I heard that the Oz police raid was done on their own bat. Thinking, police who answer to their own logic, to keep them free from government and political interference, isn't there a vacuum? One body full of self-righteousness and self-granted probity – isn't that like having another government body not answerable to the people. If it looks at a law and interprets it in an unintended way, is it then a rogue body within the polity?
Same with the Army. PM Helen Clark says publicly yes go to war but don't engage. just assist as back-up. And Army says Yeah right – a fibbing Tui moment.
And the police doing their own thing involving virtual manslaughter of naughty poor youngsters joyriding driving like they see on TV reality cop shows – excited and alarmed beyond brain control and killing themselves. Police fishing for drugs, raiding old women's homes to look for drugs which they might have to effectively kill themselves when needed. The drugs not for recreational use or to sell for mindless profit, but treated mindlessly the same by authority obeying a mindless government.
And behind this rather loose and murky entity is the overpowering large government that holds such firm reins on others theoretically sovereign nations that they can request our police to do their bidding. Wikileaks has exposed for real what has been whispered, and they hate the truth, they can't handle it. And everywhere it pops up through journalists releases, they will act and dispute, and delete and redact and punish.
Countries may not have control of their police because of some fine-thinking decree, but in the absence of over-arching local authority, another can step in as is apparently the case in Australia over Wikileaks publishing to the public's right to know.
Yeah. Well that is something I think I heard. But things can change fast, so can apparent facts – just take out a letter and you get fats and fast. Minute difference and such a big effect. Probably got it wrong.
You heard that trusting statement from one Craig McMurtrie, who was interviewed this morning on RNZ National by Corin Dann. McMurtrie is the ABC's "editorial director", which means, of course, that he will have been heavily involved in shaping the ABC's demeaning, misleading, Government-friendly coverage of Assange's persecution over the last few years.
It will be interesting to see if the likes of McMurtrie have the integrity and the courage to defend the ABC's few decent journalists who are being targeted by the Government via its publicly funded goon squad.
McMurtrie and Dann this morning both used phrases like "chilling effect on journalism" and talked of the need to protect "whistle-blowers". McMurtrie several times expressed surprise that such state intimidation of journalists could occur "in a liberal democracy like Australia."
Not once did either McMurtrie or Dann mention the most famed Australian whistle-blower and journalist, Julian Assange.
Yes, that was a stunning exercise in wonderment. Assange has figuratively been slow-boiled alive since since 2010. Now those two goons have suddenly found that the pot they are in is starting to boil as well.
Between Trump's label of 'fake news' for any report he doesn't like, and the increasing state oppression of investigative journalists, whistle blowers, and leakers, it has never be more plain that certain actors are trying to shut the media down.
Of course, where the USA goes Australia follows and the article "Shooting the messengers" on the Inside Story blog outlines how far down the track that track the ALP has wandered over the ditch. That article, by the way, also seems to studiously avoid mention Assange.
That sounds as I would imagine. Watch and wait for the next exciting episode. Who needs fiction when you find so much interesting faction around. Nightly shows will be held with erudite, ironic and fluent thinkers where they guess the amount of truth in current news. Could be something like the one with Stephen Fry in UK.
More Police Raids As War On Journalism Escalates Worldwide
June 05, 2019 "Information Clearing House" –The Australian Federal Police have conducted two raids on journalists and seized documents in purportedly unrelated incidents in the span of just two days.
Yesterday the AFP raided the home of News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst, seeking information related to her investigative report last year which exposed the fact that the Australian government has been discussing the possibility of giving itself unprecedented powers to spy on its own citizens. Today they raided the Sydney headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corp, seizing information related to a 2017 investigative report on possible war crimes committed by Australian forces in Afghanistan.
Subterranean Fire documents historically how the capitalist class have nefariously accumulated wealth and power for selfish purposes by depriving working people of dignity and rights.
Subterranean Fire details at the outset how strike actions and popular revolts were put down by corporations through their cronies, including police, private detectives, vigilantes, and even the National Guard. In the Homestead strike of 1892, after workers had defeated the Pinkerton agency’s private army, the National Guard was brought out.
U.S. Congressman Admits His Marine Unit ‘Killed Probably Hundreds of Civilians’ in Iraq June 05, 2019 "Information Clearing House" – Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) has come under fire after admitting during a podcast interview that his Marine Corps unit "killed probably hundreds of civilians" during the atrocity-laden First Battle of Fallujah in 2004.
When will our Min of Education be honest regarding pay rates?
From June 2018 until June 2022 teachers pay increase 9.3%, inflation 8%, BUT it will not be until the 2021/2022 that teachers pay will be higher in real terms than it was in June 2018. And he thinks that is satisfactory for teacher pay to go backwards for all 3 years of this govts. term and that strike action is not warranted ?
Teachers should count themselves lucky. There are very large numbers of workers in this country who have had no meaningful wage rise in the past 10 years.
Kevin You represent backward-looking, yokel NZrs – making sure that the country never advances in any way by bringing up some negative statistic that undermines a case that somebody is making for improvements.
There is always somebody worse off than someone else near the bottom, but one advancing can result in others getting a trickle down effect. If wealthy there isn't the same, but teachers are not wealthy just rising a little in the pay scale to middle income and yet require great skills, and their work is getting more difficult. If you can't say anything helpful try not to say anything at all. I don't notice much from you except heaps of cold sludge.
"Radio New Zealand provides in depth, quality, impartial programmes that might otherwise not be available on commercial radio, or without public funding ."
What an untruth !
This is to say that Simon Bridges, The Head of the Undemocratic Wealthy Party in New Zealand gets to speak his incoherent nonsense on Radio New Zealand each week day. He has the run of the Studio. ! Bias upon Bias upon Bias.
He uses a segment called "Morning Report". Radio NZ's many reporters fawn over him – for they are members of his Undemocratic Wealthy Party in New Zealand.
They, the Reporters, have helped The Wealthy Party to bring about a horrendous attack on the normal citizens of New Zealand. Hundreds of Thousands of whom have no Housing, or who are paying rents to the amount of $500 weekly on very low wages.
Radio New Zealand is an Utter Scandal.
It is the plaything of very very Rich. It tramples over the poor day in day out.
We normal New Zealanders must take the Wealthy Undemocratic Party To the Highest Court in the Land.
With the Charge that they Have denied Food, to the Citizens of this Country; they Have denied Housing; They have charged outrageous Rents; they have paid very low wages. Let us take their Banks – to the same Courts.
Let us Get the Undemocratic filthy Wealthy National Mob – out of our Nation. ! Get Rid of Bias and inequality.
They start by training their little girls in wealth. Then their little snobby Boys. Then they tell them not to mix with nasty poor children.
Then in a short time they don't even know how to spell Poverty. And they get taken away to get their Tits reshaped. Then Daddy has a chat with the Cops and his boy doesn't get shoved into prison – where he should be.
NZTA's maps of their suggested "safe and appropriate speed" strongly suggests they have no fucking idea. Seriously, they suggest 100km/h as a safe and appropriate speeds for dangerous twisty high crash rate bits of road like the Desert Road from the Waihohonu Bridge through the Three Sisters through to the top of the long straight hill just south of Turangi, or SH1 beside Lake Taupo where there's the tight corners going around the bluffs, but suggest reducing parts of the Taupo bypass to 80km/h where it's limited access separate dual carriageways with median barriers.
That map seems to bear no relation to reality whatsoever. Either that or they got it round the wrong way and the slider reveals the roads that aren't safe to drive at 100kph.
They're certainly correct that the risk of being killed in a crash would be much lower if people drove the highways at 60 – 70kph, but that's the same as it being correct that your risk of electrocution would be much lower if you turned off the mains switch in your house: it's true, but no-one in their right mind would do it.
I'm somewhat amused by their treatment of the Waterview Tunnels. When they were opened, there was a massive song and dance about why the speed limit through them had to be 80km/h, and there's speed cameras at the entrance and exit both directions. Yet their suggested "safe and appropriate speed" is 100.
I hope this government gets nine years just so they can keep putting much-needed infrastructure spending into railways, but it's freight movements that will benefit. Passenger rail is never going to a popular means of inter-city travel as long as we have narrow-gauge rail, single-tracked. Fixing that will never be viable.
But you are allowed your e-bikes on trains for free. So you jump on the train and have personal transport at the other end. Personally, I love this concept.
It'll take some time for sure, we used to have an extensive rail network they were shutting lines down in the 70's and probably ever since.
It's what I was doing in the South Is in the 70's. Only my bike didn't have an 'e'. I have many fond memories of the NZR crews, more often than not they'd let me ride on top of the mail bags in the now vanished guard wagons for free. I think it was because I was too grubby to have anywhere near proper passengers!
And I'd get a cup of steaming hot tomato soup if I got dead lucky 🙂
We are repeating a similar gerfuffle to how it was when computers came in. Computers were known to be right so anything that came out of them must be genuflected to. Now it is alghorithms deciding and screening people from getting ACC treatment, and having to go at 80 on a perfect 120 km stretch of road because some bits of metal and wires in a container say so.
What about robot police eh. That'll be the next move, the police will enjoy running robots like Military Forces are sitting on swivel-chairs running armed forces doing maneouvres against real people and their homes.
This is serious, it is important that we don't all end up standing outside doors waiting for them to automatically open for us. And the frostbite when the electricity is down will be awful. The buzz before we collapse – if only our systems at home had informed us of this dangerous double tragedy, blizzards and non-opening doors. Oh what shall we do now, we can't phone home because the blizzards have knocked out the cellphones?
My birthday today. Fitting time to apologise to the people I've been aggressively arguing with over the past couple of days.
Tony, Peter, sorry. Gosman… lol.
And thank you to those commenters who talked me down rather than piled on.
Right or wrong I'm coming across angry a lot and it bothers me. It is amazing when mental health slips how emotions can take hold and your thinking ignores answers it has known for some time.
So I'm thinking I'm angry because x said this, and y thinks I'm that….
But anger is a secondary emotion. So what's going on?
I am profoundly sad. I am a clever bastard and I solve problems. With climate change I just feel utterly helpless and hopeless.
Acknowledging that I actually feel a bit better. Time for a birthday celebration of chest x rays and stool samples.
