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.
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Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
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People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
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By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
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Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
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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
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
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