between his and others' roles as a representative of the people as opposed to their connection to and representation of the business sector, including the finance sector.
Mind you,, Key is nowhere in the league of Trump and his favourite daughter, Ivanka and their performance at the G20 meeting in Japan a few days ago!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/01/donald-trump-ivanka-g20-north-korea-nepotism
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/07/02/the-point-ivanka-trump-g20-diplomat-chris-cillizza-pkg.cnn
Plenty more choices if the above are frowned on media sources to some – just google “Ivanka Trump G20” .
[As an aside, loving the “Where is Wally/Ivanka?” pictures used on the Daily Review posts the last few nights – is that your work, mickysavage? LOL.]
nothing to worry, this is all normal, yeah, right you heard me….normal!!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/14-killed-in-fire-on-russian-navy-submersible/2019/07/02/551bc79c-9cd0-11e9-83e3-45fded8e8d2e_story.html?utm_term=.6ac8062f1fdf
fire on a russian nuclear submarine boat ' aka a science vessel' kills fourteen but we are assured by the russians that there are no nuclear leaks. No siree, non what so ever……
Fucking lying Norwegians eh?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-submersible-norway/norway-says-not-detecting-high-radiation-after-russia-submarine-fire-idUSKCN1TX2E3
so you mean 14 russian sailors did not die in an accident on a nuclear submarine in the artic?
Fucking lying russians. Must be some of that fake news?
Wonder if Russia will resort to drugging a distraught family member on live TV, again.
You'll be the first to know
Here is a good post debate piece from FAIR looking at the US MSM freaking out over the Bernie induced sharp pivot to the Left by 80% of the Democratic runners..it warms my heart.
Warning to Progressive Dems: You’re Leaving Corporate Media’s Comfort Zone
https://fair.org/home/warning-to-progressive-dems-youre-leaving-corporate-medias-comfort-zone/?awt_l=CnT3e&awt_m=gKmvrE3mJIR._TQ
This clip nicely covers some of the smears against Sanders, Jill Stein, and Jeremy Corbyn….
Those of us still around in 20 years will look back at the Sanders candidacy as a lost opportunity of historic proportions. Maybe not so much 'lost' as 'denied' – because he won't be allowed to win if it looks like he actually might. All the problems he talked about will be so much worse by then.
So good.
As an aside I got the telescope out the other night and showed my son Jupiter and some of his moons – he said it was cool and that made me feel pretty good. Saturn also looked amazing with the rings and stuff.
Can't wait to head south to this observatory.
Sounds amazing.
The sand flies down Tekapo way will also love it
The observatory at Mt John is awesome, as is Tekapo and the Dark Sky Park. I have been twice and it is one of the best things I have experienced in my life – the night sky is something most of us in the "first world" have lost. I'll be visiting this new centre for sure.
Another ACC Disputes Resolution service launched with former critic now Director of Contracted Provider of said disputes resolution service.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/393531/new-acc-mediation-service-aims-to-settle-disputes-faster
Great to see the contracting system still working despite… Previous research had said there should be a commissioner and it should be separate from ACC, he said, but the corporation and the government decided to go with a contractor relationship.
In the meantime, those with impairments who are not under ACC await word from the Current Mob as to the plan to make Funded Family Care Fairer.
Back in September there was a Beehive Release…https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/making-funded-family-care-fairer… which promised …
Cabinet has agreed to consider changes to Funded Family Care, with options and timeframes for changes to be presented to Cabinet later this year.
“The Government intends to repeal Part 4A of the Act that was introduced by the previous National Government,” Minister of Health Dr David Clark says.
“There have been consistent calls for Part 4A to be repealed because it is discriminatory. In particular, Part 4A has been inconsistent with human rights legislation because it denies families the right to complain about breaches of their human rights relating to family care policies,” Acting Associate Health Minister James Shaw says.
“The previous Government’s Funded Family Care policy has been a nightmare for the families involved. Today’s announcement is the first step towards a kinder and fairer agreement with carers.
“Over the next couple of months the Government will run targeted consultation with affected families and stakeholders on the key issues within Funded Family Care. Consultation will cover issues of eligibility, pay rates for carers, the employment relationship, and the type of care covered,” says James Shaw.
Well, we've done the Targeted Engagement thing….https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/targeted_engagement_on_funded_family_care_and_paid_family_care_20_november_2018.pdf
…and we've read the many, many articles in the media about this topic…https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2019/05/the-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-work-carers-do-revealed-in-new-report.html
Yet, nothing. Not a sausage, nary a crumb.