Good on ya Bleeple, keep rolling… and don't worry I suffer the same at times, getting all pissed off and writing aggro things, the style of which is later regretted…
Life's a roller-coaster – you just gotta buckle up properly and hold on for the ride…
Happy Birthday, WeTheBeeple. Being sad is ok – coming to terms with what is happening to our world is very hard, especially when it has to be acknowledged that we, as the 'little people' can't do much to change it. Be kind to yourself and try to find something to do on your special day that you enjoy in the midst of your medical dramas. Kia kaha
I've been wondering about ya, WTB. When someone's an exemplar, as you are in the realm of earth-care, it must be difficult to maintain high standards when venturing "off-site" into more mundane political fields where squabbling's the norm.
In any case, have a delightful birthday and regarding the stool sample; give 'em all you've got
With regards feeling sad; enjoy it while you can; sadness, especially when it's profound, is the gateway to Resolution and Growth. The alchemists said that deep darkness, charred and ruinous, is the prerequisite to the true growth that results in the state of whiteness and pure clarity; sounds like you're on your way
Thanks everyone I really appreciate the support. Got to venture off into this rainy day and I'm delaying, sitting here with the cat purring in my lap, all toasty and warm.
While I agree (Robert) that this process is part of healing/transformation, I do get overly frustrated with the three-steps forward, two-steps back pattern. But that's all typical human stuff?
As I get back on the road and my world broadens again the claustrophobic crowding of fears and anxiety will subside. Too much time in this chair.
Trying to work out a sustainable touring company. Tricky! Anyone got a spare 100K so I can get an EV with decent range.
Nissan Leaf currently has a 40Kw van model that will do 250-300 km depending on terrain. My partner's work vehicle is the older 24Kw that does around 112-130km and is upgrading soon.
There is a 7 seater on TradeMe for $37,850 but I suspect it is the low range version. My partner's boss is importing his directly from the UK. Sorry, can’t offer anything more substantive, especially since it is your birthday.
I appreciate the feedback! I got lucky. Last week(s) I took friends out to see comedy and a friend of a friend came too (new friend). So, ever the great host I filled him up with Jamiesons and introduced him to several 'stars'. Turns out his job is the importation and selling of EV's and he thinks I'm the bees knees.
My mate mentioned my situation and I just heard he might be keen on a sponsorship deal – which would work out great for him as I'd talk up the EV in every town.
We shall see, what a great twist of fate that that is who he was.
Always pays to be nice, I find it much easier in theory…
By temperament I have the same challenge. When I was younger I confronted it tramping, climbing and generally getting off my arse and doing things that provoked anxiety but in a controlled fashion. That was transformational, I went from being a useless 14 yr old to a functioning adult at 24 yrs. Took a while but it worked.
Next big mistake was not being responsible for my own naivety and stupid mistakes. You WILL get fucked around with and people WILL do things that are unfair and malicious; I spent far too much of my life expecting them to be better and the world to be a fairer place, when the problem was my own weakness.
The next piece of the puzzle is one crucial word … competence. Don't mistake this for being smart. People like you and me have relied on our IQ to get us through life, but by itself this is never sufficient. It leaves us feeling like we never quite fulfilled our potential. Or to put it bluntly … the world is full of smart people who're losers.
Smart is a trap, it fills the mind with useless chatter, it paralyses action and it means we never reach the point where we become truly, innately competent. IQ is merely a constraining factor in success, not the root cause of it. Competence is knowledge turned into skill, they're related but not the same thing. Worst of all the mere knowledge of this is useless to you. Without volition, without purpose and will, it fails to become action. This is the secret to never giving up, it rewires the brain, it reveals the unsuspected folded within you. In this you have to be really tough on yourself.
I empathise with the angst, but remind myself that after all those tests and x-rays, amongst all the chaff, you seem to be surrounded by good people and green and growing things. I'll try and do the same.
Your posts often elevate and inform, and your propensity to being just human after all, is reassuring for me at least.
We the Bleeple….Happy birthday! We are birthday twins. So hope you have a great day too!
I was really moved by what you wrote a few days back about your life. I was unab to comment at the time due to technical problems that sometimes happen for me on this site.
WtB Hope your birthday turns out nice. And remember there are 364 unbirthdays out there when good things and good wishes can turn up – nice surprises can abound not recognisably wrapped with bows on. Quote for the day: Life is a see-saw – up push, down fall, ready for the next day of …action, reflection, disappointment, recovery, completion, wonder, laughter, meeting of minds sweet, hopeful and ironic.
I guess I am one of the people who argued with you over the last few days, but nothing personal. We all have different viewpoints but I am sure we all want the best result. And a little robust and challenging discussion can help us all in the end.
Have a great day and best of wishes for a positive outcome all round and for the year ahead!
Don't forget you said yourself a day or so ago (I think it was you) that after some days of feeling bad you have days of feeling fine and dandy. I know when feeling bad I think I will never not feel bad. But it's not true. Brains can be such dicks some times.
A shrink I know says to remind oneself to tell the brain some thoughts are simply not helpful.
Are you coming across angry, or are you actually angry? Reading other people's comments is all about projection. If someone habitually uses the F word like punctuation rather than any real invective, others can infer anger when it was just a simple sentence 😉
The thing I worked out – some time back – is that each of us is unique. Which is a helluva beaut thing! We are not a clone. We do things our way WTP. Which is what Nature wants. Variety; penetration, Wonder. Our way is best. Hang on to that. Good man.
Thanks again everyone. Today I went to the wrong Hospital. Senility creeping in.
The editing software here is a nightmare to drop poetry into. It's godawful. Perhaps a selling point…
Five O + GST
The hairdresser couldn't make me any younger but she banished the neck fluff and beat the brows back into submission
Trimmed now I haul my aging frame out to a bench and strike conversation with Stan the homeless man
An amputee pigeon hobbles across the walkway in front of Prada "Kinda poetic" I point 'Meryl Steep wears that shit' says Stan "You mean the Devil?" We laugh "If the Devil turns up for a dress I'm'a kick him in the nuts" I say We laugh some more
I shake hands with Stan dropping a tenner in his palm then I walk the road
Twenty, forty, fifty dollars Smiling gap toothed faces
I've cheered myself up but I go all out Off to Lush for a perfumed bath bomb To Farmers for some pure wool socks and finally
A mince and cheese pie
Life is good.
(that was me attempting to get a format without large gaps in each line. Not worth the bother aye).
No, nay, never, No never no more, Will I play the wild rover, No, never, no more. Just keep on presenting poetry just like the above, or how it turns out WtB. You are wild and free, and great. Loved it all. Mince and cheese yeah. Who could ask for more.
Hi WTB. Have you ever had a look at Old Norse poetry. It's difficult because they used a circumlocutory device called kenning which takes some getting used to, but it can be very powerful. My favourite is one by Egil Skalla-Grimmsson called Sonnatorrek (loss of sons) It's a thousand years old. Probably not your thing but here it is: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/sonatorrek-loss-sons.html
I like it. It could almost have been written by some Celt today. Long, but.. no telly then.
By the format required, some of this (Skald work) might be considered 'viking doggerel' where the form relays events of the day.
Th English Dept at Uni did my head in they spent so much time discussing things that were not there and fawning over Jane Austen, no conjoint for me… Science all the way 😀
I'm getting to feel very sorry for Mr Makhlouf – National have managed to screw him up. I hope not over. Vicious little buggers in National. I am told that 2,000 hits does not meet the usual status of denial-of-service. But it is certainly way out from normal. Who actually explained the case to him? Have Treasury been hoist on their own petard in looking for well-priced contracts for maintaining their IT needs, and got what they paid for?
The sorry saga of hack-gate began about 6pm last Monday when a National Party staffer discovered parts of the government's Budget had been uploaded to the Treasury website.By 10am on Tuesday the Opposition had started drip-feeding details of the Wellbeing Budget – due to be released by the Finance Minister Grant Robertson on Thursday – to the media.,,, The National Party has for a week been calling for both Mr Makhlouf's and Mr Robertson's heads and has also demanded Mr Makhlouf at the least be stood down while the investigation is carried out.
How he's not been put on leave yet is quite baffling.
(I find it baffling how the local media can make judgments about someone being 'put on leave' over making a mistake like this very puzzling. A political journalist on a public body as Radionz calling for something that would have a destabilising effect of the government, unreasonably enhancing the minor mistake to a large misdemeanour is unsatisfactory.
Also Radionz have a number of times referred to the event as arising from simple searching. This also shows incorrect reporting. 2000 hits is not simple searching. It was using a public search option to a degree that normal public would be unaware of; a back-door way to manipulate the option to draw out more information than was intended to be available. It was a fault in the program and either known or found by manipulation then used to the full by working overtime to get the 2,000 hits.)
It would have been a long weary task but a sneaky and malign Opposition found it valuable and to its taste.
A denial of service attack just shuts websites down, it doesn't extract data.
The problem was with the search engine and the little samples of documents you get in the search results: you see a bit in front and a bit behind the search terms. So if you then search for those bits behind the original search, you can find the bits that come after them, and piece the whole document together that way. Those were the 2000 hits.
Debating whether that's a "hack" (conjuring images of spotty teens keyboard-mashing in basements to cool industrial soundtracks) is a distraction from the absolute fact that the people who extracted that data knew they should not be authorised to access the contents of budget documents in that way, yet still did so.
That's why the nats are pushing so hard on Makhlouf. Distract people from realising that what they did was illegal, and therefore that a police referral was appropriate.
To my mind it was a 'hack' alright. That is was a very easy hack technically is irrelevant. ALL hacks exploit some form of public domain vulnerability in a manner the owner of the site does not intend.
is a distraction from the absolute fact that the people who extracted that data knew they should not be authorised to access the contents of budget documents in that way, yet still did so
That is the critical and obvious point that most of the media seem determined to ignore. Totally agree with you on this one 🙂
You are obviously not well versed in IT based on your comments above. 2000 hits on the public search feature of an organisation in the time specified is not a lot at all.
From three different computers, often referring to the outputs of previous searches from those machines? When was the last time you searched a government site in that manner?
Yeah he knows, just parroting the same point over and over, but 2000 searches from 2-3 machines is a bit different than 2000 searches from 2000 machines, mmk?
It doesn't matter if it was 2 hits or 20 billion, whoever was doing this knew damn well they were not allowed to access the Budget documents before it was released.
