Some spend their time worrying about what the opposition is or not doing and having a laugh at these goings on
YET, what is happening by those who currently have the power to make changes ?
Have you say regarding New Zealand’s future regarding Education is about to close on the 7th April
And the changes suggested by the “independant” task force gives no evidence based on what it is proposing will work, no overseas experience to see what they propose has achieved, just what they think.
And the cost to implement this ??
Remember we are in a situation whereby teachers are paid below min wage and the min has told us there is no more money available. !!! https://conversation.education.govt.nz/conversations/tomorrows-schools-review/have-your-say-today/ https://www.education.govt.nz/news/tomorrows-schools-report-released/
Imposing the hubs (yes, they need to be imposed) will ensure that education goes back to being a public service run by civil servants for the public good.
Currently, education is run by rotarian hacks as a tradeable commodity, with parents as passive consumers, and schools pushing out pipils seen as hard work and pandering to international students.
It will probably also ensure that schools are constrained by rigid ‘one size fits all’ ideologically driven education policies; by the inability of parent communities to be meaningfully involved in the running of their local schools; by stifling creativity for local schools in devising situation specific solutions to educational issues they face; and so on.
Rather than assist students to be prepared and ready for the challenges of the future; especially in relation to transforming the economy so desired by Grant Robertson, these regressive ideologically driven reforms will produce decidedly average educational outcomes that won’t help students adjust to a changing world, and won’t achieve the outcomes ministers such as Robertson want vis a vis transforming the economy.
So we de construct what works for 80% of students and schools to blindly experiment and go where no one has gone before ??
No mention of what any changes are to achieve only “we believe …” prefixing all Bali Haque statements
There are successes out there why not see why those schools that are succeeding with Māori and Pacific students and implement that to other schools “Local Focus: How this Māori principal turned a failing school into one of the top schools in the country” – I note that such innovation would not be feasible under the newly proposed system 🙁 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12210181
Imposing the hubs (yes, they need to be imposed) will ensure that education goes back to being a public service run by civil servants for the public good. – That wasn’t mentioned in the report as a reason or desired outcome.
I really don’t like the hub model because it just imposes another layer of beuracracy that will suck up tons of funding. It just adds another layer between the MoE and schools to which the MoE can shift blame.
😥
Totally agree with you👍🏾
Pity there is no other means to show agreement with a comment.
At least these hubs will allow in part some growth in employment within the regions, so Min Jones will be happy – growth in the regions. As you comment money being diverted to these hubs will mean funding cuts elsewhere within the ministry – As corporate offices are a necessity will this mean front line cuts ?? 🤔
Funny if not machiavellian, if that post submissions are closed we have this ….
“Next Steps
23 When I report back to the Committee in May 2019, the report-back will also
include:
23.1 the relative costs and benefits of the proposals that the Minister intends to
progress or consult further on, and
23.2 the estimated fiscal costs and regulatory impacts of those proposals
And where under the hub system will success come it is all a 1 fit “”solution””
You ask these questions of me yet none are addressed within the report.
Our overall findings
On some outcome measures, many of our students do well at
school. However, the system is not working well enough for our
most disadvantaged children and young people
So our education system is working – Yet to solve a very long existing issue we destroy everything !! And why not examine schools where “the most disadvantaged .. ” are bucking the norm . Refer link above in the NZ herald ??
“Local Focus: How this Māori principal turned a failing school into one of the top schools in the country”
How do you know that as the report regarding costs and resources will not be out until NEXT month. Unless you are in the know, and the whole process has been manipulated to achieve a predetermined outcome.- that is not open and honest government !!!
I would recommend you take some time to read the report.
And take not of the over used phase (IMO) of “In our view” is used – https://conversation.education.govt.nz/assets/TSR/Tomorrows-Schools-Review-Report-13Dec2018.PDF
That the opposition to change consists of 40 out of 2500 schools, who have been able to cherry pick white wealthy students, and, Mike Hosking, says it all.
We have 3 great schools within 5kms
One offer Cambridge, the other 2 ncea, but one has an outdoors facility and sports centre. Between them they offer the flyers sports but each offers a uniqu sport league, baseball and rowing (no polo ☹️)
I see these 3 being complementary , others will see them in competition and stealing out of zone students . I suppose it is all how you perceive the world 😉
No middle class traditional suburbia, thou my typos on the phone may have added some confusion some how: traditional sports became “flyers sports” and outdoor pursuits became facility. Perhaps my intended sarc/funny “polo” was missed by you !! But given the contect I can understand the comment 😉
So you support what is a privatisation and deregulation policy, where parents have no support,and schools can force parents to pay through the nose in donations and buy expensive devices
Are you for real and have you read the report all 148 pages ??
So you are happy for a 1 size fits all system, and we don’t even know if the 1 size will even work ?
And with a minister and a hand picked task force that has no links to success from what they are proposing, what outcomes we should expect ??
OUR CHILDREN DON’T DESERVE TO BE LAB RATS
No school forces parents – Perhaps you should go and experience the real world and not scare monger. And why do schools request donations and fund raise ??
Because the govt inadequately funds education. Our minister has been caught out pay below min wage to teachers and support staff. And when they are found out breaking the law –
“The rise in the minimum wage on 1 April will see a 7.3% increase for some education workers – but with no funding to pay the new rates.” https://www.nzei.org.nz/NZEI/Media/Releases/2019/03/Urgent_funding_needed_to_lift_education_workers_to_legal_minimum_wage_next_week.aspx
Herodotus (pretentious ancient Greek pseudonym)
Stop boring us with your ‘one size fits all’ clichés and your faux concern.
I started teaching in 1970, and I laugh to scorn your silly pretence that Tomorrow’s Schools reforms brought anything much that should not now be rescinded.
Who are you to judge?
In Vino
I have taken time to read what was produced from this task force seen the video and the road show. I have concern, who are you to throw away cheap comments with the express intent of insulting comments regarding “faux concern”.
“.. laugh to scorn your silly pretence that Tomorrow’s Schools reforms brought anything much that should not now be rescinded.” Funny how a previous govt made radical changes to the education system that you find have no value. Yet this is what is currently happening, another govt is using our children as lab rats to shake up the education system, for what ?
I am yet to see any links from anyone supporting the changes with what outcomes we should expect.
Another link regarding commentary – I await some sound responses NOT insults. But that is the way of today 😤 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/111723690/terrifying-words-for-schools-the-ministrys-here-to-help
The whole premise of “competing” schools, run by “Managerial” principals, with a business type “board” of, mostly self selected “representatives”, has been an entirely predictable cluster fuck, right from the start.
Exacerbated recently by National dumping the well researched and consulted on, NZ curriculum, which was flexible and student centred, by an ideological return to producing cannon fodder, for employers.
Schools in well off areas, have been able to go around the narrow education National desired, with extra funding and help from their communities.
They have no desire, for equality of opportunity to return.
“Can’t have poor brown kids competing with our spoilt brats for the best jobs”.
Some are perfectly happy with a two tier education system.
Meanwhile. The system is, failing most children.
Not least because of all the current micro-management, bumf production and control, our “managerial model”, requires. Currently about two hours paperwork is required for every hour of contact time.
Then, there is actually finding time for lesson planning, teaching and helping the many left behind.
Well said, KJT.
I could add a lot more of my own sour feelings about the crassly stupid ‘reforms’ made to our education system under what is now ‘Yesterday’s Schools’, but the thread is old, unlikely to be read, and I think Herodotus a determined right-wing ideologue anyway.
The national permaculture hui begins today in Riverton, with a powhiri in the big Mongolian yurt followed by afternoon tea in the tunnelhouse wharekai. The 150 or so attendees will then weave their way through the forest garden, back to the yurt for the first of the key note talks, this one from me, talking about the history of the area and our garden, surrounding orchards, growing community and projects. Over the next 3 days, we’ll hear from all manner of interesting permaculturalists, Nandor Tanczos is speaking tomorrow, on topics as wide as imaginable; we’ll enjoy bonfires each night, a hangi on Saturday and the delicious food from the talented Green Cuisine crew, serving from their food van on our driveway. We’ve as many musicians as you could ever hope for, enough Jacks and Jills of all trades to cope with any technical hitch, enough fruit on the trees; red-fleshed peaches in particular and more apple varieties than you could name. Our bakers have made and stored treats galore; and this is all I have time to write, as the house is stirring and we’ll be in full-on mode shortly; there are preparations to make; Hollie’s running a Country Mouse market and there are hazels and acorns to polish 🙂
I’ll report back on Sunday, in How to get there and hopefully have something to say on that topic in real-time.
