Sure, there is plenty of debate about whether the levels being treated as requiring remediation are right or not, but BM’s basic point is entirely valid – it doesn’t get there by itself.
& then they bill you $30,000+ for the test! Add it up, 600 houses tested, 200 ‘infected’, is that $20,000,000 for the testing? 600 x 30,000 equals 20,000,000? Jeebus, someone is making a pretty penny out of misery.
Yep and that’s all that National need to know to consider it a success. Their actions have nothing to do with the health and well being of the country but are solely for the further enrichment of their rich mates.
HNZ making money from Meth testing – now thats a silly assertion.
Seriously Gangnam Style, so you think that HNZ went to the tenant and said “Hey lady. hey dude, theres traces of Meth in your house so can you kindly flick $30,000 from one of your term deposits to cover it?
And the tenants said “sure, we have so many term deposits that I will break one today and fix you up.”
Get real.
What actually happens is that HNZ gets no money, and then wastes a further chunk of money setting lawyers onto the ex tenant who has no money.
And then HNZ have to fix or demolish the house, and lose more money.
No independent oversight into the tests, real estate agents performing the tests, using the same swab over the whole house to get the result, same chemicals used in some cleaning solvents & fly spray, plus the desired need from HNZ to get people out of their houses. The amount of money involved is obscene & does not smell right, it’s basically “blank cheque policy”, I thought righties were against that kind of thing? Ecept when it’s punish the poor, then there is an endless money flow.
“plus the desired need from HNZ to get people out of their houses.”
That’s the one that interests me. Is there a clear chain of command coming from the people that want houses vacated and sold? Or is it that it’s just now entrenched in the culture of HNZ that houses are assets to be realised, so this is the shit they do as a matter of course? Not so much intentionally (we’ll get rid of tenants and sell the houses), but the idea being that the housing stock is more important than the people.
HNZ making money from Meth testing – now thats a silly assertion.
That wasn’t the assertion. It was pretty obvious that HNZ was spending lots of money resulting in profiteers making lots of money. This means that everything you said was a lie.
Congratulations to Venezuela’s Socialist rulers. They have now reached the stage of forced labour to combat the food shortages that their rule has brought about.
Congratulations to the US and their band of EU comrades – as declared many years ago, they have defeated Afghanistan and Iraq and ended the war on terror.
A war that nobody even knew existed, (the main terrorists from 9/11 were from Saudi, the West’s BFF in the region). Go figure!
Well-placed sources in the Government say the Land Information survey on foreign buyers was delayed while Ministers re-wrote the survey questions, says Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford.
“I’m told the survey was delayed by Cabinet while Ministers – including Steven Joyce –interfered with the way the questions were framed.
“This is pure political manipulation and it has all the hallmarks of a Steven Joyce special.
“It would have been so easy to simply ask home buyers if they were citizens or residents. But instead the Government produced a convoluted set of questions that made nine months of data collection effectively useless.
“National has got itself into another housing fiasco by deliberately designing a survey to muddy the water and confuse the public debate about the impact of foreign buyers in the real estate market.
Then the entire National Party caucus needs to be placed in jail now. We simply cannot allow this level of corruption.
The thinking of the more Machiavellian liars and deceivers is essentially egotistical and focused on their wants and needs. They tend to think that they are entitled to do whatever is in their interests, regardless of the consequences on others. When caught out, they often shrug off the lies they use to cover-up what they have done, with the excuse that “everybody lies”. This argument assumes that all lies are the same; and if all lies are the same and everybody lies, then effectively this argument implies that the truth doesn’t matter.
The problem Draco, if this is true, that Steven Joyce has manipulated survey questions to suit his own needs, to paint a rosier picture of foreign investment in property, then nothing will happen.
For eight years, after fiasco, after false reporting, after denial of scientific fact and academic reasoning, after questionable to put it mildly, corrupt to put it more succinctly “deals” such as the Saudi sheep farm, the granting of millions of $$$ of “Pacific aid money” to a wealthy National Party donor, after turning a blind eye to the families of the victims of Pike River mine, after walking away from hurting Cantabrians, after pulling funding from essential health services such as Women’s refuge, after introducing cruel sanctions to suffering vulnerable beneficiaries whose children pay the price, after our PM not only getting away with but being supported in his physical and psychological assault of a woman – and all of this in front of an international media to watches on in horror (Remember “Il Cretino!!! The Italian papers cried)……….
Nothing will happen.
I’m sorry to be pessimistic. It’s why I no longer comment as much as I used to. All ideas come to nothing – or at least they are stewing and building while our country is on hold, hopefully the latter.
Watch and wait and we will see that nothing will come of this, like everything before it.
S. Most readers will be familiar with your approach: Act all innocent about a topic you are fully aware of, bait the reader by asking a question and then go into an attack on the reader whilst defending the indefensible.
