The new United States ambassador to Aotearoa is an indigenous rights supporter.
Udall has said some of his "proudest achievements" came through working working with Native American tribal leaders in his state, including progressing tribal self-governance, native language revitalisation and protecting sacred areas.
He was also instrumental in helping secure $8 billion in funding for tribal governments in their Covid-19 responses. Upon stepping down from his post, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said Udall had been an "advocate and champion for the Navajo people".
Asked what he'd learned during his work with tribes, he said the importance of sovereignty. "The first thing is, is the indigenous people of New Mexico, the Native Americans really care about the fact that they are nations within the nation, and they care about their sovereignty."
The first thing is, is the indigenous people of New Mexico
Oh dear. Udall is another American double-izzer. There's a growing group of yanks that double the "is" in sentences for no sensible reason. The thing is, is that… The point is, is that… What it is, is that…
This bizarre form of phrasing is spreading like a disease from the US tv channels all around the world. Some TV1 reporters & commentators & presenters have even picked it up & started using it. As have others. Judith Collins was a frequent double-izzer.
I find it amusing (not a worry) when people mangle English & it becomes a “thing” that others just copy & repeat, unthinkingly.
In particular I find it funny that at the same time as TV presenters arecdoing their best to get the pronunciation & grammar right when using Te Reo Māori, they happily abandon correct English grammar & syntax & spout such nonsense.
I’m sleeping better now than I have for years, oddly, given my recent diagnosis.
Are you a user & an advocate of the “double is” usage then?
Why? It actually makes no sense.
I wonder if teachers of English teach that it’s a grammatically valid use of “is”.
English is an evolving language, sure, one only has to look at early writings & spellings from Shakespeare to see how much it has evolved, but some things like this are not so much evolving the language as advertising the user’s laziness or ignorance, imo.
Yes then they could start on 'ahold of' instead of 'hold of'. Was it Winston Churchill/George Bernard Shaw who coined the apt saying of US & English- English
'Two great nations divided by a a common language.'
They need to first eliminate double negatives, imo, because these often logically lead to an absurd positive. Classic example we’ve all heard.
Mant individuals who are stony broke in the US will often say:
“I ain’t got no money.”
Broken down, “ain’t” means haven’t, so the individual is saying:
“I haven’t got no money”.
If you haven’t got ‘no money’, logic says you must have ‘some money’. But they don’t.
They should probably say: “I ain’t got ANY money” but the double negative phrase “ain’t got no” has now been so deeply embedded into American English-speakers’ minds (via movies & tv and music & literature) it’s illogicality is simply ignored & people just interpret it (by context) to mean that the individual is broke.
The thing the plonkers who go on about Grammar Nazis & Spelling Nazis when errors in English are amusedly pointed out forget is that ALL languages have syntax & rules of spelling & postioning & placement etc becos without such forms of common control & usage every language would quickly become unintelligible to others if there weren’t some common agreed rules.
It's just an aside – a side issue I picked up because the writer actually reported the double is. Often they don't.
You seemingly haven't noticed how the thread continues below for anyone that wants to comment on it. Have you anything to say on the thread yourself? Or just that?
I went to the office of the New Zealand prime minister. She, after all, had got this one right – the colour in the Covid response traffic light framework is clear, unambiguous and true: orange. After a delay of some days – were they hiding something? – they came back and confirmed they didn’t focus group the colours. They didn’t do market research.
It was clear they hadn’t consulted sections 3.2 and 3.4 of the Road User Rule or AS/NZS2144:2002 or the South Australian Driver’s Handbook. They’ve got a pandemic to tackle. What they’d done instead is look at traffic lights, noticed that the middle one was orange and written down “Orange”.
I leave the final word to my colleague Natalie, probably the sharpest knife in the office; a person who calls a spade a spade, bullshit bullshit and something that is orange orange. “You’re either an amber gambler or running a late orange,” she said, in response to other colleagues who had shared wrong opinions in our work Slack. “There is no yellow. If there was, Cobb & Co would use pineapple instead of orange juice. End of.”
I recall reading an article in the Christchurch Press about twenty-five years ago or so, reporting how a chap had been pulled over by the police and fined for running an 'orange' light recklessly close, only to contest the charge successfully on the grounds that there was no such thing as an 'orange' traffic light.
The article I read all those years ago did state that the intermediate stage between green and red was 'yellow' or 'amber', but the only official references I've ever seen are to its being yellow.
Frank Nordern and Dennis Muir say 'amber'. Peter Sellers did their script "Balham Gateway to the South", a brilliant spoof of a travel documentary.
"Night falls on Balham. Beneath Quill's Folly, Balham's famous beauty spot, which stands nearly ten feet above sea level, the town is spread below us in a fairyland of glittering lights, changing all the time- green, amber, red and amber and back to green."
A long-overdue regeneration of coastal shipping seems to be in the pipeline:
The amount of domestic freight moved by sea rather than road or rail could double in the future if a new coastal shipping network is set up.
That's one of the key conclusions of a new report on how Waka Kotahi should invest more than $30 million in funding that had been earmarked for coastal shipping in the latest National Land Transport Programme.
The report, commissioned by the transport agency and written by shipping consultants Pacific Marine Management, also finds a new feeder network oriented around hubs in Auckland and Tauranga could improve the resilience of New Zealand's supply chains.
If Sealord's are that keen they should be able to buy their own freight ship. They're just hanging out for needless state subsidy into an imagined service that is never going to come back.
Kiwirail are a never-ending suck-hole of money for marginal network improvements on a shrinking network. Hard to see the Nightcaps or West Coast lines surviving once Fonterra converts to woodwaste boilers.
Minister Wood will consult by pushing that report straight back on the shelf.
"Minister Wood will consult by pushing that report straight back on the shelf"
If only.
Minister Wood will decide that the project is a wonderful idea except that it is not big enough. He will without doubt demand that it get at least a billion dollars. After all he has saved the taxpayer that much by not insisting on the stupid bike bridge across Auckland Harbour so there is plenty of money available for this new white elephant.
Meanwhile he is going to extend the Auckland – Hamilton train service through to Invercargill. The first stage has been enormously successful and we will therefore push ahead with extending it to the whole country.
The article strongly suggests Luxon is a supporter of LGBTQI initiatives & has no issues with the “rainbow community”.
There are many Christians who don’t have a problem with LGBTQIs, and as as those who do are seemingly in the minority in both the community & Parliament they are unlikely to cause any problems for them politically as they’ll be outvoted.
That won’t stop some folk who really like to hate on National & other things from stirring the pot & suggesting dark things with no supporting evidence about Luxon.
ANALYSIS: Shortly after Christopher Luxon was elected leader of the Opposition a rumour that had been swirling for years resurfaced on social media.
The rumour goes: During Luxon’s time in charge at Air New Zealand he axed the popular Mardi Gras “pink flights” because it didn’t align with his Christian views. Much has been said about Luxon’s Christian faith, but he says it has been “misrepresented and portrayed very negatively”.
The pink flights rumour is case in point because, in reality, Air New Zealand made huge progress to promote diversity and support transgender and gay staff under Luxon’s leadership.
… … … A spokesman for Luxon said he did not make any decisions to end the Mardi Gras flights. Luxon was a big supporter of the LGBTQI community, he said.
“Christopher is very proud of Air New Zealand’s record during his time of supporting greater diversity in general and the rainbow community specifically,” the spokesman said.
An unnamed source with knowledge of the situation said the decision to stop the pink flights was an operational one, and such a decision would not have gone all the way to the chief executive.
Craig Featherby, head of the Flight Attendants Association, said he had not heard anything to suggest Luxon made an executive decision to axe the flights.
Featherby, who is gay, worked as a Boeing 787-9 in-flight service manager while Luxon was chief executive. Featherby said the handful of times he met Luxon at Air New Zealand he always came across as accepting of all people. “I certainly never felt uncomfortable under his reign,” Featherby said.
Feathery said Air New Zealand underwent a lot of operational change during Luxon’s time leading the airline, and flight cancellations were exacerbated by the Rolls-Royce engine issues on the airline’s 787-9 Dreamliner over several years.
… … … …
The rest of the article basically just continues on demolishing your grubby rumour-generated conspiracy theory.
1+1 = 2, sure, but correlation does not equal causation, & your “evidence” would be laughed out of a Court. You’ve got nothing proving Luxon instructed those flights should cease because he has a religion-based problem with LGBTQI folk & a mountain of evidence he was a supporter of Air NZ’s positive LGBTQI policies.
There’s no need. You haven’t proven a plausible case.
Within that article are “operational decisions are not within the purview of the CEO” and references to engine problems curtailing some flights. All you’ve got is a runoured conspiracy theory with no direct evidence linking the cancellation of those flights to any decision by Luxon to cancel them.
I’m ending here. Wasted enuf time on you. You carry on rumour mongering & punching at shadows if you like.
'A spokesman for Luxon said he did not make any decisions to end the Mardi Gras'
'An unnamed source with knowledge of the situation said the decision to stop the pink flights was an operational one, '
'Craig Featherby, head of the Flight Attendants Association, said he had not heard anything to suggest Luxon made an executive decision to axe the flights.'
Could not get more unconvincing statements than these.
I like the word enuf. I’m a bit of a fan of finetic spelling. I sometimes spell though as tho, for the same reason.
In fact, I think there’s a lot of merit to the following idea, altho now Britain’a out of the EU, it’s not likely to ever be a starter….
EURO-ENGLISH
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty’s Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase-in plan that would be known as “Euro-English”.
In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of the “k”. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like “fotograf” 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent “e”s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.
By the fourth year, pepl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”. During ze fifz year, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After ze fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! And zen ze world vil be ourz!
a person who disingenuously expresses concern about an issue with the intention of undermining or derailing genuine discussion.
"he is regarded among climate scientists as a concern troll""
1. I'm not, nor have I ever been, a concern troll. I'm just a non-politically tribal reader & occasional commenter on a left-leaning blog that discusses political & social issues of the day.
2. I'm not motivated by almost pathological hatreds some fortunately few commenters here seem to have for political opponents or their parties. But if you have a go at me, I'm a typical bloke, expect to get a return serve if I think it's worth doing. If you're just blithering crap I might just ignore you.
3. Some of the most offensive commenters here employ the disingenuous tactic of criticising you for the same sins they commit, in the hope of deflecting criticism away from their nastiness. Narcissists & psychopaths do that.
Comprehension 101: nowhere did I name anyone as a concerned troll, I just made a general statement. You may infer I meant you; I couldn’t possibly comment.
So transparently disingenuous I’m embarrassed for you over how pathetically inept that attempt at a clever & sophisticated cheap shot was.
Why not crawl back under the rock you usually hide under & watch tv or something?
The article states that Luxon was international airline General Manager May 2011 to December 2012 so cancellation of international flights may have been in his purview during that time? also rolls royce engine problems seem to have to occurred in 2017 so maybe a red herring?
Look, Jag, don’t get me wrong. I realise that some woebegone, hateful people loathe their political opponents so much that they’ll happily indulge in character assassination on the flimsiest of evidence, especially on blogs or social media.
I generally find it best to avoid these types as they’re often miserable, forever moaning buggers to be around, prone to making various allegations & buying into any conspiracies involving their usual targets.
My comment below explains why I don’t see any evidence yet that confirms Luxon banned Mardi Gras flights because he’s got it in for LGTBQI folk owing to hiscrekigious beliefs. If, in fact, he does – and he did – that evidence will surface eventually.
Until it does, it’s just malicious gossip really. Some people, I realise, really like spreading that. But I’m not one of them.
Unfortunately this is part of the dirt in political life. Clark was subject to it. Mike Williams shot off to Australia to try to dig the dirt on Key. Seriously if being a wealthy, bald, christian male is as bad as it gets, Luxon is going to be dead boring.
"You carry on rumour mongering & punching at shadows if you like."
There's a bit of that around. Luxon seesm to have excited some on the left. it's quite humorous.
In an org the size of Air NZ, & with the number of LGBTQI employees it probably has, any decision by Luxon like that would soon get around & piss them off mightily. Once he left I’d expect one or more of aggrieved individuals (not necessarily just LGBTQIs either) to leak details to the msm or publish on social media to hit back at him.
Hasn’t happened. Why? Because it probably never happened. Time should tell.
The coincidental timing bodes poorly for him, but isn't overtly conclusive. Nor is his pastor's online content allegedly being trimmed indicative of sermons about which NZers might generally not approve.
