Sniggering at a logo will have as much cut-through as the Russia fantasy. Instead of these "witty" social media warriors patting each other on the back over their H.P. Lovecraft allusions—they'll be congratulating themselves that those dumb Trump supporters have never HEARD of H.P. Lovecraft—-do you not think it would be more useful to focus on the actual crimes and outrages perpetrated every day by Trump and his cronies?
And, no, saying mean things about the New York Times is not a crime.
Hilarious. So it was, as we should all have suspected, those dastardly Russian masterminds that manipulated the "bots" to made Gabbard look good and Harris look nasty and foolish.
At least ace reporter Emily Stewart got one thing right, when she admitted:
[Is there something you want or have to say about an Author of this site? Spit it out in your own words instead of hiding behind old comments by others archived on your own blog site like John Key’s bottom drawer. To me, it looks like the actions of a prejudiced coward but you may have something of interest to say so here is your opportunity; don’t blow it – Incognito 😉 ]
I believe they do, Tim. I'll recommend you to the producer if you like. You couldn't be worse than I was when I appeared on the program back in 2013…
CHRISTINE RANKIN: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
MORRISSEY BREEN: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Um.
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha! It’s time to find out what our Panelists have been thinking about. Christine Rankin, what’s been on YOUR mind lately?
CHRISTINE RANKIN: Well, Jim, look, I’ve been so busy working for the reintroduction of corporal punishment for the under-fives that I haven’t had TIME to do any thinking at all for several years now. I really can’t think of one thing to talk about.
JIM MORA:[long, irritated silence] Mmmmm-kay. Morrissey, have YOU got something on your mind?
MORRISSEY BREEN: Ummm, ahhhh, I’m going to abandon my, uh, carefully prepared speech about foreign policy, and comment on Christine’s failure to ummm, errr, honour her, ummmm, commitments to your show.
CHRISTINE RANKIN: [indignant] I’ve been BUSY.
MORRISSEY BREEN: Ummmm, ahhhh, yeah. Ummm…to paraphrase Dr. Johnson, I will say this about Christine: “This woman’s thinking is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! That’s very funny! I think he’s talking about you Christine!
MORRISSEY BREEN: And that’s all I have to say, Jim. Um.
JIM MORA: Short and sweet. That’s the way we like them on the Panel! Okay, next up, Lanthanide will tell us why he thinks a nuclear reactor in the middle of Christchurch would be a good idea. First, though, what do the Panelists think of this?
RANKIN:[fervently] That’s a SPLENDID idea. At last, somebody talking some sense….
I was half hoping I might hear you go head to head with someone like Joe Bennett sometime.
(I like a healthy dose of cynicism with an ounce of ridicule, just as long as one can be equally cynical and questioning of themselves. Otherwise it's so holier-than-thou. And as you will know, I'm the most perfectist specimen ever to grace the place that I could rival Sir John or Soimun. I just can't seem to find a decent interpreter at the moment).
Ew! It sounds a bit icky. Besides, it's commercial and if I keep having to boycott places and products based on the advertising that offends my superior intellect, I'll be forced to go back somewhere like the lower regions of the Himalyas to live an honest and natural life.
Now I think about it, I suppose that is an option – I could always get someone like Bryce Edwards to be my spiritual guide if he was prepared to grace me with his presence
Thanks for giving me the opportunity, Incognito. My relationship with our good friend and colleague weka goes back a long way. It reached a bit of a nadir a few times when she banned me, but we usually kissed and made up.
I thought she'd gone for good when, during another ban late last year, I penned the following for D.P. Farrar's dodgy site….
I must say that, in spite of our rather chequered history, I'm glad to see weka back with us.
[I warned you not to blow it yet you lit the fuse and guess what happened?
KABOOM!!
Just a few weeks ago (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19-07-2019/) you were in the midst of a pile up and putting the boot into the same Author and (former) Moderator of this site. I left several Moderator warnings, which you would have seen despite they were not directed at you specifically.
Today, again, you couldn’t help yourself and you linked to a contemptable piece of narcissistic ‘writing’ destined for KiwiBlog attacking not one but several Authors and Moderators of TS. Indeed, that is where it belongs and where it ended up, I see. Good for you.
Yet today you claim “I’m glad to see weka back with us”!?
I counted 11 links today from and to your bottom drawer of which you seem to be immensely proud and of the fact that share this questionable habit with infamous historical figures such as Muldoon, Joe McCarthy, and Joe Stalin. If you read this site’s policy https://thestandard.org.nz/policy/#banning you’ll see that link-spamming is a self-martyrdom offense. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
I’ll save the moderators here, i.e., moi, a lot of time by sending you back to KiwiBlog, where you belong IMHO.
The extreme right wing are at it again. White supremacists get a pretty easy ride on forums like Kiwiblog, with various commenters suggesting they are just 'standing up for their culture'.
But there is an inherent violence and hatred festering inside them, and the right wing in general, and it is this violence against ordinary innocents which manifests itself with increasing regularity…
Sadly, it seems we have forgotten who those social workers really are, what they do and, most importantly, why they must do it.
Darroch Ball says Oranga Tamariki social workers are hard-working, dedicated and right-minded people.
While the protesters were chanting "not one more child to be taken", I am incredulous that even though a child is admitted to hospital with non-accidental injuries every two days, we don't hear any protesters chanting "not one more child to be beaten".
It seems incredible that people somehow truly believe social workers can just decide one day to knock on a door and uplift a child. There are many steps social workers must take before the process of uplifting a child takes place, including the fact that a court must make that decision – not the social worker.
indeed. In my line of work I frequently deal with social workers – DHB as well as Oranga Tamariki. I have yet to meet one who does not care passionately about their work and the people they work with. Without exception, the situations in which they find themselves cause much soul searching, stress and distress. Most are heartbroken that they can only do so much for the children and families they work with.
