i beg you to read this, share a tear for the girls involved, their resignation to the fact that sexual harrasment and rape, and gang rape is boys being boys, and then maybe write a letter to ask the "lawmakers' of this fair land to make
sexual harrasment, rape, gang rape (fucking gang rape in a school)
A fucking HATE CRIME!
maybe someone who has better vocabulary then I, who can write about such things in nice and polite ways so as to not offed, can do a post about this. About how a whole generation of girls in a School in NZ admitted to being dehumanized , traumatised, physically assaulted and rendered to nothing more then a sexual object by their male peers.
The sexual harassment survey is a confronting read.
I don't think we can legislate our way to a solution.
Why are our boys and men behaving in such demeaning ways? While schools are going to be part of the answer, surely the family environment and wider society is where solutions need to be implemented.
Decent males around young men – dads, brothers,uncles, sports coaches, teachers, community/church leaders.
A boisterous energy common in males needs to be channeled in healthy directions.
Many moons ago, at a primary school cross country, a group of younger boys who had done their run were goofing around jumping/throwing themselves over a rope tied between two electric fence 'pigtail' standards. A mum told them to stop it. They did for about 90 seconds then started up again. They were told to stop it again told someone might get hurt. I volunteered to supervise said hi-jinks to appease the concerns.
Later at prize giving, there were categories for fastest boy and girl in the different year groupings. I asked the principal if this was to be repeated at the academic side of things at the end of the year. I was told it would be looked into. They didn't.
I feel boys can grow up not feeling valued, that what often drives them is wrong or naughty. That drive needs to be channeled to manifest in a healthy way. If you grow up not having regard or love for oneself, you can hardly be expected to have regard for others.
Celia Lashlie said all of this so much better than me and the message is far more palatable when a woman says it.
Worldwide, children, women and man are being subjected to unspeakable acts of violence. Rape and all related abuses are acts of violence. Perpetrated to humiliate the "other" and show superiority. It is an act of abuse of power over others, sadistic in its core a human failure in their upbringing and understanding of respect and honor. This is an issue as old as humanity and the only way, as I see it, is to change this is by changing the upbringing of children. Women are mothers and mothers are the major influence when raising children up to the time they join day care and school, military etc. depending on culture and location. What is changing at that juncture?
I have experienced children growing up with parents of all walks of life so to speak and found it is not poverty or even neglect due to working 2 jobs etc. but drink, drugs, the culture of "proving" a boy has to "become" a man. Suppression of wishes, feelings and mental illness do come into play. Solders have acute issues because of repression when they have witnessed atrocities. The list is long but essentially, we as a human race have to find a way to overcome this animalistic instinct and need of exercising power over others. I know, its wishful thinking and most likely never going to happen.
Why are our boys and men behaving in such demeaning ways? Why do we have a massive drug problem? Why do we have to have props like alcohol and drugs to get us through life? Why do there have to be drug checks outside concerts where young people are apparently going to have a good time with music?
Why do we have so many mental health problems? Why almost every day do we hear or see in the media of someone suffering from depression?
What changes are in there in us from 1821, 1921 till 2021? Is it that the better off and more 'advanced' we are, the less stable we have become?
Men and boys have behaved like this in New Zealand for a long time. For most of New Zealand's history it was legal to both beat and rape your wife.
It was only in the late 1800's early 1900's that a conflation between puritanical evangelists and feminists started to result in questioning male rights to wife-beating, conjugal rights and marital rape.
Adulterous wives were able to be divorced simply because they created the possibility of the husband's estate being passed on at death to someone else's son. The impact of that thinking for instance meant that all benefits were paid to the male until the mid-1980's. There are lots of stories about women trying to feed their families solely on family benefit payments.
Marital rape was possible because in getting married a woman gave herself up to her husband. It was seen that marital sex was part of the contract that she had entered into and that you could not deny your husband that part of the contract.
These attitudes persisted well into the 60's and 70's with the normalised thinking evident even when looking for alternative lifestyles such as James K Baxtter's commune at Jerusalem.
Those attitudes persist today. I've heard many horrific stories from my grandparents and parents generations about what they had to endure – many over 40-50 years of marriage. Closer to home I remember one of my uncles getting his son aged about four to go and tell "mummy to get on her back cause daddy wants a fuck" – I was seven or eight when this was going on and even then was horrified but not surprised. You grew up hearing similar stuff all around you.
Marital rape only became a crime in 1985.
As well as property rights the "boys will be boys" notion was a well established notion.
It is a matter entirely clear in the physiology which governs nature that adultery in the male is a crime to which the male really is very much more accessible than the female from the force of nature. That is a physiological law, and you cannot upset it. And the reason of the law is quite simple. It is because man is inherently selfish, and nature has put so violent a passion in him in order that he may increase and multiply the people on the earth. In so far, his culpability is lessened. In the eye of legislation of reasonable beings the same onus is not to be laid upon the male as upon the female for committing adultery. Nature cannot be shoved aside and slurred over and overridden … "
Morgan Stanislaus Grace 1896 during debate on divorce laws.
The notion that men had aggressive sexual urges and women were passive was seen as a simple truism.
Some urges were however problematic. Given the prevalent attitudes towards masturbation in NZ that were still in vogue when I went to high school in the 70's – I struggle to see how even that recently that New Zealand had normal healthy attitudes.
"Ailments believed to be associated with masturbation included epilepsy, blindness, headache, impotency, loss of memory, general loss of health and strength, 'nervous debility' and ultimately insanity and death."
A whole industry developed around how to stop these urges – often moving into the blackmail of those who then purchased the products.
I think it is weird how people promote this notion of things are getting worse and OMG how did things get so bad? It has been forever bad in New Zealand and we reap the legacy of that today. I think at times we confuse the willingness to be more open about these issues and to talk about them with it is getting worse. There is still a long way to go today but we should recognise that these issues are deeply rooted in our history and will take generations to resolve.
Why are our boys and men behaving in such demeaning ways? While schools are going to be part of the answer, surely the family environment and wider society is where solutions need to be implemented.
Decent males around young men – dads, brothers,uncles, sports coaches, teachers, community/church leaders.
a coach in the US abused (digitally abused) hundreds of young gymnasts. Simone Biles is one of them.
i was raped by my stepfather
many a joke have been made about familys creepy uncle, grand dad, just recently a 12 year old foster girl who was killed by her foster father 'had sex' with her 'foster brother'.
the roman catholic church, Josh Duggar (Reality TV) from a fundamentalists evangelic quiverfull cult was just arrested or having Child abuse porn on his digital devices, one which depicted teh rape of an 18 month old girl by a guy from OZ who sits there in prison now.
teachers? how many scandals involving teachers and children just are there in nz?
No, we can ONLY legislate us out of there.
The issue is only coming to the forefront because the girls wanted to demonstrate against hte boys school and were prevented by Police and their school.
The thing is these girls know the guys who assaulted them, they are their peers, mates of their brothers, trusted boyfriends, and so on. They are not strangers. They are their community.
These guys knew full well what they did, and they probably expected to get away with is, as it is just rape.
And i bet you a dollar, it is not a huge of group of boys, its just the predators of the next generation.
All rapists are bastards. But sadly they don't come with a warning.
as i have said here
And i bet you a dollar, it is not a huge of group of boys, its just the predators of the next generation.
They are predators. And we should see them for what they are. Women rape too, boys get raped. Old women, babies. By predators. So you can only legislate and then enforce it with meaningful sentencing.
In your opinion, what does “meaningful sentencing” mean? Lock them up and throw away the key? Give them a right bollocking and a long sentence and let them lose again? Or perhaps something more constructive and healing? What do you have in mind?