Apart from the shitty little back down on a much begged for more flexible respite care funding system….https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/392858/service-for-choosing-respite-care-shelved-after-ministry-wouldn-t-stump-up-10m
I was going to write, yet again, to The Powers That Be and respectfully ask what stage they're at keeping their promises of last September…
But I've got no respect left for them.
SSDD.
Would be interesting to see the basis for that decision OIAed.
Wouldn't it just? They'd probably claim 'commercial sensitivity' or sumsuch.
I had hopes that Forster was going to really challenge the status quo….he got an award and everything…https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11957047
…and he even called into question the ethics of having a review service in a contractual relationship with ACC.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/lawyer-queries-legality-accs-relationship-firm
Oh. Dear.
Dr. David Clark is a complete and utter waste of space.
The puckish part of me was going to send him a pair of boxing gloves and a spine. Anyone taking on the task of undoing over two decades of sociopathic mismanagement of Health in general and disability in particular will need both. However its not much point if the heart's not in it, and the government is not committed.
It struck me right from the beginning of his tenure that he had already acquired the possum in the headlights look displayed by both Ryall and Coleman. Almost as if they'd had a quick shufti inside the inner sanctum of the Ministry of Health executive and decided it was a beast best left to its own devices.
Coleman, certainly. Smug waste of space. However Ryall was far from afeared, to his cost.
water shortage? drought?
not here, surely not!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12245978
Strength of the old and the new
a Europa
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/eu-leaders-agree-choices-top-jobs-days-disputes-190702184823275.html
Commandeering the commons to run an event paid for by the public to raise funds for the ruling party.
Corrupt AF.
Commandeering nearby public resources to prop up your private school? Sweet as! https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/113918033/auckland-couple-reveal-10m-building-plans-for-boutique-age-school
Ah, but is JFK jr. going to put in an appearance as the deputy principal…
Nixon in 2020. Tanned, rested, and ready.
Seeing as Tracey Martin and Jacinda haven't viewed the recent uplift video, perhaps they can find the time to read this harrowing account of another family's treatment by Oranga Tamariki
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@taken-by-the-state/2019/06/27/655406/dealing-with-the-agency-from-hell
How many hours of the day do you believe ministers and the Prime Minister should devote to perusing fine details of disputes between individuals and government departments, and how do you propose prioritising which disputes should be reviewed? It could hit 24 hours a day without breaking a sweat, so some rationing system would be essential, not to mention some means of measuring the opportunity cost to the country of their spending their time on that.
How many hours of the day they should devote to perusing fine details of disputes between individuals and government departments is up to them. Nevertheless, the more informed a misister is the more effective they are likely to be.
However, most would expect them to at least be aware (and to have read/seen) the top ones that make the news, especially when it's to do with matters relating to their own ministerial portfolio.
Actually, no on both counts. Or at least not necessarily.
An abundance of operational information can masquerade as knowledge of strategic issues. The issue here isn't how a particular baby was taken, rather the issue is the overrespresentation of Māori children being taken and the equity, appropriatness, and justice questions this raises. You don't need to see the video to understand this.
Unless the issue is the behaviour of the people taking that specific baby (e.g. the US border concentration camps), the video might be emotive but it adds little to deciding how the system should be improved.
I didn't state necessarily. I said the more effective they are likely to be.
An abundance of operational information is part of being informed.
The issue here is how a particular baby was taken and how systemic that process is. Along with the over representation of Māori children being taken, the equity, appropriateness, and justice questions this raises.
Viewing the video uplift first hand is a little more insightful than merely reading about it. And in this case, the behaviour of the people taking that specific baby was/is of issue.
Yeah your weasel words of concern are always vague, but the fact remains that an abundance of operational information often or even usually gets in the way of strategic decision making.
If the issue is how the baby was taken, that's an operational matter that the minister should leave to the employment personnel. But the issue is one of systemic bias, which is a strategic matter, so what specifically does the video add to aid decision-making for that issue?
Resorting to taking potshots so soon. You really try to appeal to the mugs on here, don't you.
An abundance of operational information is part of the knowledge one requires to make strategic decisions. At the end of the day, the two are often interrelated. Alignment of strategic priorities and integration of operations etc. But you can continue to dance on the head of that pin if you like.
