Sroubek was made liable for deportation by the Minister of Immigration and the case is being appealed somewhere in the judicial system. Deportation is blocked while appeals are pending, so INZ is not legally able to do anything.
Extradition is not an immigration matter – it's not deportation, and it's handled by the justice system.
Here in Rotorua it is a calm blue day. In the garden the chrysanthemums are beautiful, covered in mauve flowers and loved by the bees. The trees in the garden and park view are glorious in reds and golds. It is a cool 13 degrees but will get warmer.
Just thought I'd post something cheerful for a change. Thankful for my lot.
Yes, May can be the loveliest time of the year. Calm, sunny and the beautiful Autumn colours. It lulls us into a sense of contentment and then along comes June, July and August.
Mallards illegal and ridiculous move is going to cost votes, along side Michael Woods disgusting comments about the protesters, a third of whom WERE Labour supporters .. how to blow an election well done guys!
Michael Wood tried to distinguish the individuals concerned from some of the ideologies that animated them – and maybe had even set out to capture them precisely because of their private vulnerabilities. It was the ideas, not the people, that were the river of filth. It's a useful distinction if you want to actually engage with reality, but one too subtle for a moronic age. Wood should have known this and not said it.
Trev is a bit of a goose. No matter how outraged he was by the whole thing, if he had an ounce of political nous he would have never let the ban occur. Ironically, in the case of Matt King and Stephen Franks, because they have always been off in far-right, anti-statist lala land, they did actually belong among the protesters and did deserve to be banned. Peters' actions were much more cynical and politically calculating – and therefore more reprehensible. Mallard should never have walked into such an obvious trap.
Back in the days of the Redalert Labour blog. Had a go at me and my work status in a reply which lead me to believe he had (as an admin) creeped around my deets. He's a bully.
Absolute rubbish AB ..A river of filth a river of violence a river of menace a river of Anti-Semitism A river is Islamaphobia a river of threats to the people who work in this place and our staff and also a river of fascism .. He was indeed talking about people, not ideas. Ideas don't hurt people .. I am going to door knock every house in his electorate and let people know what kind of arsehole represents them close to Election time, he calls himself a conservative christian and by their fruits you shall know them, I will make sure people are aware of his words. You say too subtle for a moronic age, your words betray you to be the moron …
Perhaps we were looking at different things Tony. I took it as self evident that Wood was referring to what these people said and what they did – not to who they intrinsically are. But we will never agree – which is fine by me.
Tony he was referring to online horrible misogynist cruel lies being spread about the P.M. and her partner and others. Just filthy stuff. That is what he meant by "River of filth". Not the people.
Of course this is the correct interpretation Patricia but it does not suit those making the type of comment made by Tony above. Obviously he/they did not read the actual speech or place it in its context.
Patricia Bremner, what horrible misogynist cruel lies about PM and her partner and others are you talking about? I do know there are two sticks of dynamite that are going to explode into the public arena which will destroy any chance of Labour regaining power for at least two election cycles.
Robert Guyton I can't share the substance of the explosive material but I do predict a change of leadership ..
ps Robert do you know Larry Wehner from Barrytown?
Tony – darkly alluding to a "bomb-shell" of national significance then failing to follow-up with any substance whatsoever, is the poorest form imaginable. If you can't "put-up", then …well, you know the rest.
I don't recognise Larry – ought I to know him? I interact with many people and my mind/memory is not a steel-trap! 🙂
That's worse than nothing, Tony – mere speculation at best, dirty politics at worst. It reflects badly on you that you allude to juicy news, but can't and won't deliver. Best you butt out.
Robert Guyton what juicy news and speculation are you talking about? I made a prediction let's wait and see what unfolds. You overstep the mark when you think you can make anyone butt out sorry Robby ..
Doing a Winston Peters? Alluding to sinister goings-on which never eventuated, or is it another crackpot story about Clarke Gayford. Has he kidnapped a couple of young women and got them hidden in a cave? (sarc)
Tony if you really know something, just go to the Police. There have been awful things online and whispered about. However the Police say there is no case for the PM's partner to answer. The things said about the PM and women in the Health Ministry are just vile misogyny.
Store your two sticks of dynamite carefully won't you. It has been known to weep and become gelignite and harms those who handle it.
Patricia Bremner, thank you for your advice, rest easy I am carrying no dynamite on my person, it's information on the ground and the Police are well notified, maybe I could have described it as a ticking time bomb ..
There was nothing in there he should resile from. He spoke about "a river of filth coming from some with threats to kill', islamaphobia and the far right, feeling sad for those mislead by misinformation who were out the front of Parliament, those who have been hurt by decisions which protect the many, (MIQ) and progress with wages for essential workers, and the rail decisions. He expressed full support of and pride in Jacinda Ardern and her clarity of purpose to protect as many as possible.
I think you are a fevered young Nat, believing gossip. You need more than that. You say "The Police are aware" so we will leave it in their hands shall we? As you say, time will tell.
Bearded Git, Bryce seldom mentions the changes made to make Parliament an inclusive work place. A place where MP mothers and fathers could bring their young.
Not to mention companion animals, a children's playground and a rest room and creche. The Speaker was often seen holding babies for busy Mums.
