Jim Mora reckons Europe might be suffering “compassion overload”;
Is he an appropriate person to make such a remark? The Panel, Radio NZ National, Wednesday 2 September 2015, 4:45 p.m.
Jim Mora, Susan Hornsby-Geluk, Max Ritchie
humbugn.1. the quality of falseness or deception; 2. a person who is not what he or she claims or pretends to be; impostor; 3. a boiled lolly.
All this strife in the Middle East and Africa means that the refugee situation is getting worse. Is the problem that we Europeans and Kiwis are just too darned compassionate? In fact, so compassionate that we are suffering from “compassion overload”?
Well, that’s what Jim Mora thinks might be the trouble…..
MAX RITCHIE: New Zealanders are compassionate, caring people. Ahh, we’ve got, y’know, I was talking earlier on about the nature of New Zealanders, we DO care. But let’s do it properly.
JIM MORA:[deep intake of breath to indicate moral seriousness] I take your point about the, um, humanitarian crises that are ignored, that aren’t to do with Europe. But, ahh, the current flow is surely a humanitarian crisis for all those poor people trying to hop across the razor wire and—
MAX RITCHIE: Of course it is. Of course it is. But we had exactly the same size, ahhhh, last year, the year before, the year before that and the year before that.
JIM MORA: Did we?
MAX RITCHIE: Oooh yeah. This isn’t new, people affected by war, there were people flooding out of countries in Africa ten and twenty years ago, it was just as great as this, but they weren’t going to Europe, that’s the difference.
JIM MORA: I’ll get Professor Al Gillespie’s take on your opinion too, but before I do, Susan what do YOU think?
SUSAN HORNSBY-GELUK: Oh it seems that, um, seven hundred and fifty refugees a year for New Zealand is way too few. I mean, we’ve had that number apparently for so many years that it was, you know, the same when we had, y’know, two million people, so it does need to increase. Whether it needs to increase immediately, well yes, I think there is more a symbolic relevance there than a practical one because I don’t think the people from Europe will make it this far, but I think symbolically everyone needs to be doing their bit.
JIM MORA: Okay. Professor Al Gillespie, an expert on international law from the University of Waikato and pro-vice chancellor of research. Al, good afternoon.
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Good afternoon, Jim.
JIM MORA: A few things to ask you. First of all, I mean, the point of that texter, how do we line up against other countries? I mean, because China actually does take refugees of a sort, doesn’t it, North Koreans for example.
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: It takes a few North Koreans and it took a few in the Vietnamese war as well. But both China and India, which are the two big powerhouses in the region, are now playing a very political game and not taking many more because they don’t want to upset their neighbors. The difference with China and India is that China signed the 1951 refugee convention but India hasn’t. But with regards to the Middle East, China very much sees this as a problem that the West’s caused and therefore one the West should solve.
JIM MORA: Do you buy that or would, um, [weary exhalation of breath] do you consider it morally reprehensible?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: I think we need to see it from the point of human suffering. We’ve all got a responsibility here because these people have got no options, no alternative. And there’s a difference here between refugees and migrants. The migrants are just people who are looking for a better economic lifestyle, and there’s no debate that these people should be pushed back to the countries that they came from. But for refugees, they are applying because ultimately someone’s trying to kill them, or because their human rights have been severely degraded.
JIM MORA: I used the word “migrants” on air yesterday—it’s been used a lot by media coverage—and was told off by listeners who said, you know, the people in Hungary are refugees. So what ARE they, in your view?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Some are refugees, some are migrants. But it’s not just the ones coming across from the Middle East at the moment. There are also people coming up from North Africa where there IS no conflict in certain parts, or also they’re coming from Kosovo or certain parts of the Balkans, and again these are migrants, not people fleeing for fear of their life.
JIM MORA:[long, deep intake of breath] Is Europe—because Max’s argument is “it was always thus, or it’s been thus for a while”—is Europe suffering compassion overload now? What do you reckon?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: I think there is a limit to our empathy. He’s partly correct on one point….
I could keep transcribing this, but I just cannot bear it any longer. I am sure that I am not the only listener who was appalled to hear Jim Mora, of all people, chuntering on about “compassion overload”. Over the last ten years, Mora has showed precious little hint of any compassion at all, leave alone “compassion overload”. Just over a year ago he and a couple of sneering National Party pricks, Chris Wikaira and David Farrar, were chuckling at the fate of War Criminals’ Enemy No. 1….
Uh, Julian Assange. The press conference at the Ecuadorian Embassy. He’s leaving, weee-e-e-e-lll, n-n-n-not really, well not right now….And he’s very short of Vitamin D. You’d think there’d be a courtyard where he’d get some sun of an afternoon wouldn’t you. Cos he’s appeared on a balcony before, when he’s made his semi-papal appearances.”
David Farrar seemed to be tickled pink at Mora’s display of sparklingwit, and added his own twist of the knife:
Well he IS very blond! So, ha ha!, maybe he’s not one that can handle the sun too much!”
I’m appalled if this transcript is what passes for insightful commentary. Who is Max Ritchie and why should I pay any attention to what he, or Mr Mora thinks?
But yeah – NZ can ‘do it properly’, to a degree, by doubling the refugee quota – right now!
Compassion overload Pfft. – certainly doesn’t extend to the Prime Minister and his party faithful (I’d love to see someone break rank). Good on the government support parties for not brushing aside the idea of a quota increase.
Climate action tracker: “New Zealand’s proposed 2030 INDC target is not on a direct path towards its 2050 goal, which is, in itself, inadequate.”
See the graphs and full report: http://climateactiontracker.org/countries/newzealand
Yes I agree – Labour are out of line on this. Shows how serving two masters is just not doable. Funny even commenters like draco the bastard want us to keep drilling, keep digging and sucking – got to keep their endofdays lifestyle going I spose and it is so much easier to say “do as I say not as I do”.
you said “and” so don’t try and back out now – be proud of your wish to opencast mine our natural resources – fuck you might even get a knighthood buddy.
