Way back when the first lockdown happened and the government unveiled it's emergency packages – including the free apprentice schemes – I noted that if you wanted to know what the government thought of the future of tourism and international education you just had to look at what new job schemes it was funding. So really, the writing has been on the wall for tourism and the international student sectors for a year now. Normal for them just isn't coming back soon, perhaps never.
Tourism has been exposed as an extremely fragile sector, subject to the whim of global forces well beyond our control. It also has an extremely high environmental cost and carbon footprint. It is however extremely vocal and well connected in the media – let's face it, international tourism is a middle class addiction, an addiction reflected in the middle class dominated MSM obsession with when the borders will re-open so they can flit off to Bali or Bangkok again. I suspect politicians everywhere though see opportunity to meet carbon emission targets by imposing regulations while the tourism and airline industry is currently hors de combat. So chances are good that we'll finally get our country back from hordes of package tourists and our forest edges will become free of the excreta and detritus of freedom campers.
The lack of support for international students is interesting. Again, I think it tells us exactly what government thinking is on the relative economic benefit of that sector, especially vs. the political fallout of basically unchecked immigration from developing countries via student visas.
It might have been convenient to blame NZ First to deflect the outraged screams of “racism!!!” from the twitterati and self-interested business elites, but it looks like Labour agreed with their synopsis of the value of cheap immigration all along. Above all, I think – regardless of all the moaners on twitter who want moar Marxism now – at last the government has broken the shackles of worshipping at the altar of neoliberal global labour mobility and sees an opportunity to choke of a major weapon of NZ capitalism to depress wages. Already, controls on immigration and the importation of cheap foreign labour are having an effect on wages – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/300-a-day-for-fruit-picking-potential-goldmine-for-hawkes-bay-workers-as-growers-up-wages/DIP4OYJWPE563T4DOQVMMQFH6I/
Think it would be wise to focus on the act rather than the rhetoric. We have too many examples of the Gov. acting contrary to message and it would not surprise at all to see an (unheralded) attempt to restart the migrant conveyor once the vaccination programme is complete.
It has been the strategy for the past couple of decades and theres no indication of an alternative.
I think they political view might be that on the balance, it is currently politically less risky upsetting industries dependent on migrants than it is to keep upsetting people who can't afford houses or have seen wage stagnation due to eight of the last ten new entry level professionals employed by their boss being foreigners fresh off the boat or who can’t get a decent wage picking fruit.
It wasn't just student visa that were being abused. Every corporate knows how to play the visa game to get a cheap technician. First, restructure. Then advertise the new role at 10-20% less than the current going rate. When no one wants the job because the pay is to low, go to MBIE or whoever and plead shortage, demonstrating your vain efforts to find someone. Then its a piece of cake to get permission from supine and compliant bureaucrats to recruit from Manila or Bangalore or somewhere like that. Hey presto, you’ve got an eager, compliant, skilled worker for less than you’d have to pay a Kiwi – a Kiwi who might also have an opinion and likes his/her time off.
If you don't have an outlined strategy then you can never be held accountable. You can always just say 'we work with the best data we have today' never mind foresight, hindsight, paid consultants, paid courtiers, paid handmaids, that are all there to help create a strategy.
And one can easily forgive them for the stuff that happened when Covid came barreling in, but we are a year in, and yes, a bit more strategy would be needed.
i.e. whats gonna happen to the tutors of the teaching institutes, and that would involve our universities as they too depend on overseas students – who btw pay their service in full.
b. whats gonna happen to the buildings of these learning institutes, will they be repurposed into schools? Or sold of to the highest bidder with no value to the local communties?
the tourist trade is dead for the next 10 – 15 years as Covid is slowly but surely eating away on what ever savings/wealth people have the planet over. And without disposable income no one travels even without covid.
So what is going to replace these industries? What is going to happen to people that will not find a replacement job? And so on and so forth.
And i would like to remind people that literally all the money that is made in comes from either people coming here to spend, or us sending dairy/fruit/wine etc overseas. How long until Europe etc remember that they have their own dairy/fruit/wine industries and that they should be prioritized?
What then. Really, how many industries can a country lose in a year or two before it starts hurting, or is this something that we should not care about now – kind and gentle please – and then we leave this to the next government?
But so as long as the government outlines nothing, they can't be blamed for not achieving nothing. Maybe that is the only thing they learned from their first term, that not having plans means you can't fail.
You should not "remind people that literally all the money that is made in comes from either people coming here to spend, or us sending dairy/fruit/wine etc overseas." because it is completely untrue. New Zealand produces the accounting unit it transacts in itself and is not going to run short on the basis of the balance of trade.
The New Zealand economy is capable of carrying on for itself at least for all goods and services it can produce domestically. For goods and services only available overseas there are two approaches available to the country, either remain dependent on international trade as a source, or develop these same industries in New Zealand.
Yes this does begin to look like the government doing a 'structural adjustment by stealth' – similar in impact on specific parts of the economy as the Lange-Douglas government.
Except this time they are just letting the crisis do the economic adjustment for it and just allowing the burn away of those less productive parts of the economy .
Structural re-arraignment courtesy of Covid. Cause i bet you a dollar that without covid, nothing would have changed. We still would import people on flimsy pretend student visas to be exploited by various Kiwi businesses. We still would import people to freedom camp with abandon.
Labour has so far shown that it has no guts when it comes to structurally re-organising anything, see housing, see poverty of the adults, see poverty of the children, see no investment in rural areas, etc. etc. etc.
So yeah, the collapse of the tourism industry is not thanks to Labour its thanks to Covid. And anyone in their right mind who believes that Toursim is going to have a fast comeback has not followed the news (yeah, the news!) and / or is telling outright lies so as to not have to do anything.
And btw, Ad, define 'less productive' parts of the economy? At the end of the day, all these industries made good GST revenue for the Government, hired a lot of people paying PAYE and then GST, and then the taxes from the businesses themselves. IS your industry productive enough to be saved?
Agree about tourism, although I think the impact of international climate change agreements would eventually have caused a rethink, but no doubt Covid has accelerated that process dramatically.