It is easy for Bryce to condemn from his Ivory Tower. I doubt he has had the difficult times this Parliament and the members have, Trevor Mallard has made mistakes in the past, as all people do, but Bryce did not mention his saving graces, just his flaws.
There is a growing narrative which loses the threats and physical verbal visual and spitting assaults by a number of protestors. Bryce calls it "A protest March' when it was a three week occupation loaded with defiance and threats.
Trespassing sympathisers seems a gesture rather than a punishment, and on review withdrawn in several cases.
Those who have been prosecuted for these behaviours were lucky in some cases not to be charged with threatening to kill (7 years ).
It amused me how Winston Peters became "Jacinda Ardern's ex Deputy Prime Minister" as journalists and commentators rushed to defend his right to visit.
Bandwagon Bryce just minimising what he does not want you to reflect on and emphasising what suits his hypothesis.
Those who have been prosecuted for these behaviours were lucky in some cases not to be charged with threatening to kill (7 years ).
Patricia…you didn't respond to my reply to you the other day regarding the largely Labour led protest against the sale of State Assets by the National Government in 2012.
You remember…the one where they carried a mock guillotine through the streets of Auckland and 'beheaded' Key, Collins, Bennett and English with associated mock blood. To cheers from the assembled. And there were children in attendance.
Explain to me please how the two protests differ in their displays of violence and threats?
Bearing in mind that in one of the protest actions the vast majority of people were fearing for the lives and livelihoods of themselves and their loved ones.
Sorry Rosemary I missed that. The skimming skills are fading I think. I also forgot to check the replies.
I was in Australia at the time of that July Bastile Day, visiting my sick brother and my sister-in-law in NSW.
We returned home to my Mother's fall, Billie becoming ill going into hospital and weeks of back and forth to Thames Acute Hospital where she later died. After the funeral we did up and sold her unit, then returned to Rotorua in late November.
That year was a blur, so I did not really remember that Parade. It was tasteless and I think it diminishes both parties. Cheers.
Patricia Bremner, you do not have to reply to Rosemary M's spiteful and distorted missives.
She was referring to the 'Occupy' protests of ten years ago. They set up unlawful campsites in Auckland and were eventually forced to move on. They did not leave anything like the filth and chaos which was left behind at parliament. The link comes from the Daily Blog and not an official news site.
'Occupy" was an international movement which appeared to consist of mostly young students and had nothing to do with the Labour Party.
Patricia…you didn't respond to my reply to you the other day regarding the largely Labour led protest against the sale of State Assets by the National Government in 2012.
What does the former Labour led protest against Assets Sales got to do with the recent infamous protest at parliament?
Then Rosemary says:
“You remember…the one where they carried a mock guillotine through the streets of Auckland and ‘beheaded’ Key, Collins, Bennett and English…”
Was this an attempt to conflate two separate protests, the Occupy movement which was world-wide, and the Labour Party's protest over asset sales in NZ around the same time?
Is this the latest anti-vax movement attack line on Jacinda Ardern and Labour because if so, dirty as…
…the filth and chaos which was left behind at parliament….
Before the Police riot squad showed up that morning the grounds were clean and tidy and ordered. If you watch the footage closely you will see the heavy mob move, move moving the protestors violently away from the grounds. The common garden cops moved in behind and pulled up tents and gazebos and laid waste to what had been built and refined over three weeks of activism. The filth and chaos was created almost entirely by our wonderful police force.
Former parliamentary insiders who risked life and limb by visiting the camp…even if it was done entirely for political mileage…saw for themselves that it was not the den of filth and rage and violence and incoherent hate that the government and mainstream media had portrayed. And oh so many so called Lefties fell for the bullshit.
The link comes from the Daily Blog and not an official news site.
Hmm. I think Bomber might have something to say about that.
So.,are you saying that there was no guillotine and no beheadings? There were no cheers and no fake blood. No children in the crowd?
Protesters vented their anger when the march reached the Town Hall.
Dummies of John Key, Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and ministers Paula Bennett and Judith Collins were beheaded by a makeshift guillotine to cries of "off, off, off" from the crowd.
New Zealand gets left off the map lol So does the news. We don't get much news about NZ in Toowoomba. You would think it had sunk into the sea, until Jacinda that is….. Then Aussies made up poems and songs. That is possibly why Scomo feels obliged to slag her off now.
Bearded Git, I am not sure those politicians gave Mana to the protesters. I think people had pretty entrenched ideas about them along a wide spectrum.
I was very against the reason for the protest, as I am pro vax, pro health regulations.
And it was of interest to me to see that the Dunedin Multi Disciplinary study produced good evidence that their study participants who refused and were anti vacination had come from adversive backgrounds and learnt not to trust authority. Very unusually Richie Poultin the Director of the study said it was important to bare this in mind and try not to alienate these people any more than they already feel. This is not a direct quote, as I read this about one month ago.
However, I appreciate you have a different point of view
The protestors seem to have covered a wide spectrum. Along with the ones described in the study, many were "wellbeing" types who believe that yoga coupled with enough green tea will keep Covid at bay. I know this because I live among them at Hawea Flat. They also seem to believe that the whole vaccine thing is a giant drug company rort-there may be a smidgen of truth in this.