… a National Party staffer discovered parts of the government's Budget had been uploaded to the Treasury website.
For fuck's sake, parts of the budget were not uploaded to the Treasury's web site, and that has been explained multiple times in various forums by people who know what they're talking about. Journalists should know better by now. The budget documents were indexed by the web site's search engine, which is not the same thing at all.
The mistake was somebody missing a config change they needed to make to a search engine. How that gets parlayed into something Gabriel Makhlouf and Grant Robertson should resign or be stood down for is beyond me. I notice Simon Bridges hasn't offered to resign for carrying out a data breach on a government agency, which sounds much more like a resignation offence to me.
"Broken promises" and "lies" are the words Ms Johnstone uses to describe her disappointment with the Labour government she's previously campaigned for after it failed to meaningfully boost funding to Pharmac in its latest budget.
"I was devastated," said Ms Johnstone, whose eight-year-old daughter Lucy featured on a Labour campaign advertisement during the last elections.
"David Clarke and Jacinda Ardern had all said they were going to improve cancer care and we believed it."
"I'd had friends who had never voted before who said, 'that's it, I'm enrolling and I'm going to vote' and who messaged me on the day 'I went and voted for you Claudine, I want to give you a chance.' So I feel like I've lied to them too, I've let them down."
"Those who were lied to by the current government will not necessarily vote National…they just won’t vote at all"
..indeed, it will be interesting to see turn out next election. Certainly I can see, at best, large disaffected/disillusioned groups dragging their feet reluctantly to the voting booths…though I get the feeling Labours 'trump card*' is hoping that National stick with Bridges.
*Both a figurative and Literal pun at this time. And a strategy that didn't help the Democrats last election.
There is deep disillusionment out here in formerly Hopeful Land. The wounds from National's hard arsed years are still raw, and the Wellbeing Balm is not being spread evenly across all those who have done it tough for well over a decade.
Making the most vulnerable on benefits wait years for any appreciable relief is cruel and unforgivable and will hurt children and those who are unable to work through health and disability issues most.
On these pages there appears to be little appetite for supporting those calling for an increase in Pharmac's budget so New Zealanders are not looking enviously at their Aussie cousins while their lives slip way.
I read the comment then went to check an article in Ingenio which just arrived 'Fighting Cancer: Our Research Revolution'
It's mostly to do with immune therapy, and how they believe they may have cancer beat – eventually. Apparently our survival rate was 24% in 1972, and 57% today. Still not great but definitely better.
All this research they're doing is rather brilliant and so is the team. But at the end of the day it's still a pipeline to make new drugs that pharmaceutical companies get hold of. Then, all that taxpayer money and philanthropy given to them is converted to dollars for billionaires and screw you.
As I see it.
I only lasted a few months in medical (micro) biology as I realised they were after new drugs, and I was after eliminating the need for them.
The whole Big Pharma drug business model is self-perpetuating and monopolising in the sense that it is the only existing pipeline, i.e. they are the only game in town. Therefore, it is inevitable that sooner or later a new drug or treatment ends up with and in the hands of Big Pharma. They will recoup costs plus a healthy [pardon the pun] profit margin so that they keep their shareholders happy and can keep investing in the next blockbuster. They need to do this to stay in business or become the target of a hostile take-over or a ‘friendly’ merger or acquisition.
If this pattern can be broken, or bypassed rather, and I think it can, and much of the irrelevant ‘development costs’ be removed then overall costs will drop and more smaller (niche) players can enter the game.
Instead of bringing new drugs to market, it will be bringing new drugs to patients. A fundamental shift in thinking AKA a paradigm shift.
An example of a different model is the money the Government spends on combatting Kauri disease. It is not profit-driven but needs-driven. I’d like to to think that it can be done in other settings too!
In the meantime, it is the system we are stuck with..with Pharmac acting as gatekeeper.
While we await this fundamental paradigm shift what do we say (as taxpayers) to those who are having the funding cut for the drugs that work for their condition or cannot get funding for drugs that are working for others overseas with their condition?
It's a pleasure, marty. I love seeing these fools melt down in public. Sugar's simply a gross and disgusting creature—a repulsive mixture of two other elderly racists, Donald Trump and our own "Sir" Bob Jones—-and his performance was nothing more or less than you would expect.
Less edifying, of course, is to see Keith Olberman, who used to be a thoughtful and intelligent commentator, allow himself to degenerate into a deranged conspiracy theorist, barking madly about "Russian SCUM!!!!"…..
SkyCity convention centre faces further six-month delay…. the Auckland-based company told the Macquarie Investor Conference in Sydney today.
When Fletcher won the contract in October 2015, construction was predicted to start in late December that year and be finished in February 2019. However after *Fletcher ran into problems with cost blowouts, SkyCity said last year that the deadline had been pushed out to mid-2019.
SkyCity said today that its investment in the projects is expected to be in line with the original budget of about $703m, and it remains comfortable with the contractual arrangements. The construction contracts provide for liquidated damages, which should mitigate losses through delay, the company said….
The company said it has secured three major convention bookings since March, in addition to the six previously announced, and continues to work on numerous leads and opportunities. The 33,000sq m facility will be the largest purpose-built convention centre [Auckland NZ International Convention Centre] in the country.
*Remember that Fletcher shares are now owned by many overseas retirement trusts etc. So they have come to NZ grabbed all the contracts and spoiled the flow of our business to our companies, and then FU and don't keep to contract. Also Fletchers seem to be majorly building casinos, and convention centres round the country. So is that where the building resources and foreign investment (so good for NZ economy) is going?
"There is not doubt in my mind that local industry could deliver the required amount of steel and the required quality as well," said David Moore, Grayson Engineering chief executive. "We'd just like to say we're here, we're capable, we have the skill set."
While the steel companies accept international competition, they say it's ultimately workers here who are being let down.
The union Etu has slammed the steel contract decision.
"I think it's a national disgrace that we are not supporting our local manufacturers who employ local people on big local jobs," said Joe Gallagher of the union.
Our government also fails to recognise the assistance China gives her steel mills in financial terms as "subsidies", and so no tariffs or penalties are applied to imports.
Therefore any domestic steel manufacturers are often unable to compete or even match on product price.
Cinderella is sweet often but rather simple. She keeps hoping for a Prince with good heart and bags of money. Meantime she whiles away her days dreaming of pumpkins turning into carriages, but that only happens in fairy stories. That is about the summation of our intellectual expertise and likely outcome I fear.
Its good that the gun person face supprisson order been lifted people will see Hes a puppet .
scottmo is suppressing the media in Australia is it accommodation ?????????
Eco Maori says the Obamas keeping a public profile is awesome we need good people to show the Papatuanuku how good whanau behave there spotafi deal will help keep that Phenomenon going congratulations on the book.
Alcohol causes a lot of harm to our society it's the usual everything in moderation 2 to 3 in the evening not getting stuffed up by the stuff.
It's good that the teachers strike next week has been called off. Why get rid of Kiwibuild there are people under the bridge judy can't get that logic.
It cool that Aotearoa scientists are pioneering ruamoko earthquake monertying technology to save lives.
That's why he didn't sign the social media clauses set up in one way its good to see Rugby.
Tall people have a advantage in society us average height tangata are ok my sons give me stick because they are taller than me.
The weight problem is dietary we consume way too much sugar it should be only put in the petrol tanks when the price of carbon goes up it will force the price of sugar up and it will all be diverted to fuel hopefully.
Here you go Whanau this proves that the wealthy make OUR laws to suit their ideals .
I have heard a old saying you have to have poverty to keep the system going to keep wages low to keep the economy humming along YEA RIGHT what's wrong with everyone having enough money to have a happy healthy life now and in the future.
You see Whanau it's the 99.9 % tangata who make the system if we all champion equalty for all it will happen.
The Wealthy could gift half of their money to the poor and still have plenty to play with .
Inequality is unlikely to fall much in the future unless our attitudes turn unequivocally against it. Among other things, we will need to accept that how much people earn in the market is often not what they deserve, and that the tax they pay is not taking from what is rightfully theirs.
One crucial reason why we have done so little to reduce inequality in recent years is that we downplay the role of luck in achieving success. Parents teach their children that almost all goals are attainable if you try hard enough. This is a lie, but there is a good excuse for it: unless you try your best, many goals will definitely remain unreachable Inequality begets further inequality. As the top 1% grow richer, they have more incentive and more ability to enrich themselves further. They exert more and more influence on politics, from election-campaign funding to lobbying over particular rules and regulations. The result is a stream of policies that help them but are inefficient and wasteful. Leftwing critics have called it “socialism for the rich”. Even the billionaire investor Warren Buffett seems to agree: “There’s been class warfare going on for the last 20 years and my class has won,
It gives Eco Maori a sore face to see that our rangitahi are raising the awareness of climate changes being a huge threat to our future society's.
Public concern about the environment has soared to record levels in the UK since the visit of Greta Thunberg to parliament and the Extinction Rebellion protests in April.
The environment is now cited by people as the third most pressing issue facing the nation in tracking data from the polling company YouGov that began in 2010. Environment was ranked after Brexit and health, but is ahead of the economy, crime and immigration
The Whole Papatuanuku need to follow in the footsteps of these good intellectuals whom can see that recycling everything we can so as not to over exploit mother earth's capacity
The smell in Natural Weigh, a zero-waste shop that opened a year ago in Crickhowell in mid-Wales, is lovely. The shop – filled with pasta, grains, seeds and dried fruit served from hoppers to avoid plastic packaging; washing-up liquid and laundry products that customers pump into their battered old squeezy bottles; fair-trade coffee and chocolate, plus an array of environmentally friendly products, such as bamboo toothbrush holders, plastic-free dental floss and vegan leather snack pouches – looks lovely. The little town itself, which prides itself on having the best high street in Britain, is lovely, too. I am captivated ka kite ano link below.
Congratulations for your win Lisa I agree we can not let the disruptors win they use racial issues any issues to stirs up the people emotions and lie next minute when they are in power the people are let down because everything farge promises is just lies to pull in the votes .I think that there should be a huge fine for Bullshiting pollies who are caught losing.
Peterborough byelection result: Labour scrapes past Brexit party to hold seat
Labour’s Lisa Forbes says result shows ‘the politics of division will never win’
Labour has held on to the marginal seat of Peterborough, defeating predictions that the contest could deliver a first byelection victory to Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.
