Winston tells Luke Malpass about working with the Greens, then throws a curve ball at China:
Peters still stands by the choice that NZ First made at the last election. He claims that National is a “shambles” and that “nothing changed in that party”. “We don't always agree, but we shook hands to try and make a Coalition work and work it has, and I'm proud of it.”
“I get on with James fine. Yep. I really do. And I've had some great conversations with him. I spend every day feeling sympathetic to them. I really do.” “Well, I think he's got a nightmare to deal with. Putting my cards on the table … seriously. I feel for him the way I felt with Jim Anderton, who was on the phone day and night and I thought no one’s got the stamina to handle this.
NZ First is also credited with knocking the Auckland Light Rail on the head, an issue that became an albatross around the neck of Labour and, in particular, Transport Minister Phil Twyford. NZ First says it never blocked the project, because it was never shown any costs for the project. “Can you tell me what the cost of the light rail is? We didn't stop light rail, we demanded to see the costings."
You can imagine Twyford freaking out: "Hey, nobody told me the cost of the project would have to be calculated!"
He is also clearly sceptical of the National-led Government’s decision to sign New Zealand up to the belt and Road Initiative, an international nation-building initiative where China often provides loans and Chinese workers and supplies to build infrastructure in other countries. “Remember they signed the OBOR [One Belt One Road]? They don't call it OBOR any more, one belt, one road. It's belts and roads, but they signed over. And when I asked my counterpart foreign minister Wang Yi what does it mean, he said he’d get back to me?"
“Well I'm still waiting to see what it means. I know my country has signed a memorandum of understanding, what do you think it means, I'd like to know in detail,” Peters says he told the Chinese Foreign Minister.”
Xi has obviously told his foreign minister that explaining the meaning of the agreement would take too long. Understandable. Words in such documents tend to mean different things to different people and even getting regime officials to agree would be hard enough, let alone foreigners!
Ardern, if re-elected, may have to give some thought to whether the thing has substance or not. She could see it as a useful ruse to lull everyone into thinking Aotearoa is China-friendly…
Winston's "there's one good Green, the rest are useless" is the same ploy as National's "Jacinda's good but the rest are useless". Mind you, it's common knowledge that in NZFirst, Tracey Martin is good and the rest are useless
Greens have been opposing business as usual for more than half a century now. In civilised countries where non-violence is the cultural norm, activism has only an economic cost usually. Elsewhere, it's life or death:
The number of murders of people defending the environment reached its highest yet in 2019, with a global total of 212, up from 164 deaths in 2018. On average, four were killed a week. Countless more have been threatened, detained and silenced in attempts by illegal organisations, industry and governments to stop communities from protecting their land.
In 2019, Colombia topped the Philippines with the highest death rate of land defenders, with 64 activists killed. Half of all reported killings took place in these two countries. Global Witness expects the true death toll to be much higher, with many incidents going unreported.
Globally, mining and agribusiness were the biggest industries driving attacks against defenders and activists. The logging industry saw a steep rise, with 85 per cent more attacks worldwide recorded since 2018 against defenders opposing the industry.
I really do wish those figures got more air-time. Maybe then people would realise that owning and driving a personal car pretty much equates to purposefully killing people and that it may actually be themselves.
As many here like to point out we operate under a MMP environment splintering the right doesn’t matter as long as the right is growing which at this point is debatable
It appears it may be shrinking the right – which is more valuable than splintering it. There are trade-offs though: if you shrink the right by becoming it, have you really shrunk it? Anyway, it's early days yet.
A conservative approach from this Government would ordinarily be reason to criticise them, but these are not ordinary times. Gnawing at Labour's leg for not completing promised programmes would be fine under ordinary circumstances, but COVID 19 changed the situation radically. Jacinda and her team's position and actions are entirely appropriate for the circumstances that exist right now. National can whine and grizzle (and they will) but that doesn't change the reality of the situation; fortunately, Jacinda et al are not taking National's bait. They are marching to their own tune and that's the one New Zealander's have been hearing since COVID 19 appeared and one they know is genuine. In my opinion.
What are the figures for influenza cases in New Zealand over the winter, anyone know? I'm keen to know if my prediction that there would be few if any cases, was accurate.
Big difference! hopefully fewer people have ended up in hospital so they can catch up on other health needs. And I guess we aren't importing strain variations with the borders and quarantine.
We're both signed up for Flu Tracking – we get a weekly questionnaire to complete which takes less than a minute then you get shown the graph which is interesting to compare with news about covid testing numbers.
Also flu jab numbers were well up this year after a big push by MoH around lockdown.
Have been thinking along the same lines as I have not run into any coughers, snotty noses or sneezers so far this year. I wonder if raising the awareness of personal hygiene for covid control has impacted. Also why are we not requesting negative tests before people leave the borders of the current countrys they are in before flying home to NZ – as the Tongans had to do before flying home yesterday. That would take away a lot of risk at the border and do a lot to avert a second wave.
lock down ended 27 april – so the warehouse has been open now for a few month.
personal hygiene would have helped but i would put more emphasis on a. a double heating allowance for the elderly and beneficiaries, b. better insulation in many rentals, and above all our really unseasonably warm 'winter' with hardly any cold days at all but days sitting at a balmy 15 degrees in middle nu zillind. This might be different in the south island, but i have friends currently eating outdoor tomatoes in Auckland.
Also why are we not requesting negative tests before people leave the borders of the current countrys they are in before flying home to NZ
Because we can't pass laws for other countries.
Of course, we could say that any aircraft that doesn't forward a full list of confirmed tests won't be able to land here. But, then, do we actually then trust those lists/tests? I know I wouldn't.
We could insist that they have a negative covid test in hand as they enter our passport control at the other end. There used to be vaccination cards that had to be presented. Provider to be either approved or if the tests are wrong no more using that provider. But as just in time tests get better though – spit on a piece of paper is one being developed – it's very feasible. Dodgy test immediate deportation on the return flight – same as other issues.
BTW a relative is flying home from the UK in November. She has to have a clear covid test 4 days before travel to get on the flight………….a good precaution I think
If our quarantine wasn't as awesome and tightly guarded we really would be fucked, we seem to catch a couple of positive s every few days, so thanks to all those working their arses off at our borders.
The business report on RNZ National this morning informed us that former Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe is also calling for the government to "leverage" our Covid-free status. He is apparently "highly critical" of the New Zealand government's bureaucratic caution.
