Let me be the first to say 'this is completely bonkers'.
Transport Minister Michael Wood yesterday confirmed the government wants to build a new separate bridge – at an estimated cost of $785 million – alongside the Auckland Harbour Bridge, specifically for walkers, runners and cyclists.
It wasn't a viable form of commuting either along SH16 until they built a dedicated cycle way there. 2 years and tens of thousands of people a day later …
Same for Tamaki Drive-Quay Street.
When they build it, they will come.
And they get yo work same time or faster than a car.
So where is any evidence to support your claim that this crossing will have any major daily usage ? Take a look at the population close proximity to the bridge and what destinations there are that warrant the pop. to cross to the other side. For a start there is no demand to cross over for schooling.
We hear when it suits the govt on evidence basis decisions, I haven’t seen any compelling evidence by the supporters put forward, just a nice to have and spend what will be close to a $Billion, and we are told commencing construction “hopefully mid 2022.
there is not. but the good people of herne bay and ponsnobby might actually consider voting for a different party next time, say the greens or say some other party. And than labour might actually have to go into a coalition with all the other parties. Its future planning at its finest – for labour. After all these guys need jobs.
Never mind the broken bridge in Ashburton, which is costed at 30 mil give or take a few and which NEEDS to be rebuild. Heck, they could just build a new bridge and leave the old for pedestrians and cyclists for peanuts all things considered.
Thanks , my Excel license no longer works on this desktop, so Ive just put in Google sheets to do so.
The answer is 500 or so for weeks days . The highest 1031 was a easter holiday .
Id happily replace the cycle way with a LR line and then we could say 10s thousands per day'
Why replace, why not have both? What is it with this either-or reasoning? Money? Space? Or just good-old binary thinking that seems to be a hallmark of neo-liberalism, i.e. my gain is your loss.
As we transit to a green economy I would like our public spending to be of the highest quality. I don't see that this government even has an operating framework that it runs these decisions through to give some order of priority. And frankly I don't see this spend which covers largely high income areas of Auckland passing any sort of evidence based tests. Would it be better spent on solar subsidies or insulation in poorer areas.
If I had been sayiing it for days now, that really would make me the first. to say the $785 million pedestrian/cycle bridge was bonkers.
I had started off talking about the bikeway proposal, not the new bridge proposal. And that a fare free bus lane would be far better way than a bike lane in getting thousands of drivers out their cars, better for the climate, better for the environment.
Then the government's new bridge proposal broke,
I had been expecting to see a post on it.
Not seeing one I did my own.
Yes I think a $785 million biking, walking, skate boarding bridge crossing the Waitemata preposterous, ridiculous and quite frankly 'bonkers'.
Maybe when the shock has worn off, anyone who thinks this a good idea, could do a post on it?
With commenters such as you writing another post on this topic is like opening a hornets’ nest. Why don’t you write a Guest Post if you feel so strongly about it instead of thrashing posts and comments by others?
I’m starting to think that English is not your first language, as you seem not to understand the difference between ask, suggest, and demand, for example.
I can’t and won’t ‘thrash’ your submission for a Guest Post for two reasons:
It would be rude and disrespectful to a Guest Author;
I don’t receive anything sent to TS, as it is above my pay-grade, and thus I don’t get to handle your submission.
Good on you for putting your money where your mouth is and I look forward to the final version appearing here on TS in due course, which will hopefully stimulate robust but constructive debate.
Naa thrash it all you like, don't pull your punches I need to see any weaknesses in the argument I put up.
Here's a taster…..
…..A fare free busway with an option for bicycle stowage is a cheaper solution than a new bridge and can be implemented immediately. All of the infrastructure is already there.
On a personal note.
I recently took an intercity bus trip to the East Coast. At Gisbourne the bus was boarded by a number of cyclists who stowed their bikes in the copious luggage compartment for the journey to Taupo. At Taupo they got off the bus, took their bikes out, and continued their journey by bike..
It occurs to me that every bus should have these luggage compartments, for stowing bikes prams etc…
….The government are considering giving one lane possibly even two lanes over to a bikeway as a temporary measure, until the new bike bridge is completed.
As well as, a three month trial of a bikeway.
Howsabout a Three Month Trial of a Fare Free Northern Busway all the way into the City.
So many commuters might choose the bus that, we might find out, we won't need any new bridge or tunnel harbour crossings with multi $billion dollar price tags.
The fare free Northern busway might free up so much traffic on the Harbour Bridge that room could be made for the bikeway. Who knows?
This government is trodding down a track of sound bites and creating noise and lime light instead of looking at the country as a whole. This Government should be making decisions for ALL people which means a bit more thinking a bit less noise. But hey, there is always the phone pic that can make the rounds and populism that needs to be fanned with no less than 4 press secretaries, all curtesy of the taxpayer. Sigh.
Since the current Government took office, the number of communications specialists have ballooned. Each minister has at least two press secretaries. (Ardern has four).
In the year Labour took office, the Ministry for the Environment had 10 PR staff. They now have 18. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade more than doubled their staff – up to 25.
MBIE blew out from 48 staff to 64. None of those five dozen specialists could give me those figures for many weeks – and again I was forced to ask the Ombudsman to intervene.
The super ministry – and its colleagues uptown at the Health Ministry – are notorious for stymieing even the simplest requests. Health’s information gatekeepers are so allergic to journalists they refuse to take phone calls, responding only (and sporadically) to emails.
But it is the New Zealand Transport Agency that take the cake: employing a staggering 72 staff to keep its message, if not its road-building, on track – up from 26 over five years.
well you and i and the resto of the population are not in a 'need to know' position, so we get meaningless pictures and are told to be happy. 🙂 After all, they are pretty pictures.
This year, I have made more complaints to the Ombudsman than in any previous year. So far, every one has been upheld.
its gonna be so funny when in the future Labor will be again sitting on the opposition bench and will shriek about the 'others who don't be transparent'. lol.
Trust your eyes, they will tell you more about what happens in this country then any politician or journalist will ever tell you. And these press secretaries need jobs, what else would these communication specialists do otherwise?
Don't despair, there are many who know and see through this vail of deceptive behaviour and non disclosure. It is worse than I have seen in Europe behind the iron curtain. Pity that NZ has to go through the pain first. Humans don't learn any other way. This is why the Lange Govt and in the end the National Govt have lost. As for this lot, no amount of social media will put food on the table. The greater concern is that there is now a fear connected with the motion that if you don't agree with what this government does, you are ostracized. And this definitely looks very worrying.
As for this lot, no amount of social media will put food on the table.
and the same counts for being able to secure a rental or buy an affordable house. And that in the end will define the next election. Not just some nice vote gathering cycling bridges. And the sad thing about all this is that our issues and problems are real. We are smack dab in the middle of climate change, we have a pandemic in its second of many years to come, we are running out of the resources the Mensch needs to physically survive and we discuss if or not what we see happening is real. Incredible. And such a waste of opportunity and skill.
Good news though, the little Rotorua urchin in need of cleft palate surgery finally got it, after a year on a waiting list. The first smile was incredible and this 1 year old bub will now be able to almost live a normal life.
A moan from Andrea Vance who is just discovering the truth of the old adage
"He who sups with the devil must use a long spoon".
Late on in this piece Andrea tells us that this Government makes it very hard to get information and doesn't give interviews or provide material to journalists. Then she says, as if surprised, "Because the public’s impression of this government is the very opposite."
Well of course it is baby. Why are you surprised? It is you, and your ilk, who chose to sup with the devil. It is you who sold out to them and provided the fawning adulation they want. News? Nah. Tell us that the PM is planning a wedding and that her daughter handed mummy a lovely Mother's Day card.
Well you forgot the basic rule of your profession "News is what somebody does not want you to print. All the rest is advertising." Andrea, you sold out to the advertising. Now you are finding out that, having already sold you soul, you don't have any leverage to demand the truth about what the Government is up to.
Oh well, I suppose you are a member of the public and as Andrea Vance says.
"Because the public’s impression of this government is the very opposite.".
You've been conned, and you love it. With journalism like Vance's you haven't been allowed to see how bad the current lot really are.
I certainly agree the National Party is in rather a mess. Bad as they are they would still be a better Government than would the pack of numpties currently occupying the Beehive.
Agree Stuart….."rather a mess"….a complete and utter shambles that may not survive….would be more accurate.
The problem for the Nats is that there are 3 other parties who are well organised with clear and strong messages and with a strong voter base. National has none of these, and is essentially morally bankrupt.
Appointing Crusher as leader was a disastrous further step towards irrelevance.
Chris Bishop is shifty and not well liked in his electorate so he is not an option….maybe Nicola Willis could stem the tide? Can anyone? Nick Smith?…oh wait…
and is that not the case with all things in life? Parties re-group and rebirth. Same politics different dress. And people will vote for them. See the Grand Ole Party of the US.
Good lord, what a reply. You will be surprised how many out there have it up to the neck with this government. I think the next election will be interesting to say the least.
With all polls it always is a matter of who asks, what is asked, whom is asked.
It was the same under John Key and Helen Clark.
I personally know not one person who was ever asked their opinion about anything a., and b. if the Question were: Did J.A a good job with Covid, i would say yes, Do you approve of her as PM – never did. Now spin this 🙂
I voted for labor the last time in the hope something is getting done about the poorest and the ones living in motels hotels and cars. Oh was I wrong! The only thing that changed is that the people in cars now sleep in motels. It costs the taxpayer 1 Million smackers a week and no plan to build anything is on the table. Yes, talking about the blind. I think there were many of us but we are waking up. The "healthy" margin will soon disappear if enough people are left behind who have believed in all the bs.
both you and sabine seem confused as to what party you are dissing. voting for labor or endlessly moaning about labor would tell me you are in the land of the wrong white crowd.
I happily voted for a losing third party. 🙂 The game is MMP and not some beefed up majority that does what it wants due to a so called 'mandate'. Unless we want to go back to the good two party system of the past.
irrespective of us liking or not some journalists, but this should be an issue.
Or, let me put it this way, in the future no more whinging about National not being open to journalists and questions. What is good for the goose, is then also good for the gander.
In fact we would all benefit from some news, even if they come from people we don't like, There is no such thing as fake news, only news we might not like.
I don’t give a flying fuck about her previous employment or political leanings. Want to know why? Because she just wrote an incredibly important opinion piece on democracy. Take her name off it and read it again and tell me what’s wrong with what she said.
unless of course you are ok with Labour running a massive propaganda machine that is both hypocritical and suppressive of democracy.