The government took some steps in the international student market when it reduced work rights on student visas and eligibility for post-study work visas and for visas for partners and dependent children of students. That got forgotten about because of Covid, but it was a step in the right direction.
The truth, as Paul Simon said long ago, is that people routinely hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. In my experience people have quite a high “tune out, drop out” rate whenever government starts telling them to do anything.
And that's what I said on DR about Case L:
“In other words Case L only took notice of what she wanted to hear/read and ignored the plethora of other advice… ”
One more comment – the lack of a plan for a vaccine rollout is either grand incompetence from the MOH or the government simply not willing to commit to a timeline because it is not being able to guarantee it can secure the supplies it needs to commit to anything in what are brutal displays of global real politik going on over vaccine nationalism. I prefer the second option of the above, because it seems to me that if they could have guaranteed supplies, the government would have had a plan out last month and us all vaccinated by October. Instead, they will only commit to vaccinate who they can once the stuff arrives in Auckland.
Given the febrile, nit picking gotcha myopia of our MSM politically that sort of cautious approach is always going to be the best one.
There is no” lack of plan “ to my mind. Rather the opposite evidenced by early realism that was signaled by giving almost 40 million dollars to a number of possible vaccine producers, knowing full well the inevitability of the political and greedy shitfight that has since broken out in Europe would lead to the infighting and hoarding by national interests and that those without “ skin in the game “ would really be demoted to the hindmost tit and be lucky to get that. It was a given that any US version wouldn’t leave its shores until everybody who would take it got it.
So please stop bagging the Government for making the very best job of tiptoeing through a an international minefield laid by the the most egregious arseholes in the known universe.
It must be perplexing for the official Covid response that the B.1.1.1 variant that it does not seem to be as virulent as it is in Britain. I presume the quick and hard lockdown was because of its reputation. But maybe it isn’t as advertised, is it because after a dry sunny summer Aucklanders have in general very good stores of Vitamin D on tap and this is giving them the protective effect that research has presumed. It may well be more virulent in Britain but only because it raised its unwelcome spike at the start of a cold, wet and miserable winter and at a time the dithering BFJ let people out to prematurely party and go Christmas shopping because business, you know , demanded it at a time when apparently only 4% of Brits had sufficient VitD levels.
England also has the Brazilian variant now on the Island, so i guess we are going to be able to see some more new variants coming up. California also has detected a new strain.
It is however a bit concerning that the source of this infection is not known.
But yes, so far we have been so so lucky. Fingers and toes crossed.
A British lockdown is nothing like one of our lockdowns, they seem to be a bit like level 3 minus. Also, in the UK there is a lot of flouting of the rules, more over-crowded cities and housing, and a general cultural & climate driven aversion to fresh air, apart from the fact they seem to have a national alcohol problem.
does not seem to be as virulent as it is in Britain.
Or is it because we have adopted as standard practise in level 1 better social distancing and hand sanitising protocols in this country. This alone may have prevented rapid spread.
I think the key is that we don't have Covid here generally, and infectiousness is primarily a function of viral load, which is low because of the lack of Covid in the community, so even people are getting infected, it's by a single person rather than 10-20 people over a few days, so the load is low, so the super spreader events are much less likely.
VitD theories aside, b111 is demonstrably more infectious because it becomes the dominant strain. But that doesn't mean it's so infectious that it's changed the game.
It's like armour on a vehicle. The UK has driven around in jeeps with canvas sides. That armour is easily defeated.
NZ is like an APC. Bullets bounce off it, but a big gun would blow it up.
B111 is like a bigger bullet. It hurts the people in the jeep more, but it just causes a bigger dent in the APC.
The planB dickheads try to tell us that we have put so much armour on the vehicle that it's huge and heavy and only goes at 2kph and 10L/100k.
Possibly the B.1.1.7 strain has a long tail and will show up at day 12. It has shown that a close contact case and a casual plus contact case have become a positive case in NZ.
Great if our luck was to hold out. Luck cannot be relied on. Following the rules is the luck.
As for stores of vitamin D, at some point this could be confirmed as being more helpful than realised at the time.
Some truths about post war Russia that for some reason seem to get overlooked, but are vital to contextualize any conversation about Russia today, and why we are spending so much time debating Russia at this moment I am not sure?…anyway a bit of historical objectivity never hurts.
"The cold war began because of Russia's reluctance to allow independence to Poland. Stalin was held to have reneged on promises at Yalta. Roosevelt and Churchill had demanded that Poland be allowed a government that would be "free" and also "friendly to Russia". It was a dishonest formula. As recently as 1920, the two countries had been at war. No freely elected Polish government would be friendly to the USSR. Furthermore, as Stalin pointed out at Yalta, Russia had been twice invaded through Poland by Germany in 26 years, with devastating consequences. The invasion of 1941 had led to the deaths of 20 million Russians. Any postwar Russian government – communist, tsarist or social democratic – would have insisted on effective control at least of Poland, if not of larger areas of eastern Europe, as a buffer zone against future attacks."
Russia/SovietU isn't particularly worse than any other regional-to-global power, expansion-wise. But it is more authoritarian than the regions on its western border. So it does what most nations have done when their neighbour-but-one is a competitor: destabilise the buffer state towards its own favour.
Yup that CSIS link is a good one. Yes politics and ideology play their role in these matters – but in the long run it's geography and demography that more than anything else determine the fate of nations:
Russia simultaneously abutted Europe, the Near East, and the Far East. Such a circumstance should have argued for caution in foreign policy. But Russia had tended to be expansionist precisely in the name of vulnerability: even as forces loyal to the tsar had seized territory, they imagined they were preempting attacks [by other great powers]. And once Russia had forcibly acquired a region, its officials invariably insisted they had to acquire the next one over, too, in order to be able to defend their original gains. A sense of destiny and insecurity combined in a heady mix.
