I guess TVNZ was too busy leading with crime stories basically every day for the last two weeks to do any actual journalism, but I would have thought questions to the government on if it has any exposure to this humdinger of a scandal involving Price Waterhouse-Coopers in Australia would have been of interest.
Basicallt, PWC worked on tax law changes for the government then passed on the details of those changes to it's corporate clients so they could get their new tax avoidance measures in place ahead of the law changes.
The Listener 3-9 June touches on the same issue. Tom Seymour and Peter Collins from PwC were named in the tax avoidance tricks. Part of an article about getting rid of consultants and investing in skilled public servants.
Meanwhile a beneficiary gets headlines for a few hundred dollars overpayments.
The rights and wellbeing of renters are supported by the Green party:
The Green Party are today launching a campaign asking for people to submit their stories of what they call subpar, substandard and downright awful experiences of renting in Aotearoa.
Data from StatsNZ's 2019 housing report shows one in three New Zealand households are less likely to be satisfied with their accommodation compared to homeowners.
Swarbrick says the campaign will "give renters a platform to tell their stories directly, to make their basic human rights impossible for Parliament and the Government to ignore".
“An affordable, warm, healthy and secure home is literally a human right. Yet it’s one denied to far too many of the 1.4 million renters in this country,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for renters, Chlöe Swarbrick.
“This is a political choice. Aotearoa New Zealand is not the first country in the world to deal with a housing crisis, but we are profoundly unique in how our economy privileges those who own property and fails to protect those who rent.
“Enough is enough. Today we’re launching a campaign to give renters a platform to tell their stories directly, to make their basic human rights impossible for Parliament and the Government to ignore.
The Government is not monitoring or enforcing the law:
Associate Housing Minister Poto Williams has revealed the Government is not collecting data on how many rentals are compliant with its Healthy Homes Standards.
Williams also revealed there is no requirement for rental properties to be assessed by third parties to verify whether the property meets the Healthy Homes Standards.
Williams made the revelations in written responses to Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick, who says it's time to start registering rental properties and their status in compliance with Healthy Homes standards in the form of a Warrant of Fitness (WOF).
"We need to get the basics right," Swarbrick, the Green Party's spokesperson and advocate for renters, told Newshub.
"That means registering rental properties and their status in compliance with Healthy Homes Standards in the form of a WOF, as well as landlords and property managers, to ensure things are up to scratch and everyone's protected and aware of their rights and responsibilities if anything goes wrong.
"We can only build decent systems when we have decent data and the ability to easily pinpoint system failure."
“We encourage all New Zealanders to hold their local supermarket to account, no matter how small the pricing mistake(s) may be.”
“While we think it’s unfair to put the responsibility on shoppers, we don’t think supermarkets plan to up their game and rectify this issue anytime soon. It’s up to us to hold the major supermarkets to account.”
Yea. The supermarket duopolists are never going to do it willingly. They could give a rats arse about people (despite their bullshit "feelgood" advertising)
So Michael Woods had a little over 1000 Airport shares in a trust fund. He took them out as a teenager – must have been 30 plus years ago. So somebody has been digging around inside his personal financial affairs. Is that legal?
Somebody talked me into taking out 500 shares (not Airport) when I was a teenager. I forgot for years they even existed. Some National luminaries, at least in days gone by, cooked their books on a regular basis but that was okay. Minor infringements usually committed unwittingly by Labour luminaries are a different story?
What National lies? Does Minster Woods own the shares – yes or no? How is this a National issue?
So Minister Woods bought the shares as a teenager and they’re held in a Trust. What teenager has a trust?
He thought he sold them? Until he didn’t.
Now we are hearing his wife has an interest in the shares (per Anne’s link above). Assuming she will recuse herself from the Auckland Council vote on said share sale later this week.
Wood has owned a completely trivial number of shares for a long time. If as Minister he was able to do something that increased the value of those shares, he stands to gain by a few hundred dollars at best. And in reality, the value of airport shares is more likely to increase if Brownie is able to sell the Council's holding – something that Wood probably opposes, and his partner Ms Fairey, does oppose.
This looks like an inconsequential and inadvertent technical breach of the rules by Wood. He should correct the record and move on.