Fyfe is displaying the same level of due diligence and responsibility as he did in March 2011, when he went on television and claimed, in high seriousness, that it was "perfectly safe" for New Zealanders to fly Air New Zealand to Tokyo, and that there was no evidence to suggest that the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant posed any danger whatsoever. In fact, it was later revealed, at the very moment Fyfe was trying to assure people that there was "nothing to worry about", the Japanese government was engaged in urgent talks and seriously considered ordering the evacuation of Tokyo.
A few years before that epic display of ignorance and fatuousness, Fyfe had embarrassed the Clark government by hiring out Air New Zealand planes to the Australian Air Force to fly Australian soldiers into Iraq, in contravention of New Zealand law.
Far from paying any sort of penalty for these massive breaches of trust, Fyfe is still being appointed to consulting positions by the government. He is admired by (surprise, surprise) Mike Hosking…
A few years before that epic display of ignorance and fatuousness, Fyfe had embarrassed the Clark government by hiring out Air New Zealand planes to the Australian Air Force to fly Australian soldiers into Iraq, in contravention of New Zealand law.
Pretty sure that wasn't in contravention of NZ law – but it was definitely against what the government and people of NZ wanted.
Fyfe is proving himself a typical CEO – profits for the bludging shareholders before anything else. Which just proves, yet again, just how bad capitalists are at being any good for a society.
The best way to sort out the housing situation is to bring in 50,000 tradies from overseas. Do they build housing for the 50,000 immigrants first or attack the housing shortage?
If it's the latter, where do they live in the meantime?
We are still getting people back in. but what "skilled workers does he have in mind" and why can't we start using home grown talent. We used to manage most of our activity quite nicely thank you without constant imports of people. Most of the boomers are still available to train people. But mainly I think a lot of businesses (particularly overseas owned ones) are going to have to get used to paying better wages to allocate the talent correctly.
Most of the boomers are still available to train people.
But would we really want them training people with their outdated knowledge?
But mainly I think a lot of businesses (particularly overseas owned ones) are going to have to get used to paying better wages to allocate the talent correctly.
OMG, you actually expect the business community to properly use the pricing system of the market rather than whinge to government so as to bring in under-priced labour?
Most of them are just starting to leave the workforce – so no no reason ( except blatant ageism) to suppose their knowledge and experience is out of date. Plumbing knowledge moves at a great rate yes? Just saw John Key on the news though – sounded very much like yesterday's man.
As to business not whining at the government- not a hope the large ones seem to have no idea about personal responsibility.
Most of them are just starting to leave the workforce – so no no reason ( except blatant ageism) to suppose their knowledge and experience is out of date.
It will depend a lot on the boomer and if they've kept up with modern techniques. And it really is an if. There are fields, especially some trades, where knowing the latest and greatest ideas isn't needed to get by and so they don't and they simply coast into retirement.
And that's on the tech side, then we have to ask about their teaching ability which may not have been developed at all. I know plenty that wouldn't be able to teach well.
Beats me why the media give so much space to the idiot personal views of ex company directors. And how slow they are to sense that there is a need to cahnge and that there are other alternatives.
As to education and international students Chippie's onto it. Wants quality over quantity .It's a good read – points out the level of financial risk that the government has been exposed to by state funded institutions taking on so many overseas students and that they need to be of overall value to NZ not just high volume low quality courses.
We'd like to see less of a focus on getting students in the country who have to work whilst they're studying out of financial necessity, to ones who can support themselves while they are studying," he said
Hipkins said he hoped to see more students studying at higher levels, more students from countries other than India and China, and more New Zealanders going overseas to study.
And then we have the truly selfish private education sector – who want to select migrants, sell them a visa with work rights , pocket the profits and bleat about how many jobs they provide whilst pushing a far greater number of people into the local workforce. Paul Chalmers for the private sector.
However, he said ITENZ would oppose the Government if it wanted to reduce enrolments in one-year programmes that led to employment and residency.
Higher education, theories, precepts v satisfying practical trade skills.
What about trade education with jobs at the end of it. What about learning how to make products yourself, not just be an endless consumer buying-in your requirements, looking for bargains, and expecting things to land in your lap.
This making education a profit-oriented business takes us further into the spiralling trade in ephemeral things that actually produce nothing, just measure, report on things. A friend midwife said dourly that they were always having meetings at the hospital she worked out, otime-consuming and often producing nothing of value for dealing with matters needing attention.
Computers – a machine to facilitate things being thought about. Computers driving 3CD? – making things by machine, that would previously have been crafted by people, so undermining human skill.
Education – teaching enough about things to do stuff like working in retail, making up catchy phrases (PR) without much understanding of why, the background and where it fits into human life. (Space flight, going to the moon.) Doesn't teach about important aspects of humanity and interaction, and how to stop our violent and accumulating impulses.
Economics – Learning about the way that humans generally behave, and how they and markets interact, and then how to manipulate both for the benefit of those interested in taking power in the market.
Finance – Learning how to create credits and manage their value and how to direct the flow to where you want it, and how to deny the great mass of people from advancing financially. Treating money as if it is a finite thing, rather than a cultural thing, that is maintained by agreements that can be cancelled, negating the agreed value.
Saw three lads walking to town after school, all about 15 one big, well-built sour looking – a bruiser, two accolytes. The language – Jesus Christ and fuck. They won't learn any fine abilities at secondary school; would be better off learning on a job doing something practical to occupy their energies, and learn with tradesmen they could relate to and with time off to add to their formal skills.
We need to think and do something to safely cap the energies of young men and their idle minds, narrowed by their early experiences, from taking in anything but the simplest beliefs, and ripe for mass hysteria of white supremacy or black cohesion through gangs.
Yes it's excellent – thinking of the small town I live in, I liked this quote:
As one advocate of localism recently put it: “With no community, we lack both a unit to make sacrifices for – and a unit to keep assholes in check.” We need to learn how to be neighbours again.
As a young, resource and culture-rich country, the solutions are tantalisingly within reach. It would not take much vision for iwi or community housing organisations to create a parallel, opt-in land economy that uses land as a platform not an asset, kaitiakitanga instead of absolute ownership. It could be one that enables people to license land for a specific use and pay a small land rent that goes into community coffers – an alternative system that precludes land speculation and takes the value of land out of the house-price equation, making it affordable for communities to drive the development of quality, locally designed and built homes, business and civic amenity.
Also, reading about the ancient roots of our attitude to land ownership, Jim Crace's 2013 Booker short-listed novel ‘Harvest’ is a superbly written 'report' from the past that resonates powerfully now. From this review:
Crace’s narrator, Walter Thirsk, inhabits an agrarian community, a village that time seems to have forgotten, sealed against the wider world. Sealed, that is, until the novel’s opening scenes, when covetous, irruptive forces begin to smash through those barriers.