…
If this argument is correct—that Russia’s strategic worldview is driven by a deep sense of insecurity and a threat of encirclement rather than the ideology of its current leaders—we must acknowledge an uncomfortable reality about the future. One day, Russia’s current leaders—Putin included—will no longer rule the country. But Russia’s geography and geopolitical realities will remain unchanged …
Historically the Russian people have occupied a peculiarly vulnerable territory, lacking defined hard borders, they have been invaded repeatedly over the centuries. Arguably the only reason their culture has survived this long has been their oldest enemy and best ally at the same time – their ferocious winter. A winter that has repeatedly repelled outsiders ill-prepared for it.
But otherwise the wide open steppes and flatlands of the motherland were impossible to defend, so in response the Russian strategy has been to reach out to borders they believed they could defend. This meant expanding until they could reach the mountains of Central Asia, the Caucasus's to the south and the Carpathian's to the west. Normally absorbing so much territory would increase the length of the borders to be defended – but in Russia's case it has the perverse incentive of reducing them.
This is the underlying, irreducible geography that is essential to understanding Russia, a combination of a realistic fear of invasion, combined with a map that demands they expand in order to counter that fear.
"This is the underlying, irreducible geography that is essential to understanding Russia, a combination of a realistic fear of invasion, combined with a map that demands they expand in order to counter that fear."
I agree with your conclusion, except that it seems that the word expansion in the context of todays Russia doesn't really hold up, surely it could be more accurately described as maintaining a buffer to offset a "realistic fear of invasion"?
Russia hasn't been expansionist out side of the historical and usual contested buffer territories on it's boarders over the past 30-40 years as far as I know…though I could stand to be corrected, I am no expert.
Think of them as less than "buffer zones" and more like establishing "defendable borders". It's far easier to find the manpower to deal to a relatively short section of flat land between two geographic barriers, than to hold a line thousands of km long in the wide open flatlands.
If the objective were to simply find the most convenient defensible border positions for Russia, there was no reason to occupy Poland or East Germany.
Russia has had the solution to defending the plains for centuries: scorched earth, and retreat slowly enough for their two key generals to get cracking- General Mud and General Winter. But it still doesn't hurt to have a decent buffer.
Maybe look at a map with contour lines. I specifically mentioned the Carpathians and the Caucasus mountains as desirable 'defendable borders'. As the Afghanis have demonstrated over and again, difficult terrain plays to the advantage of the home team every time.
It's extremely improbable that Russia would be interested to extend that far into Germany. (The converse is more likely in my view, but that's a whole other thread.)
At present the Russian 'western front' is over 5000km long, almost all in in wide open flatland. That's utterly impossible to defend against land based invasions, especially for a nation suffering from a demographic slump in the young adult generation which comprises any army. The old strategy of retreat and scorched earth is a desperately expensive one, a price Russia can not afford to pay again.
Of course the mountains I've named do not form a complete barrier, but they do reduce the open front dramatically. And on the Northern European Plain, the Vistula River makes for a feasible boundary.
It should be obvious that I'm addressing the underlying geopolitical drivers. I'll leave it to you to allocate all the correct rights and wrongs to history.
strive to understand is the reasons why they made the decisions they did,
The banality of evil, and the dark places of the human heart, need no special consideration.
Our concepts of political right and wrong are founded on the consent or assent of individuals making up the state. When those liberties are taken away, the state is necessarily illegitimate, nor has any real world example lent much credibility to the myth of the benign dictator.
Well I guess just after having over 26 million of it's citizens butchered, it's towns burned to the ground, it's major cities flattened and it's economy destroyed by the most brutal regime in the history of this planet, the Russians people might have felt that they deserved a bit of occupational as well as financial revenge at the very least…pretty hard position to argue with at the time I would assume?
Especially hard to argue with considering that the Russians had also just saved nearly the whole of Europe from Hitler's fascism with the blood of their people in quantities unfathomable to any of us today.
Now I am not saying I agreed with that occupation, because I don't, but as usual, and for reasons known only to yourself, you can't or won't bring any historical objectivity into your thoughts on Russia.
It is because of this inability to contextualize, that your thoughts on this subject remain and have ever only been one dimensional…thereby, sadly, offer nothing really to further the conversation…IMO that is.
After her husband was killed fighting in 1941, Oktyabrskaya sold her possessions to donate a tank for the war effort, and requested that she be allowed to drive it. She received and drove a T-34 medium tank
…
Oktyabrskaya proved her ability and bravery in battle, and was promoted to the rank of sergeant. After she died of wounds from battle in 1944, she was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union's highest honor for bravery during combat. She was the first of only two female tank drivers to be awarded the title.
There was considerable Russian responsibility for the size of those casualty figures, not least of which lies in inflating the results, which does nothing to support your thesis – other sources put the number at 16 825 000.
inability to contextualize
There's a lot of it about – in your case recognizing that Molotov-Ribbentrop, with its division of Poland, constituted as manifest an assumption of risk as stepping into a boxing ring would for you.
I find myself rarely interested in re-litigating the rights and wrongs of history. After all:
"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart."
Solzhenitsyn
But what we can rightly strive to understand is the reasons why they made the decisions they did, why they acted as they did, and try to see the world through their eyes – in order perhaps to understand our own world better.
It is probably inadequate to attribute a complex political stance to a single cause like Polish independence. It was an embarrassment to Britain however, as Polish forces had joined them against Germany much as they had Napoleon a hundred and some years before. To be sure, there were significant anti-communist interests like US industrialists aligned against Russia with the fall of Germany. But Europe had had a taste of totalitarianism and was not persuaded that the Russian version was any more palatable than the German one.
Britain was an old hand at the imperial game, and knew perfectly well that despotic regimes like Russia's were ripe for replacement. But all countries were exhausted by the war, and their priority was rebuilding. Russian expansionism, in the form of the permanent occupation of East Germany, looked not too dissimilar from the Nazi occupation of other small countries. They tolerated it because there was little public enthusiasm for defending Germany or prolonging the war. But it was an invidious compromise, with a state that routinely oppressed its subjects.