Sounds like a good model of where we might be in a decade or so when energy problems and global warming problems force us all to becoming much more self sufficient. Do we really need exotic foods and goods to be imported, and do we need to depend on vast numbers of tourists?
Sounds great Robert.
Kia ora, all. Just a quick update on a matter raised earlier in the week. Yesterday, I went to a WINZ office to act as support for someone who found themselves needing urgent financial help.
A couple of Standarnistas gave me some tips and advice on what to ask for and I’m pleased to report that the staff at the WINZ office were helpful, understanding and empathetic. We will meet again early next week to provide some more paperwork, which will confirm the total entitlements, but in the meantime, accommodation supplement is already OK’d and it has been indicated that Temporary Additional Support will likely be granted.
This is a significant matter for the person I represented, who has been left with no income for over a month due to a weakness in the ACC system.
So, thank you to those who pointed me in the right direction. It might have only been a few words on a blog, but you’ve made a huge difference to a young man in a desperate situation.
TRP, I’m glad he had someone like you to help him. You are right that the service gaps of weeks to change over can be traumatic to someone already stressed. Pleased to hear there was a helpful attitude at WINZ.
Wonder if there has been a real change of Heart at WINZ because your current contact sounds reasonable. If so it makes you wonder what made WINZ previously sound so threatening. Was it really a deliberate policy from previous Government to make it as hard as possible?
The Nats certainly enabled a nasty culture to fester in WINZ and ACC. Always worth remembering that Paula Benefit publicly bullied and humiliated a couple of beneficiaries who stood up to her. If the boss is an unrepentant bully, it gives the green light for poor behaviour from all staff. Happily, I’ve got the feeling that the new culture of kindness has taken root in at least one WINZ branch.
ACC needs a top down overhaul. It’s not focused on getting people well again just it’s numbers using case workers dishing out ‘youre on your own sweetie ‘ type advice.
The DHB’S also. Watching clinicians wait for Windows 7 to go through the motions in 2019 is a sign they’re way off the pace. They are visibly frustrated by it and MS stopped mainstream support 4 years ago…….Tick tick tick
I was speaking to someone last weekend who has had to give up work to be a full time carer for her son who has been diagnosed with cancer and she was treated with respect. The WINZ meeting was friendly and she was not put through hoops like she was expecting.
So the silly gun lobby cry… “wah wah, all this ban does is make criminals of law-abiding people and responsible gun-owners, and has no effect on actual criminals”
Is it not apparent to them that the mosque-murderer was a “law-abiding person and responsible gun-owner” ?
We have this gun lobby not identifying the target correctly and firing shots at shadows and movement instead. And they will end up shooting their mates.
Maduro’s kangaroo court is working with his fake parliament to remove Guaido’s civil rights. The practical exercise of stalinism as state policy is meant to signal that no dissent will be tolerated, and democracy is only good when preached – bad when practiced. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47799263
“Why was his immunity lifted? Under the Venezuelan constitution, lawmakers cannot be arrested or put on trial unless they are stripped of their parliamentary immunity first. On Monday, the Supreme Court asked the National Constituent Assembly to end Mr Guaidó’s immunity because he defied a travel ban the Supreme Court had imposed on him.”
Freedom of movement is a civil right in a democracy. To a stalinist, it is intolerable. And it is absolutely essential to strip legislators of their legal protection!
“Why is this move controversial? According to article 200 of the Venezuelan constitution, the Supreme Court has the power to order the arrest or prosecution of a lawmaker “subject to authorisation in advance from the National Assembly”.”
Will leftist commentators onsite here once again retreat into denial or perform backflips & other mental contortions to evade the moral point? I await their performance with eager anticipation…
First of all, the elections in Venezuela are probably better run than the ones in the United States, the idea that Maduro has no legitimacy as leader is a straight propaganda lie.
Secondly, if David Seymour declared himself prime minster tomorrow, incited gun owners and farmers and ACToids to riot, destroy property and encouraged foreign agent provocateurs to cripple the elctricity system and fire on the police and agitated for his big business mates to launch a capital strike to cripple the economy I am pretty sure he would be facing arraignment and a treason trial a lot quicker than Guaido will.
Thirdly, his human rights are not – yet – being violated. All that is happening is via a legal process his immunity to prosecution is being removed. Given that Guaido has basically committed treason, that seems fair enough to me.
The propaganda war has been in full swing for years and won’t let up until Abrams and his like achieve their goal of regime change. This time it’s a little different. The other players on the periphery – Russia and China – are not going to let Venezuela slip away into the hands of the USA.
Guido is part of a group that tried an armed insurrection against an elected Government.
Try conspiring to overthrow our Government by force, and see how long you stay out of jail.
Dennis. You have imbibed a near fatal dose of right wing Fox news.
I suggest a course of ingesting actual journalism.
If Maduro was a totalitarian dictator, the armed rebellion would have been all shot already. Even here Guido, and his violent coup supporting mates, would be in jail. How many coup attempts against an elected Government are you allowed. If you are a US supporting, Fascist!
Actually, I don’t watch Fox. Not to say that I wouldn’t, if it became free to air here, for the entertainment value.
As regards journalism, the only type of relevance would be investigative, but media owners have disposed of that in the new millennium. That’s why I had to do it myself, to expose the suppression of democracy in Venezuela, and publish the facts here several months ago.
I agree that Maduro is being careful not to go full Stalinism as yet. Happy to give him credit for that. Equally, there is no coup happening so far. Other countries in the region refer to Maduro’s “self-coup” and I published the quote for that back then too. I oppose any unilateral intervention by the US.
Don’t be silly. Nuanced view of complex situations aren’t as difficult as you seem to think! I don’t like Maduro’s class warfare agenda. If the middle class can do peaceful coexistence with the working class in other countries, why not in Venezuela too?
I don’t believe US control needs to be imposed. I’ve opposed US foreign policy since the Vietnam War era, and specifically that banana-republic part since I learnt about it in the mid-80s. I believe their oil money ought to be distributed to all Venezuelan people – not captured by corporations or Maduro’s stalinists.
Given that many of the things talked about go off in a very different direction to the values and methods in Robert’s post, I kinda figured it would be derailing or even trolling to put it as a reply there.
The thing is we dont gave a food shortage. If the food grown wasn’t wasted and people only ate the amount required to stay healthy and we found a way for poorer nations to buy the excess created it would be solved tomorrow.
In a world that’s on its way to 10 or 11 billion people, any surplus we might create from reducing waste and distribution inefficiency is going to disappear really quickly. That’s even before climate change and soil depletion start seriously reducing potential yields. And before considering the way most people start overconsuming food when it becomes easy to do so, in a rush to emulate the worst of porky westerners.
Someone posted the latest projection here a few months back. It supported the prognosis published by Fred Pearce a few years ago in Peoplequake, that global population is likely to top out at 9.5 billion then subside due to demographic trends.
So unless you have a contradictory source, looks like non-replacement is now becoming so prevalent in so many different countries as to cancel out the third world boom effect…
Most of the projected increase in the world’s population can be attributed to a short list of high-fertility countries, mainly in Africa, or countries with already large populations. During 2015-2050, half of the world’s population growth is expected to be concentrated in nine countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, United Republic of Tanzania, United States of America (USA), Indonesia and Uganda, listed according to the size of their contribution to the total growth.
Given what climate change is going to do most of those countries, I’m guessing those projections will end up being high. I suspect there’s going to be a shitload of suffering creating that difference between projection and actual.
Four horsemen? Even putting that effect to one side, subsidence of population due to culture change, due to economic lifting of the third world out of the poverty trap, could be understated currently.
Getting back to the starting point of this thread, even if we didn’t have population growth worries, we’d still have a lot of incentive to increase agricultural productivity by whatever means we can, including technological. To get more output from less input and smaller footprint.
