Just reflecting on the widely held opinion that the next election is a cake walk what with political 'capital' built up in PM Ardern, engagement news and the kerfuffle around the leadership of National party.
Going back two and a half years, there is no way the most strident Labour fan could have envisioned this scenario.
Therefore it is quite possible the same could happen again. After a couple of leadership coups eg Collins, Woodhouse, Adams, Mitchell, a candidate like Upston, Ngaro or Dean, or my pick, someone from outside of politics currently, can come in and sweep all before them.
The coalition needs to look at their statements leading into the election and put them into action.
OMG…. if they have to resort to Dean they may as well give up and go home. Has that MP achieved anything in 4 1/2 terms. Apart from falling for a di-hydrogen monoxide hoax once.
Impressive business career. Finance Minister, maybe, but not really the right sort of charisma for political leader. Is probably on track for international roles after his current one so why would he settle for replacing Bill English or Steven Joyce?
It doesn't matter that Shane Jones is NZ First. Any good he/they achieve can be undone electorally in one brain numbingly dumb speech/spiel.
It's all about the easiest to create negative thing, perception. There is already a 'dishonourable' list with Clare Curran, Twyford, Mahuta, Jackson whose actions, words, for right or wrong, have had the affect of chopping down the tree or at least ring-barking it.
So the option of having sea transport is lessening. Our government has abandoned the domestic economy in order to export and then we can buy all the wonderful things available from the world with our export dollars. That is, those in employment at a living wage. We have stopped making things for ourselves.
But then, because of the reciprocal nature of our trading system we have an open economy, and overseas people who have bigger purses than us, can buy wonderful things here, like houses, desirable land and very desirable water.
Now we have to decide whether we are going to spend our money buying imported goods, which are no longer made here, or go without – mend and save – and try to gather a deposit to buy a shoe-box or a big car to live in as the housing market prices have been pushed up by our wealthier export customers.
Is that a wise way to run a country? Even the relatively well off people are finding that the house they can obtain loan money to buy, drains more than half of their weekly or monthly earnings. And how do we supply necessities and have a thriving economy if we can’t export our produce. We will still be able to export services. But the reciprocal system will be broken. The overseas buyers will still come here and buy us up, we will be at survival mode and be tenants in what was our own land. I think John Key was expressing concern about that at one time while facilitating the process. Was it wise to leave him to play his smirking Prime Minister role for so long?
I saw a bunch of 18 year old redwoods today far bigger than Pinus radiata at 25 years (when they cut).
Too big for today's mills, no market (here) as everything is pine. Then there's the people growing natives, too scared to try large scale in case they're not allowed to realise the crop…
So we can't sell exotic timber except pine locally, we can't grow natives that would sell because we might not be allowed to sell them. Pine pine did someone say pine.
We can grow far better trees but… crops must be clonal for markets. And you got to have a market. Assessing a stand of a couple hundred trees for the tree keepers (good clones) is a couple hundred thousand dollars…
Who's got that laying around.
The market that's supposed to help little guys (trickle trickle) has us locked out. I guess you could grow pine…
F'n travesty. No variety in the market means no resilience to vagaries in the market. A bug, a bacteria, a fungi, an oomycete, an emerging player, a reticent buyer…
I had a look through Lincoln University offerings to see what they had on tree diversity. I couldn't find stuff. Pine.. But what about growing for carbon credits. Money for keeping them in the ground?
And having a range of trees for specialist use, furniture etc, masts; picking them out by helicopter and making big $$ from the few.
Someone would have to live in the area as they would attract thieves. Guns might be appropriate for rangers in this case.
There must be markets for other trees. Reasonably fast growing and not requiring the same treatment as softwood, resinous pines.
Pine tree economy is flawed as the cost to us for the road damage from using trucks is horrendous and driving the country broke and Ports tell us that the port virtually has to give no charge to using every log shipped from their Ports now as there is no money it it.
So we taxpayers pay to maintain n the Ports that have to allow free transport overseas from their Port, and we pay to keep the roads maintained from trucking the logs to the Port.
We are being screwed every day by this mindless false economy we are in now no thanks to national setting this all up for the export potential of a false economy in pine trees.
So the tories get decimated and, instead of being the recipient of a mass of disgruntled voters wrath, labour themselves also take a hammering. Not really the look of a government in waiting.
"Have Labour gained a whole bunch of seats? No. But the media effort to conflate Labour’s minor losses with the complete trouncing the Conservatives have taken is totally dishonest."
The results aren't in dispute, are they? What is, is how labour lost big and didn't benefit from the tory backlash, casting doubt on their ability to form a government after the next general election. It doesn’t seem they are resonating well with the public.
Without a brexit agreement, the longer Farrage's brexit party and the ukip stay in the game seems to be Corbyn's only hope of sneaking in to power at present, by default. Having the lib dems bounce back will take seats off May, but then labour could well lose out in 3 way electorates, and those tactically voting where they are in 3rd place. Not that positive, and certainly not much to shout about against a most unpopular ruling party.
Lucky for labour it's first past the post and not mmp, otherwise they'd be screwed with, on current polling, only scoring in the low 30s.
Yep, shared significant losses. Consider where labour were losing hardest, take in the big picture, add context, and the story behind the numbers makes more sense.
Well I'm definitely not downplaying labours losses, nor what it potentially means for them going forward electorally as a party who can still lose on the night as the most divided tory party in a generation shart it's pants.
So in rejecting the claims of propaganda and biassed media reporting in covering this poll, looking in to the stories behind the numbers (such as why labour shed votes to the lib dems in swings of around 8%), and going deeper behind a banner headline (why the major opposition party didn't pick up conservative protest votes when it needs them in these electorates to become government), I am also happy to leave it to the readers to decide whose spinning and for why.
yes we humans are one of the first to be extinct I fear.
The planet is nearing the end as the Ross Sea ice shelf is about to disappear and our sea levels will rise dramatically.
The oxygen content in the atmosphere is sinking every month now so how long can we survive without oxygen in our air?
We daily see brand new trucks on our roads all hauling freight that used to go by rail, increasing the carbon levels as we speak, so we are a menace to ourselves alright.
Rapid melting of the world’s largest ice shelf linked to solar heat in the ocean
Date:
April 29, 2019
Source:
University of Cambridge
Summary:
An international team of scientists has found part of the world’s largest ice shelf is melting 10 times faster than the overall ice shelf average, due to solar heating of the surrounding ocean surface.
Not much hope for our children now but to flee to a “survival bunkers” like they are probably building up high on the safety of the te-ureweras up in the hills when the end comes.
This would be the third such environmental catastrophe in the Waihi area. Not only would this toxic* mound of waste cover over 178H of agricultural land rendering it useless and presenting an eyesore for generations to come, there are other considerations to be taken into account as well.
The [already existing] two tailings dams near Waihi are some of the largest structures in the country.
Size of Martha Mine Waihi tailings dam compared to Mount Eden suburbs Auckland
Should either of these dams fail in an earthquake, we could be facing potentially New Zealand’s worst ever environmental disaster, and loss of life and livelihoods on a significant scale.
Therefore it is perfectly reasonable to ask the question – would these structures withstand a large earthquake? The question is even more pertinent because –
the Kaikoura quake unleashed thousands of huge landslides
a new GNS Science report on the nearby Kerepehi fault suggests a 7.4 magnitude earthquake is possible near Waihi, and also estimates that the interval between large quakes is 1000 years rather than 6000-8000 years as previously assumed.
the catastrophic failure of a tailings dam in Brazil in 2015 was due in part to a very small 2.6Mw quake acting as a triggering mechanism for the dam collapse
Coromandel Watchdog have been fighting this crap from the miners for years now. We don't need any more fucking gold. There has been 170,000 of tonnes of the stuff mined and locked up in safes such as Fort Knox, and elsewhere already. So it's already there if ever it is needed for any useful purpose. To get enough gold for a single wedding ring you have to drill though 250 tonnes of rock, pulverize it, then chemically treat it. Such activity now is simply madness.
*Tailings are the major wastes produced from gold extraction and they contain high amounts of heavy metals (HM). These metals leach out in an uncontrolled manner into surrounding environments on exposure to water or through dispersal by wind. The presence of elevated concentrations of HM in the environment is a serious health issue worldwide due to their non-degradative nature which makes them persistent and thereby exert long-term effects on the ecosystem
Fascists peacefully swamped by large crowd, cancel planned march through Liverpool.
When only a small counter protest turn up, the fascists sensing weakness, will not hesitate to use violence to intimidate and smash them over.
What made the difference between a small counter protest and large counter protest was leadership.
A far-right group has abandoned plans to march through Liverpool after members were visibly outnumbered by counter-demonstrators, including the mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson….
….“Peaceful people power chased the fascists off our streets,” Anderson, a Labour politician, said, adding that he wanted to “show these people they are not welcome in this city”….
…..“I want it to be peaceful, but I want people to be out on the streets saying they are not welcome in our city,” Anderson told the Liverpool Echo prior to the march. “Some people on Twitter have said to me: ‘What about free speech?’ Well that comes with a responsibility not to espouse hate.
I think that National’s break-point will be when the Budget gets presented to the House. The Party’s response and its Leader’s delivery will seal their fate for the next Election. Even the opinion pieces of Political Editors are getting boringly predictable in style and substance but they still do their job as click-bait <sigh>.
Here's hoping. Nothing I'd like more than to see the current National Party crop to self-destruct.
Having just watched "The Nation", what worries me is that there's a fair few issues where Labour/the Coalition are not even picking the low hanging fruit (apologies – I'm still pivoting going forward from the other day). Simon Wilson had a point – to do with the interaction between departments (in this case IRD and MSD) and the Ministers responsible – this to do with the case of a rape victim. From what I could see, even under current legislation, this matter could at least be partially resolved even if, as Sepuloni said, there would be no retrospective compensation.
Then there are things such as worker exploitation (BOTH immigrant and citizen) which could be at LEAST improved by Ministerial and Ministry intervention.
Then there are NZTA fuckups, insurance issues, etc, etc., etc. that may start to really piss off an impatient electorate if the Coalition doesn't pick up the pace (especially where some basic resolution doesn't require law changes).
Even IF and THOUGH the gNats are in most part to blame for a lot of it all, it won't stop them from scoring a few hits if some of this 'low hanging fruit' isn't dealt with.
/agreed – even with a heavy workload. And possibly a failure of Ministerial-Department/Ministry Head interaction if and when there are roadblocks – even given all that 'impartiality of officials'.
And then there's a rabid media to contend with, many of whom will still be stirring as much shit as possible in their dying days, but I doubt whether even the likes of JC would be giving a free ride over the example(s) given above.
As we have seen in the past, when the time is right, even a very mildly lefty government can be taken down by outrage over light-bulbs. This is the world we live in – a dominion of lies ruled over by money.
But the light-bulbs are symbolic of other matters that there are doubts about; they just act as a marker, virtue-signalling.*
It could mean there are the Left looking down, fussing over every little thing while the parade passes by.
It could mean there are the Left trying to be the Knight on the White Charger saving people who didn't want that.
It could be there are the Left fulminating over something, and ready to turn our lives upside down as they did when they brought in the Free-Market and No Regulation.