Addressing her supporters early on Friday following the count, Labour candidate Lisa Forbes said: “Tonight’s result is significant because it shows that the politics of division will never win
The tramper missing in the Tararua rangers hope he is found a live sounds like he is onto it fingers crossed.
It would be good to have cameras on all fishing boats to keep the fishermen honest and make them be extremely careful in areas where our endangered Maui dolphins resides.
A month rain in 24 hours the bad weather making havoc in America at the minute———–.
That is good luck the British motorbike rider who was impailed on a branch of the tree he crashed into on his bike.
The plastic fantastic roads being made using recycled plastic is awesome that is the correct attitude never giving in on your quest to recycle our waste . This is just the start in our recycle reuse SOCIETY.
Ka pai to te ao Maori news and Mr Black for championing the need for science room for the tamariki at that kurakopapa.
Mr Dews I agree we need to come up with new fishing techniques to stop the damage being dune to our endangered Maui dolphins.
Its is that Vanuatu got that hurricane last year it wreaked havoc on there coffee crop and plants 5 million from Aotearoa to help their Agricultural sector is very good.
It would be nice to see whare around all Marae I say we should structure mahi cottage industry around our Marae as well as houses we need to create our own mahi and money with the Marae mana the whanau won't let it fail.
Eco Maori is a fan of Ardijah and Pukuhohe Maori TV comedy series.
There are some farmers not being compliant on the environment laws for their property the few make the many look bad .
I agree we need to have more horticultural farming having policies and money to make that happen is cool
Its the old saying don't have to marry eggs in one basket we need to all Farm Organically also have to much exposure to China and dariy prices at the minute.
Alcohol needs to be restricted alcohol is a problem that has caused a lot of damage to tangata whenua Eco Maori say it's a gateway drug to harder DRUGS.
It should not be sold in food outlets supermarket keep the stuff out of sight of our Mokopuna.
I don't think that alcohol companies should be in school education tamariki about alcohol bad effects that's what the media job is .
Its hard for people with disabilities in our society's culture at the minute we need to value and respect our disadvantage tangata.
I agree the state making the disabled to keep producing duplicates of forms to apply for state funding when in most cases the person circumstance doesn't change how ridiculous.
Eco Maori thinks that junk food is definitely causing food allergies I think that is what was wrong with my mokopuna a last year all the chemicals that are put into that stuff is amazing that the food companies can get away with it commercialism 1
A ballooning diet of junk food might be one of the factors fuelling a rise in food allergies, researchers have suggested.
Experts say they have seen a rise in food allergies in western countries, including the UK. While true prevalence can be tricky to determine, data published by NHS Digital shows episodes of anaphylactic shock in England due to adverse food reactions rose steadily from 1,362 in 2011-12 to 1,922 in 2016-17.
The culprit, some scientists have suggested, could be substances known as advanced glycation endproducts, or AGEs.
AGEs occur naturally in the body, but they are found in high levels in highly processed foods, as well as other sources such as cooked meats. They form when sugars react with proteins or lipids. High levels of AGEs in the body, which it has been suggested can result from consuming AGE-rich foods, have previously been linked to a number of conditions including diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
Now a small study by researchers in Italy has shown that children with food allergies have higher levels of AGEs in their bodies than healthy children without allergies. Children with respiratory allergies showed no such differences. The team also found that children with higher levels of AGEs consumed more food containing such substances la kite ano link below.
“Canani said the team’s research using cells suggested AGEs might directly interact with with immune cells, and they also seemed to have a detrimental effect on the gut barrier.”
That (gut epithelial deterioration) aligns with other studies into various conditions associated with dietary problems including Coeliac’s and IBS.
The housing shortage is dire it's bad that those people in Edgecome liveing in a tent 2 working but there are no suitable houses thanks shonky.
I say its very cool the walking tracks being closed so they can be up graded with board walls to minimize the spread of the Kauri die back disease in Auckland.
That's awesome NASA selling fairs to the space station that we're we have to go in the future. Its cool world health is it or highlighting all the plastic waste being washed into Tangaroa and our Awa
The skilled teachers shortage is another symptom of the last ten years of a government that ran the country cut budgets for core government services and gave the wealthy tax cuts.
The extra work for the people of Kai kohi planting trees is cool mahi is great for the wairua.
The sky tower challenge its cool that the aim is to tau toko mental health
Good short film made about Wahine monthly periods and Kuia menopause being short listed for a award.
Congratulations and good luck with your new song and single Pere
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
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 Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tesch, Visiting Fellow at the ANU Centre for European Studies, Australian National University In perhaps the least surprising news of the year, Vladimir Putin has triumphed at the Russian ballot box and been enthroned for the fifth time as president. He ...
The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court has stopped a byelection for the Madang Open seat being held until an appeal filed by former MP Bryan Kramer is concluded. Kramer had appealed to the Supreme Court over a National Court decision not to review his application of the Leadership Tribunal decision ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Despite a “historic” ceasefire agreement in Papua New Guinea between Enga authorities and tribal leaders after months of bitter warfare, a young woman has been found brutally killed near Kaekin village, Wapenamanda. Despite the peace agreement and signing concluded in Port Moresby last Thursday ...
The second season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud is a sadder and slower entry into his canon of true story-telling, leaning heavily on a verdict about the cost of a single work of art. Hollywood heavyweight Ryan Murphy has had a bit of “ick” about him in the last few years. ...
Are you deeply passionate about sharing Māori stories? We’re on the hunt for an experienced writer/editor to lead coverage in our Ātea section.Ātea is a deeply valued section of The Spinoff site, offering Māori perspectives and insights across politics, current affairs and culture. We are thrilled to be looking ...
By Aisha Azeemah in Suva With the lights on one of his sneakers blinking as he ran through the gallery, a little boy looked up at several works of art. One of them was a sculpture of his grandfather: the man who changed how we see the Pacific — Epeli ...
WHAT: Uber drivers are holding a rally outside the Court of Appeal in Wellington tomorrow, as the company begins its appeal against 2022’s Employment Court verdict (in a case taken jointly by FIRST Union and E tū) that four drivers were permanent ...
The media are complicit in Assange's torture and incarceration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXzNj9CdjJI
Here is a very good piece on the subject of media accountability…
'Corporate Media Have Second Thoughts About Exiling Julian Assange From Journalism'
https://fair.org/home/corporate-media-have-second-thoughts-about-exiling-julian-assange-from-journalism/?awt_l=CnT3e&awt_m=hfxuQdFbXIR._TQ
It's getting worse for journalist's – the new Aussie govt is now in on the game of oppression.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-06/scott-morrison-questioned-on-press-freedom-after-afp-raids/11184058
I heard that the Oz police raid was done on their own bat. Thinking, police who answer to their own logic, to keep them free from government and political interference, isn't there a vacuum? One body full of self-righteousness and self-granted probity – isn't that like having another government body not answerable to the people. If it looks at a law and interprets it in an unintended way, is it then a rogue body within the polity?
Same with the Army. PM Helen Clark says publicly yes go to war but don't engage. just assist as back-up. And Army says Yeah right – a fibbing Tui moment.
And the police doing their own thing involving virtual manslaughter of naughty poor youngsters joyriding driving like they see on TV reality cop shows – excited and alarmed beyond brain control and killing themselves. Police fishing for drugs, raiding old women's homes to look for drugs which they might have to effectively kill themselves when needed. The drugs not for recreational use or to sell for mindless profit, but treated mindlessly the same by authority obeying a mindless government.
And behind this rather loose and murky entity is the overpowering large government that holds such firm reins on others theoretically sovereign nations that they can request our police to do their bidding. Wikileaks has exposed for real what has been whispered, and they hate the truth, they can't handle it. And everywhere it pops up through journalists releases, they will act and dispute, and delete and redact and punish.
Countries may not have control of their police because of some fine-thinking decree, but in the absence of over-arching local authority, another can step in as is apparently the case in Australia over Wikileaks publishing to the public's right to know.
I don't believe for a second the cops acted on their own initiative.
Yeah. Well that is something I think I heard. But things can change fast, so can apparent facts – just take out a letter and you get fats and fast. Minute difference and such a big effect. Probably got it wrong.
You heard that trusting statement from one Craig McMurtrie, who was interviewed this morning on RNZ National by Corin Dann. McMurtrie is the ABC's "editorial director", which means, of course, that he will have been heavily involved in shaping the ABC's demeaning, misleading, Government-friendly coverage of Assange's persecution over the last few years.
It will be interesting to see if the likes of McMurtrie have the integrity and the courage to defend the ABC's few decent journalists who are being targeted by the Government via its publicly funded goon squad.
McMurtrie and Dann this morning both used phrases like "chilling effect on journalism" and talked of the need to protect "whistle-blowers". McMurtrie several times expressed surprise that such state intimidation of journalists could occur "in a liberal democracy like Australia."
Not once did either McMurtrie or Dann mention the most famed Australian whistle-blower and journalist, Julian Assange.
Yes, that was a stunning exercise in wonderment. Assange has figuratively been slow-boiled alive since since 2010. Now those two goons have suddenly found that the pot they are in is starting to boil as well.
Between Trump's label of 'fake news' for any report he doesn't like, and the increasing state oppression of investigative journalists, whistle blowers, and leakers, it has never be more plain that certain actors are trying to shut the media down.
Of course, where the USA goes Australia follows and the article "Shooting the messengers" on the Inside Story blog outlines how far down the track that track the ALP has wandered over the ditch. That article, by the way, also seems to studiously avoid mention Assange.
That sounds as I would imagine. Watch and wait for the next exciting episode. Who needs fiction when you find so much interesting faction around. Nightly shows will be held with erudite, ironic and fluent thinkers where they guess the amount of truth in current news. Could be something like the one with Stephen Fry in UK.
Good for you gabster however what you believe has no relevance to the facts
Hasn't ever stopped you throwing your 'reckons' around like confetti wildebeest
confetti wildebeest – this blog is getting very colourful and ever more interesting to read, especially when it tells it like it is about b.w.l….d.
More Police Raids As War On Journalism Escalates Worldwide
June 05, 2019 "Information Clearing House" – The Australian Federal Police have conducted two raids on journalists and seized documents in purportedly unrelated incidents in the span of just two days.