One of the issues is how the baby was taken. Moreover, the harrowing behaviour of Oranga Tamariki staff has been reported as being systemic. Therefore, while it's an operational matter it is one the minister ultimately oversees and at the end of the day is accountable for. The buck stops at the top.
The video could be used as an example in future staff training of what not to do.
Sorry, looks like you missed the last bit:
How would it help the minister to watch the video?
Material for training courses doesn't cut it. If the behaviour is "harrowing" that requires training, that's an operational/HR matter involving a bad job that's being done badly. The bad job needn't be done at all but the system requires it, so that's a systemic issue for the minister and how the job is done is irrelevant because the role of the minister is to stop it being done in the first place.
How would it help the minister to watch the video?
First off, they (the PM and the Minister) would have avoided the outrage not viewing it has caused.
Secondly, just as the bias is systemic so are the operational flaws. thus strategic goals have to integrate with operational strategy to formulate on the ground. The video is a good example of this failure, thus can be learned from. Helping the Minister to come up with solutions going forward.
How the job is done is far from irrelevant. Outcomes largely rely on how the job is being done. And when the job is being done poorly and it's systemic, the oversight extends to the Minister in charge.
As for the Minister being able to completely stop it, she doesn't have the capacity in her role alone. Lifting benefits would go a long way in reducing the frictions that lead to family violence, child abuse etc.
Again, there is no outrage because the pm didn't watch a video. You're just pretending there is to suit your nat agenda narrative.
Money isn't the be all and end all to any solution for bad parenting, violent abuse of children or neglect. Millionaires can be shit parents, too, though they might be able to afford better lawyers. An extra $50 a week to a selfish parent doesn't benefit a child at all, not in the sense of protecting them from selfish parents that is.
Once again you've taken a swing and a miss. Next nat talking point, please.
Lifting benefits going a long way in reducing the frictions that lead to family violence, child abuse etc, is a National Party talking point?
How did parents become so selfish in your opinion?
Are you not aware of the frictions being poor can create in the family environment and how ugly that can quickly become? Are you that out of touch?
As for the outrage out there, it has been reported that some are comparing this to the foreshore and seabed fallout.
Still no outrage, not at the pm any way. The system, perhaps, but that's relative.. Each case on it's merits and all that.
Of course I'm aware of friction from having no money, I'm fucking poor after all, so out of touch I certainly am not, but whatever the deal, no matter how much cash I haven't had, I've always fed my babies and never once taken out my anger and frustration upon them. Main reason is personal pride, to look after ones younglings, secondary is not to be my old man and screw it up. I certainly don't blame the pm or her ministers like you do.
When I knew I couldn't afford to do it all, I stopped smoking, drinking, eating fast food, just like most people do in the same situation. Extra money for me would have eased financial pressures, but made no difference to the emotional and physical well being of my spawn. They were, and are, already well sorted.
Thanks for your concern 🙄
Then you would know how this friction can quickly turn ugly in some family environments, leading to mental stress and causing some to snap too easily. Albeit, it hasn't happen to adult you, but perhaps (by the sound of it) you may have been victim to it as a lad. Perhaps helping you from going down that same path as a dad.
Poverty has many adverse effects and in many ways is a driver of many of our social ills.
Fuck off, you patronising twat.
PS, Mods, I'll take the ban, ta.
Firstly, I had a quick look to stuff for any expression of "outrage" that Ardern and Martin haven't watched the video. Seems to have disappeared from their political section already (although the issue of "uplifts" has not). There is an article posted on Newsroom on Tuesday, onenews doesn't seem to rate the waves of outrage as newsworthy, RNZ News seems to have missed the barricades in the streets that the hopi polloi have raised because the PM and minister didn't watch the video, so really the main source of "outrage" seems to be you. Even Newsroom only said "shocked". But I'm sure people will take to the streets tomorrow unless the PM watches the video. /sarc
Secondly, "operational flaws" operating a policy that itself needs drastic changes are not really a priority. You can't have a bad attitude while taking newborns if you're not taking newborns in the first place.
Should the people assessing benefit rates also watch the video? Or need it only be an intructional tool for administrators of policy, as well as the ministers who determine the policy, but not the administrators of policy determination? Can you answer that, or would that be one for the people who determine the administration of the determination of policy, and their administrators?
In this case the operational flaws are so embedded and systemic they can't be left to be overlooked as they are a large part of the problem that will negatively impact on any new policy change.