It could mean there are the people who are going to make us take our medicine which they have prescribed and no-one we know considers we are even sick, but they always know best.
It could mean that Labour presses an anti-authority nerve in those who are happy to pursue their own ends and let someone else clean up any messes left. What me clean up. I employ people to do that for me, and anyway others have done it too, why pick on me/us to behave well, make changes that aren't proven 100% worthwhile.
Examples of possible effects of new light bulb changes. In myself I thought of the cost of buying two new light bulbs at possibly $7 each compared to incandescent ones at $1 each. When people are really poor they can't afford to make such forward-moving gestures. Cut out incandescents and it would be back to candles. So I hoped that Labour could cut its crusading zeal down to what was okay for the precariat working and not working classes which used to be their spine.
*Virtue-signalling:
the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one’s good character or the moral correctness of one’s position on a particular issue.
“it’s noticeable how often virtue signalling consists of saying you hate things”
Regulating energy-efficient lightbulbs and showers was symbolic of the fundamental changes we need to make for the climate – and we have seen in the decade since that how far many people are prepared to go to keep their heads firmly planted in the sand.
If making those small changes was never going to have any effect, you might be able to claim it was 'virtue signalling'. That's just a bad-faith phrase from the dolts of the US right.
It was what it was. As you say it was symbolic of changes we needed to make, and that they would not recognise the difficulties that very low income people faced, because they don't care to apply their minds to da little peeps. Fact – fact.
And don't forget the “Fart Tax” AB when some farmer/Nat MP drove his tractor up parliament steps. Everybody laughed. Such a good joke against the Clark government.
Not laughing now are they, although not nearly enough has been done about it.
Labour should turn all that puerile stuff back on National – and those who fell for it – simply because they deserve it.
Fair comments. I think it would be great if somebody more familiar with it does a (guest) post on the different areas of responsibility of departmental CEOs, for example, for operational matters, and the Ministers. As far as I know, Ministers don’t hire the staff in their Ministries.
If we commenters care about what is happening to people in NZ and the world then we can't walk away from a forum like this that attempts to bring matters to scrutiny. It is good if people don't get nagged at all the time, if they have a point they should be considered. But it may need altering when some of its aspects are challenged. The view as to rightness can be different depending on the perspective. If the challenger does not have a worthy point and is unrelenting there is the choice of ignoring them, or uncovering their perspective and showing it as unreasonable. Also sometimes when you disagree with someone, it is still possible to see their greater good overall.
Those who want to state a case and think that they are totally right, need to stay on and at least hear and have short discussions about other people's POV. Veutoviper is a concerned and informed person and could be expected to stick around not walk away.
But some I think have 20th century perceptions. These have to alter somewhat – we can't think in exactly the same mode as the past, our future is changing and our approach must also – we know that life may become extremely uncomfortable. I worry as I read stories from the holocaust, from past times; we haven't made the great strides in managing our human life, emotions and desires, goals and outcomes, as we should. Therefore we have to think more deeply, nothing is absolutely certain, judgments have to be made., sometimes interim. Kindness and practicality must be hand in hand. For everyone who gives up, there are a thousand who will never understand that particular POV, and vice versa. It is important for the thinking, to assess their own thoughts and try to understand others who haven't experience or imagination.
You might be interested in RNZ's "The House" a week or so back (31/3/2019 i THINK).
Briefly deals with various powers vested in Ministers and Departmental CEO's and down the chain – regulatory authority etc. which allows for a degree of flexibility when conditions change or in unforeseen circumstances.
Things CAN get done quite quickly when necessary – as we have just seen. For example: in the case of the Christchurch terrorist attack, visa changes to allow family members of victims to come to NZ were implemented within a couple of weeks.
And yes re Ministers and hiring of staff (which is as it should be probably), but there are ways and means – Ministers making it clear what expectations are, etc.
And let's not pretend the old nudge nudge wink wink shit hasn't been happening – especially during the gNat's last reign, OR things like abuse of the OIA system, OR the use of Thompson & Clark – clearly unacceptable behaviour for the public service to be involved in. Sanctions are available for that sort of thing BUT for political will and who has been licking who's arse (Sorry to be blunt, but that's what it amounts to).
Deliberate under-resourcing in some areas (for example) of those responsible for monitoring tertiary education, or visa compliance (James Casson aside), or monitoring the state of some of those immigration 'advisors' suited the last gNat junta very well. Priorities CAN be adjusted in many cases to ensure the sort of shit "The Nation" covered, or exploitation doesn't/didn't happen.
Thanks, I might have a look later although I’m keen to write a post (on a different topic). In any case, I don’t feel comfortable to write a meaningful post on departments and ministries, for example.
It is a most peculiar article. She starts off with acomment about the donations to National soaring while Labours were paltry.
Donations in the 12 months to December soared past $700,000, no doubt fuelled by worried business donors gearing up to fight employment law changes and a widely anticipated capital gains tax (even if it ultimately didn't happen). Labour's were a paltry $173,343 by comparison.
It's once the donations dry up that you know a leader's date with the guillotine is near.
Somehow this is meant to be interpreted as National are in trouble? Shouldn't it mean, if her remark about "donations drying up" is correct it is Labour that is in trouble?
Still it is a pretty typical Watkins piece. Bugger the facts. She loves Ardern.
An insightful view on how we used to police bad behaviour on our roads by someone who knows.
Makes me wonder whether our terrible road toll could be reduced if we returned to the old style of traffic policing, by a specialist force of dedicated officers with a passion for road safety and saving lives on the road, as their sole mission.
….More seriously, Kearns laments that the old cop-motorist dynamic was altered by the merger.
“Guys in my era joined the Ministry of Transport because we had a passion for road safety and an ideal of saving injuries and lives. That ethos wasn’t carried over at the time of the merger.”….
…… “Probably just 20% of people who were stopped were given tickets.” The rest were spoken to about what they were doing, encouraged to do better and sent on their way. According to Kearns, the police did not share that attitude, being used to dealing with criminals.
And what say you liked being a traffic cop? You’d joined up to be a traffic cop. If you’d wanted to be a regular cop, you’d have signed up for that instead.
I was told something interesting by a friend who was part of the emergency response to the Tasman forest fire and was talking to a top Tasman cop. He said the previous National government had little interest in road safety, their sole focus was on keeping traffic, and of course commerce in the form of trucking, moving as quickly as possible. He is very pleased to see the coalition government's focus firmly back on policing for safer roads.
Yes, and that is a great example of getting on with change – immediate Budget action, clear announcement by Minister, results on the ground spreading already. Glad to hear those who have to respond to safety failures are noticing improvement.
Ae! And they have this weird idea that double lanes in both directions will naturally allow it all to happen (when the average NuZillner has yet to come to terms with merging like a zip and still drives like it's all a competition, in between checking the latest beep or blip or bell sound that comes across their cell phone).
Hence we have the likes of that absolute white baby elephant fuckup between Papamoa and Paengaroa (incidentally, where some of the worst worker exploitation, immigrants and others involved in bullshit tertiary education and other little scams reside and where Cassons try to justify their race shism), but where the occasional logging truck, gNat and orchid owner roams free
That's a good 'wonder' Jenny H. The cops now seem too centred on vehicle crime, perhaps it gets their figures up to the target set; another idea stop high targets and concentrate on outcomes of projects for improvement.
Also run stats counting all reasonably serious accidents and stop concentrating on the death toll. That stat only indicates a complete failure by traffic police to show care for people and polite interaction on the roads instead a simple end-of-life statistic for the books.
(An idea – have projects like for a period ask people to drive differently coming to roundabouts by slowing by about 10 kms so allowing others to move onto the road space in the few seconds that a slower entry would provide. See if over a six month period, what might be called cautious courtesy driving would lower accidents, and facilitate traffic movement. Too many people drive at full speed into a roundabout which is unwise, and reduces others entry-openings.)
I travel the east coast highway two from Napier to Tauranga often and have seen so many large potholes on these narrow winding single lane roads caused by heavy trucks all the time now and these potholes are so large that if you don't swerve to avoid them you will damage your steering system.
I have had 6 steering repairs in two years all caused by hitting large potholes.
That is one issue. then there are speeding drivers always trying to force slow drivers to speed up, and that is another problem..
The Government cant afford to keep fixing the damages the trucks are causing now so we need to see government increase the use of the roads by those trucks, in a "user Pays" policy.
Clearly the 'heavier longer trucks' HPMV are far too heavy for our light weighted 'soft roads' now.
all those parts for repairs on your car would have quite possibly been transported by truck to your repairer.
Trucks are on the road because of customer demand for goods. If you dont consume anything, then the trucks have nothing to transport, so wont be on the road.
if we eliminate HPMV, these would be replaced by around 20% more trucks.
They’re coming from all over the world Joe, from both sides of the political divide. Nothing to do with Keefe whoever the hell that nobody is .
“Meanwhile, George, an American fighting on the Ukrainian side, described those he fought with as having “the same hatred for Russia or the same kind of sense of nationalism”.
Could be you Joe
“Anti-imperialists, anti-fascists, and those on the far left come to defend the pro-communist separatists and defend the autonomous regions from what they see as global imperialism.”
NZ rugby has dug it's own hole, & cancelled out the aspects of the game that allowed NZ's natural talent to thrive at the game in a way that summed up to the display of a national heritage like no where else in the world. The aspects of the game that gave the All Blacks a long standing distinguished dynanism are thrown away and can't come back, and the hole will avalanche in more and more, as can not be sustained.
Now a diplomatic security risk everytime run on the field for NZ i'm afraid too; an illustration being the prestige to Russia's ( a heavily armed nation) image it's overall diplomatic handling of the recent successful soccer world cup gave it, to the division and acrimony the ABs have associated to NZ on such stages in recent times in relation to the rest of the game.
Black Ferns rugby can be a new story for NZ instead.
New Zealand took the 2011 RWC not because of any "natural talent" but because of the refusal of the "referee" to penalize the home team's blatant cheating throughout that farcical final.
File it under swings and roundabouts Mozza, it balances the ledger for Barnes being overwhelmed on the '07 match were France went unpenalised for a half and scored a try with a forward pass.
File it under swings and roundabouts Mozza, it balances the ledger for Barnes being overwhelmed on the '07 match
Nonsense. On stilts. He made two errors—he missed two forward passes, one leading to a try for the All Blacks, one to a try for the Tricolors. His couple of honest errors are not in the same universe as Craig Joubert’s refusal to even warn, let alone penalize, the flagrant and systematic cheating by the All Blacks in that infamous farce four years later.
France went unpenalised for a half …
They did not infringe. That's why.
…. and scored a try with a forward pass.
So did New Zealand. Luke McAlister's try followed a forward pass. I recommend you watch the match some time.
The All Blacks were imploding due to another episode of poor management of our rugby talents in the deserved French upset, and it would have happened one way or another.
The more recent final against the Wallabies was also poor referring but by then no one was paying attention, & despite the rigged deck, the aussies were only a James O'Connor type player break away from over coming them anyway, which isn't surprising given the Georgia pool game would be the poorest AB team performance in any world cup.
poor management of our rugby talents in the deserved French upset
What do you mean by "poor management"? They simply lost a football match. The French were too good for them.