As usual with the political right, their accusations are a form of projection. They accuse others of doing exactly the sort of dodgy things they would do given the same opportunity, or are in fact are already doing in private.
Go it. The rules around declaring financial interests, particularly when they relate to a Minister with direct portfolio responsibilities, are just there for funsies. Glad to have that sorted.
Then John Key's political career should have been over before he ever became PM. See Joe90's link below (of course I assume you do remember, and the political reporters remember, but these tedious games of fake outrage must be played).
But I don't think Key's omission was enough to make him resign, any more than Wood's is today. If that's the ethical bar, then half the National cabinet should have been hounded out of office. For example …
Today's words to Google: "Murray McCully" and "Saudi sheep".
As usual Luxon is showing poor judgement in attacking Wood, because if he really wants Wood's error to be the new resignation standard, he's going to have a very nervous caucus. Reap what you sow …
No, he won’t resign or be sacked. We’ve already hit the bottom of the Cabinet talent barrel with Tenitti.
[Please correct your e-mail address in your next comment, thanks. You might also want to tone down the increasing troll-level of your comments – Incognito]
In an interview with One News last night, Mr Key faltered when asked about the shares, initially saying his family owned 25,000-50,000 shares, then shifting to "sometimes 50,000, sometimes 100,000" then finally "yeah, sorry, it was 100,000 in total".
Asked why he had only ever admitted to the 30,000 shares owned by the family trust, Mr Key said: "No one's ever asked me the number I owned."
Yep, the Natzo underwear sniffers and wheelie bin snoopers are officially back Anne!
Ex PM Mr Key’s largish holding of rail shares, as several posters have reminded us above, was fine back in the day–nothing to see here for the media that used to give JK hot towels and back rubs. But I guess with the Supercity Airport shares up for flogging off to the nearest venture capitalist or pension investment fund, this has some further importance for certain people.
It's all about optics, everyone knows Key and the Tory's have shares in everything and will exploit every loophole, this kind of thing is expected of national.
Labour and the Greens, are held to a different standard, not just by media but by voters and their own members.
$13000 is a lot of money for most people in NZ, who can barely rub two dollars together, for many voters $13 k is not insignificant and hearing the minister responsible has undeclared conflicts looks grubby and it is inappropriate.
Im glad Hipkins acted swiftly and removed Wood while the issue is sorted turning it into a non issue.
$13 is a shit load of money to the people labour need to vote for it.
Wood was born in 1980. If anything, the Nats should be in absolute awe of his prudent investment that has grown in value over more than two decades and that shows long-term vision and patience, none of which you’d expect to find in a Nat MP.
The guy cannot hold his story – He was going to sell them in 2020 then he didn't, for some reason."There were about six times that there had been discussions between Wood and the Cabinet office about divesting his shares, Hipkins said. That was since the end of 2020 when those six instances occurred." SIX !!!! Now he acts.
He received dividends and declares the income under his tax returns & financial reports mailed under his name would that not prompt a reminder who owns them ??
again it its the ever shifting story as more details are reported- that is what is sinking him IMO
He thought they were in a trust then we find out he owns them outright. When he prepares his tax return the dividends would have been declared under his tax return.
There were dividends to declare pre 2019 no stop trying to deflect, My comment is not limited to the last few years and does hold up, I am not making anything up, perhaps some need to take a breath before firing off false accusation at others ?? If you need an English lesson "He received dividends and declares the income under his tax returns" my comments were plural, so that then covers any period, including pre 2019 !!!! When I note he was the Senior Whip and Deputy Leader of the House- A senior within the 1st Jacinda Adern govt.
And now we are told he thought he sold them "Wood said he did not disclose them as he thought they had been sold." And what about the SIX times he was asked about divesting from the shares ???
He was going to sell them in 2020 […] That was since the end of 2020 […]
And you blabbered something about declaring income from dividends on his Tax Returns when there hasn’t been anything paid since FY-2019.
Yet now you claim:
[…] my comments were plural, so that then covers any period, including pre 2019 !!!!
Do your comments go back all the way to 1998? Just asking, so that you can make up your mind what BS comment you can come up with this time, singular or plural, it doesn’t make a difference.