Since the current Government took office, the number of communications specialists have ballooned. Each minister has at least two press secretaries. (Ardern has four).
In the year Labour took office, the Ministry for the Environment had 10 PR staff. They now have 18. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade more than doubled their staff – up to 25.
MBIE blew out from 48 staff to 64. None of those five dozen specialists could give me those figures for many weeks – and again I was forced to ask the Ombudsman to intervene.
I'm confused. An increase in the number of communications people in government is reducing communication?
In reality, the media landscape has changed, the demands are ever increasing and in real time, and governments' response to that naturally changes too.
Vance's piece seems like a bit of a moan that she's losing scoops, and are similar to Barry Soper's complaints, ie, that he no longer has priority messaging.
It also keeps journalists distracted and over-burdened with a rolling maul of press conferences and announcements, which are often meaningless or repetitive and prevent sustained or detailed questioning.
Seriously, wants more communication but fewer press conferences and announcements? Looks to me like Andrea just wants the information to herself and no-one else.
I'm confused. An increase in the number of communications people in government is reducing communication?
no in the good old time of East Germany it would have been called 'amplifying the message'. Instead of a few you know have many bleating all the same thing, and more often then not actually not answering any questions, but standing there and like good parrots read some words of a piece of paper. All at an 6 figure expense paid for by the tax payer. We are so generous, aren't we?
It also keeps journalists distracted and over-burdened with a rolling maul of press conferences and announcements, which are often meaningless or repetitive and prevent sustained or detailed questioning.
yes, if that is the only form of communicating then it looks like your bog standard 'all attendance required' corporate meeting where you are told the 'news', while no questions are taken.
So you can pay a whole lot of people to say nothing, which is what this government does – and this is as wrong under National as it is under Labour.
Unless you are only for state controlled media?
I'm confused. An increase in the number of communications people in government is reducing communication?
no in the good old time of East Germany it would have been called 'amplifying the message'
Nothing in this equates the Labour Party to the East Germany. It is just that a communications method, and our dear Leader is a specialist in communications methods, and were you see many people answering friendly questions, others see many people touting the same script -amplifying the governments message.
I find it interesting that you compare the Labour government to East Germany, because i certainly did not. They ain't communist enough, and they ain't socialist enough. Not enough affordable houses, no land reform etc. They are as far removed from communism as they could be.
It’s not an increase in communication because the positions she’s talking about are created to control. More communication officers = less access to the people who actually know what they’re talking about and can answer specific questions. I’m wondering where you’ve been the last 40 years, this isn’t new. Ardern is an expert communicator and that’s a double edged sword in a party that sees their job as primarily about control. As opposed to sharing power, or being transparent, or increasing democracy. It doesn’t hurt the left to critically examine this.
good point muttonbird. as you say all media has changed hugely and is continueing to change. last years daily 1pm standup should have been a wakeup call, not because of the actual standup and journo intereaction, but because it was instantly on facebook twitter etc. hacks like soper are looking at being bypassed . trump ,for all of his faults, has shown how to bypass trad media, and trad media are worried.
Media are quick to promote outrage and dispossession. That's what Vance trained in and it's what she does now. The prime focus is drama reporting for the purposes of promoting the reporter/media outlet, rather than some dispassionate observation of an issue.
Here's an article with amusing links in a similar vein; 'The Nimby photo formula', aka people with their arms folded.
If you’ve ever read a story about a contentious local issue, you’ll have seen the photo.
It could be about a housing development, a cycle path, or a safety upgrade to an intersection, the illustration will always be the same.
In the foreground, a person stands with their arms folded, a stern expression on their face.
There are now more opinion "makers" employed than ever before. If this is needed than the government has an agenda that we have not been told. That much is becoming increasingly clear. It also looks more and more like a textbook case of how to convert a country to a oppressive state. Not many cotton on to this yet but I think its starting to get noticed.
A well-functioning OIA that is fit for purpose is at the core of a well-functioning democracy and the delicate relationship between citizens and government. No wonder people are venting their spleen online only to find that the powers that be also want to ‘manage’ this aspect of our lives. We live in interesting times.
And yet in the recent past they jailed people who failed to pay a licencing fee. At least they seem to have moved on from that now. What a backwards place.
I'm not sure they have moved on at all. All though it is apparently legal to own, or possess, a TV without having a licence it is illegal to watch or to record from it any program that is broadcast.
Oh well, it would still appear that it would be legal to watch the greatest story ever told. I don't know if it works with a digital set but on the old analogue devices you could turn you TV on, tune it to a frequency where no station was broadcasting and you could watch the creation of the Universe. About 1% of the snow you saw on the screen was the background radiation from the Big Bang. Now tell me any other program that could compete with that.
so a 'pending' problem was ignored under Helen Clark, then duly ignored under John Key and then again under Jacinda Ardern, and now the 'pending' problem has become an acute problem. Yet here we discuss the need of a bicycle bridge for well heeled and leisure lycra clad 'bikers', while the broken bridge in Ashburton is………………! Never mind we have priorities, and the government allowed for an initial 500.000 NZD to be made available to all those that have lost their stuff in the floods (surely another few hundred thousands will be made available soon) and heavy transport will just take the 13 hour detour. Right?
It said 24,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day, including 2000 trucks.
Federated Farmers Mid-Canterbury president David Clark said successive councils and governments had “kicked the can down the road” when it came to the bridge.
“They have squabbled about it all the time I have been here.”
Clark, who has lived in the area for 27 years, said there had been too many years of poor planning.
“It’s time for central government and the district council to get on with funding a bridge.”
Reports into the feasibility of a second bridge date back to 2006. One said there was significant congestion at the bridge during peak hours and that would only worsen as the town grew.
The bridge has visibly dropped at the northern end.
A 2010 report into the risks and opportunities associated with a second bridge highlighted that there were no viable alternative routes, which presented a serious resilience risk.
“The existing bridge structure is also vulnerable to natural events (such as floods),” it said.
There was another report in 2011, then one in 2013 and another in 2014, when the council designated land in its district plan for the proposed route at the end of Chalmers Ave and across farm land east of Tinwald. It then went about buying land for the bridge connections.
In 2018, the Canterbury Regional Land Transport Plan, which sets regional priorities for future investment, included a second Ashburton bridge, which was likely to cost $30m.
I guess if some lycra clad citydwellers were to storm a police barrier and all took their bicycles on to the bridge – after all light traffic is 'ok', surely the government would throw oodles of money at them for a new 'bridge'. Right?
I hope that the Government comes to its mind, and axes that vanity project for votes in Auckland and gives the people of Ashburton a piece of infrastructure that is actually needed.
When you have made a promise and had a phot opportunity to build a crossing for less than $80m so you cannot be called out for a broken promise you have to allow yourself some wiggle room. Even if the additional cost is over $600m but you get another chance for an announcement and another photo opportunity 🙈🙊🙉
I do hope the govt follows public sentiment and gives graciously in kind, mental support and $$ how those in the Canterbury region have suffered.
And we should really pay no heed to these 'social media outings of the government'.
We should ask where the announcement is for Ashburtons new bridge. Heck, someone could get the PM some stylish gumboots for a we Photo Op with a shovel. It would make for some positive news, actually.
New bridge …. hardly needed except for those in a hurry. Cost benefit is probably the stumbling block and often the local council is biggest roadblock to getting going – like they were at old Kopu bridge at Thames-
Ive checked into this and the Council wants a new bridge not far from the old one and using an existing street – residential Chalmers St- to access it from it from the town side and by pass Tinwald .
Common sense would presume a new state highway bridge and access roads bypasses the town completely, I suppose to the western side, which would reduce through traffic and heavy trucks completely and make the town centre a safer and less fume ridden alley.
Shop keeper hate complete by passes like this and new shopping strip malls open up alongside and draw away customers from 'the town'
I doubt the people of Ashburton really care of all of that, they would just like to be able to not drive 13 hours to the next town, or fall into the river once the current bridge gives up.
But a good deflection from what i actually pointed out, namely that we are really good at ignoring pending problems until they become acute, and then we posture about a cycling bridge for the smallest lobbygroup in NZ. The lycra brigade from Ponsonby and Herne Bay. Who, incidentally can break a police barrier, cause a huge traffic problem for others and get rewarded with 870 million worth of pork.
There was a single day it was out , and it was a really rare event for them. Within the last 5 years theres been other occasions the main highway south has been cut by floodwaters
you are all over the place. two weeks ago, you went on(at length) about needing more cycleways public transport etc, then when a cycleway over harbour is announced, off you go on a tangent about a bridge that WAS FUNCTIONING. perhaps you should have warned the gov that mother nature was going to cut canterbury in half . if you got out from behind your keyboard and talked to engineers, you would find that much infrastructure in NZ is worn out. there are hundreds of bridges etc around the country thats are passed their use-by date. as is much of the water reticulation, sewage etc. too leap up and down and try to link a long planned bridge in one place with another recently washed out is ridiculous.
'The Green Party says Facebook shouldn't be the sole arbiter in breaching New Zealanders' free speech rights, Marc Daalder reports
Nobody has free speech rights on The Standard or any other social media platform..
even weirder
'Ghahraman also said the decision by Facebook during last year's election to remove the page of the Advance New Zealand party, which was a registered political party fairly and legally competing in New Zealand's election, raised questions around the company's involvement in New Zealand democracy."
yeah right. Is Ghahraman doing her gig again – like previously-by arguing for the side of haters and those accused of genocide
Dalder’s opening sentence is an odd construction, I had to read it three times to understand what he is reporting.
I’m not a particular fan of Ghahraman, she’s a bit of a loose unit politically at times, but here I’m just left with questions around what is her actual position. Not the best Newsroom piece.
Rather then leave the moderation solely to private entities she suggest that that rules and regulations are provided by the state as to what falls under these categories and that FB should then follow that legal framework rather then its own, or together with its own.
this comment here i think states it quite clearly
Ghahraman said Facebook's willingness to accede to stringent hate speech laws in Germany, where any symbol from the Third Reich is banned, showed it would follow New Zealand content moderation guidance as well. However, she also criticised the company for potentially failing to follow New Zealand's data privacy laws.
And yes, she should be critisising the company, as the company should follow NZ privacy laws in regards to its "NZ customers".
Yep, got that bit, think it’s a good idea. What I don’t get is where she thinks the lines should be drawn once goby has that power. Also how to stop that power being abused. I’d rather have a Labour in charge rather than FB, but what about NACT? Or a NZ Trump?