The problem is that too little is being done to help the people who are struggling at the bottom and resorting to drugs and showing the distress caused by an uncaring nation. And some of those social workers are Maori. Things don't improve because a constipated government system that can't eliminate austerity and prejudicial thinking and get on to creating work schemes and bring young people back into school to get training for work, and advice on how to cope with the demands of a very young child on the immature parent.
We know about the children taken from their aborigine parents in Australia. And the cases here of the state swooping in like vultures rather than on angelic wings. It is a bad business that Oranga Tamirki has been set up to carry out, and the workers trying to cope in a humane way have a hard job.
But it is the system that has failed the parents, all their sorrows have not been forgotten and they have grown up unready to find their own secure and happy maturity and just cannot plan for the future they would choose, it given the support and training that they need.
It is just that the turbulence suggests unrest, and unrest must mean that the Government is somehow responsible. Look at Government failure to solve land use problems or failure to Kiwibuild. Shout it through the media and those who don't look at the detail can be swayed and therefore Opposition benefits.
there are real problems that real people have identified and are trying to change – it would be very sad if the heartfelt feelings of those affected were not respected.
A call for "not one baby more, not one acre more, not one whānau more" led speeches as about 400 rallied on Parliament's lawn on Tuesday to hand an open letter signed by 17,000 thousand people to Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson.
Organising group Hands off our Tamariki Network is calling for a halt to children being removed from their families and iwi by Oranga Tamariki, in a debate spurred by a Newsroom video showing the trauma of an attempted uplift in Hastings this year.
"It's time for us to take control, as whānau, of our own wellbeing. It's time for us to take control as hapu, as iwi, as Māori for the wellbeing of our Tamariki and mokopuna," organiser Leonie Pihama told the crowd to cheers.
In 2012 Boris Johnson wrote about the dreadful fate awaiting Greece.
Every day we read of fresh horrors: of once proud bourgeois families queuing for bread, of people in agony because the government has run out of money to pay for cancer drugs. Pensions are being cut, living standards are falling, unemployment is rising, and the suicide rate is now the highest in the EU – having been one of the lowest.
By any standards we are seeing a whole nation undergo a protracted economic and political humiliation; and whatever the result of yesterday’s election, we seem determined to make matters worse. There is no plan for Greece to leave the euro, or none that I can discover. No European leader dares suggest that this might be possible, since that would be to profane the religion of Ever Closer Union. Instead we are all meant to be conniving in a plan to create a fiscal union which (if it were to mean anything) would mean undermining the fundamentals of Western democracy.
Schools may have to close, exams could be disrupted and fresh food for pupils’ meals could run short because of panic buying with prices soaring by up to 20%, according to a secret Department for Education analysis of the risks of a no-deal Brexit obtained by the Observer.
The five-page document – marked “Official Sensitive” and with the instruction “Do Not Circulate” – also raises the possibility of teacher absences caused by travel disruption, citing schools in Kent as particularly at risk.
On the dangers of food shortages to schools, it suggests that informing the public of the risks could make matters even worse.
In a section entitled School Food, it talks of the “risk that communications in this area could spark undue alarm or panic food buying among the general public”.
Pollies set us up to be pigeons encouraged to push buttons to get stories of how bad things are elsewhere and not notice that our own walls are shrinking inwards.
I would suggest don't listen to Boorish echoing being a comedian, watch the real ones. You will get the same feeling of happy confusion, but from professionals on Black Books.
…. and over many, many other issues. Te Reo's actually a really nice bloke, deep down, even forgiving me after I cast him, back in 2013, as one of the nastier characters from Animal Farm….
6 link whore linking to that second rate blog in this thread alone.
I appreciate you may be trying to brighten our days by giving us something to laugh at (and it IS funny). But if we wanted to look at shit like that we would.
James, please clarify, is there any evidence (in that RNZ news link) for a "Green MP thinking they won’t make 5% next election.", or is that wishful speculation on your part?
no evidence – just a reasonable guess given that they are on 6%.
[Making up shit is very naughty, James, even when you think it is reasonable shit. Naughty commenters have to sit on the naughty step so give me a good reason why you should escape this treatment. After all, you were quite rude to Robert when he challenged you. Perhaps you didn’t know that the person you had in mind is not a Green MP? – Incognito]
Yeah, he jumped to the wrong conclusion. I've had several conversations with Jack (at our conferences) and I'm really impressed – enough to rate him as #2 after James for the party list last time.
However, I suspect he is misreading the situation. Intelligence isn't the problem: he's right up there. Impatience due to youth. I had that too, still often gets me.
I believe the more consensus-building he engages in, the more he will learn that impatient radicals don't achieve much. For some reason, he's not acquiring the gnosis from James as role model. I have faith he'll suss it out eventually.
Given that Gareth is the only self-declared leftist in the leadership group (to the media/public, I mean, and with the caveat that as far as I've seen), and he was the one who did stand against James & didn't leave when defeated, I'm taking it as not a leftist plot!
As always, I could be wrong, but reading Gareth's demeanour & body language as much as what he actually said makes me confident I'm not. Other than Jack, I've seen no sign that the group has lost confidence in James's leadership. If the left was clearly polling well, there would be.
The left isn't polling very well in other western countries either. I believe the perception that they need to build common ground with centrists has been spreading. Only residual leftist ideology is preventing consensus from firming up decisively throughout the west, and marginalising the right.
"However, Mr McDonald said he would be staying on as a party member, as he believed the Green Party were still the best hope for radical change in Parliament."
James, you wrote: "Green MP thinking they won’t make 5% next election."