The first harbinger of chaos is a rare visitor, a stranger who appears on the final day of the barley harvest. Arriving unarmed, the man brings with him no obvious aura of violence, but nonetheless he provokes unease. The villagers call him Mr. Quill, after the manner of his enterprise: “We mowed with scythes; he worked with brushes and with quills. He was recording us, he said, or more exactly marking down our land. . . . He tipped his drawing board for anyone that asked and let them see the scratchings on his chart, the geometrics that he said were fields and woods, the squares that stood for cottages, the ponds, the lanes, the foresting. . . . We could not help but stare at him and wonder, without saying so, if those scratchings on his board might scratch us too, in some unwelcome way.”
Another good article from spinoff on how badly women have fared as a result of lockdown – over 60% of sales workers and over 70% of hospitality workers are female….
More striking is the gender breakdown of those no longer employed. Employment fell 0.4% over the period, which equated to an 11,000 fewer people in paid employment. And of those 11,000, 10,000 were women. That’s 90%! While it’s hard to believe such huge numbers, it’s clear that more women have been in the firing line.
I hope these women are going to be properly financially supported and not treated by lazy, sleazy, layabouts who can't hold down a job as is the attitude of too many WINZ employees.
I posted a report yesterday showing how bureaucrats were helping to implement climate change policy (without pointing out how unusual this is). Just now reading Ecosophia I encountered some history of the bureaucracy dark side from a commentator, Patricia T:
[JMG] wrote: “It so happens that the most significant result of every reform movement of modern times has been to increase the number of well-paid administrative positions in government, business, and the nonprofit sector. Poverty’s a problem? Why, then, we’ll build an immense bureaucracy to administer a gargantuan system of overlapping benefit schemes, which provide a miserable life to the people who have to survive on them, but a very comfortable life indeed to the tens or hundreds of thousands of middle-class office drones who administer them…”
The above reminds me of a friend of mine (she died in 1994, in her eighties). She worked for many years as a social worker with the state government, back in the 1950s-1960s. Most of her time was spent in the field, going to and working directly with families, educating them so that they learned skills to help themselves… basic nutrition, hygiene, child development, cooking, canning, and other homemaking skills.
The home office was run with an iron-fisted supervisor (a social worker who had moved up in the ranks – and who occasionally went out in the field with the social workers to check on their work) – tardiness and slacking off were not tolerated, employees had to be at their desks 5 minutes early to prepare for the day and stay for another 5 minutes to clear their desks after the work day officially ended; administrative paperwork was minimal. The supervisor made it clear that the workers need to earn their wages that were paid with tax dollars.
Wages were fair, but modest. A college education was not required. Things changed in the following decades with less and less field work & clients had to come to the office (sometimes traveling long distances), various self-help skills were no longer taught (although a pamphlet or two might substitute), a bachelor’s degree, then later a master’s degree was required, more and more deskwork, specialized agencies (government and contract) multiplied requiring more management, more theory (‘they can’t help themselves’ – except stated in academese); a high degree of professionalism remained and employees worked hard yet less and less effectively for the ‘clients’, politics intruded more frequently (directly and indirectly). https://www.ecosophia.net/the-arc-of-our-future/
I wish that social services could go back to ‘basics’, albeit suited to present day needs. Same for other public agencies (especially, the public health offices – don’t get me started on that one…)
Older readers than me will recall back when public servants were expected to perform public service. Ah, those were the days, eh? I never saw them. By the time I started paying attention to cultural trends in the sixties, the ethos had already degenerated into platitudinal tokenism.
Yeah well private enterprise has a dark side too. We used to run electricity out of Rutherford House – look at how many are swanning around in that space now.
So unemployment has dropped. Again thousands of economists have predicted 20 of the last 2 rises of unemployment, if they were doctors the dead would be piling up in the streets, fireman… not a building left standing, mechanics.. not a car running . They are the most useless occupation in history.
"HLFS data is collected from a sample survey, which is designed to represent the country as a whole. There are about 15,000 households in the sample, which corresponds to roughly 30,000 people, from both rural and urban localities. Households and household members are interviewed every three months and asked about their activities during a particular reference week. From the information provided, Statistics NZ can estimate the official unemployment rate and other labour market indicators"
Tania Pouwhare, a social entrepreneur with the council, said a radical plan is needed to create higher-value jobs in the green and high-tech economy.
Pouwhare and the council-driven Southern Initiative and Western Initiative units are preparing a manifesto for the incoming government on how to create better jobs and greater local ownership of businesses.
Gah, a manifesto!! Neolibs everywhere will freeze in terror! Expect a panic-stricken Phil to sic bureaucrats onto them pronto!
One has been floated at a day-long think tank called Auckland’s Future, Now, run by the council’s economic development agency ATEED. It proposed a South Auckland Resource Recovery Park – a 10-15 hectare site to recycle and manufacture products from 1.6 million tonnes of mainly commercial waste dumped each year.
Pouwhare proposed a venture with a mix of public and private ownership, including community and social enterprises and Māori and Pasifika businesses. She said one trial project had salvaged more than 1000 tonnes of reuseable material and created 50 sustainable jobs.
“Our big bet, our flagship project, is He Waka Eke Noa which connects buyers and clients like Auckland Council to Māori and Pasifika-owned businesses,” she said. “In the last nine months, more than $4 million has been awarded to Māori and Pasifika business who are part of our movement, creating and saving hundreds of jobs – half of that during lockdown.”
This looks suspiciously like a viable solution to the pandemic-created recession. Policy wonks in Labour ought to focus on it!
Former prime minister Sir John Key told the Wednesday gathering in Auckland that the economy will get worse. “We are in the very early part of a serious contraction of the economy in New Zealand – we can't afford complacency,” he said.
He reminds us why he became PM: top politicians succeed by telling people what they already know. Live the dream! Representative democracy, ad nauseum.
Tania Pouwhare presented the model at the 'Alternative Aotearoa' conference. She is an intrapreneur , as in, she is an 'employee' in an relationship delivering goods to council yet aiming to distribute profit more equitably at grass roots level.
In the same section of " Economic Solutions" speeches ( all time pressed) , Geoff Bertram highlights that new models will have to break down long standing ' new feudalism'. Capitalism has gone too far to overturn, that NZ legislation empowers the success of capitalism.
CPAG economist Susan St. John follows pointing out a flaw in GDP reporting. Her time was curtailed not allowing her to elaborate but did put CG tax back on the table. The form this would take is instead taxing the equity share that is currently tax free. The RFRM.