Yesterday the AFP raided the home of News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst, seeking information related to her investigative report last year which exposed the fact that the Australian government has been discussing the possibility of giving itself unprecedented powers to spy on its own citizens. Today they raided the Sydney headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corp, seizing information related to a 2017 investigative report on possible war crimes committed by Australian forces in Afghanistan.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51724.htm
Police Raids in Australia as the War on Journalism escalates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oadQmNaBmKk
Video: “Plutocracy V: Subterranean Fire”.
Subterranean Fire documents historically how the capitalist class have nefariously accumulated wealth and power for selfish purposes by depriving working people of dignity and rights.
Subterranean Fire details at the outset how strike actions and popular revolts were put down by corporations through their cronies, including police, private detectives, vigilantes, and even the National Guard. In the Homestead strike of 1892, after workers had defeated the Pinkerton agency’s private army, the National Guard was brought out.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51722.htm
https://vimeo.com/334232406
Why they want to silence Assange permanently:
U.S. Congressman Admits His Marine Unit ‘Killed Probably Hundreds of Civilians’ in Iraq
June 05, 2019 "Information Clearing House" – Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) has come under fire after admitting during a podcast interview that his Marine Corps unit "killed probably hundreds of civilians" during the atrocity-laden First Battle of Fallujah in 2004.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51725.htm
Thanks John for yr efforts in regards the assault on journalism.
When will our Min of Education be honest regarding pay rates?
From June 2018 until June 2022 teachers pay increase 9.3%, inflation 8%, BUT it will not be until the 2021/2022 that teachers pay will be higher in real terms than it was in June 2018. And he thinks that is satisfactory for teacher pay to go backwards for all 3 years of this govts. term and that strike action is not warranted ?
Teachers should count themselves lucky. There are very large numbers of workers in this country who have had no meaningful wage rise in the past 10 years.
Kevin You represent backward-looking, yokel NZrs – making sure that the country never advances in any way by bringing up some negative statistic that undermines a case that somebody is making for improvements.
There is always somebody worse off than someone else near the bottom, but one advancing can result in others getting a trickle down effect. If wealthy there isn't the same, but teachers are not wealthy just rising a little in the pay scale to middle income and yet require great skills, and their work is getting more difficult. If you can't say anything helpful try not to say anything at all. I don't notice much from you except heaps of cold sludge.
Greysie shouldn't you now lecture yourself on insulting language in your selfcreated capacity of arbiter of appropriateness?
No. Thanks for doing so for me. What is your favoured term? Yokel, cold sludge? I thought they had a certain quaint ring.
Yesterday I was apparently displaying 'ageism' and 'ruralism'… methinks some doth protest too much.
A hick is a hick.
An old fart is an old fart.
A Yokel is a cross between a BDSM device and a painful Swiss singing style.
Cold sludge is a hospital meal, Tuesdays.
Good WtB. Very funny. I think Gabby was practising a delicate art of passing faux judgment to get a rise.
Such a basis for not supporting their claims, why should anyone get a pay rise. I think it is termed "Race to the Bottom"
I am one of those workers Kevin.
Because my wages have not had meaningful increases is no reason for denying the teacher's their claims.
(I'm not sure if there should be an apostrophe or certain where it should go. I know, not flash in a comment boosting teachers.)
Biased and Untrustworthy
According to "Who Funds Radio NZ"
"Radio New Zealand provides in depth, quality, impartial programmes that might otherwise not be available on commercial radio, or without public funding ."
What an untruth !
This is to say that Simon Bridges, The Head of the Undemocratic Wealthy Party in New Zealand gets to speak his incoherent nonsense on Radio New Zealand each week day. He has the run of the Studio. ! Bias upon Bias upon Bias.
He uses a segment called "Morning Report". Radio NZ's many reporters fawn over him – for they are members of his Undemocratic Wealthy Party in New Zealand.
They, the Reporters, have helped The Wealthy Party to bring about a horrendous attack on the normal citizens of New Zealand. Hundreds of Thousands of whom have no Housing, or who are paying rents to the amount of $500 weekly on very low wages.
Radio New Zealand is an Utter Scandal.
It is the plaything of very very Rich. It tramples over the poor day in day out.
We normal New Zealanders must take the Wealthy Undemocratic Party To the Highest Court in the Land.
With the Charge that they Have denied Food, to the Citizens of this Country; they Have denied Housing; They have charged outrageous Rents; they have paid very low wages. Let us take their Banks – to the same Courts.
Let us Get the Undemocratic filthy Wealthy National Mob – out of our Nation. ! Get Rid of Bias and inequality.
100% Tokoroa! You tell it as it is. 🙂
Thanks Johnm !
It is the way it is! It is so Cruel ! But Radio New Zealand keeps rubbing their wealthy noses into this Horrendous pain !
Agreed. I find it quite staggering how the Wealth Party ignores the plight of those less fortunate …
but, you know, self-justification is a sight to behold
Yes – Vto
They start by training their little girls in wealth. Then their little snobby Boys. Then they tell them not to mix with nasty poor children.
Then in a short time they don't even know how to spell Poverty. And they get taken away to get their Tits reshaped. Then Daddy has a chat with the Cops and his boy doesn't get shoved into prison – where he should be.
The Plod can't spell poverty.
You need to lay off the weed OT…lol
[Yes, that’s confusing. Can you please use a (slightly) different name (but not “James”)? Thanks – Incognito]
What? Another Jimmy!!!!!!
See my Moderation note @ 11:08 AM.
Well said OT. But it's not known as RNZ NATIONAL for nothing. Keep up the good work OT
NZTA's maps of their suggested "safe and appropriate speed" strongly suggests they have no fucking idea. Seriously, they suggest 100km/h as a safe and appropriate speeds for dangerous twisty high crash rate bits of road like the Desert Road from the Waihohonu Bridge through the Three Sisters through to the top of the long straight hill just south of Turangi, or SH1 beside Lake Taupo where there's the tight corners going around the bluffs, but suggest reducing parts of the Taupo bypass to 80km/h where it's limited access separate dual carriageways with median barriers.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12237693
Scroll down to the interactive map where it toggles between the posted speed limit and suggested safe and appropriate speed.
Lowering speed limits would be a hell of a good way to be a one term government IMHO
That map seems to bear no relation to reality whatsoever. Either that or they got it round the wrong way and the slider reveals the roads that aren't safe to drive at 100kph.
They're certainly correct that the risk of being killed in a crash would be much lower if people drove the highways at 60 – 70kph, but that's the same as it being correct that your risk of electrocution would be much lower if you turned off the mains switch in your house: it's true, but no-one in their right mind would do it.
I'm somewhat amused by their treatment of the Waterview Tunnels. When they were opened, there was a massive song and dance about why the speed limit through them had to be 80km/h, and there's speed cameras at the entrance and exit both directions. Yet their suggested "safe and appropriate speed" is 100.
But!… trip times… production… gdp….
Another reason why we need this rail injection. Less cars on road will mean less car crashes. And it doesn't have to spank the economy.
I hope this government gets nine years just so they can keep putting much-needed infrastructure spending into railways, but it's freight movements that will benefit. Passenger rail is never going to a popular means of inter-city travel as long as we have narrow-gauge rail, single-tracked. Fixing that will never be viable.
But you are allowed your e-bikes on trains for free. So you jump on the train and have personal transport at the other end. Personally, I love this concept.
It'll take some time for sure, we used to have an extensive rail network they were shutting lines down in the 70's and probably ever since.
It's what I was doing in the South Is in the 70's. Only my bike didn't have an 'e'. I have many fond memories of the NZR crews, more often than not they'd let me ride on top of the mail bags in the now vanished guard wagons for free. I think it was because I was too grubby to have anywhere near proper passengers!
And I'd get a cup of steaming hot tomato soup if I got dead lucky 🙂
+1 PM
We are repeating a similar gerfuffle to how it was when computers came in. Computers were known to be right so anything that came out of them must be genuflected to. Now it is alghorithms deciding and screening people from getting ACC treatment, and having to go at 80 on a perfect 120 km stretch of road because some bits of metal and wires in a container say so.
What about robot police eh. That'll be the next move, the police will enjoy running robots like Military Forces are sitting on swivel-chairs running armed forces doing maneouvres against real people and their homes.
This is serious, it is important that we don't all end up standing outside doors waiting for them to automatically open for us. And the frostbite when the electricity is down will be awful. The buzz before we collapse – if only our systems at home had informed us of this dangerous double tragedy, blizzards and non-opening doors. Oh what shall we do now, we can't phone home because the blizzards have knocked out the cellphones?
My birthday today. Fitting time to apologise to the people I've been aggressively arguing with over the past couple of days.
Tony, Peter, sorry. Gosman… lol.
And thank you to those commenters who talked me down rather than piled on.
Right or wrong I'm coming across angry a lot and it bothers me. It is amazing when mental health slips how emotions can take hold and your thinking ignores answers it has known for some time.
So I'm thinking I'm angry because x said this, and y thinks I'm that….
But anger is a secondary emotion. So what's going on?
I am profoundly sad. I am a clever bastard and I solve problems. With climate change I just feel utterly helpless and hopeless.
Acknowledging that I actually feel a bit better. Time for a birthday celebration of chest x rays and stool samples.
(oh yeah, health scare going on too).
Have a good day folks.
Be kind to yourself today mate – you have made it to here and that is a miracle in itself. Kia kaha
You sound like you are doing the best you can and you have good awareness of your emotional state – that is awesome.
Good on ya Bleeple, keep rolling… and don't worry I suffer the same at times, getting all pissed off and writing aggro things, the style of which is later regretted…
Life's a roller-coaster – you just gotta buckle up properly and hold on for the ride…
and Happy Birthday fulla
Have a happy birthday WTB!
Happy Birthday, WeTheBeeple. Being sad is ok – coming to terms with what is happening to our world is very hard, especially when it has to be acknowledged that we, as the 'little people' can't do much to change it. Be kind to yourself and try to find something to do on your special day that you enjoy in the midst of your medical dramas. Kia kaha
I wish you all the best WTB and know that you have the capacity for happiness despite it all
I've been wondering about ya, WTB. When someone's an exemplar, as you are in the realm of earth-care, it must be difficult to maintain high standards when venturing "off-site" into more mundane political fields where squabbling's the norm.