Maybe so foods that now are occasional luxuries become more frequent. Maybe further reduce the numbers of us suffering hunger and malnutrition. Maybe we can stop destroying what few wild places remain, and maybe, just maybe, even start rewilding some areas currently used for agriculture.
With regard to the current or recent huuhaa in Parliament I would point out that Guns do not kill people but the humans pulling the trigger or careless handling.
It is easy to ban guns but what is being done about and for the human element in the problem?
jcuknz it is a reasonable question. Severely restricting the sale of semi automatics etc will help as the countries (such as japan) with the strictest guns laws have the less gun crime. It is a bit like the suicide rate. One of the only ways it has been significantly reduced was when we changed the house hold gas supply from toxic to benign. Did that deal with the issue of people feeling suicidal and wanting to end their life, of course not. That is the really tough bit. Same with stopping people who want to kill others or commit extremist crimes.
I listened to an interview on Radio NZ with a Professor Gill who has studied “lone wolf” terrorists. I have to say, the interviewer was very disappointing, but I followed up by reading some of his research.
The most helpful thing seems to be that these guys often tell people what they are going to do, or publicize it. Interestingly enough there is a case reported today of a right wing extremist who was going to stab a Labour MP and policewoman and was dobbed in by someone he talked to…………………..
People with guns kill people, no matter how much the gun lobby repeats that BS. I hope the public at large are motivated enough to make a quick submission today. Every recommendation of the Thorp Report needs to be enacted. Now.
“The “emotional staffer” who National Leader Simon Bridges said was responsible for deleting a controversial petition on the party’s website is said to be in dispute with National.”
Oh dear. Simon has upset one of his own. Lawyers involved.
Sanders isn’t a Democrat. He’s never run for office in Vermont as a Democrat. But the Fox/Trump/NRA Axis of Evil is determined to make Sanders a Democrat because they think he’s the candidate Trump can most easily beat.
Fox News’ Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will host a town hall with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on April 15 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a focus on the economy and jobs.
Why it matters: Earlier this year, the Democratic National Committee barred Fox News from hosting any of its primary debates, after a New Yorker investigation shed light on the extent of the network’s ties to the Trump administration.
He’s never lifted a finger to fund raise for the party but because he needs access to their data, staff, and volunteer base, he had to join and pledge allegiance.
You’re not wrong. Such apalling principles – grind Bernie into the dust.
“As an Independent member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Vermont, Sanders was one of 23 co-sponsors of House Resolution 629, which called for Congress to give its consent to the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact — an agreement between the states of Texas, Maine, and Vermont.
Speaking on the floor of the house in October 1997, Sanders said he was in “strong support” of the resolution for environmental reasons, and stressed that he personally was opposed to the use of nuclear power, but that the waste it produces had to be disposed of as safely as possible.”
Congress passed the resolution comfortably by 305 votes to 117, as did the Senate, by 78 votes to 15.
“Within that tab, we can click “All Senators.” Up top, receiving $420,000 from the defense industry, is Bernie Sanders. Then Ted Cruz. Both ran for president, so it’s not a surprise they received a lot of money. Sanders hung on longer than Cruz. And, notably, their main rivals (Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, respectively) were not in Congress, so they would not be listed here even if they had received more. Instead, we go to the “Recipients” tab and see Clinton received over $1 million from the defense industry; Trump received about $319,000.”
““I just feel he’s honest, he’s straightforward, dependable, trustworthy and doesn’t change his tune to get votes,” said Connie Whalley, a nurse practitioner who left her job three years ago to spend more time with her family.
The 66-year-old Topanga resident has contributed $622 to Sanders’ campaign in 22 separate donations because she was impressed by his calls for a $15 minimum wage, tuition-free public college, campaign-finance reform and most of all, single-payer healthcare.
“I honestly believe everyone has the right to free healthcare and… I just think it is unspeakable we have insurance companies that are making profits off people’s health,” she said.
Not surprisingly, Sanders gets very little money — 2% of his overall haul — from Wall Street, which he frequently criticizes as “corrupt” and responsible for creating a “rigged economy.””
Newsroom co-editor Mark Jennings, investigations editor Melanie Reid and cameraman Hayden Aull are in a holding room at the Totogo police station after developer Freesoul Real Estate accused them of criminal trespass. While they have not been charged, they were locked up ahead of likely police interviews this morning.
The unbanked pay much of their income—up to 10 percent—just to use their money. For these families, the total price of simple financial services each month is more than they spend on food. Indeed, it is very expensive to be poor.
This problem, however, reaches well beyond those traditionally considered poor. More than 70 percent of Americans consider themselves “middle class,” yet anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of the population must rely on check cashing or payday lending services.
There seems to be some misunderstanding and misapplication of the term Postmodernism. In this video, the tension between identity politics and the work of postmodern theorists is addressed.
Yeah, was worth a listen. Too academic for most punters, I suspect. Got better around 12 mins in. Ivory-tower syndrome is a terrible affliction which imposes a crippling handicap on the intellect. No reference to shapeshifters (that would require both lateral-thinking and reference to the big-picture context outside acadaemia).
Even worse, no acknowledgement of those with multiple personalities. Presumably, the speaker believes discriminating against that minority is cool. I think those with multiple identities deserve inclusion, not exclusion. I learnt much about human nature from reading several dozen books about them. Cohabitation of a human body by a crowd of identities is a thing. Denial of this part of life is bad.
“Newstalk ZB broadcaster Heather du Plessis-Allan has been censured over comments made on air last September.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) found comments made by du Plessis-Allan, referring to Pacific Islands as “leeches”, breached broadcasting standards.
The BSA ordered broadcaster NZME Radio to pay $3000 in costs to the Crown and also broadcast a statement during du Plessis-Allan’s show summarising the decision.”
Crosby Textor have their grubby little hands over everything don’t they. Not content with stuffing up NZ social justice for over a decade promoting the right wing agenda of Key and co, they have now been found out to be behind a multitude of pro-leave adverts directed at chosen Facebook uses to pressure MP’s on voting to leave. Oh and they are also buttering up the same facebook users to accepting dipstick in chief Boris as PM! Their mission (as was exhibited by Key) is to leave the world as f**ked up as possible – including the promotion of burning more coal. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/03/grassroots-facebook-brexit-ads-secretly-run-by-staff-of-lynton-crosby-firm
The House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, which has led the way on investigating online disinformation, has repeatedly called for Facebook to reveal the identities of those who were funding Mainstream Network, suggesting they crossed an ethical line.
“I believe there is a strong public interest in understanding who is behind the Mainstream Network, and that this information should be published,” the committee’s chairman, Damian Collins, said last month after Facebook refused to identify the individuals behind the page.
“People should have a right to know who is targeting them with political advertisements and why. That is why the committee had called for a change in the law to outlaw these kind of dark adverts from secret campaigns,” he said.
Although the documents point towards the individuals who are running the campaigns, it remains unclear who is ultimately picking up the substantial bill for this attempt to persuade MPs there is a grassroots uprising for a hard Brexit.
Nobody coulda seen this one coming: maybe Mueller’s report was a teensy tiny bit not quite so positive for Agent Orange as Barr’s summary letter made it out to be.
AFAIK, no. He was commissioned to investigate and report to the DOJ, which would then decide what to do with it from there. If he did publicly talk about it, he would be breaking the same general protocols and norms Comey broke by talking about her e-mails, let alone possibly breaking laws buried in the statutes that allowed his Special Counsel investigation to be set up.
Well, all I can say is: what a f****d up country America is. It means a corrupt president and his equally corrupt administration lackeys can lie to the people with total impunity and never be brought to account. It beggars belief!
Yeah. Some of it goes all the way back to the founding.
Some of the justification for the Electoral College rather than directly electing the prez was so the electors would be able to examine the character and fitness for office of the leading candidate. If the popular vote barfed up some loser grifter, they would exercise their better judgement to overrule the popular vote and choose someone who actually was suitable. It was supposed to be a line of defense against someone like Don Drumpfeone becoming prez. Look up Federalist 68 if you’re interested. Of course, the outcome we’ve got now is the Electoral College overruled the good judgement of the popular vote and gave us the conman.
The possibility of a corrupt prez corrupting the legislative and judicial branches did occur to the founders, and some of the provisions are clearly attempts to guard against that. Which have proven inadequate to prevent the spinal dissolution and craven capitulation of almost all the other Repugs.