Couldn’t agree more Rosie. Don’t worry about being pessimistic , it’s perfectly logical with the way things are being run in this world. It’s a bloody uphill battle when the majority of our dumbed down population are actively coerced to accept that…. war is peace…..freedom is slavery …. ignorance is strength.
What I’ve found particularly disturbing lately is joining faceblab for the first time, and seeing just how disconnected from NZ’s and the world’s current state of affairs some folks are. It’s like there is a concrete wall between them and the most basic knowledge about the seriousness of our socio-political problems. Maybe they like it this way. I don’t know.
Listening to Nick Smith avoiding the simple question was rather amusing. He thinks we are all stupid and don’t know the difference between a tax resident and an actual resident. My parents are tax residents only because they have a savings account here (and they pay tax on it) so they will not need to bring cash with them when they come to visit. Still doesn’t turn them into a NZ resident.
I don’t know what the questions are but how difficult can it be to ask ‘are you holding a: a. Student visa b. Temporary work visa c. NZ permanent resident d. None of the above’
He was also saying many got it wrong or didn’t answer at all! Well then, get back to them and demand an answer.
On Tuesday Richard Hanna, a three-term Republican became the first Republican in Congress to say he will vote for Hillary Clinton.
Referring to Trumps attacks on the Khan parents..Hanna asked, “Where do we draw the line? I thought it would have been when he alleged that U.S. Sen. John McCain was not a war hero because he was caught,”. . . ..
I believe Trump evaded joining the armed forces because of a foot defect but when questioned later couldn’t remember which foot.
I believe Trump evaded joining the armed forces because of a foot defect but when questioned later couldn’t remember which foot.
He’s lost track of his lies.
For many years, Mr. Trump, 70, has also asserted that it was “ultimately” the luck of a high draft lottery number — rather than the medical deferment — that kept him out of the war.
Continue reading the main story
But his Selective Service records, obtained from the National Archives, suggest otherwise. Mr. Trump had been medically exempted for more than a year when the draft lottery began in December 1969, well before he received what he has described as his “phenomenal” draft number.
Because of his medical exemption, his lottery number would have been irrelevant, said Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, who has worked for the agency for three decades.
[..]
In a 2011 television interview, Mr. Trump described watching the draft lottery as a college student and learning then that he would not be drafted.
“I’ll never forget; that was an amazing period of time in my life,” he said in the interview, on Fox 5 New York. “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers, and I got a very, very high number.”
But Mr. Trump had graduated from Wharton 18 months before the lottery — the first in the United States in 27 years — was held.
Oh dear. Trump has got a memory that is just as defective as poor old Kris Faafoi. I’m sure people recall his remarkable ability to remember things that happened when he was only a few months old.
Trump remembers things before they happened. Still what can one expect. They are both politicians.
Its just like getting people to understand that they and the time in their life is of the same value as the time of the persons life next to them.
20 hrs from my life is 20 hrs from my life.
20hrs from your life is 20 hrs from your life
20hrs from the coffee ladies life is 20 hrs from the coffee ladies life.
20 hrs from the guy who cleans toilets life is 20 hrs from the guy who cleans toilets life.
20hrs is 20 hrs
Once we strip away the false value system and understand that money is in many ways a false value system then we can start to build a world that enables people to live their life in the best way possible. One where we make the best use of technology to enable them to do so……
Consider that our current system is – you have to work in order to earn tokens (money) so that you can pay to survive. That’s what our system is.
Consider that the majority will not have enough to retire.
Consider that taking into account getting ready for work and travelling to and from work most people spend 60 – 70 hrs per week on work related activities. Over a lifetime that’s 60 or 70 hrs per week x 48 weeks per year (taking out 4 weeks for holidays – consider that in ours system too out of 52 weeks in a year you get to have 4 of those where you don’t have to work. WOW 4 weeks!!!!! Thankyou so much for my 4 weeks out of 52 where I don’t have to work). Lets say you live to 80 but like most people you can’t afford to retire so you spend 60 years doing that and we wont even factor in things like relationship break ups or losing your job and the fact that if those things happen to you then shit gets a lot harder for you or anyone else in that position.
Right so you have 60 hrs x 48 weeks x 60 years
So in the current system you are going to have to work 172,800 hrs of your life so that you can pay to live on this planet.
If you like we can add school onto that too. With school you get about 11 weeks off per year and you spend say an 1.5 hrs getting ready, travelling to and from school but lets just make it 2hrs in case you get homework.
Your at school from 9 – 3.30 so that’s 6.5 hrs per day plus 2hrs or 42.5 hrs per week.
So 42.5 hrs x (52 weeks – 11 weeks you get off is 39 weeks) x lets say 13 years for school
So 13 x 42.5 x 39 = 21 547.5hrs
Then lets add in sleep cause athough its nice you’re not really living you’re at best having a cool dream so if you life for 80 years lets say 8rs sleep (cause that’s what you’re supposed to get
Which is 8 hrs x 365 days of the year x 80 years = 233,600 hours sleeping.
