Only discrepancy is the guy tweeted 60+2US, the Venezuelans have 21 including the yanks. So maybe some got away. But I'm not sure there would be more yanks – a guy I'm reading a bit at the moment consistenly gives the figure of 2 SF advising a company/120pax of Cambodians during Vietnam, so 2:60 seems consistent with that.
Indeed amusing. Folks will assume Pompeo is behind it but I favour Balsonaro. Anyway there will be a fervent ferment of conspiracy theories (probably happening already on the twit site)…
Having spent a year working in Latin America, I'm aware of just how little most of us are informed about the region. I'm absolutely not pretending to be any kind of authority, but it's worth pointing out that it's a complex region in it's own right and that reflexively blaming the US for everything that goes wrong is tedious. There are many other actors in the region just as capable as the Americans for this ugly little fuck up.
Blaming oil is pretty silly. No-one want Vene oil at the moment and certainly not the US who have plenty of their own.
Where Venezuela got it badly wrong was the same mistake the Cuban's made; inviting Russia and China to gain a platform in the Western hemisphere. The Americans don't mind who you trade with, they don't even really mind if you run a socialist economy. But you have to be on their side against communism. Like it or not that was the deal, and most Latin American countries worked out where the trip wire was out decades ago.
And in an time when oil prices are heading negative, US sanctions or not, Venezuela is in deep trouble. Anyone with money has left, along with anyone with a marketable skill. Hell anyone who could walk has left. What remains is going to be a humanitarian catastrophe. Insisting the glorious socialist experiment must be carried forward, regardless of the human cost, has Stalinist undertones reminiscent of the Ukraine disaster.
“The Americans don’t really mind if you have a “socialist economy”
Yeah sure, they forced regime change in over 80 countries because they “didn’t really mind”.
The USA "squeezing their economy until it bleeds" Britain embargoing State bank accounts, and all the other economic warfare against Venezuela, had nothing to do with it?
Because, Socialism!
Chavez Government, had a State share of the economy, less than New Zealand's, by the way.
And turning to other countries for help, was, after, the USA, fucked them, not before. Just like Vietnam.
And. Why mention Venezuela. There are a plethora of examples of right wing, extreme capitalist dictatorships, imposed by the USA, which are a lot worse off.
There are a plethora of examples of right wing, extreme capitalist dictatorships, imposed by the USA, which are a lot worse off.
I'd be interested to know exactly which Latin American countries you have in mind. No problem finding examples from the 80's, but anything current?
Venezuala has plummeted from the richest Latin American nation to collapse in less than a decade. That kind of incompetence is barely distinguishable from malice.
Does this mean the US is always reasonable, that business interests don't play some part in their foreign policy? Of course not, every nation runs policy to suit their interests, and none are above criticism. Just as for instance NZ doesn't like aspects of Australian policy around deportations.
There is plenty of blame game to go around, but it has to be the worst kind of incompetence and folly that allowed policy disagreements to escalate to the kind of dread consequences the Venezuelans have visited upon themselves.
Even the most competent Government, which I don't think Venezuela's is, would have struggled to cope with the deliberate economic destruction, visited on Venezuela from the outside.
Imagine if it had been Bridges, mob. Or the barely capable back benchers in Labour.
Yes I suppose they could have just bit the bullet and accepted something like Colombia or Honduras. Interesting tbat even after a successful coup against Chavez the people took to the streets and succesfully got him released. Funny thing to do if you really don't like the guy. And of course the embargo on Venezuela has nothing to do with their poverty? To the extent that the US navy is now parked off shore? I guess we're all free to believe what we want to…
The same is true of a very long list of countries. The kind of liberal freedom of speech you are accustomed to here in NZ is largely confined to a relatively short list of about 30 nations.
the same mistake the Cuban's made; inviting Russia and China to gain a platform in the Western hemisphere. The Americans don't mind who you trade with, they don't even really mind if you run a socialist economy.
What utter nonsense. Castro aligned with the Soviet Union out of necessity. He was not even a Communist at the start of the revolution. At first the US was not overly concerned about the revolution but when Castro nationalised US owned assets this quickly changed with the CIA backed Bay of Pigs attempted invasion (April 1961) .
Cuba had of course been invaded by the US during the Spanish-American war. At first the Cubans had hoped that the US would support them to independence by joining with them in their fight to free themselves from the Spanish. What resulted though was the seizing of key assets by US interests. Hello new boss same as the old boss.
Faced with inevitable further aggression from the US Castro had no choice but to turn to the Soviet Union for protection. This led to the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962) when the Soviet Union attempted to put nuclear missiles in Cuba but were met with a naval blockade from the US. While the Soviets had the good sense to not start WW3 and turn back, this action made it clear to the US that the Soviet Union would not tolerate an invasion of Cuba. And so the Revolution endured.
I know a bit about this through the best paper i took at Waikato, a stage 3 paper Sociology of Revolution. It covered the revolutions of France, Russia, China, Cuba, Nicaragua and Peru. It was fascinating.
None of them exactly a fine endorsement for revolution. All of them have history fraught with betrayal of their principles, conflict both internal and external, and economic stagnation.
Sure revolution must look theoretically attractive sitting in a nice warm, comfortable university classroom (all made possible by an evil capitalist system) … but they rarely turn out quite so sweet for the poor bastards cursed to live through them.
Of those four, three are relative success stories, they tell us how socialism can become successfully embedded in a productive, prosperous economy. But it's not an automatic given.
Why Venezuela failed so dismally is not just a story of US perfidy; it's also a story of a democratic govt that wanted to be a revolution, and in doing so became an object lesson in over-reach.
Yes the Western hemisphere is the US's sphere of influence. For better or worse it's how great powers always behave. There are no exceptions to this rule, demanding the USA be different is a fools errand.
That looks like a flying start to the same path Venezuela headed down. Then there is the cocaine issue that of course parks a fucking great bus up the nose of US drugs policy.