The more recent final against the Wallabies was also poor referring
???? There was nothing in that final to match the non-performance by Joubert in 2011. The only terrible refereeing in the 2015 tournament was in the Australia-Scotland match. The “referee” was…. Craig Joubert.
If things had gone the Wallabies way in terms of referring in crucial stages in that game, they could have broken the ABs, who they were otherwise clinging onto by their fingernails in staying in the match.
Heh, it's great to be the only one right eh mozza.
Try (see what I did there) this on for size…
"They did not infringe…"
The video had three different angles and featured statistical breakdowns of lineouts, scrums, penalties, tackle counts, territory and possession. On those statistics, the All Blacks dominated. They had an overwhelming 73 per cent territorial advantage, winning 166 rucks to France's 42 and making only 73 tackles compared with France's 331.
They didn't infringe. They defended grimly. It's hard to beat a French team that's really determined. Unless you've got a "referee" like Andre Watson or Craig Joubert.
Ha ha ha ha ha! Good one, M'bird! I think you meant to say "could fit in a Brobdingnabian's thimble."
Of course, a quick sashay through this writer's oeuvre will show you that I've commented on rugby and other sports at an elevated and thoughtful level* for many years now.
And let's face it: even someone who knows as little about the game as, say, a Herald rugby writer or a Radio Sports opinion-vomiter like Martin "Moron" Devlin or Tony "Boot Boy" Veitch knows that the All Blacks were beaten fair and square by the Tricolors in 2007, and that they were allowed to cheat flagrantly throughout that farcical RWC final four years later.
Otago v Waikato is not a local derby. Auckland v. Counties is a local derby.
Interesting to see how readily you resort to derogatory language: dismissing what I say as "braying." Have you considered a career in talk radio perhaps?
No it's not. A derby game is between two teams from the same town, or adjacent towns. Auckland-Counties or Auckland-North Harbour or Otago-Southland are derby games.
Similarly, Manchester United v. Man. City and AstonVilla v. Birmingham, and Arsenal v. Chelsea are derbies, but Liverpool v. Arsenal is not.
Grant Nisbett? He's certainly superior to Ian "Smithy" Smith and Justin Marshall *, but on this he's as slapdash as they are.
I'm happy to use the franchise names, but I'm not going to accept the extirpation of the provincial names. It's the Wellington Hurricanes, and the Auckland Blues, and the Waikato Chiefs.
And it's the Natal Sharks and the Johannesburg Lions, not the "South African Sharks" and "South African Lions."
And yes, you're correct, it's the Canterbury Crusaders. Need to change that vile name, of course, but whatever it is, it'll still be Christchurch's team. BTW, how come the Crusaders never played a game against the famous London team Saracens?
Yes, you're correct about the Hurricanes not being only a Wellington team. Manawatu and Hawkes Bay are important parts of the team, and so was Taranaki. And, no, I haven't forgotten the Wairarapa, Horowhenua, Whanganui, etc. But the major urban area is Wellington, and that's where most of the home games are played.
Similarly, the Boston Red Sox represent not only the Boston urban area but all of the states of New England. Only a mental pygmy such as a New Zealand Rugby boss would be persuaded to dispense with the word "Boston" however.
Opinion – The battles over welfare are in large part a dispute about whether people who find themselves relying on social security are principally in need of punishment or support….
More generally, as the report notes, there is very little evidence that sanctions achieve their claimed effects of getting people back into work. They are just as likely to force people out of the system altogether or into reliance on criminal activities or unsustainable borrowing.
In contrast to the harsh overseer model, the experts' report is an attempt to put a nurturing, caring assistant at the heart of the welfare system. It centres the system on whakamana tāngata – "restoring dignity to people so they can participate meaningfully with their families and communities"…
The experts' report does not, as some hoped, spell out a completely new and coherent plan for a 21st century welfare system. It does not sketch out a fully future-proofed welfare system. It represents big change, not transformational change.
But then, like most of this government's working groups, Cindy Kiro and her team were not given the time and resources to deliver on broader ambitions. What they have produced, though, is still immensely important.
And Jeremy Pie – On the UK State of the nation report.
Social mobility in UK has stalled. In 2010 Cameron set up Social Mobility Commission but it resigned en masse a year after Theresa May had said she would do great stuff in fixing injustices. They said that the Government was too focussed on Brexit to do anything.
Then in the USA, he decided that Trump promised change and now people have got it!
Please at least add quote marks when you use a mix of yours and someone else's words like that – better still, click the ["] button on the editor toolbar so the quoted paragraph becomes indented.
Oh hell. Now I won't pass the adaptive test for understandability. I'm a failure at communication. I'm teetering on the edge of not commenting here and leaving it to the snobs.
Our world is coming to an end but our sentence construction, our syntax is what really catches the eye and the mind.
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,
Because I'm easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me.
The statue is one of three copies of a marble statue that was made for the Captain Cook Brewery in Newmarket, Auckland in the early 1880s…
He's also not wearing the correct uniform – the blog states he is "not wearing the uniform of a British naval officer, nor does his uniform resemble that of any other European naval uniforms. The uniform has been described as 'Italian' in style."
Oz Rugby has an $8B budget hole this year – (not sure when they get this years World Cup money) and face a payout of $4M on Folau's contract if their termination is seen as a breach.
They have only one option – given Cheika says he will not be selected even if still on contract, refuse to pay him a penny and drag this through the courts if they have to. Even if they still payout – better later than now. But more likely – given he would be unable to play and would have no guarantee of ever receiving any money – he would be forced to seek to leave the contract so he can be paid to play elsewhere.
The IAAF has a rule whereby women competitors must have a testosterone level below "5" (the norm is .2 to 1.5), for events between 400m and the mile, but not shorter distances or field events.
It seems as if their rule applies only to distances which only one specific athlete competes.
Given the said extra testosterone gives athletes an advantage in shorter distances and field events the most (which is why males and females have taken drugs for these events way more often than for the 800m and 1500m) their rule is inexplicable.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State University asked a judge Wednesday for permission to publicly share information about a confidential state medical board investigation involving the team doctor accused of decades-old sexual misconduct against more than 150 former students.
I notice the new self appointed elite of NZ journalism has decided to freely name the Christchurch murderer, even going so far as to promote him and his home town in backwater Australia.
What a disgraceful rag that Herald is.
Edit: I looked a bit deeper into the writer of this promotion piece, Caroline Meng-Yee, and it turns out she’s bee in trouble before for dressing as slain Sophie Elliot at a fancy dress birthday party in 2011.
Meng-Yee had fake blood on her arms and Sophie’s name tagged to her top, which had a photograph of Sophie’s killer and ex-boyfriend, Clayton Weatherston, 35, pinned to it.
I wouldn't be surprised if their reasoning is that the inevitable outrage will suck in a bunch of eyeballs. They'll come out with some freedom bullshit and that'll reel in Trotsker and co.
Reading about this Meng-Yee character made me feel sad. There are some verifiable scumbags writing for publications and the banner under which they publish legitimises their horrible nature.
She seems like one of those women who gets turned on by serial murderers. Her promotional piece on the Australian suggests that.
It's a horrible thought but I wonder if the Herald is softening the ground for a full push on trial coverage where they hope to make hundreds of thousands of dollars creating a circus based on the misery of this malevolent event.
(e) Meng-Yee is experienced, yet she dressed up as the slain victim in a case she covered presumably in order to promote herself and her agenda. I think the Herald are quite happy to have this sociopath cover the very worst terror attack in this country since the land wars.
That reporter was trusted with the coverage of the Sophie Elliot murder. A psychopathic murder by a person very similar in character to the Christchurch mass murderer and she dressed up as the victim three short years later?
I guess she'll be happy wearing a bloodied hijab to her next fancy dress ball!
No excuses for that disgusting behaviour no matter how many years ago. From the link above
"Meng-Yee did not respond to Sunday Star-Times inquiries but in 2009 she spoke to Metro about her work. The article said when Meng-Yee arrived at the newspaper she claimed her aim was to "lower the bar".
The story went on to disclose that Meng-Yee did not write many of the articles that appeared under her name, instead working closely with other writers to ready them for publication, and that she worked with TV journalist Genevieve Westcott on 60 Minutes, where the pair were nicknamed the pitbull and the pekingese."
As I have said before: As they try to escape from behind it in an effort to get noticed, the paywall will encourage a race to the bottom by NZ Herald journalists.
And as many here have posited, the Herald will the most likely only allow the most venal, (like Hosking), to be outside the paywall. This will further increase the downward pressure on Herald journalists as they compete to be more like Hosking.
The Herald will no longer be the journal of record. That task will fall to free to air and on line Public Service Broadcaster, RNZ.
In face of the climate crisis, amongst our official leaders. It almost seems, that courageous leadership is a forgotten art.
And when our official leaders shrink back from taking the lead; No matter, that they have no rank, or title, or official position the, leadership will fall to the one who leads
I've got one source saying more Labour MPs than expected are mulling whether to vote for the deal - including names who were not on the letter to Juncker and Tusk— Emilio Casalicchio (@e_casalicchio) 17 October 2019 I've compiled a list of possible reasons why Labour ...
On Wednesday, the government was loudly telling us that it needed to legislate to allow it to impose "control orders" - effectively a parole regime, but imposed without charge, prosecution, conviction or real evidence - on suspected terrorists because they couldn't be prosecuted for their supposed crimes. Today, it turns ...
On Monday, the Hit and Run inquiry heard from NZDF's former director of special operations, who claimed that the defence Minister knew everything about the Operation Burnham raid. Today, the inquiry heard from that (former) Minister - and it turns out that he didn't know nearly as much as NZDF ...
Yoga gurus and cult leaders – I’ve seen a few. Two weeks ago, I unknowingly joined an alleged new-age cult at the Kāpiti coast, together with a giant kraken and some neatly dressed pensioners who would make any book club proud.They were among the two hundred people of all ages ...
The last decade has seen a trend of increasing weapons availability to police. Assault rifles. Tasers on every hip. Guns in cars. And following the march 15 massacre, pistols on every hip, all over the country. At the same time, its also seen an increase in the abuse of force: ...
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...
by John Edmundson The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) have recently reposted a February article, by Romany Tasker-Poland, explaining ISO’s position in the “trans rights” debate. It is available on their website and on their Facebook Page. The article sets out to explain why “socialists support trans rights”. It reads more ...
"Auckland City Mission: 10% of Kiwis experiencing food insecurity", RNZ, 16 October 2019:About half a million people are experiencing food insecurity, according to new research from the Auckland City Mission. Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food. The City Mission said over the last ...
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...
There is plenty of evidence of the way the business mentality has permeated every level of society since the recrudescence of market liberalism 35 years ago. You only need to think of how citizens in need of help from their government, their state, their country, are now routinely described as ...
John MacCormickOver the last 40 years, New Zealanders – and people in other countries – have experienced big changes in the jobs they do and where they live and work. These changes include: a decline in manufacturing jobs an increase in jobs in ‘information-intensive’ industries (which are better paid ...
Nick Wilson, Leah Grout, Mereana Wilson, Anja Mizdrak, Phil Shoemack, Michael BakerProtecting waterways has the benefits of: (1) protecting water from hazardous microbes; (2) minimising cancer risk and other problems from nitrates in water; (3) avoiding algal blooms that are hazardous to health; (4) protecting mahinga kai uses (cultural ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...