But I still say that Hide Fox Peters and King (a group I would not like to meet on a dark night) deserved all they got from Mallard because they should have known better and were using the demo for their own purposes.
This today received after an OIA request about the likely threat from the protestors. Only a small minority deemed a threat (who were anti communist, for Maori Sovereignty, Sovereign Citizen movement, Pike River and anti 3 waters, but my reading these people who were deemed a possible threat were not to do with Covid. So likely people who high jacked or tagged along with the protest for their own causes.
In the meantime, Bearded Git, did you happen to risk watching the 35 minute discussion between UnHerd and Professor Christine Stabell-Benn I posted on Daily Review last night?
Stabell-Benn has her name on over 400 scientific papers to do with Public Health and vaccines. She is an expert in her field.
She has looked at the data and concluded that the risks from the mRNA products outweigh the benefits for most people under the age of fifty. She would not recommend under twenty year olds take the mRNA vaccines.
The risk of cardiovascular harm is too great.
She also notes that the trials of these mRNA products were less than optimal and were unblinded way too soon to be able to comment with any confidence about potential long term harms.
Much of this was being discussed off mainstream media (because any such talk was censored) from the end of 2020…just after Pfizer released what passed in their minds as 'trial results'. Those of us expressing our concerns were labelled anti-vaxxers.
Some of us watched with increasing alarm as the obvious adverse effects were being systematically dismissed and minimised by medical professionals and bureaucrats and politicians alike.
Yet the data speaks for itself…the Pfizer product is not associated with reduced mortality…even though it does reduce serious illness, hospitalisation and death from Covid in some people.
The vast majority of those who assembled in Wellington to exercise their right to speak directly with those making laws (supposedly) on their behalf were concerned that the risks of this hurried pharmaceutical outweighed the benefits and that people were being harmed by it and were being killed by it.
That such a product could be mandated for 40% plus of all workers is an outrage, and good citizenship demanded that we did all we possibly and non violently could to get the lawmakers to see reason.
Now. You can carry on cheering Mallard for his contemptuous treatment of rightfully concerned citizens and you can continue to believe that the Pfizer product is so safe and effective for all… that those who decline it are nutbars and those who took it and claim it harmed them are deluded….or you can expand your mind and listen to this expert.
"Stabell-Benn is keen to stress that the sample is relatively small and is calling for further investigation, and also that the study took place during very low levels of Covid, so the relative advantage of protection against Covid would have been smaller at that time compared to at other points in the pandemic."
It is widely accepted, including by Stabell-Benn, that the covid vaccines are reducing Covid symptoms and hospitalisations. Most experts also say it reduces death and this would appear to be the case given the massive fall in deaths in the USA, UK and other western nations since vaccination became widespread.
I accept that the data is still in the pipeline on much of this.
You could easily say the same thing of media coverage of the protestors. Should journalists be trespassed from Parliament as well? I can't stand Matt King, but it's utterly absurd and anti-democratic to trespass a sitting MP from Parliament.
The Speaker carries the can for the trespass notices since he's in charge, but they were issued by others under delegated authority, not by the Speaker himself.
Seems pretty clear that he didn't agree with all of them because he revoked the notices for the former MPs once they were drawn to his attention.
I can't imagine a minister or CE issuing trespass notices for a government department themselves rather than delegating authority to do that to others, why would anyone expect the Speaker to? Some nous on the part of the staff who issued the notices might have been useful by way of informing the Speaker of at least the former MPs, but Parliament has provided the Speaker with the power to delegate authority to staff, presumably with the expectation that the Speaker would use that power.
The authority of the ‘Crown’ is now derived from the people of New Zealand, both Māori and Pākehā as well as members of other ethnic groups who live here, because in a democracy the people are the ultimate source of sovereignty.
His thesis is that interpretation has produced two claims – one based on sovereignty, the other on racial partnership.
In a liberal democracy, governing authority is ultimately derived from the people, power to decide is widely devolved, and rights of individuals and groups to govern themselves are recognised and enabled. Concerns about ‘the tyranny of the majority’ expressed by Māori are themselves derived from liberalism, the principles of which are well able to support the protection of group rights. Under the recognition of rangatiratanga Te Tiriti does give a special status to iwi, hapū, and other Māori authorities. That status should rightly receive explicit acknowledgment as New Zealand’s constitution evolves. Understood in this way, the text of Te Tiriti provides us with much more to work with than the vague and widely misunderstood concept of partnership.
Anne Salmond has been pointing out that Western dualism has influenced all aspects and interpretations, even by Māori, of ToW since it has been signed. She has warned and argued about this too. This Western PoV is now the dominating view, bordering on dogma, in all debate, policy making, and government (local as well as central) decision-making. The more contemporary ‘partnership’ interpretation inevitably leads to bi-culturalism and binary exclusion of other groups & cultures. She also has interesting things to say about the off-spring ‘co-governance’. Of all the views and interpretations that I have seen over the years – admittedly not that many – my views align most with hers.
Mine too. However it's a multidimensional situation, with plenty of nuances. I think Jack is onto something (even though he's using dualism) with his separating out of the sovereignty dimension & the partnership dimension.