Hi Jenny I had understood that they weren’t using the charge of terrorism, because it is largely untested and they don’t want to risk this fucker getting off on a technicality. That what I heard, but I could be wrong
The esteemed and learned Professor Geddis discusses pros and cons of terrorism and murder charges over at https://www.pundit.co.nz . Sorry you’ll have to scroll down to find it; the URL contains the fuckwit’s name so linking directly to the page would send this comment straight to trash here.
The campaign not to name the terrorist, (who apparently is not a terrorist according to the police prosecution), was also played out in Norway during the trial of the fascist mass murderer Andre Brevik. TV One tonight, said in Norway this policy had to be dropped. “He is not Voldemort” said one Norwegian woman interviewed. The campaign not to refer to the Brevik by name only created and air of mystique around Brevik and encouraged like minded extremists to invent and then circulate conspiracy theories.
Brenten Terent is no supernatural being. where the mere spoken (or written), utterance of his name brings an evil curse. We need to fully understand what made him into what he is.
This cannot happen under a blanket of secrecy, and secret dread to speak his name. Conspiracy thrives in the shadows.
As the saying goes ‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant, electric light is the best policeman’
In Norway they found it was better to forensically dissect and publicly demolish Brevik’s manifesto, than censor it.
Terrent like Brevik sees himself as a hero.
Benten Terent is a miserable little fascist terrorist. He must be firmly identified as such by our authorities. He and his (admirers) need to be made to own this label of shame, in court.
I don’t believe for one minute the argument that such charges would allow Torrent to get off on a technicality.
The police had no trouble at all charging Tama Iti under the Suppression Of Terrorism Act. Despite the fact that Iti had not killed anyone, or was even involved in plotting to kill anyone.
If the charge of terrorist cannot be made to stick to someone like B****** T***** who plotted and then executed the murder of 50 innocent people to further his white Supremacist political views, then there is something very wrong at the heart of the New Zealand Suppression Of Terrorism Act.
As well as being charged with murder and attempted murder BT* needs to be charged as the terrorist he is.
Am I to take any message from your misspelling of the Norwegian fuckwit’s first name?
Although I’m fine with referring to the fuckwit as the fuckwit, I actually had nothing to do with this site’s decision to make the fuckwit’s real name a direct line to the trash folder, to be retrieved only if a mod happens to look there and decides it’s worth fishing out.
In any case, it’s not dread or an attempt to toss him down the memory hole that’s the motivation for minimising the use of his name. It’s just denying him the personal recognition that was likely a partial motivation for his fuckwittery.
As for whether the fuckwit’s a terrorist or not, Geddis’ piece explains why there’s probably no legal upside to charging him under the terrorism laws. That those terrorism laws were grievously misused and shown to be badly flawed the one time they actually were used, and are useless in this current case where we have actual terrorism, might actually prompt a clean-up of those laws. Or not.
If the situation had been reversed and the terrorist had a Arabic or Asian, or Maori name. To make certain that we knew his ethnicity, to demonise a whole race or culture or religion, his name would be on every news feed.
This guy has a regular European name.
Let’s suppress it.
Let’s distance ourselves from it.
Let’s deny that he is one of us. That he is a product of our culture, and of our race and yes even of our religion.
Acting like he did, covers for the fact that he is a product of our post colonial society.
No matter how much we try to distance ourselves from him.
He is us.
The British Empire, The US global hegemon, white supremacy, global policeman, gun culture, justified violence, the rightful avenger, cultural genocide, actual genocide, unending war, war, war war.
No meaning in the misspelling of Anders Brevik’s first name. I didn’t look up the exact spelling. However, his surname is burned into the collective conscience as a synonym for fascist hate. As this terrorists name should be.
I’m picking that they are going to offer him a deal, in which he pleads guilty to 40 counts of murder in return for no terror charges being laid (and possibly life without parole off the table).
Don’t get me wrong. I admire the Prime Minister’s personal decision, for her to not personally say his name. It was dignified and apt as fitting our premier, and leading citizen.
But it is not writ.
Our Premier is not Kim Jong Un, her personal preference should not be imposed or self imposed on us.
If Kim Jong Un started wearing miss-matched socks tomorrow the whole nation would be wearing miss-matched socks the next day.
While I admire the Prime Minister’s stand.
What we must avoid is the personality cult. What may be right for her, may not be right for us.
When the Prime Minister of New Zealand says, “the terrorist” just by her position we know who she means.
But for the rest of us it is not so clear, there have been so many terrorists. Saying the “the terrorist” elevates this terrorist to a special rank.
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 ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
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Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
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The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
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Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
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Some spend their time worrying about what the opposition is or not doing and having a laugh at these goings on
YET, what is happening by those who currently have the power to make changes ?
Have you say regarding New Zealand’s future regarding Education is about to close on the 7th April
And the changes suggested by the “independant” task force gives no evidence based on what it is proposing will work, no overseas experience to see what they propose has achieved, just what they think.
And the cost to implement this ??
Remember we are in a situation whereby teachers are paid below min wage and the min has told us there is no more money available. !!!
https://conversation.education.govt.nz/conversations/tomorrows-schools-review/have-your-say-today/
https://www.education.govt.nz/news/tomorrows-schools-report-released/
Imposing the hubs (yes, they need to be imposed) will ensure that education goes back to being a public service run by civil servants for the public good.
Currently, education is run by rotarian hacks as a tradeable commodity, with parents as passive consumers, and schools pushing out pipils seen as hard work and pandering to international students.
It will probably also ensure that schools are constrained by rigid ‘one size fits all’ ideologically driven education policies; by the inability of parent communities to be meaningfully involved in the running of their local schools; by stifling creativity for local schools in devising situation specific solutions to educational issues they face; and so on.
Rather than assist students to be prepared and ready for the challenges of the future; especially in relation to transforming the economy so desired by Grant Robertson, these regressive ideologically driven reforms will produce decidedly average educational outcomes that won’t help students adjust to a changing world, and won’t achieve the outcomes ministers such as Robertson want vis a vis transforming the economy.
Repeating the same talking points as the NZ Inititave I see, while education goes down the toilet.
Wrong reforms.
Nationals back to the 1800’s 3 Rs, were the ideologically stultifying reforms.
Teachers are leaving because of the inability to Teach under the current rules.
So we de construct what works for 80% of students and schools to blindly experiment and go where no one has gone before ??
No mention of what any changes are to achieve only “we believe …” prefixing all Bali Haque statements
There are successes out there why not see why those schools that are succeeding with Māori and Pacific students and implement that to other schools “Local Focus: How this Māori principal turned a failing school into one of the top schools in the country” – I note that such innovation would not be feasible under the newly proposed system 🙁
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12210181
Imposing the hubs (yes, they need to be imposed) will ensure that education goes back to being a public service run by civil servants for the public good. – That wasn’t mentioned in the report as a reason or desired outcome.
I really don’t like the hub model because it just imposes another layer of beuracracy that will suck up tons of funding. It just adds another layer between the MoE and schools to which the MoE can shift blame.
😥
Totally agree with you👍🏾
Pity there is no other means to show agreement with a comment.
At least these hubs will allow in part some growth in employment within the regions, so Min Jones will be happy – growth in the regions. As you comment money being diverted to these hubs will mean funding cuts elsewhere within the ministry – As corporate offices are a necessity will this mean front line cuts ?? 🤔
And what would you do then? Keep having schools competing? The good schools prospering and then rest sinking.
People need to start getting on board with the hubs, forcing schools to collaborate with with each other for the common good.
No to privatisation. Yes to public services.
Funny if not machiavellian, if that post submissions are closed we have this ….
“Next Steps
23 When I report back to the Committee in May 2019, the report-back will also
include:
23.1 the relative costs and benefits of the proposals that the Minister intends to
progress or consult further on, and
23.2 the estimated fiscal costs and regulatory impacts of those proposals
And where under the hub system will success come it is all a 1 fit “”solution””
You ask these questions of me yet none are addressed within the report.
Our overall findings
On some outcome measures, many of our students do well at
school. However, the system is not working well enough for our
most disadvantaged children and young people
So our education system is working – Yet to solve a very long existing issue we destroy everything !! And why not examine schools where “the most disadvantaged .. ” are bucking the norm . Refer link above in the NZ herald ??