In any case, have a delightful birthday and regarding the stool sample; give 'em all you've got
With regards feeling sad; enjoy it while you can; sadness, especially when it's profound, is the gateway to Resolution and Growth. The alchemists said that deep darkness, charred and ruinous, is the prerequisite to the true growth that results in the state of whiteness and pure clarity; sounds like you're on your way
Happy birthday and all the very best WtB.
I know too, sometimes all the problems of the world just seem to press in and you feel like hitting out.
It's no help but I remember a saying told me by an old and experienced teacher:
"Remember, things are never that bad that they can't get worse!"
LOL – that was meant to make me feel better!
Wise words. When I look where I've been and where I am now I have much to be grateful for.
Thanks everyone I really appreciate the support. Got to venture off into this rainy day and I'm delaying, sitting here with the cat purring in my lap, all toasty and warm.
While I agree (Robert) that this process is part of healing/transformation, I do get overly frustrated with the three-steps forward, two-steps back pattern. But that's all typical human stuff?
As I get back on the road and my world broadens again the claustrophobic crowding of fears and anxiety will subside. Too much time in this chair.
Trying to work out a sustainable touring company. Tricky! Anyone got a spare 100K so I can get an EV with decent range.
It is my birthday after all
Trying to work out a sustainable touring company
Sorted.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/equestrian/other/listing-2170752041.htm?rsqid=dd27fa47cfbf45c6b006f77fb50617ce-002
I love it! I can't imagine getting other comics on e-bikes.
Better dash, bus it is a coming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzL7G0jItzU
Nissan Leaf currently has a 40Kw van model that will do 250-300 km depending on terrain. My partner's work vehicle is the older 24Kw that does around 112-130km and is upgrading soon.
There is a 7 seater on TradeMe for $37,850 but I suspect it is the low range version. My partner's boss is importing his directly from the UK. Sorry, can’t offer anything more substantive, especially since it is your birthday.
I appreciate the feedback! I got lucky. Last week(s) I took friends out to see comedy and a friend of a friend came too (new friend). So, ever the great host I filled him up with Jamiesons and introduced him to several 'stars'. Turns out his job is the importation and selling of EV's and he thinks I'm the bees knees.
My mate mentioned my situation and I just heard he might be keen on a sponsorship deal – which would work out great for him as I'd talk up the EV in every town.
We shall see, what a great twist of fate that that is who he was.
Always pays to be nice, I find it much easier in theory…
Great! Hope to see you (and an EV) in a town near me…
As I get back on the road and my world broadens again the claustrophobic crowding of fears and anxiety will subside.
This is absolutely true. Overthinking is a killer. I found this speaks to the problem directly:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/112265699/bad-memories-and-cringeworthy-mistakes-fester-for-insomniacs
By temperament I have the same challenge. When I was younger I confronted it tramping, climbing and generally getting off my arse and doing things that provoked anxiety but in a controlled fashion. That was transformational, I went from being a useless 14 yr old to a functioning adult at 24 yrs. Took a while but it worked.
Next big mistake was not being responsible for my own naivety and stupid mistakes. You WILL get fucked around with and people WILL do things that are unfair and malicious; I spent far too much of my life expecting them to be better and the world to be a fairer place, when the problem was my own weakness.
The next piece of the puzzle is one crucial word … competence. Don't mistake this for being smart. People like you and me have relied on our IQ to get us through life, but by itself this is never sufficient. It leaves us feeling like we never quite fulfilled our potential. Or to put it bluntly … the world is full of smart people who're losers.
Smart is a trap, it fills the mind with useless chatter, it paralyses action and it means we never reach the point where we become truly, innately competent. IQ is merely a constraining factor in success, not the root cause of it. Competence is knowledge turned into skill, they're related but not the same thing. Worst of all the mere knowledge of this is useless to you. Without volition, without purpose and will, it fails to become action. This is the secret to never giving up, it rewires the brain, it reveals the unsuspected folded within you. In this you have to be really tough on yourself.
And Happy Birthday mate …
Profound.
Happy birthday.
Best wishes for today, WTB.
I empathise with the angst, but remind myself that after all those tests and x-rays, amongst all the chaff, you seem to be surrounded by good people and green and growing things. I'll try and do the same.
Your posts often elevate and inform, and your propensity to being just human after all, is reassuring for me at least.
We the Bleeple….Happy birthday! We are birthday twins. So hope you have a great day too!
I was really moved by what you wrote a few days back about your life. I was unab to comment at the time due to technical problems that sometimes happen for me on this site.
Anyway Happy Birthday WTB
WtB Hope your birthday turns out nice. And remember there are 364 unbirthdays out there when good things and good wishes can turn up – nice surprises can abound not recognisably wrapped with bows on. Quote for the day: Life is a see-saw – up push, down fall, ready for the next day of …action, reflection, disappointment, recovery, completion, wonder, laughter, meeting of minds sweet, hopeful and ironic.
Happy Birthday Ankerrawshark, and many more.
Thanks Patricia, my Standard friend!
Happy birthday!
I got this mean ass bath bomb, and some nice sativa weed, and then I'll boost some blues through the amp, snacks, candles…
Happy Birthday to me too!
A little blues, and I mean blues with a capital B, for your birthday, WTB.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjLSf8y94fU
This one gets me through. No matter how bad and sad I might feel, this guy has it more………..
"Drak is the Night and Cold is the Ground" -Blind Willie Johnson.
Mmm, mmm, well well aaah aaah well well mmm mmm we-e-ell
Yay more blues. Check bottom of thread Bonamassa's coming over in September. (Christchurch only).
Thanks. I'm gonna turn this up LOUD so the neighbors can enjoy it too.
Thanks We the Bleeple…Glad you got some nice stuff and love the idea of blasting some blues through the amp!!!!
Many happy returns (wishes, not unwanted prezzies).
As for sadness, I have found whenever I am aware of that emotion, allowing the mind to come to rest helps.
A simple breathing exercise may help.
That will colour your world. We are in the middle of biopsies and waiting with our son.
It tends to make one impatient with niggles and perceived moaners.
So, MANY HAPPY RETURNS WTB Cheers.
Happy Birthday WeTheBleeple! Sincerely!
I guess I am one of the people who argued with you over the last few days, but nothing personal. We all have different viewpoints but I am sure we all want the best result. And a little robust and challenging discussion can help us all in the end.
Have a great day and best of wishes for a positive outcome all round and for the year ahead!
Happy happy birthday.
Don't forget you said yourself a day or so ago (I think it was you) that after some days of feeling bad you have days of feeling fine and dandy. I know when feeling bad I think I will never not feel bad. But it's not true. Brains can be such dicks some times.
A shrink I know says to remind oneself to tell the brain some thoughts are simply not helpful.
" I know when feeling bad I think I will never not feel bad."
Yep you definitely understand. I appreciate the kind thoughts.
Happy birthday.
Are you coming across angry, or are you actually angry? Reading other people's comments is all about projection. If someone habitually uses the F word like punctuation rather than any real invective, others can infer anger when it was just a simple sentence 😉
Happy birthday to WTB on behalf of all rwnj👍
WTB (5) … I sincerely hope you had a wonderful day and may you celebrate many more 🙂
Take good care.
Hi – WeThePeeble (nifty tag!)
You know, a lot of us are wishing you well!
I don't how to do that, but I sure endorse it.
The thing I worked out – some time back – is that each of us is unique. Which is a helluva beaut thing! We are not a clone. We do things our way WTP. Which is what Nature wants. Variety; penetration, Wonder. Our way is best. Hang on to that. Good man.
By the way – you are next shout !
Thanks again everyone. Today I went to the wrong Hospital. Senility creeping in.
The editing software here is a nightmare to drop poetry into. It's godawful. Perhaps a selling point…
Five O + GST
The hairdresser couldn't make me any younger but she banished the neck fluff and beat the brows back into submission
Trimmed now I haul my aging frame out to a bench and strike conversation with Stan the homeless man
An amputee pigeon hobbles across the walkway in front of Prada "Kinda poetic" I point 'Meryl Steep wears that shit' says Stan "You mean the Devil?" We laugh "If the Devil turns up for a dress I'm'a kick him in the nuts" I say We laugh some more
I shake hands with Stan dropping a tenner in his palm then I walk the road
Twenty, forty, fifty dollars Smiling gap toothed faces
I've cheered myself up but I go all out Off to Lush for a perfumed bath bomb To Farmers for some pure wool socks and finally
A mince and cheese pie
Life is good.
(that was me attempting to get a format without large gaps in each line. Not worth the bother aye).
No, nay, never, No never no more, Will I play the wild rover, No, never, no more. Just keep on presenting poetry just like the above, or how it turns out WtB. You are wild and free, and great. Loved it all. Mince and cheese yeah. Who could ask for more.
Hi WTB. Have you ever had a look at Old Norse poetry. It's difficult because they used a circumlocutory device called kenning which takes some getting used to, but it can be very powerful. My favourite is one by Egil Skalla-Grimmsson called Sonnatorrek (loss of sons) It's a thousand years old. Probably not your thing but here it is: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/sonatorrek-loss-sons.html
I like it. It could almost have been written by some Celt today. Long, but.. no telly then.
By the format required, some of this (Skald work) might be considered 'viking doggerel' where the form relays events of the day.
Th English Dept at Uni did my head in they spent so much time discussing things that were not there and fawning over Jane Austen, no conjoint for me… Science all the way 😀
6th June.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDeY-zjkz8M
Thanks joe90.
Resonant alright. Reminds me of Mark Knofler's style, but earthier and more folk oriented.
Touch of The Pogues going on as well. But yeah, I thought it was Knopfler singing at first.
Had to check in case he'd formed a new band.