So what you must do is legislate, set rules and regulations and then deal with the political changes when they arise – as they will. There will be a NACT or N /Coalition of sorts, and there will be a LGreen or L/Coalition of sorts. So what must be done is to work for rules that pass the muster of all – so that another government don't undo the work of the previous government. And under MMP that actually works quite well.
So she is right, it is now that the government should look at what can be set as 'nevers'. In Germany that is anything to do with Nazi'sm. – You try to salute or shout a Heil Hitler – you will find yourself locked up and fined etc.
It does not prevent people from believing this shit, but it prevents outright promotion of it, which is i guess the best that can be done.
The swastika rules are just a legal requirement in Germany – but only banned when used as symbols or messages for anti constitutional organisations
But they can be used "Swastikas and other banned symbols can, however, be displayed in Germany if they are used for "civic education, countering anti-constitutional activities, art and science, research and education, the coverage of historic and current events, or similar purposes"
Not sure how this about symbols is related to Advance Party or even Facebook and free speech.
"The logo of the banned communist party KPD and symbols associated with terrorist groups such as the Islamic State are also considered anti-constitutional and thus illegal."
The KPD star with hammer and sickle is banned in Germany if used for political purposes
Yes, there are distinction between hate speach and education.And i guess some find this hard to understand and/or to accept.
I guess NZ will find this out when it gets on with teaching history as it happened rather then the white wash mess that is currently thought in NZ.
Anecdotally, Sister Gisela – who was a Student at the University of Munich during the war years – to become a teacher, had a box full of stuff. She took that box to the class room once a year, to show us what method the Nazi Party used to 'brainwash' the population if you so like. It was a very big moving house box full of cards, posters, postcards, playing cards. Sticker books, newspapers, etc full of Hitler and his henchmen. It was articles upon articles about how the people greated him in Austria and what was then the Sudeten Land. And the last thing she showed us was a Flyer from the White Rose, and then we learned about the Siblings Scholl. We were eleven years old. That is called education. Then the box went back into the darkest place in the convent.
I have no issues with people finding these laws so confusing that they stay a way from it if they can't understand the principle, of 'don't be a Nazi, don't promote a Nazi, don't deify Nazism", and if you do, prison and fine.
Maybe start with something simple. The AFD +Alternative for Germany – is a legal party albeit on the extreme right. That is legal and their free speeching is protected by the law, that includes FB. However individual Members are not free to speechify how refugees in Germany are lesser humans and a certain moustached man would have had a solution for it. And if they were to do so, FB would be in its rights to shut them down, and FB would be following certain laws should say Nazi regalia be displayed. Should AFD be posting such things and displaying Nazi regalia or symbolism then FB would also be in its right to shut their site down. Again, German law does actually protect FB should they do that. Start with the obvious and start providing a legal frame work that makes sense.
What gets me more often then not overlooked online, is violence against women , racism, and religious intolerance. Start with the easy.
I can't tell NZ – and will never – how to handle their own past – i am a migrant and really don't have enough knowledge and i also don't have skin in the game as i have no children. But i think the discussion around how to teach NZ History in the future will raise this question more often then not and hopefully some good will come from it.
simple as currently when you review 'violence against women' (and i am talking here about the bog standard biological women who identifies as such and is a she / her in this case) chances are that it will not 'infringe' on community standards.
Maybe we need to define then in this country what really constitutes 'violence against women' and then we give this list to FB and state that if people report these instances you shut down the account.
And then you roll this over to violence against all others. Start with something that we know happens.
and also maybe let FB now that breastfeeding in NZ does not fall under porn, because that is the only time boobs get censored. When a baby is latched on.
But surely Weka, you too could find a sample that could be used? Or else, we do nothing and heck, no harm done?
The problem arises simply because the people promoting 'de-colonising' have always been remarkably coy on the details of exactly what they propose. Into the vacuum rushes all manner speculative ideas – some more palatable than others so to speak.
'We define hate speech as a direct attack against people on the basis of what we call protected characteristics:
race,ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious disease.
We define attacks as :
violent or dehumanising speech, harmful stereotypes, statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt, disgust or dismissal, cursing and calls for exclusion or segregation.
We consider age a protected characteristic when referenced along with another protected characteristic.
We also protect refugees, migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers from the most severe attacks, though we do allow commentary and criticism of immigration policies."
Theres others for Safety, Violence and Criminal behaviour , Bullying and harassment, Human exploitation etc
People get really ‘antsy’ when they believe their online rights have been curbed and their search results and comments are being monitored and possibly ‘managed’.
this is quite cute and very awesome. This we rat actually did five years of mine sniffing and is now retiring. Glasses fogging up stuff. Riveting reading. Honestly.
ast year, Magawa won a British charity's top civilian award for animal bravery — an honour so far exclusively reserved for dogs.
Read More
Giant rat wins animal hero award for sniffing out landmines in Cambodia – NZ Herald
"Although still in good health, he has reached a retirement age and is clearly starting to slow down," Apopo said. "It is time."
Magawa has cleared more than 141,000 square meters of land, the equivalent of some 20 soccer fields, sniffing out 71 land mines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance, according to Apopo.
One of the tutors at Waikato spent a few years with Apopo – a great initiative. There are a few things bio-sensing might be harnessed for, not least of which might be Covid, but also some forms of cancer. It has been used with Tb.
But he said last year there was an 80 percent drop in cases, because of Covid-19 precautions.
"I think it's back to those important public health strategies, washing your hands, coughing and sneezing into your elbow and particularly looking after your babies by keeping away from them young children and old people when you've got respiratory stuff going on.
"It was amazing and particularly great that the disadvantaged kids got a break last year – but it's back."
Dr Trenholme said he is worried because there has already been a rise in RSV cases this year.
It is a matter of when, not if, we have a community outbreak, IMO. The complacency/arrogance/indifference of folk will be our undoing.
I was gobsmacked in a recent exchange here on TS, 'I shouldn't have to upgrade my phone to sign in' or some such piffle. Then the same conceited piece of work is one of the loudest complainers of the vaccine roll-out.
To my mind these two activities are or should be linked. High compliance in registering movements entitles one to complimentary vaccination(s).
My comment was about handwashing etc in relation to limiting the spread of cold and flu.
As for scanning, sorry to break this to you, but no-one here scans. And they won't so long as the perception of risk is low. What we need is systems that can be booted up rapidly if there is community outbreak. I don't think the South Island has had community transmission for a year.
This Government likes to take advice but not to invest in scientific research. Especially early-career and emerging researchers are finding it hard here in NZ. No wonder they’ll disappear overseas once the pandemic has waned. The system is broke(n), but Dr Woods and Dr Verrall are asleep at that particular wheel.
After enjoying Fight for the wild re preditor free 2050
I was wondering if anyone knows if doc are intending to make Stuart Is preditor free ?as think what an is that size would be in providing an amazing lifeboat for many our our native species. I could not find anything on the internet. Many who have been there have commented what a place to visit. And that the wonders it provides in its current state with introduced species is breath taking. I tip my cap to all those volunteers and amazing DOC staff out there.
I’m not a hater so much as frustrated that we can do such clever engineering but can’t figure out how to build low cost housing using that same discipline.
btw, that landscape is where they had to pour concrete into the hills after engineers said this is a dodgy af place to build a dam given quake potential. Damn the science, and the High Court, Muldoon stomped all over both and nature with his big thinking.
And again, what gets me, it seems that this is only for cyclists as as a wanderer/walker i would not like to compete with these guys.
It is that single use that is so wasteful.
Oh we can figure out low cost housing, but 'the market' won't allow for it, and the government won't build it in the place of 'the market'. With all things, we have the money, but we don't spend it wisely. But some well to doer Aucklanders get to travel to there and then they get to bike there. Never mind the homeless or soon to be homeless.
The ironies and classism abound, although I expect high use from locals and Southland and Otago people especially in the first year.
completely agree about the single use. Betting it’s a beloved project for someone or some group, and from pre covid/tourism collapse, but we really have to move past this reductionist thinking to looking at whole systems.
The Lake Dunstan Trail links the townships of Clyde and Cromwell.
The trail offers cyclists and walkers an easy 55km ride (Grade 1-2) through unique and fascinating landscapes so characteristic of Central Otago as it journeys along Lake Dunstan, the Kawarau River and the mighty Clutha River Mata-au.
Spectacular views of a trail and not a single suggestion it was for lycra-wearers only; perception is not reality. In fact, the Stuff article did mentioning walking but was obviously written from a cycling PoV.
I have to say that I find this pitting of cyclists against car drivers or cyclists against walkers symptomatic of many of the ‘debates’ we’re having nowadays, particularly the political ones (which doesn’t leave many others). I thought it was all about sharing, inclusivity, finding common ground and, ideally, consensus, i.e. the opposite of what’s been happening more and more in recent times.
Wasn’t a pitting of cyclists and walkers against each other, but pro tourism leaders against the same who refuse to address climate, ecology, housing, preparing for what’s coming.
As I said not hate so much as frustration. I remember when they ripped up the rail lines in Central to build a bike track. It’s a lack of vision of the bigger picture and urgency of the situation that bothers me.
Apologies, although I replied to you, it was not all (!) about you or your comments in particular, but more of a general moan from a growing general sense of frustration. Sorry, I should have made that more clear.
The Whakatipu trails are heavily used by locals and visitors, both cyclists and walkers, and carry a surprising amount of commuter traffic. Use well in excess of most expectations. During lockdown they were almost too busy.
The CO Rail Trail is well used but it's taken a while for the associated support businesses to get sorted and understand the opportunities. Still a stunning resource, both for biking and walking in whole or parts with some great day walks / rides. Every time I've been on it I've only met New Zealanders, mostly from Central. Want to walk it depths of winter some time, staying in the pubs along the way, there's plenty.
The Southland trail from Kingston through Mavora to Walter Peak is a bit of a fizzer, but that doesn't have much population along it so is tourist only.
The Lake Dunstan trail is a stunner. Only word to describe it. I've been through there before the lake filled on a bike and it was quite an adventure along the farm and hydro tracks. The 'clip-on' section avoids a very steep track over the mountain. I'd say this trail well be very well used.
I did a lot of work on the local trails and it was a hoot watching all the local true blue landowners having meltdowns about the trails coming alongside, and in some cases right through, their properties. They couldn't say much since it was all John Key's idea, but Bill had to do a bit to pacify a few. Amy Adams got her nickers in a right knot about the Dunstan one too, goes right past her place.