After a brief dalliance with 'hard Revoke' it looks like the Lib Dems are changing ground on on Brexit, with leader Jo Swinson reverting to calling for a second referendum on Johnson's deal.The party has tabled an amendment to the Queen’s speech requesting that any deal brought back from Brussels ...
The government has decided that someone has done Something Bad. But despite their belief, there seems to be no evidence that they have actually broken the law. So the government's solution is to pass a retrospective law allowing them to be punished anyway, on a lower standard of proof. If ...
So, Judith Collins has done a Facebook rant about climate change, peddling the same shit National has been shovelling for the past twenty years: the impacts are overstated, there's no need to do anything about it, and its too hard anyway (oh, and its so unfair that people who peddle ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThere is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...
I came across this song quite by accident. If it isn't one of Greta Thunberg's favourites - it should be.Video courtesy of YouTube.This post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Last month, NZDF's shoddy coverup of what it knew about civilian casualties in Operation Burnham began to fall apart, with the revelation that a report on the matter, which NZDF claimed not to have, had been sitting in an NZDF safe for the past nine years. Yesterday, the man responsible ...
While many imagine that countries like the USA and Europe dominate space activities, in fact India is now a major player on this stage. It launches satellites for its own purposes and also commercially, and has constellations orbiting our planet and returning data of vital importance to that nation in ...
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...
For the past week, Extinction Rebellion has been peacefully protesting in London to demand action on climate change. The British government's response? Ban their protests:Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s ...
An essay by Judith Collins MP reported on Carbon News yesterday seems to show an alarming shift in attitude within the National Party. Collins argues against the Zero Carbon Bill, the Paris Agreement, and downplays the magnitude of climate impacts. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and ratified ...
When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
The Workshop is a charitable trust for public good. The Workshop undertake research to find ways of communicating that will build support for the solutions that work to solve complex social and environmental problems. See their Report on Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform below. ...
What is language? We generally assume that it a facility unique to humans, allowing us to share what’s in and on our minds. We can tell of our plans, our past exploits, our knowledge. It also allows us to lie. And yet there are vast numbers of people we can’t ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
As the New Zealand First Party gathers for its annual conference, the question swirling in the year is how it can carve out a path to avoid electoral defeat in 2020, writes Jo Moir for RNZ. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s a familiar break up excuse that’s used ...
To the early intervention therapists, to the teachers, to the speech therapists, the occupational therapists, music therapists, diabetes nurses and all: you change the world.When I was married almost a decade ago we had the following reading at our wedding:You are holding up a ceilingwith both arms. It is very ...
The faces said it all. The smiles of the European leaders crowded round Boris after the Brexit deal was struck. The deal his opponents – no, pretty much everyone – said was impossible.So what’s in it? The detail is still opaque, but subject to gremlins in the fine print, ...
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several weeks travelling in the country on sabbatical and finds the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Leigh Sullivan discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan. They talk about Alan Jones accusing Prime Minister Scott Morrison of failing the immediate needs of drought-striken farmers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of Queensland Last month, scientists uncovered a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an ...
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody.Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit ...
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney One spring morning in 1850, over 8,000 Sydneysiders marched through town to protest the resumption of transportation – the act of sending British criminals to Australia. It was the largest protest in Australia thus far, an ...
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew.This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?!There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John M Clarke, Team Leader, Regional Projections, CSIRO Last month we lost Dr Penny Whetton – one of the world’s most respected climate scientists and a brilliant mentor to the next generation of researchers. Penny will also be remembered as a passionate ...
Ten moose were upended into the Dusky Sounds in 1910. Now, their descendants are getting their day in the sun.The climate crisis is affecting wildlife all over the country: rockhopper penguin populations are in drastic decline, tuatara eggs aren’t hatching females, and the ice walls keeping predators away from kea ...
Security footage of NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell being thrown out of a Tauranga bar looks unlikely to ever be aired - despite his leader Winston Peters promising a screening. ...
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...
Expect the old campaigner Winston Peters to be at his belligerent best as he gears up for another election. He’s kept his party alive for 27 years and he shows no sign of quitting. The omens may be bleak—polls this week showed his party below the 5% threshold– but Peters ...
The National Party has agreed to take down any videos breaching the current rules around the use of parliamentary TV footage, as all parties try to reach consensus. ...
Recently the Health Promotion Agency released a report into hazardous drinking in New Zealand. The report shows that Māori who drink alcohol and live in deprived circumstances are less likely to have a harmful relationship with alcohol if they ...
Turkey-US joint-statement on military ops within Syria’s territory.The Turkish Embassy in New Zealand issued Evening Report this unabridged United States of America-Republic of Turkey joint-statement detailing what both sides agreed to regarding Turkey’s military operations within the so-called security zone within Syrian territory near Turkey’s southern border. It is ...
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash didn’t mention what winners will receive, when he proudly called for entries for a new public award “to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector”. Nor did he mention the cost to taxpayers of this initiative. Point of Order’s checks with the website where more details have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona R Martin, Senior Lecturer in Convergent and Online Media, University of Sydney One of the basic tenets of the ABC Act is independence from government. Yet once again, in contravention to that principle, the federal government is trying to push through ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway.modernity to globalisationwhen I get there as still life and landscape and also portraitureseeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globeslices of pie offer up the vision after the sermonexpressing emotions without coherent narrative supportbecause no artist responded to this callemploying ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi to rule out any taxpayer-funded purchase or bailout for Mediaworks’s channel Three. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “For the last few months Mediaworks ...
The Police Commissioner's announcement that squadcars of officers with automatic rifles will patrol New Zealand's streets is dangerous and unnecessary, according to the criminal justice community organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The ...
News broke this morning that Mediaworks is seeking to sell off, and even contemplating closing, its TV division. What might that mean for journalism?For journalism in New Zealand, the loss of Three’s TV division is a devastating blow. It is not yet known whether any of the news properties will ...
In our defence of our coalition Government policy on climate change, we fully support Government plan to use rail funding for rail infrastructure upgrades to promote use rail infrastructure for freight around NZ. ...
The billions of tonnes of plastic in our oceans isn’t going away any time soon, but innovative companies here and abroad are working together to find silver linings to this daunting problem.Fishing boats head out to sea and set their nets. They go back to shore. They head back out, ...
An EveningReport.nz investigation by Kevin ListKiwibank services. Image by Kevin List.Evening Report looks into the separation of Kiwibank from New Zealand Post, and considers the impact on the public’s access to banking services in their communities.Kiwibank. What’s going on? Kiwibank and New Zealand Post are in the ...
Local Government New Zealand today confirmed what many local election commentators have observed; that more of the voting public cast their ballots in favour of women candidates than ever before. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington (this week we totted up the data a day early, on Wednesday, to let our books ed. ...
New Zealand's mineral manufacturing sector is expected to face some testing times, with softer prices, tighter margins and sluggish export markets. ...
Portugal has been painted by pro-cannabis legalisation groups as a model to follow. Yet just last month, the mayor of Porto contradicted his previous pro-harm reduction position and endorsed reintroducing criminal penalties for drug use in public spaces. ...
Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Kevin Short announced today the inclusion of six Cook Island First World War soldiers in the New Zealand and Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s official rolls of honour. ...
The latest statistics released by the Health Promotion Agency showing a dramatic fall in the numbers of cigarettes being sold in supermarkets, service stations, and liquor stores are being welcomed by the Vaping Trade Association of New Zealand (VTANZ). ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.NZ First Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Where to from here? How NZ First will win in ...
Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), a climate change network, will host a conference in Wellington on 11 November (Armistice Day) to promote holding a Citizens Assembly in 2020, as a way of breaking the current political deadlock on treating climate ...
MediaWorks’ owners have called time after years of losses from its TV division. Sources say the company will announce it is for sale – if no buyers emerge, it will close within months.Three is facing the biggest crisis in its three decade history today, as its ownership will soon announce ...
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’. A first date that ends up in the emergency room. A flagging marriage that finds new energy through tennis. The founder of a dating app who doesn’t ...
If we want to grow support for New Zealand’s aid, we need to get better at partnering with the ‘unlike-minded’ as well as the ‘like-minded’, and much better at telling people what we do with the money they give, says Josie Pagani, Executive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Orsola De Marco, Astrophysicist , Macquarie University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How are stars made? –Zali, age 8, Karkoo, South Australia. How are stars made? Well, stars are not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gita Mishra, Professor of Life Course Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland All women know to expect the time in life when their periods finish and they reach menopause. Many might even look forward to it. What many women don’t ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, University of Sydney Since ancient times, horse behaviour, and the bond between horses and humans, has been a source of intrigue and fascination. The horse-lore that has accumulated over the centuries is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael Wallis, Lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Southern Queensland A move to the country is often presented in popular culture as an idyllic life, a place where you can escape the pressures of the city. It’s in television shows such ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The just-announced inquiry into Australia’s retirement income system ought to be anything but run-of-the-mill. Taking place 25 years after the introduction of compulsory superannuation, it provides an opportunity to either fix a broken system, or discard ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan McCay, Law Lecturer, University of Sydney The rise of artificial intelligence has led to widespread concern about the role of humans in the workplaces of the future. Indeed, Israeli historian, futurist and publishing sensation Yuval Noah Harari warns in his most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Saunders, Phd candidate, University of Wollongong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images and names of deceased people. You leave Sydney and head for holidays on the South Coast. You plan to catch a quick surf, ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Clayton Mitchell denies accusations around a night out, food insecurity on the rise, and UK PM Boris Johnson secures deal with dubious prospects.NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has got himself in a spot of late night bother in a Tauranga ...
As the rugby world wrestles with the new reality that players can, and will, be dismissed for accidental contact with an opponent’s head it's worth pondering the fate of three All Blacks not selected for the Ireland quarterfinal. ...
A new exhibition in Raetihi offers a rare opportunity to see early, colonialism-focused works by Wellington artist Barbara Strathdee, writes Pat Baskett. ...
Italy's Ambassador to New Zealand Fabrizio Marcelli responds to Newsroom stories - and The Detail podcasts - questioning the price of imported tinned tomatoes in light of reports of slave labour in the industry in his home country. ...
A measles outbreak in Samoa suspected to be responsible for the death of a one-year-old was “inevitable”, according to an expert who thinks NZ could have prevented it. ...
The big shock of the results in the weekend’s local elections was the unseating of Justin Lester as Wellington mayor. We invited him to pen a sort-of-valedictory.My three years as the mayor of Wellington ended on Sunday and I will forever remain grateful for the experience.I’m also acutely aware of ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Alex Braae reviews a night spent on the Intercity overnight sleeper bus getting from Wellington to Auckland.The most important thing to understand about long haul bus travel is that it’s all about getting exactly ...
Britain and the EU have agreed new terms for divorce. But with the Conservatives’ Northern Irish support party unimpressed, can the British prime minister at last put an end to the interminable shitstorm?At last, a deal! A palpable deal! A path out of the endless brain-melt!“Where there is a will, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Government sources insist shock jock Alan Jones didn’t drive Thursday’s announcement of a cash payment to drought-striken farmers about to be turfed off their household support because they’d reached the four year time limit. They ...