And how do you suggest we go about prevention of undetectable predators striking their victims? Train cops to mind-read like in Minority Report and execute preventative arrests with laws allowing preventative sentencing?
BTW, not all sex offenders are predators, IMO. That’s way too simplistic. Have you looked into this hugely complex topic at all? Many sex offences involve alcohol and drug use and are between acquaintances, i.e. they are or a more opportunistic than pre-meditated nature. Perhaps you can elaborate on your definition of “predator”.
Did you see the case that i linked in regards to Wekas comment re the Judiciary?
The Navy guy that got a two year sentence for sexually assaulting three team mates.
Do you think that is a reasonable sentence?
The Roastbusters?
The guy in the south island that raped teh 5 year old tourist who needed reconstructive surgery is doing very well outside jail now, i wonder how that girl does.
"Ok, all men are bastards. I've got the message loud and clear."
Pffft you haven't got the message at all.
Violence is deep seated in NZ culture and violence to women is a substantial part of that. Many men are violent. Many men are not.
Alcohol just lowers inhibitions – men who are happy when drinking alcohol become happier, men who are violent when drinking alcohol oft enact that violence.
In the past this stuff was barely talked about. I know my wife was raped when she was a teen – she has never, ever told her family and never will. It wasn't the done thing to tell people. You just put up with it.
Growing up if one of the men in the street got too heavy handed with his wife the other men in the street would get together and give him a hiding and tell him to ease off – not to stop mind you – just to have a bit more self-control. Violence begats violence begats violence.
That it is now talked about is a positive change. More men/boys will get the message that it isn't OK.
As Auden put it so eloquently
“I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.”
I was looking to unpack why some boys and men can be violent, why women can inordinately be the victims of that violence, why that violence, too often, manifests in a sexual context.
Males must be part of the solution.
That means gym coaches, teachers and church men that don't rape.
Legislation as a deterrent is only messing about at the bottom of the family harm cliff.
I couldn't agree more, violence begets violence. The bully is the first victim.
It is Societal and institutionally accepted behavior
Most of the laws that we still apply to these crimes were written often at a time where men made the rules, about just what was and was not an acceptable level of violence directed at women by men. The ownership principle comes to mind, to be given from the father to the husband. Chattel.
This is not to villify men, i firmly believe that the predators are a small minority and that men by and large are not violent. But they do not speak up when they should. And i think often they are too frightened by the violence coming from men.
Sometimes the bully is just someone who gets away with it. Not all sexual predators are victims. Some just like to hurt people. Some might be opportunists. Some might have been violated themselves.
But all get better treatment in prison then the victim gets outside. We will go to length to find out what turned men/women into this predator behavior to stop them from doing it again in the future, in the meantime the victim is told to suck it up by ACC when asking for help, maybe even appeal if a request for counseling or further counceling is denied.
It is accepted behavior on an institutional level. The first instinct of the police was to cancel the protest march of these girls – so even when they try to do something, they just get cancelled by those that should keep them safe.
I read the stuff story about the police turning back the girls protest. Must have missed it at the time. I found it didn't leave a good taste – feeling that it delivered a very authoritarian message to the female protest. along the lines "you are only allowed to protest in some way or form that suits the powers in charge" and "us authority figures have got the boys back's here".
The cop excuses didn't sit well either. Putting aside truancy there is a right to peaceful protest that should be respected and citing "potential traffic problems" rather than a caused harm just doesn't cut it. But yeah I guess the girls got the message of "your needs don't matter" about even having a say.
A judge who let a man making a covert recording in a changing room off the hook – saying women are “probably more sensitive” than men about being filmed without their knowledge – is not fit to preside over sexual assault trials, a leading victims’ advocate says.
In the case you mentioned police did their job and judiciary did not.
The judiciary needs to be cleaned up as well.
This applies to historical cases for both the police and judicary as well. Innocent children were not believed or they could not do anything due to not realising that a criminal offence had taken place.
"Busing home today," she says, "I was still cautious – men were still sitting next to me – like what they were saying to their friends, what they were doing, how they were acting – I made sure they didn't get off at the same bus stop as me because if they followed me I don't know what I would do."
She once called her dad and asked him to meet her at a bus stop.
Instead of taking the quickest bus home she now catches an alternate route and travels via the bus exchange that takes an hour longer.
"It takes an hour and a half to get from school to home."
It would normally take half an hour.
"It's for their own self-protection, because of the kind of intimidation on the bus was so uncomfortable," her mother says.
It is assumed throughout the article that the girls surveyed were telling the truth and I guess some would argue that just because 20 girls say they have been raped, nobody has been convicted and they would probably ask why those alledged crimes weren't reported earlier. This quote to be reinforces that there is a major issue regardless of the police not being involved and it brings home the overall vibe that young women are getting via their gut ….that it isn't safe to be a young woman on her own when there is nobody around to protect you.
Yep, the girl learned it well. She like so many women will never leave the house again without making sure that she is able to 'protect herself' from the boys and men in her community, because she has learned that the boys and men in her community are predators and she is pray!
I am no expert in this, but my hunch is on-line porn has a lot to do with this, especially the brutal stuff. Boys can access it, see women being objectified and treated with cruelty.
not that I think this is necessary relevant, but books such as 50 shades of grey and the film. I never read it, but read feminist critiques of it, that point out it was about a controlling man who engaged in B and D with a young woman. It was a very popular book and normalised men controlling women and engaging in that sort of sex. Personally I find it terrifying rather than erotic on any level.
so sex where women are brutalised has become normalised.
I phones haven’t helped with sexting etc not only happening frequently, but being expected
I feel tremendously sorry for young women today. No wonder there are so many kids with mental health problems
And I don’t think it’s a healthy world for boys either.
difference is, we've had twenty years of addressing rape culture. This should have been more successful than it is. Online porn is a massive issue in terms of what it is teaching young men and women about sex and not teaching about consent and boundaries. Porn isn't the only factor, but it's a core one. Sex positivity, overall a positive social movement, has dropped the ball too. As with the sexual revolution in the 60s which affirmed male sexuality but ignored women, sex positivity has been coopted by neoliberalism and again women's needs are ignored. This isn't an argument for returning to the 1950s, it's pointing out that we're making progressive liberal gains but losing class ones, and we're just not very honest about it.
Yes it was Millsy we just weren’t allowed to talk about it. Eg use of the term rape culture is relatively recent and it enabled feminists in particular to name problems and solutions to the extent the term and concept is used in msm and understood in public. This should have been more successful than it has been. Other forces in the culture work against that.
… take a group of young men add alcohol and this shit is inevitable.
Glad someone has mentioned it.
40 plus years ago the law said it was illegal for anyone under 20 years to buy alcohol. That meant in practice if you were 18 years you could get away with buying alcohol.
20 plus years ago (or thereabouts) the law said it was illegal for anyone under 18 years to buy alcohol. That means in practice if you are 16 years you can get away with buying alcohol.
And therein lies a large part of the problem and most of us saw it coming 20 plus years ago but – as always – we were ignored.
The boys, Romulus and Remus on the other side of river had no girls, got bored and decided to cross the river and get some girls from a tribe called the Sabines.
The called their mate, told em : Mate, its a good day for some lootn, pillaging, n'rapin, you game? And the mates went : Yeah, nah, Yeah!
And so they went and killed all the men and stole all the girls and made them theirs.
for the life of me i could never understand why anyone would name their daughter Sabine.
What i am trying to say is that sometimes teh booze comes after making the decision to raping. For courage, nshit.
Porn has been around since ever, in Pompei, paintings of erected Phallus was a good omen/fertility sign and affixed above doors.
Sex were women are brutalised is norm, always was norm, until the 80's in many countries in the western world a women could not say no to her husband.