So to recap
Work 172,800 hrs
School 21 547.5hrs
Sleep 233,600 hours
Total 427,947.5 hrs of your life doing those activities
In a life of 80 years your total hours on the planet is 700,800hrs
Minus 427,947.5 hrs
Then out of 700,800rs you get a grand total of 272,852.5 hrs to actually experience and live the life you want to…….
But that doesn’t take into account cooking cleaning and all the other stuff you have to do to live
So 272,852.5 hrs – cleaning cooking going to the supermarket etc. etc. to live the life you want to live…….
If you have enough money…..
But that’s ok because at least your worth more than the coffee lady and the toilet cleaner right?
Or we could have a system where we use IT to enable the human experience here on this planet by ensuring that everyone has a smartphone and/or tablet and can connect to product hubs and service hubs (which already exist) and you could maybe need to work
Then we still have sleep 233,600hrs
We still have school (but without the homework because who really wants homework!!!???). 16,477.5hrs
Work say 20 hrs per week for say 20 years of your life and be able to work from home in many cases or at least not have the levels of peak hour traffic we have now and you could work (including an 1.5 hours travel time and getting ready) 26,400 hrs
So then the equation becomes 276,477.5hrs of your life spent working sleeping or at school (and 233,600 hrs is spent sleeping)
Out of your 700,800hrs of life.
Leaving you to 424,322.5 hrs of your life where you can experience and do whatever you want to do…….
And in this world with technology as an enabler, money no longer has to be a barrier to overcome.
But you do have to give up the notion that the hours of your life are more valuable that the lady who makes your coffee or the guy who cleans your toilets…..
if your wondering wtf at the above.
its basically that by changing the system and using technology in far better ways you could get 17 years of your life back that 99% of people wont get with the current system.
what worries me Scott is your saying it took 12 minutes to read what coffeeconnoiseur wrote …………… and unlike porn you probably don’t even understand it.
Good on you for spending the hour and a half to type your reply though ……
He took bribes from a firm and gave preference in contracts to that firm in return.
Is there any possibility that the firm offering the bribes and taking the bribe-induced contracts is guilty of wrong-doing and can also be brought before a court?
Stephen James Borlase, who had run private contractor Projenz, faces eight charges of bribing George and Noone and four of doctoring the number of hours claimed to have been worked in invoices to Council.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, “Auckland Transport boss pleads guilty to corruption charges”.
The reason there is no public transport in Auckland is that there is a toxic corrupt and incompetent culture in AT supported by the toxic culture from the Super City of fiefdoms at the council.
My guess is that they got a small fish, in a very large pond of corruption.
The types of decisions AT loves making… thanks for destroying our city AT!
Auckland transport is planning to build a massive road in South Auckland that would destroy hundreds of our homes, cut a swathe through communities and destroy irreplaceable native bush known as ‘Grahams Bush.’ Auckland Transport wants to build this road to improve traffic congestion and make roads for yet to be built houses – at the cost of existing houses and communities!
But The Tree Council has lodged an appeal with the Environment Court against the decision by Auckland Transport to accept the Notices of Requirement recommended by Commissioners on behalf of the consent authority for the Redoubt Road-Mill Road corridor upgrade. Now they need your help: http://bit.ly/1y7VQoJ
Looks like Corbyn might not be such a shoe-in in the UK if 25% of his 25Gbp supporters are banned. On the bright side – Labour will keep their money thank you very much.
Isn’t the question on leader really about who might stand the best chance of helping the party to win an election?
The current Labour MPs are in a good position to judge who helps their electoral chances, and are motivated by self-interest to do so. By contrast the membership may enjoy having a leader who says things they like to hear, but that is hardly going to help reach out to the middle voters who decide elections. Preaching to the converted can only get you so far.
Labour have the same problem here with Little, and the selection method that put him in his job.
Except polling suggests that the Leaders favoured by the Blairite/Brownite sections of the PLP have proven no more popular (and often demonstrably less popular) with both Labour voters and voters in general than Corbyn. Whether it be Eagle and Smith this year or Cooper and Kendal last year.
Corbyn has certainly received some very poor personal ratings from voters over the last year – it’s just that the PLP plotters’ candidates are held in even lower regard.
Hmm Shamubeel is the same economist that has told Kiwis for the last 10 years that there was going to be a housing crash each year, renting was a better investment than owning your own home (as homes in Auckland increased $1000 per week) and that immigration has nothing to do with the property boom.
Yep, have to go with Little on this one, there is not going to be any affordable houses for Kiwis with the unitary plan, the affordable options were deleted, they are designed for new arrivals as the new migrants, as they don’t like old Kiwi villas and bungalows and want new apartments and McMansions and gardens are not popular as clearly a waste of space that you can cram some more people into.