“Local Focus: How this Māori principal turned a failing school into one of the top schools in the country”
The hubs will use existing money and staff.
They will provide a much needed support to school, and provide assistance for parents who are currently getting shafted.
How do you know that as the report regarding costs and resources will not be out until NEXT month. Unless you are in the know, and the whole process has been manipulated to achieve a predetermined outcome.- that is not open and honest government !!!
I would recommend you take some time to read the report.
And take not of the over used phase (IMO) of “In our view” is used –
https://conversation.education.govt.nz/assets/TSR/Tomorrows-Schools-Review-Report-13Dec2018.PDF
And what would you do then? Keep having schools competing? The good schools prospering and then rest sinking.
People need to start getting on board with the hubs, forcing schools to collaborate with with each other for the common good.
No to privatisation. Yes to public services.
They only succeeded by purging the schools of students that were likely to drag them down.
That the opposition to change consists of 40 out of 2500 schools, who have been able to cherry pick white wealthy students, and, Mike Hosking, says it all.
We have 3 great schools within 5kms
One offer Cambridge, the other 2 ncea, but one has an outdoors facility and sports centre. Between them they offer the flyers sports but each offers a uniqu sport league, baseball and rowing (no polo ☹️)
I see these 3 being complementary , others will see them in competition and stealing out of zone students . I suppose it is all how you perceive the world 😉
Rich white retired dairy farmers village. Need I say more.
No middle class traditional suburbia, thou my typos on the phone may have added some confusion some how: traditional sports became “flyers sports” and outdoor pursuits became facility. Perhaps my intended sarc/funny “polo” was missed by you !! But given the contect I can understand the comment 😉
So you support what is a privatisation and deregulation policy, where parents have no support,and schools can force parents to pay through the nose in donations and buy expensive devices
Are you for real and have you read the report all 148 pages ??
So you are happy for a 1 size fits all system, and we don’t even know if the 1 size will even work ?
And with a minister and a hand picked task force that has no links to success from what they are proposing, what outcomes we should expect ??
OUR CHILDREN DON’T DESERVE TO BE LAB RATS
No school forces parents – Perhaps you should go and experience the real world and not scare monger. And why do schools request donations and fund raise ??
Because the govt inadequately funds education. Our minister has been caught out pay below min wage to teachers and support staff. And when they are found out breaking the law –
“The rise in the minimum wage on 1 April will see a 7.3% increase for some education workers – but with no funding to pay the new rates.”
https://www.nzei.org.nz/NZEI/Media/Releases/2019/03/Urgent_funding_needed_to_lift_education_workers_to_legal_minimum_wage_next_week.aspx
Herodotus (pretentious ancient Greek pseudonym)
Stop boring us with your ‘one size fits all’ clichés and your faux concern.
I started teaching in 1970, and I laugh to scorn your silly pretence that Tomorrow’s Schools reforms brought anything much that should not now be rescinded.
Who are you to judge?
In Vino
I have taken time to read what was produced from this task force seen the video and the road show. I have concern, who are you to throw away cheap comments with the express intent of insulting comments regarding “faux concern”.
“.. laugh to scorn your silly pretence that Tomorrow’s Schools reforms brought anything much that should not now be rescinded.” Funny how a previous govt made radical changes to the education system that you find have no value. Yet this is what is currently happening, another govt is using our children as lab rats to shake up the education system, for what ?
I am yet to see any links from anyone supporting the changes with what outcomes we should expect.
Another link regarding commentary – I await some sound responses NOT insults. But that is the way of today 😤
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/111723690/terrifying-words-for-schools-the-ministrys-here-to-help
The whole premise of “competing” schools, run by “Managerial” principals, with a business type “board” of, mostly self selected “representatives”, has been an entirely predictable cluster fuck, right from the start.
Exacerbated recently by National dumping the well researched and consulted on, NZ curriculum, which was flexible and student centred, by an ideological return to producing cannon fodder, for employers.
Schools in well off areas, have been able to go around the narrow education National desired, with extra funding and help from their communities.
They have no desire, for equality of opportunity to return.
“Can’t have poor brown kids competing with our spoilt brats for the best jobs”.
Some are perfectly happy with a two tier education system.
Meanwhile. The system is, failing most children.
Not least because of all the current micro-management, bumf production and control, our “managerial model”, requires. Currently about two hours paperwork is required for every hour of contact time.
Then, there is actually finding time for lesson planning, teaching and helping the many left behind.
Well said, KJT.
I could add a lot more of my own sour feelings about the crassly stupid ‘reforms’ made to our education system under what is now ‘Yesterday’s Schools’, but the thread is old, unlikely to be read, and I think Herodotus a determined right-wing ideologue anyway.
The national permaculture hui begins today in Riverton, with a powhiri in the big Mongolian yurt followed by afternoon tea in the tunnelhouse wharekai. The 150 or so attendees will then weave their way through the forest garden, back to the yurt for the first of the key note talks, this one from me, talking about the history of the area and our garden, surrounding orchards, growing community and projects. Over the next 3 days, we’ll hear from all manner of interesting permaculturalists, Nandor Tanczos is speaking tomorrow, on topics as wide as imaginable; we’ll enjoy bonfires each night, a hangi on Saturday and the delicious food from the talented Green Cuisine crew, serving from their food van on our driveway. We’ve as many musicians as you could ever hope for, enough Jacks and Jills of all trades to cope with any technical hitch, enough fruit on the trees; red-fleshed peaches in particular and more apple varieties than you could name. Our bakers have made and stored treats galore; and this is all I have time to write, as the house is stirring and we’ll be in full-on mode shortly; there are preparations to make; Hollie’s running a Country Mouse market and there are hazels and acorns to polish 🙂
I’ll report back on Sunday, in How to get there and hopefully have something to say on that topic in real-time.
honestly, i wish i could be there. Maybe next year? (hopeful much?)
Go well Robert. And well done getting all that organised!
Gee, that sounds heavenly!
I will look forward to that Robert. You sound so upbeat and happy. Cheers
Sounds superb Robert. Will the hui be at the same venue next year.
Sounds like a good model of where we might be in a decade or so when energy problems and global warming problems force us all to becoming much more self sufficient. Do we really need exotic foods and goods to be imported, and do we need to depend on vast numbers of tourists?
Sounds great Robert.
I concur. Thanks ianmac. So much lost in this crazy world of consumerism, materialism and commercial tourism.
All the best Robert. Sounds like an interesting day.
That does sound wonderful.
Enjoyable to read the updates leading into the hui…
Kia ora, all. Just a quick update on a matter raised earlier in the week. Yesterday, I went to a WINZ office to act as support for someone who found themselves needing urgent financial help.
A couple of Standarnistas gave me some tips and advice on what to ask for and I’m pleased to report that the staff at the WINZ office were helpful, understanding and empathetic. We will meet again early next week to provide some more paperwork, which will confirm the total entitlements, but in the meantime, accommodation supplement is already OK’d and it has been indicated that Temporary Additional Support will likely be granted.
This is a significant matter for the person I represented, who has been left with no income for over a month due to a weakness in the ACC system.
So, thank you to those who pointed me in the right direction. It might have only been a few words on a blog, but you’ve made a huge difference to a young man in a desperate situation.
That’s really good, TRP.
Same to those who gave tips for navigating winz…
Knowing the in’s and out’s is crucial to getting good outcomes…
fantastic news. Keep fighting the good fight!
TRP, I’m glad he had someone like you to help him. You are right that the service gaps of weeks to change over can be traumatic to someone already stressed. Pleased to hear there was a helpful attitude at WINZ.
Wonder if there has been a real change of Heart at WINZ because your current contact sounds reasonable. If so it makes you wonder what made WINZ previously sound so threatening. Was it really a deliberate policy from previous Government to make it as hard as possible?
The Nats certainly enabled a nasty culture to fester in WINZ and ACC. Always worth remembering that Paula Benefit publicly bullied and humiliated a couple of beneficiaries who stood up to her. If the boss is an unrepentant bully, it gives the green light for poor behaviour from all staff. Happily, I’ve got the feeling that the new culture of kindness has taken root in at least one WINZ branch.