I found this an interesting story. Permanent employee visa due to expire and the company feels it will not be renewed looks to hire a local. Is the answer for the company to give a lot of notice that it won't support a visa renewal so employment ceases when the visa runs out? Or does it have an obligation to support the visa application up to a point and wait for immigration to turn it down? The recruitment notification was issued in Nov 20 for a Jan 21 search? That does see like reasonable forwarning
It's not stated in the article what work visa category it was, but the information suggests it was one of the labour-market tested visa categories, so Restaurant Brands are required to make genuine attempts to recruit a NZ citizen/resident each time one of their potential or current employees applies for a visa. That's a full scale recruitment effort with advertising etc.
I think the more likely problem is hinted at the end of the article where it says they dismissed him before his visa expired while he was still legally able to work, rather than attempting to support him through application process.
must advertise for a local and they do appear to have found one
-but must also support the visa application extension when they have the local alternative lined up so they can't really support it because it fails the work test ?
but they need to let a person work until the actual visa expiry date – which I can understand.
Still sounds like a mess – can someone be a permanent employee when they are on a time limited visa. My head swims. Still it’s not a firm I have a lot of sympathy for.
Interesting piece from Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, worth a few minute to read, especially for a few of the 'lefties' around these parts…
Humanitarian Imperialism
How corporate media sell regime change, Intervention and war to progressive audiences
"Media are experts in using progressives’ empathy and compassion against them, presenting them carefully selected images and stories of suffering around the world, and suggesting that US military power can be used to alleviate it. As such, intervention is sold to the US left less on the basis of fear than of pity."
can't-sell culture strikes again. NZME editors publish an opinion piece, only to discover that it is "unacceptable" to the degree that the contributor will no longer appear on their platforms.
I mean, it's difficult being a content editor these days. One can't even publish the innocent opinions of tory racists without risking that what you hoped would be click-baiting dogwhistles turn out to be explicit racism that damages your advertisers' revenue.
These prisoners need TLC. It's time for some letters to Corrections and the token woman at the top here. Time for Corrections to be corrected themselves. Government looking for cheap bargains in delovering (sic) services get cheap results. To follow that logic, we should put government up for tender every three years. We aren't getting satisfactory action from present pollie system – jam tomorrow, or are we out permanently Mum?
It appears as though full force was always applied when it did not need to be applied. Corrections used no tact when it came to choosing a method which would not be the most humiliating. Not asking a person to stand against a wall to deliver food through a hatch compared to lying face down on the ground is an example. The situation has snowballed and the judge is the circuit breaker. Addressing the PTSD will uncover how the world is seen. Regaining trust will take time.
On Staying at home, a self of entitlement and the Tamaki's.
As I have stated before, the bloke who went to the Gym and Polytech on or around the day he also had a covid test strikes me as being fool hardly, irresponsible and seemingly done with a sense of self entitlement. Likewise 2 women going for a walk under level 3 requirements was fool hardy and irresponsible. It might have been naive if they thought they were allowed to, or self entitled if they decided to flout the rules. Stay home when you are required to.
Any Aucklander madly rushing to exit the city to go to their beach house prior to level 3 restrictions is also irresponsible, reckless and seemingly done with a sense of self entitlement. Stay in Auckland when you are required to.
I see in the news the Tamaki's fled Auckland to be with a congregation in Rotorua. Again, fool hardy, irresponsible and done with a sense of self entitlement. Stay in Auckland.
The justifications for doing such were apparently their ministry demanded they must be in Rotorua. I assume they have a Pastor in that city. I assume they are a perfectly competent and genuine pastor who can lead that congregation. I assume the Tamaki's are not in Rotorua every weekend. Hence why the need to rush out of Auckland when someone competent is available to minister to that congregation.
It's better for them to be in Rotorua was what they are quoted as saying. Better for the congregation they were in Rotorua, or better for the Tamaki's bank balance? There was it seems an "alter call for cash". If you 'give, give, give' God will give you a blessing, a "Jubilee". Maybe a brand new Tesla car like Hannah Tamaki bought herself.
My following comments are not about the Tamaki's fleeing Auckland. It is pretty apparent what they should have done, stayed in Auckland, done the right thing. These are comments about this notion of chasing cash. I term it games show christianity. A flash slick games show host and the prize that maybe someone could win a car. Wheel of Fortune, Who wants to be a Millionaire, The Chase, The X Factor, Destiny Alter Call For Cash.
If you go back to the bible you find some interesting things. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness and ate locusts and wild honey. He baptised Jesus. He didn't have a big house. The greatest Apostle, Paul, was an itinerant tent maker who I suspect didn't die a rich man. He didn't drive a Tesla or ride a Harley Davidson. Paul, formerly a Roman commander who presumably could have lived a comfortable life, he forsook that for ministry. Biblical leaders were not wealthy nor blessed with physical riches.
correction. Paul not a roman commander but rather a Jew whose status and connections could have presumably provided a comfortable living, forsook that for the ministry with no promises of riches or abundance
A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
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Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
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http://werewolf.co.nz/2021/03/gordon-campbell-on-why-the-public-doesnt-always-do-what-its-told-even-in-24-different-languages/
gordon Campbell nails it again
Interesting article.
Politik has a story on the grim outlook for tourism as well here – https://www.politik.co.nz/2021/03/04/what-do-we-do-if-the-tourists-dont-come-bacl/
Way back when the first lockdown happened and the government unveiled it's emergency packages – including the free apprentice schemes – I noted that if you wanted to know what the government thought of the future of tourism and international education you just had to look at what new job schemes it was funding. So really, the writing has been on the wall for tourism and the international student sectors for a year now. Normal for them just isn't coming back soon, perhaps never.
Tourism has been exposed as an extremely fragile sector, subject to the whim of global forces well beyond our control. It also has an extremely high environmental cost and carbon footprint. It is however extremely vocal and well connected in the media – let's face it, international tourism is a middle class addiction, an addiction reflected in the middle class dominated MSM obsession with when the borders will re-open so they can flit off to Bali or Bangkok again. I suspect politicians everywhere though see opportunity to meet carbon emission targets by imposing regulations while the tourism and airline industry is currently hors de combat. So chances are good that we'll finally get our country back from hordes of package tourists and our forest edges will become free of the excreta and detritus of freedom campers.
