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.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
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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.
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:
Given continued misunderstanding of what postmodern theory is even about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmYegIGhwtc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4hS5NSzPxw
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.