ACC needs a top down overhaul. It’s not focused on getting people well again just it’s numbers using case workers dishing out ‘youre on your own sweetie ‘ type advice.
The DHB’S also. Watching clinicians wait for Windows 7 to go through the motions in 2019 is a sign they’re way off the pace. They are visibly frustrated by it and MS stopped mainstream support 4 years ago…….Tick tick tick
I think maybe a culture change is underway.
I was speaking to someone last weekend who has had to give up work to be a full time carer for her son who has been diagnosed with cancer and she was treated with respect. The WINZ meeting was friendly and she was not put through hoops like she was expecting.
Long may this continue.
So the silly gun lobby cry… “wah wah, all this ban does is make criminals of law-abiding people and responsible gun-owners, and has no effect on actual criminals”
Is it not apparent to them that the mosque-murderer was a “law-abiding person and responsible gun-owner” ?
The argument is a total nonsense.
Do gun lobby people ever think through things?
If only there was a pithy phrase that covered the approach of the gun lobby. Something like shoot first, don’t ask awkward questions later.
We have this gun lobby not identifying the target correctly and firing shots at shadows and movement instead. And they will end up shooting their mates.
The NRA talking points are being repeated hard core on Facebook these days.
Oh Soimon ! The gift that just keeps on giving. Please Nats FFS don’t change him.
Although it does sound like his staff are equally as stupid as he.
It’s called the Peter principle. Peter and hulls 1969 book intended as satire.
Maduro’s kangaroo court is working with his fake parliament to remove Guaido’s civil rights. The practical exercise of stalinism as state policy is meant to signal that no dissent will be tolerated, and democracy is only good when preached – bad when practiced. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47799263
“Why was his immunity lifted? Under the Venezuelan constitution, lawmakers cannot be arrested or put on trial unless they are stripped of their parliamentary immunity first. On Monday, the Supreme Court asked the National Constituent Assembly to end Mr Guaidó’s immunity because he defied a travel ban the Supreme Court had imposed on him.”
Freedom of movement is a civil right in a democracy. To a stalinist, it is intolerable. And it is absolutely essential to strip legislators of their legal protection!
“Why is this move controversial? According to article 200 of the Venezuelan constitution, the Supreme Court has the power to order the arrest or prosecution of a lawmaker “subject to authorisation in advance from the National Assembly”.”
Will leftist commentators onsite here once again retreat into denial or perform backflips & other mental contortions to evade the moral point? I await their performance with eager anticipation…
Dennis, you can do better than this. Straight from the BBC I see…
You care more about the rights of one instigator than the people or the democracy of Venezuela! Says a lot…
First of all, the elections in Venezuela are probably better run than the ones in the United States, the idea that Maduro has no legitimacy as leader is a straight propaganda lie.
Secondly, if David Seymour declared himself prime minster tomorrow, incited gun owners and farmers and ACToids to riot, destroy property and encouraged foreign agent provocateurs to cripple the elctricity system and fire on the police and agitated for his big business mates to launch a capital strike to cripple the economy I am pretty sure he would be facing arraignment and a treason trial a lot quicker than Guaido will.
Thirdly, his human rights are not – yet – being violated. All that is happening is via a legal process his immunity to prosecution is being removed. Given that Guaido has basically committed treason, that seems fair enough to me.
Exactly. Well said.
The propaganda war has been in full swing for years and won’t let up until Abrams and his like achieve their goal of regime change. This time it’s a little different. The other players on the periphery – Russia and China – are not going to let Venezuela slip away into the hands of the USA.
Guido is part of a group that tried an armed insurrection against an elected Government.
Try conspiring to overthrow our Government by force, and see how long you stay out of jail.
This is the guido who’s conspiring with a forn par to bring down an elected government is it franky? Parfle crtique there praxisman, parfle.
Dennis. You have imbibed a near fatal dose of right wing Fox news.
I suggest a course of ingesting actual journalism.
If Maduro was a totalitarian dictator, the armed rebellion would have been all shot already. Even here Guido, and his violent coup supporting mates, would be in jail. How many coup attempts against an elected Government are you allowed. If you are a US supporting, Fascist!
Actually, I don’t watch Fox. Not to say that I wouldn’t, if it became free to air here, for the entertainment value.
As regards journalism, the only type of relevance would be investigative, but media owners have disposed of that in the new millennium. That’s why I had to do it myself, to expose the suppression of democracy in Venezuela, and publish the facts here several months ago.
I agree that Maduro is being careful not to go full Stalinism as yet. Happy to give him credit for that. Equally, there is no coup happening so far. Other countries in the region refer to Maduro’s “self-coup” and I published the quote for that back then too. I oppose any unilateral intervention by the US.
Total bullshit.
Just blown what remaining credibility you had.
Supporting the return of fascist, Banana republic, in South America.
Don’t be silly. Nuanced view of complex situations aren’t as difficult as you seem to think! I don’t like Maduro’s class warfare agenda. If the middle class can do peaceful coexistence with the working class in other countries, why not in Venezuela too?
I don’t believe US control needs to be imposed. I’ve opposed US foreign policy since the Vietnam War era, and specifically that banana-republic part since I learnt about it in the mid-80s. I believe their oil money ought to be distributed to all Venezuelan people – not captured by corporations or Maduro’s stalinists.
Loaded bs like “Stalinist”, now. I suppose at least your propaganda is subtle, as well as ignorant.
I am ready to think, from observation, and reading, that Maduro is struggling with running the country.
But the opposition, and the USA, have thrown up every obstacle they can.
I certainly don’t think any of our politicians could do better.
The “class warfare”, it seems, stems from the other sides reluctance to give the poor, and coloured, a share.
Nowhere near as bad as the Trump republicans, however.
Should the West invade the USA, and change the Government?
Give franky credit, he hasn’t gone full franco yet, in praxis.
He is learning.
Technology trends in farming…
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/03/future-farms-agritech-innovations-to-feed-a-changing-planet/
This would fit with Robert’s comment @ 2.
Given that many of the things talked about go off in a very different direction to the values and methods in Robert’s post, I kinda figured it would be derailing or even trolling to put it as a reply there.
The thing is we dont gave a food shortage. If the food grown wasn’t wasted and people only ate the amount required to stay healthy and we found a way for poorer nations to buy the excess created it would be solved tomorrow.
In a world that’s on its way to 10 or 11 billion people, any surplus we might create from reducing waste and distribution inefficiency is going to disappear really quickly. That’s even before climate change and soil depletion start seriously reducing potential yields. And before considering the way most people start overconsuming food when it becomes easy to do so, in a rush to emulate the worst of porky westerners.
Someone posted the latest projection here a few months back. It supported the prognosis published by Fred Pearce a few years ago in Peoplequake, that global population is likely to top out at 9.5 billion then subside due to demographic trends.
So unless you have a contradictory source, looks like non-replacement is now becoming so prevalent in so many different countries as to cancel out the third world boom effect…
The UN projection from 2017 says 9.8 billion by 2050 then 11 billion by 2100
https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html
However:
Given what climate change is going to do most of those countries, I’m guessing those projections will end up being high. I suspect there’s going to be a shitload of suffering creating that difference between projection and actual.
Four horsemen? Even putting that effect to one side, subsidence of population due to culture change, due to economic lifting of the third world out of the poverty trap, could be understated currently.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2017/06/22/the-problematic-assumption-in-the-uns-9-8-billion-people-projection/#325372cb3291
I think Pearce & others are using this cascade effect as rationale for their rosier picture of the future. Upside of globalisation…
Getting back to the starting point of this thread, even if we didn’t have population growth worries, we’d still have a lot of incentive to increase agricultural productivity by whatever means we can, including technological. To get more output from less input and smaller footprint.
Maybe so foods that now are occasional luxuries become more frequent. Maybe further reduce the numbers of us suffering hunger and malnutrition. Maybe we can stop destroying what few wild places remain, and maybe, just maybe, even start rewilding some areas currently used for agriculture.
With regard to the current or recent huuhaa in Parliament I would point out that Guns do not kill people but the humans pulling the trigger or careless handling.