The lack of support for international students is interesting. Again, I think it tells us exactly what government thinking is on the relative economic benefit of that sector, especially vs. the political fallout of basically unchecked immigration from developing countries via student visas.
It might have been convenient to blame NZ First to deflect the outraged screams of “racism!!!” from the twitterati and self-interested business elites, but it looks like Labour agreed with their synopsis of the value of cheap immigration all along. Above all, I think – regardless of all the moaners on twitter who want moar Marxism now – at last the government has broken the shackles of worshipping at the altar of neoliberal global labour mobility and sees an opportunity to choke of a major weapon of NZ capitalism to depress wages. Already, controls on immigration and the importation of cheap foreign labour are having an effect on wages – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/300-a-day-for-fruit-picking-potential-goldmine-for-hawkes-bay-workers-as-growers-up-wages/DIP4OYJWPE563T4DOQVMMQFH6I/
Think it would be wise to focus on the act rather than the rhetoric. We have too many examples of the Gov. acting contrary to message and it would not surprise at all to see an (unheralded) attempt to restart the migrant conveyor once the vaccination programme is complete.
It has been the strategy for the past couple of decades and theres no indication of an alternative.
I think they political view might be that on the balance, it is currently politically less risky upsetting industries dependent on migrants than it is to keep upsetting people who can't afford houses or have seen wage stagnation due to eight of the last ten new entry level professionals employed by their boss being foreigners fresh off the boat or who can’t get a decent wage picking fruit.
It wasn't just student visa that were being abused. Every corporate knows how to play the visa game to get a cheap technician. First, restructure. Then advertise the new role at 10-20% less than the current going rate. When no one wants the job because the pay is to low, go to MBIE or whoever and plead shortage, demonstrating your vain efforts to find someone. Then its a piece of cake to get permission from supine and compliant bureaucrats to recruit from Manila or Bangalore or somewhere like that. Hey presto, you’ve got an eager, compliant, skilled worker for less than you’d have to pay a Kiwi – a Kiwi who might also have an opinion and likes his/her time off.
Indeed….it would be easier to accept the rhetoric if they outlined a detailed alternative ….which is strangely missing.
If you don't have an outlined strategy then you can never be held accountable. You can always just say 'we work with the best data we have today' never mind foresight, hindsight, paid consultants, paid courtiers, paid handmaids, that are all there to help create a strategy.
And one can easily forgive them for the stuff that happened when Covid came barreling in, but we are a year in, and yes, a bit more strategy would be needed.
i.e. whats gonna happen to the tutors of the teaching institutes, and that would involve our universities as they too depend on overseas students – who btw pay their service in full.
b. whats gonna happen to the buildings of these learning institutes, will they be repurposed into schools? Or sold of to the highest bidder with no value to the local communties?
the tourist trade is dead for the next 10 – 15 years as Covid is slowly but surely eating away on what ever savings/wealth people have the planet over. And without disposable income no one travels even without covid.
So what is going to replace these industries? What is going to happen to people that will not find a replacement job? And so on and so forth.
And i would like to remind people that literally all the money that is made in comes from either people coming here to spend, or us sending dairy/fruit/wine etc overseas. How long until Europe etc remember that they have their own dairy/fruit/wine industries and that they should be prioritized?
What then. Really, how many industries can a country lose in a year or two before it starts hurting, or is this something that we should not care about now – kind and gentle please – and then we leave this to the next government?
But so as long as the government outlines nothing, they can't be blamed for not achieving nothing. Maybe that is the only thing they learned from their first term, that not having plans means you can't fail.
You should not "remind people that literally all the money that is made in comes from either people coming here to spend, or us sending dairy/fruit/wine etc overseas." because it is completely untrue. New Zealand produces the accounting unit it transacts in itself and is not going to run short on the basis of the balance of trade.
The New Zealand economy is capable of carrying on for itself at least for all goods and services it can produce domestically. For goods and services only available overseas there are two approaches available to the country, either remain dependent on international trade as a source, or develop these same industries in New Zealand.
couple of good posts sanctuary
Eg the UFB roll-out by Chorus with a large number of immigrant contractors, most of whom were subsequently reaveled to be on about the minimum wage
Yes this does begin to look like the government doing a 'structural adjustment by stealth' – similar in impact on specific parts of the economy as the Lange-Douglas government.
Except this time they are just letting the crisis do the economic adjustment for it and just allowing the burn away of those less productive parts of the economy .
Structural re-arraignment courtesy of Covid. Cause i bet you a dollar that without covid, nothing would have changed. We still would import people on flimsy pretend student visas to be exploited by various Kiwi businesses. We still would import people to freedom camp with abandon.
Labour has so far shown that it has no guts when it comes to structurally re-organising anything, see housing, see poverty of the adults, see poverty of the children, see no investment in rural areas, etc. etc. etc.
So yeah, the collapse of the tourism industry is not thanks to Labour its thanks to Covid. And anyone in their right mind who believes that Toursim is going to have a fast comeback has not followed the news (yeah, the news!) and / or is telling outright lies so as to not have to do anything.
And btw, Ad, define 'less productive' parts of the economy? At the end of the day, all these industries made good GST revenue for the Government, hired a lot of people paying PAYE and then GST, and then the taxes from the businesses themselves. IS your industry productive enough to be saved?
You won't find me giving "thanks to Covid". For anything.
It's not that hard to define productivity.
We have a whole Productivity Commission that's been going on about it for a while. Go find it if you're interested.
And yes, my industry is well and truly more productive than most. It is also one of the most state funded: infrastructure.
Agree about tourism, although I think the impact of international climate change agreements would eventually have caused a rethink, but no doubt Covid has accelerated that process dramatically.
The government took some steps in the international student market when it reduced work rights on student visas and eligibility for post-study work visas and for visas for partners and dependent children of students. That got forgotten about because of Covid, but it was a step in the right direction.
And that's what I said on DR about Case L:
“In other words Case L only took notice of what she wanted to hear/read and ignored the plethora of other advice… ”
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-03-03-2021/#comment-1781685
Excellent analysis from Campbell as always. Good journos are a rare commodity these days.