If you would have taken time and notice that the 2022 comment was within quote marks and there was a link ?? So I was NOT making it up, I was quoting the NZ Herald. So perhaps you need to STOP making things up ??? And how about an apology for claiming that I was making things up !!!
Your 1st comment made no reference about 2022, it related to dividends which I responded. Now it is something else, you are all over the place.
He received dividends and declares the income under his tax returns & financial reports mailed under his name would that not prompt a reminder who owns them ??
This was not within quote marks, not quoted from the NZ Herald, and indeed the NZH does not refer to dividends and Tax Returns as far as I can tell. In other words, they were your words and you made them up.
It was BS and thus you made up shit, about declaring or not declaring non-existing dividends on Tax Returns, since the end of 2020.
The only one who’s all over the place and doesn’t even realise it is you.
Well no actually. They listed on 28 July 1998 when he was 18.
It is pretty hard to forget owning shares. They keep sending you stuff, including the dividend statements that would tell him exactly who owned them and how many he owned.
The "religious right" just can't stand the competition. They are scared that one day people might work out that there is exactly the same empirical evidence for the possession of a "gendered soul" that there is for an "immortal soul".
Clarity. Stop the linguistic gymnastics that pretend that single-sex provisions are not related to sex. Clear boundaries make transgressions easier to identity and address because they are uncommon. Thereby, reducing the challenge to non-confirming people of both sexes.
Single-sex spaces are neither femininity nor masculinity testing stations.
They will however demonstrate the cognitive capacity, and/or decision making level of those that knowingly break those single-sex boundaries by prioritising personal feelings.
BTW, still not an argument for the elimination of single-sex provisions. Just a diversion.
Trans people exist. Would you have transmen in women's bathrooms too? Wouldn't they also have cops called on them, seeing that they look, for all intents and purposes, to be men? Anti-trans people already have difficulty determining 'sex' and differentiating between that and gender norms, as the above example proves.
It's interesting that you prefer to prioritise your personal feelings.
"Would you have transmen in women's bathrooms too?"
Given that they are women, Yes. But depending on their degree of transition and presentation, they should be aware that they will be challenged more often – primarily because of the lack of clarity I spoke of before that has been interpreted by many men as permission to break single-sex boundaries. It is a natural consequence of both those aspects.
"Wouldn't they also have cops called on them, seeing that they look, for all intents and purposes, to be men?"
Unlikely. Calling the police is not a response of many women and girls to men invading their spaces. They usually just get out as fast as possible, and/or report to the service provider.
"Anti-trans people already have difficulty determining 'sex' and differentiating between that and gender norms, as the above example proves."
This sentence doesn't make sense.
"It's interesting that you prefer to prioritise your personal feelings."
I understand there are differences between biological sexes in terms of practical needs, privacy, dignity, and safety. These realities are identifiable, and in cases of assault – recorded in statistical data.
Safeguarding risk assessments that resulted in single-sex provisions as significantly reducing (not eliminating) risk of harm, did not rely on my personal feelings – but robust statistical evidence.
It is the same robust statistical evidence that has to be provided in support of boundary breaking – and then weighted against – the issues of safety, privacy, dignity and consent, before considering whether single-sex boundaries can reasonably be broken.
Look to Chesterton's Fence – for where to start when you seek to dismantle existing boundaries:
"Anti-trans people already have difficulty determining 'sex' and differentiating between that and gender norms, as the above example proves."
This sentence doesn't make sense.
Anti-trans people called the police on a cisgender woman because they thought she was trans. They failed to determine her sex and assumed it based on their own interpretations of gender norms. If these anti-trans people were always capable of determining sex as is claimed, then they wouldn't have called police to eject a woman from the women's bathroom would they?
Absent a chromosome test and/or genital inspections we rely on gender and the societal expectations of such, to determine which 'single-sex' space someone should occupy. This can go wrong, as above, and in your preferred scenario would be much more common and confusing with male-presenting people in the women's bathroom and vice versa.
did not rely on my personal feelings – but robust statistical evidence.
arkie, you are focusing on one incident and extrapolating that as if it is indicative of a persuasive argument. It is not. It is a waste of my time to point this out to you repeatedly so I will not.