Laugh all you like, James, but it is about addressing an unmet need. A bumbling toddler learning to walk can be funny to watch and they have to learn to crawl before they can learn to walk, but one day they’ll walk …
Such limited defeatist thinking, James. Heard of the Paralympics? Seen what amazing things some people can do with just their arms? Ever seen the famous documentary Child of Our Time and the disabled solo mother Alison Lapperhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Lapper? You may want to adjust your thinking about people and their appearances; they can be deceiving …
Greens are the only party to have consistently promoted policies for renters rather than owners or speculators. Fingers crossed something useful gets past the resisters.
True, good for differentiation in 2020 and may drag Winston's bunch and Labour's righties further to the left – but not much consolation for renters in the meantime.
I'm all in favour of new radiation machines, but what we were promised by Labour at the last election was a comprehensive cancer-fighting strategy, and Clarke himself was in favour of a standalone cancer-fighting agency.
The commitment to spreading machines around regions rather than further centralising specialist services is significant. Something the last govt could easily have done.
Clark has said his views on the value of a separate cancer agency have shifted now that he has access to internal information as a Minister. Also clear in recent interviews that an overall cancer strategy is coming in a few weeks.
"A cancer plan that works has to be comprehensive and must include radiation treatment as well as pharmaceuticals and preventative measures," Ardern told media in a press conference at Wellington Regional Hospital.
"Radiation is an effective form of cancer treatment, and one-in-two people with cancer would benefit from its use. But in New Zealand only one-in-three are currently accessing these services.
"That's why we are making the single largest Government capital investment in it."
I hope they will have an effective strategy to ensure sufficient staffing levels and a resilient workforce otherwise these expensive machines could be sitting idle for much of the time. I think that is a much harder issue to deal with than buying expensive kit.
This Government is promising the Earth but no spades and no extra pairs of hands to do the digging. The billion trees to be planted, KiwiBuild, mental health, et cetera. In education, they at least made an effort to increase the much-needed capacity but it did not go down well with the people that already existed on the ground. If they keep this up, they’ll erode (political) goodwill and credit and even JA won’t be able to save them.
NZ Māori Council calls for Simon Bridges to apologise for Tokelau comments
“What this man said about a whole section of New Zealand citizens is an absolute disgrace, but also highlights his performance on all issues related to Iwi Māori," he said in a statement.
"Let me be really clear here: Bridges was a member of a nine-year-old Government whereby our people resembled more of a third-world population. It was under his Government's watch that gave rise [to] record numbers of Māori committing suicide.
"It was under his Government's watch that homeless numbers rose, the health system began to falter under the weight of financial mismanagement, that Pharmac became a laughing joke, that more of our children than ever were taken by the state.”
– Matthew Tutaki
Matthew Tutaki another unimpressed with Simon Bridges.
No he won't – there is another shooting in the US, people must be becoming mindful of the part heavy handed, reckless, dirty politicking is having on people's lives. NZers need to recognise what is leadership and how and why it must be made to work for the country and put their full support behind that and be active in engaging with each other.
You've got a nice feature about your area. I want to start a business using it and it will mean that you have to share it with us, we will need the major part say 80/20, but there are a few jobs in it, and investment in luxury homes so there will be growth for you.
But these Waiheke Islanders aren't your ordinary sheeple.
About the same time i guess as Peter Ellis was being granted leave to appeal to the supreme court the crown was busy opposing it .The several reasons they gave to oppose it were fairly threadbare i thought but one really stands out !!they said that they doubted that the science of the time had changed very much in the interim wtf !!!i had to laugh albeit darkly according to Lynley Hood who has done exhaustive work on ellis's case and of the professional therapists of the time it was common to measure a little girls hymen and finding it to be more than four mil provided conclusive proof of sexual abuse .Well unsurprisingly [since the experts of the time were not very expert ]the science went on to find eventually that hymens come in all shapes an sizes quite naturally.The chief witness for the prosecution at ellis's trial was one of these above mentioned practitioners she practiced this sort of what can only be described imo as quackery for a living yet was held up by the crown as the last word in the study of sexual abuse .Seems the only thing that REALLY hasnt changed in the last twenty years is Crown Bias
'Crown bias' and general ignorance continues probably because of an unwillingness of 'experts' to examine their learnings to see if they are up to date, and then accept they have been at fault in the part.
Because of a lack of willingness by authorities to accept that mistakes may happen in medical proceedings, those involved are understandably reluctant to admit that their methods might be faulty. This is a problem for medical people believing they are following best practice, or who have made a rare error. Medical people should be able to report themselves or also if others do so, and be investigated and cautioned and would probably be placed under supervision of the general medical authorities from designated peers, rather than have to go through the usual rigid judgments that the public face.
An example is Semmelweiss and the extra and preventable deaths of mothers who were denied the hygienic care that he trialled and proved was effective. It appears that his mistreatment by the medical establishment is still not fully owned by history. One report says he was placed in an asylum due to possible alzheimers disease and there was beaten by staff, and died of a diseased wound. Another was that he was enticed into an asylum and then imprisoned on the basis he 'had lost his mind.'
The poor man had so many detractors who refused to accept the facts, and preferred to 'denigrate the man' that he became depressed, and lost his way in life I think. However, to some extent, he was the author of his own misfortune in that he delayed publishing his treatment and providing the information needed to prevent false stories and opinions to circulate.
His successor – János Diescher was appointed Semmelweis's successor at the Pest University maternity clinic. Immediately, mortality rates jumped sixfold to 6%, but the physicians of Budapest said nothing; there were no inquiries and no protests. Almost no one — either in Vienna or in Budapest — seems to have been willing to acknowledge Semmelweis's life and work.
His remains were transferred to Budapest in 1891. On 11 October 1964, they were transferred once more to the house in which he was born. The house is now a historical museum and library, honoring Ignaz Semmelweis.