Yeah I can see this working out just fine. /sarc
Because by my reckoning, by any historic comparison the USA has been a relatively benign great power compared to virtually all that proceeded it. Sure there is no objection to being critical of US foreign policy, but to avoid becoming obsessively paranoid about it, I find it helpful to ask "compared to what?"
Now that is my pragmatic hat talking. My idealist sees the same story and takes this to the next level, pointing out that the problem is not the USA in itself, but the paradigm of unlimited national sovereignty all nations are operating to.
If by hypothetical accident of history it was any other nation that happened to be the global superpower at this time, China, Russia, India, Saudi, France … does anyone imagine we would not have the same litany of complaints? Of course not. The problem is not so much that that USA stands for 'Unlimited Supply of Arseholes', it's that the nature of unconstrained sovereignty combined with superior wealth and military strength turns out to be a bad combination for everyone else. Always.
At least the Colombians pretend quite strenuously to oppose the drug cartels and make quite a good show of it.
But you keep missing the point; this is how all great powers act, not just the USA. I note that you never bring up any examples of how the Russians or the CCP have acted in their spheres of influence. (Wanna talk about Chechnya?) Or the British … or any other empire of the damned in history.
Sure feel free to indulge in your anti-US bigotry here at length. You've done so for years, and while I've taken the time to point this out, I doubt you will move from your emotional investment in this.
But it's a dead-end argument that goes nowhere. Imagine if you were to get your fondest wish and the entire USA was wiped off the map tomorrow. The day after some other super-power would be in business and nothing would have changed.
Why can't you ever reply to what i have said about what you have said? Why can't you concede that you might just be wrong?
But no rather you have to throw up a straw man so that you can carry on with your game of wack-a-lefty:
Sure revolution must look theoretically attractive sitting in a nice warm, comfortable university classroom (all made possible by an evil capitalist system) … but they rarely turn out quite so sweet for the poor bastards cursed to live through them.
All i said was that i had studied a number of revolutions and found them fascinating. I also find Nazi Germany fascinating but that does not mean that i fantasise about fascist overthrow of democracy and the rule of law.
What is fascinating is both the successes and the disasters. And the mangling of Marxist theory as each group (not French) adjusts this to fit their context and own ideas. I read Lenin's State and Revolution, for example, and thought it was the most cherry picked load of Cartesian bullshit i was ever likely to find. He was rushing to finish this manual for the revolution as the revolution had already started. On his deathbed he apparently said that every Marxist for the past 30 years had totally misunderstood Marx (including and in particular himself) and to go back and read Hegel, and beware of Stalin. This is not to be taken though that i would think Marx's ideas unproblematic. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat was always a fraught idea. Likewise the Anarchist ideas of his rival Bakunin who argued that the State needed to be smashed from the outset rather than being seized and utilised until it "withered away". Both men though were writing in a time and place where they could not conceive of working people gaining power by any other means. British working class men only got the vote at the end of WW1 when battle hardened troops were returning with fresh knowledge of the success of the Russian revolution.
In Cuba Castro tried the democratic road but Batista seized power in a military coup and cancelled the elections. Things went from bad to worse, to even worse. Sure revolution might look theoretically unattractive sitting in a nice modern stable western democracy with a proportionally representative voting system and the rule of law.
OK that's a lot more nuanced and makes more sense.
Castro aligned with the Soviet Union out of necessity.
And that may well have been his biggest mistake. The US would have been irritated with his nationalising of US assets, but they would have gotten over that. They would have tolerated his socialist ambitions even, but when Castro made an alliance with the Soviets that was the trip wire that was never going to be tolerated. They even have a name for it.
That's the point I'm making here; the one thing the US will not tolerate is a Latin American nation providing a platform for the Soviets (and now the CCP) in the Western hemisphere. Like it or not that is how they define their interests and everyone in the region knows this.
That Chavez and now Maduro have chosen to deliberately, and quite unnecessarily confront the US on this policy was only ever going to end in tears. For their people.
That's some pretty impressive victim-blaming right there, well into the "why do you make me hit you" territory.
Based on the assumption that if you only try for a little bit of independence, the yanks won't hit you. They don't work that way, sorry to break it to you.
The State Department might do half measures unless superpower influence comes into play. CIA does not, and Wall Street does not. Or has Central and South America (not to mention Hawaii) spent the last ~150 years bringing their fates upon themselves?
ps They tried "liberating" Canada, it didn't work out for them.
You have the cart before the horse. The US had backed and armed Batista in the first place. They were responsible for the loss of democracy in Cuba. As Castro overthrew Batista the US held back hoping that this would just be a nationalist revolution but quickly changed tack when US owned assets were nationalised.
Rather than getting over this they then funded and trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba. This included giving them bomber aircraft which they used to bomb Cuba. The Bay of Pigs invasion also included some US personnel. The US was already not tolerating Cuban independence. It was only rational for Castro to assume they were not at the end of things and that his only option was to align militarily with the Soviet Union.
Clearly there were mistakes and miscalculations on all sides. But remember this was pretty much the height of the Cold War, and any hint of Russian involvement in a nationalist revolution on their own doorstep was always going to be treated with extreme suspicion by the Americans. After all this is all happening just 15 years after the end on WW2 and Stalin himself had only just died five years earlier.
But you have to be on their side against communism
The problem is the the USA have redefined communism to include any government that tries to put the interests of it's own people before the interests of the corporate might of the USA.
For the most part the US viewed 'free trade' as a tool to develop secure middle classes, remove the social drivers of communist revolution, and develop democracy. The underlying idea was they could essential build global security based on the observation that developed, open and liberal democracies didn't go to war with each other. It was driven as much by a security motivation as the opportunity to make money.
Unfortunately what worked in places like post war Germany and Japan, failed dismally in other places and US policy never adapted to this reality. But to blame this failure entirely on an aversion to socialism isn't supported on the evidence.
There are plenty of developed nations, Canada for example, who run far more socialist policies than the USA does without incurring sanctions. You just have to be moderately smart about it.
Heh. Occasional White House spokesgargoyle Kellyalien Conway's hubby Moonface has upset the tinyfingers twittertwat again. The ad his group released is at the end of the piece, it's worth watching, and fuck me it's brutal.