It is easy to ban guns but what is being done about and for the human element in the problem?
jcuknz it is a reasonable question. Severely restricting the sale of semi automatics etc will help as the countries (such as japan) with the strictest guns laws have the less gun crime. It is a bit like the suicide rate. One of the only ways it has been significantly reduced was when we changed the house hold gas supply from toxic to benign. Did that deal with the issue of people feeling suicidal and wanting to end their life, of course not. That is the really tough bit. Same with stopping people who want to kill others or commit extremist crimes.
I listened to an interview on Radio NZ with a Professor Gill who has studied “lone wolf” terrorists. I have to say, the interviewer was very disappointing, but I followed up by reading some of his research.
The most helpful thing seems to be that these guys often tell people what they are going to do, or publicize it. Interestingly enough there is a case reported today of a right wing extremist who was going to stab a Labour MP and policewoman and was dobbed in by someone he talked to…………………..
“Guns do not kill people but the humans pulling the trigger ”
This argument has always been complete bollocks.
In evidence try this exercise without gun: make a trigger-pulling movement with your finger right now in front of your computer screen. What happened?
Look forward to replies
People with guns kill people, no matter how much the gun lobby repeats that BS. I hope the public at large are motivated enough to make a quick submission today. Every recommendation of the Thorp Report needs to be enacted. Now.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It is easy to ban guns but what is being done about and for the human element in the problem?
Well, you see, there are inherent problems in banning humans that should become obvious after even brief reflection on the subject.
One thing to be done is to take away their guns jockey.
OK. Weapons “don’t kill people, people do”.
Fine, then let’s legalise RPG’s, main battle tanks and cruise missiles, for citizen use.
After all they “don’t kill people, people do”.
I support the the Arms (Prohibited Firearms, Magazines, and Parts) Amendment Bill in its entirety.
… into the form on this page (scroll down to the bottom)
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/make-a-submission/document/52SCFE_SCF_BILL_86423/arms-prohibited-firearms-magazines-and-parts-amendment
This is how to make a submission in support of the Arms Bill
“The “emotional staffer” who National Leader Simon Bridges said was responsible for deleting a controversial petition on the party’s website is said to be in dispute with National.”
Oh dear. Simon has upset one of his own. Lawyers involved.
Another one?
“Stuff reported that the staffer, who has worked for National MPs in a number of different roles over the years, has retained Kensington Swan lawyer Linda Clark to represent their interests.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12219133
Sanders isn’t a Democrat. He’s never run for office in Vermont as a Democrat. But the Fox/Trump/NRA Axis of Evil is determined to make Sanders a Democrat because they think he’s the candidate Trump can most easily beat.
Fox News’ Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will host a town hall with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on April 15 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a focus on the economy and jobs.
Why it matters: Earlier this year, the Democratic National Committee barred Fox News from hosting any of its primary debates, after a New Yorker investigation shed light on the extent of the network’s ties to the Trump administration.
https://www.axios.com/2020-presidential-election-bernie-sanders-fox-news-town-hall-382d3b77-452b-4c5e-8073-672863350433.html
Are you claiming that Bernie was lying last month then, Joe?
He signed a statement that he was a member of the Democratic Party on 6 March this year.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/bernie-sanders-signs-dnc-loyalty-pledge-i-am-member-democratic-n979696
I wouldn’t have thought that a town hall meeting with one candidate present could be considered to be a party debate of course.
He’s never lifted a finger to fund raise for the party but because he needs access to their data, staff, and volunteer base, he had to join and pledge allegiance.
Dude’s a carpetbagger.
Dude’s got principles
Principles like supporting a plan to ship his state’s nuclear nuclear waste across the continent to be dumped in a poor, mostly Latino community?
Or, principles like being the 2016 cycle’s top senatorial recipient of defence industry money?
You’re not wrong. Such apalling principles – grind Bernie into the dust.
“As an Independent member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Vermont, Sanders was one of 23 co-sponsors of House Resolution 629, which called for Congress to give its consent to the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact — an agreement between the states of Texas, Maine, and Vermont.
Speaking on the floor of the house in October 1997, Sanders said he was in “strong support” of the resolution for environmental reasons, and stressed that he personally was opposed to the use of nuclear power, but that the waste it produces had to be disposed of as safely as possible.”
Congress passed the resolution comfortably by 305 votes to 117, as did the Senate, by 78 votes to 15.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bernie-sanders-sierra-blanca-nuclear-waste/
“Within that tab, we can click “All Senators.” Up top, receiving $420,000 from the defense industry, is Bernie Sanders. Then Ted Cruz. Both ran for president, so it’s not a surprise they received a lot of money. Sanders hung on longer than Cruz. And, notably, their main rivals (Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, respectively) were not in Congress, so they would not be listed here even if they had received more. Instead, we go to the “Recipients” tab and see Clinton received over $1 million from the defense industry; Trump received about $319,000.”
https://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/finance-lobbying/writing-campaign-finance-tip-sheet-tools-examples/
““I just feel he’s honest, he’s straightforward, dependable, trustworthy and doesn’t change his tune to get votes,” said Connie Whalley, a nurse practitioner who left her job three years ago to spend more time with her family.
The 66-year-old Topanga resident has contributed $622 to Sanders’ campaign in 22 separate donations because she was impressed by his calls for a $15 minimum wage, tuition-free public college, campaign-finance reform and most of all, single-payer healthcare.
“I honestly believe everyone has the right to free healthcare and… I just think it is unspeakable we have insurance companies that are making profits off people’s health,” she said.
Not surprisingly, Sanders gets very little money — 2% of his overall haul — from Wall Street, which he frequently criticizes as “corrupt” and responsible for creating a “rigged economy.””
https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-sanders-donors/
NZ Journos jailed
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/04/04/521015/newsroom-journalists-detained-in-fiji
Newsroom co-editor Mark Jennings, investigations editor Melanie Reid and cameraman Hayden Aull are in a holding room at the Totogo police station after developer Freesoul Real Estate accused them of criminal trespass. While they have not been charged, they were locked up ahead of likely police interviews this morning.
Fiji…..No surprises there. Police are extension of that abhorrent govt that seems to do as it pleases.
Well, if our lot go ahead with the laws Andrew Little seems to be planning I imagine there will be a few journalists ending up in jail here as well.
Almost anything that describes the perpetrator of a crime would seem to qualify.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/111661809/hate-crime-law-review-fasttracked-following-christchurch-mosque-shootings
Mind you I am tempted to suggest it couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch that the schmucks in the MSM.
Difficulties for the poor in the USA – similar here?
Oct 15 2015
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/if-the-us-government-treated-poor-people-as-well-as-it-treats-banks/410614/
One of the great ironies in modern America is that the less money you have, the more you pay to use it. The country’s “unbanked” must pay high fees to fringe banks to turn their paychecks into cash, pay their monthly bills, or send money to a spouse or a child.
The unbanked pay much of their income—up to 10 percent—just to use their money. For these families, the total price of simple financial services each month is more than they spend on food. Indeed, it is very expensive to be poor.
This problem, however, reaches well beyond those traditionally considered poor. More than 70 percent of Americans consider themselves “middle class,” yet anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of the population must rely on check cashing or payday lending services.
Bill Maher’s take on socialism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6e4mOit0Rc
There seems to be some misunderstanding and misapplication of the term Postmodernism. In this video, the tension between identity politics and the work of postmodern theorists is addressed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26fIBA7O5Ag
Yeah, was worth a listen. Too academic for most punters, I suspect. Got better around 12 mins in. Ivory-tower syndrome is a terrible affliction which imposes a crippling handicap on the intellect. No reference to shapeshifters (that would require both lateral-thinking and reference to the big-picture context outside acadaemia).
Even worse, no acknowledgement of those with multiple personalities. Presumably, the speaker believes discriminating against that minority is cool. I think those with multiple identities deserve inclusion, not exclusion. I learnt much about human nature from reading several dozen books about them. Cohabitation of a human body by a crowd of identities is a thing. Denial of this part of life is bad.
Would you look at this! This video covers that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9srhgHzUFd4
Given continued misunderstanding of what postmodern theory is even about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmYegIGhwtc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4hS5NSzPxw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsfKrNLIwhM
Good result for a rotten commentary.
“Newstalk ZB broadcaster Heather du Plessis-Allan has been censured over comments made on air last September.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) found comments made by du Plessis-Allan, referring to Pacific Islands as “leeches”, breached broadcasting standards.