The Dunstan trail is 42km from Cromwell to Clyde, but the run out/in through Bannockburn is 13km of that. If you could get across the lake from Old Cromwell it could be a worthwhile alternative to the drive through the gorge. The times I've done it, it was a full day round trip, but that involved a couple of pretty solid climbs following the hydro tracks put in to get drill rigs on site, and a bit of trespass. A good trail along lake level, probably an hour or less at commute pace.
They have little influence over financialised housing 'markets' and councils get funding with strings attached about what they do with it. Tourism infrastructure is not from the same bucket as housing, strangely enough.
Btw, seeing housing as outside of council purview, and not seeing the connections between tourism and housing in that part of the country is a definition of the silo rather than system thinking I mentioned.
Nowadays, people don’t read, they react, to what they think they’d read if they did in fact read it. Too much effort goes into moaning, IMHO; it is 95% of reality.
You should expect a bit of moaning. Bad governance leaves a mighty long tail.
It will take decades to halt the rise of inequality stemming from the Rogergnomic …experiment. Those exposed to its effects need something more substantial than the incremental rises to welfare payments announced thus far, which will like as not be erased by the next ripple of incontinent greed from the rentier set. The government has done many positive things, but it has not set things to rights. Not remotely.
Too much of government action is putting on band aids. They can be helpful in healing if underneath them is prepared. clean and healthy, otherwise they just lead to festering!
I fear that their only option for change is leaps and bounds. They are leaping out of multi-educators bleeding the polytech and training system, so there is going to be one control and one ring will bind them all. Same with hospitals and medicals, and they want one tech system which when it can be effectively hacked will make us all ill. And that sounds like another expensive overblown contraption like the old police Incis system.
Maybe they're in the stranglehold of this neolib smaller government where every man, ambitious woman, and their dogs can sniff out goodly salaries telling us how we are all wrong and they can put us right. And these consultants and CEOs seem to get away with things very close to fraud! Pollies have to pass the work to them, it is the system, and we are the meat going through the grinder and coming out as mince. Perhaps their only option is to change the whole system, throw it out, and start again hoping for better. That is very inefficient as far as using human and other resource and skills go. But efficiency and productivity are just words to wave round like a magician distracting the peeps, while other things get done by sleight of hand.
i know that it is 'intended' for cyclists and for walker /runner
And then i said, I would not want to 'compete' for space. and then It 'seemed' to be only for cyclists, judging on the width of the track. All of it is "MY" opinion. Not what the article said.
So yeah, it can be 'intended' but it ain't 'inclusive'. I can see a whole lot of people not trying to be on there together with some cyclists that want to go at speed and without stopping. Its a bit like the track linking Whakamaru and Mangakino. You do not want to be on certain spots on this bicyle track/walkway as as pedestrian when you have on both sides lycra clad aucklanders / wellingtonians/ and other entitled people on bikes. They will tell you to get outta ways, cause after all they paid to be there.
And generally the track is used mainly by cyclists over summer. Go figure.
I don't care about your fixation in equating cycling to excesses of the middle classes, I disagree with it on the whole as I still see biking for many as a form of transport, whether that be because they don't have cars, access to public transport, or have decided to lose a few carbon emissions as part of the effort to beat climate change.
As part of my job, I plant and maintain areas along the new Kawatiri trail, and have been there many times from very early on to late afternoon. While not as spectacular as the one in the news above, it's also a shared track with narrow choke points, boardwalks and even a swing bridge, I've witnessed no collisions, near misses or anti social behaviour from either walkers or cyclists alike.
Along with the pleasure walkers and gaggle of lycra 'tour de francers', I also see kids riding to and back from school, people going to or back from work, and seniors doing the track for some safe, low impact exercise. What's not to like with that? Fresh air, burning calories and not using petrol.
To finish, I originally replied to your stating "it seems that this is only for cyclists". My comment that the article says it isn't still stands.
'seems'. 🙂 personal opinion. nothing to do with anything else then that.
I don't equate cycling with nothing, and i am not sure this path was even concepted under Labour, i think it was key the king of the mother of all cycle ways up and down the country. so really don't care. so its not even political.
Same with the Harbour Cycling bridge, again not something i would use, but to each their own. My point equating that bridge to the one that needs replacing in Ashburton is simply raising the question of need vs wants, as both bridges made it in to the news virtually the same weekend.
All i said is that I would not use this track as a person who now walks, competing with cyclists. That is literally all i said. To me it seems that this track is not suited for both. Maybe that is more to your liking? And the future will tell how suited it is to its intended dual purpose.
And i live in Rotorua which is as cycle friendly as it gets and its beautiful here for that.
“That scientists coming to the issue from two different angles reach the same conclusions about a given dataset should foster confidence in the scientific process and the conclusions reached by both groups.
Please make sure to use both citations when disseminating.”
"The research conducted so far has studied untrained transgender women."
hmmmmm
and a correction says :
"EH and TL have given talks and engaged in the mainstream media and academic press regarding the biology of sex and how they have concluded that this should impact sporting categories."
We can say they have an agenda
DR E Hilton is research technician at University of Manchester, and not a published researcher in Sports medicine at all
'Division of Infection, Immunity & Respiratory Medicine '
Play the ball not the woman. Not even going to respond beyond that because if your debate is based on marginalising people there's nowhere useful to go.
Got to agree with Weka on this one. Your criticisms of Hilton seem unfair – it's still a peer-reviewed article.
The two articles do leave a lot of questions unanswered, but then the sample-size of transgender athletes who were approaching olympic-level before and after transition is a tad small.
So it turns out labour aren't raising benefits they are just moving money from payments around like musical chairs and deducting payments from other top ups and getting praised for literally doing nothing. Some people will be worse off
The audacity. The shame. Shame on Labour. Shame. I'm so mad and done. This pathetic increase gave people hope and it turns out the pittance is all an illusion and now when someone wants to increase welfare middle nz will go crazy saying they are giving too much to beneficaries because of this bullshit and lies.
How is it so difficult to ring fence funding so people actually get extra. Does labour actually want people to get extra or did they want a nice pr story. NOONES getting anything extra. The yearly inflation increases also get swallowed up and see people getting less.
Honestly. I'm starting to miss the nats because atleast they didn't hide their hatred of beneficiaries labour is worse because it tell us it love us and is giving us $80 extra since they got in. No they arent. The only increase they've done is the $20 covid increase and winter energy and it's funny how they could do that increase last year without it cutting into other top ups but not this grand much praised increase that is taking a legitimate year to implement. Wtaf
What a bullying arrogant lying joke this government has become and I'm a party member. Refusing to do interviews, being forced to court or by the ombudsman to release OIAs, shouting down opposition and journos and turning select committees into a circus when people ask questions they wanna hear. Bugger the tories I hate them but this govt is yuck.
How many goddamn legions of consultants and pr gurus did it take to come up with this lie of a welfare increase!?! Spin spin spin spin
I see the upper middle class get billions and billions for their cycle lanes and get to run around lecturing poor people about how ignorant evil and privlidged we all are and what do the poor get ? An end to ruthensha ? Was that a good spin for the Twitter crowd …. Yeah thanks so much for giving us money we already get and telling us it's new funding
Lies. Spin. Misdirection. Spin.
Who cares who wins next time. It doesn't matter it genuinely doesn't matter. Happy nice sweet lies from labour or insults and abuse from national neither side gives a flying f about the poor.
'So it turns out labour aren't raising benefits they are just moving money from payments around like musical chairs and deducting payments from other top ups"
Any evidence for that ?
Your link is actual increases like this
Sole Parent Support from $386 last year to $406 this year and $434 next year
You misunderstand what 'top ups' or Temporary Additional Support are about.
'Temporary Additional Support is a weekly payment that helps you when you don't have enough money to cover your essential living costs"
Only up to 13 weeks , and clearly the benefit increases will mean 'dont have enough money' will reduce.
That was a rather incensed diatribe – I am a beneficiary and I am both surprised and grateful with the number and amounts of the increases I have received as well as those which I will be receiving. My situation has improved markedly – I regret that yours has not.
Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said reports of this type were “concerning” and said “if this type of behaviour were to eventuate, employers would be at risk of losing their accreditation and therefore not able to hire any migrants”.
I guess he's trying not to frighten the horses, but systematic criminal exploitation of the kind that was normalised under the Key Kleptocracy, should not only result in loss of accreditation, but massive fines to fund full damages to exploited workers, together with loss of residency status. You want to set up as an employer criminal? Go somewhere else – NZ doesn't need you – we've far too many like that already.
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
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“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
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David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
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Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
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Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Opinion: ‘Reference-class forecasting’ is at the heart of improving pricing a project and identifying the expected timeframe but it doesn’t appear to be in use here The post ‘Think fast and act slowly’ is failing big projects appeared first on Newsroom. ...
What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
After replacing a fifth of their caucus in just four months, the Greens’ opportunity to reset, reshuffle and refocus on the Government is quickly slipping away The post Persistent Green Party scandals delay caucus reset appeared first on Newsroom. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages. It comes as ...
Asia Pacific Report The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire. The league’s open letter was sent to Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will invest $566 million over a decade on data, maps and other tools to promote exploration and development in Australia’s resources industry. The project will fund “the first comprehensive map of what’s ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Ground Picture/Shutterstock The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Robbie Porter, OzFish Unlimited Around Australia, hundreds of people are coming together to help a once-prized, but decimated and largely forgotten marine ecosystem. They’re busy restoring Australia’s native oyster and mussel reefs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Austin Human/Unsplash How does Earth stop meteors from hitting Earth and hurting people? –Asher, 6 years 11 months, New South Wales Alright, let’s embark on a meteor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
'
Let me be the first to say 'this is completely bonkers'.
Cycling is not a viable form of commuting for the tens of thousands who cross the Bridge every working day.
The government are spending $785 million indulging the leisure-time activity of cycling enthusiasts.
It wasn't a viable form of commuting either along SH16 until they built a dedicated cycle way there. 2 years and tens of thousands of people a day later …
Same for Tamaki Drive-Quay Street.
When they build it, they will come.
And they get yo work same time or faster than a car.
So where is any evidence to support your claim that this crossing will have any major daily usage ? Take a look at the population close proximity to the bridge and what destinations there are that warrant the pop. to cross to the other side. For a start there is no demand to cross over for schooling.
We hear when it suits the govt on evidence basis decisions, I haven’t seen any compelling evidence by the supporters put forward, just a nice to have and spend what will be close to a $Billion, and we are told commencing construction “hopefully mid 2022.
there is not. but the good people of herne bay and ponsnobby might actually consider voting for a different party next time, say the greens or say some other party. And than labour might actually have to go into a coalition with all the other parties. Its future planning at its finest – for labour. After all these guys need jobs.