I like that he anchors sovereignty in a contemporary sense, as deriving from the people collectively. Constitutional lawyers would have a bias against that I expect, since in law precedent rules and tradition prevails. Politically, I prefer the progressive option – it points to the future, allows shifting of views & evolution in the body politic. Which is where co-governance comes in, of course (as a principle only, at this stage)…
I also see the situation as part ethos, part ideology. I favour the ethos of partnership but suspect encoding it via ideology into law won't get traction. You could frame this ambivalence as heart vs head or feelings vs thoughts and I'd have no objection. Probably true for me – and plenty of other folk if not most.
Funding food banks is something governments have traditionally resisted, presumably to avoid accusations of attempting to replace rights-based welfare with private charity.
It seems government doesn't care about that now. Is this an admission that our welfare system is broken? Government has already passed responsibility for administering benefits for young people over to community groups. Now they're funding food banks.
Getting the basics so wrong like this just makes it easier for the next thing to slip by.
National and their media lapdogs are attacking the speaker. The instrument and the process of democracy. Apparently I’m not allowed to even in imagination wish you to gain empathy for what those working at parliament experienced (signs calling for their death, a destructive mob without qualms about violence intruding into their workplace) before calling the reaction petty. It’s not something most of us would be allowed to experience at work because we would be protected from such a thing.
And for the guy who allowed ‘we don’t have a measure for poverty’, the guy who is running to be National party president to be presented as some impartial commentator on the matter is very poor.
But hey- attack the legitimacy of the system. It’s just taken a while for it to get a foothold here.
The stunning hypocrisy of the law and order crowd is sadly in line with the foreign playbook we’d avoided for such a long time.
Here’s what I posted in the other thread:
I don’t wish to link to any of his ‘democracy’ if it involves supporting, however indirectly, a violent protest. The attack on the system, on the speaker of the house is very poor. And if we were in many other countries if a mob camped in parliament and behaved as they did…
I would suggest that Mr Edwards should put himself in the shoes of those who were considered fair game, not whatever he considers petty. Or whatever the talking point is he is spouting.
To be honest Peters deserved to trespassed as did everyone partaking in a protest that had been trespassed and ordered to leave by police. At that point you’re breaking the law.
However it’s such bad and dumb coms to give Peter oxygen like that Peters has now been on tv for days lapping up the attention and being seen as a figure for the freeDUMB. This is a man who got back into parliament just cos of a conversation at a coffee shop between the PM and an act candidate. Dumb move from the speaker.
Is also weird how noone reminds Peters he was a part of the govt he venomously spreads rumours about like the media rescue package which he was in cabinet when it was signed off on to give media funds via govt advertising , he calls it a scam but he signed off on it and noone says boo. Crazy.
The man has never made a wrong decision in his life according to him. Ever . He's always right. He never takes responsibility for his actions ever, and his sad pathetic desperation to get back in parliament at all costs instead of going out with dignity is just sad.
All that said. It's time for the speaker to move on. Everyone hates him. Not just cos of the mistakes since 2019 but also cos Noones ever really liked Trevor Mallard to begin with… Only the most one eyed labour supporter would be ready to die in a ditch over defending Mallard.
Besides speakers don't stick around for that long usually. Give him a nice ambassador role somewhere (same with a few sitting ministers) and have a nice cabinet reshuffle and govt reset.
Chris @ 6, If there is a ready charity infrastructure avenue, wouldn't that be useful while further work is done in a Pandemic…. which is not over, going by the figures presented daily.
The increase in benefits and lifting of ceilings plus additional allowances, the implementation of recommendations of the working groups all point to improvements made.
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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 ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
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. ...
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 ...
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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 ...
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 ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
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 ...
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NZ Immigration has been a soft touch for too long imo.
These two need to be extradited…
'Sroubek told the Parole Board he still feared for his safety if he was deported to his country of birth, where he claims he witnessed a murder.'
'Justice Minister called 'callous' for not yet answering suspect's plea to be spared extradition to China | Stuff.co.nz
I believe the U.S.A and Singapore have death penalties.
Sroubek was made liable for deportation by the Minister of Immigration and the case is being appealed somewhere in the judicial system. Deportation is blocked while appeals are pending, so INZ is not legally able to do anything.
Extradition is not an immigration matter – it's not deportation, and it's handled by the justice system.
Here in Rotorua it is a calm blue day. In the garden the chrysanthemums are beautiful, covered in mauve flowers and loved by the bees. The trees in the garden and park view are glorious in reds and golds. It is a cool 13 degrees but will get warmer.
Just thought I'd post something cheerful for a change. Thankful for my lot.
Yes, May can be the loveliest time of the year. Calm, sunny and the beautiful Autumn colours. It lulls us into a sense of contentment and then along comes June, July and August.
… and September with its unrelenting rain over the past few years.
+1000
I am almost reluctant to post it after Patricia’s post about her garden! Good to be grateful for what we have.
I agree with Bryce that Mallards call was either petty or poor judgement, probably both.
Tangata Whenua, (Winston’s) being blocked from parliament! Where’s Willie Jackson when you need him.
This is what I posted yesterday on TS Anker, and I stand by it:
I'm with Mallard. That nasty bunch-Hide, Fox, Peters and King-gave succor and mana to that illegal and vicious protest outside parliament.
2 years isn't long enough.