One more comment – the lack of a plan for a vaccine rollout is either grand incompetence from the MOH or the government simply not willing to commit to a timeline because it is not being able to guarantee it can secure the supplies it needs to commit to anything in what are brutal displays of global real politik going on over vaccine nationalism. I prefer the second option of the above, because it seems to me that if they could have guaranteed supplies, the government would have had a plan out last month and us all vaccinated by October. Instead, they will only commit to vaccinate who they can once the stuff arrives in Auckland.
Given the febrile, nit picking gotcha myopia of our MSM politically that sort of cautious approach is always going to be the best one.
There is no” lack of plan “ to my mind. Rather the opposite evidenced by early realism that was signaled by giving almost 40 million dollars to a number of possible vaccine producers, knowing full well the inevitability of the political and greedy shitfight that has since broken out in Europe would lead to the infighting and hoarding by national interests and that those without “ skin in the game “ would really be demoted to the hindmost tit and be lucky to get that. It was a given that any US version wouldn’t leave its shores until everybody who would take it got it.
So please stop bagging the Government for making the very best job of tiptoeing through a an international minefield laid by the the most egregious arseholes in the known universe.
It must be perplexing for the official Covid response that the B.1.1.1 variant that it does not seem to be as virulent as it is in Britain. I presume the quick and hard lockdown was because of its reputation. But maybe it isn’t as advertised, is it because after a dry sunny summer Aucklanders have in general very good stores of Vitamin D on tap and this is giving them the protective effect that research has presumed. It may well be more virulent in Britain but only because it raised its unwelcome spike at the start of a cold, wet and miserable winter and at a time the dithering BFJ let people out to prematurely party and go Christmas shopping because business, you know , demanded it at a time when apparently only 4% of Brits had sufficient VitD levels.
once more, shit we are lucky.
England also has the Brazilian variant now on the Island, so i guess we are going to be able to see some more new variants coming up. California also has detected a new strain.
It is however a bit concerning that the source of this infection is not known.
But yes, so far we have been so so lucky. Fingers and toes crossed.
A British lockdown is nothing like one of our lockdowns, they seem to be a bit like level 3 minus. Also, in the UK there is a lot of flouting of the rules, more over-crowded cities and housing, and a general cultural & climate driven aversion to fresh air, apart from the fact they seem to have a national alcohol problem.
Or is it because we have adopted as standard practise in level 1 better social distancing and hand sanitising protocols in this country. This alone may have prevented rapid spread.
I think the key is that we don't have Covid here generally, and infectiousness is primarily a function of viral load, which is low because of the lack of Covid in the community, so even people are getting infected, it's by a single person rather than 10-20 people over a few days, so the load is low, so the super spreader events are much less likely.
That's just my amateur reckons though.
VitD theories aside, b111 is demonstrably more infectious because it becomes the dominant strain. But that doesn't mean it's so infectious that it's changed the game.
It's like armour on a vehicle. The UK has driven around in jeeps with canvas sides. That armour is easily defeated.
NZ is like an APC. Bullets bounce off it, but a big gun would blow it up.
B111 is like a bigger bullet. It hurts the people in the jeep more, but it just causes a bigger dent in the APC.
The planB dickheads try to tell us that we have put so much armour on the vehicle that it's huge and heavy and only goes at 2kph and 10L/100k.
Possibly the B.1.1.7 strain has a long tail and will show up at day 12. It has shown that a close contact case and a casual plus contact case have become a positive case in NZ.
Great if our luck was to hold out. Luck cannot be relied on. Following the rules is the luck.
As for stores of vitamin D, at some point this could be confirmed as being more helpful than realised at the time.
Some truths about post war Russia that for some reason seem to get overlooked, but are vital to contextualize any conversation about Russia today, and why we are spending so much time debating Russia at this moment I am not sure?…anyway a bit of historical objectivity never hurts.
I don't agree with all of the conclusions here, but you don't have to agree with everything, right?, it is from Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) after all.
Four Myths about Russian Grand Strategy
https://www.csis.org/blogs/post-soviet-post/four-myths-about-russian-grand-strategy
From The Guardian no less…
The Soviet threat was a myth
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/19/russia.comment
"The cold war began because of Russia's reluctance to allow independence to Poland. Stalin was held to have reneged on promises at Yalta. Roosevelt and Churchill had demanded that Poland be allowed a government that would be "free" and also "friendly to Russia". It was a dishonest formula. As recently as 1920, the two countries had been at war. No freely elected Polish government would be friendly to the USSR. Furthermore, as Stalin pointed out at Yalta, Russia had been twice invaded through Poland by Germany in 26 years, with devastating consequences. The invasion of 1941 had led to the deaths of 20 million Russians. Any postwar Russian government – communist, tsarist or social democratic – would have insisted on effective control at least of Poland, if not of larger areas of eastern Europe, as a buffer zone against future attacks."
Go on then, stretch your legs and do an actual post on Russia in the Next 5 Years if you're so obsessed. Spell out your Russia truths.
You've got to do better than just recycling context-free quotes.
Maybe if you settled down a notch and read the article you would get the context…dummy.
Oh no I read the article. Such as it was.
It's just time you stopped railing against one imagined interpretation of history and put some actual thoughts of your own together.
I liked the bit where it discussed the Soviets invading Poland in 1939. Oh, wait…
https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/polish-soviet_war_1920-1921
https://www.historyhit.com/1945-red-army-retakes-warsaw/
But Poland is an historic invasion route (I guess France should invade Belgium, by that logic).
What about Finland?
Russia/SovietU isn't particularly worse than any other regional-to-global power, expansion-wise. But it is more authoritarian than the regions on its western border. So it does what most nations have done when their neighbour-but-one is a competitor: destabilise the buffer state towards its own favour.
Adrian,
Yup that CSIS link is a good one. Yes politics and ideology play their role in these matters – but in the long run it's geography and demography that more than anything else determine the fate of nations:
Historically the Russian people have occupied a peculiarly vulnerable territory, lacking defined hard borders, they have been invaded repeatedly over the centuries. Arguably the only reason their culture has survived this long has been their oldest enemy and best ally at the same time – their ferocious winter. A winter that has repeatedly repelled outsiders ill-prepared for it.