Women 0
Rapeculture 1
We must stop to make excuses for these shits. If Rachel Steward can loose her guns for a 'word crime' cause 'hate crime' then the Men / boys (and also women but not in this particular case ) who rape, assault, harass, sexually batter others (yes, men boys too get raped) should be charged fully, and sentenced. And that is were we Fail, collectively as a society. We actually put the rapists wellbeing above that of his victim.
Roastbusters come to mind.
The cops did not even charge these Shits for 'supplying alcohol to a minor'. Nothing. They got away. “Charges are still being laid” (lol), yet after all these years they are still out there living their life.
Cause at the end, OUR society does not give a fuck.
The girls got a life sentence and considering the state of mental health and access to treatment, they are on their fucking own with their issues resulting from rape.
I find it sad that these battles tend to be fought with arguments about economic costs and negative impacts on health before people’s personal self-worth (in the broadest sense) comes into it. It can be soul-destroying to be overlooked, ignored, denied, marginalised, or even mocked and ridiculed. A one-off is not nice but when it is reoccurring and becomes a pattern, at least a perceived one in one’s mind, it changes expectations and behaviour into a somewhat self-fulfilling paranoia. This not only costs the victim dollars and may shorten their life expectancy; it also definitely leads to loss of quality of life. It sucks!
Respect between parents and children with little talks about why it is important, and some sorrys from the two ages, is a good start. Then extend that to having self-respect so that it is hard to find a weak spot for a bully – when someone calls you 'Fatty' or some other descriptive term, if you just acknowledge that and go on, it takes the punch out of it. Some handy rejoinders that mock the bullyer will save a lot of angst too.
Instead of weak unhappy people trying to pull someone down to their level, if bullyers have to go through a workshop of setting future goals and identifying their own strengths, really thinking about their approach to life and what life has got to offer them, stopping putting others down can be part of building their personal make-up.
…….recent Stats NZ figures show that in 2020 emissions fell by 4.8 per cent from the previous year, mainly due to Covid-19 restrictions causing a fall in transport emissions.
The country's annual official record of emissions has found that in 2019 our tally rose in "one of the larger annual increases this century"
…..Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, an atmospheric-ocean scientist at NIWA, said figures from Statistics New Zealand also indicate emissions are likely to have fallen in 2020. This was a "glimmer of hope" and underscored our ability to reduce emissions from transport in particular.
"This remains an enduring lesson about how much we can accomplish by reducing emissions from traffic. The Global Carbon Project estimated that during Level 4 lockdown, Aotearoa New Zealand’s carbon dioxide emissions dropped by more than any other country in the world except Luxembourg, a small European nation," she said.
"This is in part due to the stringent lockdown measures we took, but it is also in part due to the fact that 82 percent of our electricity generation is already from renewable sources. Low emissions transportation systems have the potential to take us a long way towards our Carbon Zero goals, without the devastating humanitarian and economic impacts of Covid."
Videos like this prove that we could have saved the biosphere, if we chose to.
For wilfully ignoring the unique insight and opportunity to change our ways, afforded to us by the pandemic, our generation will be loathed and despised for the rest of recorded history.
Finally relived that the Nth’ern NT is no longer in locking, but in the same token I managed to knock out a couple of more model ships.
Anyway I see the UKLP won the recent By-election, but it’s not out of the woods yet and to be quite honest I don’t think they will never get a chance to serous threaten BoJo atm unless there is some serious changes within the UKLP
Found this on the Tribune Website. An interesting read, I must say.
Finally I must say watching the Nat’s slowly eat it’s self is very refreshing given the various NeoCon Lib BS of last 30ys from the National, but I must also confess this is bad for NZ Democracy as we must have an effective opposition to make the Government accountable. But since the National Party is now run by the Moriarty’s with all those negative waves they are producing atm, then it’s going to be a long time before they are back in Government or do anything meaningful in opposition.
As a site Moderator, I can and do highly appreciate this opinion piece by Jenny Nicholls.
And ideally, nobody should feel gagged. But every forum has rules of engagement. A letter to the editor is a submission, not a right to cause pain.
Some argue these missiles are ‘opinion,’ and don’t need checking.
Indeed, this is a misconception that seems to have taken root with a few lazy thinkers who don’t want to do the mahi and check let alone support their own opinion unless it is from a doubtful source, usually on social media.
“The stronger the opinion, the better the letter [to the Editor] – but all that strength is undercut when opinion is based on error and falsehood.”
This is pretty unpleasant, but hard to argue against (Sex-trafficing/ abuse of minors content warning). The age restrictions in the prostitution laws really do have to be enforced!
I know people who have been through that and they are really not keen on having anything to do with the police, and who can blame them? But without prosecutions there is no incentive to change. Just so long as the victims are protected during the process.
Janet Wilson trying to make up for rubbishing The Nat’s the other day and realising she had closed off her last possible employer for a P R job so accuses Labour of lying over vac rollout in today’s Stuff. It is bullshit that UK has vaccinated 60% of their population, less than that have had a single dose with about 33% coverage for the nastiest variant. My daughter got her Phizer stab in London the same day as me here in NZ, I get my second in a week, she has to wait another 10 weeks for her second. That’s not vaccination that’s politically ball juggling and explains why the UK is about to move into a seriously big spike in cases. And as for Australia, Scotty -from Marketing’s ScoMoJo has deserted him, they are in deep shit over there with their first Phizer s months away because he backed the wrong horse.
just scroll down to see the vaccination rates accross English Regions.
Again, the vaccines do not prevent the catching of covid, but so far they prevent a whole lot of death and hospitalization.
The delta variant for now will most like become the most prominent / strongest variant, however that will change in due time and it will be replaced by another variant. As posted below, maybe it is now Indonesia’s time to breed one.
It is lovely that you had your vaccinations, ditto for your daughter, however there are many in this country that have yet to receive even just the invite that they have been waiting for a longtime now.
It actually does not matter atm really, could the Government be more forthcoming with the truth, rather then couch it in platitudes that are utterly meaningless – ditto we are ahead of what?
What matters is that hopefully the Government will abandon its 'one fits all' approach, and has the health department approve the other options, Astra Zeneca being one.
Fwiw, we have friends from NZ in the UK and not only have the bought a house there recently they also got their jabs.
And fwiw, not knowing anything about this Journalists, i am happy to note that she can write stuff about both N and L and call them out on their 'issues'
Is New Zealand a leader in climate change or a follower?
David Hall, Newshub, 06/10/2020
….John Key, often described [New Zealand] as being "a fast follower, not a leader".
He had lifted this language from the New Zealand Institute's 2007 report, which argued against "lofty rhetoric about saving the planet or being a world leader". Instead, it counselled New Zealand to respond without "investing unnecessarily in leading the way".
Wow! Canada will not just a ban the importation of internal combustion vehicles, but will even ban the sale of ice vehicles.
New Zealand can't even agree on a ban on importing them.
So much for fast follower.
Not even.
Canada to ban sale of new fuel-powered cars and light trucks from 2035
Steve Scherer, Reuters, June 30, 2021
OTTAWA, June 29 (Reuters) – Canada will ban the sale of fuel-burning new cars and light-duty trucks from 2035 in an effort to reach net-zero emissions across the country by 2050, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government said on Tuesday.
Only zero-emissions cars and trucks can be sold from 2035, according to a statement, adding that a mixture of investments and regulations will help industry transition toward that goal. The government also said it will set interim targets for 2025 and 2030.
……Britain said last year it would ban fuel-powered vehicles from 2030,…
In a distant, but not so unrealistic, future where mankind has abandoned earth because it has become covered with trash from products sold by the powerful multi-national Buy N Large corporation, WALL-E, a garbage collecting robot has been left to clean up the mess.