Bryce Edwards invariably takes the populist (usually right-leaning) point of view-he is not a thinker like Chris Trotter etc.
Mallards illegal and ridiculous move is going to cost votes, along side Michael Woods disgusting comments about the protesters, a third of whom WERE Labour supporters .. how to blow an election well done guys!
Michael Wood tried to distinguish the individuals concerned from some of the ideologies that animated them – and maybe had even set out to capture them precisely because of their private vulnerabilities. It was the ideas, not the people, that were the river of filth. It's a useful distinction if you want to actually engage with reality, but one too subtle for a moronic age. Wood should have known this and not said it.
Trev is a bit of a goose. No matter how outraged he was by the whole thing, if he had an ounce of political nous he would have never let the ban occur. Ironically, in the case of Matt King and Stephen Franks, because they have always been off in far-right, anti-statist lala land, they did actually belong among the protesters and did deserve to be banned. Peters' actions were much more cynical and politically calculating – and therefore more reprehensible. Mallard should never have walked into such an obvious trap.
Mallard should never have walked into such an obvious trap.
He should look where he's going. Open season on mallards the day after tomorrow! Says so here:
https://fishandgame.org.nz/game-bird-hunting-in-new-zealand/game-season/game-bird-season-and-bag-limit/
His survival may depend on taking a sudden holiday in Hawaii. Or Timbuktu.
From your link: "Today there are about 4.5 million mallards, so many that they are sometimes a nuisance…" Yep.
He will holiday in Washington or London as ambassador cos jacinda loves him. I hate him. He was mean to me. Stopped voting labour cos of him.
How was he mean to you?
Back in the days of the Redalert Labour blog. Had a go at me and my work status in a reply which lead me to believe he had (as an admin) creeped around my deets. He's a bully.
Thanks for your reply. Wow not good. I can understand you'd be upset.
Absolute rubbish AB ..A river of filth a river of violence a river of menace a river of Anti-Semitism A river is Islamaphobia a river of threats to the people who work in this place and our staff and also a river of fascism .. He was indeed talking about people, not ideas. Ideas don't hurt people .. I am going to door knock every house in his electorate and let people know what kind of arsehole represents them close to Election time, he calls himself a conservative christian and by their fruits you shall know them, I will make sure people are aware of his words. You say too subtle for a moronic age, your words betray you to be the moron …
Perhaps we were looking at different things Tony. I took it as self evident that Wood was referring to what these people said and what they did – not to who they intrinsically are. But we will never agree – which is fine by me.
AB, what we say and do is who we are .. get it? He was referring to Human beings not ideas, self evident indeed!
Tony he was referring to online horrible misogynist cruel lies being spread about the P.M. and her partner and others. Just filthy stuff. That is what he meant by "River of filth". Not the people.
Of course this is the correct interpretation Patricia but it does not suit those making the type of comment made by Tony above. Obviously he/they did not read the actual speech or place it in its context.
Shanreagh, show me in the speech where he says he is talking about ideas? He is an ugly person and needs to be held to account for such words ..
I read and watched the whole speech it was vile ..
Patricia Bremner, what horrible misogynist cruel lies about PM and her partner and others are you talking about? I do know there are two sticks of dynamite that are going to explode into the public arena which will destroy any chance of Labour regaining power for at least two election cycles.
Two sticks?
Do tell, Tony!
Unless you … can't.
Robert Guyton I can't share the substance of the explosive material but I do predict a change of leadership ..
ps Robert do you know Larry Wehner from Barrytown?
Tony – darkly alluding to a "bomb-shell" of national significance then failing to follow-up with any substance whatsoever, is the poorest form imaginable. If you can't "put-up", then …well, you know the rest.
I don't recognise Larry – ought I to know him? I interact with many people and my mind/memory is not a steel-trap! 🙂
Robert Guyton, I have given you the outcome before the bomb has exploded, is that nothing? A change of leadership no less ..
That's worse than nothing, Tony – mere speculation at best, dirty politics at worst. It reflects badly on you that you allude to juicy news, but can't and won't deliver. Best you butt out.
Robert Guyton what juicy news and speculation are you talking about? I made a prediction let's wait and see what unfolds. You overstep the mark when you think you can make anyone butt out sorry Robby ..
I predict – a damp squib for Tony.
Looks like, walks like, smells like dirty politics.
Doing a Winston Peters? Alluding to sinister goings-on which never eventuated, or is it another crackpot story about Clarke Gayford. Has he kidnapped a couple of young women and got them hidden in a cave? (sarc)
Tony if you really know something, just go to the Police. There have been awful things online and whispered about. However the Police say there is no case for the PM's partner to answer. The things said about the PM and women in the Health Ministry are just vile misogyny.
Store your two sticks of dynamite carefully won't you. It has been known to weep and become gelignite and harms those who handle it.
Patricia Bremner, thank you for your advice, rest easy I am carrying no dynamite on my person, it's information on the ground and the Police are well notified, maybe I could have described it as a ticking time bomb ..
Tony, I watched Michael Woods' speech.
There was nothing in there he should resile from. He spoke about "a river of filth coming from some with threats to kill', islamaphobia and the far right, feeling sad for those mislead by misinformation who were out the front of Parliament, those who have been hurt by decisions which protect the many, (MIQ) and progress with wages for essential workers, and the rail decisions. He expressed full support of and pride in Jacinda Ardern and her clarity of purpose to protect as many as possible.