Things that bode well for Luxon being a more progressive and forgiving christian than one of the conservative, bigoted ones? Not many so far. There are some very inclusive churches around, but there are others that aren't so openminded.
Which path do Luxon's beliefs travel? As you say, time will tell.
If that comment was directed at me, thank you. I can also say that YOU are a commenter I always read because, even though your views are sometimes at odds with the general views of most commenters on this left-leaning blog, you explain & defend your views clearly, you seem honest, & your posts are easy to understand.
There’s not much ambiguity. You also say what you mean and mean ONLY what you say.
You are also, in my view, quite sophisticatedly witty on many occasions. I like commenters with a GSOH.
It speaks volumes that you not only survive here as a regular but that many commenters with who you might sometimes be at odds politically seem to regard you with considerable affection.
For those who can cope with a transcribed interview, this is the Lowy Institute interviewing the White House key advisor on the Asia-Pacific region, Kurt Campbell. He's the guy who gave us the 'pivot to Asia', 'the Quad', and AUKUS.
The density of the exchange with the Lowy Institute and in how he engages about Australia gives a good and quite detailed sense of how important and how deep that White House-Canberra relationship is and will be.
Australia has a deeply significant strategic role play both globally and in the Indo-pacific. It values its partnership in the United States, but does not seek nor act in a way that is simply an adjunct to Washington. That's just so far, from how Australia conducts its independent foreign policy. And I see it every day. And I'm extraordinarily impressed by its dexterity, and its nuance. I fully believe that over time, that China will reengage with Australia. But it will, I believe, re-engage on Australian terms. I think Australia – China's preference would have been too broke, to break Australia. To drive Australia to its knees. And then you know, find a way forward. I don't believe that's going to be the way it's going to play out. I believe that China will engage because it is in its own interest to have a good relationship with Australia. I believe that will happen naturally, and I think that China is a country that deep down, fundamentally respects strength fortitude and resilience. And I can't imagine a country that has demonstrated that more clearly than Australia.
Duterte wasn't just playing one off against the other, he was looking for a global realignment. He had some pretty good reasons for being as anti-US as he was, but China is encroaching upon his doorstep.
Chauncey De Vega does a good job today with some of the consequences for US minorities and Democrats should Republicans gain Senate majority back next year and White House in 2024.
He quotes historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, around preparing to leave the country if one is in an oppressed or substantially marginalised US minority:
"So, one answer would be: start exploring your options now if you are in a threatened category of people, as are many of those who write to me. "Better exile than prison," wrote former Italian Prime Minister Francesco Nitti to King Victor Emmanuel III in 1925, explaining why he'd left Italy when the Fascists took power. Nitti worked from abroad to counter authoritarian propaganda about what was happening in his native country, as exiles from Hong Kong, Myanmar, and other places do today.
It's unlikely that Republican rule would mean mass imprisonment for political opponents, the way there is in Erdogan's Turkey. Viktor Orbán, darling of the GOP, has not gone that route. And it's a shame to lose capable people when they are most needed at home — which would be the situation in the USA if Republicans gain more power and if they retake the White House in 2024.
(…)
Each person acts for their own reasons, and each situation is unique. But there is one constant in the history of exile. It means watching from afar the travails of your country, and, for those who desire to return, entering into a state of suspension: waiting for things to get better, waiting for the tyrant to die, waiting for freedoms to be restored."
With so many competent-but-uninspiring Democrat leaders retiring and not a great surge of inspiring leaders replacing them, we may well find more exiles seeking somewhere peaceful and competent to live.
Heres one for you…I'm always unimpressed by how quick the U.S is to label people terrorists,or insurgents or 'bad' people ,when the record shows they are the guiltiest of all those charges.
Absolutely – the US has made all manner of stupid mistakes that it rightly deserves to be heavily criticised for. But the difference is this – you are able to say these things without too much fear of censorship, or being disappeared.
Many people who speak freely in the USA rapidly die from car accidents or jumping out of windows etc etc, especially in the run up to court cases. Move on, nothing to see here. God bless America. Yeah ,right.
I'm sure members of the 200 or so countries the US has invaded, destroyed, rendered a 'failed state' are pleased you have rights that the US took from them.
Incidentally, the US has not made 'stupid mistakes'. Ever action it took against every country it sought to punish was a carefully considered and well thought out plan to destroy, to bring to its knees.
How many countries can you list where the CIA has murdered the incumbent democratically elected head of state or has overthrown the existing government and replaced it with their sycophant regime.
Yet despite the hated US invading, occupying, crushing and colonising more that every single nation on earth there is the peculiar fact that in 2021 the average person is far less likely to die in war than at any time in human history.
US going full fascist has massive implications for other countries, humanity and basically all of life. More so than say Brazil going full fascist. Athough obviously that would be bad for Brazilians and the region, it's not like they have nuclear weapons, an army the size of the US, or the kind of economic and political influence that the US has. Even allowing for the impact of the destruction of Brazil's forests (which they're already doing).
If it's all propaganda the CCP has but to restore her original post to the internet. and let her speak freely and openly in a trusted setting to Western journalists.
After dinner, I was still not willing to have sex. You said you hated me. You said in those seven years, you never forgot about me, and you will treat me well etc… I was terrified and anxious. Taking into consideration the affection I had for you seven years ago, I agreed… yes, we had sex.
She talked for 30 minutes with the IOC, who were satisfied she was ok, not being held captive or coerced.
I'm afraid it's now beyond whether Shuai is well and freely living her life, China's adversaries will not be cheated of an opportunity to rob them of the Games
In the West it would be immediately called out as a 'power imbalance'. And the fact of her post being scrubbed from the local internet is really all we need to know here. Not to mention her prolonged absence that triggered real concern.
Oh and we have a contact here in Brisbane who knows Shuai personally. So there's that as well.
Red, I haven't got a clue what actually happened here.
But neither am I willing to participate in an all out assault on China every time someone writes something on social media.
I feel sorry for Shuai, an absolute storm has broken loose, she may have endangered her beloved sport in her own country, she's been the conduit for a lot of very fierce threats to cancel the Beijing games.
She is now probably under so much pressure from both sides, it's intolerable, and the western media and sports organisations are intensifying it all. Who wouldn't go to ground?And she needs those western tennis associations to continue her career.A great little wedge has been leveraged.
Anyway, maybe you'll be assuaged by the third conversation the IOC has with her, in person next month .
Yes from what I've been told Shuai will be feeling extremely vulnerable from all sides at the moment. Anything she says now will be couched in the most careful terms.
Of course now she has become a symbol for a much larger story about the PRC and it's routine disregard for what you and I take for granted as human rights. She didn't intend this – but this is one of the downsides of being so very well known. (Yes I had heard of her prior.)
And in Tara Reade's case (she was the wrong kind of victim who had the misfortune to have been assaulted by a Democrat candidate) the victim was torn apart by the press.
In a time of me too believe the woman,Tara's reputation was trashed by the very same media affecting deep concern for Peng Shuai and demanding investigation .It's the hypocrisy, partisanship,and crude politicisation of these awful events in women's lives I can't stand .It's yet another cynical abuse of women for political purposes.They don't give a flying fuck when it comes down to it, just another opportunity to land some blows.
Every single Olympics being held in an adversary country has been hounded .The rooms aren't ready, its a total fuckup, the toilets don't work, human rights dictate that we have a boycott, Zika virus is running amok, don't go, there'll be riots, you won't be safe.Now its you tennis girls will be molested, we'll have to cancel
John Ralston Saul suggested all are corporate fascist.
“Now listen to the first three aims of the corporatist movement in Germany, Italy and France during the 1920s. These were developed by the people who went on to become part of the Fascist experience:
(1) shift power directly to economic and social interest groups;
(2) push entrepreneurial initiative in areas normally reserved for public bodies;
(3) obliterate the boundaries between public and private interest — that is, challenge the idea of the public interest.
This sounds like the official program of most contemporary Western governments.”
RL, you'd probably enjoy JRS, especially his book "On Equilibrium" which excoriates extreme ideology in favour of his notion of equilibrium, which he defines as a harmony of "common sense, ethics, creativity, intuition, memory and reason"
Looks interesting – although I don't do Twitter as a matter of principle. Nor FB for that matter.
However I can't help but note that in one breath the US is excoriated for the 'cult of individualism' that puts the individual interest ahead of the public – and in the next it's rotten with 'corporate fascism' that puts crushes the individual in pursuit of it's own state imposed interests.
Seems fairly logical that corporations would use "individualism" to market narcissistic crap and undermine class solidarity. That is far from the Enlightenment vision of elevating the individual human spirit
That is far from the Enlightenment vision of elevating the individual human spirit
Yes and that of course was a time when Christianity informed the basic narrative of society. In it's place we got materialism – which is the name I'd give to what you're speaking to.
Red "I'm always impressed at how people are so ready to yell 'fascist' at the USA, while remaining silent on the actually fascist regimes around the world."
Yeah nah Red, you're out of line in demanding that I comment on all other fascist regimes around the world at the same time as commenting on US fascism. Where on earth do you get that from?
Yes, well maybe.. tho I suspect that is more a result of the view angle from behind your own eyes than anything else ..
And you went and derailed my whole comment by bringing in something that wasn't even in there… jeez…
My comment was around how things might play out if the US instead had a Mandela rather than a Trump. Or how South Africa at the end of apartheid might have gone with a Trump rather than a Mandela. And about genies and bottles, though I have never some across one of those myself…
My comment was around how things might play out if the US instead had a Mandela rather than a Trump. Or how South Africa at the end of apartheid might have gone with a Trump rather than a Mandela.
Interesting counterfactual. The only way I can think to approach an answer is this – if you were an educated black person and given a choice to live in either SA or the USA in 2021 – which would you pick?
yes well you see that has been the problem the whole way through this mini-thread…. i talk about something (people – trump, mandela) and red talks about something else (countries)…
so i answered in the context of what i was talking about (people), not red (countries)…
and which would you go for gezza..? trump ? or mandela ?
If it was just a straight choice of 'who would you prefer as a leader' Trump or Mandela the answer scarcely needs typing out – Mandela. But this is pretty meaningless, because in no real world election was anyone ever going to have that choice.
Instead Americans got a choice between Trump and Clinton – and a majority picked Trump. Hell it's odds on they may pick him a second time.
It might be meaningless in the context you have put my question into but that isn't my intended context
Thinking through the question (which is ‘how would it have turned out’ not ‘who would you choose’) should highlight the importance of the person in charge to how a nation progresses through difficult times. (the question of how they got there is immaterial to this)
Upon completion of said ponderance thought can then turn to the consequences of having such leader (because how they got there is in fact immaterial at this important point).
Upon completion of said ponderance thought can then turn to the consequences of having such leader
Well yes – what were the consequences? And my answer attempted just that and asked which nation would you prefer to live in?
The obvious objection is of course that SA and the USA are very different places – but if leadership matters at all we might conclude that while Mandela was probably the best SA could hope for at that moment, the outcome in the long term is not very promising. And while the USA could certainly have hoped for better than Trump, he wasn't the unmitigated disaster many here would like to paint him as.
And if the answer to a choice between Mandela and Trump is obvious, the answer to a choice between living in SA and the USA is also plain.
What's not mentioned in this pearl clutcher is that the Democrats are on track to not only lose the up coming Senate elections, but the next Presidency as well. Never mind a 'rigged election system' – they simply cannot win on their current polling.
And this article reads as pre-positioning 'a stolen election' narrative all over again. Getting tedious.
Trump is right, the system is rigged. But not in the way that he claimed. Red and Blue teams are just distractions while Wall St pillages the public purse.
Mine got downloaded to my gmail address 3 days ago. When I went to open & save it somewhere on my phone yesterday to show the visiting Occupational Therapist, it had come down with all my particulars missing. It’s just a blank pass.
Bloody shambles. I’ll have to go thru the whole process of requesting it & proving identity again. 😠
So, I assume some kind of system glitch ocurred when the system checked my particulars from my driver’s licence, told me I had successfully applied for my vaccine pass, & that it would be emailed to my gmail address, but all it delivered was a completely blank pass with my particulars name dob vax dates not specified on it.
Just tried 3 times to repeat the process. But couldn’t remember the password I used to register. (I wrote down the 6 digit verification code it sent me originally.)
No problem, thinks I. There’s a standard Forgot password? link underneath the password text field. I’ll just click on that & it’ll offer me the option of entering a new password (that this time I’ll write down!).