As for the outrage out there, it was reported on. I've already posted a link to it. But here it is again.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/07/midwives-involved-in-attempted-hawke-s-bay-baby-uplift-slam-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-for-not-watching-video.html
Moreover, there is "a tide of unrest in Maoridom" over the large number of child uplifts and Jacinda not viewing the clip was seen by many as a slap in the face.
Again, operational flaws in a flawed policy can be eliminated by eliminating the flawed policy.
Also, ain't it interesting how newsroom are the only outlet noticing the tide? And even that was a couple of days ago?
Oh, and you, of course. But you're very adept at spotting tides of outrage against this government. Especially tides that are undetected by anyone else.
…so really the main source of "outrage" seems to be you.
To be fair, DPF has also posted about it – no doubt he's as "concerned" as The Chairman is about Ardern's terrible failure to watch a video.
… most would expect them to at least be aware (and to have read/seen) the top ones that make the news….
How do you know they were not already aware of these circumstances TC?
How do you know they had not already seen… and been told of similar stories?
In fact, according to Jacinda Ardern she has recently seen and heard about similar stories and I'm sure Tracey Martin will have too. So they didn't need to spend precious time perusing another one which is no doubt the reason why they chose to so promptly set up an inquiry to find out what is going on.
Your constant tendency to jump on the critical band-wagon before all the facts are at your disposal belies your claim you are to the left of centre. I’ll go further and say you are a right wing troll who comes here to disrupt the flow of rational dialogue.
Having said that you're not the only one.
Hi Anne
I didn't claim they were unaware of the circumstances in this instance, Anne. I pointed out how they are being publicly slammed for not viewing the video.
Moreover, I didn't claim they had not already seen and have been told of similar stories.
And on that point, Jacinda got an easy ride on the Nation the other day. She should have been asked what are these other similar events she has claimed to have seen? Moreover, if they have known for so long as Jacinda has claimed (on the Nation) why haven't they acted with more pace?
Spending the short time to view the clip would have given them a good insight into the staff behaviour and operational flaws taking place under their watch.
Moreover, have you not seen the backlash from this (their not viewing it)? They have offended many in Maoridom. All that could have been avoided if they merely took the short time to view the clip.
I’m not a right wing troll, I’m a lefty constantly disappointed by Labour’s poor performance. So deal with it, because I’m far from the only one.
I pointed out how they are being publicly slammed for not viewing the video.
You participated in and contributed to the squawking about it, yes. To what purpose?
A highlighted it and have put forward reasoning why they were slammed for it. And there are a number of reasons for that.
One being, I wanted to hear what the Party defenders here had to say.
Relentlessly soggy ("constantly disappointed"), and as transparent as a transparent thing ("Labour’s poor performance").
The Chairman is a self-proclaimed "lefty" who is "more left than most", yet has a strong aversion to complimenting Labour and/or Green MPs, in government or in opposition.
The Chairman is also extremely reluctant to turn their withering gaze on the behaviour and policies of National party MPs, in government or in opposition.
The Chairman's protestations of 'lefty' credentials are bogus (as is the identity), but that's just my opinion – others can judge for themselves.
I reckon he’s got two left hemispheres and he’s so left that the right one’s gone. It just left, out of his right ear it went and kept going till it was lost, forever. That’s how it got there, the right hemisphere, and how it’s left.
It's my view that politics is like a simple circle and when standing at the top of the circle the lefties will swing clockwise and the righties swing anti-clockwise. They will inevitably meet at the bottom and become one and the same. Eg. Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.
The PM from the text in the 3news link provided.
"The actual footage of the removal, no, but I have seen other incidents like that in the past," she said.
"I've been the spokesperson for children for Labour for a number of years, and this has been an issue that has been debated for a number of years.
"I certainly know the circumstances. I know the case; I know the issues around it, and I know the theme that’s being raised here".
Exactly, The Al1en.
And as I just said to Anne above (reposted below).
And on that point, Jacinda got an easy ride on the Nation the other day. She should have been asked what are these other similar events she has claimed to have seen? Moreover, if they have known for so long as Jacinda has claimed (on the Nation) why haven't they acted with more pace?
So the PM is fully aware of the situation, and your smear attack in 20.1.1 has been busted wide open by her very quote in the link you provided as a weapon to beat her with.
Exactly! All right.
Clearly, I was speaking generally in the quote you used there. Nevertheless, while they were aware in this specific case, they both admitted to not viewing the actual clip.