Even without going into the depth that our eminently qualified Dr Helen Petousis-Harris goes into, it was obvious from a simple google search on the study authors that this was a deeply flawed study.
It didn’t take much time, but a fair bit of effort, for the system to self-correct and go though the due process. However, anything on the Web can spread far & wide within minutes, i.e. go viral [sorry for the pun]. The seed has been planted in many because the seed & soil approach works wonders online.
The damage to vaccine confidence and trust that can occur through the distribution of pseudoscience in good quality academic journals cannot be underestimated.
I was in a waiting room of a specialist in skin care recently when some woman started rabbiting on about the Covid 19 vaccine causing sterility in young women. It transpired her daughter worked for a medical outfit and they had all been vaccinated. It happened without her knowledge and she was furious because she is convinced her daughter can no longer have kids.
I managed to contain my fury until after the woman had left……
Yup, retracted, but at considerable cost already…..
Not a new problem…
Not by a long shot.
'A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on'
Metaphorical maxims about the speedy dissemination of lies and the much slower propagation of corrective truths have a very long history. The major literary figure Jonathan Swift wrote on this topic in “The Examiner” in 1710 although he did not mention shoes or boots. Boldface has been added to excerpts: 1
Besides, as the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believ’d only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect…
The phrasing and figurative language used in these sayings have been evolving for more than three hundred years……
…….In 1808 an adage matching Swift’s was printed without ascription in a Boston, Massachusetts newspaper column titled “Thoughts”: 4
“Falsehood,” says one, “flies, and truth comes limping after it.” If a lie be believed sometimes only for an hour, it has accomplished its purpose, and there is no further occasion for it.
Later, more modern variations on Johnathon Swift’s observation on the dissemination of lies and falsehoods, have been attributed to Mark Twain and Winston Churchill, (among others).
The surge in new cases and deaths has prompted President Joko Widodo to declare emergency restrictions on movement starting on Saturday in the island of Java and Bali. The lockdown is effective until July 20.
Indonesia caught between surge and slow vaccine rollout
Last year, Indonesia’s highest Islamic clerical body issued a decree that mass graves – which are normally forbidden in Islam – would be permitted during the crisis.
…
He [Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist at Griffith University in Australia] said the government needs to make “good and strong decisions based on science …. or I fear we will find ourselves in a similar situation to what happened in India.”
I hear you, but if we're going to knock the uptake of evs for personal transportation, we may as well take the hit to immediately reduce the deforestation, high water use and increased pesticide use that comes with growing cocoa, and that's before we even mention the emissions involved in world wide distribution from tropical growing areas to everywhere else on the planet.
ah, but you can get good beans from samoa, java, heck, even Australia. and i know of a few people here in NZ that are wondering if you could grow the plant.
The thing is that everything we do involves the issues that you just listed. Was your computer or phone made here? Every car is imported. Every single car. I dont' have one, and can't see myself getting one. See, i am offsetting my chocolate already.
my option is as always, provide free and or very cheap public transport to first get all the cars of the road that are unsafe, unrego'd and mainly there because it is the only meas of transport. The tax incentives for E-bikes and hanger (Germany does this quite successfully). The rich are rich enough to buy themselves a 50.000 + new vehicle – electric or gasoline, its the poor that don't have a choice its a crappy cheap old 500+ car or nothing.
at the moment i am doing what is preached – i have no single serve private vehicle i use public transport, my product is collectively imported by all the chocolatiers in nz – literally, and all other products used are produced and made local. I keep my own carbon footprint as small as i can, ditto in my private living. As for chocolate, eat it now, because we might run out within the next few years and it will become an object of luxury and rarety.
I however understand that what i do has very little effect on the outcome of the future, as per above images, never mind i shall carry on.
I made an obviously failed attempt at gallows humor at some dire imagery posted and for this I humbly off my apologies.
….. The rich are rich enough to buy themselves a 50.000 + new vehicle – electric or gasoline, its the poor that don't have a choice its a crappy cheap old 500+ car or nothing.
A 1999 Toyota Corolla in good condition with a warrant and registration, can be bought for the same price as an entry level E-bike.
Apart from their cost, currently one of the big disincentives for owning an E-bike in a low decile area at the moment is that they are a hot ticket item for thieves. I suppose it's a form of primitive redistribution to the lowest of the low. But unfortunately the thieves don't ride them. They break them down and sell them for parts. Especially the battery.
Subsidising EVs for the middle class consumer is fine. but it is not going to do anything for the people of Manurewa or Otara who need to commute to their factory in Penrose or East Tamaki. Or our cleaning job in the hospitals and CBD.
How about this?
If the government can't bring themselves to subsidise E-bikes so the blue collar masses can own one, at least think of subsidising the insurance of the things.
The government could subsidize public transport so as to make it free or near free. That would be one of the easiest things to do. While the public transport net is still not optimal, it is there but expensive. I used to bus / walk to work in Auckland, and a monthly bus ticket is not cheap. I ended up walking Arch Hill / Grey Lynn to New market. I also lived closer to town where i worked simply so as to not need a car for commuting. I may have paid more in rent (yes, times have changed since then) but that was offset by not having a car.
And yes, it should subsidize other forms of transport if only to appear fair. But we are now helping well to do people by cars that are more expensive than what some people (nurses) earn in a whole year. Priorities.
Indeed. But of course, nothing much will change until the dams burst and suddenly the tucker we love is off the menu, supplanted by an entirely plant based diet and assorted ground up beastie proteins.
Anyhoo, while there's still chocolate to eat, I thoroughly enjoyed this in the early hours.
Natalie Haynes and Moy McGowan savour some chocolate podcasts. They discover how music can alter the taste of chocolate… and why the humble midge plays a vital part in the growing the bean that becomes your favourite bar! And they hear from Dame Cacao herself, the podcaster Max Gandy who is dedicated to crafting a sustainable and delicious world by changing the way we eat & understand chocolate.
"The UK has been wedded for decades to a household debt-led growth model, whereby ever-rising house prices driven by evermore bank credit support consumption via wealth effects and home equity withdrawal. Real estate is also the key form of collateral for the banking system, meaning house prices also impact directly on the ability of businesses to access credit."
"For a while, this form of “residential capitalism” can support consumption even when incomes stagnate. But it is economically inefficient and drives inequality and financial instability. Those who already own property gain the most while non-owners see their wealth decline and have to take on ever larger and longer mortgages to get on the housing ladder, suppressing their consumption. Since lower-income groups spend more of every additional pound of income, this can have deleterious economy-wide impacts.
High levels of household debt coupled with house price crashes are associated with deep and long recessions. This model also drives highly damaging boom-bust cycles and mediates against long-term business investment and productivity growth. Why invest in new products or services when you can get a higher return on property?"
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
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He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
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Responding to Grant Robertson’s recent admission on a Q+A with Jack Tame that his only regret from his time in office was that he didn’t take on more debt, Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson, Alex Murphy, said: “Grant Robertson has now admitted that he ...
i beg you to read this, share a tear for the girls involved, their resignation to the fact that sexual harrasment and rape, and gang rape is boys being boys, and then maybe write a letter to ask the "lawmakers' of this fair land to make
sexual harrasment, rape, gang rape (fucking gang rape in a school)
A fucking HATE CRIME!
maybe someone who has better vocabulary then I, who can write about such things in nice and polite ways so as to not offed, can do a post about this. About how a whole generation of girls in a School in NZ admitted to being dehumanized , traumatised, physically assaulted and rendered to nothing more then a sexual object by their male peers.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch-girls-high-school-sexual-harassment-survey-rape-claims-parents-react/PVKAA5VZSUHRJGAKNCJYVVTLIM/
The sexual harassment survey is a confronting read.