You could each say what you actually believe yourselves, might save some time and aggro. Just a thought.
Myself, I don’t think all mining is the same. With deep sea oil drilling, even if we can make a good case for using the oil ourselves for good purpose (eg to transition off FF), and we can justify the emissions of that, there is still the risk issue of where the mining is happening and the impact of ‘accidents’. Accidents which I think are inevitable now given the pressures coming on with Peak Oil.
Mining in National Parks should be completely off limits because those ecosystems are far more important than the finite resource we can extract from them.
Other mining I think is case by case. We should be getting to the point of not taking anything out of the earth except rarely, but all of us, including those very opposed to mining, still use and rely on metals and oil every single day. Some of that use is critical, but much of it is simply because of the lifestyles we are used to. So I don’t think mining is that simple.
“but all of us, including those very opposed to mining, still use and rely on metals and oil every single day. Some of that use is critical, but much of it is simply because of the lifestyles we are used to.”
Isn’t that line of thinking just a cop out for everything – we can’t say don’t do something because our society and us uses the product or by-product – so it is an always perpetuating business as usual.
Oh how can you be a vegetarian when you wear leather shoes type of argument
yeah, I didn’t look at the picture, and as a general rule I don’t listen to Key.
All I was saying was we activist types need to go a bit deeper with the solutions. No mining is a starting point, but I want to see how we are going to do that.
Well, I suggest you look to anywhere where I’ve supported open cast mining.
Also, deep sea drilling.
Then you should probably look for where I’ve said that BAU can continue.
Once you’ve failed to find any of that you should say sorry.
When war criminals Blair and Bush illegally invaded Iraq in 2003, they destroyed a country.
Kids washing up dead on beaches in Europe 12 years later are just another consequence of their actions.
Britain and the US are responsible for this humanitarian catastrophe. And they refuse to stop warmongering ( Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan) or look after the refugees they created.
NZ is new to the game, although had our bankster leader Key been PM in 2003, we would have been slavishly following US orders. That we have money to send soldiers to Iraq to cause more misery and destruction, yet have no money for more refugees, shows that we have sunk to the moral abyss of the US.
those war criminals are just the tip of course – behind them the graymen who organise and reap the profits.
This country is not new to the game imo, we are just good at pretending
I have read about the many people who are trying to help this crisis, ordinary people who realise that they could just as easily be on the other side of the razor wire – people do care and they are trying to help imo
meanwhile here in our I-so-late little island some rejoice at our distance from these events and no doubt they and their crony mates would wail tears if bodies of 3 year olds started washing up on our beaches – do you want the good news or the bad news?
I see that a couple of times a year here on flowering kowhai trees. It’s only started in recent times, and since the neighbouring reserve started getting proper pest control. Fantastic sight.
I used to live in Days Bay in Wellington and there were a great series of Kowhai around there. At this time all the Bellbirds in the ranges behind us would come down and have a grand old cacophonous time.
Mind you I’ve never seen 30 Tui anywhere, nice! Great time to feed them.
Haven’t even seen that many at once here in Titirangi.
I have got to agree there Marty, We have a favourite spot we go to regularly in the spring . One great big row of bloosom trees I don’t know what, and this time of year it is loaded with these birds. Can sit there all the afternoon watching and photographing.
I like the art work, magnificent.
Peach Parade in akl looks magnificent when the blossoms are out, enjoy it now before the racecourse gets its way and chucks 12-15 storey blocks on the steeplechase track.
Here this time Fed Farmers Southland president Allan Baird reckons this …………. “”The council has got to try and steer a middle ground between what farmers want, what iwi wants, what Fish & Game want and what other people who use the rivers want.””
Nothing could be further from the truth. Allan Baird has rocks in his head if he thinks whoever sticks their hand up and demands something is entitled to it…. what a frikkin’ loophead … His understanding of the regional council and its obligations is completely wrong and is woeful to the point of being harmful to Fed Farmers (they come across as idiots).
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Big Tobacco stopped the TPPA passing through the US Senate because it was excluded from having the rights to sue states under the ISDS system!
2. “As TPP Grinds To A Halt, Asian Countries Start Focusing On Rival Trade Agreement RCEP – See more at: http://www.theasianews.net/index.php/sid/236343969#sthash.z44FnNEK.dpuf
Australia has focussed more on the US-led TPP in recent months on the basis that it would set important new principles for 21st century commerce in areas including services and regulation but the government now appears to be less confident of any swift conclusion to the TPP.
A participant in the meeting said China appeared to be seizing the opportunity to bring the RCEP to a conclusion after it had been seen to be languishing. [Australia’s trade minister] Robb supported the Chinese objective of pushing for a conclusion.
The article also notes that RCEP has a big advantage in that it is not trying to define an ambitious set of new trading rules, as TPP is, but instead is merely attempting to harmonize existing trade agreements among RCEP’s 16 nations, which also include another major economy absent from TPP — India. The Financial Review column concludes with another small but telling indicator that Asian interest may be shifting away from TPP and towards RCEP:” http://www.infowars.com/as-tpp-grinds-to-a-halt-asian-countries-start-focusing-on-rival-trade-agreement-rcep/
3.”Could the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Be Dead?”
“Canada’s elections are only a month away which gives the Trans Pacific Partnership a whole 30 days to be wrapped up and signed. Many countries have come to the conclusion that the TPP will not be wrapped up by then and have already lost interest in the TPP.” http://economyincrisis.org/content/could-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-be-dead-2
1. The global economy is turning down.
2. When the economy turns to custard, people become angry and isolationist.
Why am I opposed to TPPA? Its creators are the sleaziest, money grubbing bastards on the planet. I don’t trust them to do anything good for anyone except themselves. . . almost always at our expense.