The proposition that global warming driven by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a risk that needs to be dealt with has achieved a large measure of agreement among policymakers. The proposition that it has to be dealt with right now and at great cost has no such consensus.One point ...
A bill to improve the pastoral care of students living in halls of residence has flown through its first reading in Parliament, thanks to cross-party support. ...
In this week's MediaRoom column: could MediaWorks close its TV operations altogether? And the Herald restructures its newsroom to remove a layer of management and shake up its investigative team. ...
Twenty-five young people who represent the future of the Asia-New Zealand relationship have been acknowledged as ‘ones to watch’, by the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono. ...
The taboo that surrounds immigration and our refugee qouta, are two issues rising in New Zealand that need to start being given attention to challenge the fruit loops of the far left. ...
Open mike 04/05/2019 
I find this unbelievable:
On Wednesday, the government was loudly telling us that it needed to legislate to allow it to impose "control orders" - effectively a parole regime, but imposed without charge, prosecution, conviction or real evidence - on suspected terrorists because they couldn't be prosecuted for their supposed crimes. Today, it turns ...14 hours ago
Yoga gurus and cult leaders – I’ve seen a few. Two weeks ago, I unknowingly joined an alleged new-age cult at the Kāpiti coast, together with a giant kraken and some neatly dressed pensioners who would make any book club proud.They were among the two hundred people of all ages ...17 hours ago
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...21 hours ago
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...2 days ago
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...2 days ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz There is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...3 days ago
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...4 days ago
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...4 days ago
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...1 week ago
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...1 week ago
We're rebuilding our hospitals, protecting our oceans, and taking mental health seriously. ...12 hours ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...3 days ago
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...15 hours ago
As the New Zealand First Party gathers for its annual conference, the question swirling in the year is how it can carve out a path to avoid electoral defeat in 2020, writes Jo Moir for RNZ. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s a familiar break up excuse that’s used ...30 mins ago
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several weeks travelling in the country on sabbatical and finds the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited ...8 hours ago
A new law targeting potential returning terrorists like Mark Taylor raises questions about human rights and whether the bill is being rushed. ...10 hours ago
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...13 hours ago
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...13 hours ago
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...15 hours ago
Politicians come crawling back after the holidays to repair some 'bad optics'. James Elliott pulls no punches in his news of the week. ...17 hours ago
New Zealand's mineral manufacturing sector is expected to face some testing times, with softer prices, tighter margins and sluggish export markets. ...18 hours ago
Environmental groups are urging the government to crack down on commercial industries whose activities are harming the marine environment. ...18 hours ago
Struggling media company MediaWorks is putting its TV business Three on the sale block, after axing and scaling back shows. ...19 hours ago
As the rugby world wrestles with the new reality that players can, and will, be dismissed for accidental contact with an opponent’s head it's worth pondering the fate of three All Blacks not selected for the Ireland quarterfinal. ...24 hours ago
This week's biggest-selling NZ books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias. ...1 day ago
A new exhibition in Raetihi offers a rare opportunity to see early, colonialism-focused works by Wellington artist Barbara Strathdee, writes Pat Baskett. ...1 day ago
Italy's Ambassador to New Zealand Fabrizio Marcelli responds to Newsroom stories - and The Detail podcasts - questioning the price of imported tinned tomatoes in light of reports of slave labour in the industry in his home country. ...1 day ago
A measles outbreak in Samoa suspected to be responsible for the death of a one-year-old was “inevitable”, according to an expert who thinks NZ could have prevented it. ...1 day ago
Plans for Facebook’s proposed “stablecoin”, Libra, appear to be unraveling as awareness about its adverse effects grows. ...1 day ago
Explosives were used to blast a millions-of-years-old rock overhang in a national park. ...1 day ago
Medical issues, party leaks and a surprise resignation have taken their toll - but Winston Peters argues his party is as strong as ever. ...1 day ago
What's different about what Donald Trump did this time to finally snap Democrats into action and launch an impeachment inquiry? ...1 day ago
Former MediaWorks news chief and Newsroom co-editor Mark Jennings looks at who or what might save Three now it has been put on the block. ...1 day ago
In this week's MediaRoom column: could MediaWorks close its TV operations altogether? And the Herald restructures its newsroom to remove a layer of management and shake up its investigative team. ...1 day ago
Judith Collins is filling the blackhole that is National’s climate policy with social media posts appealing to science deniers. ...1 day ago
Just reflecting on the widely held opinion that the next election is a cake walk what with political 'capital' built up in PM Ardern, engagement news and the kerfuffle around the leadership of National party.
Going back two and a half years, there is no way the most strident Labour fan could have envisioned this scenario.
Therefore it is quite possible the same could happen again. After a couple of leadership coups eg Collins, Woodhouse, Adams, Mitchell, a candidate like Upston, Ngaro or Dean, or my pick, someone from outside of politics currently, can come in and sweep all before them.
The coalition needs to look at their statements leading into the election and put them into action.
OMG…. if they have to resort to Dean they may as well give up and go home. Has that MP achieved anything in 4 1/2 terms. Apart from falling for a di-hydrogen monoxide hoax once.
Di-hydrogen monoxide reminds me of when microwaves were a new thing.
Some larrikin sold a microwave cleaner concentrate.
Put in a bowl, run microwave until liquid boils, wipe out oven.
The concentrate?…di-hydrogen monoxide
Chris Liddell might be one to watch. High flying business career overseas, currently serving the Fraud from Fifth Avenue.
Impressive business career. Finance Minister, maybe, but not really the right sort of charisma for political leader. Is probably on track for international roles after his current one so why would he settle for replacing Bill English or Steven Joyce?
That's exactly the kind of comment I would have made about John Key in 2001.
Key was always a self-promoter in a way Liddell does not seem to be. Liddell leans backwards rather than forwards in interviews.
It doesn't matter that Shane Jones is NZ First. Any good he/they achieve can be undone electorally in one brain numbingly dumb speech/spiel.
It's all about the easiest to create negative thing, perception. There is already a 'dishonourable' list with Clare Curran, Twyford, Mahuta, Jackson whose actions, words, for right or wrong, have had the affect of chopping down the tree or at least ring-barking it.
Yeah, nothing is a given.
National might even figure out how to make friends.
The downfall of our ridiculous food system begins. Extreme waves, some > 20m being recorded. Overall wave action increasing.
Soon the shipping will only be seasonal. Then, uninsurable…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/112447503/extreme-waves-are-getting-higher-in-the-antarctic-ocean-study-finds
Off to a tree cropping workshop today. EXCITED!
So the option of having sea transport is lessening. Our government has abandoned the domestic economy in order to export and then we can buy all the wonderful things available from the world with our export dollars. That is, those in employment at a living wage. We have stopped making things for ourselves.
But then, because of the reciprocal nature of our trading system we have an open economy, and overseas people who have bigger purses than us, can buy wonderful things here, like houses, desirable land and very desirable water.
Now we have to decide whether we are going to spend our money buying imported goods, which are no longer made here, or go without – mend and save – and try to gather a deposit to buy a shoe-box or a big car to live in as the housing market prices have been pushed up by our wealthier export customers.
Is that a wise way to run a country? Even the relatively well off people are finding that the house they can obtain loan money to buy, drains more than half of their weekly or monthly earnings. And how do we supply necessities and have a thriving economy if we can’t export our produce. We will still be able to export services. But the reciprocal system will be broken. The overseas buyers will still come here and buy us up, we will be at survival mode and be tenants in what was our own land. I think John Key was expressing concern about that at one time while facilitating the process. Was it wise to leave him to play his smirking Prime Minister role for so long?
Greywarshark
We are being lead down the path to oblivion.
Holy Balls Batman
I saw a bunch of 18 year old redwoods today far bigger than Pinus radiata at 25 years (when they cut).
Too big for today's mills, no market (here) as everything is pine. Then there's the people growing natives, too scared to try large scale in case they're not allowed to realise the crop…
So we can't sell exotic timber except pine locally, we can't grow natives that would sell because we might not be allowed to sell them. Pine pine did someone say pine.
We can grow far better trees but… crops must be clonal for markets. And you got to have a market. Assessing a stand of a couple hundred trees for the tree keepers (good clones) is a couple hundred thousand dollars…
Who's got that laying around.
The market that's supposed to help little guys (trickle trickle) has us locked out. I guess you could grow pine…
F'n travesty. No variety in the market means no resilience to vagaries in the market. A bug, a bacteria, a fungi, an oomycete, an emerging player, a reticent buyer…
NZ forestry has all its eggs in one basket.
I had a look through Lincoln University offerings to see what they had on tree diversity. I couldn't find stuff. Pine.. But what about growing for carbon credits. Money for keeping them in the ground?
And having a range of trees for specialist use, furniture etc, masts; picking them out by helicopter and making big $$ from the few.
Someone would have to live in the area as they would attract thieves. Guns might be appropriate for rangers in this case.
There must be markets for other trees. Reasonably fast growing and not requiring the same treatment as softwood, resinous pines.
Page 6
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/28461-nefd-2017-report-pdf
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news-and-resources/open-data-and-forecasting/forestry/new-zealands-forests/
"The number of owners with less than 40 hectares is difficult to estimate, but is likely to be over 10,000"
And there's a pie graph. A fucking pie graph. Go NZ Govt.
Yes WTB.
Pine tree economy is flawed as the cost to us for the road damage from using trucks is horrendous and driving the country broke and Ports tell us that the port virtually has to give no charge to using every log shipped from their Ports now as there is no money it it.
So we taxpayers pay to maintain n the Ports that have to allow free transport overseas from their Port, and we pay to keep the roads maintained from trucking the logs to the Port.
We are being screwed every day by this mindless false economy we are in now no thanks to national setting this all up for the export potential of a false economy in pine trees.
The reply function is still very hit and miss . I'm on a samsung xcover4.
Hey wags, I have the same problem on my huawei, however when using Brave rather than Chrome I have no problem.
I thought there was there an election in the UK recently. Cant find any results.
Or was I imaging it?
HA L ocal sections. Found it!!!
https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/ceeqy0e9894t/england-local-elections-2019
Final Councils Conservative 93 Labour 60 | Councillors similar proportions
Note Change on last election: Conservative Councils -44 Councillors -1334
Labour Councils -6 Councillors -82.
Residents Association Councils 2 Greens 0
Councillors RA 119 (+49) Greens 265 (+194)
So Greens are accepted at grass roots level
Lib dems gained 700 councillors – basically doubled their representation.
Ran on an exit the brexit campaign.
I jumped right over the Lib Dems – meant to put them in.
They just about doubled. Seemed to have mopped up Tory disdain. Liberal Democrat:
Councils: Total18 +/-+10
Councillors: Total1350 +/-+703
Thanks BBC for nice clear chart.
Thanks BBC for nice clear chart.
You really are a True Believer.
https://off-guardian.org/2019/05/03/uk-local-election-propaganda-significant-losses-for-both-sides/
So the tories get decimated and, instead of being the recipient of a mass of disgruntled voters wrath, labour themselves also take a hammering. Not really the look of a government in waiting.
And you say true believer lol
For every seat Labour lost, the Tories lost 14.
"Have Labour gained a whole bunch of seats? No. But the media effort to conflate Labour’s minor losses with the complete trouncing the Conservatives have taken is totally dishonest."