I don't think we can legislate our way to a solution.
Why are our boys and men behaving in such demeaning ways? While schools are going to be part of the answer, surely the family environment and wider society is where solutions need to be implemented.
Decent males around young men – dads, brothers,uncles, sports coaches, teachers, community/church leaders.
A boisterous energy common in males needs to be channeled in healthy directions.
Many moons ago, at a primary school cross country, a group of younger boys who had done their run were goofing around jumping/throwing themselves over a rope tied between two electric fence 'pigtail' standards. A mum told them to stop it. They did for about 90 seconds then started up again. They were told to stop it again told someone might get hurt. I volunteered to supervise said hi-jinks to appease the concerns.
Later at prize giving, there were categories for fastest boy and girl in the different year groupings. I asked the principal if this was to be repeated at the academic side of things at the end of the year. I was told it would be looked into. They didn't.
I feel boys can grow up not feeling valued, that what often drives them is wrong or naughty. That drive needs to be channeled to manifest in a healthy way. If you grow up not having regard or love for oneself, you can hardly be expected to have regard for others.
Celia Lashlie said all of this so much better than me and the message is far more palatable when a woman says it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2522572
A worthwhile 18 minutes.
One of the oldest cultures on this planet hasn't come far:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/30/health/india-unwanted-girls-intl/index.html
They are not alone:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/11/a-wave-of-women-fighting-rape-across-europe/
https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/4f16c375j
https://voxatl.org/rape-culture-americas-biggest-plague/
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men
Worldwide, children, women and man are being subjected to unspeakable acts of violence. Rape and all related abuses are acts of violence. Perpetrated to humiliate the "other" and show superiority. It is an act of abuse of power over others, sadistic in its core a human failure in their upbringing and understanding of respect and honor. This is an issue as old as humanity and the only way, as I see it, is to change this is by changing the upbringing of children. Women are mothers and mothers are the major influence when raising children up to the time they join day care and school, military etc. depending on culture and location. What is changing at that juncture?
I have experienced children growing up with parents of all walks of life so to speak and found it is not poverty or even neglect due to working 2 jobs etc. but drink, drugs, the culture of "proving" a boy has to "become" a man. Suppression of wishes, feelings and mental illness do come into play. Solders have acute issues because of repression when they have witnessed atrocities. The list is long but essentially, we as a human race have to find a way to overcome this animalistic instinct and need of exercising power over others. I know, its wishful thinking and most likely never going to happen.
Why are our boys and men behaving in such demeaning ways? Why do we have a massive drug problem? Why do we have to have props like alcohol and drugs to get us through life? Why do there have to be drug checks outside concerts where young people are apparently going to have a good time with music?
Why do we have so many mental health problems? Why almost every day do we hear or see in the media of someone suffering from depression?
What changes are in there in us from 1821, 1921 till 2021? Is it that the better off and more 'advanced' we are, the less stable we have become?
Men and boys have behaved like this in New Zealand for a long time. For most of New Zealand's history it was legal to both beat and rape your wife.
It was only in the late 1800's early 1900's that a conflation between puritanical evangelists and feminists started to result in questioning male rights to wife-beating, conjugal rights and marital rape.
Adulterous wives were able to be divorced simply because they created the possibility of the husband's estate being passed on at death to someone else's son. The impact of that thinking for instance meant that all benefits were paid to the male until the mid-1980's. There are lots of stories about women trying to feed their families solely on family benefit payments.
Marital rape was possible because in getting married a woman gave herself up to her husband. It was seen that marital sex was part of the contract that she had entered into and that you could not deny your husband that part of the contract.
These attitudes persisted well into the 60's and 70's with the normalised thinking evident even when looking for alternative lifestyles such as James K Baxtter's commune at Jerusalem.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111980198/ros-lewis-was-sexually-assaulted-by-james-k-baxter-at-jerusalem-she-wasnt-the-only-one
Those attitudes persist today. I've heard many horrific stories from my grandparents and parents generations about what they had to endure – many over 40-50 years of marriage. Closer to home I remember one of my uncles getting his son aged about four to go and tell "mummy to get on her back cause daddy wants a fuck" – I was seven or eight when this was going on and even then was horrified but not surprised. You grew up hearing similar stuff all around you.
Marital rape only became a crime in 1985.
As well as property rights the "boys will be boys" notion was a well established notion.
It is a matter entirely clear in the physiology which governs nature that adultery in the male is a crime to which the male really is very much more accessible than the female from the force of nature. That is a physiological law, and you cannot upset it. And the reason of the law is quite simple. It is because man is inherently selfish, and nature has put so violent a passion in him in order that he may increase and multiply the people on the earth. In so far, his culpability is lessened. In the eye of legislation of reasonable beings the same onus is not to be laid upon the male as upon the female for committing adultery. Nature cannot be shoved aside and slurred over and overridden … "
Morgan Stanislaus Grace 1896 during debate on divorce laws.
The notion that men had aggressive sexual urges and women were passive was seen as a simple truism.
Some urges were however problematic. Given the prevalent attitudes towards masturbation in NZ that were still in vogue when I went to high school in the 70's – I struggle to see how even that recently that New Zealand had normal healthy attitudes.
"Ailments believed to be associated with masturbation included epilepsy, blindness, headache, impotency, loss of memory, general loss of health and strength, 'nervous debility' and ultimately insanity and death."
A whole industry developed around how to stop these urges – often moving into the blackmail of those who then purchased the products.
I think it is weird how people promote this notion of things are getting worse and OMG how did things get so bad? It has been forever bad in New Zealand and we reap the legacy of that today. I think at times we confuse the willingness to be more open about these issues and to talk about them with it is getting worse. There is still a long way to go today but we should recognise that these issues are deeply rooted in our history and will take generations to resolve.
No, we can ONLY legislate us out of there.
The issue is only coming to the forefront because the girls wanted to demonstrate against hte boys school and were prevented by Police and their school.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/124657314/students-protesting-sexual-harassment-turned-back-from-boys-school-by-police
February three girls laid complaints
https://theworldnews.net/nz-news/christchurch-girls-39-high-school-students-report-allegations-of-sexual-offences-to-police
this post from the Dr. that ran that review
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/06/29/exclusive-dr-liz-gordon-sexual-harassment-silence-and-power/
The thing is these girls know the guys who assaulted them, they are their peers, mates of their brothers, trusted boyfriends, and so on. They are not strangers. They are their community.
These guys knew full well what they did, and they probably expected to get away with is, as it is just rape.
And i bet you a dollar, it is not a huge of group of boys, its just the predators of the next generation.
Ok, all men are bastards. I've got the message loud and clear.
Just draft the legislation, problem solved.
No, not all man are bastards.
All rapists are bastards. But sadly they don't come with a warning.
as i have said here
They are predators. And we should see them for what they are. Women rape too, boys get raped. Old women, babies. By predators. So you can only legislate and then enforce it with meaningful sentencing.
In your opinion, what does “meaningful sentencing” mean? Lock them up and throw away the key? Give them a right bollocking and a long sentence and let them lose again? Or perhaps something more constructive and healing? What do you have in mind?
And how do you suggest we go about prevention of undetectable predators striking their victims? Train cops to mind-read like in Minority Report and execute preventative arrests with laws allowing preventative sentencing?
BTW, not all sex offenders are predators, IMO. That’s way too simplistic. Have you looked into this hugely complex topic at all? Many sex offences involve alcohol and drug use and are between acquaintances, i.e. they are or a more opportunistic than pre-meditated nature. Perhaps you can elaborate on your definition of “predator”.
Did you see the case that i linked in regards to Wekas comment re the Judiciary?
The Navy guy that got a two year sentence for sexually assaulting three team mates.
Do you think that is a reasonable sentence?