In advance of the international climate negotiations at the end of the year, the Government has set a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 11% below 1990 levels. Climate Tracker, and others, have pointed out this target is low compared to the commitment by other countries, and also comes without a plan of how to achieve it.
The Green Party has put together a plan that sets out a pathway to meet a more ambitious emissions reduction target. This plan can bring us into line with the rest of the world, while also transitioning New Zealand towards a smarter, greener, more prosperous future.
Co-leader James Shaw will launch the emissions reduction plan, and introduce a roadmap for building political consensus around a more ambitious target that New Zealanders can be proud of.
Me too. The GP have this reputation as being the best on social media and connecting, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. I’m trying to pull together various links re the presentation, but it’s not easy. Would have been good to have had the slide show online by the time the presentation started too, I found it a bit hard to follow.
no worries, it was pretty short notice. I’m hoping to have a proper look through today. A post would be good, there’s some interesting bits in there. They’ve produced an actual plan that will work within the economy and meet our international obligations which should be accessible to the mainstream even if it’s not enough for the likes of us 😉
I’m hoping this will help the people feeling like they can’t do anything to realise there are things we can actually to. A detailed plan of action is exactly what we need. So not the ultimate solution by any means, but a good start to get us moving.
Maybe this botanic error should be thoroughly checked out as it will have profound implications, our silver fern is unique and it is shabby and ill thought out in design if Kyle Lockwood hasn’t done his homework correctly – like everything else about this Govt when they organise anything they are all hair oil and no socks.
everywhere we turn this is a farce. That’s a good article and yet again shows how far along the path of NZ Inc we are. Wake up sleepy hobbits, not much time left now.
The Black & Silver flag has the leaves opposite each other and the leaf tips are rounded. Both those things are different to what a real silver fern looks like.
At least Lockwood’s designs do have the leaves alternating running up the frond, and the tips are all pointed, which all says to me they more closely represent the real thing.
good point. I tried looking for the original AB silver fern but can’t find it. I’ve got this image in the back of my mind of an actual silver fern shape, who used that?
The sums are paltry. It comes down to replacing all existing flags and defence uniforms and reflagging NZ Government ships and replacing the flag on drivers’ licences.
The last time the NZDF changed their uniforms was all the way back in 2013, for a cost of $13.6 million. Hopefully Fran meant it is only the flag patches that need replacing, not the entire uniform. The cost should only be a few thousand dollars for the new patches. I assume the soldiers will remove the old flag patch and sew on the new flag patch themselves ….. http://www.nzdf.mil.nz/news/media-releases/2013/20130620nanail.htm
But that is small potatoes and pales into insignificance when we consider another item listed in Fran O’Sullivan’s statement – drivers’ licences.
There are approximately 3,280,603 class 1-6 car licences issued.
There are 486,722 motorcycle licences issued.
As some motorists hold both classes and some motorcyclists don’t hold a car licence lets call it 3,500,000 licences.
The current renewal of a class 1-6 licence costs $43.60
That totals $152,600,000 to replace the licences.
This $152 million is a sum Fran O’Sullivan calls paltry.
So who is going to pay the renewal costs?
Has anyone asked the government?
Personally, having very recently renewed my ten year driver licence, I am not in favour of being asked to pay another $43 for another new licence so a 2cm x 1cm bit of printed plastic conforms with a change the public did not ask for. The fact my car is off the road anyway as I can’t afford to get it roadworthy (or run it) doesn’t help either. So I’m off for a walk into town to once again wander the supermarket aisles, stupefied by the ever increasing prices, as my brain does its best to stretch as far as possible what actually is a paltry sum.
I remember noting the division between me and my weekly income and that of John Hawkesby and the wine fans he was talking to, when he quoted a wine as being very affordable at $30. The viewpoint about what is paltry depends on how high up the income level you are, and of course whether it is a cost that affects others more or those who are lesser mortals on lesser money.
seems an obvious solution doesn’t it weka, especially from an economics point of view – but raises all sorts of issues with fakes etc.
‘Experts’ are well paid to plan these things. I haven’t seen a single publicly disclosed time-line for the re-branding of any government items that require inclusion of the New Zealand flag, if a new flag is adopted, let alone the costings.
ok, mild exaggeration, maybe not “all sorts of issues” but having two different flag images in circulation when fake ID’s and fake driver’s licenses are already a very real problem, surely compounds that problem?
interesting. They need to give that 18year old something better to do with his talents.
I’m not sure that two versions of the licence would make that any worse tbh. If they can already produce fakes that people can’t tell are fakes, would it matter?
was only thinking It adds another layer of uncertainty to the task of spotting them.
Nefarious teens with devious plans aside, another thing crossed my mind about the renewal of licences.
If they do go ahead and demand they all change enmasse, rather than as the expiration dates come up, there will be an enormous demand on the services that renew the licences.
I had an unscientific observational survey of the local AA staff to estimate the time it takes to renew a licence and put against previous personal experience I would surmise it takes 8-12 minutes per licence – this includes paperwork, photo & transaction fee processing.
The government might allow the digital photo on file to be used to speed up the process but we can’t count on that, so let’s use 10 minutes as the ballpark figure. I tried to find out on-line what the current average annual renewal volume is, to no avail. When I made enquiries to NZTA I was told I needed to apply in writing and there would probably be a fee.
User-pays data or food? End result, I have no current NZTA figures on annual volumes of driver licence renewals to gauge against the herculean task of renewing 3.5 million licences.
What there is, is the data we know
3.5 million licences at approximately 10minutes per licence is 583,333 hours or 24,305 days
There are 69 authorised driver licence agents across the country. AA has 38 centres, VTNZ has 27 and VINZ has 4.