I think you are a fevered young Nat, believing gossip. You need more than that. You say "The Police are aware" so we will leave it in their hands shall we? As you say, time will tell.
A third, you say? So a far lower ratio than that which actually ticked Labour last election.
Makes sense.
Yes, Edwards is certainly not a thinker.
Bearded Git, Bryce seldom mentions the changes made to make Parliament an inclusive work place. A place where MP mothers and fathers could bring their young.
Not to mention companion animals, a children's playground and a rest room and creche. The Speaker was often seen holding babies for busy Mums.
It is easy for Bryce to condemn from his Ivory Tower. I doubt he has had the difficult times this Parliament and the members have, Trevor Mallard has made mistakes in the past, as all people do, but Bryce did not mention his saving graces, just his flaws.
There is a growing narrative which loses the threats and physical verbal visual and spitting assaults by a number of protestors. Bryce calls it "A protest March' when it was a three week occupation loaded with defiance and threats.
Trespassing sympathisers seems a gesture rather than a punishment, and on review withdrawn in several cases.
Those who have been prosecuted for these behaviours were lucky in some cases not to be charged with threatening to kill (7 years ).
It amused me how Winston Peters became "Jacinda Ardern's ex Deputy Prime Minister" as journalists and commentators rushed to defend his right to visit.
Bandwagon Bryce just minimising what he does not want you to reflect on and emphasising what suits his hypothesis.
"Bandwagon Bryce"….excellent That sums him up nicely.
Those who have been prosecuted for these behaviours were lucky in some cases not to be charged with threatening to kill (7 years ).
Patricia…you didn't respond to my reply to you the other day regarding the largely Labour led protest against the sale of State Assets by the National Government in 2012.
You remember…the one where they carried a mock guillotine through the streets of Auckland and 'beheaded' Key, Collins, Bennett and English with associated mock blood. To cheers from the assembled. And there were children in attendance.
Explain to me please how the two protests differ in their displays of violence and threats?
Bearing in mind that in one of the protest actions the vast majority of people were fearing for the lives and livelihoods of themselves and their loved ones.
Sorry Rosemary I missed that. The skimming skills are fading I think. I also forgot to check the replies.
I was in Australia at the time of that July Bastile Day, visiting my sick brother and my sister-in-law in NSW.
We returned home to my Mother's fall, Billie becoming ill going into hospital and weeks of back and forth to Thames Acute Hospital where she later died. After the funeral we did up and sold her unit, then returned to Rotorua in late November.
That year was a blur, so I did not really remember that Parade. It was tasteless and I think it diminishes both parties. Cheers.
Patricia Bremner, you do not have to reply to Rosemary M's spiteful and distorted missives.
She was referring to the 'Occupy' protests of ten years ago. They set up unlawful campsites in Auckland and were eventually forced to move on. They did not leave anything like the filth and chaos which was left behind at parliament. The link comes from the Daily Blog and not an official news site.
'Occupy" was an international movement which appeared to consist of mostly young students and had nothing to do with the Labour Party.
Rosemary said:
What does the former Labour led protest against Assets Sales got to do with the recent infamous protest at parliament?
Was this an attempt to conflate two separate protests, the Occupy movement which was world-wide, and the Labour Party's protest over asset sales in NZ around the same time?
Is this the latest anti-vax movement attack line on Jacinda Ardern and Labour because if so, dirty as…
…the filth and chaos which was left behind at parliament….
Before the Police riot squad showed up that morning the grounds were clean and tidy and ordered. If you watch the footage closely you will see the heavy mob move, move moving the protestors violently away from the grounds. The common garden cops moved in behind and pulled up tents and gazebos and laid waste to what had been built and refined over three weeks of activism. The filth and chaos was created almost entirely by our wonderful police force.
Former parliamentary insiders who risked life and limb by visiting the camp…even if it was done entirely for political mileage…saw for themselves that it was not the den of filth and rage and violence and incoherent hate that the government and mainstream media had portrayed. And oh so many so called Lefties fell for the bullshit.
The link comes from the Daily Blog and not an official news site.
Hmm. I think Bomber might have something to say about that.
So.,are you saying that there was no guillotine and no beheadings? There were no cheers and no fake blood. No children in the crowd?
Will Scoop do? https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1207/S00070/asset-sales-march-in-auckland-ends-in-beheading.htm?from-mobile=bottom-link-01
From ANFS itself? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2uCXIv9jOs
From the Herald? https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/asset-sales-threat-stirs-first-time-protester/EPJRFVXTSLWODLRZIWYNVTD4XI/
Protesters vented their anger when the march reached the Town Hall.
Dummies of John Key, Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and ministers Paula Bennett and Judith Collins were beheaded by a makeshift guillotine to cries of "off, off, off" from the crowd.
New Zealand gets left off the map lol So does the news. We don't get much news about NZ in Toowoomba. You would think it had sunk into the sea, until Jacinda that is….. Then Aussies made up poems and songs. That is possibly why Scomo feels obliged to slag her off now.
Bearded Git, I am not sure those politicians gave Mana to the protesters. I think people had pretty entrenched ideas about them along a wide spectrum.