The Roastbusters?
The guy in the south island that raped teh 5 year old tourist who needed reconstructive surgery is doing very well outside jail now, i wonder how that girl does.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/120234535/trangi-child-rapist-doing-very-well-in-life-outside-of-jail
How much time do you think should someone get for organizing a "train" on his girlfriend?
At least i want them to serve their full sentence. At the very least. Because the harm they do is for life.
Thank you for your answer.
"Ok, all men are bastards. I've got the message loud and clear."
Pffft you haven't got the message at all.
Violence is deep seated in NZ culture and violence to women is a substantial part of that. Many men are violent. Many men are not.
Alcohol just lowers inhibitions – men who are happy when drinking alcohol become happier, men who are violent when drinking alcohol oft enact that violence.
In the past this stuff was barely talked about. I know my wife was raped when she was a teen – she has never, ever told her family and never will. It wasn't the done thing to tell people. You just put up with it.
Growing up if one of the men in the street got too heavy handed with his wife the other men in the street would get together and give him a hiding and tell him to ease off – not to stop mind you – just to have a bit more self-control. Violence begats violence begats violence.
That it is now talked about is a positive change. More men/boys will get the message that it isn't OK.
As Auden put it so eloquently
“I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.”
I was looking to unpack why some boys and men can be violent, why women can inordinately be the victims of that violence, why that violence, too often, manifests in a sexual context.
Males must be part of the solution.
That means gym coaches, teachers and church men that don't rape.
Legislation as a deterrent is only messing about at the bottom of the family harm cliff.
I couldn't agree more, violence begets violence. The bully is the first victim.
"I was looking to unpack why some boys and men can be violent"
Learned behaviour.
It is Societal and institutionally accepted behavior
Most of the laws that we still apply to these crimes were written often at a time where men made the rules, about just what was and was not an acceptable level of violence directed at women by men. The ownership principle comes to mind, to be given from the father to the husband. Chattel.
This is not to villify men, i firmly believe that the predators are a small minority and that men by and large are not violent. But they do not speak up when they should. And i think often they are too frightened by the violence coming from men.
Sometimes the bully is just someone who gets away with it. Not all sexual predators are victims. Some just like to hurt people. Some might be opportunists. Some might have been violated themselves.
But all get better treatment in prison then the victim gets outside. We will go to length to find out what turned men/women into this predator behavior to stop them from doing it again in the future, in the meantime the victim is told to suck it up by ACC when asking for help, maybe even appeal if a request for counseling or further counceling is denied.
It is accepted behavior on an institutional level. The first instinct of the police was to cancel the protest march of these girls – so even when they try to do something, they just get cancelled by those that should keep them safe.
I read the stuff story about the police turning back the girls protest. Must have missed it at the time. I found it didn't leave a good taste – feeling that it delivered a very authoritarian message to the female protest. along the lines "you are only allowed to protest in some way or form that suits the powers in charge" and "us authority figures have got the boys back's here".
The cop excuses didn't sit well either. Putting aside truancy there is a right to peaceful protest that should be respected and citing "potential traffic problems" rather than a caused harm just doesn't cut it. But yeah I guess the girls got the message of "your needs don't matter" about even having a say.
The sign of one of the girls
"my assaulter got a second chance". She did not. And the police is worried about truancy. Priorities.
There needs to be specialised police units like the AOS to clean up and investigate sexual harassment and sexual assault.
The current system is not working.
Judiciary too apparently.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/125633069/not-convicting-man-who-recording-woman-in-change-room-neglects-true-harm-caused
to be fair, the full sentence from the judge was,
Nevertheless, he misses women's perspectives multiple times. This is classic institutional sexism.
In the case you mentioned police did their job and judiciary did not.
The judiciary needs to be cleaned up as well.
This applies to historical cases for both the police and judicary as well. Innocent children were not believed or they could not do anything due to not realising that a criminal offence had taken place.
why would anyone really worry about consequences, when these are the consequences?
Just read whole article and then try to figure out how they came up with two years for three different sexual assaults on team mates.
Boys will be boys vs Team mates 1 – 0
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300348799/navy-sailor-sentenced-to-two-years-of-military-detention-for-sexual-assaults
In essence, we MUST legislate us out of this.
I found this quote very telling
It is assumed throughout the article that the girls surveyed were telling the truth and I guess some would argue that just because 20 girls say they have been raped, nobody has been convicted and they would probably ask why those alledged crimes weren't reported earlier. This quote to be reinforces that there is a major issue regardless of the police not being involved and it brings home the overall vibe that young women are getting via their gut ….that it isn't safe to be a young woman on her own when there is nobody around to protect you.
Yep, the girl learned it well. She like so many women will never leave the house again without making sure that she is able to 'protect herself' from the boys and men in her community, because she has learned that the boys and men in her community are predators and she is pray!
Women 0
Rapeculture 1
prey.
phonetic writing. 🙂
And I don’t think it’s a healthy world for boys either.
Nah similar shit went on 20+ years ago… take a group of young men add alcohol and this shit is inevitable.
Very hard to fix its a societal problem, our booze culture isnt helping.
None of that was filmed, released globally and then never prosecuted because the police can't prove intent to harm.
Strangulation during sex wasn't common until recently (read an article somewhere…sorry can't recall where).
Yep. Listening to women who have partners who are addicted to internet porn is a real eye opener.
difference is, we've had twenty years of addressing rape culture. This should have been more successful than it is. Online porn is a massive issue in terms of what it is teaching young men and women about sex and not teaching about consent and boundaries. Porn isn't the only factor, but it's a core one. Sex positivity, overall a positive social movement, has dropped the ball too. As with the sexual revolution in the 60s which affirmed male sexuality but ignored women, sex positivity has been coopted by neoliberalism and again women's needs are ignored. This isn't an argument for returning to the 1950s, it's pointing out that we're making progressive liberal gains but losing class ones, and we're just not very honest about it.
Rape culture was around way before the sexual revolution.
[G’day millsy, you have a Moderation note still waiting for a response from you here: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28-06-2021/#comment-1800423.
You may want to stick to your usual e-mail address if you want to go forward and I’ve changed it this time – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 1:08 pm.
Yes it was Millsy we just weren’t allowed to talk about it. Eg use of the term rape culture is relatively recent and it enabled feminists in particular to name problems and solutions to the extent the term and concept is used in msm and understood in public. This should have been more successful than it has been. Other forces in the culture work against that.
Agree 100 %about the alcohol.
… take a group of young men add alcohol and this shit is inevitable.
Glad someone has mentioned it.
40 plus years ago the law said it was illegal for anyone under 20 years to buy alcohol. That meant in practice if you were 18 years you could get away with buying alcohol.
20 plus years ago (or thereabouts) the law said it was illegal for anyone under 18 years to buy alcohol. That means in practice if you are 16 years you can get away with buying alcohol.
And therein lies a large part of the problem and most of us saw it coming 20 plus years ago but – as always – we were ignored.
these children are high schoolers and are below the legal age.
You can put the age limit to 40 and people will still rape. With or without alcohol.
It is so easy for predators to hide behind societal excuse of 'I was drunk'. Heck all a predator has to do is drink and then go out on the prowl.
Blame the booze Not the drinker.
Rapeculture 1
Vicitms 0
All true. I worry about the world that is being created with the level of violence in porn.
The Rape of the Sabines comes to mind.
Essentially part of the creation myth of Rome.
The boys, Romulus and Remus on the other side of river had no girls, got bored and decided to cross the river and get some girls from a tribe called the Sabines.
The called their mate, told em : Mate, its a good day for some lootn, pillaging, n'rapin, you game? And the mates went : Yeah, nah, Yeah!