The results aren't in dispute, are they? What is, is how labour lost big and didn't benefit from the tory backlash, casting doubt on their ability to form a government after the next general election. It doesn’t seem they are resonating well with the public.
Without a brexit agreement, the longer Farrage's brexit party and the ukip stay in the game seems to be Corbyn's only hope of sneaking in to power at present, by default. Having the lib dems bounce back will take seats off May, but then labour could well lose out in 3 way electorates, and those tactically voting where they are in 3rd place. Not that positive, and certainly not much to shout about against a most unpopular ruling party.
Lucky for labour it's first past the post and not mmp, otherwise they'd be screwed with, on current polling, only scoring in the low 30s.
Agreed, the results are indisputable.
If, as you say, "Labour lost big",
then the Tories lost big big big big big big big big big big big big big big.
Decimated,I wrote.
And if labour have lost councils and councillors during that time, then the reports of shared significant losses are indeed accurate.
If 14-to-1 is your idea of "shared" losses, then bags I get first choice after you've cut the cake.
Carry on spinning.
Yep, shared significant losses. Consider where labour were losing hardest, take in the big picture, add context, and the story behind the numbers makes more sense.
And spinning, for who?
Seems you're talking up Labour losses – that’s your focus, no?
I’m attempting to provide a quantitative representation of (relative) losses which might form the basis for objective analyses.
Labour: Losers
Tories: Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers Losers
Regarding the beneficiaries of 'spin', happy for readers to judge.
libdems: winners winners winners winners winners winners winners
Well I'm definitely not downplaying labours losses, nor what it potentially means for them going forward electorally as a party who can still lose on the night as the most divided tory party in a generation shart it's pants.
So in rejecting the claims of propaganda and biassed media reporting in covering this poll, looking in to the stories behind the numbers (such as why labour shed votes to the lib dems in swings of around 8%), and going deeper behind a banner headline (why the major opposition party didn't pick up conservative protest votes when it needs them in these electorates to become government), I am also happy to leave it to the readers to decide whose spinning and for why.
Great to see Minister Sage push back successfully on the Waihi Oceania Gold tailing dam investment.
That will have taken political hard work within this government.
Given Labour's history in Waihi it would be hard not to support mining in a mining town.
Tough decision for a government, but great standup Minister Sage.
Yes Ad but the big issue is this.
yes we humans are one of the first to be extinct I fear.
The planet is nearing the end as the Ross Sea ice shelf is about to disappear and our sea levels will rise dramatically.
The oxygen content in the atmosphere is sinking every month now so how long can we survive without oxygen in our air?
We daily see brand new trucks on our roads all hauling freight that used to go by rail, increasing the carbon levels as we speak, so we are a menace to ourselves alright.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190429111835.htm
Rapid melting of the world’s largest ice shelf linked to solar heat in the ocean
Date:
April 29, 2019
Source:
University of Cambridge
Summary:
An international team of scientists has found part of the world’s largest ice shelf is melting 10 times faster than the overall ice shelf average, due to solar heating of the surrounding ocean surface.
Not much hope for our children now but to flee to a “survival bunkers” like they are probably building up high on the safety of the te-ureweras up in the hills when the end comes.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1705/S00487/te-kawa-o-te-ureweras-draft-released.htm
Sounds like it's a problem that's going to solve itself cleany.
This would be the third such environmental catastrophe in the Waihi area. Not only would this toxic* mound of waste cover over 178H of agricultural land rendering it useless and presenting an eyesore for generations to come, there are other considerations to be taken into account as well.
https://teggtalk.wordpress.com/2016/11/30/how-earthquake-safe-are-the-mine-tailings-dams-at-waihi/
Coromandel Watchdog have been fighting this crap from the miners for years now. We don't need any more fucking gold. There has been 170,000 of tonnes of the stuff mined and locked up in safes such as Fort Knox, and elsewhere already. So it's already there if ever it is needed for any useful purpose. To get enough gold for a single wedding ring you have to drill though 250 tonnes of rock, pulverize it, then chemically treat it. Such activity now is simply madness.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5129257/
This is the way to do it.
The key was leadership
Fascists peacefully swamped by large crowd, cancel planned march through Liverpool.
When only a small counter protest turn up, the fascists sensing weakness, will not hesitate to use violence to intimidate and smash them over.
What made the difference between a small counter protest and large counter protest was leadership.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/03/liverpool-runs-far-right-marchers-out-of-town
Ha! I heard, "Bye bye".
Love it! Thank-you Jenny.
I think that National’s break-point will be when the Budget gets presented to the House. The Party’s response and its Leader’s delivery will seal their fate for the next Election. Even the opinion pieces of Political Editors are getting boringly predictable in style and substance but they still do their job as click-bait <sigh>.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/112458922/nationals-sinking-feeling-after-jacinda-ardern-springs-engagement-news
Here's hoping. Nothing I'd like more than to see the current National Party crop to self-destruct.
Having just watched "The Nation", what worries me is that there's a fair few issues where Labour/the Coalition are not even picking the low hanging fruit (apologies – I'm still pivoting going forward from the other day). Simon Wilson had a point – to do with the interaction between departments (in this case IRD and MSD) and the Ministers responsible – this to do with the case of a rape victim. From what I could see, even under current legislation, this matter could at least be partially resolved even if, as Sepuloni said, there would be no retrospective compensation.
Then there are things such as worker exploitation (BOTH immigrant and citizen) which could be at LEAST improved by Ministerial and Ministry intervention.
Then there are NZTA fuckups, insurance issues, etc, etc., etc. that may start to really piss off an impatient electorate if the Coalition doesn't pick up the pace (especially where some basic resolution doesn't require law changes).
Even IF and THOUGH the gNats are in most part to blame for a lot of it all, it won't stop them from scoring a few hits if some of this 'low hanging fruit' isn't dealt with.
It's a failure of cabinet leadership to not make immediate fixes because you are waiting to implement longer-term change.
/agreed – even with a heavy workload. And possibly a failure of Ministerial-Department/Ministry Head interaction if and when there are roadblocks – even given all that 'impartiality of officials'.
And then there's a rabid media to contend with, many of whom will still be stirring as much shit as possible in their dying days, but I doubt whether even the likes of JC would be giving a free ride over the example(s) given above.
They may get beyond Christ-levels of forgiveness, yes. 🙂
As we have seen in the past, when the time is right, even a very mildly lefty government can be taken down by outrage over light-bulbs. This is the world we live in – a dominion of lies ruled over by money.
But the light-bulbs are symbolic of other matters that there are doubts about; they just act as a marker, virtue-signalling.*
It could mean there are the Left looking down, fussing over every little thing while the parade passes by.
It could mean there are the Left trying to be the Knight on the White Charger saving people who didn't want that.
It could be there are the Left fulminating over something, and ready to turn our lives upside down as they did when they brought in the Free-Market and No Regulation.
It could mean there are the people who are going to make us take our medicine which they have prescribed and no-one we know considers we are even sick, but they always know best.
It could mean that Labour presses an anti-authority nerve in those who are happy to pursue their own ends and let someone else clean up any messes left. What me clean up. I employ people to do that for me, and anyway others have done it too, why pick on me/us to behave well, make changes that aren't proven 100% worthwhile.
Examples of possible effects of new light bulb changes. In myself I thought of the cost of buying two new light bulbs at possibly $7 each compared to incandescent ones at $1 each. When people are really poor they can't afford to make such forward-moving gestures. Cut out incandescents and it would be back to candles. So I hoped that Labour could cut its crusading zeal down to what was okay for the precariat working and not working classes which used to be their spine.
*Virtue-signalling:
the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one’s good character or the moral correctness of one’s position on a particular issue.
“it’s noticeable how often virtue signalling consists of saying you hate things”
Regulating energy-efficient lightbulbs and showers was symbolic of the fundamental changes we need to make for the climate – and we have seen in the decade since that how far many people are prepared to go to keep their heads firmly planted in the sand.
If making those small changes was never going to have any effect, you might be able to claim it was 'virtue signalling'. That's just a bad-faith phrase from the dolts of the US right.
It was what it was. As you say it was symbolic of changes we needed to make, and that they would not recognise the difficulties that very low income people faced, because they don't care to apply their minds to da little peeps. Fact – fact.
And don't forget the “Fart Tax” AB when some farmer/Nat MP drove his tractor up parliament steps. Everybody laughed. Such a good joke against the Clark government.
Not laughing now are they, although not nearly enough has been done about it.
Labour should turn all that puerile stuff back on National – and those who fell for it – simply because they deserve it.
Fair comments. I think it would be great if somebody more familiar with it does a (guest) post on the different areas of responsibility of departmental CEOs, for example, for operational matters, and the Ministers. As far as I know, Ministers don’t hire the staff in their Ministries.
Where’s veutoviper?
She walked Incognito. I don't know why but suspect someone or some people here offended her.
There are a tiny handful of commenters on this site who make a career out of trying to offend regulars.
If we commenters care about what is happening to people in NZ and the world then we can't walk away from a forum like this that attempts to bring matters to scrutiny. It is good if people don't get nagged at all the time, if they have a point they should be considered. But it may need altering when some of its aspects are challenged. The view as to rightness can be different depending on the perspective. If the challenger does not have a worthy point and is unrelenting there is the choice of ignoring them, or uncovering their perspective and showing it as unreasonable. Also sometimes when you disagree with someone, it is still possible to see their greater good overall.
Those who want to state a case and think that they are totally right, need to stay on and at least hear and have short discussions about other people's POV. Veutoviper is a concerned and informed person and could be expected to stick around not walk away.
But some I think have 20th century perceptions. These have to alter somewhat – we can't think in exactly the same mode as the past, our future is changing and our approach must also – we know that life may become extremely uncomfortable. I worry as I read stories from the holocaust, from past times; we haven't made the great strides in managing our human life, emotions and desires, goals and outcomes, as we should. Therefore we have to think more deeply, nothing is absolutely certain, judgments have to be made., sometimes interim. Kindness and practicality must be hand in hand. For everyone who gives up, there are a thousand who will never understand that particular POV, and vice versa. It is important for the thinking, to assess their own thoughts and try to understand others who haven't experience or imagination.
FYI @ Incognito.
You might be interested in RNZ's "The House" a week or so back (31/3/2019 i THINK).
Briefly deals with various powers vested in Ministers and Departmental CEO's and down the chain – regulatory authority etc. which allows for a degree of flexibility when conditions change or in unforeseen circumstances.
Things CAN get done quite quickly when necessary – as we have just seen. For example: in the case of the Christchurch terrorist attack, visa changes to allow family members of victims to come to NZ were implemented within a couple of weeks.
And yes re Ministers and hiring of staff (which is as it should be probably), but there are ways and means – Ministers making it clear what expectations are, etc.
And let's not pretend the old nudge nudge wink wink shit hasn't been happening – especially during the gNat's last reign, OR things like abuse of the OIA system, OR the use of Thompson & Clark – clearly unacceptable behaviour for the public service to be involved in. Sanctions are available for that sort of thing BUT for political will and who has been licking who's arse (Sorry to be blunt, but that's what it amounts to).