A white man drove 700 kilometres to murder and maim brown people.
The next race war will come not from racist whites, but from racist blacks and Hispanics who feel empowered to act on their racism by an administration that excuses all minority misbehavior.
I agree Sam dept can be a trap tangata lending money on credit card just to survive .I see people using money stupidly all the time one should live like they are broke all the time to save money.
I think that the government should build minny housing smart small whare add that to the lower house perches prices for first house buyers prices. Im quite lucky I can build a whare in Hawksbay and Te Waiapu Valley to I will build them from recycled materials and make them carbon neutral to.
Keep those POLICE UNDER control Jacinda the Ihumatao issue is a international story now.
The Coalition Government has invested more in Aotearoa Healthcare systems in 2 years than national did in 9 so point your criticism to them.
Duncan you are being rude talking over the top of Jacinda that tells me a story.
Artificial intelligence will take JOBS off the common people don't bullshit its is going to hand more power to the 00.1% unless good laws are made to counteract that phenomenon Artificial Intelligence and robotics automation Will Be A Major Game Changer so a universal WAGE is needed to counteract that phenomenon The major effects of Artificial intelligence won't happen overnight but it will happen in the near future Ma te wa.
That business man with the bruising on his head is actually a national puppet whanau don't listen to his and duncans rhetoric about Our business economy its is going great the government has increased investment in the economy through higher wages and investment in Infrastructure this will flow through the economy and back to the government in tax take they increase investment in the MANY the 99.0% who pay most of the tax take .Not like national who invested heavily in the Wealth 00.1% who have accountants who hide their new money they got from national tax cuts ECT under their pillow .Consequence less tax take for the government LESS money to spend on the Tangata.
Have the Police got any video footage to back up there allegations of bad behavior by the protesters at Ihumatao did you see that they put a Wahine up to make their statement.????????.
That would be good for the Wahine who are getting treatment for breast cancer a trial of a new drug that will stop the side effects of hot flushes ka pai.
Eco Maori has no power bill now cost me $1800 to build quite easy to so long as the sandflys stop stuffing with it I went to cut wood again and my system had been turned on the battery were run down lucky I got a second battery from the Stihl shop in Naiper he has got a great product and a great price. My new battery was in the system
That's funny the drug lord trying to break out of jail impersonating his daughter
Sir Ngata was treated very badly by the crown if he was White he would have not even been charged.
I,,,,Whanau the police love using there intimidation practices and propaganda to try and upset people Whanau be cool like ME. They have heaps of police following Me around they use the public to try and intimidate me to but the fools are just giving Eco Maori more MANA thanks.
I think sitting on your hands and not changing the way trade training whanaga is stupid especially if some are failing in their business plans and failing to give te tangata the correct skills that are lacking in Aotearoa. I think it's stupid having to import people with the skills when we just have to train our OWN.
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
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Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
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The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
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The Repugs get self-aware with their 2020 convention logo.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-convention-logo-cthulhu_n_5d43ba9ce4b0acb57fca1492
Sniggering at a logo will have as much cut-through as the Russia fantasy. Instead of these "witty" social media warriors patting each other on the back over their H.P. Lovecraft allusions—they'll be congratulating themselves that those dumb Trump supporters have never HEARD of H.P. Lovecraft—-do you not think it would be more useful to focus on the actual crimes and outrages perpetrated every day by Trump and his cronies?
And, no, saying mean things about the New York Times is not a crime.
I do apologise for failing to post a mozzie-approved droning whine about the awfulness of the media, Dems in general, Obama, and especially Clinton.
To make up for it, here's an "awww, that's so sweeeeet" piece just for you.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/donald-trumps-america/114665278/meet-the-guitarstrumming-kiwi-surfer-dude-whos-become-us-presidential-candidate-tulsi-gabbards-secret-weapon
Feel better now, Comrade Morrisski?
Thanks, Andre. Like anyone who sees a truly decent, as well as pulchritudinous, politician such as the Honorable Tulsi, I do indeed feel better.
Great work, Comrade.
https://i.imgflip.com/1cx5fe.jpg
Another piece you may enjoy about Tulsi and how social media manipulation works and what the objective might be.
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/8/2/20751789/kamala-harris-destroyed-tulsi-gabbard-bots-google
Hilarious. So it was, as we should all have suspected, those dastardly Russian masterminds that manipulated the "bots" to made Gabbard look good and Harris look nasty and foolish.
At least ace reporter Emily Stewart got one thing right, when she admitted:
Never ending….'Be Good With Money'
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/114664770/bnz-knew-it-was-charging-too-much-for-kiwisaver-but-didnt-cut-fees-for-nearly-a-year
I am so happy Weka one of my favourite authors is back. She makes me want to look at the standard more often.
weka?
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/weka-has-go-at-john-pilger-aug-22-2015.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/12/standardistas-debate-merits-or.html
[Is there something you want or have to say about an Author of this site? Spit it out in your own words instead of hiding behind old comments by others archived on your own blog site like John Key’s bottom drawer. To me, it looks like the actions of a prejudiced coward but you may have something of interest to say so here is your opportunity; don’t blow it – Incognito 😉 ]
This pathetic "look at moi" need you have to link back to your own site – is that what's known as linkwhoring?
'Like John Key's bottom drawer' – amusing incognito, and perfectly framed.
Muldoon had a list as well. And Joe McCarthy. And Joe Stalin.
I am an inveterate collector of choice insults, esp. those directed at moi….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/12/masters-of-abuse-no1-rick-boyd-jan-27.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-tribute-to-redbaiter-rip-oct-16-2011.html
See my Moderation note @ 11:25 AM.