However, despite Tania Pouwhare showing an exemplifier of new approaches for post crises, 'building roads for the serfs to get to work faster to line the tycoon's pockets' type policy will still prevail.
nope 2700 tonnes. If it were 'just' 2.7 tonnes the impact would have been not so bad. It looks like a whole subburb was just blown of the earth with several thousand people injured and as of now some 70 odd people dead.
A large blast in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, has killed at least 70 people and injured more than 4,000 others, the health minister says.
Videos show smoke billowing from a fire, then a mushroom cloud following the blast at the city's port.
Officials are blaming highly explosive materials stored in a warehouse for six years.
President Michel Aoun tweeted it was "unacceptable" that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored unsafely.
So far the only person suggesting it was an attack is the orange anusmouth delivering his brainfarts from the usual orifice. Ammonium nitrate explosions due to fire are common enough that industrial accident is a reasonable working hypothesis. Until good evidence otherwise comes along.
I agree with your caution in apportioning blame for this explosion. However, your sarcastic suggestion, via those triple brackets, that the "prog/left" is anti-Semitic is Trumpian in its dishonesty.
It might be incorrect in this case, but it’s by no means unreasonable to suspect the rogue Israeli regime, which has devastated Lebanon in the past, to be involved.
Or was it, yet again, those dastardly Russian masterminds?
I agree with you. My problem is with the suggestion that criticism of, or as in this case probably, wild allegations against, that rogue state is anti-Semitic.
Jesus christ, the ~adjacents have even appropriated punctuation now? [headdesk]
But in that case I'd suggest that it wasn't the unsubstanitated allegation that Israel was responsible that was antiSemitic (covertly, maybe, or foolhardy, maybe, but not outright ~adjacent), but the fabrication that it was a nuclear attack by Israel would be obviously intended to forment hatred towards Israel and Judaism.
We must, absolutely must, curb our GHG emissions. That's just so that we can be sustainable. It helps that it would also be us doing our bit to curb global GHG emissions.
Then, once we've done that, we can turn to the rest of the world and say 'now you.' The Greens have always been insistent that leading by example has a hell of a lot more power than just whinging.
Before action becomes imagination; the Greens are forming the picture of of where New Zealand must be and what New Zealanders must do to get there; The Greens will "save" New Zealanders from climate change. Weka's correct.
I was simply replying to Weta's fanciful claim that The Greens will "save" New Zealanders from climate change.
They can't and won't.
That's not what I said. I said that Labourites liking the GP in a 6% holding pattern won't save us from CC. You can mistake that as an inference that I meant the GP alone would save us, but what I actually believe is that we need an increasingly strong green representation in parliament in order to both mitigate and adapt, and atm that requires a much bigger Green Party caucus. In the next few terms that means a L/G govt.
Having said that, Robert is right. It's the Greens that are creating the culture that is necessary for NZ to act meaningfully. There are non-parliamentary groups and people doing this too, but in parliament the Greens are a necessity because of what they specifically can do.
Totally agree that we need the Greens in Parliament to force policies and general thinking that will allow NZ to better adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change, as well as helping to avoid investing our scarce resources into infrastructural developments (of all sorts on all scales) that will become stranded assets in the next 20-30 years.
Having said that, some of the Greens policies are ideologically 'pretty' while not actually being overall sensible things to do, such as trying to achieve 100% carbon neutrality in electricity production by 2030. Getting the final few percentage points over to renewable resources will be very costly and that money could be better spent on other initiatives in the economy to prepare us for a carbon-constrained future.
But mitigation, adaptation and avoiding foolish investment choices are not "saving" us from climate change – the only thing that would is an amazing technological breakthrough about 3 or 4 orders of magnitude more cost effective at removing CO2 from the atmosphere than anything we have now, or sudden co-operation by 70%+ of the world's government to make drastic and near-term cuts to CO2 emissions. Neither of which are likely to happen and neither of which the Green Party of NZ are likely to play a large part in (of course they have more scope for the latter of the two).
when u see the yellow cloud rn the opposite direction. I was told this many years ago by an old hand working one of the Orica Depots in Auckland that also had an Ammonia Station. 🙂
A mate of mine who worked at Ravensdown here in Dunedin said the same thing, and the fact it was near seawater/the harbour he said just a matter of time before some kind of disaster.
It's scary stuff. Qld has just closed its borders with NSW again as people have been crossing the borders telling lies about where they have come from. Mind you, Ashley Bloomfield is probably right. For NZ, it might be not "if" but "when."
This is how micro businesses being run by people making their own jobs are often treated though they are following encouragement to replace ones that would have been there if the Labour and National governments hadn't boldly strode forward and opened the gate wide to all the hoi polloi from the world.
Reduce regulations was the cry by business and government responded. But that really meant big business, or the ones that appear glamorous and important to the officious in whatever entity gets to wield the sand-filled sock, the rubber bullet, or the supposed light-handed regulation that is rolled out to the struggling entrepreneurs.
Whanau looks like things are going fine in Aotearoa we just have a problem with the Kiore on Mokoia island but I think we have that same problem all around Aotearoa.
Auckland Council welcomes the Ministry for the Environment announcement of $10.67 million for improvements to the Community Recycling Centres as part of the Resource Recovery Network across the Auckland region.
This $10 million Central Government funding will fast track the effectiveness of Community Recycling Centres through developing fit for purpose infrastructure. It will expand employment by increasing the volume of materials and the number of related activities they can undertake to work towards zero waste.
It does not take much of a increase in temperature to make life very difficult.
Rising temperatures will cause more deaths than all infectious diseases – study.
The growing but largely unrecognized death toll from rising global temperatures will come close to eclipsing the current number of deaths from all the infectious diseases combined if planet-heating emissions are not constrained, a major new study has found.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
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Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
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Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
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Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
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Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
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In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
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In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
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Winston tells Luke Malpass about working with the Greens, then throws a curve ball at China:
You can imagine Twyford freaking out: "Hey, nobody told me the cost of the project would have to be calculated!"
Xi has obviously told his foreign minister that explaining the meaning of the agreement would take too long. Understandable. Words in such documents tend to mean different things to different people and even getting regime officials to agree would be hard enough, let alone foreigners!
Ardern, if re-elected, may have to give some thought to whether the thing has substance or not. She could see it as a useful ruse to lull everyone into thinking Aotearoa is China-friendly…
Yes i can totally see that consulting with one's party is something totally alien to Winston.
Lol.