Deliberate under-resourcing in some areas (for example) of those responsible for monitoring tertiary education, or visa compliance (James Casson aside), or monitoring the state of some of those immigration 'advisors' suited the last gNat junta very well. Priorities CAN be adjusted in many cases to ensure the sort of shit "The Nation" covered, or exploitation doesn't/didn't happen.
Thanks, I might have a look later although I’m keen to write a post (on a different topic). In any case, I don’t feel comfortable to write a meaningful post on departments and ministries, for example.
That thing by Watkins was a snore-fest. Could have been written a year ago and no-one would know the difference.
Exactly! It still managed to attract 480 comments!? Comments have now been closed on the article, but this is why they keep writing these snore fests.
It is a most peculiar article. She starts off with acomment about the donations to National soaring while Labours were paltry.
Somehow this is meant to be interpreted as National are in trouble? Shouldn't it mean, if her remark about "donations drying up" is correct it is Labour that is in trouble?
Still it is a pretty typical Watkins piece. Bugger the facts. She loves Ardern.
Harp music 🙂
An insightful view on how we used to police bad behaviour on our roads by someone who knows.
Makes me wonder whether our terrible road toll could be reduced if we returned to the old style of traffic policing, by a specialist force of dedicated officers with a passion for road safety and saving lives on the road, as their sole mission.
https://www.noted.co.nz/life/life-in-nz/when-traffic-cops-used-to-rule-new-zealand-roads/
Food for thought at least.
I was told something interesting by a friend who was part of the emergency response to the Tasman forest fire and was talking to a top Tasman cop. He said the previous National government had little interest in road safety, their sole focus was on keeping traffic, and of course commerce in the form of trucking, moving as quickly as possible. He is very pleased to see the coalition government's focus firmly back on policing for safer roads.
Yes, and that is a great example of getting on with change – immediate Budget action, clear announcement by Minister, results on the ground spreading already. Glad to hear those who have to respond to safety failures are noticing improvement.
Ae! And they have this weird idea that double lanes in both directions will naturally allow it all to happen (when the average NuZillner has yet to come to terms with merging like a zip and still drives like it's all a competition, in between checking the latest beep or blip or bell sound that comes across their cell phone).
Hence we have the likes of that absolute white baby elephant fuckup between Papamoa and Paengaroa (incidentally, where some of the worst worker exploitation, immigrants and others involved in bullshit tertiary education and other little scams reside and where Cassons try to justify their race shism), but where the occasional logging truck, gNat and orchid owner roams free
That's a good 'wonder' Jenny H. The cops now seem too centred on vehicle crime, perhaps it gets their figures up to the target set; another idea stop high targets and concentrate on outcomes of projects for improvement.
Also run stats counting all reasonably serious accidents and stop concentrating on the death toll. That stat only indicates a complete failure by traffic police to show care for people and polite interaction on the roads instead a simple end-of-life statistic for the books.
(An idea – have projects like for a period ask people to drive differently coming to roundabouts by slowing by about 10 kms so allowing others to move onto the road space in the few seconds that a slower entry would provide. See if over a six month period, what might be called cautious courtesy driving would lower accidents, and facilitate traffic movement. Too many people drive at full speed into a roundabout which is unwise, and reduces others entry-openings.)
Speed bumps at roundabout entries grazy. That'll slow the funkers down.
Immediately effective – and cheaper than "asking" people.
Fair comment Jenny.
I travel the east coast highway two from Napier to Tauranga often and have seen so many large potholes on these narrow winding single lane roads caused by heavy trucks all the time now and these potholes are so large that if you don't swerve to avoid them you will damage your steering system.
I have had 6 steering repairs in two years all caused by hitting large potholes.
That is one issue. then there are speeding drivers always trying to force slow drivers to speed up, and that is another problem..
The Government cant afford to keep fixing the damages the trucks are causing now so we need to see government increase the use of the roads by those trucks, in a "user Pays" policy.
Clearly the 'heavier longer trucks' HPMV are far too heavy for our light weighted 'soft roads' now.
.
all those parts for repairs on your car would have quite possibly been transported by truck to your repairer.
Trucks are on the road because of customer demand for goods. If you dont consume anything, then the trucks have nothing to transport, so wont be on the road.
if we eliminate HPMV, these would be replaced by around 20% more trucks.
Erik Prince tried to train James O’Keefe’s undercover ninnies, but the instructor threw in the towel because the group wasn’t capable of learning.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/erik-prince-set-up-intel-training-for-project-veritas-james-okeefe-report
Thwarted young men seeking extreme adventure learn the hard way in trouble spots like Ukraine.
They don't want to be bossed round by warlord oligarchs like Prince
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-04/ukraine-foreign-fighters-meger/11054728
Then they come back home…
Thwarted young men my arse. These fuckers are aboard the wingnut welfare train with O'keefe himself reportedly raking in an estimated $300k in 2017.
They’re coming from all over the world Joe, from both sides of the political divide. Nothing to do with Keefe whoever the hell that nobody is .
“Meanwhile, George, an American fighting on the Ukrainian side, described those he fought with as having “the same hatred for Russia or the same kind of sense of nationalism”.
Could be you Joe
“Anti-imperialists, anti-fascists, and those on the far left come to defend the pro-communist separatists and defend the autonomous regions from what they see as global imperialism.”
Then why the fuck did you bother replying to a comment about O’Keefe?
a career opportunity for you.
Put your money where your mouth is
Weak sauce, dope.
Send those chickenhawks Bolton, Pence, and brave, brave Marco Rubio down to Caracas. Let's see how long they last!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/rugby-world-cup/rwc-2019-japan/112452503/revealed-how-the-all-blacks-coaches-deal-with-injury-setbacks-in-world-cup-year
NZ rugby has dug it's own hole, & cancelled out the aspects of the game that allowed NZ's natural talent to thrive at the game in a way that summed up to the display of a national heritage like no where else in the world. The aspects of the game that gave the All Blacks a long standing distinguished dynanism are thrown away and can't come back, and the hole will avalanche in more and more, as can not be sustained.
Now a diplomatic security risk everytime run on the field for NZ i'm afraid too; an illustration being the prestige to Russia's ( a heavily armed nation) image it's overall diplomatic handling of the recent successful soccer world cup gave it, to the division and acrimony the ABs have associated to NZ on such stages in recent times in relation to the rest of the game.
Black Ferns rugby can be a new story for NZ instead.
New Zealand took the 2011 RWC not because of any "natural talent" but because of the refusal of the "referee" to penalize the home team's blatant cheating throughout that farcical final.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/mark-reason-new-zealand-deserved-to.html
File it under swings and roundabouts Mozza, it balances the ledger for Barnes being overwhelmed on the '07 match were France went unpenalised for a half and scored a try with a forward pass.
File it under swings and roundabouts Mozza, it balances the ledger for Barnes being overwhelmed on the '07 match
Nonsense. On stilts. He made two errors—he missed two forward passes, one leading to a try for the All Blacks, one to a try for the Tricolors. His couple of honest errors are not in the same universe as Craig Joubert’s refusal to even warn, let alone penalize, the flagrant and systematic cheating by the All Blacks in that infamous farce four years later.
France went unpenalised for a half …
They did not infringe. That's why.
…. and scored a try with a forward pass.
So did New Zealand. Luke McAlister's try followed a forward pass. I recommend you watch the match some time.
The All Blacks were imploding due to another episode of poor management of our rugby talents in the deserved French upset, and it would have happened one way or another.
The more recent final against the Wallabies was also poor referring but by then no one was paying attention, & despite the rigged deck, the aussies were only a James O'Connor type player break away from over coming them anyway, which isn't surprising given the Georgia pool game would be the poorest AB team performance in any world cup.
poor management of our rugby talents in the deserved French upset
What do you mean by "poor management"? They simply lost a football match. The French were too good for them.
The more recent final against the Wallabies was also poor referring
???? There was nothing in that final to match the non-performance by Joubert in 2011. The only terrible refereeing in the 2015 tournament was in the Australia-Scotland match. The “referee” was…. Craig Joubert.
Upset…..deserved
If things had gone the Wallabies way in terms of referring in crucial stages in that game, they could have broken the ABs, who they were otherwise clinging onto by their fingernails in staying in the match.
Fair call, my friend. However, the Wallabies were not the victims of orchestrated cheating.
That's the beauty of the game, 2 folk can watch it and see two totally different games.
I see way more ruck penalties when the team from Canterbury plays than my red and black jerseyed friends.
You clearly haven't watched either the 2007 match or the 2011 travesty.
Heh, it's great to be the only one right eh mozza.
Try (see what I did there) this on for size…
"They did not infringe…"
The video had three different angles and featured statistical breakdowns of lineouts, scrums, penalties, tackle counts, territory and possession. On those statistics, the All Blacks dominated. They had an overwhelming 73 per cent territorial advantage, winning 166 rucks to France's 42 and making only 73 tackles compared with France's 331.
….
To clarify, I got that from Wikipedia, wanting to confirm we we're talking about the same game.
They didn't infringe. They defended grimly. It's hard to beat a French team that's really determined. Unless you've got a "referee" like Andre Watson or Craig Joubert.
I imagine what Morrissey knows about rugby you could fit in a Lilliputian's thimble.
Ha ha ha ha ha! Good one, M'bird! I think you meant to say "could fit in a Brobdingnabian's thimble."
Of course, a quick sashay through this writer's oeuvre will show you that I've commented on rugby and other sports at an elevated and thoughtful level* for many years now.
And let's face it: even someone who knows as little about the game as, say, a Herald rugby writer or a Radio Sports opinion-vomiter like Martin "Moron" Devlin or Tony "Boot Boy" Veitch knows that the All Blacks were beaten fair and square by the Tricolors in 2007, and that they were allowed to cheat flagrantly throughout that farcical RWC final four years later.
* At the risk of being immodest.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/daisycutter-sports-rugby-world-cup.html
You don't know shit from clay on this subject.
That's no argument, my friend. My record speaks for itself. Yours?
Gotta say mozza, I'm with the short tailed shear water on this.
I did watch, let alone live both games.
Currently I am watching the local derby, come half time and find you are still braying.
I reckon it will not stop you having an opinion on this match though.
Otago v Waikato is not a local derby. Auckland v. Counties is a local derby.
Interesting to see how readily you resort to derogatory language: dismissing what I say as "braying." Have you considered a career in talk radio perhaps?
In regards to being derogatory, I acknowledge, withdraw and apologise.
As to blatant cheating, I maintain two people can watch the same game and see two different spectacles. Evidence being this exchange.
In regards to being derogatory, I acknowledge, withdraw and apologise.
Good man, g!
https://media1.tenor.com/images/b54ca60562cd613dfc43bca55a15a3b4/tenor.gif?itemid=7298734
As to blatant cheating, I maintain two people can watch the same game and see two different spectacles. Evidence being this exchange.
You saw the blatant, orchestrated cheating by the All Black forwards in that farcical 2011 RWC Final just as well as everyone else did.
Ha! Were you at kids' sport this morning? Or ever?
What difference does it make?
And now Ben Smith is helped from the field after a sickening collision in a very willing local Derry.
Knee hyper-extended and a chin on shoulder contact…
Otago v Waikato is not a local Derry. Nor is it a local derby. It's a game between two teams separated by several hundred kilometres.