Nuh uh. All that does is loop me back constantly to the login email & password fields, which repeatedly tells me the password is incorrect. FFS!
High call volumes, & mass passport extensions, the blank pass & this sort of very obvious screw-up of what is an easy password reset experience everywhere else tells me that incompetence & inadequate testing are unfortunately likely features of the current system.
I downloaded GooglePay as a way to store a persistent copy of the Vaccine Pass on the Android phone. Having an old phone I had to mess around making enough storage space to install GooglePay. I refuse to habitually and expensively upgrade my phone every couple of years to get assorted crap I don't want.
Anyway, it seems to work. Obviously from a speed of development perspective, integrating with existing tools/apps like GooglePay that are already out there is a much faster and smarter way of working than building and testing new stuff. But the whole thing does contain assumptions about how much spare cash people have to splash around on tech. Which sort of fits with all the hype about now being able to go to bars and restaurants in Auckland – who can afford that either except occasionally?
And even odder that we now equate 'freedom' with stuffing our gobs and bellies with expensive slops.
It's a QR code you carry around. Venues will scan it to check your vaccination status.
So it can be saved on your phone (generally in the secure wallet feature, where credit cards reside), or printed out.
Yes it can be easily circumvented. IMO it’s just another bit of pandemic safety theatre to reassure the public. But it will probably help weed out the really obnoxious antisocial types.
The pass is supplied as a PDF file, which isn't the most convenient really (for opening on a phone etc). My household have printed and laminated ours.
There is an app on Google Play for androids, that will verify passes on a phone (my massage-therapist friend downloaded it this morning – was working fine). On scanning a QR code, the verification app simply displays the information that is already shown on the front of the pass and says whether it is valid (i.e. the digital signature is legit). The app doesn't upload or store data to my knowledge.
The app works offline, except for the first scan (this will be when it downloads the encryption public key). Presumably an app for iPhone also, but I wouldn't know.
At the local cafe this morning they scanned it with another app called the "NZ Pass Verifier"
The data is not supposed to be collected or stored. It's only supposed to confirm the customer's vax status.
From the Privacy Policy (IMO technical loopholes are still possible)
NZ Pass Verifier will enable app users to verify a My Vaccine Pass as an authentic record of vaccination or exemption. The app will display the name, date of birth and expiry date recorded in the QR Code of the Pass presented.
You must use any personal information accessed by the app in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and in accordance with any Order requirements. The app may only be used in compliance with current Orders, and users are not permitted to collect and/or use information about the presenter of the Pass via the app for any unrelated purpose.
No identifiable information about the user of the device or the Pass is retained by the app.
Basic analytics events are captured to record the number of successful and unsuccessful scans that have occurred. These events do not contain any personal information and are not able to be linked to an individual or location
I am guessing they simply lost the file, nothing to do with the QR code or the pass – could've just as easily lost a word document containing their favourite cake recipes…guessing!
There is a technical explanation here, including a link to even more technical info on Github and the full technical specification. It all is open source so the security can be examined by anyone.
It is not necessarily that easily circumvented, in the sense that it is difficult to produce a fake, verifiable pass with your details. You can produce a fake that visually looks like a legit pass, but it will be rejected by the verifier app.
The pass deploys asymmetric cryptography, which means the MOH has the private key and each QR code is signed so it can be verified with the freely-available public key. It is very difficult (near impossible) to produce a signature that matches the pass plain-text data, without possession of the private key.
Pretty easy to print several copies of a valid pass and share it around with your mates. Most businesses aren't going to double check against another form of ID
Yep, need to check against other (photo) ID to confirm the name matches the person.
Many close-contact businesses know all their customers by name already, and being asked for photo ID at entry of pubs, concerts etc is not unusual.
What I think is unfair and disadvantages poorer people, is the lack of free, easily-accessible photo ID, especially for young people (the vaccine pass requirement applies to everyone over 12 years old). The "kiwi access card" costs $55 and is only for people over 18 years old.
Agree as you say above. A drivers license is acceptable, but again not everyone has one of those. There was some debate a few years ago, as I recall, of the govt issuing an ID card. Lots of people against such a move because – privacy. But you can see that a card would have its uses in such a situation as we are now experiencing.
258 Altering, concealing, destroying, or reproducing documents with intent to deceive
(1)Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who, with intent to obtain by deception any property, privilege, service, pecuniary advantage, benefit, or valuable consideration, or to cause loss to any other person,—
(a) alters, conceals, or destroys any document, or causes any document to be altered, concealed, or destroyed; or
(b) makes a document or causes a document to be made that is, in whole or in part, a reproduction of any other document.
(2) An offence against subsection (1) is complete as soon as the alteration or document is made with the intent referred to in that subsection, although the offender may not have intended that any particular person should—
(a) use or act upon the document altered or made; or
(b) act on the basis of the absence of the document concealed or destroyed; or
(c)be induced to do or refrain from doing anything.
(3)Every person is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years who, without reasonable excuse, sells, transfers, or otherwise makes available any document knowing that—
(a) the document was altered, concealed, or made, in whole or in part, as a reproduction of another document; and
(b)the document was dealt with in the manner specified in paragraph (a) with intent to—
(i) obtain any property, privilege, service, pecuniary advantage, benefit, or valuable consideration; or
(ii)cause loss to any other person.
259 Using altered or reproduced document with intent to deceive
(1)Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who, knowing any document to have been made or altered in the manner and with the intent referred to in section 258, with intent to obtain by deception any property, privilege, service, pecuniary advantage, benefit, or valuable consideration, or to cause loss to any other person,—
(a) uses, or deals with, or acts upon, the document; or
(b)causes any person to use or deal with, or act upon, the document.
(2) For the purposes of this section, it does not matter that the document was altered or made outside New Zealand.
Not advisable for them. Didn't say you were advising them.
But that's the first bit. Deterrence. That'll stop a few, although admittedly risk assessment is a problem for the potential crowd.
Then there's the fact that the name and date of birth come up. Even without parallel ID checks, if a middle-aged regular called "Charlie" comes up as 23 year old "Tristan", that's another issue altogether. And maybe Charlie is a bit of a dick. That might make someone care.
Is it completely perfect? Nope. Some vendors won't notice or care. But an organised effort has a high likelihood of quickly being identified, and the copied code being blacklisted when vendor apps receive the next update. Or even better, "contact police" coming up when it's tried.
That probably doesn't apply because entering somewhere in breach of Covid orders is not usually intended to gain pecuniary advantage by deception ("service" in that context is paid services, not something like service at a bar). It's a breach of the Covid order however and punishable by a hefty fine.
I'm no lawyer, fair call. But there'd be something dodgy as feck about it beyond the covid regs.
Forgery (s256) has some wider criteria.
I almost hope someone tries it – if it's not a dishonesty offence of some sort, it bloody should be and that might be the incentive for the government to do something about it.
Yes that's it. To display it on your phone you have to first verify that it is you ( the owner of the phone by password or finger print) and the mycovid website verifies that you are the owner of the phone before it initially sends the pass to the phone.
I understand what the QR code is for. I don't understand the various techs being used, and consequently the privacy and security issues (and please, nobody tell me 'trust us it's safe').
The email has a link so if you open the email on your phone, you press that link and it sends the qrcode to the app.
Sorry, it sends the QR code to the "digital wallet" the phone might have.
The only tech that is required is:
the vendor's app so e.g. the cafe knows you're ok
the QR code itself
Everything else is up to the person who gets the pass. They can store it and present it however they want (paper print-out, photo on their phone, digital wallet on their phone, tattoo, stone tablet, literally anything), as long as a vendor's app can read the QR code.
Whether the person who gets the pass is opening themselves up to security issues based on the medium they choose is up to them.
If the vendor is using the official NZGovt app, that spec is online. If the vendor uses a third-party app developed using the spec, the only information that can possibly be compromised is the information about you in the QR code:
If you are using a phone to store your pass the easiest way on an android phone is to have the google pay app. You supposedly can get by, not having that app, but I found I needed to down load it to get past go. The thing is the google pay app is set up so you have to erify that you are the user each time you use it by setting up a PIN or in my case using a fingerprint. That protects your info from being accessed by someone else who may have got hold of your phone for nefarious reasons.
Once you have the google pay app on your phone and set up, the Vaccine pass set up is smooth. You can then set up a shortcut so that you do not have to access google pay – just a touch of a icon – verify you are the correct user, and hey presto there is your pass, as displayed in your photo above.
thanks McFlock. I've probably got a wallet app on my iphone that I don't use for anything else, might use it for this, so good to know the full range of options.
Do most people not have their battery run down on their phone?
two top gender clinicians (who are also both transgender) admit that puberty blockers in some children may lead to the inability to orgasm……….Jazz Jennings the post child for transitioning (had her own reality tv series about it) being a Case in point.
gender ideologists want immediate affirmation and confirmation of young persons gender identity and access to medical transition without question…the idea that puberty blockers are harmless is untrue. They are experimental and we are only realising the harm they do
Under the proposed Conversion Practices Bill counsellors and parents are at risk of a police complaint and up to five years in jail if they query a young person desire to medically transition. It may not be how the law pans out, but I believe and there is some evidence for this, that that is how gender ideology activists want it to be. I base this on the submissions I heard and read to the select committee
Yes Redlogix. Not to mention fertility issues and permanant changes to their presentation e.g facial hair, deep voice, Adam's apple on a biological women who tranistioned then has regrets.
Its sad, but it is outrageous that some adults are enabling this.
Luxon giving stand-up in Auckland. Says the city should be at "green", doesn't want restrictions. Open up, all good.
He seems oblivious to reality.
It's also politically inept. There are many other issues to challenge the gov't on. He (or his advisers) should be saying "leave Covid alone, the polls on that speak for themselves".
I've had a good search and I can't find a single qualified voice (public health, epidimeology etc) who thinks Auckland should simply drop all restrictions, right now.
It's incredible that Luxon would go doolally on this. I suppose he's relying on the "honeymoon" to deflect the obvious Qs.
If Ardern/Bloomfield said what Luxon just did there would be uproar.
Luxon doesn't even need to be serious about Auckland going green light. He knows he can't make that happen so it is a cheap way of getting those who are frustrated with restrictions on board. It is kind of a win win for him.
I agree he is only doing it for show, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a safe bet.
At this stage it may not hurt him but he doesn't need the Brian Tamaki fan club (1%), he needs the 20% who support the gov't on Covid but not on various other issues.
Statements like this on the record stack up over time.
I agree Observer. Its a strategy that could back fire. But he may still pick up votes from it. And its so easy saying how things should be and please those who want it that way, when you can't deliver.
Maybe he's dangerously emboldened by the rapturous fawning of the Herald/ZB sycophants – and is saying out loud the thing that should only be whispered among friends? Or maybe he reckons no-one's listening, the phone's off the hook and he can say all sorts of dumb sh*t with impunity?
Totally! He's playing up to the Elite and Business class as per Air NZ – but even Air NZ are more responsible than that now.
There are over 6000 active cases of Covid in Auckland. 56 of yesterdays cases were active in the community. It took only 1 unknown case in the community to start this latest outbreak. True over 90% of eligible persons in Auckland are now fully vaccinated, but they are still 10's of thousands including all children under 12 who are not.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon has been in the city's viaduct harbour today, speaking to hospitality business owners. He told reporters that the city should have gone to the orange setting, as the red light is for when the health system is overwhelmed and vaccination rates are low – neither of which is happening in Auckland.
The new leader of the National Party is questioning the government's call to put Auckland into the red setting under the traffic light system, as the city emerges from four months of lockdown today.
Auckland cafes and gyms opened their doors today as New Zealand dropped alert levels and moved into the Covid-19 protection framework.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon has been in the city's viaduct harbour today, speaking to hospitality business owners. He told reporters that the city should have gone to the green setting, as the red light is for when the health system is overwhelmed and vaccination rates are low – neither of which is happening in Auckland.
He says Auckland hospitality businesses are worried about the city emptying over the summer and being hit again in the pocket.
Yes i know the msm are reporting that. But he doesn't actually say that in the video interview as available. Perhaps he answered questions after or issued a press release?
You are quoting the RNZ interpretation of what they are claiming he said. As usual they are misquoting him because the Labour Party provided tax-payer funded grant to RNZ requires them to do so.
What Luxon did was to explain what the traffic light system was meant to represent. In particular Red was for when the health system was overwhelmed and the vaccination rates were low. As he said, and as the Government itself says, the vaccination rates in Auckland are high and there is no threat to overwhelm the hospitals.