Gotta give the punters what they want!
Lucky the council planners have left a few streets free of intensification for the prominent New Zealand rich listers, so they don’t have to have their leafy large waterfront sites, decimated.
I mean with supply and demand – has anyone looked at how many people in the world there are to buy our houses? We allow anyone to buy here from Russia, to the middle east to the EU.
Thanks for the supply and demand lesson Shamubeel. sarc.
“Lianjia, which has more than 6000 branches in over 25 cities in China, will co-list Ray White’s New Zealand and Australian and properties in Mandarin on its websites.
The exposure to Lianjia’s audience – about 260 million Chinese buyers – will provide Ray White with the leverage into China and, more importantly, fulfil the organisation’s strategy of becoming more diverse and a brand that is more attractive to the Chinese community. …”
That NZ real estate companies are now direct marketing to cheap Chinese money makes me think there will never be a soft correction in NZ housing.
No matter what happens with the continuation of stagnant wages, a slower economy, further job losses, interest rate rises, there will always be direct marketing by the likes of Ray White to cheap Chinese money, and those people will delight in picking at the bones of of New Zealand society.
More and more New Zealanders want to live in smaller houses and apartments, especially in the younger and older age groups. People want to live within walking or cycling distance of the places that they travel to most often. Most people are happy with mixed-use development, putting homes close to offices, shops, parks, schools and public transport routes.
So, giving the people what they want is the complete opposite of what you think that they want.
Read how a recent Democratic House Rep’s net worth has gone up by millions in the last 6 years
While we have often heard that members of Congress, who are not only exempt from insider trading oversight, are also ardent daytraders we had never seen it in action.
Until now.
The following publicly filed monthly Periodic Transaction Report by Democrat Congresswoman, Judy Chu, shows us just how pervasive daytrading is not only for algos, but for those who supposedly are paid to serve their constituents. What is interesting is the size of the trades – between $1,000 and $15,000 each, this is not some novice, penny pincher; what is even more interesting are the underlying securities of choice: volatile, and levered, calls and puts on not only the S&P500, but also on some of the most volatile securities out there, such as the VIX.
Good. Fucking NIMBYs opposing everything except their own activities.
… the proposal drew the ire of nearby neighbours, who said property prices, quality of life and even, possibly, health would be negatively affected by the installations.
I guess we should be grateful they at least put the word “possibly” in there – if it was cellphone towers the health-destroying woo would pretty much be taken for granted.
Mr Pickford, whose Pryde Rd property would be about 800m from the turbines, said he had “had a gutsful”.
That’s one motherfucker of a wind turbine, if it can be “intrusive and visually dominant” over a property 800 meters away. Are we building them the size of Auckland’s Sky Tower now?
I was just looking at that as well. The change on the weekend was to shift it from not working due to a problem with the fragment part of the cache not working. So I shifted it to using jQuery to fetch it,
It is odd. Had a query this morning about it still not appearing. First time I looked at it this evening it didn’t show. Now it is showing.
As Draco says @13.1 maybe after I have left a comment.
I’ll have a look at it ‘soonish’. But since I haven’t left work yet, soonish may be the weekend.
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike because it has nothing to do with trade. Banned for 4 weeks for simple diversion trolling. I’m trying to make myself the most disliked moderator by trolls and the most beloved by anyone who has ascended above your grunting level. BTW: How am I doing in this popularity contest? You can answer in 4 weeks. ]
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
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TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
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TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
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Such an admirable leader.
Owen Jones meets Jeremy Corbyn again.
Parallels for NZ Paul?
Hardly, very bland, career politician it’s the medias fault, missing millions will save me , same script different country
HNZ knows its meth test are not fit for purpose, but will still evict tenants, in fact it will increase testing. Wankers, complete & utter wankers.
Don’t smoke meth or let other people smoke meth in your state house, problem solved.
If you can’t do that, go live on the street.
Grow a brain mate, think a bit harder, the tests are proven to be flawed, just as much meth are on your banknotes in your wallet.
Sure, there is plenty of debate about whether the levels being treated as requiring remediation are right or not, but BM’s basic point is entirely valid – it doesn’t get there by itself.
I would place as much faith in your problem solving ability as I would Nek Minut Smith.
or HNZ could insist on proper testing guidelines that actually mean something
christ BM – use your brain for a damn change – stop sticking up for scammers
& then they bill you $30,000+ for the test! Add it up, 600 houses tested, 200 ‘infected’, is that $20,000,000 for the testing? 600 x 30,000 equals 20,000,000? Jeebus, someone is making a pretty penny out of misery.
Yep and that’s all that National need to know to consider it a success. Their actions have nothing to do with the health and well being of the country but are solely for the further enrichment of their rich mates.
HNZ making money from Meth testing – now thats a silly assertion.