This conundrum presents those offices with 352 days of 24/7 activity to renew the approximately 3.5 million private car and motorcycle licences currently in circulation.
My guess would be they are going to be compelled to have people update their licences as they come up for renewal.
note: None of the above includes truck/special vehicle/passenger licences or endorsements
They were actually very friendly and very prompt in answering. More so than my current telco anyway.
but an OIA? yeah nah, I’m gonna foolishly assume the bean-counters in the back office will be onto that already because sooner or later the MSM will need to present such information, when enough people start to ask the question.
If someone in his position is that stupid that he thinks that ,that shit is appropriate any where then they are not fit for office ,its the same with key pulling ponytails . I would prefer my “leaders ” to be a bit more aware.
I don’t have a lot of time for Trotter – but he is correct on this one
In other words, it’s a flag that speaks directly to this country’s past, present and future. For that reason, alone, it makes the strongest case for being chosen as the present flag’s replacement. That it is also a superb design merely strengthens its claim.
I rather like that flag too marty. Recognizable. Colour. Balanced. Symmetrical. If that was up for choosing alongside the Morgan one I would get really interested. As it is I will vote for the Koru as least best. (Not the spoiled ballot paper as that still leaves the vote for one of the others which will “win” and a spoiled paper will not change the outcome.
MADE FROM NEW ZEALAND
Red Peak was designed to reflect distinctly powerful and fundamental visual elements from New Zealand culture. The challenge was to break down multicultural elements into the most simple shared forms.
The flag design uses a primary shape of triangle/chevron which is drawn from Taniko weaving patterns. The shapes and colour positioning suggest a landscape of alpine ranges, red earth, and black sky, which refers to the Maori mythology of Rangi & Papa. The red triangle with white stripe is an iteration of elements of our existing flags (tip of our existing Stars, Union Jack detail, Commonwealth Games 74 logo).
This is the beginning of the end of the EU as we have known it, for sure, and more fractures will come soon, as this refugee disaster, totally mismanaged by a “union” that has not got its act together, is causing stress levels so far unknown to Europe.
It is every one to their own, Greece was just barely “rescued” from bankcruptcy weeks ago, and to get that managed, the Eurozone, a large part of the EU member states, was already stressed to the limits, as they struggled to agree on a “rescue package”, which some rather considered a dictate of harsh terms.
Now the refugee crisis is finishing off Europe, as Hungary goes its way, tells Germany and other states to get stuffed, and simply sends trains to the Austrian border, so the thousands on them can move on. In the meantime they will build more fences and walls, pass draconian “anti migrant” laws, ban refugees from entering and more. Before that Slovakia and some other new member states expressed similar concerns as the Hungarian government.
The cobbled together, expanded EU has reached its limits, and is facing at least partial collapse.
Merckel and others stand there unable to do much, as they themselves face a dilemma. While many in their populations in Germany, Austria, perhaps Sweden and a few other countries may show solidarity, and offer support for Syrian and other refugees, there is also strong opposition brewing among the “silent majority”, who oppose further intake of refugees.
The strategy of Islamic State (ISIS) is working, bringing Europe to its knees, I fear.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
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 ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
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 Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
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 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
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 Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
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 ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
Jim Mora reckons Europe might be suffering “compassion overload”;
Is he an appropriate person to make such a remark?
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Wednesday 2 September 2015, 4:45 p.m.
Jim Mora, Susan Hornsby-Geluk, Max Ritchie
humbug n. 1. the quality of falseness or deception; 2. a person who is not what he or she claims or pretends to be; impostor; 3. a boiled lolly.
All this strife in the Middle East and Africa means that the refugee situation is getting worse. Is the problem that we Europeans and Kiwis are just too darned compassionate? In fact, so compassionate that we are suffering from “compassion overload”?
Well, that’s what Jim Mora thinks might be the trouble…..
MAX RITCHIE: New Zealanders are compassionate, caring people. Ahh, we’ve got, y’know, I was talking earlier on about the nature of New Zealanders, we DO care. But let’s do it properly.
JIM MORA: [deep intake of breath to indicate moral seriousness] I take your point about the, um, humanitarian crises that are ignored, that aren’t to do with Europe. But, ahh, the current flow is surely a humanitarian crisis for all those poor people trying to hop across the razor wire and—
MAX RITCHIE: Of course it is. Of course it is. But we had exactly the same size, ahhhh, last year, the year before, the year before that and the year before that.
JIM MORA: Did we?
MAX RITCHIE: Oooh yeah. This isn’t new, people affected by war, there were people flooding out of countries in Africa ten and twenty years ago, it was just as great as this, but they weren’t going to Europe, that’s the difference.
JIM MORA: I’ll get Professor Al Gillespie’s take on your opinion too, but before I do, Susan what do YOU think?
SUSAN HORNSBY-GELUK: Oh it seems that, um, seven hundred and fifty refugees a year for New Zealand is way too few. I mean, we’ve had that number apparently for so many years that it was, you know, the same when we had, y’know, two million people, so it does need to increase. Whether it needs to increase immediately, well yes, I think there is more a symbolic relevance there than a practical one because I don’t think the people from Europe will make it this far, but I think symbolically everyone needs to be doing their bit.
JIM MORA: Okay. Professor Al Gillespie, an expert on international law from the University of Waikato and pro-vice chancellor of research. Al, good afternoon.
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Good afternoon, Jim.
JIM MORA: A few things to ask you. First of all, I mean, the point of that texter, how do we line up against other countries? I mean, because China actually does take refugees of a sort, doesn’t it, North Koreans for example.