Credit where credits due, good work from that old Labour warhorse Ruth Dyson. On Morning Report this morning, Bridges is being forced to defend the lack of Māori submitters (2 groups in 6 weeks) appearing before his Pandemic Committee, rather than extolling the virtues of his rescue package for small business. Yet another sub par media performance from the Opp Leader.
Don't write National off yet. We need to do our utmost to ensure that Labour gets another term. Simon Bridges, Mark Mitchell, Crusher and Goldsmith will ensure that the future will be that of low wages, bare bones public services, homelessness and high rents, permanent insecurity and US style health care, as well as poisoned rivers and air.
People who have a big issue with the way the government is handling the COVID issue need to ask themselves if they really want a society where there is no welfare, no pensions and healthcare/housing is unaffordable.
I think Labour needs to help itself too. According to the No right turn feeds they are
– ignoring electoral reform. We need to stop the influence of excess money in elections. It favours the rich.
– cutting out the ability for the public to have a say (even if limited ) in the RMA. That's red meat to the right. They turned ECAN into a non democratic outfit and that's defato encouragement to do more than that in the future.
Principles matter and not selling them matters even more
[You are prone to hyperbole, which is great for starting an exercise in futility but otherwise on par with trolling. Please try lifting the quality of your comments, thanks – Incognito]
"…(Rick) Wilson, author of Everything Trump Touches Dies, warned: “They may end up making the situation so bad with a second wave in the summer and a third wave in the fall that we end up with a much worse set of economic challenges than if we’d taken our bitter medicine and stayed shut down until we were through the early part of this crisis…"
Someone should show that to that to the National Party.
Hoskings knew the way to go, should have done same as Ausse, last 6 days infected NZ 2-3-6-1-0-0 Ausse 4-11-14-18-24-24 1ncluding 1 large cluster no way will we have a bubble with them for many months
36 months until some kind of normality and at least 2 or 3 waves of infection. Her only surprise at how it’s panned out? That the US has been the country that’s failed so badly to deal with it.
Krugman's latest piece in the NYT (via Kos) lays the blame squarely on the Trump govt and its science denial and inability to ever admit making a mistake.
Trump and company didn’t make a one-time mistake. They grossly minimized the pandemic and its dangers every step of the way, week after week over a period of months. And they’re still doing it. […]
Trump’s narcissism and solipsism are especially blatant, even flamboyant. But he isn’t an outlier; he’s more a culmination of the American right’s long-term trend toward intellectual degradation. And that degradation, more than Trump’s character, is what is leading to vast numbers of unnecessary deaths.
Check out the Hopkins covid tracker: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html If you eyeball that lower rhs graph, you can see the linear global increase looking inexorable – note the mid-March inflection point when it kicked in. Then select the daily cases tag to get a more current view of the trend.
Now, if you click on the individual countries (left-hand window) you can compare the trajectories in different countries. Note how NZ is one of those levelling-off. Note how the USA is not! Nor the UK. But then check out the daily cases window via the tag on that graph and you see that it stabilised a month ago. I bet Trump just looks at that one!
Interesting how Russia & India seemed fairly immune for a while but no longer. I reckon Putin will be consternated by the late dramatic upswing.
Stunted Mullet Transmission Gully is built on a major Fault line.The Contractor will fix these areas of weakness at no cost to the taxpayer.The economic downturn will cut the amount of traffic for at least 2 years.
Not carried out by National …the whole project was not fully scoped before being handed over to a private consortium who would design, build and finance and MAINTAIN for around 25 years with a fixed yearly fee from NZTA.
If the contract isnt carried out properly , it all falls back on the consortium. Unlike the Peka Peka hwy , they have to pay for any light or heavy maintenance.
Well thats how this private finance project Should work.
The mistake appeared to be in the laying of the road.
There are multiple layers underneath the asphalt you drive on, and if not correctly done the road will fail the necessary tests to get the sign off and has no chance of standing the test of time.
Below the asphalt, layers of rock are mixed together with smaller sand-like bits and a small amount of cement, which then gets compacted.
If the mix is too wet or gets moved around too much the small bits of fine rock and sand fall to the bottom making it hard to compact down properly, and problems arise if if asphalt gets laid on top of that.
What with this project and the recent PekaPeka and Waikato expressways, how has our roadbuilding industry forgotten how to do their basic job so thoroughly?
"Below the asphalt, layers of rock are mixed together with smaller sand-like bits and a small amount of cement, which then gets compacted." I wonder if Charlotte Cook just made this up or if it is actually why the roads are failing.
If a person has ever noticed how roads are constructed they'll know this is not how.
Considerable work goes into forming the base course before fines are added. New Zealand soils, where the soil is compressive clay, poses considerable problems for the roading contractor as the subsoil is prone to contraction and expansion. Hydrated Lime, not cement, is spread once the substrate is laid and compacted to stabilise the road bed.
Please read what you link – This appears to faults in methodology and implementation.
Hard to blame Nat in this case, they don't lay down subgrade, subbase etc. perhaps pull off the eye patch just once 🙈🙉🙊
"Process errors have occurred at isolated locations on Transmission Gully"
""A quality control process is in place to identify such errors, and a set construction method is used to remove and replace the material, which is recycled for use elsewhere on the project.""
So that is an excuse for roads to fail ??? Don’t think so. So if a govt accepted low tenders for Kiwibuild ?? Never 😉 it may surprise you what was involved in those tenders and guess what ?? Many business were cut out due to not being able to be competitive with the low tenders. So it’s not JUST under a National govt.
Nobody else has been building shitty roads which require remedial work in the last decade, just National. Waikato expressway, Kapiti expressway, and now Transmission Gully.
Feel free to comment again under the post, but this time provide some actual content eg cite the history of hospitality sector working groups. Don’t sound bite and stop trolling. Putting you back in premod so I can see the comments as they come through.
I have added another 6 months to your ban so it’s rapidly becoming semi-permanent. It always amazes me how those who are banned continue to shoot themselves in the foot.