If the Government was setting the colours as their system claimed they should then, as he pointed out they should have, following their own defined rules, have been displayed a Green light.
He then pointed out how stupid the traffic light system actually is and why National were opposed to it.
He never once advocated that Auckland should be Green, He simply pointed out that, using the Government explanation of their own system, they would have had to declare it to be Green.
As usual the msm journalists have chosen to misquote those MPs who are not on the left wing of politics. You have chosen to follow the party line.
Why don't you try listening to what he actually said during the question time instead of believing the bs that the reporter has invented?
The Stuff report has also been edited. Originally they said the Luxon had called for the whole city to be in Green. They have corrected it by adding the following,
"Clarification: An earlier version of this article said Luxon wanted Auckland to be in green. He in fact said that hospitality was ready for green, and National was against the traffic-light system. (Amended December 3, 2021, 2:14pm)"
As far as I can see they are the only ones to include the whole statement and answers he gave.
As I commented above he simply pointed out that if the Government had followed the rules they had laid down for what the various colours meant they would have had to call it a Green zone.
So yes he does say to reporters in his opinion Auckland should have gone to green. What is there to misunderstand about that. The only thing you can take away from that sentiment is one of complete callousness or a complete failure to appreciate just how serious the threat of reinfection is. There are 6000 plus active cases in Auckland alone right now. Dozens of cases active in the community every day.
Or have you not had a recent auditory test? Go back and listen carefully this time. His words clearly imply that in his "humble" opinion Auckland should be in green. That is the clear impression he wants to give.
Baldfinger
'He's the man, the man with the Midas touch
A spider's touch
Such a cold finger
Beckons you to enter his web of sin
But don't go in
Golden words he will pour in your ear
But his lies can't disguise what you fear
For a swinging voter knows when he's kissed them
It's the kiss of death from
Mister Baldfinger
Voters beware of this heart of gold
This heart is cold
He loves only gold
Only gold
He loves gold
He loves only gold
Only gold
He loves gold'
Now that would be interesting. I’m not sure if Auckland voters are up for a left wing, Polynesian mayor. He’d win the South and West, might struggle with the isthmus and north of the bridge.
After 50 years of reading the Herald I have cancelled my subscription this morning.There has been no attempt by the paper at even handedness at all.I have had to endure endless carping from Prebble ,Hosking ,the ex national mp Fran O'Sullivan etc etc .Ireland an island has a population of 5million people like us and they have lost 5400 people to covid .I think we have lost 38 or there abouts.Instead of the endless specious arguments we should be celebrating what can only be described as a monumental success.
Agreed TV…when she said 92 at the presser I thought maybe, just maybe, with fierce contact tracing we can keep Covid at very low to negligible numbers…..if we keep MIQ at the borders of course.
But now we have 7-houses saying Auckland should go Green today-he would open the border today too.
Of course if his cobbers had got in in 2017 he wouldn't be opening the border today because faced with the pandemic they would've done things differently across the board. There would've been no lockdowns, no mandates on anything, Simon Thornley would've been their chief expert and everything would've been sweet.
He is all piss-and-wind because he can be and he knows cretinous National supporters will be orgasmic at having a 'sensible man of business' with a handle on covid reality at the helm. Joke.
I'm imagining him organising a cup of tea in Mt Eden with David Seymour. John Key did that to give Act one seat. I wonder if the new master businessman will be trying for a repeat to get the 10 seats back.
luxum will be so busy barking at passing cars, he will miss his appointment with seymour to have a cuppa. luckily ,his handlers will sort that out ,as well as satanising, sorry, sanatising his backstory. expect to see him at next big gay out , and at his local bunnings, backing a trailer in to pick up some handyman type thingies. expect to see his handlers try and put distance between john and notjohn . john in hawiian shirts, notjohn in blue shirts and preworn jeans . to pretend he's one of us, he might even cross the bridge one night and slum it at the speedway . rt wing polies have a habit of using speedway to pretend they are real kiwis. don brash frantically wedging into a midget. blenglish driving a stock car at baypark around the same time he went boxing, collins slumming at te marua(welly) speedway one night, that last one was really cringeworthy(crusher having to be nice to boy(and girl) racers) LOL.
I see the (ex) CEO is calling for Auckland's regime to be reduced to "green lights" forthwith.
Of course that's why he was a CEO and not the Pilot.
The pilot warns that there is a storm ahead and may have to depart from flight plans in order to minimise passenger discomfort and possible damage to the aircraft. The altered route may add a few minutes to the flight time and cost a little more in fuel.
The CEO, on the other hand, sitting in the relative comfort of Business Class, instructs the cabin crew to relay an order, "Sod the passenger discomfort – your instructions are to get this flight to its destination in the quickest and cheapest means possible!"
Enjoyed my first proper cafe visit this morning. Sat in the sunshine and scoffed my croissant. Then back to the salt mines. WFH ain't so bad in Parnell.. probably 20 cafe's in easy walking range
Yes. Support for the Greens is 15.5%, among voters under 50. (That is consistent with other polls on climate change + environment, and the voter demographics).
Pretty clear lesson for National: don't drag your feet (like Labour) or worse, go into reverse. Over to you, Mr Luxon.
I do think we shouldn't be complacent (and am aware I did say the other day that short of the arrival of someone charismatic like Key I couldn't see National winning the next election. ACT on the other hand…)
Also big thanks should be given to the divine Ms Collins for getting National back into the frame for a resounding National victory at the next election
another way to look at the latest poll is ; election is two years away. if we have learnt anything from the last two years(many havent) ,is that anything can happen between now and next election…..
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will on Wednesday announce it is willing, as a last resort, to purchase the collapsed Rex Airlines, in its latest bid to prop up aviation services to regional and remote areas. As ...
Jotham Napat has been elected as the new prime minister of Vanuatu. Napat was elected unopposed in Port Vila today, receiving 50 votes with two void votes. He is the country’s fifth prime minister in four years and will lead a coalition government made up of five political parties — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By A J Brown, Professor of Public Policy & Law, Centre for Governance & Public Policy, Griffith University Australia has turned the corner on its decade-long slide on Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), once again ranking in the top ten least ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Bridges, Senior Lecturer in Public Relations and Director of Academic Program – Communication, Creative Industries, Screen Media, Western Sydney University Stock Rocket/Shutterstock For new parents struggling with challenges such as breastfeeding and sleep deprivation, social media can be a great ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott French, Senior Lecturer in Economics, UNSW Sydney US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have stated an exemption for Australia from Trump’s executive order placing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imported into the US is “under consideration”. ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon's attempts to turn the tables back on the Opposition at Question Time today went down like a lead balloon, Jo Moir writes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenton Griffin, Casual Lecturer and Tutor in History, Indigenous Studies, and Politics, Flinders University American Primeval/Netflix On January 24, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church, penned a statement condemning the ...
It comes as Whangārei District Council is under fire from the Director General of Health Dr Diana Sarfati after it voted in December against adding fluoridation to the water. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Strangio, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Monash University Is history repeating itself in Labor’s fortress state of Victoria? At the 1990 federal election, Bob Hawke’s Labor government had a near-death experience when it lost nine seats in Victoria. A furious Hawke laid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nissen, HERA Program Director – Health Workforce Optimisation Centre for the Business & Economics of Health, The University of Queensland Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock If you’ve tried to get an appointment to see a GP or specialist recently, you will likely have felt ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peta Ashworth, Professor and Director, Curtin Institute for Energy Transition, Curtin University Large power grids are among the most complicated machines humans have ever devised. Different generators produce power at various times and at various costs. A generator might fail and another ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Orr, Veterinarian, Southern Cross University Mitchell Orr/Unsplash Late last year, rumours swirled online that HomeSafeID, a private Australian pet microchip registry, had stopped operating. On Feburary 5 2025, a notice appeared on the HomeSafeID website, ostensibly from the site’s ...
The government is taking far too long to allocate the 1500 social homes it announced nine months ago and the hold up is stalling desperately-needed homes, says a community housing provider. ...
The agency is setting a 12-week limit on how much rent debt a tenant can accumulate as part of a change in approach that will also see almost half of the outstanding dept wiped away. ...
The media is rife with headlines about people killing animals for kicks. Please don’t.In memory of an Auckland swan, a Bay of Plenty octopus and a Taranaki striped marlin.Imagine this. It’s 7.15am. You’re paddling around on a serene lake with your sweetheart. It seems likely that she’ll give ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump has agreed to “consider” exempting Australia from the 25% tariff he has imposed on imports of steel and aluminium to the US. Trump gave the undertaking during a wide-ranging 40-minute ...
Pacific Media Watch Israeli police have confiscated hundreds of books with Palestinian titles or flags without understanding their contents in a draconian raid on a Palestinian educational bookshop in occupied East Jerusalem, say eyewitnesses. More details have emerged on the Israeli police raid on a popular bookstore in occupied East ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist China and the Cook Islands’ relationship “should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party”, says Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga express a loss of confidence in Prime Minister Mark Brown. In response to questions from the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Ogden, Associate Professor in Global Studies, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Donald Trump is moving rapidly to change the contours of contemporary international affairs, with the old US-dominated world order breaking down into a multipolar one with many centres of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ronnie Das, Associate Professor in Data Analytics, The University of Western Australia In the recent Border-Gavaskar series against India, Steve Smith agonisingly missed out reaching 10,000 Test runs in front of his home crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground, falling short by ...
In a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff, comedians and best friends Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester embark on a cross-country quest to find love. Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club is a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff following award-winning comedians and friends Brynley Stent and ...
🚐 Bryn and Ku pack their bags and swap the bleak dating scene of Tāmaki Makaurau for some meet and mingle events in Ōtautahi that will take them out of their comfort zone. ❣️ Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club follows comedians Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester as they head out ...
"The relationship between China and the Cook Islands does not target any third party," the Chinese Foreign Ministry says, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga plan protest. ...
From tradwives to ‘petite blonde’ preferences, this season feels like a throwback for all the wrong reasons, writes Alex Casey. First of all: I know. Complaining about bad stuff on Married at First Sight Australia is like complaining that water is wet. But I’ve been bobbing around in these waters ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a public servant who’s ‘trying to get better’ explains her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female. Age: 24. Ethnicity: Pākehā and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zena Assaad, Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, Australian National University Ziv Lavi/Shutterstock Last week, Google quietly abandoned a long-standing commitment to not use artificial intelligence (AI) technology in weapons or surveillance. In an update to its AI principles, which were first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenainn Simpson, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Florian Nimsdorf / Shutterstock About 400 kilometres northwest of Sydney, just south of Dubbo, lies a large and interesting body of rock formed around 215 million years ago by erupting volcanoes. Known as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mareike Riedel, Senior lecturer in law, Macquarie University The dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents has dominated headlines in Australia in recent months, with calls for urgent action to address what many are calling a crisis. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane McAdam, Scientia Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney For a long time, it seemed refugee law had little relevance to people fleeing the impacts of climate change and disasters. Nearly 30 years ago, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maggie Kirkman, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock You’ve heard of the gender pay gap. What about the gap in medical care? Cardiovascular diseases – which can lead to heart ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Iain White, Professor of Environmental Planning, University of Waikato Getty Images Urban planning has a long history of promoting visionary ideas that advocate for particular futures. The most recent is the concept of the 15-minute city, which has gained traction globally. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew King, Associate Professor in Climate Science, ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, The University of Melbourne Earth is crossing the threshold of 1.5°C of global warming, according to two major global studies which together suggest the planet’s climate has ...
The new United States ambassador to Aotearoa is an indigenous rights supporter.
The first thing is, is the indigenous people of New Mexico
Oh dear. Udall is another American double-izzer. There's a growing group of yanks that double the "is" in sentences for no sensible reason. The thing is, is that… The point is, is that… What it is, is that…
This bizarre form of phrasing is spreading like a disease from the US tv channels all around the world. Some TV1 reporters & commentators & presenters have even picked it up & started using it. As have others. Judith Collins was a frequent double-izzer.
Where will it end? 😳 😀
Oh no!…Grammar Nazis will never get to sleep at…night.
This is…a crisis.
Says … Mr Ellipsis.
People have always used, abused and mangled English since the start of whenever.
That "becomes a “thing” that others just copy & repeat, unthinkingly" and it becomes part of the evolving the language.
Are you a user & an advocate of the “double is” usage then?
Why? It actually makes no sense.
I wonder if teachers of English teach that it’s a grammatically valid use of “is”.