No. The band is called Police Dog Hogan.
https://policedoghogan.com/
Only the best people.
https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1135733732546097153
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/george-nader-arrested-child-pornography-charges-190604094946644.html
man that kushner is one strange dude – let's just say he doesn't photograph well imo – bit saurianish
I'm getting to feel very sorry for Mr Makhlouf – National have managed to screw him up. I hope not over. Vicious little buggers in National. I am told that 2,000 hits does not meet the usual status of denial-of-service. But it is certainly way out from normal. Who actually explained the case to him? Have Treasury been hoist on their own petard in looking for well-priced contracts for maintaining their IT needs, and got what they paid for?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/391303/power-play-makhlouf-s-future-in-question-as-ireland-piles-in
The sorry saga of hack-gate began about 6pm last Monday when a National Party staffer discovered parts of the government's Budget had been uploaded to the Treasury website.By 10am on Tuesday the Opposition had started drip-feeding details of the Wellbeing Budget – due to be released by the Finance Minister Grant Robertson on Thursday – to the media.,,, The National Party has for a week been calling for both Mr Makhlouf's and Mr Robertson's heads and has also demanded Mr Makhlouf at the least be stood down while the investigation is carried out.
How he's not been put on leave yet is quite baffling.
(I find it baffling how the local media can make judgments about someone being 'put on leave' over making a mistake like this very puzzling. A political journalist on a public body as Radionz calling for something that would have a destabilising effect of the government, unreasonably enhancing the minor mistake to a large misdemeanour is unsatisfactory.
Also Radionz have a number of times referred to the event as arising from simple searching. This also shows incorrect reporting. 2000 hits is not simple searching. It was using a public search option to a degree that normal public would be unaware of; a back-door way to manipulate the option to draw out more information than was intended to be available. It was a fault in the program and either known or found by manipulation then used to the full by working overtime to get the 2,000 hits.)
It would have been a long weary task but a sneaky and malign Opposition found it valuable and to its taste.
Scoop's take on it:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1906/S00009/lyndon-hood-better-analogies-for-national-pilfering-budget-data.htm
A denial of service attack just shuts websites down, it doesn't extract data.
The problem was with the search engine and the little samples of documents you get in the search results: you see a bit in front and a bit behind the search terms. So if you then search for those bits behind the original search, you can find the bits that come after them, and piece the whole document together that way. Those were the 2000 hits.
Debating whether that's a "hack" (conjuring images of spotty teens keyboard-mashing in basements to cool industrial soundtracks) is a distraction from the absolute fact that the people who extracted that data knew they should not be authorised to access the contents of budget documents in that way, yet still did so.
That's why the nats are pushing so hard on Makhlouf. Distract people from realising that what they did was illegal, and therefore that a police referral was appropriate.
To my mind it was a 'hack' alright. That is was a very easy hack technically is irrelevant. ALL hacks exploit some form of public domain vulnerability in a manner the owner of the site does not intend.
is a distraction from the absolute fact that the people who extracted that data knew they should not be authorised to access the contents of budget documents in that way, yet still did so
That is the critical and obvious point that most of the media seem determined to ignore. Totally agree with you on this one 🙂
You are obviously not well versed in IT based on your comments above. 2000 hits on the public search feature of an organisation in the time specified is not a lot at all.
From three different computers, often referring to the outputs of previous searches from those machines? When was the last time you searched a government site in that manner?
That's systemic, and intentional, and suspicious.
Yeah he knows, just parroting the same point over and over, but 2000 searches from 2-3 machines is a bit different than 2000 searches from 2000 machines, mmk?
Far more important is the discrepancy between the treasury forecast model of tax receipts being out by 2.3 billion.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113285880/new-accounts-show-surplus-could-be-billions-larger-than-expected-in-budget
It doesn't matter if it was 2 hits or 20 billion, whoever was doing this knew damn well they were not allowed to access the Budget documents before it was released.
From that linked Stuff article:
… a National Party staffer discovered parts of the government's Budget had been uploaded to the Treasury website.
For fuck's sake, parts of the budget were not uploaded to the Treasury's web site, and that has been explained multiple times in various forums by people who know what they're talking about. Journalists should know better by now. The budget documents were indexed by the web site's search engine, which is not the same thing at all.
The mistake was somebody missing a config change they needed to make to a search engine. How that gets parlayed into something Gabriel Makhlouf and Grant Robertson should resign or be stood down for is beyond me. I notice Simon Bridges hasn't offered to resign for carrying out a data breach on a government agency, which sounds much more like a resignation offence to me.
"Broken promises" and "lies" are the words Ms Johnstone uses to describe her disappointment with the Labour government she's previously campaigned for after it failed to meaningfully boost funding to Pharmac in its latest budget.
"I was devastated," said Ms Johnstone, whose eight-year-old daughter Lucy featured on a Labour campaign advertisement during the last elections.
"David Clarke and Jacinda Ardern had all said they were going to improve cancer care and we believed it."
"I'd had friends who had never voted before who said, 'that's it, I'm enrolling and I'm going to vote' and who messaged me on the day 'I went and voted for you Claudine, I want to give you a chance.' So I feel like I've lied to them too, I've let them down."
Pharmac received just a $10 million increase in annual income over the next four years in the Wellbeing budget but that only results in a 1 percent lift.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/first-up/audio/2018698319/broken-promises-and-lies-people-like-me-don-t-matter-nz-breast-cancer-sufferer
It's too late now, these Kiwis have flown….but what about other voters who were foolish enough to believe the spin?
Those who were lied to by the current government will not necessarily vote National…they just won’t vote at all.
"Those who were lied to by the current government will not necessarily vote National…they just won’t vote at all"
..indeed, it will be interesting to see turn out next election. Certainly I can see, at best, large disaffected/disillusioned groups dragging their feet reluctantly to the voting booths…though I get the feeling Labours 'trump card*' is hoping that National stick with Bridges.
*Both a figurative and Literal pun at this time. And a strategy that didn't help the Democrats last election.
There is deep disillusionment out here in formerly Hopeful Land. The wounds from National's hard arsed years are still raw, and the Wellbeing Balm is not being spread evenly across all those who have done it tough for well over a decade.
Making the most vulnerable on benefits wait years for any appreciable relief is cruel and unforgivable and will hurt children and those who are unable to work through health and disability issues most.
On these pages there appears to be little appetite for supporting those calling for an increase in Pharmac's budget so New Zealanders are not looking enviously at their Aussie cousins while their lives slip way.
I read the comment then went to check an article in Ingenio which just arrived 'Fighting Cancer: Our Research Revolution'
It's mostly to do with immune therapy, and how they believe they may have cancer beat – eventually. Apparently our survival rate was 24% in 1972, and 57% today. Still not great but definitely better.
All this research they're doing is rather brilliant and so is the team. But at the end of the day it's still a pipeline to make new drugs that pharmaceutical companies get hold of. Then, all that taxpayer money and philanthropy given to them is converted to dollars for billionaires and screw you.
As I see it.
I only lasted a few months in medical (micro) biology as I realised they were after new drugs, and I was after eliminating the need for them.
The whole Big Pharma drug business model is self-perpetuating and monopolising in the sense that it is the only existing pipeline, i.e. they are the only game in town. Therefore, it is inevitable that sooner or later a new drug or treatment ends up with and in the hands of Big Pharma. They will recoup costs plus a healthy [pardon the pun] profit margin so that they keep their shareholders happy and can keep investing in the next blockbuster. They need to do this to stay in business or become the target of a hostile take-over or a ‘friendly’ merger or acquisition.
If this pattern can be broken, or bypassed rather, and I think it can, and much of the irrelevant ‘development costs’ be removed then overall costs will drop and more smaller (niche) players can enter the game.
Instead of bringing new drugs to market, it will be bringing new drugs to patients. A fundamental shift in thinking AKA a paradigm shift.
An example of a different model is the money the Government spends on combatting Kauri disease. It is not profit-driven but needs-driven. I’d like to to think that it can be done in other settings too!
I agree entirely Incognito.
In the meantime, it is the system we are stuck with..with Pharmac acting as gatekeeper.
While we await this fundamental paradigm shift what do we say (as taxpayers) to those who are having the funding cut for the drugs that work for their condition or cannot get funding for drugs that are working for others overseas with their condition?
Oh that's right….die or fuck off.
Thanks lprent
Note everyone Daily Review at No.15. Things looking up on the search side.
Yeah!! Joe Bonamassa's coming to town. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiMqvPYPvQ0
Details!
https://premier.ticketek.co.nz/Shows/Show.aspx?sh=JOEBONA19
Be wary of crooked ticket agents they're all over this already. Ticketeks allright, but they take too much cut off my shows 😀 They do a good job but.
Christchurch only, Wednesday 25th September.
Oh, and I got to add one of his latest songs it is hair stand on end awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDe-dI3c5d0
"Shut your mouf! Why don't you shut your mouf!?" —- Sad old git "Lord" Sugar doesn't like being confronted with his racist comments.
Piers Moron and that hideous, hectoring woman next to him are almost as nasty and ignorant as “Lord” Sugar….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M04Cqc7MTc
Bloody hell bettered by piers? ffs – great to watch though ta – sugar was classic
It's a pleasure, marty. I love seeing these fools melt down in public. Sugar's simply a gross and disgusting creature—a repulsive mixture of two other elderly racists, Donald Trump and our own "Sir" Bob Jones—-and his performance was nothing more or less than you would expect.
Less edifying, of course, is to see Keith Olberman, who used to be a thoughtful and intelligent commentator, allow himself to degenerate into a deranged conspiracy theorist, barking madly about "Russian SCUM!!!!"…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrKKPGhh-ZU&t=2s
How efficient NZ business is effective on the ground?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12042757 1 May, 2018 10:30am
SkyCity convention centre faces further six-month delay…. the Auckland-based company told the Macquarie Investor Conference in Sydney today.
When Fletcher won the contract in October 2015, construction was predicted to start in late December that year and be finished in February 2019. However after *Fletcher ran into problems with cost blowouts, SkyCity said last year that the deadline had been pushed out to mid-2019.
SkyCity said today that its investment in the projects is expected to be in line with the original budget of about $703m, and it remains comfortable with the contractual arrangements. The construction contracts provide for liquidated damages, which should mitigate losses through delay, the company said….
The company said it has secured three major convention bookings since March, in addition to the six previously announced, and continues to work on numerous leads and opportunities. The 33,000sq m facility will be the largest purpose-built convention centre [Auckland NZ International Convention Centre] in the country.