"Absent a chromosome test and/or genital inspections we rely on gender and the societal expectations of such, to determine which 'single-sex' space someone should occupy. "
This conflation of DSD's with gender identities is common, and along with conflation of sex with gender identities, is just poor logic.
"Please supply this 'robust' evidence."
I am surprised you are unaware.
However, a link for you. Please note the proviso, it is becoming increasingly hard to find up-to-date figures that distinguish by sex, due to the capture of statistical departments (including our own) who interchange sex and gender identity without regard to accuracy:
An estimated 91% of victims of rape & sexual assault are female and 9% male. Nearly 99% of perpetrators are male. 1This US Dept. of Justice statistic does not report those who do not identify in these gender boxes.
Did you honestly require a statistical reference for this?
If transmen are to use women's bathrooms surely that makes it easier for male predators to enter those spaces without 'pretending to be a woman' to gain that access?
90% of women survivors were victimised by someone known to them, 23% of women were assaulted by a partner or ex-partner, 24% were assaulted a family member, 44% were assaulted by "another known person". Just 9% were assaulted by strangers.
I was specifically asking for the 'robust' evidence that transwomen are a risk to women in bathrooms. This isn't actually possible because they are not.
I provided the statistics on my contribution which is based on "sex". I do not conflate sex with gender identity, and the single-sex provisions relate to sexed differences.
"I was specifically asking for the 'robust' evidence that transwomen are a risk to women in bathrooms. This isn't actually possible because they are not."
I don't need to provide it. Alongside many other males, they are included in the statistics I have given you. Along with males who are eight years old, blind teenaged boys, men with mobility issues, men and boys with cancer, men with mental incapacity – they are included.
Because you wish to extract men with gender identities from these statistics, so that they can be treated independently of their sex, you need to find the data that supports that treatment. Then any advantages to that cohort must be considered and weighted against the impact on women and girls.
Until you provide the 'robust' evidence that they are significantly different to other males, then you cannot make the second claim. In fact, you cannot make the second claim unless you provide evidence that NO harm will be enacted on women at ANY time, in ANY place by men with gender identities.
"This isn't actually possible because they are not."
You are the one making this extraordinary claim.
I wait for your extraordinary evidence to support it.
Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Laws in Public Accommodations: a Review of Evidence Regarding Safety and Privacy in Public Restrooms, Locker Rooms, and Changing Rooms
…
This study finds that the passage of such laws is not related to the number or frequency of criminal incidents in these spaces. Additionally, the study finds that reports of privacy and safety violations in public restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms are exceedingly rare. This study provides evidence that fears of increased safety and privacy violations as a result of nondiscrimination laws are not empirically grounded.
Interestingly cismen are the most concerned about transwomen's access to women's bathrooms
These statistics show that cisgender males are not only more likely to be concerned with safety and privacy surrounding transgender females in female bathrooms, but are also more likely to express that transgender females directly cause their concerns.
Unless there is a universal and comprehensive method of gathering such data, there will be no statistics proving the harm of men with gender identities. It is unlikely that females report incidents, and there is no assurance that if they do service providers record it. The escalation needed to make criminal reports – would obscure many incidents as well.
For example, I could make the same claim about male gardeners. eg. There exists no evidence to show that male gardeners are of harm to women and girls.
It is both poor reasoning and evidence.
The only comprehensive evidence we have is that based on sex.
As for the second social media analysis. I'm not really that interested in the ratio of that kind of limited analysis, which is all it offers. Counting the uninformed reckons of people on the internet is good for polling, but not for considered reasoning.
As usual I never expected you to argue in good faith. I have provided the 'extraordinary' evidence you required that your concerns are unfounded ie Not Empirically Grounded. You choose to ignore it so that you can continue your monomania. Enjoy.
"I have provided the 'extraordinary' evidence you required that your concerns are unfounded ie Not Empirically Grounded. You choose to ignore it so that you can continue your monomania. "
I do not agree about the quality of your evidence – and said why.
Instead of providing the missing methodology or responding to points raised, you seem to fall into personal insults while running away.