Evidently, with both failing to see how bad that was going to look, especially to Maroidom.
So? I didn't watch game of thrones but I knew all about it, who was in it, how it played out.
You're reaching, as usual, and making a drama where none exists to push an anti government agenda.
Most people realise kids aren't taken away from families unless there's a good reason. The general statistic, where maori are concerned, is a worry, but that's not Jacinda's fault, nor does her not watching a video make her guilty of any crime, percieved or otherwise.
“So? I didn't watch game of thrones but I knew all about it, who was in it, how it played out.”
Knowing about it and watching it are not one in the same.
Nevertheless, and more importantly, you aren't the PM, nor was the high profile clip a mere TV show.
I'm not reaching, you are evidently out of touch with the outrage this has caused, just as the PM failed to see it coming. This lot have become arrogant real fast.
Out of interest, what do you believe are the drivers behind the reasons children are having to be taken?
The pm said she was informed of the situation, and I believe her over your anti propaganda, any time.
How many hours of the day they should devote to perusing fine details of disputes between individuals and government departments is up to them.
And yet, here you are concern-trolling them for not devoting the time to it that you'd prefer they did.
Nevertheless, the more informed a misister is the more effective they are likely to be.
Sure, who could argue with that? The question is, informed about what? Informed in great detail about one individual's dispute with a government department isn't necessarily helpful to a minister's work, and leads us straight back to the issues of the time needed to gain that irrelevant state of informed-ness and how to prioritise which individuals to become so deeply informed about.
However, most would expect them to at least be aware (and to have read/seen) the top ones that make the news…
And they are aware of them. Thank you for your heartfelt concern.
If Chairman, running true to form, still protests innocence after blowing his cover for multi-multiple times, I have an offer of 49% of shares in a state-owned bridge in which he may be interested…
First off, I'm not concern trolling. Evidently, you are blind to the outrage out there and how offending and arrogant this is looking. Secondly, as I said, how much time they want to devote to these things is up to them, but considering it's high profile, this is one short clip many were surprised, shocked and offended Jacinda couldn't find the time to see.
The thing is the staff behaviour and operational flaws taking place in the video and written piece linked to are said to be systemic (thus not just one individual being negatively impacted) giving the Minister a very good insight into how things are playing out on the ground in real life (and not merely what has been internally fed to them). Thus one would expect they would find it extremely helpful seeing it from both sides when coming up with solutions.
I respect many a genuine "lefty", particularly those that are "more left than most" – so what is it about The Chairman's "relentessly soggy" criticism of left-leaning political parties and MPs that is so distasteful and deceitful?
Surely The Chairman is not blind to the impression such criticism creates. If I described Bridges/National in such terms, and then claimed to be a 'more right than most' conservative, how credible would I be?
The Chairman's relentlessly soggy critique of Labour/Ardern/Greens et al. is not helpful, but then it's not intended to be, is it.
Please do continue (this is a genuine request) – you (The Chairman) serve as an object lesson in right-wing duplicity, not that another lesson is needed!
And please, could The Chairman show a little respect for our Prime Minister by using her family name – that's another little tell you might want to work on, BTW
Good old Labour scared of the impression being criticised creates.
Tell you what, if they don't like being criticised, play a better game.
Moreover, if a party can't hold its own against criticism, then their problems are far bigger than me having a go at them.
This isn't China, yet and political criticism isn't hate speech. So as much as they want to shutdown freedom of speech, they will find it will only turn against them.
So instead of you highlighting my many criticisms, try defending against them if you can. I'm not saying anything that isn't true.
"Good old Labour scared of the impression being criticised creates." – penned by The Chairman, a self-proclaimed "lefty" who is, in their own words, "more left than most".
Just for info, I'm a little left of current Labour party's policies – why The Chairman (on this site) repeatedly and pointedly puts the boot into Green party policies and MPs is beyond me. For example, three months after the 2017 election, here's The Chairman suggesting that Gareth Hughes would be an improvement on Shaw as Green party (co-)leader. /open-mike-26-12-2017/#comment-1430363
No doubt The Chair had their reasons, but a friend of the left, really?
The current coalition government is making a genuine effort to reverse the damage done by NINE LONG YEARS of National party "brighter future" policies, damage on which The "lefty" Chairman has been strangely silent. I'm so relieved than NZ had a change of government in 2017; another three year of 'governance' by the simply awful collection of self-serving no-hoper National MPs would have been the last straw. Does The "more left than most" Chairman agree?