Never mind the broken bridge in Ashburton, which is costed at 30 mil give or take a few and which NEEDS to be rebuild. Heck, they could just build a new bridge and leave the old for pedestrians and cyclists for peanuts all things considered.
SH16 ' tens of thousands of people a day later …'
They do daily counts and its not 10sK per day for that cycleway. Plus it was just a minor part of the roadway and construction not a special build
For the actual figures: https://at.govt.nz/media/1985751/april-2021-cycle-counts.xlsx
Create the opportunity and they’ll take it or moan about it until the cows come home, on Open Moan.
Thanks , my Excel license no longer works on this desktop, so Ive just put in Google sheets to do so.
The answer is 500 or so for weeks days . The highest 1031 was a easter holiday .
Id happily replace the cycle way with a LR line and then we could say 10s thousands per day'
Why replace, why not have both? What is it with this either-or reasoning? Money? Space? Or just good-old binary thinking that seems to be a hallmark of neo-liberalism, i.e. my gain is your loss.
As we transit to a green economy I would like our public spending to be of the highest quality. I don't see that this government even has an operating framework that it runs these decisions through to give some order of priority. And frankly I don't see this spend which covers largely high income areas of Auckland passing any sort of evidence based tests. Would it be better spent on solar subsidies or insulation in poorer areas.
Since when is $68.50 close to $100? When it suits your narrative, obviously.
Plenty of students cross the Bridge daily. AUT has its North Campus on the ‘wrong’ side of the Bridge.
If you had not already been saying the same thing for days now, you might indeed be 'the first to say'.
What do you want to hear that people have not said yet?
If I had been sayiing it for days now, that really would make me the first. to say the $785 million pedestrian/cycle bridge was bonkers.
I had started off talking about the bikeway proposal, not the new bridge proposal. And that a fare free bus lane would be far better way than a bike lane in getting thousands of drivers out their cars, better for the climate, better for the environment.
Then the government's new bridge proposal broke,
I had been expecting to see a post on it.
Not seeing one I did my own.
Yes I think a $785 million biking, walking, skate boarding bridge crossing the Waitemata preposterous, ridiculous and quite frankly 'bonkers'.
Maybe when the shock has worn off, anyone who thinks this a good idea, could do a post on it?
You were pissing all over the recent post on cycling with 20 mostly negative comments so far: https://thestandard.org.nz/cycling-politics-is-winnable-politics/.
With commenters such as you writing another post on this topic is like opening a hornets’ nest. Why don’t you write a Guest Post if you feel so strongly about it instead of thrashing posts and comments by others?
Incognito1.2.1.1
Why don’t you write a Guest Post if you feel so strongly about it…..
I thought you would never ask.
I’m starting to think that English is not your first language, as you seem not to understand the difference between ask, suggest, and demand, for example.
I guess some people will always read 'winnable politics' as 'whineable'..
Done and sent.
P.S. Feel free to thrash it as much as you like
I can’t and won’t ‘thrash’ your submission for a Guest Post for two reasons:
Good on you for putting your money where your mouth is and I look forward to the final version appearing here on TS in due course, which will hopefully stimulate robust but constructive debate.
Naa thrash it all you like, don't pull your punches I need to see any weaknesses in the argument I put up.
Here's a taster…..
I'd suggest trialling bus priority lanes without making it free of charge. Otherwise you are testing two things at once and cannot generalise results.
\shrug
You get paid?!
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/125352433/this-government-promised-to-be-open-and-transparent-but-it-is-an-artfullycrafted-mirage
Show us you're capable of being more than a link whore with an amoeba's braincell.
This government is trodding down a track of sound bites and creating noise and lime light instead of looking at the country as a whole. This Government should be making decisions for ALL people which means a bit more thinking a bit less noise. But hey, there is always the phone pic that can make the rounds and populism that needs to be fanned with no less than 4 press secretaries, all curtesy of the taxpayer. Sigh.
well you and i and the resto of the population are not in a 'need to know' position, so we get meaningless pictures and are told to be happy. 🙂 After all, they are pretty pictures.
its gonna be so funny when in the future Labor will be again sitting on the opposition bench and will shriek about the 'others who don't be transparent'. lol.
Trust your eyes, they will tell you more about what happens in this country then any politician or journalist will ever tell you. And these press secretaries need jobs, what else would these communication specialists do otherwise?
Don't despair, there are many who know and see through this vail of deceptive behaviour and non disclosure. It is worse than I have seen in Europe behind the iron curtain. Pity that NZ has to go through the pain first. Humans don't learn any other way. This is why the Lange Govt and in the end the National Govt have lost. As for this lot, no amount of social media will put food on the table. The greater concern is that there is now a fear connected with the motion that if you don't agree with what this government does, you are ostracized. And this definitely looks very worrying.
and the same counts for being able to secure a rental or buy an affordable house. And that in the end will define the next election. Not just some nice vote gathering cycling bridges. And the sad thing about all this is that our issues and problems are real. We are smack dab in the middle of climate change, we have a pandemic in its second of many years to come, we are running out of the resources the Mensch needs to physically survive and we discuss if or not what we see happening is real. Incredible. And such a waste of opportunity and skill.
Good news though, the little Rotorua urchin in need of cleft palate surgery finally got it, after a year on a waiting list. The first smile was incredible and this 1 year old bub will now be able to almost live a normal life.
Well, well.
A moan from Andrea Vance who is just discovering the truth of the old adage
"He who sups with the devil must use a long spoon".
Late on in this piece Andrea tells us that this Government makes it very hard to get information and doesn't give interviews or provide material to journalists. Then she says, as if surprised, "Because the public’s impression of this government is the very opposite."
Well of course it is baby. Why are you surprised? It is you, and your ilk, who chose to sup with the devil. It is you who sold out to them and provided the fawning adulation they want. News? Nah. Tell us that the PM is planning a wedding and that her daughter handed mummy a lovely Mother's Day card.
Well you forgot the basic rule of your profession "News is what somebody does not want you to print. All the rest is advertising." Andrea, you sold out to the advertising. Now you are finding out that, having already sold you soul, you don't have any leverage to demand the truth about what the Government is up to.
And we, the Public, are left in the dark.
Yeah but they a still a better government than anything the nats are or will be capable of for years to come.
Oh well, I suppose you are a member of the public and as Andrea Vance says.
"Because the public’s impression of this government is the very opposite.".
You've been conned, and you love it. With journalism like Vance's you haven't been allowed to see how bad the current lot really are.
I certainly agree the National Party is in rather a mess. Bad as they are they would still be a better Government than would the pack of numpties currently occupying the Beehive.
rather a mess
Rather an understatement – unfit to be out in public, much less running anything.
Lazy, sleazy, incompetent and dishonest, and given to browbeating anyone who points it out.
Agree Stuart….."rather a mess"….a complete and utter shambles that may not survive….would be more accurate.
The problem for the Nats is that there are 3 other parties who are well organised with clear and strong messages and with a strong voter base. National has none of these, and is essentially morally bankrupt.
Appointing Crusher as leader was a disastrous further step towards irrelevance.
Chris Bishop is shifty and not well liked in his electorate so he is not an option….maybe Nicola Willis could stem the tide? Can anyone? Nick Smith?…oh wait…
and is that not the case with all things in life? Parties re-group and rebirth. Same politics different dress. And people will vote for them. See the Grand Ole Party of the US.
Good lord, what a reply. You will be surprised how many out there have it up to the neck with this government. I think the next election will be interesting to say the least.
Yes. That is what i see. It will be funny to see how many 'friends' labour has left to form a coalition with.
@ Fw
How come then they are leading all the polls by a very healthy margin?
There are none so blind….. 🙄
With all polls it always is a matter of who asks, what is asked, whom is asked.
It was the same under John Key and Helen Clark.
I personally know not one person who was ever asked their opinion about anything a., and b. if the Question were: Did J.A a good job with Covid, i would say yes, Do you approve of her as PM – never did. Now spin this 🙂
I voted for labor the last time in the hope something is getting done about the poorest and the ones living in motels hotels and cars. Oh was I wrong! The only thing that changed is that the people in cars now sleep in motels. It costs the taxpayer 1 Million smackers a week and no plan to build anything is on the table. Yes, talking about the blind. I think there were many of us but we are waking up. The "healthy" margin will soon disappear if enough people are left behind who have believed in all the bs.
both you and sabine seem confused as to what party you are dissing. voting for labor or endlessly moaning about labor would tell me you are in the land of the wrong white crowd.
Don’t let facts get in the way and spoil your internal narrative.
https://www.hud.govt.nz/assets/News-and-Resources/Statistics-and-Research/Housing-Dashboard-2020/Housing-Dashboard-April-2021.pdf
Did you vote for them last time ?
I happily voted for a losing third party. 🙂 The game is MMP and not some beefed up majority that does what it wants due to a so called 'mandate'. Unless we want to go back to the good two party system of the past.
'Former News of the World hack finds it difficult to get interviews in New Zealand'.
What a surprise!
irrespective of us liking or not some journalists, but this should be an issue.
Or, let me put it this way, in the future no more whinging about National not being open to journalists and questions. What is good for the goose, is then also good for the gander.
In fact we would all benefit from some news, even if they come from people we don't like, There is no such thing as fake news, only news we might not like.
I don’t give a flying fuck about her previous employment or political leanings. Want to know why? Because she just wrote an incredibly important opinion piece on democracy. Take her name off it and read it again and tell me what’s wrong with what she said.
unless of course you are ok with Labour running a massive propaganda machine that is both hypocritical and suppressive of democracy.
I'm confused. An increase in the number of communications people in government is reducing communication?
In reality, the media landscape has changed, the demands are ever increasing and in real time, and governments' response to that naturally changes too.
Vance's piece seems like a bit of a moan that she's losing scoops, and are similar to Barry Soper's complaints, ie, that he no longer has priority messaging.
Seriously, wants more communication but fewer press conferences and announcements? Looks to me like Andrea just wants the information to herself and no-one else.
no in the good old time of East Germany it would have been called 'amplifying the message'. Instead of a few you know have many bleating all the same thing, and more often then not actually not answering any questions, but standing there and like good parrots read some words of a piece of paper. All at an 6 figure expense paid for by the tax payer. We are so generous, aren't we?
yes, if that is the only form of communicating then it looks like your bog standard 'all attendance required' corporate meeting where you are told the 'news', while no questions are taken.