In a competition that spans tens of thousands of kilometeres, chiefs vs highlanders is a local derby.
No it's not. A derby game is between two teams from the same town, or adjacent towns. Auckland-Counties or Auckland-North Harbour or Otago-Southland are derby games.
Similarly, Manchester United v. Man. City and AstonVilla v. Birmingham, and Arsenal v. Chelsea are derbies, but Liverpool v. Arsenal is not.
Yes it is. I will follow the example of Grant Nisbett MNZM and caller of 300 test matches rather than yours.
I note you refuse to use the franchise names. Perhaps a sign of a fondness for a bygone era?
My exception is the team from Canterbury, until they change their name that is what they shall remain.
Grant Nisbett? He's certainly superior to Ian "Smithy" Smith and Justin Marshall *, but on this he's as slapdash as they are.
I'm happy to use the franchise names, but I'm not going to accept the extirpation of the provincial names. It's the Wellington Hurricanes, and the Auckland Blues, and the Waikato Chiefs.
And it's the Natal Sharks and the Johannesburg Lions, not the "South African Sharks" and "South African Lions."
And yes, you're correct, it's the Canterbury Crusaders. Need to change that vile name, of course, but whatever it is, it'll still be Christchurch's team. BTW, how come the Crusaders never played a game against the famous London team Saracens?
* I tangled with that numbskull fifteen years ago….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/bernadine-or-hell-hath-no-fury-aug-29.html
Gotta say for me its the Hurricanes as Wellington isn't the extent of the catchment area.
I am in the Manawatu and struggled to cheer for the Highlanders because of the large number of local players in that team.
Tad churlish perhaps but I am sure I am not the only grumpy one in this discussion.
Yes, you're correct about the Hurricanes not being only a Wellington team. Manawatu and Hawkes Bay are important parts of the team, and so was Taranaki. And, no, I haven't forgotten the Wairarapa, Horowhenua, Whanganui, etc. But the major urban area is Wellington, and that's where most of the home games are played.
Similarly, the Boston Red Sox represent not only the Boston urban area but all of the states of New England. Only a mental pygmy such as a New Zealand Rugby boss would be persuaded to dispense with the word "Boston" however.
Welfare reforms and Max Rashbrooke.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/388468/at-last-welfare-emphasis-will-move-from-punishment-to-support
Opinion – The battles over welfare are in large part a dispute about whether people who find themselves relying on social security are principally in need of punishment or support….
More generally, as the report notes, there is very little evidence that sanctions achieve their claimed effects of getting people back into work. They are just as likely to force people out of the system altogether or into reliance on criminal activities or unsustainable borrowing.
In contrast to the harsh overseer model, the experts' report is an attempt to put a nurturing, caring assistant at the heart of the welfare system. It centres the system on whakamana tāngata – "restoring dignity to people so they can participate meaningfully with their families and communities"…
The experts' report does not, as some hoped, spell out a completely new and coherent plan for a 21st century welfare system. It does not sketch out a fully future-proofed welfare system. It represents big change, not transformational change.
But then, like most of this government's working groups, Cindy Kiro and her team were not given the time and resources to deliver on broader ambitions. What they have produced, though, is still immensely important.
And Jeremy Pie – On the UK State of the nation report.
Social mobility in UK has stalled. In 2010 Cameron set up Social Mobility Commission but it resigned en masse a year after Theresa May had said she would do great stuff in fixing injustices. They said that the Government was too focussed on Brexit to do anything.
Then in the USA, he decided that Trump promised change and now people have got it!
Please at least add quote marks when you use a mix of yours and someone else's words like that – better still, click the ["] button on the editor toolbar so the quoted paragraph becomes indented.
Oh hell. Now I won't pass the adaptive test for understandability. I'm a failure at communication. I'm teetering on the edge of not commenting here and leaving it to the snobs.
Our world is coming to an end but our sentence construction, our syntax is what really catches the eye and the mind.
Passive? Or Aggressive? Passive or aggressive? We just don't know.
Sorry, I have just noticed that the whole thing was a quote, not your words at all.
Good. Let's get the history correct – surely truth is important.
Moderator
Any chance of a confirmation that my contribution and a separate email have been received and if it's okay, middling, passing bad, not okay?
I’ll make an enquiry at the back-end.
Ta.
I haven't seen anything. I'll have a look.
Thanks if I haven't done right, I'll do a printout on what I should do next time so I get in the current.
Oz Rugby has an $8B budget hole this year – (not sure when they get this years World Cup money) and face a payout of $4M on Folau's contract if their termination is seen as a breach.
They have only one option – given Cheika says he will not be selected even if still on contract, refuse to pay him a penny and drag this through the courts if they have to. Even if they still payout – better later than now. But more likely – given he would be unable to play and would have no guarantee of ever receiving any money – he would be forced to seek to leave the contract so he can be paid to play elsewhere.
The IAAF has a rule whereby women competitors must have a testosterone level below "5" (the norm is .2 to 1.5), for events between 400m and the mile, but not shorter distances or field events.
It seems as if their rule applies only to distances which only one specific athlete competes.
Given the said extra testosterone gives athletes an advantage in shorter distances and field events the most (which is why males and females have taken drugs for these events way more often than for the 800m and 1500m) their rule is inexplicable.
Labour's Bill Shorten won 'narrowly in last nights leaders debate in Brisbane.
Gym Jordan's in for a rough ride.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State University asked a judge Wednesday for permission to publicly share information about a confidential state medical board investigation involving the team doctor accused of decades-old sexual misconduct against more than 150 former students.
http://www.startribune.com/ohio-state-wants-info-on-96-doc-investigation-made-public/509334551/
I notice the new self appointed elite of NZ journalism has decided to freely name the Christchurch murderer, even going so far as to promote him and his home town in backwater Australia.
What a disgraceful rag that Herald is.
Edit: I looked a bit deeper into the writer of this promotion piece, Caroline Meng-Yee, and it turns out she’s bee in trouble before for dressing as slain Sophie Elliot at a fancy dress birthday party in 2011.
I wouldn't be surprised if their reasoning is that the inevitable outrage will suck in a bunch of eyeballs. They'll come out with some freedom bullshit and that'll reel in Trotsker and co.
Reading about this Meng-Yee character made me feel sad. There are some verifiable scumbags writing for publications and the banner under which they publish legitimises their horrible nature.
She seems like one of those women who gets turned on by serial murderers. Her promotional piece on the Australian suggests that.
sad and sick for me
It's a horrible thought but I wonder if the Herald is softening the ground for a full push on trial coverage where they hope to make hundreds of thousands of dollars creating a circus based on the misery of this malevolent event.
Can't see how that would fit with this: https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/chch-terror/388166/christchurch-mosque-shootings-media-agree-on-trial-coverage-protocols
(e) Meng-Yee is experienced, yet she dressed up as the slain victim in a case she covered presumably in order to promote herself and her agenda. I think the Herald are quite happy to have this sociopath cover the very worst terror attack in this country since the land wars.
It suits them!
That's 8 years ago.
Wow. What an apologist you are. I'm really surprised.
Sense of proportion.
8 years ago..
Are you serious?
Excuse me?
That reporter was trusted with the coverage of the Sophie Elliot murder. A psychopathic murder by a person very similar in character to the Christchurch mass murderer and she dressed up as the victim three short years later?
I guess she'll be happy wearing a bloodied hijab to her next fancy dress ball!
No excuses for that disgusting behaviour no matter how many years ago. From the link above
Makes me give thanks for a paywall.
Hopefully the amount of times that fishwrap (thanks Patricia (I think)), gets quoted.
Awful Auckland centric rag that it is.
As I have said before: As they try to escape from behind it in an effort to get noticed, the paywall will encourage a race to the bottom by NZ Herald journalists.
And as many here have posited, the Herald will the most likely only allow the most venal, (like Hosking), to be outside the paywall. This will further increase the downward pressure on Herald journalists as they compete to be more like Hosking.
The Herald will no longer be the journal of record. That task will fall to free to air and on line Public Service Broadcaster, RNZ.
UK local election results was a case of a plague on both your houses. Looks like Corbyn is not doing as good a job as some might like to paint it.
Nice comment, idiot. Why be such an air-head when you are capable of more?
??????
The fact is that the Conservative Party has been humiliated. Labour, the biggest and most popular party in Europe, has performed far better.
https://off-guardian.org/2019/05/03/uk-local-election-propaganda-significant-losses-for-both-sides/
Looks like Maybot is doing n even shittier job than everyone thought gozzer.
Forty nine years ago.
In face of the climate crisis, amongst our official leaders. It almost seems, that courageous leadership is a forgotten art.
And when our official leaders shrink back from taking the lead; No matter, that they have no rank, or title, or official position the, leadership will fall to the one who leads
Success!
The Democratic Party succeed in finding a candidate worse than Clinton.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/01/biden-sides-trump-bolton-and-pompeo-backing-coup-effort-venezuela?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=Biden%20Sides%20With%20Trump%2C%20Bolton%2C%20and%20Pompeo%20in%20Backing%20Coup%20Effort%20in%20Venezuela&utm_campaign=%27Beautiful%20Trouble%27%20in%20World%20That%20Needs%20It%20Badly%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-%27Beautiful%20Trouble%27%20in%20World%20That%20Needs%20It%20Badly%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review-_-Biden%20Sides%20With%20Trump%2C%20Bolton%2C%20and%20Pompeo%20in%20Backing%20Coup%20Effort%20in%20Venezuela'>Biden Sides With Trump, Bolton, and Pompeo in Backing Coup Effort in Venezuela
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/that-time-joe-biden-lied-about-his-academic-credentials/?utm_source=mj-newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=in-the-mix-2019-05-04Nobody does alternative facts like Donald Trump, except Joe Biden
<a href='https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/30/more-90-democratic-voters-want-2020-candidate-make-climate-action-and-medicare-all?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=More%20Than%2090%2525%20of%20Democratic%20Voters%20Want%202020%20Candidate%20to%20Make%20Climate%20Action%20and%20Medicare%20for%20All%20Top%20Priorities%3A%20Poll&utm_campaign=%27Beautiful%20Trouble%27%20in%20World%20That%20Needs%20It%20Badly%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-%27Beautiful%20Trouble%27%20in%20World%20That%20Needs%20It%20Badly%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review-_-More%20Than%2090%2525%20of%20Democratic%20Voters%20Want%202020%20Candidate%20to%20Make%20Climate%20Action%20and%20Medicare%20for%20All%20Top%20Priorities%3A%20Poll'>More Than 90% of Democratic Voters Want 2020 Candidate to Make Climate Action and Medicare for All Top Priorities: Poll</a>
<a href='https://www.philly.com/news/joe-biden-2020-campaign-fundraising-democratic-party-20190426.html'>Within hours of announcing his nomination, Joe Biden attends a fund raiser with internet and private health insurer billionaires opposed to 'Net Neutrality, and 'Medicare'</a>
Doesn't the system that puts that long link address under one linked word work any more?
Let me try it out:
<a href=”https://www.elections.org.nz/”>Elections</a>
<a href=’https://www.elections.org.nz/>Elections</a>
<a href=’https://www.elections.org.nz>Elections</a>
Edit: it seems not.
Use the link symbol in the Editor.
Elections