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: It takes a few North Koreans and it took a few in the Vietnamese war as well. But both China and India, which are the two big powerhouses in the region, are now playing a very political game and not taking many more because they don’t want to upset their neighbors. The difference with China and India is that China signed the 1951 refugee convention but India hasn’t. But with regards to the Middle East, China very much sees this as a problem that the West’s caused and therefore one the West should solve.
JIM MORA: Do you buy that or would, um, [weary exhalation of breath] do you consider it morally reprehensible?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: I think we need to see it from the point of human suffering. We’ve all got a responsibility here because these people have got no options, no alternative. And there’s a difference here between refugees and migrants. The migrants are just people who are looking for a better economic lifestyle, and there’s no debate that these people should be pushed back to the countries that they came from. But for refugees, they are applying because ultimately someone’s trying to kill them, or because their human rights have been severely degraded.
JIM MORA: I used the word “migrants” on air yesterday—it’s been used a lot by media coverage—and was told off by listeners who said, you know, the people in Hungary are refugees. So what ARE they, in your view?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Some are refugees, some are migrants. But it’s not just the ones coming across from the Middle East at the moment. There are also people coming up from North Africa where there IS no conflict in certain parts, or also they’re coming from Kosovo or certain parts of the Balkans, and again these are migrants, not people fleeing for fear of their life.
JIM MORA: [long, deep intake of breath] Is Europe—because Max’s argument is “it was always thus, or it’s been thus for a while”—is Europe suffering compassion overload now? What do you reckon?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: I think there is a limit to our empathy. He’s partly correct on one point….
I could keep transcribing this, but I just cannot bear it any longer. I am sure that I am not the only listener who was appalled to hear Jim Mora, of all people, chuntering on about “compassion overload”. Over the last ten years, Mora has showed precious little hint of any compassion at all, leave alone “compassion overload”. Just over a year ago he and a couple of sneering National Party pricks, Chris Wikaira and David Farrar, were chuckling at the fate of War Criminals’ Enemy No. 1….
David Farrar seemed to be tickled pink at Mora’s display of sparklingwit, and added his own twist of the knife:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20082014/#comment-869959
I’m appalled if this transcript is what passes for insightful commentary. Who is Max Ritchie and why should I pay any attention to what he, or Mr Mora thinks?
But yeah – NZ can ‘do it properly’, to a degree, by doubling the refugee quota – right now!
Compassion overload Pfft. – certainly doesn’t extend to the Prime Minister and his party faithful (I’d love to see someone break rank). Good on the government support parties for not brushing aside the idea of a quota increase.
I stopped listening to Mora a while back.
His programme is an utter disgrace.
Mora’s panel is another vehicle in the Dirty Politics fleet and a good example of the depths RNZ has sunk to under Griffins stewardship.
Boring why not just a link with a brief preamble?
Boring why not just a link with a brief preamble?
And what is wrong with the occasional magnum opus, may we ask?
Climate action tracker: “New Zealand’s proposed 2030 INDC target is not on a direct path towards its 2050 goal, which is, in itself, inadequate.”
See the graphs and full report:
http://climateactiontracker.org/countries/newzealand
SHAME!!!!
How can the Labour Party support deep sea oil drilling in the light of the Climate Change information?
I challenge them to revisit their stance.
This support for further oil exploration plus not coming out directly with No to TPPA is turning off more support than it is gaining.
Yes I agree – Labour are out of line on this. Shows how serving two masters is just not doable. Funny even commenters like draco the bastard want us to keep drilling, keep digging and sucking – got to keep their endofdays lifestyle going I spose and it is so much easier to say “do as I say not as I do”.
And, as you well know but have ignored, I put very strict conditions on that mining and drilling.
yep you do and what I said is true too.
No, not even close.
you said “and” so don’t try and back out now – be proud of your wish to opencast mine our natural resources – fuck you might even get a knighthood buddy.
You could each say what you actually believe yourselves, might save some time and aggro. Just a thought.
Myself, I don’t think all mining is the same. With deep sea oil drilling, even if we can make a good case for using the oil ourselves for good purpose (eg to transition off FF), and we can justify the emissions of that, there is still the risk issue of where the mining is happening and the impact of ‘accidents’. Accidents which I think are inevitable now given the pressures coming on with Peak Oil.
Mining in National Parks should be completely off limits because those ecosystems are far more important than the finite resource we can extract from them.
Other mining I think is case by case. We should be getting to the point of not taking anything out of the earth except rarely, but all of us, including those very opposed to mining, still use and rely on metals and oil every single day. Some of that use is critical, but much of it is simply because of the lifestyles we are used to. So I don’t think mining is that simple.
“but all of us, including those very opposed to mining, still use and rely on metals and oil every single day. Some of that use is critical, but much of it is simply because of the lifestyles we are used to.”
Isn’t that line of thinking just a cop out for everything – we can’t say don’t do something because our society and us uses the product or by-product – so it is an always perpetuating business as usual.
Oh how can you be a vegetarian when you wear leather shoes type of argument
I didn’t say we can’t do anything 🙂 Why would you think that?
I don’t know – feeling a bit put out today – think I’ll sit the rest of the day out 🙂
I feel quite agitated – that image of the child dead on the beach, key fucking going on like he gives a shit about anyone other than himself – grrrr
yeah, I didn’t look at the picture, and as a general rule I don’t listen to Key.
All I was saying was we activist types need to go a bit deeper with the solutions. No mining is a starting point, but I want to see how we are going to do that.
Hope your afternoon is good to you 🙂
Nope, still not even close. In fact, I’d say that you’re seriously misrepresenting everything that I’ve said on the matter.
If I have I will concede and say sorry..
Well, I suggest you look to anywhere where I’ve supported open cast mining.
Also, deep sea drilling.
Then you should probably look for where I’ve said that BAU can continue.
Once you’ve failed to find any of that you should say sorry.
I haven’t looked but I’ll take you at your word – I am sorry.