The BSA ordered broadcaster NZME Radio to pay $3000 in costs to the Crown and also broadcast a statement during du Plessis-Allan’s show summarising the decision.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12219199
Good!
That sort of commentary has no place in this country, or any other, for that matter.
$3000 will not discourage red neck radio zb from repeating it if it gets them audience points to upsell ads.
Over 6 months between offence and wet busticket slap. The beancounters will advise on its value for money.
Crosby Textor have their grubby little hands over everything don’t they. Not content with stuffing up NZ social justice for over a decade promoting the right wing agenda of Key and co, they have now been found out to be behind a multitude of pro-leave adverts directed at chosen Facebook uses to pressure MP’s on voting to leave. Oh and they are also buttering up the same facebook users to accepting dipstick in chief Boris as PM! Their mission (as was exhibited by Key) is to leave the world as f**ked up as possible – including the promotion of burning more coal.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/03/grassroots-facebook-brexit-ads-secretly-run-by-staff-of-lynton-crosby-firm
my bold
Astroturfer in chief.
https://twitter.com/DavidLammy/status/1113346710816862208
Nobody coulda seen this one coming: maybe Mueller’s report was a teensy tiny bit not quite so positive for Agent Orange as Barr’s
summaryletter made it out to be.https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/03/politics/mueller-investigators-report-worse-for-trump/index.html
I liked this early response from Devin Nunes:
That’s what you do with exonerating documents right?
As the chief investigator, does not Mueller have a right to speak up if his report is not being accurately summarised to the American people?
AFAIK, no. He was commissioned to investigate and report to the DOJ, which would then decide what to do with it from there. If he did publicly talk about it, he would be breaking the same general protocols and norms Comey broke by talking about her e-mails, let alone possibly breaking laws buried in the statutes that allowed his Special Counsel investigation to be set up.
Well, all I can say is: what a f****d up country America is. It means a corrupt president and his equally corrupt administration lackeys can lie to the people with total impunity and never be brought to account. It beggars belief!
Yeah. Some of it goes all the way back to the founding.
Some of the justification for the Electoral College rather than directly electing the prez was so the electors would be able to examine the character and fitness for office of the leading candidate. If the popular vote barfed up some loser grifter, they would exercise their better judgement to overrule the popular vote and choose someone who actually was suitable. It was supposed to be a line of defense against someone like Don Drumpfeone becoming prez. Look up Federalist 68 if you’re interested. Of course, the outcome we’ve got now is the Electoral College overruled the good judgement of the popular vote and gave us the conman.
The possibility of a corrupt prez corrupting the legislative and judicial branches did occur to the founders, and some of the provisions are clearly attempts to guard against that. Which have proven inadequate to prevent the spinal dissolution and craven capitulation of almost all the other Repugs.
‘
Fifty counts of murder and 34 counts of attempted murder.
No terrorism charges
Apparently only Maori and brown people can be terrorists.
Hi Jenny I had understood that they weren’t using the charge of terrorism, because it is largely untested and they don’t want to risk this fucker getting off on a technicality. That what I heard, but I could be wrong
The esteemed and learned Professor Geddis discusses pros and cons of terrorism and murder charges over at https://www.pundit.co.nz . Sorry you’ll have to scroll down to find it; the URL contains the fuckwit’s name so linking directly to the page would send this comment straight to trash here.
The campaign not to name the terrorist, (who apparently is not a terrorist according to the police prosecution), was also played out in Norway during the trial of the fascist mass murderer Andre Brevik. TV One tonight, said in Norway this policy had to be dropped. “He is not Voldemort” said one Norwegian woman interviewed. The campaign not to refer to the Brevik by name only created and air of mystique around Brevik and encouraged like minded extremists to invent and then circulate conspiracy theories.
Brenten Terent is no supernatural being. where the mere spoken (or written), utterance of his name brings an evil curse. We need to fully understand what made him into what he is.
This cannot happen under a blanket of secrecy, and secret dread to speak his name. Conspiracy thrives in the shadows.
As the saying goes ‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant, electric light is the best policeman’
In Norway they found it was better to forensically dissect and publicly demolish Brevik’s manifesto, than censor it.
Terrent like Brevik sees himself as a hero.
Benten Terent is a miserable little fascist terrorist. He must be firmly identified as such by our authorities. He and his (admirers) need to be made to own this label of shame, in court.
I don’t believe for one minute the argument that such charges would allow Torrent to get off on a technicality.
The police had no trouble at all charging Tama Iti under the Suppression Of Terrorism Act. Despite the fact that Iti had not killed anyone, or was even involved in plotting to kill anyone.
If the charge of terrorist cannot be made to stick to someone like B****** T***** who plotted and then executed the murder of 50 innocent people to further his white Supremacist political views, then there is something very wrong at the heart of the New Zealand Suppression Of Terrorism Act.
As well as being charged with murder and attempted murder BT* needs to be charged as the terrorist he is.
*See you have got me doing it.
Am I to take any message from your misspelling of the Norwegian fuckwit’s first name?
Although I’m fine with referring to the fuckwit as the fuckwit, I actually had nothing to do with this site’s decision to make the fuckwit’s real name a direct line to the trash folder, to be retrieved only if a mod happens to look there and decides it’s worth fishing out.
In any case, it’s not dread or an attempt to toss him down the memory hole that’s the motivation for minimising the use of his name. It’s just denying him the personal recognition that was likely a partial motivation for his fuckwittery.
As for whether the fuckwit’s a terrorist or not, Geddis’ piece explains why there’s probably no legal upside to charging him under the terrorism laws. That those terrorism laws were grievously misused and shown to be badly flawed the one time they actually were used, and are useless in this current case where we have actual terrorism, might actually prompt a clean-up of those laws. Or not.
The delay in bringing charges under the Suppression of Terrorism Act is a studied insult to the victims and their families.
We all know, if the situation had been reversed the police would not have wasted one second in bringing a charge of terrorism.
The police fell over themselves to bring such charges against Tama Iti.
I mean what level of atrocity must be committed against innocent Muslims in this country before we consider it a terrorist act?
Why are we Umm-ing and Ah-ing about it.
If Muslims weren’t the victims we wouldn’t even be debating.
If the situation had been reversed and the terrorist had a Arabic or Asian, or Maori name. To make certain that we knew his ethnicity, to demonise a whole race or culture or religion, his name would be on every news feed.
This guy has a regular European name.
Let’s suppress it.
Let’s distance ourselves from it.
Let’s deny that he is one of us. That he is a product of our culture, and of our race and yes even of our religion.
This guy didn’t drop from outer space.
Acting like he did, covers for the fact that he is a product of our post colonial society.
No matter how much we try to distance ourselves from him.
He is us.
The British Empire, The US global hegemon, white supremacy, global policeman, gun culture, justified violence, the rightful avenger, cultural genocide, actual genocide, unending war, war, war war.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/93425398/education-minister-to-shut-down-guns-in-schools-after-army-gave-rifles-to-children
No meaning in the misspelling of Anders Brevik’s first name. I didn’t look up the exact spelling. However, his surname is burned into the collective conscience as a synonym for fascist hate. As this terrorists name should be.
I read on one news outlet it was 38 counts of attempted murder.
Stuffed sez 39. With other charges still being considered.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/111805695/further-murder-charges-for-man-arrested-over-terror-attack
I’m picking that they are going to offer him a deal, in which he pleads guilty to 40 counts of murder in return for no terror charges being laid (and possibly life without parole off the table).
[the terrorist] should be charged as a terrorist
Way to go to infantilise the debate
Don’t get me wrong. I admire the Prime Minister’s personal decision, for her to not personally say his name. It was dignified and apt as fitting our premier, and leading citizen.
But it is not writ.
Our Premier is not Kim Jong Un, her personal preference should not be imposed or self imposed on us.
If Kim Jong Un started wearing miss-matched socks tomorrow the whole nation would be wearing miss-matched socks the next day.
While I admire the Prime Minister’s stand.
What we must avoid is the personality cult. What may be right for her, may not be right for us.
When the Prime Minister of New Zealand says, “the terrorist” just by her position we know who she means.
But for the rest of us it is not so clear, there have been so many terrorists. Saying the “the terrorist” elevates this terrorist to a special rank.