And so they went and killed all the men and stole all the girls and made them theirs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Sabine_Women#:~:text=The%20Rape%20of%20the%20Sabine%20Women%20(Latin%3A%20Sabinae%20raptae),other%20cities%20in%20the%20region.
for the life of me i could never understand why anyone would name their daughter Sabine.
What i am trying to say is that sometimes teh booze comes after making the decision to raping. For courage, nshit.
Porn has been around since ever, in Pompei, paintings of erected Phallus was a good omen/fertility sign and affixed above doors.
Sex were women are brutalised is norm, always was norm, until the 80's in many countries in the western world a women could not say no to her husband.
Women 0
Rapeculture 1
We must stop to make excuses for these shits. If Rachel Steward can loose her guns for a 'word crime' cause 'hate crime' then the Men / boys (and also women but not in this particular case ) who rape, assault, harass, sexually batter others (yes, men boys too get raped) should be charged fully, and sentenced. And that is were we Fail, collectively as a society. We actually put the rapists wellbeing above that of his victim.
Roastbusters come to mind.
The cops did not even charge these Shits for 'supplying alcohol to a minor'. Nothing. They got away. “Charges are still being laid” (lol), yet after all these years they are still out there living their life.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/roast-busters-new-charges-to-be-presented-after-another-complainant-comes-forward/T5RDUH2RLJTVSWDNUAZSHNTXUQ/
Cause at the end, OUR society does not give a fuck.
The girls got a life sentence and considering the state of mental health and access to treatment, they are on their fucking own with their issues resulting from rape.
Roastbusters/Rapeculture 1
Women/Girls/Victims 0
I find it sad that these battles tend to be fought with arguments about economic costs and negative impacts on health before people’s personal self-worth (in the broadest sense) comes into it. It can be soul-destroying to be overlooked, ignored, denied, marginalised, or even mocked and ridiculed. A one-off is not nice but when it is reoccurring and becomes a pattern, at least a perceived one in one’s mind, it changes expectations and behaviour into a somewhat self-fulfilling paranoia. This not only costs the victim dollars and may shorten their life expectancy; it also definitely leads to loss of quality of life. It sucks!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-03/racism-costing-the-australian-economy-billions/100252786
Absolutely incognito.
Respect between parents and children with little talks about why it is important, and some sorrys from the two ages, is a good start. Then extend that to having self-respect so that it is hard to find a weak spot for a bully – when someone calls you 'Fatty' or some other descriptive term, if you just acknowledge that and go on, it takes the punch out of it. Some handy rejoinders that mock the bullyer will save a lot of angst too.
Instead of weak unhappy people trying to pull someone down to their level, if bullyers have to go through a workshop of setting future goals and identifying their own strengths, really thinking about their approach to life and what life has got to offer them, stopping putting others down can be part of building their personal make-up.
'
When will New Zealand start cutting its green house gas emissions?Cancel that.
When will New Zealand stop increasing its greenhouse gas emissions?
New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions are increasing | Stuff.co.nz
When there are massive increases in wind farms and hydro dams to shut Huntly coal thermal power down.
Not before.
All is good then. 🙂
article is from 2019.
‘
Hi Weka,
As I am sure you are aware, 2020 was an anomalous year for carbon emissions due to the measures taken to combat the global pandemic.
If we applied the same measures we applied to beating covid-19, the climate disaster and global biosphere collapse could be averted.
video is from 2020
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/fuo5zf/due_to_decrease_in_pollution_himalayan_mountains/
It's heartbreaking really, it's like nature showed us how to save ourselves, but we decided to keep on destroying the biosphere anyway.
Because y'know, the economy.
Videos like this prove that we could have saved the biosphere, if we chose to.
For wilfully ignoring the unique insight and opportunity to change our ways, afforded to us by the pandemic, our generation will be loathed and despised for the rest of recorded history.
We should all be deeply ashamed.
Morning all,
Finally relived that the Nth’ern NT is no longer in locking, but in the same token I managed to knock out a couple of more model ships.
Anyway I see the UKLP won the recent By-election, but it’s not out of the woods yet and to be quite honest I don’t think they will never get a chance to serous threaten BoJo atm unless there is some serious changes within the UKLP
Found this on the Tribune Website. An interesting read, I must say.
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/07/how-the-fall-of-mining-unions-eroded-the-foundations-of-the-red-wall
Finally I must say watching the Nat’s slowly eat it’s self is very refreshing given the various NeoCon Lib BS of last 30ys from the National, but I must also confess this is bad for NZ Democracy as we must have an effective opposition to make the Government accountable. But since the National Party is now run by the Moriarty’s with all those negative waves they are producing atm, then it’s going to be a long time before they are back in Government or do anything meaningful in opposition.
Yes some are thinking of supporting Winston back – just so that there is an alert person awake in the Opposition benches.
As a site Moderator, I can and do highly appreciate this opinion piece by Jenny Nicholls.
Indeed, this is a misconception that seems to have taken root with a few lazy thinkers who don’t want to do the mahi and check let alone support their own opinion unless it is from a doubtful source, usually on social media.
QFT
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/125624319/letters-to-the-editor–why-are-so-many-bigoted-mad-or-just-plain-wrong
QFT indeed.
This one from Dom Post good as well – was in the handy additional links that stuff often includes.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/300323411/letter-from-the-dompost-editor-are-letters-still-relevant-in-the-digital-age?rm=a
'
This is pretty unpleasant, but hard to argue against (Sex-trafficing/ abuse of minors content warning). The age restrictions in the prostitution laws really do have to be enforced!
I know people who have been through that and they are really not keen on having anything to do with the police, and who can blame them? But without prosecutions there is no incentive to change. Just so long as the victims are protected during the process.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/446092/new-zealand-not-doing-enough-to-stop-trafficking-us-report-says
Pro-plague code is a thing.
https://twitter.com/VaxxersAnti/status/1410682117336363010
Purity pirouette
I’ve always believed that it takes two to tango. At least.
Two Step.
Dancers with wolves?
Janet Wilson trying to make up for rubbishing The Nat’s the other day and realising she had closed off her last possible employer for a P R job so accuses Labour of lying over vac rollout in today’s Stuff. It is bullshit that UK has vaccinated 60% of their population, less than that have had a single dose with about 33% coverage for the nastiest variant. My daughter got her Phizer stab in London the same day as me here in NZ, I get my second in a week, she has to wait another 10 weeks for her second. That’s not vaccination that’s politically ball juggling and explains why the UK is about to move into a seriously big spike in cases. And as for Australia, Scotty -from Marketing’s ScoMoJo has deserted him, they are in deep shit over there with their first Phizer s months away because he backed the wrong horse.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/125626002/covid19-honest-conversations-absent-on-vaccine-supply-and-rollout
Please add the link yourself, next time, thanks.
you find that no she did not lie about the levels of english vaccinations.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55274833
just scroll down to see the vaccination rates accross English Regions.
Again, the vaccines do not prevent the catching of covid, but so far they prevent a whole lot of death and hospitalization.
The delta variant for now will most like become the most prominent / strongest variant, however that will change in due time and it will be replaced by another variant. As posted below, maybe it is now Indonesia’s time to breed one.
It is lovely that you had your vaccinations, ditto for your daughter, however there are many in this country that have yet to receive even just the invite that they have been waiting for a longtime now.
It actually does not matter atm really, could the Government be more forthcoming with the truth, rather then couch it in platitudes that are utterly meaningless – ditto we are ahead of what?
What matters is that hopefully the Government will abandon its 'one fits all' approach, and has the health department approve the other options, Astra Zeneca being one.
Fwiw, we have friends from NZ in the UK and not only have the bought a house there recently they also got their jabs.