English is an evolving language, sure, one only has to look at early writings & spellings from Shakespeare to see how much it has evolved, but some things like this are not so much evolving the language as advertising the user’s laziness or ignorance, imo.
The thing is, is that the Americans have to get rid of "off of" first.
Yes then they could start on 'ahold of' instead of 'hold of'. Was it Winston Churchill/George Bernard Shaw who coined the apt saying of US & English- English
'Two great nations divided by a a common language.'
They need to first eliminate double negatives, imo, because these often logically lead to an absurd positive. Classic example we’ve all heard.
Mant individuals who are stony broke in the US will often say:
“I ain’t got no money.”
Broken down, “ain’t” means haven’t, so the individual is saying:
“I haven’t got no money”.
If you haven’t got ‘no money’, logic says you must have ‘some money’. But they don’t.
They should probably say: “I ain’t got ANY money” but the double negative phrase “ain’t got no” has now been so deeply embedded into American English-speakers’ minds (via movies & tv and music & literature) it’s illogicality is simply ignored & people just interpret it (by context) to mean that the individual is broke.
The thing the plonkers who go on about Grammar Nazis & Spelling Nazis when errors in English are amusedly pointed out forget is that ALL languages have syntax & rules of spelling & postioning & placement etc becos without such forms of common control & usage every language would quickly become unintelligible to others if there weren’t some common agreed rules.
grandma nazis are a pain, neelee as bad as spelleng nazis.
Gezza just demonstrated how to derail a thread!
It's just an aside – a side issue I picked up because the writer actually reported the double is. Often they don't.
You seemingly haven't noticed how the thread continues below for anyone that wants to comment on it. Have you anything to say on the thread yourself? Or just that?
"…progressing tribal self-governance, native language revitalisation and protecting sacred areas…."
Somebody give him a copy of He Puapua to take back home when he goes.
He'll also enjoy browsing Te Tiriti o Waitangi documents and commentaries and might have some valuable perspectives to offer around those.
He sounds like a worthwhile person to have visit Aotearoa 🙂
Robert ,,,,But will they/he/she visit Te Wai Pounamu, where we live.
The umpteenth case of prominent media person in the USA campaigning against getting vaccinated, then getting Covid and … you can guess what happened:
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/01/1060699340/marcus-lamb-daystar-television-network-dies-covid
Strangely, I'd never realised our bureaucrats can't tell the difference between orange and yellow. Toby Manhire noticed: https://thespinoff.co.nz/covid-19/02-12-2021/excuse-me-what-colour-is-this
I recall reading an article in the Christchurch Press about twenty-five years ago or so, reporting how a chap had been pulled over by the police and fined for running an 'orange' light recklessly close, only to contest the charge successfully on the grounds that there was no such thing as an 'orange' traffic light.
I haven’t read the article but isn’t in Amber light?
Bugger. 😠 Let me start again.
I haven’t read the article but isn’t it an Amber light
The article I read all those years ago did state that the intermediate stage between green and red was 'yellow' or 'amber', but the only official references I've ever seen are to its being yellow.
Frank Nordern and Dennis Muir say 'amber'. Peter Sellers did their script "Balham Gateway to the South", a brilliant spoof of a travel documentary.
"Night falls on Balham. Beneath Quill's Folly, Balham's famous beauty spot, which stands nearly ten feet above sea level, the town is spread below us in a fairyland of glittering lights, changing all the time- green, amber, red and amber and back to green."
A long-overdue regeneration of coastal shipping seems to be in the pipeline:
If Sealord's are that keen they should be able to buy their own freight ship. They're just hanging out for needless state subsidy into an imagined service that is never going to come back.
Kiwirail are a never-ending suck-hole of money for marginal network improvements on a shrinking network. Hard to see the Nightcaps or West Coast lines surviving once Fonterra converts to woodwaste boilers.
Minister Wood will consult by pushing that report straight back on the shelf.
"Minister Wood will consult by pushing that report straight back on the shelf"
If only.
Minister Wood will decide that the project is a wonderful idea except that it is not big enough. He will without doubt demand that it get at least a billion dollars. After all he has saved the taxpayer that much by not insisting on the stupid bike bridge across Auckland Harbour so there is plenty of money available for this new white elephant.
Meanwhile he is going to extend the Auckland – Hamilton train service through to Invercargill. The first stage has been enormously successful and we will therefore push ahead with extending it to the whole country.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/127179360/te-huia-train-service-has-earned-300000-and-cost-3m-but-councillor-confident-itll-get-back-on-track
Only double ? Thats not nearly enough !
So under Fyfes leadership the popular Mardi Gras flights went ahead.
As soon as Christopher took over ,they were cancelled,and when he left they were reinstated.
Clearly nothing to do with…him!
Air NZ's support for rainbow community reached new heights under Christopher Luxon's watch | Stuff.co.nz
Luxon's "Upper Room" involvement suggests he's not an admirer of rainbows, imo.
His spokesman (in the link Blazer supplied) says otherwise.
Christophers PR team…'neutralise this quicksmart…find someone gay at Air to quote and soften this up'.
'executive decisions' are made by executives when they have a positive perception and by 'junior staffers',people who have left or FIIK….if negative.
My feeling also. The fact that the "pink flights" cancellation coincided with Luxon's tenure is neither here
nor
there…
The article strongly suggests Luxon is a supporter of LGBTQI initiatives & has no issues with the “rainbow community”.
There are many Christians who don’t have a problem with LGBTQIs, and as as those who do are seemingly in the minority in both the community & Parliament they are unlikely to cause any problems for them politically as they’ll be outvoted.
That won’t stop some folk who really like to hate on National & other things from stirring the pot & suggesting dark things with no supporting evidence about Luxon.
evidence-1+1=2
'So under Fyfes leadership the popular Mardi Gras flights went ahead.
As soon as Christopher took over ,they were cancelled,and when he left they were reinstated.'
You can refute this with evidence as to WHY these flights, that were always booked out were cancelled ,specifically in Christophers time at Air.
ANALYSIS: Shortly after Christopher Luxon was elected leader of the Opposition a rumour that had been swirling for years resurfaced on social media.
The rumour goes: During Luxon’s time in charge at Air New Zealand he axed the popular Mardi Gras “pink flights” because it didn’t align with his Christian views. Much has been said about Luxon’s Christian faith, but he says it has been “misrepresented and portrayed very negatively”.
The pink flights rumour is case in point because, in reality, Air New Zealand made huge progress to promote diversity and support transgender and gay staff under Luxon’s leadership.
… … …
A spokesman for Luxon said he did not make any decisions to end the Mardi Gras flights. Luxon was a big supporter of the LGBTQI community, he said.
“Christopher is very proud of Air New Zealand’s record during his time of supporting greater diversity in general and the rainbow community specifically,” the spokesman said.
An unnamed source with knowledge of the situation said the decision to stop the pink flights was an operational one, and such a decision would not have gone all the way to the chief executive.
Craig Featherby, head of the Flight Attendants Association, said he had not heard anything to suggest Luxon made an executive decision to axe the flights.
Featherby, who is gay, worked as a Boeing 787-9 in-flight service manager while Luxon was chief executive. Featherby said the handful of times he met Luxon at Air New Zealand he always came across as accepting of all people. “I certainly never felt uncomfortable under his reign,” Featherby said.
Feathery said Air New Zealand underwent a lot of operational change during Luxon’s time leading the airline, and flight cancellations were exacerbated by the Rolls-Royce engine issues on the airline’s 787-9 Dreamliner over several years.
… … … …
The rest of the article basically just continues on demolishing your grubby rumour-generated conspiracy theory.
1+1 = 2, sure, but correlation does not equal causation, & your “evidence” would be laughed out of a Court. You’ve got nothing proving Luxon instructed those flights should cease because he has a religion-based problem with LGBTQI folk & a mountain of evidence he was a supporter of Air NZ’s positive LGBTQI policies.
All you have done is repost the content of my original link.
You have not been able to overcome the circumstantial evidence with a plausible explanation of WHY the flights were cancelled…have you?
I’m ending here. Wasted enuf time on you. You carry on rumour mongering & punching at shadows if you like.
You must be very naive….'
'A spokesman for Luxon said he did not make any decisions to end the Mardi Gras'
'An unnamed source with knowledge of the situation said the decision to stop the pink flights was an operational one, '
'Craig Featherby, head of the Flight Attendants Association, said he had not heard anything to suggest Luxon made an executive decision to axe the flights.'
Could not get more unconvincing statements than these.
Pure sanitising…spin.
Wonder how many LGBT members the Upper Room has!
"Wonder how many LGBT members the Upper Room has!"
My guess, "several" but none willing to declare; won't want to ruin the atmosphere 🙂
Evidence, as we know, is not the same thing as proof. You were asked for evidence, Blazer, and you provided that elegantly, imo.
"An unnamed source with knowledge of the situation said…"
Hahahaha!
The article fair oozes truthiness!
Gezza, why do you consistently misspell enough?
Is it because you don't care about the correct spelling of English words?
Or do you genuinely don't know how to spell this word?
Could it be you think 'enuf' has now become a 'thing', and therefore is now acceptable.
I like the word enuf. I’m a bit of a fan of finetic spelling. I sometimes spell though as tho, for the same reason.
In fact, I think there’s a lot of merit to the following idea, altho now Britain’a out of the EU, it’s not likely to ever be a starter….
EURO-ENGLISH
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty’s Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase-in plan that would be known as “Euro-English”.
In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of the “k”. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like “fotograf” 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent “e”s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.
By the fourth year, pepl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”. During ze fifz year, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After ze fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! And zen ze world vil be ourz!
This will be known in five hundred years as Ze Grat Konsonantal Shift.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift
Vry drol
Complete change to no vowels? Back to the future with cartouches?
Write like an Egyptian? Ppl n th Stndrd Ptrc? Wk? Gzz? lol
"finetic" spelling is idiomatic fonetik spelling but with the great Nu Zulund monovowel.
Gezza has an unfortunate tendency for double standards .
Name calling,perjoratives are verboten unless he makes them.
Same rules for spelling and grammar.
He is a nice person however.
I'm not sure I think concern trolls are nice people.
"concern troll noun
DEROGATORY•INFORMAL
a person who disingenuously expresses concern about an issue with the intention of undermining or derailing genuine discussion.
"he is regarded among climate scientists as a concern troll""
1. I'm not, nor have I ever been, a concern troll. I'm just a non-politically tribal reader & occasional commenter on a left-leaning blog that discusses political & social issues of the day.
2. I'm not motivated by almost pathological hatreds some fortunately few commenters here seem to have for political opponents or their parties. But if you have a go at me, I'm a typical bloke, expect to get a return serve if I think it's worth doing. If you're just blithering crap I might just ignore you.
3. Some of the most offensive commenters here employ the disingenuous tactic of criticising you for the same sins they commit, in the hope of deflecting criticism away from their nastiness. Narcissists & psychopaths do that.
Comprehension 101: nowhere did I name anyone as a concerned troll, I just made a general statement.
You may infer I meant you; I couldn't possibly comment.
Comprehension 101: nowhere did I name anyone as a concerned troll, I just made a general statement. You may infer I meant you; I couldn’t possibly comment.
So transparently disingenuous I’m embarrassed for you over how pathetically inept that attempt at a clever & sophisticated cheap shot was.
Why not crawl back under the rock you usually hide under & watch tv or something?
The article states that Luxon was international airline General Manager May 2011 to December 2012 so cancellation of international flights may have been in his purview during that time? also rolls royce engine problems seem to have to occurred in 2017 so maybe a red herring?
Look, Jag, don’t get me wrong. I realise that some woebegone, hateful people loathe their political opponents so much that they’ll happily indulge in character assassination on the flimsiest of evidence, especially on blogs or social media.
I generally find it best to avoid these types as they’re often miserable, forever moaning buggers to be around, prone to making various allegations & buying into any conspiracies involving their usual targets.
My comment below explains why I don’t see any evidence yet that confirms Luxon banned Mardi Gras flights because he’s got it in for LGTBQI folk owing to hiscrekigious beliefs. If, in fact, he does – and he did – that evidence will surface eventually.
Until it does, it’s just malicious gossip really. Some people, I realise, really like spreading that. But I’m not one of them.
Unfortunately this is part of the dirt in political life. Clark was subject to it. Mike Williams shot off to Australia to try to dig the dirt on Key. Seriously if being a wealthy, bald, christian male is as bad as it gets, Luxon is going to be dead boring.