*Remember that Fletcher shares are now owned by many overseas retirement trusts etc. So they have come to NZ grabbed all the contracts and spoiled the flow of our business to our companies, and then FU and don't keep to contract. Also Fletchers seem to be majorly building casinos, and convention centres round the country. So is that where the building resources and foreign investment (so good for NZ economy) is going?
from June 8, 2016 https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/job-losses-feared-auckland-convention-centre-steel-contract-goes-offshoreJob losses feared as Auckland convention centre steel contract goes offshore
"There is not doubt in my mind that local industry could deliver the required amount of steel and the required quality as well," said David Moore, Grayson Engineering chief executive. "We'd just like to say we're here, we're capable, we have the skill set."
While the steel companies accept international competition, they say it's ultimately workers here who are being let down.
The union Etu has slammed the steel contract decision.
"I think it's a national disgrace that we are not supporting our local manufacturers who employ local people on big local jobs," said Joe Gallagher of the union.
Our government also fails to recognise the assistance China gives her steel mills in financial terms as "subsidies", and so no tariffs or penalties are applied to imports.
Therefore any domestic steel manufacturers are often unable to compete or even match on product price.
Cinderella is sweet often but rather simple. She keeps hoping for a Prince with good heart and bags of money. Meantime she whiles away her days dreaming of pumpkins turning into carriages, but that only happens in fairy stories. That is about the summation of our intellectual expertise and likely outcome I fear.
Kia ora The Am Show.
Its good that the gun person face supprisson order been lifted people will see Hes a puppet .
scottmo is suppressing the media in Australia is it accommodation ?????????
Eco Maori says the Obamas keeping a public profile is awesome we need good people to show the Papatuanuku how good whanau behave there spotafi deal will help keep that Phenomenon going congratulations on the book.
Alcohol causes a lot of harm to our society it's the usual everything in moderation 2 to 3 in the evening not getting stuffed up by the stuff.
It's good that the teachers strike next week has been called off. Why get rid of Kiwibuild there are people under the bridge judy can't get that logic.
It cool that Aotearoa scientists are pioneering ruamoko earthquake monertying technology to save lives.
That's why he didn't sign the social media clauses set up in one way its good to see Rugby.
Tall people have a advantage in society us average height tangata are ok my sons give me stick because they are taller than me.
The weight problem is dietary we consume way too much sugar it should be only put in the petrol tanks when the price of carbon goes up it will force the price of sugar up and it will all be diverted to fuel hopefully.
Ka kite ano P.S nice photo shoot Amanda
Here you go Whanau this proves that the wealthy make OUR laws to suit their ideals .
I have heard a old saying you have to have poverty to keep the system going to keep wages low to keep the economy humming along YEA RIGHT what's wrong with everyone having enough money to have a happy healthy life now and in the future.
You see Whanau it's the 99.9 % tangata who make the system if we all champion equalty for all it will happen.
The Wealthy could gift half of their money to the poor and still have plenty to play with .
Inequality is unlikely to fall much in the future unless our attitudes turn unequivocally against it. Among other things, we will need to accept that how much people earn in the market is often not what they deserve, and that the tax they pay is not taking from what is rightfully theirs.
One crucial reason why we have done so little to reduce inequality in recent years is that we downplay the role of luck in achieving success. Parents teach their children that almost all goals are attainable if you try hard enough. This is a lie, but there is a good excuse for it: unless you try your best, many goals will definitely remain unreachable Inequality begets further inequality. As the top 1% grow richer, they have more incentive and more ability to enrich themselves further. They exert more and more influence on politics, from election-campaign funding to lobbying over particular rules and regulations. The result is a stream of policies that help them but are inefficient and wasteful. Leftwing critics have called it “socialism for the rich”. Even the billionaire investor Warren Buffett seems to agree: “There’s been class warfare going on for the last 20 years and my class has won,
Ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2019/jun/06/socialism-for-the-rich-the-evils-of-bad-economics
It gives Eco Maori a sore face to see that our rangitahi are raising the awareness of climate changes being a huge threat to our future society's.
Public concern about the environment has soared to record levels in the UK since the visit of Greta Thunberg to parliament and the Extinction Rebellion protests in April.
The environment is now cited by people as the third most pressing issue facing the nation in tracking data from the polling company YouGov that began in 2010. Environment was ranked after Brexit and health, but is ahead of the economy, crime and immigration
Ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/05/greta-thunberg-effect-public-concern-over-environment-reaches-record-high
The Whole Papatuanuku need to follow in the footsteps of these good intellectuals whom can see that recycling everything we can so as not to over exploit mother earth's capacity
The smell in Natural Weigh, a zero-waste shop that opened a year ago in Crickhowell in mid-Wales, is lovely. The shop – filled with pasta, grains, seeds and dried fruit served from hoppers to avoid plastic packaging; washing-up liquid and laundry products that customers pump into their battered old squeezy bottles; fair-trade coffee and chocolate, plus an array of environmentally friendly products, such as bamboo toothbrush holders, plastic-free dental floss and vegan leather snack pouches – looks lovely. The little town itself, which prides itself on having the best high street in Britain, is lovely, too. I am captivated ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/21/the-zero-waste-revolution-how-a-new-wave-of-shops-could-end-excess-packaging
Congratulations for your win Lisa I agree we can not let the disruptors win they use racial issues any issues to stirs up the people emotions and lie next minute when they are in power the people are let down because everything farge promises is just lies to pull in the votes .I think that there should be a huge fine for Bullshiting pollies who are caught losing.
Peterborough byelection result: Labour scrapes past Brexit party to hold seat
Labour’s Lisa Forbes says result shows ‘the politics of division will never win’
Labour has held on to the marginal seat of Peterborough, defeating predictions that the contest could deliver a first byelection victory to Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.
Addressing her supporters early on Friday following the count, Labour candidate Lisa Forbes said: “Tonight’s result is significant because it shows that the politics of division will never win
Ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/07/peterborough-byelection-result-labour-sees-off-brexit-party-threat-to-hold-seat
Kia ora Newshub.
The tramper missing in the Tararua rangers hope he is found a live sounds like he is onto it fingers crossed.
It would be good to have cameras on all fishing boats to keep the fishermen honest and make them be extremely careful in areas where our endangered Maui dolphins resides.
A month rain in 24 hours the bad weather making havoc in America at the minute———–.
That is good luck the British motorbike rider who was impailed on a branch of the tree he crashed into on his bike.
The plastic fantastic roads being made using recycled plastic is awesome that is the correct attitude never giving in on your quest to recycle our waste . This is just the start in our recycle reuse SOCIETY.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori news.
Ka pai to te ao Maori news and Mr Black for championing the need for science room for the tamariki at that kurakopapa.
Mr Dews I agree we need to come up with new fishing techniques to stop the damage being dune to our endangered Maui dolphins.
Its is that Vanuatu got that hurricane last year it wreaked havoc on there coffee crop and plants 5 million from Aotearoa to help their Agricultural sector is very good.
It would be nice to see whare around all Marae I say we should structure mahi cottage industry around our Marae as well as houses we need to create our own mahi and money with the Marae mana the whanau won't let it fail.
Eco Maori is a fan of Ardijah and Pukuhohe Maori TV comedy series.
Ka kite ano P.S thanks
Kia ora Newshub Nation.
There are some farmers not being compliant on the environment laws for their property the few make the many look bad .
I agree we need to have more horticultural farming having policies and money to make that happen is cool
Its the old saying don't have to marry eggs in one basket we need to all Farm Organically also have to much exposure to China and dariy prices at the minute.
Alcohol needs to be restricted alcohol is a problem that has caused a lot of damage to tangata whenua Eco Maori say it's a gateway drug to harder DRUGS.
It should not be sold in food outlets supermarket keep the stuff out of sight of our Mokopuna.
I don't think that alcohol companies should be in school education tamariki about alcohol bad effects that's what the media job is .
Its hard for people with disabilities in our society's culture at the minute we need to value and respect our disadvantage tangata.
I agree the state making the disabled to keep producing duplicates of forms to apply for state funding when in most cases the person circumstance doesn't change how ridiculous.
Ka kite ana
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/gOsM-DYAEhY
Eco Maori thinks that junk food is definitely causing food allergies I think that is what was wrong with my mokopuna a last year all the chemicals that are put into that stuff is amazing that the food companies can get away with it commercialism 1
A ballooning diet of junk food might be one of the factors fuelling a rise in food allergies, researchers have suggested.
Experts say they have seen a rise in food allergies in western countries, including the UK. While true prevalence can be tricky to determine, data published by NHS Digital shows episodes of anaphylactic shock in England due to adverse food reactions rose steadily from 1,362 in 2011-12 to 1,922 in 2016-17.
The culprit, some scientists have suggested, could be substances known as advanced glycation endproducts, or AGEs.
AGEs occur naturally in the body, but they are found in high levels in highly processed foods, as well as other sources such as cooked meats. They form when sugars react with proteins or lipids. High levels of AGEs in the body, which it has been suggested can result from consuming AGE-rich foods, have previously been linked to a number of conditions including diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
Now a small study by researchers in Italy has shown that children with food allergies have higher levels of AGEs in their bodies than healthy children without allergies. Children with respiratory allergies showed no such differences. The team also found that children with higher levels of AGEs consumed more food containing such substances la kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/08/junk-food-rise-food-allergies-children
Outstanding effort Eco maori, thank you.
From the food study
“Canani said the team’s research using cells suggested AGEs might directly interact with with immune cells, and they also seemed to have a detrimental effect on the gut barrier.”
That (gut epithelial deterioration) aligns with other studies into various conditions associated with dietary problems including Coeliac’s and IBS.
Kia ora Newshub.
I decided to stay out of the Crusaders debate.
The housing shortage is dire it's bad that those people in Edgecome liveing in a tent 2 working but there are no suitable houses thanks shonky.
I say its very cool the walking tracks being closed so they can be up graded with board walls to minimize the spread of the Kauri die back disease in Auckland.
That's awesome NASA selling fairs to the space station that we're we have to go in the future. Its cool world health is it or highlighting all the plastic waste being washed into Tangaroa and our Awa
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori news.
The skilled teachers shortage is another symptom of the last ten years of a government that ran the country cut budgets for core government services and gave the wealthy tax cuts.
The extra work for the people of Kai kohi planting trees is cool mahi is great for the wairua.
The sky tower challenge its cool that the aim is to tau toko mental health
Good short film made about Wahine monthly periods and Kuia menopause being short listed for a award.
Congratulations and good luck with your new song and single Pere
Ka kite ano