Seriously Gangnam Style, so you think that HNZ went to the tenant and said “Hey lady. hey dude, theres traces of Meth in your house so can you kindly flick $30,000 from one of your term deposits to cover it?
And the tenants said “sure, we have so many term deposits that I will break one today and fix you up.”
Get real.
What actually happens is that HNZ gets no money, and then wastes a further chunk of money setting lawyers onto the ex tenant who has no money.
And then HNZ have to fix or demolish the house, and lose more money.
“And then HNZ have to fix or demolish the house, and lose more money.”
If every p contaminated place in the country had to be fixed or replaced i would bet that every motel and hotel in the country will need work.
No independent oversight into the tests, real estate agents performing the tests, using the same swab over the whole house to get the result, same chemicals used in some cleaning solvents & fly spray, plus the desired need from HNZ to get people out of their houses. The amount of money involved is obscene & does not smell right, it’s basically “blank cheque policy”, I thought righties were against that kind of thing? Ecept when it’s punish the poor, then there is an endless money flow.
“plus the desired need from HNZ to get people out of their houses.”
That’s the one that interests me. Is there a clear chain of command coming from the people that want houses vacated and sold? Or is it that it’s just now entrenched in the culture of HNZ that houses are assets to be realised, so this is the shit they do as a matter of course? Not so much intentionally (we’ll get rid of tenants and sell the houses), but the idea being that the housing stock is more important than the people.
“HNZ making money from Meth testing – now thats a silly assertion.”
i dont think that assertion was ever made – reads to me like GS is pointing the finger at the testing industry
That wasn’t the assertion. It was pretty obvious that HNZ was spending lots of money resulting in profiteers making lots of money. This means that everything you said was a lie.
Where is all the meth coming from??? What happened to JK’s war on P?
Bit the dust like all his ideas that could be helpful to society.
Congratulations to Venezuela’s Socialist rulers. They have now reached the stage of forced labour to combat the food shortages that their rule has brought about.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/07/venezuela-new-regime-effectively-amounts-to-forced-labour/
I guess many of them would starve if Venezuela had a more “free market” economy. Would that be preferable?
Congratulations to Somalia’s free market Libertarian government. The civil war is now in its thirtieth year.
Congratulations to communist China, propping up western ‘free market’ countries, party time!
Congratulations to the social democracies in Europe and Scandinavia, demonstrating how false Gosman’s premise is, and it’s the only one he’s got 😆
Congratulations to New Zealand whose rock-star economy is dependent on immigration and an out of control property boom.
Congratulations to the US and their band of EU comrades – as declared many years ago, they have defeated Afghanistan and Iraq and ended the war on terror.
A war that nobody even knew existed, (the main terrorists from 9/11 were from Saudi, the West’s BFF in the region). Go figure!
Congratulations to Gosman – wannabe Ahmadinejad of the Key kleptocracy.
What a brilliant “Congratulations” thread there. It must be a ‘device’ with a special name or something.
Was about to add some Cliff Richards……..
If this is true:
Then the entire National Party caucus needs to be placed in jail now. We simply cannot allow this level of corruption.
EDIT:
Categories of Lies – White Lies, Grey Lies, and Black Lies
Describes National to a ‘T’.
The problem Draco, if this is true, that Steven Joyce has manipulated survey questions to suit his own needs, to paint a rosier picture of foreign investment in property, then nothing will happen.
For eight years, after fiasco, after false reporting, after denial of scientific fact and academic reasoning, after questionable to put it mildly, corrupt to put it more succinctly “deals” such as the Saudi sheep farm, the granting of millions of $$$ of “Pacific aid money” to a wealthy National Party donor, after turning a blind eye to the families of the victims of Pike River mine, after walking away from hurting Cantabrians, after pulling funding from essential health services such as Women’s refuge, after introducing cruel sanctions to suffering vulnerable beneficiaries whose children pay the price, after our PM not only getting away with but being supported in his physical and psychological assault of a woman – and all of this in front of an international media to watches on in horror (Remember “Il Cretino!!! The Italian papers cried)……….
Nothing will happen.
I’m sorry to be pessimistic. It’s why I no longer comment as much as I used to. All ideas come to nothing – or at least they are stewing and building while our country is on hold, hopefully the latter.
Watch and wait and we will see that nothing will come of this, like everything before it.
“the granting of millions of $$$ of “Pacific aid money” to a wealthy National Party donor”
I must have missed this. Who is this person you are referring to?
S. Most readers will be familiar with your approach: Act all innocent about a topic you are fully aware of, bait the reader by asking a question and then go into an attack on the reader whilst defending the indefensible.
You know perfectly well who I’m talking about.
looking for another sugar daddy?
😀
Couldn’t agree more Rosie. Don’t worry about being pessimistic , it’s perfectly logical with the way things are being run in this world. It’s a bloody uphill battle when the majority of our dumbed down population are actively coerced to accept that…. war is peace…..freedom is slavery …. ignorance is strength.