Bridges is a thoroughly nasty character. Doesn’t have any redeeming qualities at all. Dr Bloomfield on the other hand is a thoroughly decent and well qualified person who most reasonable people would take notice of. Hence the nationwide admiration for him. People know it when they see it.
“In the end, NZ’s response has been quintessentially democratic. Not because the pandemic emergency response committee is chaired, at the government’s behest, by the Leader of the Opposition. Not because it has allowed for full throated criticism of its actions and used its emergency (coercive) powers very selectively and discretely. Not because it put science above partisanship and politics when addressing the threat. Mostly, because its balancing approach encapsulates the essence of democracy as a social contract: it is not about everyone getting everything they want all of the time, but about everyone getting some of what they want some of the time. In other words, it is about settling for mutual second-best options.
That may not be always the case in NZ and democracies elsewhere. But it is what has been done in this instance. Beyond the positive statistics of the policy response itself, this is the most significant and enduring achievement to come out of this crisis.”
…On the organics front, an almost 40-year ongoing study by Rodale Institute has shown that organic farms produce 40% more yields during times of drought as compared to conventional farms, in part due to higher levels of organic soil matter.
Similarly to soil carbon, there is little peer-reviewed science from NZ on the drought resilience of organics, or the suggestion that regen ag reduces nutrient run-off from farms. I came across plenty of anecdotal examples during the process of researching this article, of farmers saying that their pastures retain more water and are more resilient to drought, after they transitioned to regen ag. A partnership between data analytics platform Takiwā and Australian company EcoDetection hopes to provide better insight into levels of nutrient runoff from individual regeneratively managed farms, using state-of-the-art nitrate and nitrite sensors. Read more about that initiative in our story featuring Mike Taitoko….
Something useful will come out of that nz-oz connection. Can we have some discrete ones and by-pass the heavies in Canberra? Go for individual states that try to establish their own zeitgeist.
this would be high in my list of reasons to get substantially more Green MPs in government. Shifting a big chunk of govt support for farming to regenag, including research.
btw, not sure why your italics tags didn't work, might have been the . . . . , but I changed them to quotes.
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A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
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 ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
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. ...
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. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
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This has got to be he best use of A-wim-a-weh in a long, long time – and it's both funny and politically effective:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coY19wXp16k
Yes nice one. And in the deeply riven landscape that is US politics it treads the narrow path skillfully.
Not a single black face in that Trump take-down…all a bit odd.
I think that's very smart targeting.
So, this is pretty funny. US business as usual, a couple of ex-sf with a few dozen Venezuelans got caught trying to sneak into Venezuela to start a revolution. How is that funny? The G Gordon Liddy wannabe in the US who ran the op tweeted it. Then nuked any slim chance of his guys not being done for it to the max by claiming them as his personnel. So much for maybe being smugglers driving the boats or something less than active participants in a coup.
Even the Bay of Pigs was better run than that.
Only discrepancy is the guy tweeted 60+2US, the Venezuelans have 21 including the yanks. So maybe some got away. But I'm not sure there would be more yanks – a guy I'm reading a bit at the moment consistenly gives the figure of 2 SF advising a company/120pax of Cambodians during Vietnam, so 2:60 seems consistent with that.
Indeed amusing. Folks will assume Pompeo is behind it but I favour Balsonaro. Anyway there will be a fervent ferment of conspiracy theories (probably happening already on the twit site)…
Having spent a year working in Latin America, I'm aware of just how little most of us are informed about the region. I'm absolutely not pretending to be any kind of authority, but it's worth pointing out that it's a complex region in it's own right and that reflexively blaming the US for everything that goes wrong is tedious. There are many other actors in the region just as capable as the Americans for this ugly little fuck up.
Blaming oil is pretty silly. No-one want Vene oil at the moment and certainly not the US who have plenty of their own.
Where Venezuela got it badly wrong was the same mistake the Cuban's made; inviting Russia and China to gain a platform in the Western hemisphere. The Americans don't mind who you trade with, they don't even really mind if you run a socialist economy. But you have to be on their side against communism. Like it or not that was the deal, and most Latin American countries worked out where the trip wire was out decades ago.
And in an time when oil prices are heading negative, US sanctions or not, Venezuela is in deep trouble. Anyone with money has left, along with anyone with a marketable skill. Hell anyone who could walk has left. What remains is going to be a humanitarian catastrophe. Insisting the glorious socialist experiment must be carried forward, regardless of the human cost, has Stalinist undertones reminiscent of the Ukraine disaster.
“The Americans don’t really mind if you have a “socialist economy”
Yeah sure, they forced regime change in over 80 countries because they “didn’t really mind”.
The USA "squeezing their economy until it bleeds" Britain embargoing State bank accounts, and all the other economic warfare against Venezuela, had nothing to do with it?
Because, Socialism!
Chavez Government, had a State share of the economy, less than New Zealand's, by the way.
And turning to other countries for help, was, after, the USA, fucked them, not before. Just like Vietnam.
And. Why mention Venezuela. There are a plethora of examples of right wing, extreme capitalist dictatorships, imposed by the USA, which are a lot worse off.
You are right. You don't have a clue.
There are a plethora of examples of right wing, extreme capitalist dictatorships, imposed by the USA, which are a lot worse off.
I'd be interested to know exactly which Latin American countries you have in mind. No problem finding examples from the 80's, but anything current?
Venezuala has plummeted from the richest Latin American nation to collapse in less than a decade. That kind of incompetence is barely distinguishable from malice.
Even a broad outline of the whole story is quite complex, but in a nutshell Chavez went out of his way to buy a fight he was never going to win. The large majority of the 200 nations on earth manage to find a way to live with the US without incurring total economic sanctions, so it's clearly not an impossible ask. Moreover it's not only the US which has sanctions; quite a few other nations have been persuaded to introduce them as well. Hell even Saint Obama got in the act.