Winston's "there's one good Green, the rest are useless" is the same ploy as National's "Jacinda's good but the rest are useless". Mind you, it's common knowledge that in NZFirst, Tracey Martin is good and the rest are useless![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
hahaha.
We can't say the same about National 😉
Greens have been opposing business as usual for more than half a century now. In civilised countries where non-violence is the cultural norm, activism has only an economic cost usually. Elsewhere, it's life or death:
Air pollution has major effects on health in New Zealand
In 2016, air pollution from human-made PM10 was associated with an estimated [4]:
https://www.ehinz.ac.nz/indicators/air-quality/health-effects-of-air-pollution/
A silver lining of Level 4 lockdown was a huge drop in measured air pollution in our major centres.
Serious question.
A silver lining of Level 4 lockdown was a huge drop in measured air pollution
How many of us would be willing to go into occasional Level -4 type Lockdown solely for the purpose of reducing air pollution?
Pre-planned, I would.
I really do wish those figures got more air-time. Maybe then people would realise that owning and driving a personal car pretty much equates to purposefully killing people and that it may actually be themselves.
Deconstructing Jonathan Swan's interview of President Corrupt. Conman. Traitor. Deranged. Dotard. that featured at least 17 lies in 35 minutes:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/04/politics/fact-check-jonathan-swan-axios-hbo-interview-trump-coronavirus/index.html
Sample reactions:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-yo-semites_n_5f297faac5b68fbfc8884637
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-axios-interview_n_5f290ee6c5b656e9b09fc1ec
Meanwhile, over in the bearded-sky-fairy segment of the Cult of the Tinyfingers Twittertwat, one of the head acolytes is letting it all hang out.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jerry-falwell-jr-pants-unzipped_n_5f28f0b1c5b68fbfc88716ba
What a disappointment and a wasted opportunity. The "Falling into a coma" post was all too accurate, it seems.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/a-2nd-term-pm-for-crises-and-the-status-quo
Her approach is also the best way to splinter the right, and it's working.
As many here like to point out we operate under a MMP environment splintering the right doesn’t matter as long as the right is growing which at this point is debatable
It appears it may be shrinking the right – which is more valuable than splintering it. There are trade-offs though: if you shrink the right by becoming it, have you really shrunk it? Anyway, it's early days yet.
That is why we need the Greens, to balance the new centre right.
A conservative approach from this Government would ordinarily be reason to criticise them, but these are not ordinary times. Gnawing at Labour's leg for not completing promised programmes would be fine under ordinary circumstances, but COVID 19 changed the situation radically. Jacinda and her team's position and actions are entirely appropriate for the circumstances that exist right now. National can whine and grizzle (and they will) but that doesn't change the reality of the situation; fortunately, Jacinda et al are not taking National's bait. They are marching to their own tune and that's the one New Zealander's have been hearing since COVID 19 appeared and one they know is genuine. In my opinion.
it's also possible that they didn't have the capacity this year to manage the covid crisis and develop a bold new policy platform.
What are the figures for influenza cases in New Zealand over the winter, anyone know? I'm keen to know if my prediction that there would be few if any cases, was accurate.
Here ya go Robert
https://info.flutracking.net/reports-2/new-zealand-reports/
Wow! Thanks, Pingao, that's comprehensive stuff. Looking at the main graph, I'm going to claim that I was right![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
Big difference! hopefully fewer people have ended up in hospital so they can catch up on other health needs. And I guess we aren't importing strain variations with the borders and quarantine.
We're both signed up for Flu Tracking – we get a weekly questionnaire to complete which takes less than a minute then you get shown the graph which is interesting to compare with news about covid testing numbers.
Also flu jab numbers were well up this year after a big push by MoH around lockdown.
Have been thinking along the same lines as I have not run into any coughers, snotty noses or sneezers so far this year. I wonder if raising the awareness of personal hygiene for covid control has impacted. Also why are we not requesting negative tests before people leave the borders of the current countrys they are in before flying home to NZ – as the Tongans had to do before flying home yesterday. That would take away a lot of risk at the border and do a lot to avert a second wave.
"I wonder if raising the awareness of personal hygiene for covid control has impacted".
Indeed. Plus not importing the flu virus from "elsewhere".
Closing "The Warehouse" over lockdown probably accounts for much of it
lock down ended 27 april – so the warehouse has been open now for a few month.
personal hygiene would have helped but i would put more emphasis on a. a double heating allowance for the elderly and beneficiaries, b. better insulation in many rentals, and above all our really unseasonably warm 'winter' with hardly any cold days at all but days sitting at a balmy 15 degrees in middle nu zillind. This might be different in the south island, but i have friends currently eating outdoor tomatoes in Auckland.
Because we can't pass laws for other countries.
Of course, we could say that any aircraft that doesn't forward a full list of confirmed tests won't be able to land here. But, then, do we actually then trust those lists/tests? I know I wouldn't.
We could insist that they have a negative covid test in hand as they enter our passport control at the other end. There used to be vaccination cards that had to be presented. Provider to be either approved or if the tests are wrong no more using that provider. But as just in time tests get better though – spit on a piece of paper is one being developed – it's very feasible. Dodgy test immediate deportation on the return flight – same as other issues.
BTW a relative is flying home from the UK in November. She has to have a clear covid test 4 days before travel to get on the flight………….a good precaution I think
If our quarantine wasn't as awesome and tightly guarded we really would be fucked, we seem to catch a couple of positive s every few days, so thanks to all those working their arses off at our borders.
At the "Auckland’s Future, Now" event Key said:
"universities should be allowed to bring in international students"
Mayor Phil Goff said:
"There was no point calling for an early end to New Zealand's border closure, he said.
“We would be mad to do that.”"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/122338065/relax-border-restrictions-to-soften-covid19s-economic-blow-sir-john-key-says
The business report on RNZ National this morning informed us that former Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe is also calling for the government to "leverage" our Covid-free status. He is apparently "highly critical" of the New Zealand government's bureaucratic caution.
Fyfe is displaying the same level of due diligence and responsibility as he did in March 2011, when he went on television and claimed, in high seriousness, that it was "perfectly safe" for New Zealanders to fly Air New Zealand to Tokyo, and that there was no evidence to suggest that the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant posed any danger whatsoever. In fact, it was later revealed, at the very moment Fyfe was trying to assure people that there was "nothing to worry about", the Japanese government was engaged in urgent talks and seriously considered ordering the evacuation of Tokyo.