"You carry on rumour mongering & punching at shadows if you like."
There's a bit of that around. Luxon seesm to have excited some on the left. it's quite humorous.
He is a gift to humour….short,bald,relies on a collection of tired cliches…and doesn't even play ..golf..AFAIK.
More remarks about his looks.
He's reposted it because clearly you didn't read it!
Surely 1 minus 1 = 0 plus 1 = 1
Fyfe instituted the flights; Luxon removed them then replaced after he left ….
Where’s the evidence Luxon removed them?
In an org the size of Air NZ, & with the number of LGBTQI employees it probably has, any decision by Luxon like that would soon get around & piss them off mightily. Once he left I’d expect one or more of aggrieved individuals (not necessarily just LGBTQIs either) to leak details to the msm or publish on social media to hit back at him.
Hasn’t happened. Why? Because it probably never happened. Time should tell.
' any decision by Luxon like that would soon get around & piss them off mightily.'
That's what happened….now time for damage control.
As the CEO ,he has the final say.
People working there now ,want to stay working there and not upset the directors who usually have very right wing leanings.
Time will indeed tell.
The coincidental timing bodes poorly for him, but isn't overtly conclusive. Nor is his pastor's online content allegedly being trimmed indicative of sermons about which NZers might generally not approve.
Then there's Luxon saying he'll support safe zones around abortion services, after voting against them on the first reading.
Things that bode well for Luxon being a more progressive and forgiving christian than one of the conservative, bigoted ones? Not many so far. There are some very inclusive churches around, but there are others that aren't so openminded.
Which path do Luxon's beliefs travel? As you say, time will tell.
@ Puckish Rogue
.https://thestandard.org.nz/chris-luxon-is-not-nationals-messiah/#comment-1838559
If that comment was directed at me, thank you. I can also say that YOU are a commenter I always read because, even though your views are sometimes at odds with the general views of most commenters on this left-leaning blog, you explain & defend your views clearly, you seem honest, & your posts are easy to understand.
There’s not much ambiguity. You also say what you mean and mean ONLY what you say.
You are also, in my view, quite sophisticatedly witty on many occasions. I like commenters with a GSOH.
It speaks volumes that you not only survive here as a regular but that many commenters with who you might sometimes be at odds politically seem to regard you with considerable affection.
Keep up the good work 😀
Tip of the hat to you sir
For those who can cope with a transcribed interview, this is the Lowy Institute interviewing the White House key advisor on the Asia-Pacific region, Kurt Campbell. He's the guy who gave us the 'pivot to Asia', 'the Quad', and AUKUS.
In Conversation: Kurt Campbell, White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator (lowyinstitute.org)
The density of the exchange with the Lowy Institute and in how he engages about Australia gives a good and quite detailed sense of how important and how deep that White House-Canberra relationship is and will be.
Got to the nub of it here:
Scomo goes where Duterte fears to tread…
‘Want trouble? You first!’ Philippines’ Duterte dares US to bring its fleet & declare war on China — RT World News
Might want to update Duterte's positioning. China wasn't the great ally he'd hoped for.
A common policy ,even in the Pacific…play one off against the other.
And no one from either side would have much confidence in…Duterte.
It does not alter the original link that he suggested the U.S wanted the Philipines to engage with China.
Doesn't alter it, just makes it out of date.
Duterte wasn't just playing one off against the other, he was looking for a global realignment. He had some pretty good reasons for being as anti-US as he was, but China is encroaching upon his doorstep.
Chauncey De Vega does a good job today with some of the consequences for US minorities and Democrats should Republicans gain Senate majority back next year and White House in 2024.
He quotes historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, around preparing to leave the country if one is in an oppressed or substantially marginalised US minority:
If America really surrenders to fascism, then what? Painful questions lie ahead | Salon.com
"So, one answer would be: start exploring your options now if you are in a threatened category of people, as are many of those who write to me. "Better exile than prison," wrote former Italian Prime Minister Francesco Nitti to King Victor Emmanuel III in 1925, explaining why he'd left Italy when the Fascists took power. Nitti worked from abroad to counter authoritarian propaganda about what was happening in his native country, as exiles from Hong Kong, Myanmar, and other places do today.
It's unlikely that Republican rule would mean mass imprisonment for political opponents, the way there is in Erdogan's Turkey. Viktor Orbán, darling of the GOP, has not gone that route. And it's a shame to lose capable people when they are most needed at home — which would be the situation in the USA if Republicans gain more power and if they retake the White House in 2024.
(…)
Each person acts for their own reasons, and each situation is unique. But there is one constant in the history of exile. It means watching from afar the travails of your country, and, for those who desire to return, entering into a state of suspension: waiting for things to get better, waiting for the tyrant to die, waiting for freedoms to be restored."
With so many competent-but-uninspiring Democrat leaders retiring and not a great surge of inspiring leaders replacing them, we may well find more exiles seeking somewhere peaceful and competent to live.
The US needs a Ghandi, or a Mandela.
Instead it has a Trump…
Imagine South Africa at the end of apartheid if it instead had a Trump..
…
It is all over bar the shouting in the US.. imo there is no way the fascist genie will go back in the bottle.. it now has to play itself out…
I'm always impressed at how people are so ready to yell 'fascist' at the USA, while remaining silent on the actually fascist regimes around the world.
I think people are yelling F****d, rather than F*****t.
Uncle Sams staunchest defender with a deflection.
Heres one for you…I'm always unimpressed by how quick the U.S is to label people terrorists,or insurgents or 'bad' people ,when the record shows they are the guiltiest of all those charges.
Absolutely – the US has made all manner of stupid mistakes that it rightly deserves to be heavily criticised for. But the difference is this – you are able to say these things without too much fear of censorship, or being disappeared.
Good point…
Assange and Snowden really have nothing to…fear!
And I will stand on my long record here both defending Assange and Snowden – and deploring the US govt's extremely bad faith actions in these cases.
'But the difference is this – you are able to say these things without too much fear of censorship, or being disappeared.'
So you concede there is in fact….no difference.Very good.
And yet here you are still speaking freely. Amazing.
Many people who speak freely in the USA rapidly die from car accidents or jumping out of windows etc etc, especially in the run up to court cases. Move on, nothing to see here. God bless America. Yeah ,right.
I'm sure members of the 200 or so countries the US has invaded, destroyed, rendered a 'failed state' are pleased you have rights that the US took from them.
Incidentally, the US has not made 'stupid mistakes'. Ever action it took against every country it sought to punish was a carefully considered and well thought out plan to destroy, to bring to its knees.
How many countries can you list where the CIA has murdered the incumbent democratically elected head of state or has overthrown the existing government and replaced it with their sycophant regime.
@Brigid
Yet despite the hated US invading, occupying, crushing and colonising more that every single nation on earth there is the peculiar fact that in 2021 the average person is far less likely to die in war than at any time in human history.
Weird.
Which countries did you have in mind?
US going full fascist has massive implications for other countries, humanity and basically all of life. More so than say Brazil going full fascist. Athough obviously that would be bad for Brazilians and the region, it's not like they have nuclear weapons, an army the size of the US, or the kind of economic and political influence that the US has. Even allowing for the impact of the destruction of Brazil's forests (which they're already doing).
You know the list of countries as well as I do. But let me offer one name – Peng Shuai.
Oh please don't tell me you've swallowed the Peng Shuai cool aid.
Please don't let your sinophobia rot your brain any more with this latest laughable propaganda.
Straight under the bus.
If it's all propaganda the CCP has but to restore her original post to the internet. and let her speak freely and openly in a trusted setting to Western journalists.
Leave her alone
She doesn't have to account to you or your western journalists, who, as you well know, have quite a habit of telling lies.
Weasel.
The actual transcript does seem to describe some degree of coercion, (verbal?) who knows it's actually hard to gauge, in the end it's consensual
"I agreed"
I regret to say after some endless badgering I've agreed to have sex at times just to get it over with ,I think it's not that uncommon
.More than than anything it's a sad complaint that the man doesn't want to see her anymore and denies the relationship
https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/qmn69a/full_translation_of_peng_shuais_weibo_post/
In the West it would be immediately called out as a 'power imbalance'. And the fact of her post being scrubbed from the local internet is really all we need to know here. Not to mention her prolonged absence that triggered real concern.
Oh and we have a contact here in Brisbane who knows Shuai personally. So there's that as well.
Red, I haven't got a clue what actually happened here.
But neither am I willing to participate in an all out assault on China every time someone writes something on social media.
I feel sorry for Shuai, an absolute storm has broken loose, she may have endangered her beloved sport in her own country, she's been the conduit for a lot of very fierce threats to cancel the Beijing games.
She is now probably under so much pressure from both sides, it's intolerable, and the western media and sports organisations are intensifying it all. Who wouldn't go to ground?And she needs those western tennis associations to continue her career.A great little wedge has been leveraged.
Anyway, maybe you'll be assuaged by the third conversation the IOC has with her, in person next month .
Yes from what I've been told Shuai will be feeling extremely vulnerable from all sides at the moment. Anything she says now will be couched in the most careful terms.
Of course now she has become a symbol for a much larger story about the PRC and it's routine disregard for what you and I take for granted as human rights. She didn't intend this – but this is one of the downsides of being so very well known. (Yes I had heard of her prior.)
sorry ,I've bungled that ,didn't mean to subject anyone to so much text
No problem from me – I was aware that this was not a simple matter and the open text of the post in question clarifies matters.
That translation seems to suggest the classic woman scorned scenario.
Almost a Monica Lewinsky situation.
Powerful,rich,famous men can do anything, even grab their 'pussy',according to ex leader of the free world-D.Trump.
And in Tara Reade's case (she was the wrong kind of victim who had the misfortune to have been assaulted by a Democrat candidate) the victim was torn apart by the press.
In a time of me too believe the woman,Tara's reputation was trashed by the very same media affecting deep concern for Peng Shuai and demanding investigation .It's the hypocrisy, partisanship,and crude politicisation of these awful events in women's lives I can't stand .It's yet another cynical abuse of women for political purposes.They don't give a flying fuck when it comes down to it, just another opportunity to land some blows.
Every single Olympics being held in an adversary country has been hounded .The rooms aren't ready, its a total fuckup, the toilets don't work, human rights dictate that we have a boycott, Zika virus is running amok, don't go, there'll be riots, you won't be safe.Now its you tennis girls will be molested, we'll have to cancel
So, so predictable
Yes. I completely agree with you here – the political weaponisation of 'always believe the women' was both predictable and deplorable.
And once turned into a weapon it was always going to be selectively used to suit the agenda – as you rightly say in the Tara Reade case.
John Ralston Saul suggested all are corporate fascist.
JRS needs a cold Coke Zero and a lie down
aren't those two things relatively incompatible?
It’s not just JRS’s definition:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1221518-fascism-should-more-appropriately-be-called-corporatism-because-it-is
Well that does encompass the PRC more than any other nation I can think of other than say North Korea.
RL, you'd probably enjoy JRS, especially his book "On Equilibrium" which excoriates extreme ideology in favour of his notion of equilibrium, which he defines as a harmony of "common sense, ethics, creativity, intuition, memory and reason"
https://twitter.com/roblogic_/status/1332155870503866368?s=20
Looks interesting – although I don't do Twitter as a matter of principle. Nor FB for that matter.
However I can't help but note that in one breath the US is excoriated for the 'cult of individualism' that puts the individual interest ahead of the public – and in the next it's rotten with 'corporate fascism' that puts crushes the individual in pursuit of it's own state imposed interests.
It's all a bit incoherent.
Seems fairly logical that corporations would use "individualism" to market narcissistic crap and undermine class solidarity. That is far from the Enlightenment vision of elevating the individual human spirit
That is far from the Enlightenment vision of elevating the individual human spirit
Yes and that of course was a time when Christianity informed the basic narrative of society. In it's place we got materialism – which is the name I'd give to what you're speaking to.
please supply a link.
Its a book from JRS lectures.
https://www.johnralstonsaul.com/non-fiction-books/the-unconscious-civilization/
Sure, but I don't think this is what RL meant 😉
Red "I'm always impressed at how people are so ready to yell 'fascist' at the USA, while remaining silent on the actually fascist regimes around the world."
Yeah nah Red, you're out of line in demanding that I comment on all other fascist regimes around the world at the same time as commenting on US fascism. Where on earth do you get that from?
Listening to some regulars here you'd imagine the USA is the sole source of all evil in the world.
Yes, well maybe.. tho I suspect that is more a result of the view angle from behind your own eyes than anything else ..