What I’ve found particularly disturbing lately is joining faceblab for the first time, and seeing just how disconnected from NZ’s and the world’s current state of affairs some folks are. It’s like there is a concrete wall between them and the most basic knowledge about the seriousness of our socio-political problems. Maybe they like it this way. I don’t know.
It’s been an eye opener for sure.
Good to read you again Rosie !
Kia ora North 🙂
Listening to Nick Smith avoiding the simple question was rather amusing. He thinks we are all stupid and don’t know the difference between a tax resident and an actual resident. My parents are tax residents only because they have a savings account here (and they pay tax on it) so they will not need to bring cash with them when they come to visit. Still doesn’t turn them into a NZ resident.
I don’t know what the questions are but how difficult can it be to ask ‘are you holding a: a. Student visa b. Temporary work visa c. NZ permanent resident d. None of the above’
He was also saying many got it wrong or didn’t answer at all! Well then, get back to them and demand an answer.
There is hope….
On Tuesday Richard Hanna, a three-term Republican became the first Republican in Congress to say he will vote for Hillary Clinton.
Referring to Trumps attacks on the Khan parents..Hanna asked, “Where do we draw the line? I thought it would have been when he alleged that U.S. Sen. John McCain was not a war hero because he was caught,”. . . ..
I believe Trump evaded joining the armed forces because of a foot defect but when questioned later couldn’t remember which foot.
Disney couldn’t write this script.
” couldn’t remember which foot.”
The one that’s always in his mouth would be my guess.
Ha! No it was just one foot, not two.
He’s lost track of his lies.
For many years, Mr. Trump, 70, has also asserted that it was “ultimately” the luck of a high draft lottery number — rather than the medical deferment — that kept him out of the war.
Continue reading the main story
But his Selective Service records, obtained from the National Archives, suggest otherwise. Mr. Trump had been medically exempted for more than a year when the draft lottery began in December 1969, well before he received what he has described as his “phenomenal” draft number.
Because of his medical exemption, his lottery number would have been irrelevant, said Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, who has worked for the agency for three decades.
[..]
In a 2011 television interview, Mr. Trump described watching the draft lottery as a college student and learning then that he would not be drafted.
“I’ll never forget; that was an amazing period of time in my life,” he said in the interview, on Fox 5 New York. “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers, and I got a very, very high number.”
But Mr. Trump had graduated from Wharton 18 months before the lottery — the first in the United States in 27 years — was held.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record.html?_r=2
Oh dear. Trump has got a memory that is just as defective as poor old Kris Faafoi. I’m sure people recall his remarkable ability to remember things that happened when he was only a few months old.
Trump remembers things before they happened. Still what can one expect. They are both politicians.
Aww, alwyn has a Labour done did it too moment….
/
what Labour did it in the States too?
damn that party is coming around.
Actually, it’s more that he’s got a memory just Like John Keys – it changes in relation to what he thinks is in his best interests.
Otherwise known as lying.
Brill’ !
Maybe alwyn is suffering from Keyzheimers disease …………. it’s like Alzheimer ……. but allows the infected person to choose what they forget.
Its just like getting people to understand that they and the time in their life is of the same value as the time of the persons life next to them.
20 hrs from my life is 20 hrs from my life.
20hrs from your life is 20 hrs from your life
20hrs from the coffee ladies life is 20 hrs from the coffee ladies life.
20 hrs from the guy who cleans toilets life is 20 hrs from the guy who cleans toilets life.
20hrs is 20 hrs
Once we strip away the false value system and understand that money is in many ways a false value system then we can start to build a world that enables people to live their life in the best way possible. One where we make the best use of technology to enable them to do so……
Consider that our current system is – you have to work in order to earn tokens (money) so that you can pay to survive. That’s what our system is.
Consider that the majority will not have enough to retire.
Consider that taking into account getting ready for work and travelling to and from work most people spend 60 – 70 hrs per week on work related activities. Over a lifetime that’s 60 or 70 hrs per week x 48 weeks per year (taking out 4 weeks for holidays – consider that in ours system too out of 52 weeks in a year you get to have 4 of those where you don’t have to work. WOW 4 weeks!!!!! Thankyou so much for my 4 weeks out of 52 where I don’t have to work). Lets say you live to 80 but like most people you can’t afford to retire so you spend 60 years doing that and we wont even factor in things like relationship break ups or losing your job and the fact that if those things happen to you then shit gets a lot harder for you or anyone else in that position.
Right so you have 60 hrs x 48 weeks x 60 years
So in the current system you are going to have to work 172,800 hrs of your life so that you can pay to live on this planet.
If you like we can add school onto that too. With school you get about 11 weeks off per year and you spend say an 1.5 hrs getting ready, travelling to and from school but lets just make it 2hrs in case you get homework.