A few years before that epic display of ignorance and fatuousness, Fyfe had embarrassed the Clark government by hiring out Air New Zealand planes to the Australian Air Force to fly Australian soldiers into Iraq, in contravention of New Zealand law.
Far from paying any sort of penalty for these massive breaches of trust, Fyfe is still being appointed to consulting positions by the government. He is admired by (surprise, surprise) Mike Hosking…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12339795
Pretty sure that wasn't in contravention of NZ law – but it was definitely against what the government and people of NZ wanted.
Fyfe is proving himself a typical CEO – profits for the bludging shareholders before anything else. Which just proves, yet again, just how bad capitalists are at being any good for a society.
Good-natured derision followed by a solid ignoring is probably the best approach.
i.e. to use a sporting analogy, let anything wide of off-stump go with a little smile of satisfaction and then block the straight ones
He also said.
He said universities should be allowed to bring in international students and the Government should lift a ban on foreign buyers.
Allowing them to invest in property in New Zealand would help support the construction industry, which was going to need assistance, he said.
Seems to be at odds with the underlying consensus I am hearing.
Such as increased work for tradesman from renovation, and deferred maintenance.Far more sustainable.
The best way to sort out the housing situation is to bring in 50,000 tradies from overseas. Do they build housing for the 50,000 immigrants first or attack the housing shortage?
If it's the latter, where do they live in the meantime?
That's not the capitalists concern – making a profit is.
Where do they live? Are there not vans?
Goff's very next line was that we should let skilled workers in though!
If (BIG IF)we can manage more in quarantine I think we should to .
Totally user pays for students and workers .
We are still getting people back in. but what "skilled workers does he have in mind" and why can't we start using home grown talent. We used to manage most of our activity quite nicely thank you without constant imports of people. Most of the boomers are still available to train people. But mainly I think a lot of businesses (particularly overseas owned ones) are going to have to get used to paying better wages to allocate the talent correctly.
But would we really want them training people with their outdated knowledge?
OMG, you actually expect the business community to properly use the pricing system of the market rather than whinge to government so as to bring in under-priced labour?
Most of them are just starting to leave the workforce – so no no reason ( except blatant ageism) to suppose their knowledge and experience is out of date. Plumbing knowledge moves at a great rate yes? Just saw John Key on the news though – sounded very much like yesterday's man.
As to business not whining at the government- not a hope the large ones seem to have no idea about personal responsibility.
It will depend a lot on the boomer and if they've kept up with modern techniques. And it really is an if. There are fields, especially some trades, where knowing the latest and greatest ideas isn't needed to get by and so they don't and they simply coast into retirement.
And that's on the tech side, then we have to ask about their teaching ability which may not have been developed at all. I know plenty that wouldn't be able to teach well.
Beats me why the media give so much space to the idiot personal views of ex company directors. And how slow they are to sense that there is a need to cahnge and that there are other alternatives.
As to education and international students Chippie's onto it. Wants quality over quantity .It's a good read – points out the level of financial risk that the government has been exposed to by state funded institutions taking on so many overseas students and that they need to be of overall value to NZ not just high volume low quality courses.
We'd like to see less of a focus on getting students in the country who have to work whilst they're studying out of financial necessity, to ones who can support themselves while they are studying," he said
Hipkins said he hoped to see more students studying at higher levels, more students from countries other than India and China, and more New Zealanders going overseas to study.
And then we have the truly selfish private education sector – who want to select migrants, sell them a visa with work rights , pocket the profits and bleat about how many jobs they provide whilst pushing a far greater number of people into the local workforce. Paul Chalmers for the private sector.
However, he said ITENZ would oppose the Government if it wanted to reduce enrolments in one-year programmes that led to employment and residency.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/422694/nz-international-student-sector-more-focus-on-quality-education-than-work-rights-cabinet-papers
Higher education, theories, precepts v satisfying practical trade skills.
What about trade education with jobs at the end of it. What about learning how to make products yourself, not just be an endless consumer buying-in your requirements, looking for bargains, and expecting things to land in your lap.
This making education a profit-oriented business takes us further into the spiralling trade in ephemeral things that actually produce nothing, just measure, report on things. A friend midwife said dourly that they were always having meetings at the hospital she worked out, otime-consuming and often producing nothing of value for dealing with matters needing attention.
Computers – a machine to facilitate things being thought about. Computers driving 3CD? – making things by machine, that would previously have been crafted by people, so undermining human skill.
Education – teaching enough about things to do stuff like working in retail, making up catchy phrases (PR) without much understanding of why, the background and where it fits into human life. (Space flight, going to the moon.) Doesn't teach about important aspects of humanity and interaction, and how to stop our violent and accumulating impulses.
Economics – Learning about the way that humans generally behave, and how they and markets interact, and then how to manipulate both for the benefit of those interested in taking power in the market.
Finance – Learning how to create credits and manage their value and how to direct the flow to where you want it, and how to deny the great mass of people from advancing financially. Treating money as if it is a finite thing, rather than a cultural thing, that is maintained by agreements that can be cancelled, negating the agreed value.
Saw three lads walking to town after school, all about 15 one big, well-built sour looking – a bruiser, two accolytes. The language – Jesus Christ and fuck. They won't learn any fine abilities at secondary school; would be better off learning on a job doing something practical to occupy their energies, and learn with tradesmen they could relate to and with time off to add to their formal skills.
We need to think and do something to safely cap the energies of young men and their idle minds, narrowed by their early experiences, from taking in anything but the simplest beliefs, and ripe for mass hysteria of white supremacy or black cohesion through gangs.
Thank goodness no one listens to John Key anymore.
Beware of powerful city merchants….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_Marseille#Outbreak_and_fatalities
I've noticed a very good article on the Spinoff, this morning, on NZ's land and property problems, and on the British feudal system of land ownership.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/04-08-2020/why-william-the-conqueror-is-partially-to-blame-for-our-housing-problems/
Well worth a look.
Yes it's excellent – thinking of the small town I live in, I liked this quote:
Also, reading about the ancient roots of our attitude to land ownership, Jim Crace's 2013 Booker short-listed novel ‘Harvest’ is a superbly written 'report' from the past that resonates powerfully now. From this review:
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/books/review/harvest-by-jim-crace.html
Thanks miesh
Another good article from spinoff on how badly women have fared as a result of lockdown – over 60% of sales workers and over 70% of hospitality workers are female….