I was very against the reason for the protest, as I am pro vax, pro health regulations.
And it was of interest to me to see that the Dunedin Multi Disciplinary study produced good evidence that their study participants who refused and were anti vacination had come from adversive backgrounds and learnt not to trust authority. Very unusually Richie Poultin the Director of the study said it was important to bare this in mind and try not to alienate these people any more than they already feel. This is not a direct quote, as I read this about one month ago.
However, I appreciate you have a different point of view
Anker-that study is interesting; thank you.
The protestors seem to have covered a wide spectrum. Along with the ones described in the study, many were "wellbeing" types who believe that yoga coupled with enough green tea will keep Covid at bay. I know this because I live among them at Hawea Flat. They also seem to believe that the whole vaccine thing is a giant drug company rort-there may be a smidgen of truth in this.
But I still say that Hide Fox Peters and King (a group I would not like to meet on a dark night) deserved all they got from Mallard because they should have known better and were using the demo for their own purposes.
(I am triple vaxxed BTW)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/128528607/small-minority-of-parliament-protesters-likely-to-carry-out-extremist-violence-intelligence-agencies-warned
This today received after an OIA request about the likely threat from the protestors. Only a small minority deemed a threat (who were anti communist, for Maori Sovereignty, Sovereign Citizen movement, Pike River and anti 3 waters, but my reading these people who were deemed a possible threat were not to do with Covid. So likely people who high jacked or tagged along with the protest for their own causes.
Bearded Git, I am triple vacinated, masked up and leading a very low key life in terms of contact with others.
In the meantime, Bearded Git, did you happen to risk watching the 35 minute discussion between UnHerd and Professor Christine Stabell-Benn I posted on Daily Review last night?
Stabell-Benn has her name on over 400 scientific papers to do with Public Health and vaccines. She is an expert in her field.
She has looked at the data and concluded that the risks from the mRNA products outweigh the benefits for most people under the age of fifty. She would not recommend under twenty year olds take the mRNA vaccines.
The risk of cardiovascular harm is too great.
She also notes that the trials of these mRNA products were less than optimal and were unblinded way too soon to be able to comment with any confidence about potential long term harms.
Much of this was being discussed off mainstream media (because any such talk was censored) from the end of 2020…just after Pfizer released what passed in their minds as 'trial results'. Those of us expressing our concerns were labelled anti-vaxxers.
Some of us watched with increasing alarm as the obvious adverse effects were being systematically dismissed and minimised by medical professionals and bureaucrats and politicians alike.
Yet the data speaks for itself…the Pfizer product is not associated with reduced mortality…even though it does reduce serious illness, hospitalisation and death from Covid in some people.
The vast majority of those who assembled in Wellington to exercise their right to speak directly with those making laws (supposedly) on their behalf were concerned that the risks of this hurried pharmaceutical outweighed the benefits and that people were being harmed by it and were being killed by it.
That such a product could be mandated for 40% plus of all workers is an outrage, and good citizenship demanded that we did all we possibly and non violently could to get the lawmakers to see reason.
Now. You can carry on cheering Mallard for his contemptuous treatment of rightfully concerned citizens and you can continue to believe that the Pfizer product is so safe and effective for all… that those who decline it are nutbars and those who took it and claim it harmed them are deluded….or you can expand your mind and listen to this expert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nKoybyMGg&t=1912s
Rosemary-did you read this?
"Stabell-Benn is keen to stress that the sample is relatively small and is calling for further investigation, and also that the study took place during very low levels of Covid, so the relative advantage of protection against Covid would have been smaller at that time compared to at other points in the pandemic."
It is widely accepted, including by Stabell-Benn, that the covid vaccines are reducing Covid symptoms and hospitalisations. Most experts also say it reduces death and this would appear to be the case given the massive fall in deaths in the USA, UK and other western nations since vaccination became widespread.
I accept that the data is still in the pipeline on much of this.
You could easily say the same thing of media coverage of the protestors. Should journalists be trespassed from Parliament as well? I can't stand Matt King, but it's utterly absurd and anti-democratic to trespass a sitting MP from Parliament.
Populuxe 1 Matt King is a former MP. Not currently in Parliament.
Oops, I retract then.
All good. 9Personally in this case I think Trevor Mallard over reached and has tried to recover.)
Cheers
Hang them Gilead style from the charred kids playground is what I say. (Just to be clear I am joking here)
The Speaker carries the can for the trespass notices since he's in charge, but they were issued by others under delegated authority, not by the Speaker himself.
Seems pretty clear that he didn't agree with all of them because he revoked the notices for the former MPs once they were drawn to his attention.
I can't imagine a minister or CE issuing trespass notices for a government department themselves rather than delegating authority to do that to others, why would anyone expect the Speaker to? Some nous on the part of the staff who issued the notices might have been useful by way of informing the Speaker of at least the former MPs, but Parliament has provided the Speaker with the power to delegate authority to staff, presumably with the expectation that the Speaker would use that power.
Professor Jack Vowles has appraised our demos:
His thesis is that interpretation has produced two claims – one based on sovereignty, the other on racial partnership.
Can biculturalism be made definitive in a multicultural society? I doubt it.