Does this mean the US is always reasonable, that business interests don't play some part in their foreign policy? Of course not, every nation runs policy to suit their interests, and none are above criticism. Just as for instance NZ doesn't like aspects of Australian policy around deportations.
There is plenty of blame game to go around, but it has to be the worst kind of incompetence and folly that allowed policy disagreements to escalate to the kind of dread consequences the Venezuelans have visited upon themselves.
Even the most competent Government, which I don't think Venezuela's is, would have struggled to cope with the deliberate economic destruction, visited on Venezuela from the outside.
Imagine if it had been Bridges, mob. Or the barely capable back benchers in Labour.
Yes I suppose they could have just bit the bullet and accepted something like Colombia or Honduras. Interesting tbat even after a successful coup against Chavez the people took to the streets and succesfully got him released. Funny thing to do if you really don't like the guy. And of course the embargo on Venezuela has nothing to do with their poverty? To the extent that the US navy is now parked off shore? I guess we're all free to believe what we want to…
Oh great. So Colombia and Honduras are now great places to live. Sure. If you say the right things. But if not your death is not a pretty affair..
And Haiti.
The same is true of a very long list of countries. The kind of liberal freedom of speech you are accustomed to here in NZ is largely confined to a relatively short list of about 30 nations.
Watch. Bolivia.
The presence of US PMCs in the group ups the odds that someone in the US knew of it and gave tacit approval, at the very least.
the same mistake the Cuban's made; inviting Russia and China to gain a platform in the Western hemisphere. The Americans don't mind who you trade with, they don't even really mind if you run a socialist economy.
What utter nonsense. Castro aligned with the Soviet Union out of necessity. He was not even a Communist at the start of the revolution. At first the US was not overly concerned about the revolution but when Castro nationalised US owned assets this quickly changed with the CIA backed Bay of Pigs attempted invasion (April 1961) .
Cuba had of course been invaded by the US during the Spanish-American war. At first the Cubans had hoped that the US would support them to independence by joining with them in their fight to free themselves from the Spanish. What resulted though was the seizing of key assets by US interests. Hello new boss same as the old boss.
Faced with inevitable further aggression from the US Castro had no choice but to turn to the Soviet Union for protection. This led to the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962) when the Soviet Union attempted to put nuclear missiles in Cuba but were met with a naval blockade from the US. While the Soviets had the good sense to not start WW3 and turn back, this action made it clear to the US that the Soviet Union would not tolerate an invasion of Cuba. And so the Revolution endured.
I know a bit about this through the best paper i took at Waikato, a stage 3 paper Sociology of Revolution. It covered the revolutions of France, Russia, China, Cuba, Nicaragua and Peru. It was fascinating.
France. The Terror
Russia. The Gulags
China. The Great Leap Backwards
Cuba. Decay and stagnation
Nicaragua. Violence and refugees
Peru. A century of conflict and the Shining Path
None of them exactly a fine endorsement for revolution. All of them have history fraught with betrayal of their principles, conflict both internal and external, and economic stagnation.
Sure revolution must look theoretically attractive sitting in a nice warm, comfortable university classroom (all made possible by an evil capitalist system) … but they rarely turn out quite so sweet for the poor bastards cursed to live through them.
Venezuela. Democratically elected Government. Not revolution.
New Zealand. First Labour Government. Democratically elected.
Roosevelts New Deal. Democratically elected.
Norway. "Taking their country back. Democratic.
It is not "Socialism" that requires, revolution!
Of those four, three are relative success stories, they tell us how socialism can become successfully embedded in a productive, prosperous economy. But it's not an automatic given.
Why Venezuela failed so dismally is not just a story of US perfidy; it's also a story of a democratic govt that wanted to be a revolution, and in doing so became an object lesson in over-reach.
Wrong.
The USA regards Latin America as their toys.
Bolivia, is the latest example.
Yes the Western hemisphere is the US's sphere of influence. For better or worse it's how great powers always behave. There are no exceptions to this rule, demanding the USA be different is a fools errand.
Let's see what wikipedia has to say:
That looks like a flying start to the same path Venezuela headed down. Then there is the cocaine issue that of course parks a fucking great bus up the nose of US drugs policy.
Yeah I can see this working out just fine. /sarc
Because by my reckoning, by any historic comparison the USA has been a relatively benign great power compared to virtually all that proceeded it. Sure there is no objection to being critical of US foreign policy, but to avoid becoming obsessively paranoid about it, I find it helpful to ask "compared to what?"
Now that is my pragmatic hat talking. My idealist sees the same story and takes this to the next level, pointing out that the problem is not the USA in itself, but the paradigm of unlimited national sovereignty all nations are operating to.
If by hypothetical accident of history it was any other nation that happened to be the global superpower at this time, China, Russia, India, Saudi, France … does anyone imagine we would not have the same litany of complaints? Of course not. The problem is not so much that that USA stands for 'Unlimited Supply of Arseholes', it's that the nature of unconstrained sovereignty combined with superior wealth and military strength turns out to be a bad combination for everyone else. Always.
Then there is Brazil, of course.
An even better example of US fuckery starting.
"Cocaine issue".
Like Columbia? But the USA likes that Government.
At least the Colombians pretend quite strenuously to oppose the drug cartels and make quite a good show of it.
But you keep missing the point; this is how all great powers act, not just the USA. I note that you never bring up any examples of how the Russians or the CCP have acted in their spheres of influence. (Wanna talk about Chechnya?) Or the British … or any other empire of the damned in history.
Sure feel free to indulge in your anti-US bigotry here at length. You've done so for years, and while I've taken the time to point this out, I doubt you will move from your emotional investment in this.
But it's a dead-end argument that goes nowhere. Imagine if you were to get your fondest wish and the entire USA was wiped off the map tomorrow. The day after some other super-power would be in business and nothing would have changed.
Strawman. Much.
The three are examples of how, Socialism, makes for a productive, successful, economy, not, the other way around.
Why can't you ever reply to what i have said about what you have said? Why can't you concede that you might just be wrong?