So you can pay a whole lot of people to say nothing, which is what this government does – and this is as wrong under National as it is under Labour.
Unless you are only for state controlled media?
You've been teetering on the edge for the the last year but equating labour to east Germany tells me you've gone off the edge .
Get a grip.
Nothing in this equates the Labour Party to the East Germany. It is just that a communications method, and our dear Leader is a specialist in communications methods, and were you see many people answering friendly questions, others see many people touting the same script -amplifying the governments message.
I find it interesting that you compare the Labour government to East Germany, because i certainly did not. They ain't communist enough, and they ain't socialist enough. Not enough affordable houses, no land reform etc. They are as far removed from communism as they could be.
It’s not an increase in communication because the positions she’s talking about are created to control. More communication officers = less access to the people who actually know what they’re talking about and can answer specific questions. I’m wondering where you’ve been the last 40 years, this isn’t new. Ardern is an expert communicator and that’s a double edged sword in a party that sees their job as primarily about control. As opposed to sharing power, or being transparent, or increasing democracy. It doesn’t hurt the left to critically examine this.
good point muttonbird. as you say all media has changed hugely and is continueing to change. last years daily 1pm standup should have been a wakeup call, not because of the actual standup and journo intereaction, but because it was instantly on facebook twitter etc. hacks like soper are looking at being bypassed . trump ,for all of his faults, has shown how to bypass trad media, and trad media are worried.
Media are quick to promote outrage and dispossession. That's what Vance trained in and it's what she does now. The prime focus is drama reporting for the purposes of promoting the reporter/media outlet, rather than some dispassionate observation of an issue.
Here's an article with amusing links in a similar vein; 'The Nimby photo formula', aka people with their arms folded.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018798432/the-nimby-photo-formula
+1
There are now more opinion "makers" employed than ever before. If this is needed than the government has an agenda that we have not been told. That much is becoming increasingly clear. It also looks more and more like a textbook case of how to convert a country to a oppressive state. Not many cotton on to this yet but I think its starting to get noticed.
A well-functioning OIA that is fit for purpose is at the core of a well-functioning democracy and the delicate relationship between citizens and government. No wonder people are venting their spleen online only to find that the powers that be also want to ‘manage’ this aspect of our lives. We live in interesting times.
So..the g7 strikes a deal to tax the tax-avoiding corporate-gougers..
but those two aggregators of click-bait shite…herald and stuff..
don't seem it to be news-worthy..?
You refer to this? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57368247
or this from the Herald?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/g7-rich-nations-back-global-minimum-corporate-tax-of-at-least-15
or this from Stuff?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/300326263/g7-back-global-minimum-tax-to-deter-dodging-by-multinational-firms
This was on bbc news last nite…
and 10-12 hrs later still nothing on stuff/herald..
yeah…that's what I'm talking about..
and that both stuff and the herald post the most dreadful click-bait shite..
and lot's of fresh shite this morning..
but nothing on the g7 deal..
yeah..that's what I'm talking about..
Mac1 has already given links above.
Posted on stuff at 8.18 am?
G-7 back global minimum tax to deter dodging by multinational firms
The herald posted at 9.04 am?
G7: Rich nations back global minimum corporate tax of at least 15%
There goes the narrative
What are you talking about?
Numpty neoliberalism. For those that missed it at the time, Corbyn campaigned on free broadband.
https://twitter.com/richdsi/status/1400767518902566914
And yet in the recent past they jailed people who failed to pay a licencing fee. At least they seem to have moved on from that now. What a backwards place.
I'm not sure they have moved on at all. All though it is apparently legal to own, or possess, a TV without having a licence it is illegal to watch or to record from it any program that is broadcast.
Oh well, it would still appear that it would be legal to watch the greatest story ever told. I don't know if it works with a digital set but on the old analogue devices you could turn you TV on, tune it to a frequency where no station was broadcasting and you could watch the creation of the Universe. About 1% of the snow you saw on the screen was the background radiation from the Big Bang. Now tell me any other program that could compete with that.
so a 'pending' problem was ignored under Helen Clark, then duly ignored under John Key and then again under Jacinda Ardern, and now the 'pending' problem has become an acute problem. Yet here we discuss the need of a bicycle bridge for well heeled and leisure lycra clad 'bikers', while the broken bridge in Ashburton is………………! Never mind we have priorities, and the government allowed for an initial 500.000 NZD to be made available to all those that have lost their stuff in the floods (surely another few hundred thousands will be made available soon) and heavy transport will just take the 13 hour detour. Right?
I guess if some lycra clad citydwellers were to storm a police barrier and all took their bicycles on to the bridge – after all light traffic is 'ok', surely the government would throw oodles of money at them for a new 'bridge'. Right?
I hope that the Government comes to its mind, and axes that vanity project for votes in Auckland and gives the people of Ashburton a piece of infrastructure that is actually needed.
When you have made a promise and had a phot opportunity to build a crossing for less than $80m so you cannot be called out for a broken promise you have to allow yourself some wiggle room. Even if the additional cost is over $600m but you get another chance for an announcement and another photo opportunity 🙈🙊🙉
I do hope the govt follows public sentiment and gives graciously in kind, mental support and $$ how those in the Canterbury region have suffered.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-fully-fund-skypath-part-390m-investment-walking-and-cycling
And we should really pay no heed to these 'social media outings of the government'.
We should ask where the announcement is for Ashburtons new bridge. Heck, someone could get the PM some stylish gumboots for a we Photo Op with a shovel. It would make for some positive news, actually.
New bridge …. hardly needed except for those in a hurry. Cost benefit is probably the stumbling block and often the local council is biggest roadblock to getting going – like they were at old Kopu bridge at Thames-
Ive checked into this and the Council wants a new bridge not far from the old one and using an existing street – residential Chalmers St- to access it from it from the town side and by pass Tinwald .
Common sense would presume a new state highway bridge and access roads bypasses the town completely, I suppose to the western side, which would reduce through traffic and heavy trucks completely and make the town centre a safer and less fume ridden alley.
Shop keeper hate complete by passes like this and new shopping strip malls open up alongside and draw away customers from 'the town'
I doubt the people of Ashburton really care of all of that, they would just like to be able to not drive 13 hours to the next town, or fall into the river once the current bridge gives up.
But a good deflection from what i actually pointed out, namely that we are really good at ignoring pending problems until they become acute, and then we posture about a cycling bridge for the smallest lobbygroup in NZ. The lycra brigade from Ponsonby and Herne Bay. Who, incidentally can break a police barrier, cause a huge traffic problem for others and get rewarded with 870 million worth of pork.
There was a single day it was out , and it was a really rare event for them. Within the last 5 years theres been other occasions the main highway south has been cut by floodwaters
http://floodlist.com/australia/new-zealand-canterbury-otago-december-2019
Half a dozen similar in other parts of NZ in last couple of years alone
people in Asburton can join the queue…
you are all over the place. two weeks ago, you went on(at length) about needing more cycleways public transport etc, then when a cycleway over harbour is announced, off you go on a tangent about a bridge that WAS FUNCTIONING. perhaps you should have warned the gov that mother nature was going to cut canterbury in half . if you got out from behind your keyboard and talked to engineers, you would find that much infrastructure in NZ is worn out. there are hundreds of bridges etc around the country thats are passed their use-by date. as is much of the water reticulation, sewage etc. too leap up and down and try to link a long planned bridge in one place with another recently washed out is ridiculous.
This is bizzare
'The Green Party says Facebook shouldn't be the sole arbiter in breaching New Zealanders' free speech rights, Marc Daalder reports
Nobody has free speech rights on The Standard or any other social media platform..
even weirder
'Ghahraman also said the decision by Facebook during last year's election to remove the page of the Advance New Zealand party, which was a registered political party fairly and legally competing in New Zealand's election, raised questions around the company's involvement in New Zealand democracy."
yeah right. Is Ghahraman doing her gig again – like previously-by arguing for the side of haters and those accused of genocide
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/greens-want-new-law-for-content-moderation
Which is bizarre?
Dalder’s opening sentence is an odd construction, I had to read it three times to understand what he is reporting.
I’m not a particular fan of Ghahraman, she’s a bit of a loose unit politically at times, but here I’m just left with questions around what is her actual position. Not the best Newsroom piece.
i find it quite simple
Rather then leave the moderation solely to private entities she suggest that that rules and regulations are provided by the state as to what falls under these categories and that FB should then follow that legal framework rather then its own, or together with its own.
this comment here i think states it quite clearly
And yes, she should be critisising the company, as the company should follow NZ privacy laws in regards to its "NZ customers".
Yep, got that bit, think it’s a good idea. What I don’t get is where she thinks the lines should be drawn once goby has that power. Also how to stop that power being abused. I’d rather have a Labour in charge rather than FB, but what about NACT? Or a NZ Trump?
the point is you can't stop that.
So what you must do is legislate, set rules and regulations and then deal with the political changes when they arise – as they will. There will be a NACT or N /Coalition of sorts, and there will be a LGreen or L/Coalition of sorts. So what must be done is to work for rules that pass the muster of all – so that another government don't undo the work of the previous government. And under MMP that actually works quite well.
So she is right, it is now that the government should look at what can be set as 'nevers'. In Germany that is anything to do with Nazi'sm. – You try to salute or shout a Heil Hitler – you will find yourself locked up and fined etc.
It does not prevent people from believing this shit, but it prevents outright promotion of it, which is i guess the best that can be done.
The swastika rules are just a legal requirement in Germany – but only banned when used as symbols or messages for anti constitutional organisations
But they can be used "Swastikas and other banned symbols can, however, be displayed in Germany if they are used for "civic education, countering anti-constitutional activities, art and science, research and education, the coverage of historic and current events, or similar purposes"
https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-confusing-rules-on-swastikas-and-nazi-symbols/a-45063547
Not sure how this about symbols is related to Advance Party or even Facebook and free speech.
"The logo of the banned communist party KPD and symbols associated with terrorist groups such as the Islamic State are also considered anti-constitutional and thus illegal."
The KPD star with hammer and sickle is banned in Germany if used for political purposes
[image resized]
Yes, there are distinction between hate speach and education.And i guess some find this hard to understand and/or to accept.
I guess NZ will find this out when it gets on with teaching history as it happened rather then the white wash mess that is currently thought in NZ.