Do you know if RNZ's 'The Panel' hold auditions? and What's the difference between a "prejudiced coward" and an embittered old curmudgeon?
Or maybe it's all an act
I don’t know. All I care about here is behaviour here; what people do in their own sandpits is up to them.
I believe they do, Tim. I'll recommend you to the producer if you like. You couldn't be worse than I was when I appeared on the program back in 2013…
I was half hoping I might hear you go head to head with someone like Joe Bennett sometime.
(I like a healthy dose of cynicism with an ounce of ridicule, just as long as one can be equally cynical and questioning of themselves. Otherwise it's so holier-than-thou. And as you will know, I'm the most perfectist specimen ever to grace the place that I could rival Sir John or Soimun. I just can't seem to find a decent interpreter at the moment).
You're too perfect for The Panel, Tim. You need to go on…. The Huddle.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/wimp-walloping-williams-and-ralston-vs.html
Ew! It sounds a bit icky. Besides, it's commercial and if I keep having to boycott places and products based on the advertising that offends my superior intellect, I'll be forced to go back somewhere like the lower regions of the Himalyas to live an honest and natural life.
Now I think about it, I suppose that is an option – I could always get someone like Bryce Edwards to be my spiritual guide if he was prepared to grace me with his presence
Lol OwT
Thanks for giving me the opportunity, Incognito. My relationship with our good friend and colleague weka goes back a long way. It reached a bit of a nadir a few times when she banned me, but we usually kissed and made up.
I thought she'd gone for good when, during another ban late last year, I penned the following for D.P. Farrar's dodgy site….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-clobbering-machine-strikes-again.html
I must say that, in spite of our rather chequered history, I'm glad to see weka back with us.
[I warned you not to blow it yet you lit the fuse and guess what happened?
KABOOM!!
Just a few weeks ago (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19-07-2019/) you were in the midst of a pile up and putting the boot into the same Author and (former) Moderator of this site. I left several Moderator warnings, which you would have seen despite they were not directed at you specifically.
Today, again, you couldn’t help yourself and you linked to a contemptable piece of narcissistic ‘writing’ destined for KiwiBlog attacking not one but several Authors and Moderators of TS. Indeed, that is where it belongs and where it ended up, I see. Good for you.
Yet today you claim “I’m glad to see weka back with us”!?
I counted 11 links today from and to your bottom drawer of which you seem to be immensely proud and of the fact that share this questionable habit with infamous historical figures such as Muldoon, Joe McCarthy, and Joe Stalin. If you read this site’s policy https://thestandard.org.nz/policy/#banning you’ll see that link-spamming is a self-martyrdom offense. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
I’ll save the moderators here, i.e., moi, a lot of time by sending you back to KiwiBlog, where you belong IMHO.
Banned for six months – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 3:01 PM.
Also chuffed to see weka writing here again!
Good to see you too PM! So sorry you got dragged into that mess.
+1
Thank-you TFG
+1
Second that 🙂
Yes I'm glad to see her too – she often lifts the standard of conversation.
The extreme right wing are at it again. White supremacists get a pretty easy ride on forums like Kiwiblog, with various commenters suggesting they are just 'standing up for their culture'.
But there is an inherent violence and hatred festering inside them, and the right wing in general, and it is this violence against ordinary innocents which manifests itself with increasing regularity…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/114736833/us-police-warn-of-an-active-shooter-at-mall-in-el-paso-texas
I agree with this defence of Oranga Tamariki
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/114678991/stop-blaming-oranga-tamariki-for-child-uplifts
indeed. In my line of work I frequently deal with social workers – DHB as well as Oranga Tamariki. I have yet to meet one who does not care passionately about their work and the people they work with. Without exception, the situations in which they find themselves cause much soul searching, stress and distress. Most are heartbroken that they can only do so much for the children and families they work with.
The problem is that too little is being done to help the people who are struggling at the bottom and resorting to drugs and showing the distress caused by an uncaring nation. And some of those social workers are Maori. Things don't improve because a constipated government system that can't eliminate austerity and prejudicial thinking and get on to creating work schemes and bring young people back into school to get training for work, and advice on how to cope with the demands of a very young child on the immature parent.
We know about the children taken from their aborigine parents in Australia. And the cases here of the state swooping in like vultures rather than on angelic wings. It is a bad business that Oranga Tamirki has been set up to carry out, and the workers trying to cope in a humane way have a hard job.
But it is the system that has failed the parents, all their sorrows have not been forgotten and they have grown up unready to find their own secure and happy maturity and just cannot plan for the future they would choose, it given the support and training that they need.
My significant other comes into contact daily with situations of children living with neglect, deprivation and poverty.
Some of the stories are heartbreaking.
In trying to understand where the nay-sayers are coming from, I think it has to do more with the system. Perhaps making it a little less Pakeha.
My suspicious mind wonders if there is a bit of stirring out of sight from a political party?
Which party are you referring to Ian?
I am scratching my head to think which one benefits.
It is just that the turbulence suggests unrest, and unrest must mean that the Government is somehow responsible. Look at Government failure to solve land use problems or failure to Kiwibuild. Shout it through the media and those who don't look at the detail can be swayed and therefore Opposition benefits.
How's that for Convoluted Gsays?
there are real problems that real people have identified and are trying to change – it would be very sad if the heartfelt feelings of those affected were not respected.
Yes, good piece. We need to get past the blame games and get to the core of the problem:
I see Oranga Tamariki as the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
As my SO says, not a sausage about the three children who've died since the uplift story aired.
Thanks for linking to this Ian.
In 2012 Boris Johnson wrote about the dreadful fate awaiting Greece.
Every day we read of fresh horrors: of once proud bourgeois families queuing for bread, of people in agony because the government has run out of money to pay for cancer drugs. Pensions are being cut, living standards are falling, unemployment is rising, and the suicide rate is now the highest in the EU – having been one of the lowest.