But no rather you have to throw up a straw man so that you can carry on with your game of wack-a-lefty:
Sure revolution must look theoretically attractive sitting in a nice warm, comfortable university classroom (all made possible by an evil capitalist system) … but they rarely turn out quite so sweet for the poor bastards cursed to live through them.
All i said was that i had studied a number of revolutions and found them fascinating. I also find Nazi Germany fascinating but that does not mean that i fantasise about fascist overthrow of democracy and the rule of law.
What is fascinating is both the successes and the disasters. And the mangling of Marxist theory as each group (not French) adjusts this to fit their context and own ideas. I read Lenin's State and Revolution, for example, and thought it was the most cherry picked load of Cartesian bullshit i was ever likely to find. He was rushing to finish this manual for the revolution as the revolution had already started. On his deathbed he apparently said that every Marxist for the past 30 years had totally misunderstood Marx (including and in particular himself) and to go back and read Hegel, and beware of Stalin. This is not to be taken though that i would think Marx's ideas unproblematic. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat was always a fraught idea. Likewise the Anarchist ideas of his rival Bakunin who argued that the State needed to be smashed from the outset rather than being seized and utilised until it "withered away". Both men though were writing in a time and place where they could not conceive of working people gaining power by any other means. British working class men only got the vote at the end of WW1 when battle hardened troops were returning with fresh knowledge of the success of the Russian revolution.
In Cuba Castro tried the democratic road but Batista seized power in a military coup and cancelled the elections. Things went from bad to worse, to even worse. Sure revolution might look theoretically unattractive sitting in a nice modern stable western democracy with a proportionally representative voting system and the rule of law.
OK that's a lot more nuanced and makes more sense.
Castro aligned with the Soviet Union out of necessity.
And that may well have been his biggest mistake. The US would have been irritated with his nationalising of US assets, but they would have gotten over that. They would have tolerated his socialist ambitions even, but when Castro made an alliance with the Soviets that was the trip wire that was never going to be tolerated. They even have a name for it.
That's the point I'm making here; the one thing the US will not tolerate is a Latin American nation providing a platform for the Soviets (and now the CCP) in the Western hemisphere. Like it or not that is how they define their interests and everyone in the region knows this.
That Chavez and now Maduro have chosen to deliberately, and quite unnecessarily confront the US on this policy was only ever going to end in tears. For their people.
That's some pretty impressive victim-blaming right there, well into the "why do you make me hit you" territory.
Based on the assumption that if you only try for a little bit of independence, the yanks won't hit you. They don't work that way, sorry to break it to you.
The State Department might do half measures unless superpower influence comes into play. CIA does not, and Wall Street does not. Or has Central and South America (not to mention Hawaii) spent the last ~150 years bringing their fates upon themselves?
ps They tried "liberating" Canada, it didn't work out for them.
You have the cart before the horse. The US had backed and armed Batista in the first place. They were responsible for the loss of democracy in Cuba. As Castro overthrew Batista the US held back hoping that this would just be a nationalist revolution but quickly changed tack when US owned assets were nationalised.
Rather than getting over this they then funded and trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba. This included giving them bomber aircraft which they used to bomb Cuba. The Bay of Pigs invasion also included some US personnel. The US was already not tolerating Cuban independence. It was only rational for Castro to assume they were not at the end of things and that his only option was to align militarily with the Soviet Union.
Not much different in Vietnam.
Initially they appealed to the USA. "Land of the Free", to support their independence from France.
As always the whole story is more complex than one comment can do justice to.
The bottom line for the US was the involvement of the Soviets in Cuba right from WW2 onward.
Clearly there were mistakes and miscalculations on all sides. But remember this was pretty much the height of the Cold War, and any hint of Russian involvement in a nationalist revolution on their own doorstep was always going to be treated with extreme suspicion by the Americans. After all this is all happening just 15 years after the end on WW2 and Stalin himself had only just died five years earlier.
The whole story is quite sad really.
The problem is the the USA have redefined communism to include any government that tries to put the interests of it's own people before the interests of the corporate might of the USA.
The corporate might of the USA is greatly overestimated. Their exports are a smaller fraction of their GDP than any other developed nation, and big business faces more hurdles in buying political influence than ever before. It is one lens to view US foreign policy through, but it's not the only one.
For the most part the US viewed 'free trade' as a tool to develop secure middle classes, remove the social drivers of communist revolution, and develop democracy. The underlying idea was they could essential build global security based on the observation that developed, open and liberal democracies didn't go to war with each other. It was driven as much by a security motivation as the opportunity to make money.
Unfortunately what worked in places like post war Germany and Japan, failed dismally in other places and US policy never adapted to this reality. But to blame this failure entirely on an aversion to socialism isn't supported on the evidence.
There are plenty of developed nations, Canada for example, who run far more socialist policies than the USA does without incurring sanctions. You just have to be moderately smart about it.
Sure, they'd never use the military to back a favoured General Foods company.
Just because yankistan has its own oil doesn't mean it doesn't see benefits in controlling who gets other countries' oil.
In Venezuela its that lovely man Abrams who is in charge. Think Oliver North and Contras
lol followup to the tweet:
Heh. Occasional White House spokesgargoyle Kellyalien Conway's hubby Moonface has upset the tinyfingers twittertwat again. The ad his group released is at the end of the piece, it's worth watching, and fuck me it's brutal.
https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/05/trump-lincoln-project-ad/
Yes that is excellent
Lolz, agent orange was up till 1am on a twitter tantrum because of that. Good job.
Lol, what?!
Credit where credits due, good work from that old Labour warhorse Ruth Dyson. On Morning Report this morning, Bridges is being forced to defend the lack of Māori submitters (2 groups in 6 weeks) appearing before his Pandemic Committee, rather than extolling the virtues of his rescue package for small business. Yet another sub par media performance from the Opp Leader.
RNZ story
https://twitter.com/teaniwahuri/status/1257075095916277760
Perhaps Simon thought he was the only Maori in this village:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/415943/simon-bridges-ignored-proposals-for-maori-at-epidemic-response-committee-mp-says
Don't write National off yet. We need to do our utmost to ensure that Labour gets another term. Simon Bridges, Mark Mitchell, Crusher and Goldsmith will ensure that the future will be that of low wages, bare bones public services, homelessness and high rents, permanent insecurity and US style health care, as well as poisoned rivers and air.