But otherwise the wide open steppes and flatlands of the motherland were impossible to defend, so in response the Russian strategy has been to reach out to borders they believed they could defend. This meant expanding until they could reach the mountains of Central Asia, the Caucasus's to the south and the Carpathian's to the west. Normally absorbing so much territory would increase the length of the borders to be defended – but in Russia's case it has the perverse incentive of reducing them.
This is the underlying, irreducible geography that is essential to understanding Russia, a combination of a realistic fear of invasion, combined with a map that demands they expand in order to counter that fear.
"This is the underlying, irreducible geography that is essential to understanding Russia, a combination of a realistic fear of invasion, combined with a map that demands they expand in order to counter that fear."
I agree with your conclusion, except that it seems that the word expansion in the context of todays Russia doesn't really hold up, surely it could be more accurately described as maintaining a buffer to offset a "realistic fear of invasion"?
Russia hasn't been expansionist out side of the historical and usual contested buffer territories on it's boarders over the past 30-40 years as far as I know…though I could stand to be corrected, I am no expert.
Think of them as less than "buffer zones" and more like establishing "defendable borders". It's far easier to find the manpower to deal to a relatively short section of flat land between two geographic barriers, than to hold a line thousands of km long in the wide open flatlands.
The Sulwaki Gap is a good example of this in action.
Two points:
If the objective were to simply find the most convenient defensible border positions for Russia, there was no reason to occupy Poland or East Germany.
Russia has had the solution to defending the plains for centuries: scorched earth, and retreat slowly enough for their two key generals to get cracking- General Mud and General Winter. But it still doesn't hurt to have a decent buffer.
Maybe look at a map with contour lines. I specifically mentioned the Carpathians and the Caucasus mountains as desirable 'defendable borders'. As the Afghanis have demonstrated over and again, difficult terrain plays to the advantage of the home team every time.
How far do the Carpathians go into East Germany?
It's extremely improbable that Russia would be interested to extend that far into Germany. (The converse is more likely in my view, but that's a whole other thread.)
At present the Russian 'western front' is over 5000km long, almost all in in wide open flatland. That's utterly impossible to defend against land based invasions, especially for a nation suffering from a demographic slump in the young adult generation which comprises any army. The old strategy of retreat and scorched earth is a desperately expensive one, a price Russia can not afford to pay again.
Of course the mountains I've named do not form a complete barrier, but they do reduce the open front dramatically. And on the Northern European Plain, the Vistula River makes for a feasible boundary.
No further territorial demands beyond the vistula, huh?
It's not theirs, anyway.
It should be obvious that I'm addressing the underlying geopolitical drivers. I'll leave it to you to allocate all the correct rights and wrongs to history.
Meh.
Russia at the moment seems to think buffer states are largely the way to go. E.g. belorus, donbas, chechnya. Lucky for the poles.
strive to understand is the reasons why they made the decisions they did,
The banality of evil, and the dark places of the human heart, need no special consideration.
Our concepts of political right and wrong are founded on the consent or assent of individuals making up the state. When those liberties are taken away, the state is necessarily illegitimate, nor has any real world example lent much credibility to the myth of the benign dictator.
@ McFlock
No reason to occupy East Germany?
Well I guess just after having over 26 million of it's citizens butchered, it's towns burned to the ground, it's major cities flattened and it's economy destroyed by the most brutal regime in the history of this planet, the Russians people might have felt that they deserved a bit of occupational as well as financial revenge at the very least…pretty hard position to argue with at the time I would assume?
Especially hard to argue with considering that the Russians had also just saved nearly the whole of Europe from Hitler's fascism with the blood of their people in quantities unfathomable to any of us today.
Now I am not saying I agreed with that occupation, because I don't, but as usual, and for reasons known only to yourself, you can't or won't bring any historical objectivity into your thoughts on Russia.
It is because of this inability to contextualize, that your thoughts on this subject remain and have ever only been one dimensional…thereby, sadly, offer nothing really to further the conversation…IMO that is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariya_Oktyabrskaya
OK, if we're going to look at “historical objectivity”, what about Poland in 1939?
26 million of its citizens butchered
There was considerable Russian responsibility for the size of those casualty figures, not least of which lies in inflating the results, which does nothing to support your thesis – other sources put the number at 16 825 000.
inability to contextualize
There's a lot of it about – in your case recognizing that Molotov-Ribbentrop, with its division of Poland, constituted as manifest an assumption of risk as stepping into a boxing ring would for you.
I find myself rarely interested in re-litigating the rights and wrongs of history. After all:
"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart."
Solzhenitsyn
But what we can rightly strive to understand is the reasons why they made the decisions they did, why they acted as they did, and try to see the world through their eyes – in order perhaps to understand our own world better.
It is probably inadequate to attribute a complex political stance to a single cause like Polish independence. It was an embarrassment to Britain however, as Polish forces had joined them against Germany much as they had Napoleon a hundred and some years before. To be sure, there were significant anti-communist interests like US industrialists aligned against Russia with the fall of Germany. But Europe had had a taste of totalitarianism and was not persuaded that the Russian version was any more palatable than the German one.
Britain was an old hand at the imperial game, and knew perfectly well that despotic regimes like Russia's were ripe for replacement. But all countries were exhausted by the war, and their priority was rebuilding. Russian expansionism, in the form of the permanent occupation of East Germany, looked not too dissimilar from the Nazi occupation of other small countries. They tolerated it because there was little public enthusiasm for defending Germany or prolonging the war. But it was an invidious compromise, with a state that routinely oppressed its subjects.
I found this an interesting story. Permanent employee visa due to expire and the company feels it will not be renewed looks to hire a local. Is the answer for the company to give a lot of notice that it won't support a visa renewal so employment ceases when the visa runs out? Or does it have an obligation to support the visa application up to a point and wait for immigration to turn it down? The recruitment notification was issued in Nov 20 for a Jan 21 search? That does see like reasonable forwarning
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124406551/restaurant-brands-ordered-to-pay-former-worker-18k-for-unjustifiable-dismissal
It's not stated in the article what work visa category it was, but the information suggests it was one of the labour-market tested visa categories, so Restaurant Brands are required to make genuine attempts to recruit a NZ citizen/resident each time one of their potential or current employees applies for a visa. That's a full scale recruitment effort with advertising etc.