Politics may be a game to The Chairman [“play a better game“], but I respectfully decline their 'invitation' to lay off highlighting their constant stream of comments undermining left-leaning parties and politicians, now numbering in the thousands on this site.
Others can judge whether I'm saying anything that isn't true.
…this is one short clip many were surprised, shocked and offended Jacinda couldn't find the time to see.
Unless she happens to be a close personal friend of yours and you'd like to humble-brag about it on this thread, she's "Ardern," "Jacinda Ardern" or "the Prime Minister" to you. Otherwise, calling her by informal or pet names is a right-wing tactic to reinforce their "silly little girl" meme.
Also: "many" at this point seems to equate to you, Martyn Bradbury and right-wing commentators with a propaganda agenda.
The thing is the staff behaviour and operational flaws taking place in the video and written piece linked to are said to be systemic…
The "alleged" flaws are "claimed" to be systemic – by you, at least. Still not seeing why the Minister and the Prime Minister need to be devoting time to minor operational details.
So this mayor is hit with a disaster, and goes and spends up big on helicopter flights. Misused funds, isn't there a law against that. Any reasonable Mayor would first assess the damage, less the damage kept getting worse. Nets over the river, dig out the dump move to a new location..
…but seriously this guy hasn't resigned at least? Showing remorse.
Tracey Martin and Jacinda have been publicly slammed (see link below) for failing to view the recent uplift video. How do the Labour Party defenders on here feel about that?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/07/midwives-involved-in-attempted-hawke-s-bay-baby-uplift-slam-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-for-not-watching-video.html
Related additional info: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/07/02/663254/sorry-minister-youre-wrong
Why haven't you watched the video and written a report chemmy?
I've seen it, Gabby. But I'm not a reporter.
Anyone looking for Labour's defenders see those commenting on my post at 20.
"How do the Labour Party defenders on here feel about that?"
Isn't that what you claim to be, chair?
A Labour Party defender, I'm not. As you know, I'm one of their largest critics.
Nothing to say on the topic, Robert? Just distraction talking about me I see.
Just letting off a little steam, Chairman. Your comments don't interest me at all, outside of their entertainment value.
I think those demanding Ardern and Martin should have watched that video should be given consultancy roles on the payroll for them. Their particular job would be to tell them all the stuff they should read, all the people they should talk to and what media things they should do.
They of course would make sure that the two be interviewed daily by Garner and Hosking.
Actually they should also tell Martin and Ardern what to think as well, it'll save of a lot of anguish and stuffing around.
Which is just what you wanted. Mission accomplished. 🙄
Far from it, The Al1en. Talking about me is not my goal or “mission”.
And on that point, care to comment on the topic?
“Far from it”
You sure aren’t.
A train derailment
No doubt after a committee meeting, and an inchoiry between Kiwirail, Metlink, Transdev, and a few contractors somewhere in a 'war room', there'll be a number of 'learnings going forward'.
(One of which might be, for example, why we couldn't have run trains from both Hutt and Kapiti lines to the Kaiwharawhara station and scheduled them outbound again from there. And yes!, I understand there might be overhead electrical supply problems, but fuckall that couldn't be temporarily adjusted).
Strewth maate! What if we have a real disaster?
Ekshully, whilst I await comment from all the sperts as to why it couldn't happen, I came across that tragedy of photo of Laidlaw that always appears in the media. Says a lot really.
I just have to ask myself when it was that imagination bypass surgery and community agency became trumped by the risk managers and the stifling of ingenuity. Can someone put a date on it for me please?
Let's hope we don't have another Wahine disaster because the loss of life is likely to be tenfold
You want a photo of Chris Laidlaw? Here's one from 49 years ago….
I was thinking of a more recent tragedy @ Moz. But at least he has a highly paid legacy of memories and relevance
Going Backwards
It would have to be said sooner or later, that
Parents on drugs, Parents on Booze, Parents on Bashing their wives up, Parents who have put themselves in Jail, Parents who have not taught their children anything … The Parents who are merely wastrel Gang Mugs. Parents on Marijuana. Killing each other on the Road.
The spoon feeding has to stop. No amount of tattoos or money is going to fix anything. We have had a couple of centuries trying out that.
The sadness is, that the Population of New Zealand is less and less Maori. More and More English, More Asian and South American. European .Populations that do well.
Do we want Maori to Die off Like Kauri ? The answer to that is, make sure Parents live a decent Life.