By any standards we are seeing a whole nation undergo a protracted economic and political humiliation; and whatever the result of yesterday’s election, we seem determined to make matters worse. There is no plan for Greece to leave the euro, or none that I can discover. No European leader dares suggest that this might be possible, since that would be to profane the religion of Ever Closer Union. Instead we are all meant to be conniving in a plan to create a fiscal union which (if it were to mean anything) would mean undermining the fundamentals of Western democracy.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9337911/Dithering-Europe-is-heading-for-the-democratic-dark-ages.html
Schools may have to close, exams could be disrupted and fresh food for pupils’ meals could run short because of panic buying with prices soaring by up to 20%, according to a secret Department for Education analysis of the risks of a no-deal Brexit obtained by the Observer.
The five-page document – marked “Official Sensitive” and with the instruction “Do Not Circulate” – also raises the possibility of teacher absences caused by travel disruption, citing schools in Kent as particularly at risk.
On the dangers of food shortages to schools, it suggests that informing the public of the risks could make matters even worse.
In a section entitled School Food, it talks of the “risk that communications in this area could spark undue alarm or panic food buying among the general public”.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/03/secret-education-report-no-deal-brexit-school-chaos
Pollies set us up to be pigeons encouraged to push buttons to get stories of how bad things are elsewhere and not notice that our own walls are shrinking inwards.
I would suggest don't listen to Boorish echoing being a comedian, watch the real ones. You will get the same feeling of happy confusion, but from professionals on Black Books.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbT53BwNsQA
What happened toTRP? Is he still about here?
I miss his insight and take on things.
TRP?
I miss the guy, big time. We had our run-ins over the years, re the Greens….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/breen-vs-te-reo-putake-round-94-dec-9.html
re Iain Lees-Galloway and his cronies bullying a couple of women at Waitangi….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/11/labour-puts-up-cordon-of-black-suited.html
…. and over many, many other issues. Te Reo's actually a really nice bloke, deep down, even forgiving me after I cast him, back in 2013, as one of the nastier characters from Animal Farm….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-clobbering-machine-aug-4-2013.html
6 link whore linking to that second rate blog in this thread alone.
I appreciate you may be trying to brighten our days by giving us something to laugh at (and it IS funny). But if we wanted to look at shit like that we would.
Thanks for the advice, James. I'll try to keep the linkwhoring to a minimum, in future.
and for that we thank you.
Green MP thinking they won’t make 5% next election.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/395936/high-ranking-greens-member-pulls-pin-before-election
James, please clarify, is there any evidence (in that RNZ news link) for a "Green MP thinking they won’t make 5% next election.", or is that wishful speculation on your part?
no evidence – just a reasonable guess given that they are on 6%.
[Making up shit is very naughty, James, even when you think it is reasonable shit. Naughty commenters have to sit on the naughty step so give me a good reason why you should escape this treatment. After all, you were quite rude to Robert when he challenged you. Perhaps you didn’t know that the person you had in mind is not a Green MP? – Incognito]
Thanks for clarifying; just an evidence-free guess, and reasonable in your opinion.
Yeah, he jumped to the wrong conclusion. I've had several conversations with Jack (at our conferences) and I'm really impressed – enough to rate him as #2 after James for the party list last time.
However, I suspect he is misreading the situation. Intelligence isn't the problem: he's right up there. Impatience due to youth. I had that too, still often gets me.
I believe the more consensus-building he engages in, the more he will learn that impatient radicals don't achieve much. For some reason, he's not acquiring the gnosis from James as role model. I have faith he'll suss it out eventually.
Or Jack is sounding out whether there's the will for a change of male co-leader – given he's not leaving the party.
Did you see the reports from One News & 3News? The former was better. Had a clip of a bearded Gareth Hughes notably refraining from either endorsing Jack or criticising James. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/green-party-candidate-resigns-over-dissatisfaction-co-leader-james-shaw?auto=6067823611001
Given that Gareth is the only self-declared leftist in the leadership group (to the media/public, I mean, and with the caveat that as far as I've seen), and he was the one who did stand against James & didn't leave when defeated, I'm taking it as not a leftist plot!
As always, I could be wrong, but reading Gareth's demeanour & body language as much as what he actually said makes me confident I'm not. Other than Jack, I've seen no sign that the group has lost confidence in James's leadership. If the left was clearly polling well, there would be.
The left isn't polling very well in other western countries either. I believe the perception that they need to build common ground with centrists has been spreading. Only residual leftist ideology is preventing consensus from firming up decisively throughout the west, and marginalising the right.
"Mr Shaw does not seem phased" looks cool, but I suspect she meant fazed. Google's meaning: disturb or disconcert (someone).
Illiteracy in the media is inevitable in the digital age, when online emoting displaces language. Roll with them changes.
"… is the only self-declared leftist in the leadership group"
wake up dennis
https://twitter.com/isaac_davison/status/1154531117573132288
So what? No evidence of anyone in the Greens leadership group declaring themselves leftist. Plenty of centrists support Maoris.
"No-Evidence James"
Fits like a glove!
The fact that you have not held others here to the same level when they make comments on national members leaving – just shows your hypocrisy.
"However, Mr McDonald said he would be staying on as a party member, as he believed the Green Party were still the best hope for radical change in Parliament."
James, you wrote: "Green MP thinking they won’t make 5% next election."
What "Green MP" are you meaning?
I can't follow your thinking at all!
if you can’t work it out – have someone read it to you.
Would you be so kind, James? As I am, invariably, for you?
James sometimes falls back on this feeble type of response when his 'rush of blood' position is untenable (far more often than not!)
Jack's not an MP.