And you went and derailed my whole comment by bringing in something that wasn't even in there… jeez…
My comment was around how things might play out if the US instead had a Mandela rather than a Trump. Or how South Africa at the end of apartheid might have gone with a Trump rather than a Mandela. And about genies and bottles, though I have never some across one of those myself…
My comment was around how things might play out if the US instead had a Mandela rather than a Trump. Or how South Africa at the end of apartheid might have gone with a Trump rather than a Mandela.
Interesting counterfactual. The only way I can think to approach an answer is this – if you were an educated black person and given a choice to live in either SA or the USA in 2021 – which would you pick?
Mandela
🤔 Whereabouts is there a country named Mandela? 😳
yes well you see that has been the problem the whole way through this mini-thread…. i talk about something (people – trump, mandela) and red talks about something else (countries)…
so i answered in the context of what i was talking about (people), not red (countries)…
and which would you go for gezza..? trump ? or mandela ?
does highlight such importance it does
If it was just a straight choice of 'who would you prefer as a leader' Trump or Mandela the answer scarcely needs typing out – Mandela. But this is pretty meaningless, because in no real world election was anyone ever going to have that choice.
Instead Americans got a choice between Trump and Clinton – and a majority picked Trump. Hell it's odds on they may pick him a second time.
It might be meaningless in the context you have put my question into but that isn't my intended context
Thinking through the question (which is ‘how would it have turned out’ not ‘who would you choose’) should highlight the importance of the person in charge to how a nation progresses through difficult times. (the question of how they got there is immaterial to this)
Upon completion of said ponderance thought can then turn to the consequences of having such leader (because how they got there is in fact immaterial at this important point).
Upon completion of said ponderance thought can then turn to the consequences of having such leader
Well yes – what were the consequences? And my answer attempted just that and asked which nation would you prefer to live in?
The obvious objection is of course that SA and the USA are very different places – but if leadership matters at all we might conclude that while Mandela was probably the best SA could hope for at that moment, the outcome in the long term is not very promising. And while the USA could certainly have hoped for better than Trump, he wasn't the unmitigated disaster many here would like to paint him as.
And if the answer to a choice between Mandela and Trump is obvious, the answer to a choice between living in SA and the USA is also plain.
What's not mentioned in this pearl clutcher is that the Democrats are on track to not only lose the up coming Senate elections, but the next Presidency as well. Never mind a 'rigged election system' – they simply cannot win on their current polling.
And this article reads as pre-positioning 'a stolen election' narrative all over again. Getting tedious.
Trump is right, the system is rigged. But not in the way that he claimed. Red and Blue teams are just distractions while Wall St pillages the public purse.
Yes Mr De Vega is getting in the catastrophising early, and agree it's parallel to the Republican catastrophising.
The uncommitted in either MSM viewers or Party affiliation are however very, very small so the drive to extremes is pretty apparent.
I like Biden but it's hard to see the next Democratic President coming through.
Watching Zeihan you have to remember he makes a living by presenting geopolitics in an entertaining fashion – but here's his take on the US:
Thanks Red I'll book that for later viewing.
My vaccine passport disappeared so I had to reload it. Thanks google !
Keep an eye on that folks as tech 'upgrades' occur without asking for permission often.
Go to your Chemist and get a hard copy, then get it laminated Cheers. $2
Mine got downloaded to my gmail address 3 days ago. When I went to open & save it somewhere on my phone yesterday to show the visiting Occupational Therapist, it had come down with all my particulars missing. It’s just a blank pass.
Bloody shambles. I’ll have to go thru the whole process of requesting it & proving identity again. 😠
So, I assume some kind of system glitch ocurred when the system checked my particulars from my driver’s licence, told me I had successfully applied for my vaccine pass, & that it would be emailed to my gmail address, but all it delivered was a completely blank pass with my particulars name dob vax dates not specified on it.
Just tried 3 times to repeat the process. But couldn’t remember the password I used to register. (I wrote down the 6 digit verification code it sent me originally.)
No problem, thinks I. There’s a standard Forgot password? link underneath the password text field. I’ll just click on that & it’ll offer me the option of entering a new password (that this time I’ll write down!).
Nuh uh. All that does is loop me back constantly to the login email & password fields, which repeatedly tells me the password is incorrect. FFS!
High call volumes, & mass passport extensions, the blank pass & this sort of very obvious screw-up of what is an easy password reset experience everywhere else tells me that incompetence & inadequate testing are unfortunately likely features of the current system.
My vaccine passport disappeared so I had to reload it. Thanks google !
Thanks for that just checked mine and it's gone. My son said to look in google pay it mite be in there. But I don't have google pay.
I downloaded GooglePay as a way to store a persistent copy of the Vaccine Pass on the Android phone. Having an old phone I had to mess around making enough storage space to install GooglePay. I refuse to habitually and expensively upgrade my phone every couple of years to get assorted crap I don't want.
Anyway, it seems to work. Obviously from a speed of development perspective, integrating with existing tools/apps like GooglePay that are already out there is a much faster and smarter way of working than building and testing new stuff. But the whole thing does contain assumptions about how much spare cash people have to splash around on tech. Which sort of fits with all the hype about now being able to go to bars and restaurants in Auckland – who can afford that either except occasionally?
And even odder that we now equate 'freedom' with stuffing our gobs and bellies with expensive slops.
Has anyone been able to supply an explanation of what the My Vaccine Pass is exactly? (technically, for those that don't have one yet).
It's a QR code you carry around. Venues will scan it to check your vaccination status.
So it can be saved on your phone (generally in the secure wallet feature, where credit cards reside), or printed out.
Yes it can be easily circumvented. IMO it’s just another bit of pandemic safety theatre to reassure the public. But it will probably help weed out the really obnoxious antisocial types.
Ok, have I got this right?
The pass is supplied as a PDF file, which isn't the most convenient really (for opening on a phone etc). My household have printed and laminated ours.
There is an app on Google Play for androids, that will verify passes on a phone (my massage-therapist friend downloaded it this morning – was working fine). On scanning a QR code, the verification app simply displays the information that is already shown on the front of the pass and says whether it is valid (i.e. the digital signature is legit). The app doesn't upload or store data to my knowledge.
The app works offline, except for the first scan (this will be when it downloads the encryption public key). Presumably an app for iPhone also, but I wouldn't know.
yep, yep.
At the local cafe this morning they scanned it with another app called the "NZ Pass Verifier"
The data is not supposed to be collected or stored. It's only supposed to confirm the customer's vax status.
From the Privacy Policy (IMO technical loopholes are still possible)
As it's open source it may only be a matter of time before someone comes up with a custom version with a backdoor to pilfer your personal information.
You could certainly write an alternative app that harvested / stored / published on facebook all the data. There is nothing stopping this technically.
I expect this would be illegal of course, same as gathering and publishing your customer's private information by any other means.
In light of that, can you please also explain what this means from TC above?
I am guessing they simply lost the PDF file, possibly from a cloud storage service (e.g. google drive, gmail or something).
You can just get another one emailed to you from MOH.
ah, so "tech 'upgrades' occur without asking for permission often." is probably unrelated to the QR code?
I am guessing they simply lost the file, nothing to do with the QR code or the pass – could've just as easily lost a word document containing their favourite cake recipes…guessing!
There is a technical explanation here, including a link to even more technical info on Github and the full technical specification. It all is open source so the security can be examined by anyone.
It is not necessarily that easily circumvented, in the sense that it is difficult to produce a fake, verifiable pass with your details. You can produce a fake that visually looks like a legit pass, but it will be rejected by the verifier app.
The pass deploys asymmetric cryptography, which means the MOH has the private key and each QR code is signed so it can be verified with the freely-available public key. It is very difficult (near impossible) to produce a signature that matches the pass plain-text data, without possession of the private key.
Pretty easy to print several copies of a valid pass and share it around with your mates. Most businesses aren't going to double check against another form of ID
Yep, need to check against other (photo) ID to confirm the name matches the person.
Many close-contact businesses know all their customers by name already, and being asked for photo ID at entry of pubs, concerts etc is not unusual.
What I think is unfair and disadvantages poorer people, is the lack of free, easily-accessible photo ID, especially for young people (the vaccine pass requirement applies to everyone over 12 years old). The "kiwi access card" costs $55 and is only for people over 18 years old.
Agree as you say above. A drivers license is acceptable, but again not everyone has one of those. There was some debate a few years ago, as I recall, of the govt issuing an ID card. Lots of people against such a move because – privacy. But you can see that a card would have its uses in such a situation as we are now experiencing.
Easy. Not advisable:
I am not advising fraud or false declarations in any of my comments. Just thinking of possible weaknesses of the system.
Not advisable for them. Didn't say you were advising them.
But that's the first bit. Deterrence. That'll stop a few, although admittedly risk assessment is a problem for the potential crowd.
Then there's the fact that the name and date of birth come up. Even without parallel ID checks, if a middle-aged regular called "Charlie" comes up as 23 year old "Tristan", that's another issue altogether. And maybe Charlie is a bit of a dick. That might make someone care.
Is it completely perfect? Nope. Some vendors won't notice or care. But an organised effort has a high likelihood of quickly being identified, and the copied code being blacklisted when vendor apps receive the next update. Or even better, "contact police" coming up when it's tried.
That probably doesn't apply because entering somewhere in breach of Covid orders is not usually intended to gain pecuniary advantage by deception ("service" in that context is paid services, not something like service at a bar). It's a breach of the Covid order however and punishable by a hefty fine.
I'm no lawyer, fair call. But there'd be something dodgy as feck about it beyond the covid regs.
Forgery (s256) has some wider criteria.
I almost hope someone tries it – if it's not a dishonesty offence of some sort, it bloody should be and that might be the incentive for the government to do something about it.
The personal information in the pass is printed in plaintext on the front, and is in the QR code also. It is only:
– full name
– date of birth
– pass start date
– pass expiry date
thank-you!
found a pic too
Yes that's it. To display it on your phone you have to first verify that it is you ( the owner of the phone by password or finger print) and the mycovid website verifies that you are the owner of the phone before it initially sends the pass to the phone.
It is linked to your email address, not a device. Or in my case it was.
True, but if you want to register your phone as well they want to verify that as well obviously.
wait, what? So I can't just take a photo of the printed or emailed PDF and use that? How do they verify the paper copies?
Wait, what? I thought it was being emailed? Are you saying it's also an option to send it straight to a phone? How?
The email has a link so if you open the email on your phone, you press that link and it sends the qrcode to the app.
The medium (paper, photo, app, email) is irrelevant. All that matters is the QR code.
The QR code contains all the information required to both state whether you're vaccinated and to internally verify that the code is genuine.
I understand what the QR code is for. I don't understand the various techs being used, and consequently the privacy and security issues (and please, nobody tell me 'trust us it's safe').
What app?
I appreciate all the answers 👍 Just odd that there's no simple, all in one place explanation.
Sorry, it sends the QR code to the "digital wallet" the phone might have.
The only tech that is required is:
Everything else is up to the person who gets the pass. They can store it and present it however they want (paper print-out, photo on their phone, digital wallet on their phone, tattoo, stone tablet, literally anything), as long as a vendor's app can read the QR code.
Whether the person who gets the pass is opening themselves up to security issues based on the medium they choose is up to them.
If the vendor is using the official NZGovt app, that spec is online. If the vendor uses a third-party app developed using the spec, the only information that can possibly be compromised is the information about you in the QR code:
If you are using a phone to store your pass the easiest way on an android phone is to have the google pay app. You supposedly can get by, not having that app, but I found I needed to down load it to get past go. The thing is the google pay app is set up so you have to erify that you are the user each time you use it by setting up a PIN or in my case using a fingerprint. That protects your info from being accessed by someone else who may have got hold of your phone for nefarious reasons.
Once you have the google pay app on your phone and set up, the Vaccine pass set up is smooth. You can then set up a shortcut so that you do not have to access google pay – just a touch of a icon – verify you are the correct user, and hey presto there is your pass, as displayed in your photo above.
Macro, how is that easier than taking a photo and keeping that in a notes app?
I someone steals my phone I think them using my vax pass is the least of my worries.
thanks McFlock. I've probably got a wallet app on my iphone that I don't use for anything else, might use it for this, so good to know the full range of options.
Do most people not have their battery run down on their phone?
Weka Jacinda had a print of hers laminated and on the back of her phone. Cute.
Yes, she said on 7 Sharp she did that because she wasn’t very “techie” – or something along those lines.
that's cool.