Your at school from 9 – 3.30 so that’s 6.5 hrs per day plus 2hrs or 42.5 hrs per week.
So 42.5 hrs x (52 weeks – 11 weeks you get off is 39 weeks) x lets say 13 years for school
So 13 x 42.5 x 39 = 21 547.5hrs
Then lets add in sleep cause athough its nice you’re not really living you’re at best having a cool dream so if you life for 80 years lets say 8rs sleep (cause that’s what you’re supposed to get
Which is 8 hrs x 365 days of the year x 80 years = 233,600 hours sleeping.
So to recap
Work 172,800 hrs
School 21 547.5hrs
Sleep 233,600 hours
Total 427,947.5 hrs of your life doing those activities
In a life of 80 years your total hours on the planet is 700,800hrs
Minus 427,947.5 hrs
Then out of 700,800rs you get a grand total of 272,852.5 hrs to actually experience and live the life you want to…….
But that doesn’t take into account cooking cleaning and all the other stuff you have to do to live
So 272,852.5 hrs – cleaning cooking going to the supermarket etc. etc. to live the life you want to live…….
If you have enough money…..
But that’s ok because at least your worth more than the coffee lady and the toilet cleaner right?
Or we could have a system where we use IT to enable the human experience here on this planet by ensuring that everyone has a smartphone and/or tablet and can connect to product hubs and service hubs (which already exist) and you could maybe need to work
Then we still have sleep 233,600hrs
We still have school (but without the homework because who really wants homework!!!???). 16,477.5hrs
Work say 20 hrs per week for say 20 years of your life and be able to work from home in many cases or at least not have the levels of peak hour traffic we have now and you could work (including an 1.5 hours travel time and getting ready) 26,400 hrs
So then the equation becomes 276,477.5hrs of your life spent working sleeping or at school (and 233,600 hrs is spent sleeping)
Out of your 700,800hrs of life.
Leaving you to 424,322.5 hrs of your life where you can experience and do whatever you want to do…….
And in this world with technology as an enabler, money no longer has to be a barrier to overcome.
But you do have to give up the notion that the hours of your life are more valuable that the lady who makes your coffee or the guy who cleans your toilets…..
if your wondering wtf at the above.
its basically that by changing the system and using technology in far better ways you could get 17 years of your life back that 99% of people wont get with the current system.
What worries me is that I just spent 0.2 hours reading that. This is 0.2 hours I’m never getting back.
what worries me Scott is your saying it took 12 minutes to read what coffeeconnoiseur wrote …………… and unlike porn you probably don’t even understand it.
Good on you for spending the hour and a half to type your reply though ……
Someone gets it!
Radio news and the Herald (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11686368) both say today that an employee of a public authority has pleaded guilty to charges of taking bribes.
He took bribes from a firm and gave preference in contracts to that firm in return.
Is there any possibility that the firm offering the bribes and taking the bribe-induced contracts is guilty of wrong-doing and can also be brought before a court?
Yup.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, “Auckland Transport boss pleads guilty to corruption charges”.
The reason there is no public transport in Auckland is that there is a toxic corrupt and incompetent culture in AT supported by the toxic culture from the Super City of fiefdoms at the council.
My guess is that they got a small fish, in a very large pond of corruption.
The types of decisions AT loves making… thanks for destroying our city AT!
Auckland transport is planning to build a massive road in South Auckland that would destroy hundreds of our homes, cut a swathe through communities and destroy irreplaceable native bush known as ‘Grahams Bush.’ Auckland Transport wants to build this road to improve traffic congestion and make roads for yet to be built houses – at the cost of existing houses and communities!
But The Tree Council has lodged an appeal with the Environment Court against the decision by Auckland Transport to accept the Notices of Requirement recommended by Commissioners on behalf of the consent authority for the Redoubt Road-Mill Road corridor upgrade. Now they need your help: http://bit.ly/1y7VQoJ
yep Grahams Bush has been fighting for a while now.
Small potatoes here, but maybe the main course will be even tastier.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11686355
A tax-evading tradie has been banned from practising because of his tax-evasion practices. Now for the big cheeses in the tax evasion menu. Yum!
Looks like Corbyn might not be such a shoe-in in the UK if 25% of his 25Gbp supporters are banned. On the bright side – Labour will keep their money thank you very much.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/02/labour-leadership-jeremy-corbyn-quarter-supporters-barred-voting
Isn’t the question on leader really about who might stand the best chance of helping the party to win an election?
The current Labour MPs are in a good position to judge who helps their electoral chances, and are motivated by self-interest to do so. By contrast the membership may enjoy having a leader who says things they like to hear, but that is hardly going to help reach out to the middle voters who decide elections. Preaching to the converted can only get you so far.
Labour have the same problem here with Little, and the selection method that put him in his job.