Yes, weka; we know, but did James know?
That's what I was seeking to learn.
See my Moderation note @ 4:13 PM.
Wot twaddle from Troll-James @ 3:53!
You should fire your Headline Editor, James; he's hopeless.
I feel for Jack, the centrist drift is a concern… This is not the party for the radical left.
Feel free to start one.
Ed and I have discussed it before…
Paywalled so I can't read much, but it looks like scumbag Nottingham is denied an appeal against his limp sentence: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12235806
Not much pickup yet, but Marama Davidson's speech to the Greens conference includes a rent-to-own housing policy proposal.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1908/S00043/speech-marama-davidson-green-party-agm.htm
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1908/S00042/greens-to-focus-on-supporting-new-zealanders-who-rent.htm
This phrase is hardly reassuring:
Guess that means Labour and Winston First get to veto or dilute it..
”We are ready to negotiate our Rent-to-own policy as part of the Kiwibuild reset”
Lol hard to believe kiwibuild could be more of a mess – but now the greens are negotiating policy in there. It’s the gift that keeps delivering.
Laugh all you like, James, but it is about addressing an unmet need. A bumbling toddler learning to walk can be funny to watch and they have to learn to crawl before they can learn to walk, but one day they’ll walk …
sadly however incognito- to use your analogy kiwibuild was born with legs that don’t work.
Such limited defeatist thinking, James. Heard of the Paralympics? Seen what amazing things some people can do with just their arms? Ever seen the famous documentary Child of Our Time and the disabled solo mother Alison Lapper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Lapper? You may want to adjust your thinking about people and their appearances; they can be deceiving …
Greens are the only party to have consistently promoted policies for renters rather than owners or speculators. Fingers crossed something useful gets past the resisters.
"We are ready to negotiate our Rent-to-own policy as part of the Kiwibuild reset"
Is this the Greens putting it out there so it's more obvious what will get removed by Labour or NZF? (I haven't listened to the speech yet).
True, good for differentiation in 2020 and may drag Winston's bunch and Labour's righties further to the left – but not much consolation for renters in the meantime.
No free markets on a dead planet.
https://twitter.com/jswatz/status/1157331249834467328
http://archive.li/naaEl
This is exactly why the Nat's are furious with Shaw's speech and appearance on The Nation.
They realise Shaw has drawn a line and the Nats are on the wrong side of it.
I'm all in favour of new radiation machines, but what we were promised by Labour at the last election was a comprehensive cancer-fighting strategy, and Clarke himself was in favour of a standalone cancer-fighting agency.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12255486
This announcement just looks like ordinary plant asset management.
No connection to a broader anything, and otherwise looks like a little tv news capture on a slow Sunday news cycle.
Labour promised a lot of things.
I look forward to others bringing more up.
What a technicolour yawn. Don't be gross.
Don't get me wrong.
They had no choice and it worked.
This doesn't absolve them of not keeping hardly any.
The commitment to spreading machines around regions rather than further centralising specialist services is significant. Something the last govt could easily have done.
Clark has said his views on the value of a separate cancer agency have shifted now that he has access to internal information as a Minister. Also clear in recent interviews that an overall cancer strategy is coming in a few weeks.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114741570/government-announces-package-to-aid-cancer-treatment-in-the-regions
I also like to note that the PM was working on Sunday 😉
Any time she wants to show us all that plan would be great.
Meantime, it's a set of machines. MMM shiny.
wow so insulting from you – seems like you really hate the PM – lol sad wee fella
lol
I hope they will have an effective strategy to ensure sufficient staffing levels and a resilient workforce otherwise these expensive machines could be sitting idle for much of the time. I think that is a much harder issue to deal with than buying expensive kit.
+100
A billion or so into mental health, no one trained to do the extra work.
No improvement to people.
This Government is promising the Earth but no spades and no extra pairs of hands to do the digging. The billion trees to be planted, KiwiBuild, mental health, et cetera. In education, they at least made an effort to increase the much-needed capacity but it did not go down well with the people that already existed on the ground. If they keep this up, they’ll erode (political) goodwill and credit and even JA won’t be able to save them.
NZ Māori Council calls for Simon Bridges to apologise for Tokelau comments
– Matthew Tutaki
Matthew Tutaki another unimpressed with Simon Bridges.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/08/nz-m-ori-council-calls-for-simon-bridges-to-apologise-for-tokelau-comments.html
Do you think Bridges will apologise?
No he won't – there is another shooting in the US, people must be becoming mindful of the part heavy handed, reckless, dirty politicking is having on people's lives. NZers need to recognise what is leadership and how and why it must be made to work for the country and put their full support behind that and be active in engaging with each other.
Make America Safe Again.
😢
You've got a nice feature about your area. I want to start a business using it and it will mean that you have to share it with us, we will need the major part say 80/20, but there are a few jobs in it, and investment in luxury homes so there will be growth for you.
But these Waiheke Islanders aren't your ordinary sheeple.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395950/sheep-heading-to-parliament-for-waiheke-petition
About the same time i guess as Peter Ellis was being granted leave to appeal to the supreme court the crown was busy opposing it .The several reasons they gave to oppose it were fairly threadbare i thought but one really stands out !!they said that they doubted that the science of the time had changed very much in the interim wtf !!!i had to laugh albeit darkly according to Lynley Hood who has done exhaustive work on ellis's case and of the professional therapists of the time it was common to measure a little girls hymen and finding it to be more than four mil provided conclusive proof of sexual abuse .Well unsurprisingly [since the experts of the time were not very expert ]the science went on to find eventually that hymens come in all shapes an sizes quite naturally.The chief witness for the prosecution at ellis's trial was one of these above mentioned practitioners she practiced this sort of what can only be described imo as quackery for a living yet was held up by the crown as the last word in the study of sexual abuse .Seems the only thing that REALLY hasnt changed in the last twenty years is Crown Bias
'Crown bias' and general ignorance continues probably because of an unwillingness of 'experts' to examine their learnings to see if they are up to date, and then accept they have been at fault in the part.