More striking is the gender breakdown of those no longer employed. Employment fell 0.4% over the period, which equated to an 11,000 fewer people in paid employment. And of those 11,000, 10,000 were women. That’s 90%! While it’s hard to believe such huge numbers, it’s clear that more women have been in the firing line.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/05-08-2020/11000-new-zealanders-have-lost-their-jobs-and-10000-of-them-were-women/
I hope these women are going to be properly financially supported and not treated by lazy, sleazy, layabouts who can't hold down a job as is the attitude of too many WINZ employees.
Peaceful city this morning.
https://twitter.com/DavidSlack/status/1290729288820375552?s=20
Know it well, the coold of that big city. Went right through me.
I posted a report yesterday showing how bureaucrats were helping to implement climate change policy (without pointing out how unusual this is). Just now reading Ecosophia I encountered some history of the bureaucracy dark side from a commentator, Patricia T:
Older readers than me will recall back when public servants were expected to perform public service. Ah, those were the days, eh? I never saw them. By the time I started paying attention to cultural trends in the sixties, the ethos had already degenerated into platitudinal tokenism.
Yeah well private enterprise has a dark side too. We used to run electricity out of Rutherford House – look at how many are swanning around in that space now.
So unemployment has dropped. Again thousands of economists have predicted 20 of the last 2 rises of unemployment, if they were doctors the dead would be piling up in the streets, fireman… not a building left standing, mechanics.. not a car running . They are the most useless occupation in history.
The official unemployment statistics are as manipulated as the CPI…..increasingly their use is discredited
In what way are they “manipulated” and by who?
Why by stats NZ of course. How else can they get from the spreadsheet to the official doc but by manipulation….
"The unemployment rate is a key economic indicator, but its definition and measurement is contentious."
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/research-papers/document/00PLSocRP01151/unemployment-statistics
http://archive.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/browse-categories/income-work/employment-unemployment/guide-unemployment-statistics/guide-to-unemployment-statistics-2nd-ed.pdf
"HLFS data is collected from a sample survey, which is designed to represent the country as a whole. There are about 15,000 households in the sample, which corresponds to roughly 30,000 people, from both rural and urban localities. Households and household members are interviewed every three months and asked about their activities during a particular reference week. From the information provided, Statistics NZ can estimate the official unemployment rate and other labour market indicators"
I suppose that depends upon who you are. The rich are doing very well out of the work of the economists while everyone else is suffering.
Danger, red alert, Phil Goff! A radical has been spotted within your council! https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122333597/coronavirus-call-for-radical-green-job-plan-to-lift-south-and-west-auckland
Gah, a manifesto!! Neolibs everywhere will freeze in terror! Expect a panic-stricken Phil to sic bureaucrats onto them pronto!
This looks suspiciously like a viable solution to the pandemic-created recession. Policy wonks in Labour ought to focus on it!
He reminds us why he became PM: top politicians succeed by telling people what they already know. Live the dream! Representative democracy, ad nauseum.
"In the last nine months, more than $4 million "
I believe that it is actually $44 M.
Tania Pouwhare presented the model at the 'Alternative Aotearoa' conference. She is an intrapreneur , as in, she is an 'employee' in an relationship delivering goods to council yet aiming to distribute profit more equitably at grass roots level.
https://youtu.be/83_N7wAJD-g
In the same section of " Economic Solutions" speeches ( all time pressed) , Geoff Bertram highlights that new models will have to break down long standing ' new feudalism'. Capitalism has gone too far to overturn, that NZ legislation empowers the success of capitalism.
https://youtu.be/nblHJ57ImmE
CPAG economist Susan St. John follows pointing out a flaw in GDP reporting. Her time was curtailed not allowing her to elaborate but did put CG tax back on the table. The form this would take is instead taxing the equity share that is currently tax free. The RFRM.
https://youtu.be/JNvDGJKsge0
Interestingly it links to recent views of a powerhouse group. ' Leave off personal income tax interference '
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/105452/pwc-argues-rebuilding-economy-post-covid-19-should-include-tax-reforms-and-addressing
However, despite Tania Pouwhare showing an exemplifier of new approaches for post crises, 'building roads for the serfs to get to work faster to line the tycoon's pockets' type policy will still prevail.
https://theconversation.com/a-post-pandemic-world-is-unlikely-to-focus-on-meeting-need-over-human-greed-141228
wow
https://twitter.com/AymanM/status/1290765327400411141
Do they mean 2.7 tonnes. Some places use comma's where others use decimal points
nope 2700 tonnes. If it were 'just' 2.7 tonnes the impact would have been not so bad. It looks like a whole subburb was just blown of the earth with several thousand people injured and as of now some 70 odd people dead.
in pictures here
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2020/aug/04/beirut-explosion-in-pictures
good grief.
Given the size and location of that blast that 70 fatality figure must surely be a gross underestimation
Nope, 2700 tonnes.
https://twitter.com/MaximeHaes/status/1290679780162101251
https://twitter.com/Lobnene_Blog/status/1290675724416884739
fuck me, that first video is insane.
was it an attack or an industrial accident?
So far the only person suggesting it was an attack is the orange anusmouth delivering his brainfarts from the usual orifice. Ammonium nitrate explosions due to fire are common enough that industrial accident is a reasonable working hypothesis. Until good evidence otherwise comes along.
Him, and the real prog-left knew who (((the perpetrators))) were.
//
https://i.redd.it/nc51puhbi0f51.png
https://twitter.com/veteranstoday/status/1290678764821774337
Nanothermite wasn't used?
Residue is knee deep in downtown
New York CityBeirut.I agree with your caution in apportioning blame for this explosion. However, your sarcastic suggestion, via those triple brackets, that the "prog/left" is anti-Semitic is Trumpian in its dishonesty.
It might be incorrect in this case, but it’s by no means unreasonable to suspect the rogue Israeli regime, which has devastated Lebanon in the past, to be involved.
Or was it, yet again, those dastardly Russian masterminds?
Blaming Israel is one thing.
Claiming nukes were used is bloody stupid though.
I agree with you. My problem is with the suggestion that criticism of, or as in this case probably, wild allegations against, that rogue state is anti-Semitic.
Who said it was anti-semitic? All I saw here was mockery of jerks who think "mushroom cloud" = "nuke" and similar conclusion-leapers.
Joe 90 wrote: "the real prog-left knew who (((the perpetrators))) were."
Those triple brackets are a code used by the lunatic anti-Jewish fringe. Most of that fringe is, of course, extreme right wing.
Jesus christ, the ~adjacents have even appropriated punctuation now? [headdesk]
But in that case I'd suggest that it wasn't the unsubstanitated allegation that Israel was responsible that was antiSemitic (covertly, maybe, or foolhardy, maybe, but not outright ~adjacent), but the fabrication that it was a nuclear attack by Israel would be obviously intended to forment hatred towards Israel and Judaism.