Anecdotally, Sister Gisela – who was a Student at the University of Munich during the war years – to become a teacher, had a box full of stuff. She took that box to the class room once a year, to show us what method the Nazi Party used to 'brainwash' the population if you so like. It was a very big moving house box full of cards, posters, postcards, playing cards. Sticker books, newspapers, etc full of Hitler and his henchmen. It was articles upon articles about how the people greated him in Austria and what was then the Sudeten Land. And the last thing she showed us was a Flyer from the White Rose, and then we learned about the Siblings Scholl. We were eleven years old. That is called education. Then the box went back into the darkest place in the convent.
I have no issues with people finding these laws so confusing that they stay a way from it if they can't understand the principle, of 'don't be a Nazi, don't promote a Nazi, don't deify Nazism", and if you do, prison and fine.
Again, I understand that. What I don’t yet know is where she thinks the line should be.
we know the Greens have suppressed gender critical debate within their own party, so I think it’s an important question
Maybe start with something simple. The AFD +Alternative for Germany – is a legal party albeit on the extreme right. That is legal and their free speeching is protected by the law, that includes FB. However individual Members are not free to speechify how refugees in Germany are lesser humans and a certain moustached man would have had a solution for it. And if they were to do so, FB would be in its rights to shut them down, and FB would be following certain laws should say Nazi regalia be displayed. Should AFD be posting such things and displaying Nazi regalia or symbolism then FB would also be in its right to shut their site down. Again, German law does actually protect FB should they do that. Start with the obvious and start providing a legal frame work that makes sense.
What would be a NZ example?
What gets me more often then not overlooked online, is violence against women , racism, and religious intolerance. Start with the easy.
I can't tell NZ – and will never – how to handle their own past – i am a migrant and really don't have enough knowledge and i also don't have skin in the game as i have no children. But i think the discussion around how to teach NZ History in the future will raise this question more often then not and hopefully some good will come from it.
so violence against women on FB. Where should the setting be?
@ weka
simple as currently when you review 'violence against women' (and i am talking here about the bog standard biological women who identifies as such and is a she / her in this case) chances are that it will not 'infringe' on community standards.
Maybe we need to define then in this country what really constitutes 'violence against women' and then we give this list to FB and state that if people report these instances you shut down the account.
And then you roll this over to violence against all others. Start with something that we know happens.
and also maybe let FB now that breastfeeding in NZ does not fall under porn, because that is the only time boobs get censored. When a baby is latched on.
But surely Weka, you too could find a sample that could be used? Or else, we do nothing and heck, no harm done?
Tiriti-denial seems constitutionally similar.
what would be some examples? Are you thinking of someone running a group on FB and telling lies about the Treaty in the context of overt racism?
Top contender. Still not sure how it would work.
https://twitter.com/tauhenare/status/1401339769020289025
The problem arises simply because the people promoting 'de-colonising' have always been remarkably coy on the details of exactly what they propose. Into the vacuum rushes all manner speculative ideas – some more palatable than others so to speak.
Brash's lot fit the bill, yes.
yes, That one would be an excellent one.
Facebooks hate speech moderation standards ( from the Objectionable Content section)
'We define hate speech as a direct attack against people on the basis of what we call protected characteristics:
race,ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious disease.
We define attacks as :
violent or dehumanising speech, harmful stereotypes, statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt, disgust or dismissal, cursing and calls for exclusion or segregation.
We consider age a protected characteristic when referenced along with another protected characteristic.
We also protect refugees, migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers from the most severe attacks, though we do allow commentary and criticism of immigration policies."
Theres others for Safety, Violence and Criminal behaviour , Bullying and harassment, Human exploitation etc
Orwellian. But many don't even know what that means. Maybe its objectionable.
Well, no, I'm pretty sure many of the broadcasts against Eastasia would have run afoul of Facebook's policy.
Censorship or ‘human error’, the effect is the same.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/04/microsoft-bing-tiananmen-tank-man-results
People get really ‘antsy’ when they believe their online rights have been curbed and their search results and comments are being monitored and possibly ‘managed’.
And even more antsy when they are proven right.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/mine-sniffing-rat-magawa-ends-years-of-hard-work-in-cambodia/IOUEUP5XV4PVLDKXNXSFNKRUSU/
this is quite cute and very awesome. This we rat actually did five years of mine sniffing and is now retiring. Glasses fogging up stuff. Riveting reading. Honestly.
One of the tutors at Waikato spent a few years with Apopo – a great initiative. There are a few things bio-sensing might be harnessed for, not least of which might be Covid, but also some forms of cancer. It has been used with Tb.
Sound, solid advice from South Auckland doctor.
Keep up with the hand-washing, covering coughs an sneezes and maintaining a safe distance when respiratory viruses are around.
Last year, under Covid 'rules' , hospitalisations due to Respiratory Syncytial Viruses fell dramatically.
We've gone back to our sloppy ways…
But he said last year there was an 80 percent drop in cases, because of Covid-19 precautions.
"I think it's back to those important public health strategies, washing your hands, coughing and sneezing into your elbow and particularly looking after your babies by keeping away from them young children and old people when you've got respiratory stuff going on.
"It was amazing and particularly great that the disadvantaged kids got a break last year – but it's back."
Dr Trenholme said he is worried because there has already been a rise in RSV cases this year.
Really wish NZ would put some effort into this.
This and scanning in at premises.
It is a matter of when, not if, we have a community outbreak, IMO. The complacency/arrogance/indifference of folk will be our undoing.
I was gobsmacked in a recent exchange here on TS, 'I shouldn't have to upgrade my phone to sign in' or some such piffle. Then the same conceited piece of work is one of the loudest complainers of the vaccine roll-out.
To my mind these two activities are or should be linked. High compliance in registering movements entitles one to complimentary vaccination(s).
My comment was about handwashing etc in relation to limiting the spread of cold and flu.
As for scanning, sorry to break this to you, but no-one here scans. And they won't so long as the perception of risk is low. What we need is systems that can be booted up rapidly if there is community outbreak. I don't think the South Island has had community transmission for a year.
This Government likes to take advice but not to invest in scientific research. Especially early-career and emerging researchers are finding it hard here in NZ. No wonder they’ll disappear overseas once the pandemic has waned. The system is broke(n), but Dr Woods and Dr Verrall are asleep at that particular wheel.
https://sciblogs.co.nz/news/2021/06/02/new-zealand-relies-on-scientific-research-for-good-policy-its-a-pity-the-budget-didnt-reflect-this/
For a crowd that wants the country to pivot from exporting raw products to higher paid industries, you would think this was a no-brainer.
After enjoying Fight for the wild re preditor free 2050
I was wondering if anyone knows if doc are intending to make Stuart Is preditor free ?as think what an is that size would be in providing an amazing lifeboat for many our our native species. I could not find anything on the internet. Many who have been there have commented what a place to visit. And that the wonders it provides in its current state with introduced species is breath taking. I tip my cap to all those volunteers and amazing DOC staff out there.
It would be amazing. Tricky with the community I think
The haters are gonna hate, the converted will love it. The photos speak volumes.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/experiences/cycling-holidays/300324106/lake-dunstan-trail-new-zealands-most-spectacular-bike-ride-has-just-opened
Lol, Aucklanders be very jealous.
I’m not a hater so much as frustrated that we can do such clever engineering but can’t figure out how to build low cost housing using that same discipline.
btw, that landscape is where they had to pour concrete into the hills after engineers said this is a dodgy af place to build a dam given quake potential. Damn the science, and the High Court, Muldoon stomped all over both and nature with his big thinking.
And again, what gets me, it seems that this is only for cyclists as as a wanderer/walker i would not like to compete with these guys.
It is that single use that is so wasteful.
Oh we can figure out low cost housing, but 'the market' won't allow for it, and the government won't build it in the place of 'the market'. With all things, we have the money, but we don't spend it wisely. But some well to doer Aucklanders get to travel to there and then they get to bike there. Never mind the homeless or soon to be homeless.
The ironies and classism abound, although I expect high use from locals and Southland and Otago people especially in the first year.
completely agree about the single use. Betting it’s a beloved project for someone or some group, and from pre covid/tourism collapse, but we really have to move past this reductionist thinking to looking at whole systems.
Some people are so quick to judge.
https://centralotagonz.com/tracks-and-trails/lake-dunstan-trail/
Can you reconcile that with the volume speaking photos?
I can.
Lol, I meant sharing with the rest of us.
Spectacular views of a trail and not a single suggestion it was for lycra-wearers only; perception is not reality. In fact, the Stuff article did mentioning walking but was obviously written from a cycling PoV.
I have to say that I find this pitting of cyclists against car drivers or cyclists against walkers symptomatic of many of the ‘debates’ we’re having nowadays, particularly the political ones (which doesn’t leave many others). I thought it was all about sharing, inclusivity, finding common ground and, ideally, consensus, i.e. the opposite of what’s been happening more and more in recent times.
Work’s calling.
Let the unicycle commute commence!
Wasn’t a pitting of cyclists and walkers against each other, but pro tourism leaders against the same who refuse to address climate, ecology, housing, preparing for what’s coming.
As I said not hate so much as frustration. I remember when they ripped up the rail lines in Central to build a bike track. It’s a lack of vision of the bigger picture and urgency of the situation that bothers me.
Apologies, although I replied to you, it was not all (!) about you or your comments in particular, but more of a general moan from a growing general sense of frustration. Sorry, I should have made that more clear.
all good And yes, agreed about the frustrating nature of polarised and pitted debates.
The Whakatipu trails are heavily used by locals and visitors, both cyclists and walkers, and carry a surprising amount of commuter traffic. Use well in excess of most expectations. During lockdown they were almost too busy.
The CO Rail Trail is well used but it's taken a while for the associated support businesses to get sorted and understand the opportunities. Still a stunning resource, both for biking and walking in whole or parts with some great day walks / rides. Every time I've been on it I've only met New Zealanders, mostly from Central. Want to walk it depths of winter some time, staying in the pubs along the way, there's plenty.
The Southland trail from Kingston through Mavora to Walter Peak is a bit of a fizzer, but that doesn't have much population along it so is tourist only.
The Lake Dunstan trail is a stunner. Only word to describe it. I've been through there before the lake filled on a bike and it was quite an adventure along the farm and hydro tracks. The 'clip-on' section avoids a very steep track over the mountain. I'd say this trail well be very well used.
I did a lot of work on the local trails and it was a hoot watching all the local true blue landowners having meltdowns about the trails coming alongside, and in some cases right through, their properties. They couldn't say much since it was all John Key's idea, but Bill had to do a bit to pacify a few. Amy Adams got her nickers in a right knot about the Dunstan one too, goes right past her place.
Good to hear from a local with first-hand real experience rather than from armchair critics from afar.