Apology accepted.
When war criminals Blair and Bush illegally invaded Iraq in 2003, they destroyed a country.
Kids washing up dead on beaches in Europe 12 years later are just another consequence of their actions.
Britain and the US are responsible for this humanitarian catastrophe. And they refuse to stop warmongering ( Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan) or look after the refugees they created.
NZ is new to the game, although had our bankster leader Key been PM in 2003, we would have been slavishly following US orders. That we have money to send soldiers to Iraq to cause more misery and destruction, yet have no money for more refugees, shows that we have sunk to the moral abyss of the US.
Shame on Key and his US lackey government.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/shocking-image-of-drowned-syrian-boy-shows-tragic-plight-of-refugees
I agree with most of that, and
those war criminals are just the tip of course – behind them the graymen who organise and reap the profits.
This country is not new to the game imo, we are just good at pretending
I have read about the many people who are trying to help this crisis, ordinary people who realise that they could just as easily be on the other side of the razor wire – people do care and they are trying to help imo
meanwhile here in our I-so-late little island some rejoice at our distance from these events and no doubt they and their crony mates would wail tears if bodies of 3 year olds started washing up on our beaches – do you want the good news or the bad news?
Wicked – just watched 30, yes thirty, Tui hanging around in a flowering cherry tree – good start to the day.
They all looked as Robin interprets them – fierce, direct, beautiful.
http://redartgallery.com/collections/robin-slow/products/untitled
I see that a couple of times a year here on flowering kowhai trees. It’s only started in recent times, and since the neighbouring reserve started getting proper pest control. Fantastic sight.
I used to live in Days Bay in Wellington and there were a great series of Kowhai around there. At this time all the Bellbirds in the ranges behind us would come down and have a grand old cacophonous time.
Mind you I’ve never seen 30 Tui anywhere, nice! Great time to feed them.
Haven’t even seen that many at once here in Titirangi.
I have got to agree there Marty, We have a favourite spot we go to regularly in the spring . One great big row of bloosom trees I don’t know what, and this time of year it is loaded with these birds. Can sit there all the afternoon watching and photographing.
I like the art work, magnificent.
Peach Parade in akl looks magnificent when the blossoms are out, enjoy it now before the racecourse gets its way and chucks 12-15 storey blocks on the steeplechase track.
Federated Farmers really seriously genuinely need to deepen their thoughts and analysis as they simply get things wrong time and time and time again…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/71665796/environment-southland-airs-frustration-with-federated-farmers
Here this time Fed Farmers Southland president Allan Baird reckons this …………. “”The council has got to try and steer a middle ground between what farmers want, what iwi wants, what Fish & Game want and what other people who use the rivers want.””
Nothing could be further from the truth. Allan Baird has rocks in his head if he thinks whoever sticks their hand up and demands something is entitled to it…. what a frikkin’ loophead … His understanding of the regional council and its obligations is completely wrong and is woeful to the point of being harmful to Fed Farmers (they come across as idiots).
That does seem to be the default setting for a lot of people these days. Our economic system has divorced people from the reality of scarce resources.
Politically motivated SPAM?
The CEO of an iconic NZ Company supporting privatisation of our healthcare service.?
Apparently this email has been sent to all Southern Cross members by Peter Tynan the CEO of Southern Cross: http://tinyurl.com/prnhjv3
No surprise where his loyalties lie on this issue but using his organisations membership list to promote a political issue seems a little naive to me.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Big Tobacco stopped the TPPA passing through the US Senate because it was excluded from having the rights to sue states under the ISDS system!
http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/could-tobacco-carveout-kill-tpp/
The latest TPPA news sounds promising!
1 .”Canada scuttles Australia’s TPP bid”
….., it looks as if the TPP could finally be ‘dead and buried’ – a view confirmed today via The Australian Dairy Farmer, which claims that Canada’s refusal to give ground on dairy protection has helped scuttle the deal:”
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2015/09/canada-scuttles-australias-tpp-bid/
and
http://adf.farmonline.com.au/news/magazine/industry-news/general/canada-dairy-protection-hurts-tpp-bid/2742090.aspx
2. “As TPP Grinds To A Halt, Asian Countries Start Focusing On Rival Trade Agreement RCEP – See more at: http://www.theasianews.net/index.php/sid/236343969#sthash.z44FnNEK.dpuf
Australia has focussed more on the US-led TPP in recent months on the basis that it would set important new principles for 21st century commerce in areas including services and regulation but the government now appears to be less confident of any swift conclusion to the TPP.
A participant in the meeting said China appeared to be seizing the opportunity to bring the RCEP to a conclusion after it had been seen to be languishing. [Australia’s trade minister] Robb supported the Chinese objective of pushing for a conclusion.
The article also notes that RCEP has a big advantage in that it is not trying to define an ambitious set of new trading rules, as TPP is, but instead is merely attempting to harmonize existing trade agreements among RCEP’s 16 nations, which also include another major economy absent from TPP — India. The Financial Review column concludes with another small but telling indicator that Asian interest may be shifting away from TPP and towards RCEP:”
http://www.infowars.com/as-tpp-grinds-to-a-halt-asian-countries-start-focusing-on-rival-trade-agreement-rcep/
3.”Could the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Be Dead?”
“Canada’s elections are only a month away which gives the Trans Pacific Partnership a whole 30 days to be wrapped up and signed. Many countries have come to the conclusion that the TPP will not be wrapped up by then and have already lost interest in the TPP.”
http://economyincrisis.org/content/could-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-be-dead-2
That’s all good news about TPPA.
My expectations are:
1. The global economy is turning down.
2. When the economy turns to custard, people become angry and isolationist.
Why am I opposed to TPPA? Its creators are the sleaziest, money grubbing bastards on the planet. I don’t trust them to do anything good for anyone except themselves. . . almost always at our expense.
any chance this could go up as a Notice?