A biggie.
The blast was heard 240km (150 miles) away on the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53656220
https://twitter.com/stephen_latham/status/1290773457622499329
An actual bonfire of regulations.
https://twitter.com/marcelvandenber/status/1290896695367262211
https://twitter.com/Amena__Bakr/status/1290912926182912000
https://twitter.com/HachemYassin/status/1290702640930791424
Whatever the Greens do in New Zealand won't 'save' any New Zealanders from climate change either.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
it can if we are all in this together.
If by "we" you mean "the citizens of China, America and European countries" then sure.
Not sure what the Green party in NZ are going to do to influence them.
a conversation for another time, but generally we've moved on from the small emitters don't count theory, because together they count for a lot.
and you know, the Greens’ ability to shift political and individual responses to cc is impressive given how few resources they have. (the NGOs too).
Whatever NZ does won't hold back the tides.
Thank you for admitting that NZ by itself can do nothing.
no country can by itself can prevent the worst of climate change. It's a global crisis, meaning everyone needs to do their bit.
Thank you for admitting that you're an idiot.
We must, absolutely must, curb our GHG emissions. That's just so that we can be sustainable. It helps that it would also be us doing our bit to curb global GHG emissions.
Then, once we've done that, we can turn to the rest of the world and say 'now you.' The Greens have always been insistent that leading by example has a hell of a lot more power than just whinging.
I was simply replying to Weta's fanciful claim that The Greens will "save" New Zealanders from climate change.
They can't and won't.
Before action becomes imagination; the Greens are forming the picture of of where New Zealand must be and what New Zealanders must do to get there; The Greens will "save" New Zealanders from climate change. Weka's correct.
I wish I'd said it now.
That's not what I said. I said that Labourites liking the GP in a 6% holding pattern won't save us from CC. You can mistake that as an inference that I meant the GP alone would save us, but what I actually believe is that we need an increasingly strong green representation in parliament in order to both mitigate and adapt, and atm that requires a much bigger Green Party caucus. In the next few terms that means a L/G govt.
Having said that, Robert is right. It's the Greens that are creating the culture that is necessary for NZ to act meaningfully. There are non-parliamentary groups and people doing this too, but in parliament the Greens are a necessity because of what they specifically can do.
Totally agree that we need the Greens in Parliament to force policies and general thinking that will allow NZ to better adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change, as well as helping to avoid investing our scarce resources into infrastructural developments (of all sorts on all scales) that will become stranded assets in the next 20-30 years.
Having said that, some of the Greens policies are ideologically 'pretty' while not actually being overall sensible things to do, such as trying to achieve 100% carbon neutrality in electricity production by 2030. Getting the final few percentage points over to renewable resources will be very costly and that money could be better spent on other initiatives in the economy to prepare us for a carbon-constrained future.
But mitigation, adaptation and avoiding foolish investment choices are not "saving" us from climate change – the only thing that would is an amazing technological breakthrough about 3 or 4 orders of magnitude more cost effective at removing CO2 from the atmosphere than anything we have now, or sudden co-operation by 70%+ of the world's government to make drastic and near-term cuts to CO2 emissions. Neither of which are likely to happen and neither of which the Green Party of NZ are likely to play a large part in (of course they have more scope for the latter of the two).
A mate who owned a fertilizer mixing factory once said that if I ever saw him leaving town at 100 mph to do a fast handbrake turn and follow him.
when u see the yellow cloud rn the opposite direction. I was told this many years ago by an old hand working one of the Orica Depots in Auckland that also had an Ammonia Station. 🙂
A mate of mine who worked at Ravensdown here in Dunedin said the same thing, and the fact it was near seawater/the harbour he said just a matter of time before some kind of disaster.
Shit! Too close to home for comfort.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/422816/victoria-posts-record-725-new-coronavirus-cases-15-deaths
But John sez open the borders! Just a smidge, it'll be ok, he wouldn't lie to us…
Did Sirjonkyponyboy mention how we should go about this? Let people in who rickn they're 'pretty' clear?
It's scary stuff. Qld has just closed its borders with NSW again as people have been crossing the borders telling lies about where they have come from. Mind you, Ashley Bloomfield is probably right. For NZ, it might be not "if" but "when."
And banker Key was telling people today we should loosen border restrictions….
Thank goodness we have Jacinda, not that financier, as our P.M.
An important development in the Boag/Walker/Woodhouse story:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122357021/privacy-commissioner-launches-inquiry-into-covid19-patient-leak
National should respond by saying "support decision, full co-operation, need all the facts" etc.
But Collins and co might just be stupid enough to complain about it instead, thus keeping the story in the headlines.
National party cohorts will not say a peep because Commissioner Edwards states that he will not be investigating Walker and Boagy
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/01-08-2020/battle-of-the-berm-the-outdoor-furniture-pitting-aucklands-authorities-against-a-community/
This is how micro businesses being run by people making their own jobs are often treated though they are following encouragement to replace ones that would have been there if the Labour and National governments hadn't boldly strode forward and opened the gate wide to all the hoi polloi from the world.
Reduce regulations was the cry by business and government responded. But that really meant big business, or the ones that appear glamorous and important to the officious in whatever entity gets to wield the sand-filled sock, the rubber bullet, or the supposed light-handed regulation that is rolled out to the struggling entrepreneurs.
Kia Ora
Whanau looks like things are going fine in Aotearoa we just have a problem with the Kiore on Mokoia island but I think we have that same problem all around Aotearoa.
Ka kite Ano
Ka pai
Auckland Council welcomes the Ministry for the Environment announcement of $10.67 million for improvements to the Community Recycling Centres as part of the Resource Recovery Network across the Auckland region.
This $10 million Central Government funding will fast track the effectiveness of Community Recycling Centres through developing fit for purpose infrastructure. It will expand employment by increasing the volume of materials and the number of related activities they can undertake to work towards zero waste.
Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage announced this as “a major investment in recycling.
Link below.
https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2020/08/auckland-welcomes-a-10-million-investment-in-new-zero-waste-infrastructure/
Ka kite Ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
It does not take much of a increase in temperature to make life very difficult.
Rising temperatures will cause more deaths than all infectious diseases – study.
The growing but largely unrecognized death toll from rising global temperatures will come close to eclipsing the current number of deaths from all the infectious diseases combined if planet-heating emissions are not constrained, a major new study has found.
Ka kite Ano
Link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/04/rising-global-temperatures-death-toll-infectious-diseases-study