Because of a lack of willingness by authorities to accept that mistakes may happen in medical proceedings, those involved are understandably reluctant to admit that their methods might be faulty. This is a problem for medical people believing they are following best practice, or who have made a rare error. Medical people should be able to report themselves or also if others do so, and be investigated and cautioned and would probably be placed under supervision of the general medical authorities from designated peers, rather than have to go through the usual rigid judgments that the public face.
An example is Semmelweiss and the extra and preventable deaths of mothers who were denied the hygienic care that he trialled and proved was effective. It appears that his mistreatment by the medical establishment is still not fully owned by history. One report says he was placed in an asylum due to possible alzheimers disease and there was beaten by staff, and died of a diseased wound. Another was that he was enticed into an asylum and then imprisoned on the basis he 'had lost his mind.'
The poor man had so many detractors who refused to accept the facts, and preferred to 'denigrate the man' that he became depressed, and lost his way in life I think. However, to some extent, he was the author of his own misfortune in that he delayed publishing his treatment and providing the information needed to prevent false stories and opinions to circulate.
His successor – János Diescher was appointed Semmelweis's successor at the Pest University maternity clinic. Immediately, mortality rates jumped sixfold to 6%, but the physicians of Budapest said nothing; there were no inquiries and no protests. Almost no one — either in Vienna or in Budapest — seems to have been willing to acknowledge Semmelweis's life and work.
His remains were transferred to Budapest in 1891. On 11 October 1964, they were transferred once more to the house in which he was born. The house is now a historical museum and library, honoring Ignaz Semmelweis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
Oooh! Shot of the day by Pania Newton.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395944/police-remove-guns-from-ihumatao-protesters-worried
yep fucken true that – the lines are hardening – bad stupid police move – ffs how about put the guitar AND the weapons down police.
ffs
As usual, old men light the fuse.
https://twitter.com/feministabulous/status/1157789629816410113
https://twitter.com/feministabulous/status/1157796277712818177
Of course Bernie runs with the NRA line.
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1157815349120765954
A white man drove 700 kilometres to murder and maim brown people.
The next race war will come not from racist whites, but from racist blacks and Hispanics who feel empowered to act on their racism by an administration that excuses all minority misbehavior.
https://www.creators.com/read/ben-shapiro/07/10/obamas-race-war
Kia Ora The Am Show.
I agree Sam dept can be a trap tangata lending money on credit card just to survive .I see people using money stupidly all the time one should live like they are broke all the time to save money.
I think that the government should build minny housing smart small whare add that to the lower house perches prices for first house buyers prices. Im quite lucky I can build a whare in Hawksbay and Te Waiapu Valley to I will build them from recycled materials and make them carbon neutral to.
Keep those POLICE UNDER control Jacinda the Ihumatao issue is a international story now.
The Coalition Government has invested more in Aotearoa Healthcare systems in 2 years than national did in 9 so point your criticism to them.
Duncan you are being rude talking over the top of Jacinda that tells me a story.
Artificial intelligence will take JOBS off the common people don't bullshit its is going to hand more power to the 00.1% unless good laws are made to counteract that phenomenon Artificial Intelligence and robotics automation Will Be A Major Game Changer so a universal WAGE is needed to counteract that phenomenon The major effects of Artificial intelligence won't happen overnight but it will happen in the near future Ma te wa.
That business man with the bruising on his head is actually a national puppet whanau don't listen to his and duncans rhetoric about Our business economy its is going great the government has increased investment in the economy through higher wages and investment in Infrastructure this will flow through the economy and back to the government in tax take they increase investment in the MANY the 99.0% who pay most of the tax take .Not like national who invested heavily in the Wealth 00.1% who have accountants who hide their new money they got from national tax cuts ECT under their pillow .Consequence less tax take for the government LESS money to spend on the Tangata.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
https://youtu.be/PWoDSGfSu6o
People across the lower North Island have reported feeling an early morning 4.1-magnitude earthquake, centred 20 kilometres south of Wellington.
The quake struck at 3.38am on Tuesday and was centred at a depth of 38km, GeoNet said. Ka kite ano link below.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/114775129/41magnitude-quake-felt-across-lower-north-island
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/mOFvJVroAJE
Kia Ora Newshub.
Have the Police got any video footage to back up there allegations of bad behavior by the protesters at Ihumatao did you see that they put a Wahine up to make their statement.????????.
That would be good for the Wahine who are getting treatment for breast cancer a trial of a new drug that will stop the side effects of hot flushes ka pai.
Eco Maori has no power bill now cost me $1800 to build quite easy to so long as the sandflys stop stuffing with it I went to cut wood again and my system had been turned on the battery were run down lucky I got a second battery from the Stihl shop in Naiper he has got a great product and a great price. My new battery was in the system
That's funny the drug lord trying to break out of jail impersonating his daughter
Sir Ngata was treated very badly by the crown if he was White he would have not even been charged.
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
I,,,,Whanau the police love using there intimidation practices and propaganda to try and upset people Whanau be cool like ME. They have heaps of police following Me around they use the public to try and intimidate me to but the fools are just giving Eco Maori more MANA thanks.
I think sitting on your hands and not changing the way trade training whanaga is stupid especially if some are failing in their business plans and failing to give te tangata the correct skills that are lacking in Aotearoa. I think it's stupid having to import people with the skills when we just have to train our OWN.
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora The Crowd Goes Wild.
Ka pai Annan for running that Waka Ama story ka kite ano