YES WE CAN – a plan for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emisions.
Announcement and Livestream today, 12.30pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/865812643501395/
Thanks Weka
Here are the various links from the presentation. The first part was a speech, the second was a power point presentation about the actual plan.
Part 1: Speech transcript
https://www.greens.org.nz/news/speeches/yes-we-can-plan-significantly-reducing-greenhouse-gas-emissions
Part 2: PP summary,
https://www.greens.org.nz/sites/default/files/YesWeCanOnePagerFINAL.pdf
Part 2: Slides,
https://www.greens.org.nz/sites/default/files/YesWeCanPresentation.pdf
Press release,
https://www.greens.org.nz/news/press-releases/yes-we-can-green-climate-plan-shows-40-target-2030-achievable
There was much more detail in the power point, so I hope they get that up online soon.
I found this useful to look at while listening too. It has a pie chart of GHG sectors and emissions in NZ.
https://www.mfe.govt.nz/sites/default/files/media/Climate%20Change/ghg-inventory-2014-snapshot.pdf
Video is here,
http://livestream.com/nzgreens/climate/videos/98017470
Full version of the plan plus appendices for
Electricity
Transport
Other combustion of fossil fuels
Industrial processes
Waste
Forestry
QELRO and emissions budget
https://www.greens.org.nz/file/yes-we-can-finalpdf
What will Labour say?
Will they back the Greens or sit on their hands?
That could well decide my party vote in 2017 and to whom my donations go.
Miffed – did not get to hear Q and A
Me too. The GP have this reputation as being the best on social media and connecting, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. I’m trying to pull together various links re the presentation, but it’s not easy. Would have been good to have had the slide show online by the time the presentation started too, I found it a bit hard to follow.
Shit. Sorry Weka. Missed that, or I would have thrown it up. Been reading through the full policy with an eye to a post on it though?
no worries, it was pretty short notice. I’m hoping to have a proper look through today. A post would be good, there’s some interesting bits in there. They’ve produced an actual plan that will work within the economy and meet our international obligations which should be accessible to the mainstream even if it’s not enough for the likes of us 😉
I’m hoping this will help the people feeling like they can’t do anything to realise there are things we can actually to. A detailed plan of action is exactly what we need. So not the ultimate solution by any means, but a good start to get us moving.
Oops! “If we are to recognise our history and use national symbols, we ought to get them right. Kyle Lockwood’s silver fern is a generic, two-divisional plant fern that can be found on every continent.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11506892 – David Ellison
Maybe this botanic error should be thoroughly checked out as it will have profound implications, our silver fern is unique and it is shabby and ill thought out in design if Kyle Lockwood hasn’t done his homework correctly – like everything else about this Govt when they organise anything they are all hair oil and no socks.
everywhere we turn this is a farce. That’s a good article and yet again shows how far along the path of NZ Inc we are. Wake up sleepy hobbits, not much time left now.
I have a major problem with Ellison’s comment though, the flag that he is backing is the Black & Silver flag, a flag that is even more botanically incorrect. https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/the-nz-flag-your-chance-to-decide/gallery/design/15513
The Black & Silver flag has the leaves opposite each other and the leaf tips are rounded. Both those things are different to what a real silver fern looks like.
At least Lockwood’s designs do have the leaves alternating running up the frond, and the tips are all pointed, which all says to me they more closely represent the real thing.
good point. I tried looking for the original AB silver fern but can’t find it. I’ve got this image in the back of my mind of an actual silver fern shape, who used that?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11506379
The last time the NZDF changed their uniforms was all the way back in 2013, for a cost of $13.6 million. Hopefully Fran meant it is only the flag patches that need replacing, not the entire uniform. The cost should only be a few thousand dollars for the new patches. I assume the soldiers will remove the old flag patch and sew on the new flag patch themselves …..
http://www.nzdf.mil.nz/news/media-releases/2013/20130620nanail.htm
But that is small potatoes and pales into insignificance when we consider another item listed in Fran O’Sullivan’s statement – drivers’ licences.
http://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Research/Documents/Motor-Vehicle-Crashes-2013/Motor-vehicle-crashes-2013-Driver-licence-and-vehicle-fleet-statistics.pdf
There are approximately 3,280,603 class 1-6 car licences issued.
There are 486,722 motorcycle licences issued.
As some motorists hold both classes and some motorcyclists don’t hold a car licence lets call it 3,500,000 licences.
The current renewal of a class 1-6 licence costs $43.60
That totals $152,600,000 to replace the licences.
This $152 million is a sum Fran O’Sullivan calls paltry.
So who is going to pay the renewal costs?
Has anyone asked the government?
Personally, having very recently renewed my ten year driver licence, I am not in favour of being asked to pay another $43 for another new licence so a 2cm x 1cm bit of printed plastic conforms with a change the public did not ask for. The fact my car is off the road anyway as I can’t afford to get it roadworthy (or run it) doesn’t help either. So I’m off for a walk into town to once again wander the supermarket aisles, stupefied by the ever increasing prices, as my brain does its best to stretch as far as possible what actually is a paltry sum.
kia kaha freedom
A paltry fran as usual
I remember noting the division between me and my weekly income and that of John Hawkesby and the wine fans he was talking to, when he quoted a wine as being very affordable at $30. The viewpoint about what is paltry depends on how high up the income level you are, and of course whether it is a cost that affects others more or those who are lesser mortals on lesser money.
Why not wait until the 10 year change for each person?
why wait when you can extort the money because people have to have the new tea towel printed on their lisences……
How much money is the Government gonna make on the GST component alone?
We have a Grifter Government run by and for Grifters.
enough to pay for a flag referendum perhaps?