People who have a big issue with the way the government is handling the COVID issue need to ask themselves if they really want a society where there is no welfare, no pensions and healthcare/housing is unaffordable.
Aye that's why I'll be voting for the greens cause frankly they have a much better welfare plan.
I think Labour needs to help itself too. According to the No right turn feeds they are
– ignoring electoral reform. We need to stop the influence of excess money in elections. It favours the rich.
– cutting out the ability for the public to have a say (even if limited ) in the RMA. That's red meat to the right. They turned ECAN into a non democratic outfit and that's defato encouragement to do more than that in the future.
Principles matter and not selling them matters even more
National in government will mean:
No payrises for 10 years at least
No retirement for low paid workers
No secure housing
User pays education and health
[You are prone to hyperbole, which is great for starting an exercise in futility but otherwise on par with trolling. Please try lifting the quality of your comments, thanks – Incognito]
Millsy Austerity is Nationals Mantra in a time of recession this will compound any recession.
Really have you got a reference for any of those assertions ? They look rather unlikely to me.
Stunted Mullet 2008 till 2017 per head of population spending on health and education fell by more than 10%.
No pay rises over the 9yrs the inflation rate averaged 1.3% wage rises 1.3% a 9% pay cut.
Housing National sold more than they built without the Canterbury rebuild that would have shown an even bigger decline.
More of the health system farmed out to dodgy contractors ie vaccine distribution
Constant increases in education costs no money for leaky schools built under Nationals no regulation building codes.
Doctors visits costing 25% more prescriptions 150% more!
Which country were you in bottom feeader
Inflation should read 2.3%
See my Moderation note @ 8:27 AM.
Actually in line with National's stated, and actual, policies until very recently.
Raising the retirement age.
Stopping minimum wage rises.
Selling off State housing.
Privatising parts of the health sector.
All things they were already doing or have, promised.
Simon also said they would remove 200 regulations.
"Bonfire of regulations" and "tax cuts".
National talks about social issues when in opposition then sells off everything that isn't nailed down when in power
Interesting comment in a piece in the Guardian today: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/05/donald-trump-coronavirus-economic-recovery
"…(Rick) Wilson, author of Everything Trump Touches Dies, warned: “They may end up making the situation so bad with a second wave in the summer and a third wave in the fall that we end up with a much worse set of economic challenges than if we’d taken our bitter medicine and stayed shut down until we were through the early part of this crisis…"
Someone should show that to that to the National Party.
Sanctuary 80% of NZers back the tough lockdown.Bridges has changed his tune as the reality of the Polls sink in to the National Party.
Hoskings knew the way to go, should have done same as Ausse, last 6 days infected NZ 2-3-6-1-0-0 Ausse 4-11-14-18-24-24 1ncluding 1 large cluster no way will we have a bubble with them for many months
Yep. We can't let them in if they are not going to take it seriously.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-prediction-laurie-garrett.htm
36 months until some kind of normality and at least 2 or 3 waves of infection. Her only surprise at how it’s panned out? That the US has been the country that’s failed so badly to deal with it.
Krugman's latest piece in the NYT (via Kos) lays the blame squarely on the Trump govt and its science denial and inability to ever admit making a mistake.
(my emphasis)
https://youtu.be/Q5BZ09iNdvo
Check out the Hopkins covid tracker: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html If you eyeball that lower rhs graph, you can see the linear global increase looking inexorable – note the mid-March inflection point when it kicked in. Then select the daily cases tag to get a more current view of the trend.
Now, if you click on the individual countries (left-hand window) you can compare the trajectories in different countries. Note how NZ is one of those levelling-off. Note how the USA is not! Nor the UK. But then check out the daily cases window via the tag on that graph and you see that it stabilised a month ago. I bet Trump just looks at that one!
Interesting how Russia & India seemed fairly immune for a while but no longer. I reckon Putin will be consternated by the late dramatic upswing.
Rapture time.
/
https://twitter.com/dwallacewells/status/1257357311749881862
https://twitter.com/MattPStout/status/1257380246137036801
This was a National Government project, wasn't it?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/415959/transmission-gully-project-a-circus-sections-to-be-re-laid
The party of infrastructure!
Phil Twyford will save us.
Stunted Mullet Transmission Gully is built on a major Fault line.The Contractor will fix these areas of weakness at no cost to the taxpayer.The economic downturn will cut the amount of traffic for at least 2 years.
"The Contractor will fix these areas of weakness at no cost to the taxpayer."
Actually, that remains to be seen.
The TA have their best people on it.
Ha. Yes, Simon Bridges was National’s Transport Minister still insisting in 2017 that it would be finished on time and under budget.
Simon can't build bridges (10 in Northland promised 1 delivered)
Simon should be taken to the employment tribunal for bullying and intimidation.
But he is making a bigger dick of himself than ever.Distracting and attacking the chief medical officer.
Victoria was on par with us in quashing outbreaks then suddenly 35 new cases in one new cluster.
Simple Soimon should stop being a clusterfuck and show he can build bridges .
Suddenly, privileged advice must be made public, unlike Pike River, cos it's umpreesudentud.
Infrastructure designed, planned and carried out by National. But according to the Nats spokesperson a couple of days ago… all Labour's fault!
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/frustration-grows-transmission-gully-project-delayed-again
Not carried out by National …the whole project was not fully scoped before being handed over to a private consortium who would design, build and finance and MAINTAIN for around 25 years with a fixed yearly fee from NZTA.
If the contract isnt carried out properly , it all falls back on the consortium. Unlike the Peka Peka hwy , they have to pay for any light or heavy maintenance.
Well thats how this private finance project Should work.