Pass start date has been revoked so won't be on new passes.
https://abigailshrier.substack.com/p/why-marci-matters?
Ok so it’s all starting to come out now……
two top gender clinicians (who are also both transgender) admit that puberty blockers in some children may lead to the inability to orgasm……….Jazz Jennings the post child for transitioning (had her own reality tv series about it) being a Case in point.
gender ideologists want immediate affirmation and confirmation of young persons gender identity and access to medical transition without question…the idea that puberty blockers are harmless is untrue. They are experimental and we are only realising the harm they do
Under the proposed Conversion Practices Bill counsellors and parents are at risk of a police complaint and up to five years in jail if they query a young person desire to medically transition. It may not be how the law pans out, but I believe and there is some evidence for this, that that is how gender ideology activists want it to be. I base this on the submissions I heard and read to the select committee
I can only imagine the profound and bitter regrets these people will go through in later life.
Yes Redlogix. Not to mention fertility issues and permanant changes to their presentation e.g facial hair, deep voice, Adam's apple on a biological women who tranistioned then has regrets.
Its sad, but it is outrageous that some adults are enabling this.
This mania for de-sexing people is the akin to lobotomies and leeching. Bizarre social contagion.
Luxon giving stand-up in Auckland. Says the city should be at "green", doesn't want restrictions. Open up, all good.
He seems oblivious to reality.
It's also politically inept. There are many other issues to challenge the gov't on. He (or his advisers) should be saying "leave Covid alone, the polls on that speak for themselves".
https://twitter.com/nealejones/status/1466538219298721797
But good for business (big end of town!)
I've had a good search and I can't find a single qualified voice (public health, epidimeology etc) who thinks Auckland should simply drop all restrictions, right now.
It's incredible that Luxon would go doolally on this. I suppose he's relying on the "honeymoon" to deflect the obvious Qs.
If Ardern/Bloomfield said what Luxon just did there would be uproar.
Luxon doesn't even need to be serious about Auckland going green light. He knows he can't make that happen so it is a cheap way of getting those who are frustrated with restrictions on board. It is kind of a win win for him.
I agree he is only doing it for show, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a safe bet.
At this stage it may not hurt him but he doesn't need the Brian Tamaki fan club (1%), he needs the 20% who support the gov't on Covid but not on various other issues.
Statements like this on the record stack up over time.
I agree Observer. Its a strategy that could back fire. But he may still pick up votes from it. And its so easy saying how things should be and please those who want it that way, when you can't deliver.
Maybe he's dangerously emboldened by the rapturous fawning of the Herald/ZB sycophants – and is saying out loud the thing that should only be whispered among friends? Or maybe he reckons no-one's listening, the phone's off the hook and he can say all sorts of dumb sh*t with impunity?
Consistently irresponsible like Collins etc as expected.
Seriously!!! That's wacky
Totally! He's playing up to the Elite and Business class as per Air NZ – but even Air NZ are more responsible than that now.
There are over 6000 active cases of Covid in Auckland. 56 of yesterdays cases were active in the community. It took only 1 unknown case in the community to start this latest outbreak. True over 90% of eligible persons in Auckland are now fully vaccinated, but they are still 10's of thousands including all children under 12 who are not.
Not according to RNZ:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/457097/live-updates-traffic-light-system-operational-aucklanders-emerge-from-lockdown
I watched Luxon speak live. So did Stuff.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300469396/national-leader-christopher-luxon-says-auckland-should-be-in-green-traffic-light-setting-now
The Herald was listening too. There is no doubt about what he said:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-national-leader-christopher-luxon-says-auckland-should-be-in-green-setting/XDBNMH3T52JLBGXE3GEPFWBDMQ/
I just listened to it three times and i could not find where he used the word "green".
The RNZ link you posted above has now been edited:
"He told reporters that the city should have gone to the green setting"
I can't account for your hearing, I'm afraid. Are you listening to the whole stand-up or just clips?
I've been watching the one on stuff which is the only video of his statement in the three links.
(my bold)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/457097/live-updates-traffic-light-system-operational-aucklanders-emerge-from-lockdown
Yes i know the msm are reporting that. But he doesn't actually say that in the video interview as available. Perhaps he answered questions after or issued a press release?
You are quoting the RNZ interpretation of what they are claiming he said. As usual they are misquoting him because the Labour Party provided tax-payer funded grant to RNZ requires them to do so.
What Luxon did was to explain what the traffic light system was meant to represent. In particular Red was for when the health system was overwhelmed and the vaccination rates were low. As he said, and as the Government itself says, the vaccination rates in Auckland are high and there is no threat to overwhelm the hospitals.
If the Government was setting the colours as their system claimed they should then, as he pointed out they should have, following their own defined rules, have been displayed a Green light.
He then pointed out how stupid the traffic light system actually is and why National were opposed to it.
He never once advocated that Auckland should be Green, He simply pointed out that, using the Government explanation of their own system, they would have had to declare it to be Green.
As usual the msm journalists have chosen to misquote those MPs who are not on the left wing of politics. You have chosen to follow the party line.
Why don't you try listening to what he actually said during the question time instead of believing the bs that the reporter has invented?
The Stuff report has also been edited. Originally they said the Luxon had called for the whole city to be in Green. They have corrected it by adding the following,
"Clarification: An earlier version of this article said Luxon wanted Auckland to be in green. He in fact said that hospitality was ready for green, and National was against the traffic-light system. (Amended December 3, 2021, 2:14pm)"
As far as I can see they are the only ones to include the whole statement and answers he gave.
I never understand why people do this in online debate … make a claim and hope that nobody knows how to Google.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2021/12/02/live-stream-nationals-luxon-speaks-to-media-on-auckland-visit/
As I commented above he simply pointed out that if the Government had followed the rules they had laid down for what the various colours meant they would have had to call it a Green zone.
So yes he does say to reporters in his opinion Auckland should have gone to green. What is there to misunderstand about that. The only thing you can take away from that sentiment is one of complete callousness or a complete failure to appreciate just how serious the threat of reinfection is. There are 6000 plus active cases in Auckland alone right now. Dozens of cases active in the community every day.
You didn't bother to listen to it did you?
You can't find him saying that can you?
I"m sorry my ears must have deceived me.
Or have you not had a recent auditory test? Go back and listen carefully this time. His words clearly imply that in his "humble" opinion Auckland should be in green. That is the clear impression he wants to give.
He's the devil !
The overall best scene:
The scene that never fails to make me laugh:
Luxon gone by Christmas time.
What a complete tosser.
Out of the frypan into the fire.
Own goal .
Looks like he is trying to win votes back from ACT but leak more votes to Labour.
Conehead alien out of his depth.
Not cone head thanks, that just encourages name calling.
Yep Luxon sounds like a moaner and whinger already.
He's making a great…start.
apologies to the original composers
Baldfinger
'He's the man, the man with the Midas touch
A spider's touch
Such a cold finger
Beckons you to enter his web of sin
But don't go in
Golden words he will pour in your ear
But his lies can't disguise what you fear
For a swinging voter knows when he's kissed them
It's the kiss of death from
Mister Baldfinger
Voters beware of this heart of gold
This heart is cold
He loves only gold
Only gold
He loves gold
He loves only gold
Only gold
He loves gold'
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/127175300/councillor-efeso-collins-puts-name-forward-in-aucklands-mayoral-race
Now that would be interesting. I’m not sure if Auckland voters are up for a left wing, Polynesian mayor. He’d win the South and West, might struggle with the isthmus and north of the bridge.
I think you might be surprised. We are ready for tis.
After 50 years of reading the Herald I have cancelled my subscription this morning.There has been no attempt by the paper at even handedness at all.I have had to endure endless carping from Prebble ,Hosking ,the ex national mp Fran O'Sullivan etc etc .Ireland an island has a population of 5million people like us and they have lost 5400 people to covid .I think we have lost 38 or there abouts.Instead of the endless specious arguments we should be celebrating what can only be described as a monumental success.
Just watching the 1pm presser with Grant Robertson.
With dropping cases and NZers embracing vaccination in overwhelming numbers, the questions are quite low key and amicable. Even Barry Soper was civil.
The Natz have an uphill task trying to fault this governments' world-leading response to Covid 19.
On top of that, the session only lasted about 40 minutes!
Agreed TV…when she said 92 at the presser I thought maybe, just maybe, with fierce contact tracing we can keep Covid at very low to negligible numbers…..if we keep MIQ at the borders of course.
But now we have 7-houses saying Auckland should go Green today-he would open the border today too.
He is saying he would open the border today.
Of course if his cobbers had got in in 2017 he wouldn't be opening the border today because faced with the pandemic they would've done things differently across the board. There would've been no lockdowns, no mandates on anything, Simon Thornley would've been their chief expert and everything would've been sweet.
He is all piss-and-wind because he can be and he knows cretinous National supporters will be orgasmic at having a 'sensible man of business' with a handle on covid reality at the helm. Joke.
I'm imagining him organising a cup of tea in Mt Eden with David Seymour. John Key did that to give Act one seat. I wonder if the new master businessman will be trying for a repeat to get the 10 seats back.
Heavens above. I thought he’d have had enuf sense to keep a low profile now until he’s announced his spokespeople allocations.
Looks like barking at every passing car in the hope of scoring some (old, already-committed National voters’) votes each time might be the strategy.
luxum will be so busy barking at passing cars, he will miss his appointment with seymour to have a cuppa. luckily ,his handlers will sort that out ,as well as satanising, sorry, sanatising his backstory. expect to see him at next big gay out , and at his local bunnings, backing a trailer in to pick up some handyman type thingies. expect to see his handlers try and put distance between john and notjohn . john in hawiian shirts, notjohn in blue shirts and preworn jeans . to pretend he's one of us, he might even cross the bridge one night and slum it at the speedway . rt wing polies have a habit of using speedway to pretend they are real kiwis. don brash frantically wedging into a midget. blenglish driving a stock car at baypark around the same time he went boxing, collins slumming at te marua(welly) speedway one night, that last one was really cringeworthy(crusher having to be nice to boy(and girl) racers) LOL.
if the Nats were in charge they would fudge the numbers and privatise the health system
The difference in roles in an airline.
I see the (ex) CEO is calling for Auckland's regime to be reduced to "green lights" forthwith.
Of course that's why he was a CEO and not the Pilot.
The pilot warns that there is a storm ahead and may have to depart from flight plans in order to minimise passenger discomfort and possible damage to the aircraft. The altered route may add a few minutes to the flight time and cost a little more in fuel.
The CEO, on the other hand, sitting in the relative comfort of Business Class, instructs the cabin crew to relay an order, "Sod the passenger discomfort – your instructions are to get this flight to its destination in the quickest and cheapest means possible!"
Enjoyed my first proper cafe visit this morning. Sat in the sunshine and scoffed my croissant. Then back to the salt mines. WFH ain't so bad in Parnell.. probably 20 cafe's in easy walking range
Interesting Roy Morgan poll today
Yes. Support for the Greens is 15.5%, among voters under 50. (That is consistent with other polls on climate change + environment, and the voter demographics).
Pretty clear lesson for National: don't drag your feet (like Labour) or worse, go into reverse. Over to you, Mr Luxon.
Here's a link
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8869-nz-national-voting-intention-november-2021-202112020109
If this keeps going it won’t be NAct…it’ll be ACTional !!
Or, L/G, Mp (49.5) are well ahead of NACT (44).
All depends on how one spins it 😉
I do think we shouldn't be complacent (and am aware I did say the other day that short of the arrival of someone charismatic like Key I couldn't see National winning the next election. ACT on the other hand…)
Its the trend darling
Also big thanks should be given to the divine Ms Collins for getting National back into the frame for a resounding National victory at the next election
Without Judith at the helm though, it would be a hollow victory.
I know there will be tears in the Rogue family home.
I weep manly tears at the thought of Jude the Captivating not fixing the woes of the country
I suspect she is too.
Another way to look at the latest CB Poll is
Labour 36.0%
NOTlabour 64.0%
Elections here are usually lost not won
another way to look at the latest poll is ; election is two years away. if we have learnt anything from the last two years(many havent) ,is that anything can happen between now and next election…..
a) it's not the latest CB poll, and b) we've had MMP for 25 years.
But I look forward to your idea of an ACT-National-NZF-Greens-TPM-TOP-NewCons coalition.
CB => Complete B…S
Get with the progrom!
Yep A multi-party coalition may well have a few stability problems …..