Weka, that would be the most logical and cost effective approach.
seems an obvious solution doesn’t it weka, especially from an economics point of view – but raises all sorts of issues with fakes etc.
‘Experts’ are well paid to plan these things. I haven’t seen a single publicly disclosed time-line for the re-branding of any government items that require inclusion of the New Zealand flag, if a new flag is adopted, let alone the costings.
“but raises all sorts of issues with fakes etc.”
how so?
ok, mild exaggeration, maybe not “all sorts of issues” but having two different flag images in circulation when fake ID’s and fake driver’s licenses are already a very real problem, surely compounds that problem?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/68803722/Wellington-police-fight-uphill-battle-against-fake-IDs
interesting. They need to give that 18year old something better to do with his talents.
I’m not sure that two versions of the licence would make that any worse tbh. If they can already produce fakes that people can’t tell are fakes, would it matter?
was only thinking It adds another layer of uncertainty to the task of spotting them.
Nefarious teens with devious plans aside, another thing crossed my mind about the renewal of licences.
If they do go ahead and demand they all change enmasse, rather than as the expiration dates come up, there will be an enormous demand on the services that renew the licences.
I had an unscientific observational survey of the local AA staff to estimate the time it takes to renew a licence and put against previous personal experience I would surmise it takes 8-12 minutes per licence – this includes paperwork, photo & transaction fee processing.
The government might allow the digital photo on file to be used to speed up the process but we can’t count on that, so let’s use 10 minutes as the ballpark figure. I tried to find out on-line what the current average annual renewal volume is, to no avail. When I made enquiries to NZTA I was told I needed to apply in writing and there would probably be a fee.
User-pays data or food? End result, I have no current NZTA figures on annual volumes of driver licence renewals to gauge against the herculean task of renewing 3.5 million licences.
What there is, is the data we know
3.5 million licences at approximately 10minutes per licence is 583,333 hours or 24,305 days
There are 69 authorised driver licence agents across the country. AA has 38 centres, VTNZ has 27 and VINZ has 4.
This conundrum presents those offices with 352 days of 24/7 activity to renew the approximately 3.5 million private car and motorcycle licences currently in circulation.
My guess would be they are going to be compelled to have people update their licences as they come up for renewal.
note: None of the above includes truck/special vehicle/passenger licences or endorsements
Nice accounting. I’m guessing they’ll do it at the ten year renewal too.
Not surprised by the NZTA, was that the call centre? For some reason they’re one of the more authoritarian govt depts. You could OIA them 😈
They were actually very friendly and very prompt in answering. More so than my current telco anyway.
but an OIA? yeah nah, I’m gonna foolishly assume the bean-counters in the back office will be onto that already because sooner or later the MSM will need to present such information, when enough people start to ask the question.
Steve Keen: Why Capitalism Needs a Debt Jubilee to Survive (Video)
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/71698532/Maurice-Williamson-so-offensive-conference-attendees-walked-out
Surely they have to sack this fool this time!!
I hope so – he is a parody of a person now.
If someone in his position is that stupid that he thinks that ,that shit is appropriate any where then they are not fit for office ,its the same with key pulling ponytails . I would prefer my “leaders ” to be a bit more aware.
How odd is this – it’s almost 10 years since the Stern review.
Global capitalism – happy to watch us burn.
I don’t have a lot of time for Trotter – but he is correct on this one
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/71655482/why-the-tino-rangatiratanga-flag-should-be-our-national-choice
I rather like that flag too marty. Recognizable. Colour. Balanced. Symmetrical. If that was up for choosing alongside the Morgan one I would get really interested. As it is I will vote for the Koru as least best. (Not the spoiled ballot paper as that still leaves the vote for one of the others which will “win” and a spoiled paper will not change the outcome.
I’ve decided that I will vote for the flag that looks like the monkey butt in the playoff round of “Pimp My Flag NZ”.
Do we txt vote in this reality TV program, or is it down to facebook likes?
This is the first flag I’ve seen that’s made me think a new flag might be a good idea,
https://www.facebook.com/redpeakflag
Can everyone else see the smilies, or has something happened to them?
🙂 🙄 😈 😉
I can.
ok, prob at my end then.
With shock and disappointment, I conclude, the “European Idea” is nothing but DEAD:
http://www.dw.com/en/orban-refugee-crisis-is-a-german-problem/a-18691306
This is the beginning of the end of the EU as we have known it, for sure, and more fractures will come soon, as this refugee disaster, totally mismanaged by a “union” that has not got its act together, is causing stress levels so far unknown to Europe.
It is every one to their own, Greece was just barely “rescued” from bankcruptcy weeks ago, and to get that managed, the Eurozone, a large part of the EU member states, was already stressed to the limits, as they struggled to agree on a “rescue package”, which some rather considered a dictate of harsh terms.
Now the refugee crisis is finishing off Europe, as Hungary goes its way, tells Germany and other states to get stuffed, and simply sends trains to the Austrian border, so the thousands on them can move on. In the meantime they will build more fences and walls, pass draconian “anti migrant” laws, ban refugees from entering and more. Before that Slovakia and some other new member states expressed similar concerns as the Hungarian government.
The cobbled together, expanded EU has reached its limits, and is facing at least partial collapse.
Merckel and others stand there unable to do much, as they themselves face a dilemma. While many in their populations in Germany, Austria, perhaps Sweden and a few other countries may show solidarity, and offer support for Syrian and other refugees, there is also strong opposition brewing among the “silent majority”, who oppose further intake of refugees.
The strategy of Islamic State (ISIS) is working, bringing Europe to its knees, I fear.
Things get no better at the Herald when Trev’ tries to be funny, tries to whip up a howler.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11506974
Ya just ain’t got it Trev’. There’s a good spot I know writing mawkish greeting cards. Call me.