NZTA dont sign contracts so they can threaten their suppliers.
https://www.employmentcourt.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Decisions/2019-NZEmpC-187-Byrne-v-NZ-Transport-Agency-jud-131219.pdf
peter houba from wsp opus in whangarei,9NZTA witness at the above hearing) testified in court to this.
I/S concisely from the sidebar: http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-death-knell-for-ppps.html
From the RNZ story:
What with this project and the recent PekaPeka and Waikato expressways, how has our roadbuilding industry forgotten how to do their basic job so thoroughly?
"Below the asphalt, layers of rock are mixed together with smaller sand-like bits and a small amount of cement, which then gets compacted." I wonder if Charlotte Cook just made this up or if it is actually why the roads are failing.
If a person has ever noticed how roads are constructed they'll know this is not how.
Considerable work goes into forming the base course before fines are added. New Zealand soils, where the soil is compressive clay, poses considerable problems for the roading contractor as the subsoil is prone to contraction and expansion. Hydrated Lime, not cement, is spread once the substrate is laid and compacted to stabilise the road bed.
Please read what you link – This appears to faults in methodology and implementation.
Hard to blame Nat in this case, they don't lay down subgrade, subbase etc. perhaps pull off the eye patch just once 🙈🙉🙊
"Process errors have occurred at isolated locations on Transmission Gully"
""A quality control process is in place to identify such errors, and a set construction method is used to remove and replace the material, which is recycled for use elsewhere on the project.""
after failing a "compaction and moisture test"
We know they loved to direct government agencies to accept the lowest tender.
So that is an excuse for roads to fail ??? Don’t think so. So if a govt accepted low tenders for Kiwibuild ?? Never 😉 it may surprise you what was involved in those tenders and guess what ?? Many business were cut out due to not being able to be competitive with the low tenders. So it’s not JUST under a National govt.
Nobody else has been building shitty roads which require remedial work in the last decade, just National. Waikato expressway, Kapiti expressway, and now Transmission Gully.
"Do it on the cheap" is their motto.
NZTA dont give a rats arse mate.
this is their priorities.
https://www.employmentcourt.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Decisions/2019-NZEmpC-187-Byrne-v-NZ-Transport-Agency-jud-131219.pdf
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/employment/news/article.cfm?c_id=11&objectid=12296643
over 200 grand taxpayers money to try and ruin my wifes career because our neighbour who works for nzta doesnt like us.
go nzta go you are real troopers
A hospitality sector working group – yeah that will be helpful to have another talkfest.
[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.]
Feel free to comment again under the post, but this time provide some actual content eg cite the history of hospitality sector working groups. Don’t sound bite and stop trolling. Putting you back in premod so I can see the comments as they come through.
Bridges performance with Bloomfield at the epidemic committee won't have won many votes today. Back to his worst.
Bloomfield's self-control is super-human. I don't know how he does it.
At the 1 pm press conference a journo starts with "can you guarantee … ?"
My answer, shouting at TV: "Of course he can't guarantee because it's human life you f***ing idiot with zero grasp of basic medical science!"
His answer was rather more restrained. As always.
Yes, appalling from Bridges. Good on Michael Wood for calling him out on it. There would have been some frosty exchanges after the cameras went out.
+100 serve that was totally deserved. And should have made the news. To infer that Bloomfield was a government shill was disgusting.
Weka reminds me of Te Ururoa Flavel when he was trying to get rid of Hone Harawira from the Māori party. So passionate yet so wrong.
[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.]
as far as I can tell, you’ve got a permanent ban.
ah not permanent, just until April next year.
I have added another 6 months to your ban so it’s rapidly becoming semi-permanent. It always amazes me how those who are banned continue to shoot themselves in the foot.
Bridges is a thoroughly nasty character. Doesn’t have any redeeming qualities at all. Dr Bloomfield on the other hand is a thoroughly decent and well qualified person who most reasonable people would take notice of. Hence the nationwide admiration for him. People know it when they see it.
Pablo on point again.
“In the end, NZ’s response has been quintessentially democratic. Not because the pandemic emergency response committee is chaired, at the government’s behest, by the Leader of the Opposition. Not because it has allowed for full throated criticism of its actions and used its emergency (coercive) powers very selectively and discretely. Not because it put science above partisanship and politics when addressing the threat. Mostly, because its balancing approach encapsulates the essence of democracy as a social contract: it is not about everyone getting everything they want all of the time, but about everyone getting some of what they want some of the time. In other words, it is about settling for mutual second-best options.
That may not be always the case in NZ and democracies elsewhere. But it is what has been done in this instance. Beyond the positive statistics of the policy response itself, this is the most significant and enduring achievement to come out of this crisis.”
Full article here: http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2020/05/between-push-and-shove/
Regenerative agriculture is perhaps showing us a formula for regenerative democracy.
https://thedig.nz/apocaloptimism/insight-into-regenerative-agriculture-in-new-zealand-the-good-the-bad-and-the-opportunity/
Something useful will come out of that nz-oz connection. Can we have some discrete ones and by-pass the heavies in Canberra? Go for individual states that try to establish their own zeitgeist.
this would be high in my list of reasons to get substantially more Green MPs in government. Shifting a big chunk of govt support for farming to regenag, including research.
btw, not sure why your italics tags didn't work, might have been the . . . . , but I changed them to quotes.
Is he unwell ?
Simon Bridges is a massive embarrassment. Does he really need to scream in Parliament, dragging his tiresome Babel behind him?
Kia Ora Newshub.
Let's hope that it will work out OK.
The dryest summer on record for Tamiki Makaru that was pridicted by our scientists.
Maybe there should be A online template for A virus health and safety plan for small businesses.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Well I say that our government has done a good job leading Aotearoa and Tangata Whenua through the virus issues.???????????.
Te Marama is shining bright tonight
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora The Am Show.
We do need to plant billions of trees.
The new Auckland water restrictions time to get tanks and catch rain water many positive effects from doing that.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Newshub.
Banks are just using this situation to fleece people.
Making the safe moves down the levels is better than taking big risk.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Its great to see all the Aohai and koha of Kai in Aotearoa during these hard times.
Ka kite Ano