"My mother is 66 years old and no shrinking violet. I have never known her in any circumstance to shy away from confrontation. In the decades she has been swimming at this pool, she has had several run-ins with the lifeguards, management, and other swimmers. From too-slow swimmers clogging up the fast lane to the Covid-related mask mandates, my mother has always fearlessly spoken her mind. During Covid, she fought back so relentlessly against having to wear a mask on the pool deck for the few minutes before entering the water that we worried she might end up in handcuffs. She wasn’t charged, but she did face a short-term suspension from the Sportsplex as a result of her protests.
Yet when a man walked naked through the changeroom while she was in her most vulnerable state, my mother went silent."
Also meant to mention, that the impact on women's and girls on males entering their single-sex provisions is significantly different than the impact on men and boys of females doing the same.
Because of the sexed differences listed above.
In terms of safety and statistics, a women entering a male single-sex provision raises the safety of the male users – and reduces her own. A male entering a women's single-sex space, statistically reduces the likelihood of harm to themselves, while significantly raising the risk for the female users.
I think Molly is prioritizing her own personal feelings and also biological reality.
Public toilets and change rooms have long been separated based on sex.
That trans people have a problem and with that, I have some sympathy for. But I am afraid there is no way I will accept as the solution that male bodied people who identify as women be allowed into womens change rooms. Nope, nada never……..And the good people of Invercargill are fighting this very issue right now.
Megyn Kelly who was initally a cheer leader for Trans rights says it very well here.
"I think Molly is prioritizing her own personal feelings and also biological reality."
Thanks for that. I agree with the second, but not with the first.
I approach this from a place of logic, and my feelings remain personal and strong, but are not put forward as an argument about the non-emotive aspects of single-sex provisions. And I don’t often talk about the comfort of such provisions, so my feelings are not often part of my reasoning.
The insistence on removing or ignoring single-sex boundaries doesn't make sense to me, which is why I'm happy to engage in discussions regarding it. With the right questions, someone may be able to come up with an explanation that does make sense, and be able to address the concerns raised with solutions – rather than a demand for capitulation.
Trans women having been using womens's spaces for decades. In the UK, it's been legal since 2010. No sex or harrassment crimes reported in the UK by trans women in womens' spaces in the 12 years since.
In the US, in 2015, the first 'preventative' legislation to ban trans women was introduced, in Louisiana, I think. 10 US states had had trans inclusive legislation for up to a decade. There were no reports from police, rape crisis organisations, etc from those 10 trans inclusive states of sexual attacks by trans women in those spaces. The legislator introducing the bill, which was passed, had no evidence of harm, he just wanted to 'prevent' trans women.
Talking about 'men in dresses who bring penises into bathrooms', is wanting to 'prevent' NZ trans women from going about their lives, as they have been doing, without proof.
Trans people exist. Would you have transmen in women's bathrooms too?
the best solution I have heard was in a recent twitter Space where transsexual people were talking about the need to go where you fit in. So a TM who has done the full works is probably going to be better off in a male toilet. A TW who has socially transitioned but still looks male, is better off in a male toilet too.
In a place like NZ we still have some choices which way this goes. But that won't last forever and the more that cross dressing and NB males push the boundaries on this, the more public backlash there will be. Most people don't care that much if fully transition TW use women's toilets where they just want to go and not cause a hassle. It's the AGPs and activists who are making a song and a dance and worse (cue references to AGPs masturbating in women's toilets and posting that online). No-one will put up with that shit because it's hugely disrespectful and it breaches social norms. (by no-one, I mean the general public).
Wouldn't they also have cops called on them, seeing that they look, for all intents and purposes, to be men? Anti-trans people already have difficulty determining 'sex' and differentiating between that and gender norms, as the above example proves.
I don't know what is going on in that video because there is no context or evidence for what it is. I can't tell if the person being thrown out is male or female, when it happened, where it happened, what prompted the scene in the first place. It's a piece of gotcha SM clickbait.
Beyond the toilet issue, it basically comes down to whether people support women's sex based rights or not. Women aren't going to back down from this, because our rights matter. How that plays out is as much on liberals as anyone else.
"the best solution I have heard was in a recent twitter Space where transsexual people were talking about the need to go where you fit in. So a TM who has done the full works is probably going to be better off in a male toilet."