Except polling suggests that the Leaders favoured by the Blairite/Brownite sections of the PLP have proven no more popular (and often demonstrably less popular) with both Labour voters and voters in general than Corbyn. Whether it be Eagle and Smith this year or Cooper and Kendal last year.
Corbyn has certainly received some very poor personal ratings from voters over the last year – it’s just that the PLP plotters’ candidates are held in even lower regard.
Shamubeel Calls Bullshit #2: on Andrew Little’s problem with the Unitary Plan
http://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland-2016/01-08-2016/shamubeel-calls-bullshit-andrew-littles-affordable-housing-complaint/
Hmm Shamubeel is the same economist that has told Kiwis for the last 10 years that there was going to be a housing crash each year, renting was a better investment than owning your own home (as homes in Auckland increased $1000 per week) and that immigration has nothing to do with the property boom.
Yep, have to go with Little on this one, there is not going to be any affordable houses for Kiwis with the unitary plan, the affordable options were deleted, they are designed for new arrivals as the new migrants, as they don’t like old Kiwi villas and bungalows and want new apartments and McMansions and gardens are not popular as clearly a waste of space that you can cram some more people into.
Gotta give the punters what they want!
Lucky the council planners have left a few streets free of intensification for the prominent New Zealand rich listers, so they don’t have to have their leafy large waterfront sites, decimated.
I mean with supply and demand – has anyone looked at how many people in the world there are to buy our houses? We allow anyone to buy here from Russia, to the middle east to the EU.
Thanks for the supply and demand lesson Shamubeel. sarc.
“Lianjia, which has more than 6000 branches in over 25 cities in China, will co-list Ray White’s New Zealand and Australian and properties in Mandarin on its websites.
The exposure to Lianjia’s audience – about 260 million Chinese buyers – will provide Ray White with the leverage into China and, more importantly, fulfil the organisation’s strategy of becoming more diverse and a brand that is more attractive to the Chinese community. …”
That NZ real estate companies are now direct marketing to cheap Chinese money makes me think there will never be a soft correction in NZ housing.
No matter what happens with the continuation of stagnant wages, a slower economy, further job losses, interest rate rises, there will always be direct marketing by the likes of Ray White to cheap Chinese money, and those people will delight in picking at the bones of of New Zealand society.
+ 100% save nz.
Exclusive: The Greens unveil new urban design policy
So, giving the people what they want is the complete opposite of what you think that they want.
Read how a recent Democratic House Rep’s net worth has gone up by millions in the last 6 years
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-02/something-strange-emerges-when-looking-congresswomans-daytrading-records
Hillary was years ahead of that curve
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_cattle_futures_controversy
Dunedin’s Blueskin Bay wind farm set to appeal to the Environment Court:
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/wind-farm-appeal-opponent-leaving
Good. Fucking NIMBYs opposing everything except their own activities.
… the proposal drew the ire of nearby neighbours, who said property prices, quality of life and even, possibly, health would be negatively affected by the installations.
I guess we should be grateful they at least put the word “possibly” in there – if it was cellphone towers the health-destroying woo would pretty much be taken for granted.
Mr Pickford, whose Pryde Rd property would be about 800m from the turbines, said he had “had a gutsful”.
That’s one motherfucker of a wind turbine, if it can be “intrusive and visually dominant” over a property 800 meters away. Are we building them the size of Auckland’s Sky Tower now?
” Are we building them the size of Auckland’s Sky Tower now?”
At Blueskin Bay the answer is no. They will be less than125 metres high to the tip of the blade. Sky Tower is, I think about 220 metres.
On the other hand it won’t be very long before the largest towers will be greater in height than that. The highest I am aware of at the moment are planned to be 200 metres high. That is a bloody big tower.
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/09/15/hartlepool-highest-wind-turbine-scheme-proposed/
@lprent
Is the ‘Replied’ function still disabled? Not been working for me since the week-end.
The ‘Replies’ tab is working for me but not until after I’ve commented.
I was just looking at that as well. The change on the weekend was to shift it from not working due to a problem with the fragment part of the cache not working. So I shifted it to using jQuery to fetch it,
It is odd. Had a query this morning about it still not appearing. First time I looked at it this evening it didn’t show. Now it is showing.
As Draco says @13.1 maybe after I have left a comment.
I’ll have a look at it ‘soonish’. But since I haven’t left work yet, soonish may be the weekend.
Thanks lprent. No hurry.
Yeah, it’s after you leave a comment that it starts working.
Works after commenting, but stops again if I close / open browser.
JK still the most popular PM in NZ History?
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike because it has nothing to do with trade. Banned for 4 weeks for simple diversion trolling. I’m trying to make myself the most disliked moderator by trolls and the most beloved by anyone who has ascended above your grunting level. BTW: How am I doing in this popularity contest? You can answer in 4 weeks. ]