I think the more likely problem is hinted at the end of the article where it says they dismissed him before his visa expired while he was still legally able to work, rather than attempting to support him through application process.
So the take away is that the business
-but must also support the visa application extension when they have the local alternative lined up so they can't really support it because it fails the work test ?
Still sounds like a mess – can someone be a permanent employee when they are on a time limited visa. My head swims. Still it’s not a firm I have a lot of sympathy for.
Interesting piece from Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, worth a few minute to read, especially for a few of the 'lefties' around these parts…
Humanitarian Imperialism
How corporate media sell regime change, Intervention and war to progressive audiences
"Media are experts in using progressives’ empathy and compassion against them, presenting them carefully selected images and stories of suffering around the world, and suggesting that US military power can be used to alleviate it. As such, intervention is sold to the US left less on the basis of fear than of pity."
can't-sell culture strikes again. NZME editors publish an opinion piece, only to discover that it is "unacceptable" to the degree that the contributor will no longer appear on their platforms.
I mean, it's difficult being a content editor these days. One can't even publish the innocent opinions of tory racists without risking that what you hoped would be click-baiting dogwhistles turn out to be explicit racism that damages your advertisers' revenue.
It's an easy route to self righteousness to have an enemy – they make a convenient totem on which to place all evil.
Dunno about all that, but it seems as if advertisers think racism doesn't sell product like it used to.
There is an obvious need for women supporting women. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/431299/gassed-in-their-cells-begging-for-food-at-auckland-women-s-prison
These prisoners need TLC. It's time for some letters to Corrections and the token woman at the top here. Time for Corrections to be corrected themselves. Government looking for cheap bargains in delovering (sic) services get cheap results. To follow that logic, we should put government up for tender every three years. We aren't getting satisfactory action from present pollie system – jam tomorrow, or are we out permanently Mum?
Geez that's a distressing read.
It appears as though full force was always applied when it did not need to be applied. Corrections used no tact when it came to choosing a method which would not be the most humiliating. Not asking a person to stand against a wall to deliver food through a hatch compared to lying face down on the ground is an example. The situation has snowballed and the judge is the circuit breaker. Addressing the PTSD will uncover how the world is seen. Regaining trust will take time.
About time.
But how come the equally notorious Mike Hosking is still being published by this discredited outfit?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018786126/nzme-pulls-racism-article-and-bans-bassett
On Staying at home, a self of entitlement and the Tamaki's.
As I have stated before, the bloke who went to the Gym and Polytech on or around the day he also had a covid test strikes me as being fool hardly, irresponsible and seemingly done with a sense of self entitlement. Likewise 2 women going for a walk under level 3 requirements was fool hardy and irresponsible. It might have been naive if they thought they were allowed to, or self entitled if they decided to flout the rules. Stay home when you are required to.
Any Aucklander madly rushing to exit the city to go to their beach house prior to level 3 restrictions is also irresponsible, reckless and seemingly done with a sense of self entitlement. Stay in Auckland when you are required to.
I see in the news the Tamaki's fled Auckland to be with a congregation in Rotorua. Again, fool hardy, irresponsible and done with a sense of self entitlement. Stay in Auckland.
The justifications for doing such were apparently their ministry demanded they must be in Rotorua. I assume they have a Pastor in that city. I assume they are a perfectly competent and genuine pastor who can lead that congregation. I assume the Tamaki's are not in Rotorua every weekend. Hence why the need to rush out of Auckland when someone competent is available to minister to that congregation.
It's better for them to be in Rotorua was what they are quoted as saying. Better for the congregation they were in Rotorua, or better for the Tamaki's bank balance? There was it seems an "alter call for cash". If you 'give, give, give' God will give you a blessing, a "Jubilee". Maybe a brand new Tesla car like Hannah Tamaki bought herself.
My following comments are not about the Tamaki's fleeing Auckland. It is pretty apparent what they should have done, stayed in Auckland, done the right thing. These are comments about this notion of chasing cash. I term it games show christianity. A flash slick games show host and the prize that maybe someone could win a car. Wheel of Fortune, Who wants to be a Millionaire, The Chase, The X Factor, Destiny Alter Call For Cash.
If you go back to the bible you find some interesting things. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness and ate locusts and wild honey. He baptised Jesus. He didn't have a big house. The greatest Apostle, Paul, was an itinerant tent maker who I suspect didn't die a rich man. He didn't drive a Tesla or ride a Harley Davidson. Paul, formerly a Roman commander who presumably could have lived a comfortable life, he forsook that for ministry. Biblical leaders were not wealthy nor blessed with physical riches.
correction. Paul not a roman commander but rather a Jew whose status and connections could have presumably provided a comfortable living, forsook that for the ministry with no promises of riches or abundance
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+18%3A18-18%3A25
It sounds like a good idea to do targeting Covid-19 testing in every region.
I would look at the following, bus drivers, taxi drivers, bar workers, domestic air crew and shops in malls.
And what about teachers? Cooped up in a confined space with around 30 kids?
Or – the "modern learning environment" where there may be over 100.
I intended to include teachers, thanks for mentioning them. Hair stylists and dentists as well.
bus drivers, taxi drivers, bar workers…….self annointed Apostles
Back then it would have been those leading the donkey with the passenger and calling into the inn for a mead.
I heard Bishop Tamaki on Checkpoint this evening.
He spoke more of Mammon than God.
'Being in the people changing business'.
'The strain on the economy'.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018786152/brian-tamaki-responds-to-criticism-after-leaving-auckland-on-eve-of-lockdown
pandemics can have a cleansing effect on wooly thinking.
global warming is very emetic.
we live in "interesting times", allegedly an ancient chinese curse wished upon those they disliked.
economists beware
hubris is fatal
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]