And fwiw, not knowing anything about this Journalists, i am happy to note that she can write stuff about both N and L and call them out on their 'issues'
We now know the answer to David Hall's question.
John Key must be laughing up his sleeve.
Wow! Canada will not just a ban the importation of internal combustion vehicles, but will even ban the sale of ice vehicles.
New Zealand can't even agree on a ban on importing them.
So much for fast follower.
Not even.
Norway is on track to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/05/electric-cars-record-market-share-norway
i wonder what we are going to do with all these cars?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/plotsummary
And would you have it, on TV2 tonight, WALL-E is busy saving the world (what's left of it anyway)
Yup, retracted, but at considerable cost already.
https://sciblogs.co.nz/diplomaticimmunity/2021/07/03/fundamentally-flawed-study-on-covid-19-vaccine-safety-is-rapidly-retracted/
Even without going into the depth that our eminently qualified Dr Helen Petousis-Harris goes into, it was obvious from a simple google search on the study authors that this was a deeply flawed study.
It didn’t take much time, but a fair bit of effort, for the system to self-correct and go though the due process. However, anything on the Web can spread far & wide within minutes, i.e. go viral [sorry for the pun]. The seed has been planted in many because the seed & soil approach works wonders online.
From the link:
I was in a waiting room of a specialist in skin care recently when some woman started rabbiting on about the Covid 19 vaccine causing sterility in young women. It transpired her daughter worked for a medical outfit and they had all been vaccinated. It happened without her knowledge and she was furious because she is convinced her daughter can no longer have kids.
I managed to contain my fury until after the woman had left……
Not a new problem…
Not by a long shot.
Later, more modern variations on Johnathon Swift’s observation on the dissemination of lies and falsehoods, have been attributed to Mark Twain and Winston Churchill, (among others).
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/indonesia/
Tragic epidemic in the world's 4th most populous country set to get worse, and increase the potential for selection of new COVID-19 variants on Australasia's 'doorstep'.
If we've learnt anything at all over the past eighteen months.
― Albert A. Bartlett
https://twitter.com/WMO/status/1410223888412381193
https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/1410429592213413889
https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/1411191134357901313
And then there’s this:
https://twitter.com/blkahn/status/1411073985765314560
lets buy electric cars and pave more roads.
And stop eating chocolate
Steady on there, sport…
I hear you, but if we're going to knock the uptake of evs for personal transportation, we may as well take the hit to immediately reduce the deforestation, high water use and increased pesticide use that comes with growing cocoa, and that's before we even mention the emissions involved in world wide distribution from tropical growing areas to everywhere else on the planet.
ah, but you can get good beans from samoa, java, heck, even Australia. and i know of a few people here in NZ that are wondering if you could grow the plant.
The thing is that everything we do involves the issues that you just listed. Was your computer or phone made here? Every car is imported. Every single car. I dont' have one, and can't see myself getting one. See, i am offsetting my chocolate already.
my option is as always, provide free and or very cheap public transport to first get all the cars of the road that are unsafe, unrego'd and mainly there because it is the only meas of transport. The tax incentives for E-bikes and hanger (Germany does this quite successfully). The rich are rich enough to buy themselves a 50.000 + new vehicle – electric or gasoline, its the poor that don't have a choice its a crappy cheap old 500+ car or nothing.
Excuses and diversions not accepted. You're either preaching on the climate change train or you're not really on it at all.
I suspect, like many business people, your green credentials come second to your bank balances.
Maybe you should think of the planet now and jump over to a more eco friendly 'trade'.
Or are you waiting for your own tax payer funded government grant before you stop wrecking the world?
at the moment i am doing what is preached – i have no single serve private vehicle i use public transport, my product is collectively imported by all the chocolatiers in nz – literally, and all other products used are produced and made local. I keep my own carbon footprint as small as i can, ditto in my private living. As for chocolate, eat it now, because we might run out within the next few years and it will become an object of luxury and rarety.
I however understand that what i do has very little effect on the outcome of the future, as per above images, never mind i shall carry on.
I made an obviously failed attempt at gallows humor at some dire imagery posted and for this I humbly off my apologies.
I shall now return to my prayer closet.
Sounds like a v8 driver on the school run who puts out the recycling bin every Thursday. Well done you.
Sabine very elegant retreat and interesting what you are doing.
A 1999 Toyota Corolla in good condition with a warrant and registration, can be bought for the same price as an entry level E-bike.
Apart from their cost, currently one of the big disincentives for owning an E-bike in a low decile area at the moment is that they are a hot ticket item for thieves. I suppose it's a form of primitive redistribution to the lowest of the low. But unfortunately the thieves don't ride them. They break them down and sell them for parts. Especially the battery.
Subsidising EVs for the middle class consumer is fine. but it is not going to do anything for the people of Manurewa or Otara who need to commute to their factory in Penrose or East Tamaki. Or our cleaning job in the hospitals and CBD.
How about this?
If the government can't bring themselves to subsidise E-bikes so the blue collar masses can own one, at least think of subsidising the insurance of the things.
The government could subsidize public transport so as to make it free or near free. That would be one of the easiest things to do. While the public transport net is still not optimal, it is there but expensive. I used to bus / walk to work in Auckland, and a monthly bus ticket is not cheap. I ended up walking Arch Hill / Grey Lynn to New market. I also lived closer to town where i worked simply so as to not need a car for commuting. I may have paid more in rent (yes, times have changed since then) but that was offset by not having a car.
And yes, it should subsidize other forms of transport if only to appear fair. But we are now helping well to do people by cars that are more expensive than what some people (nurses) earn in a whole year. Priorities.
https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1411017496212168706
Indeed. But of course, nothing much will change until the dams burst and suddenly the tucker we love is off the menu, supplanted by an entirely plant based diet and assorted ground up beastie proteins.
Only eating local will be a good thing, and I'm sure the ground up beastie proteins will still taste okay with tomato sauce all over them.
Anyhoo, while there's still chocolate to eat, I thoroughly enjoyed this in the early hours.
Natalie Haynes and Moy McGowan savour some chocolate podcasts. They discover how music can alter the taste of chocolate… and why the humble midge plays a vital part in the growing the bean that becomes your favourite bar! And they hear from Dame Cacao herself, the podcaster Max Gandy who is dedicated to crafting a sustainable and delicious world by changing the way we eat & understand chocolate.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000xfp0
Tea drinkers first 🙂
Thank goodness for Hawke's bay and Nelson cider apples
We are all planning for that day.
In the meantime this will 'bridge' and be chocolate of the future.
https://www.barry-callebaut.com/en/manufacturers/wholefruit-chocolate-barry-callebaut
To be honest, can't wait to get that stuff in my melter.
"The UK has been wedded for decades to a household debt-led growth model, whereby ever-rising house prices driven by evermore bank credit support consumption via wealth effects and home equity withdrawal. Real estate is also the key form of collateral for the banking system, meaning house prices also impact directly on the ability of businesses to access credit."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/02/housing-bubble-birst-uk-gdp-house-prices-interest-rates-economy
"For a while, this form of “residential capitalism” can support consumption even when incomes stagnate. But it is economically inefficient and drives inequality and financial instability. Those who already own property gain the most while non-owners see their wealth decline and have to take on ever larger and longer mortgages to get on the housing ladder, suppressing their consumption. Since lower-income groups spend more of every additional pound of income, this can have deleterious economy-wide impacts.
High levels of household debt coupled with house price crashes are associated with deep and long recessions. This model also drives highly damaging boom-bust cycles and mediates against long-term business investment and productivity growth. Why invest in new products or services when you can get a higher return on property?"
Sound familiar?
The important questions
https://twitter.com/pookleblinky/status/1411142403629752321
https://twitter.com/rkbarney/status/1411122964016160768