Lol the Nats.
How long does it take to bike from Clyde to Cromwell? Is it suitable for commuting? I’d been assuming it was too far.
The Dunstan trail is 42km from Cromwell to Clyde, but the run out/in through Bannockburn is 13km of that. If you could get across the lake from Old Cromwell it could be a worthwhile alternative to the drive through the gorge. The times I've done it, it was a full day round trip, but that involved a couple of pretty solid climbs following the hydro tracks put in to get drill rigs on site, and a bit of trespass. A good trail along lake level, probably an hour or less at commute pace.
On a good day there's people commuting from Gibbston to Frankton or Queenstown along the Queenstown trail, about an hour and arrive at work with a good grin. That's about 40km all the way or 30-35km to Frankton.
Thanks for that insight, Graeme.
The article states it isn't single use with reference to runners and walkers sharing the trail
But where is the housing on it – people want to know!
No houses because trolls live underneath bridges lol
You know there’s a housing crisis locally right?
On our tourist cycle tracks, even!
More like via local council and businesses.
They have little influence over financialised housing 'markets' and councils get funding with strings attached about what they do with it. Tourism infrastructure is not from the same bucket as housing, strangely enough.
Sometimes a cycle track is just a cycle track.
Councils have lots of options for responding to the housing crisis and they choose not to take them.
Let’s see how much CODC is shifting its tourism focus post covid. I will be surprised.
Btw, seeing housing as outside of council purview, and not seeing the connections between tourism and housing in that part of the country is a definition of the silo rather than system thinking I mentioned.
There is seeing the world you want to be true, and what is there. Progress requires acknowledging both.
Of course. Could have done without the mocking and instead talking about that.
Nowadays, people don’t read, they react, to what they think they’d read if they did in fact read it. Too much effort goes into moaning, IMHO; it is 95% of reality.
I 95% agree or +95%
You should expect a bit of moaning. Bad governance leaves a mighty long tail.
It will take decades to halt the rise of inequality stemming from the Rogergnomic …experiment. Those exposed to its effects need something more substantial than the incremental rises to welfare payments announced thus far, which will like as not be erased by the next ripple of incontinent greed from the rentier set. The government has done many positive things, but it has not set things to rights. Not remotely.
Too much of government action is putting on band aids. They can be helpful in healing if underneath them is prepared. clean and healthy, otherwise they just lead to festering!
I fear that their only option for change is leaps and bounds. They are leaping out of multi-educators bleeding the polytech and training system, so there is going to be one control and one ring will bind them all. Same with hospitals and medicals, and they want one tech system which when it can be effectively hacked will make us all ill. And that sounds like another expensive overblown contraption like the old police Incis system.
Maybe they're in the stranglehold of this neolib smaller government where every man, ambitious woman, and their dogs can sniff out goodly salaries telling us how we are all wrong and they can put us right. And these consultants and CEOs seem to get away with things very close to fraud! Pollies have to pass the work to them, it is the system, and we are the meat going through the grinder and coming out as mince. Perhaps their only option is to change the whole system, throw it out, and start again hoping for better. That is very inefficient as far as using human and other resource and skills go. But efficiency and productivity are just words to wave round like a magician distracting the peeps, while other things get done by sleight of hand.
As i said, I would not want to compete against the cyclists and runners as a walker, others might feel more comfortable with it.
You also said…
Which is why I posted it actually isn't.
i know that it is 'intended' for cyclists and for walker /runner
And then i said, I would not want to 'compete' for space. and then It 'seemed' to be only for cyclists, judging on the width of the track. All of it is "MY" opinion. Not what the article said.
So yeah, it can be 'intended' but it ain't 'inclusive'. I can see a whole lot of people not trying to be on there together with some cyclists that want to go at speed and without stopping. Its a bit like the track linking Whakamaru and Mangakino. You do not want to be on certain spots on this bicyle track/walkway as as pedestrian when you have on both sides lycra clad aucklanders / wellingtonians/ and other entitled people on bikes. They will tell you to get outta ways, cause after all they paid to be there.
And generally the track is used mainly by cyclists over summer. Go figure.
I don't care about your fixation in equating cycling to excesses of the middle classes, I disagree with it on the whole as I still see biking for many as a form of transport, whether that be because they don't have cars, access to public transport, or have decided to lose a few carbon emissions as part of the effort to beat climate change.
As part of my job, I plant and maintain areas along the new Kawatiri trail, and have been there many times from very early on to late afternoon. While not as spectacular as the one in the news above, it's also a shared track with narrow choke points, boardwalks and even a swing bridge, I've witnessed no collisions, near misses or anti social behaviour from either walkers or cyclists alike.
Along with the pleasure walkers and gaggle of lycra 'tour de francers', I also see kids riding to and back from school, people going to or back from work, and seniors doing the track for some safe, low impact exercise. What's not to like with that? Fresh air, burning calories and not using petrol.
To finish, I originally replied to your stating "it seems that this is only for cyclists". My comment that the article says it isn't still stands.
'seems'. 🙂 personal opinion. nothing to do with anything else then that.
I don't equate cycling with nothing, and i am not sure this path was even concepted under Labour, i think it was key the king of the mother of all cycle ways up and down the country. so really don't care. so its not even political.
Same with the Harbour Cycling bridge, again not something i would use, but to each their own. My point equating that bridge to the one that needs replacing in Ashburton is simply raising the question of need vs wants, as both bridges made it in to the news virtually the same weekend.
All i said is that I would not use this track as a person who now walks, competing with cyclists. That is literally all i said. To me it seems that this track is not suited for both. Maybe that is more to your liking? And the future will tell how suited it is to its intended dual purpose.
And i live in Rotorua which is as cycle friendly as it gets and its beautiful here for that.
Useful references here.
https://twitter.com/fondofbeetles/status/1368174222992961547
In the conclusions
"The research conducted so far has studied untrained transgender women."
hmmmmm
and a correction says :
"EH and TL have given talks and engaged in the mainstream media and academic press regarding the biology of sex and how they have concluded that this should impact sporting categories."
We can say they have an agenda
DR E Hilton is research technician at University of Manchester, and not a published researcher in Sports medicine at all
'Division of Infection, Immunity & Respiratory Medicine '
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/emma.hilton.html
So we can say its not worth much at all.
Play the ball not the woman. Not even going to respond beyond that because if your debate is based on marginalising people there's nowhere useful to go.
Shock! Horror!
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2021/06/former-olympians-challenge-sport-nz-draft-guidelines-on-transgender-athletes-want-more-consultation.html
A newspiece questioning the safety and fairness to women of transwomen playing in women's sports teams…. that doesn't utilise the slur Terf.
Aired tonight.
Got to agree with Weka on this one. Your criticisms of Hilton seem unfair – it's still a peer-reviewed article.
The two articles do leave a lot of questions unanswered, but then the sample-size of transgender athletes who were approaching olympic-level before and after transition is a tad small.
So it turns out labour aren't raising benefits they are just moving money from payments around like musical chairs and deducting payments from other top ups and getting praised for literally doing nothing. Some people will be worse off
The audacity. The shame. Shame on Labour. Shame. I'm so mad and done. This pathetic increase gave people hope and it turns out the pittance is all an illusion and now when someone wants to increase welfare middle nz will go crazy saying they are giving too much to beneficaries because of this bullshit and lies.
How is it so difficult to ring fence funding so people actually get extra. Does labour actually want people to get extra or did they want a nice pr story. NOONES getting anything extra. The yearly inflation increases also get swallowed up and see people getting less.
Honestly. I'm starting to miss the nats because atleast they didn't hide their hatred of beneficiaries labour is worse because it tell us it love us and is giving us $80 extra since they got in. No they arent. The only increase they've done is the $20 covid increase and winter energy and it's funny how they could do that increase last year without it cutting into other top ups but not this grand much praised increase that is taking a legitimate year to implement. Wtaf
What a bullying arrogant lying joke this government has become and I'm a party member. Refusing to do interviews, being forced to court or by the ombudsman to release OIAs, shouting down opposition and journos and turning select committees into a circus when people ask questions they wanna hear. Bugger the tories I hate them but this govt is yuck.
How many goddamn legions of consultants and pr gurus did it take to come up with this lie of a welfare increase!?! Spin spin spin spin
I see the upper middle class get billions and billions for their cycle lanes and get to run around lecturing poor people about how ignorant evil and privlidged we all are and what do the poor get ? An end to ruthensha ? Was that a good spin for the Twitter crowd …. Yeah thanks so much for giving us money we already get and telling us it's new funding
Lies. Spin. Misdirection. Spin.
Who cares who wins next time. It doesn't matter it genuinely doesn't matter. Happy nice sweet lies from labour or insults and abuse from national neither side gives a flying f about the poor.
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/about-work-and-income/news/2021/2021-budget.html#:~:text=On%201%20April%202022,%2425%20per%20adult%20a%20week.
'So it turns out labour aren't raising benefits they are just moving money from payments around like musical chairs and deducting payments from other top ups"
Any evidence for that ?
Your link is actual increases like this
Sole Parent Support from $386 last year to $406 this year and $434 next year
You misunderstand what 'top ups' or Temporary Additional Support are about.
'Temporary Additional Support is a weekly payment that helps you when you don't have enough money to cover your essential living costs"
Only up to 13 weeks , and clearly the benefit increases will mean 'dont have enough money' will reduce.
I suppose this is part of what having 4 press secretaries gets you.
FWIW, my Mum is 80 and each week I hear the gratitude from her with the amount she gets on the pension.
“Never would get that with Judith in charge…”
That was a rather incensed diatribe – I am a beneficiary and I am both surprised and grateful with the number and amounts of the increases I have received as well as those which I will be receiving. My situation has improved markedly – I regret that yours has not.
Barfly, so pleased to hear that. All the best.
Waiting-person (M/F), there’s a fly on my radar!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/444165/new-radar-drone-tech-being-developed-to-track-insects
This is so cool.
Edit: there’s a spy on the wall.
Although the object of proposed changes to Immigration monitoring seem well intended, we have had an accreditation system before – in fact we have one now.
Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said reports of this type were “concerning” and said “if this type of behaviour were to eventuate, employers would be at risk of losing their accreditation and therefore not able to hire any migrants”.
I guess he's trying not to frighten the horses, but systematic criminal exploitation of the kind that was normalised under the Key Kleptocracy, should not only result in loss of accreditation, but massive fines to fund full damages to exploited workers, together with loss of residency status. You want to set up as an employer criminal? Go somewhere else – NZ doesn't need you – we've far too many like that already.