Anne Salmond has been pointing out that Western dualism has influenced all aspects and interpretations, even by Māori, of ToW since it has been signed. She has warned and argued about this too. This Western PoV is now the dominating view, bordering on dogma, in all debate, policy making, and government (local as well as central) decision-making. The more contemporary ‘partnership’ interpretation inevitably leads to bi-culturalism and binary exclusion of other groups & cultures. She also has interesting things to say about the off-spring ‘co-governance’. Of all the views and interpretations that I have seen over the years – admittedly not that many – my views align most with hers.
my views align most with hers
Mine too. However it's a multidimensional situation, with plenty of nuances. I think Jack is onto something (even though he's using dualism) with his separating out of the sovereignty dimension & the partnership dimension.
I like that he anchors sovereignty in a contemporary sense, as deriving from the people collectively. Constitutional lawyers would have a bias against that I expect, since in law precedent rules and tradition prevails. Politically, I prefer the progressive option – it points to the future, allows shifting of views & evolution in the body politic. Which is where co-governance comes in, of course (as a principle only, at this stage)…
I also see the situation as part ethos, part ideology. I favour the ethos of partnership but suspect encoding it via ideology into law won't get traction. You could frame this ambivalence as heart vs head or feelings vs thoughts and I'd have no objection. Probably true for me – and plenty of other folk if not most.
It has happened already Frank, in language customs and education. Now it will be Health.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300580751/covid19-nz-government-widens-homebased-care-with-58m-of-funding-for-food-banks-and-social-workers
Funding food banks is something governments have traditionally resisted, presumably to avoid accusations of attempting to replace rights-based welfare with private charity.
It seems government doesn't care about that now. Is this an admission that our welfare system is broken? Government has already passed responsibility for administering benefits for young people over to community groups. Now they're funding food banks.
Getting the basics so wrong like this just makes it easier for the next thing to slip by.
Soon we'll all be back in the poor houses.
National and their media lapdogs are attacking the speaker. The instrument and the process of democracy. Apparently I’m not allowed to even in imagination wish you to gain empathy for what those working at parliament experienced (signs calling for their death, a destructive mob without qualms about violence intruding into their workplace) before calling the reaction petty. It’s not something most of us would be allowed to experience at work because we would be protected from such a thing.
And for the guy who allowed ‘we don’t have a measure for poverty’, the guy who is running to be National party president to be presented as some impartial commentator on the matter is very poor.
But hey- attack the legitimacy of the system. It’s just taken a while for it to get a foothold here.
The stunning hypocrisy of the law and order crowd is sadly in line with the foreign playbook we’d avoided for such a long time.
Here’s what I posted in the other thread:
I don’t wish to link to any of his ‘democracy’ if it involves supporting, however indirectly, a violent protest. The attack on the system, on the speaker of the house is very poor. And if we were in many other countries if a mob camped in parliament and behaved as they did…
I would suggest that Mr Edwards should put himself in the shoes of those who were considered fair game, not whatever he considers petty. Or whatever the talking point is he is spouting.
To be honest Peters deserved to trespassed as did everyone partaking in a protest that had been trespassed and ordered to leave by police. At that point you’re breaking the law.
However it’s such bad and dumb coms to give Peter oxygen like that Peters has now been on tv for days lapping up the attention and being seen as a figure for the freeDUMB. This is a man who got back into parliament just cos of a conversation at a coffee shop between the PM and an act candidate. Dumb move from the speaker.
Is also weird how noone reminds Peters he was a part of the govt he venomously spreads rumours about like the media rescue package which he was in cabinet when it was signed off on to give media funds via govt advertising , he calls it a scam but he signed off on it and noone says boo. Crazy.
The man has never made a wrong decision in his life according to him. Ever . He's always right. He never takes responsibility for his actions ever, and his sad pathetic desperation to get back in parliament at all costs instead of going out with dignity is just sad.
All that said. It's time for the speaker to move on. Everyone hates him. Not just cos of the mistakes since 2019 but also cos Noones ever really liked Trevor Mallard to begin with… Only the most one eyed labour supporter would be ready to die in a ditch over defending Mallard.
Besides speakers don't stick around for that long usually. Give him a nice ambassador role somewhere (same with a few sitting ministers) and have a nice cabinet reshuffle and govt reset.
Chris @ 6, If there is a ready charity infrastructure avenue, wouldn't that be useful while further work is done in a Pandemic…. which is not over, going by the figures presented daily.
The increase in benefits and lifting of ceilings plus additional allowances, the implementation of recommendations of the working groups all point to improvements made.
Maybe the PM should just chug down the dead rat.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/mike-hosking-surges-to-all-time-ratings-record-as-nzme-stations-reach-more-than-2-million-across-network/TDZD67BLCJYE3VBCS5P3LJTT6M/
An example of how to cut off your nose to spite your face
The nose is not the body-part I associate with Hosking.
He has a very …'brown' nose ,when it comes to privelege…and power.
I thought Tova over on the other station was going to make an impact on his ratings, but I didn't think she would increase his listeners!
Jimmy, I bet you love granny herald .
Nah, bloody hate it. Too left wing for me.
Best joke of the week Jimmy!!!! The Herald Left Wing??? I have a bridge to sell you.