The very real concern I have for this as a solution, is the added impetus it gives to young people – and others but particularly the young – to approach transition as means to get access to single-sex spaces, rather than significant interventions to be approached with caution, maturity and full understanding of impacts.
As the number of detransitioners continues to grow – particularly among the young – this concern about the added pressure on young people to pass as the opposite sex becomes stronger.
For that reason, I don't think it is a good solution in the current climate.
(It also performs the usual conflation of gender identity and sex, which at the moment, I have little patience for.)
The very real concern I have for this as a solution, is the added impetus it gives to young people – and others but particularly the young – to approach transition as means to get access to single-sex spaces, rather than significant interventions to be approached with caution, maturity and full understanding of impacts.
I don't think girls transition to gain access to men's spaces (in fact some get a shock once they do access at what that means for them). Many are transitioning to try and escape being female. Those girls are always welcome in women's spaces. But if they have fully transitioned (Buck Angel level transition), then it may work better for them to use male toilets.
AGPs on the other hand, do seem to transition to access spaces. In NZ I think the number of passing AGPs is relatively small, so I'm less concerned about this.
As the number of detransitioners continues to grow – particularly among the young – this concern about the added pressure on young people to pass as the opposite sex becomes stronger.
I'm not following you there. Can you please explain in a different way?
Basically I'm saying that TIFs should go to whatever toilet works. Same with transsexual TIMs. AGPs are a different matter and the sooner the public gets to knowing what AGP is the better (preferably without the whole groomer/pervert rhetoric)
Watching the stories from those who have transitioned, there often seems to be a number of milestones that they follow.
For females, it is puberty blockers, testosterone injections, breast removal etc. and the testing of the success of these interventions is reliant on their ability to pass as the opposite sex.
As some who later on detransition relate, that validation of being able to use a male facility or not be challenged when doing so, is already a big incentive to go on testosterone, have surgery etc. These are significant medical interventions.
If single-sex policies are rewritten to accommodate such passing – that compulsion that looks for external validation, is further supported by public policy which has an impact on decision making.
It also ignores aspects that do not have anything to do with safety. Biological differences in practical needs, dignity, privacy safety and consent.
These considerations apply to men as well. The safety factor, perhaps the one most significantly different to women.
AGP is vehemently protested because it confirms a sexual aspect and motivation to some men with gender identities. Some men, however, acknowledge their AGP openly:
It's worthwhile to research Ray Blanchard, and listen to interviews or lectures he gives. He is quite sympathetic to the patients he draws his perspective from, and worked as a clinician for many years. From a purely personal point of view, I find some of his off-hand comments to be revealing of a disparaging view of women. But that doesn't negate his experience or observations.
There is a good analysis of Charles Moser's paper here:
"Blanchard’s Typology, first developed 30 years ago, has been under constant criticism from certain MtFs who would be identified by Blanchard as AGP. This reached fever pitch when J Michael Bailey published ‘The Man Who Would be Queen’, which I wrote a retrospective review of HERE.
It is into this battlefield — and the word is not ill-chosen — that Moser forayed.
Moser employed two methods; one was a small study he designed which proposed to test whether autogynephilia, which was defined by Blanchard as ‘a man’s propensity to be sexually aroused by himself, as a woman’ actually existed. To do this, he simply asked some women academic colleagues if they would complete the Questionnaire that Blanchard had devised to diagnose autogynephilia in men.
This is where we get the first indication of the nature of Moser’s scholarship. It operates by decontextualising the subject. Blanchard was not a theoretical researcher, he was a practising clinician. He was responsible for either providing, or not providing, letters justifying MtFs’ desire to have a physical sex change, as was required by the Standards of Care.
Blanchard was concerned that many individuals were coming forward who did not fall into the Primary or Homosexual type of MtF but who were obviously still in need of help. Blanchard needed to study what he was seeing in order to be able to provide a scientifically sound basis for awarding them a recommendation for Genital Reconstruction Surgery…."
Anne Lawrence PhD – mentioned above – also has critiqued Charles Moser's work in an article that was published in The Journal of Sex Research in 2009:
As for the rest, compelled speech is abhorrent. Regardless of political position, everyone should be against such compulsions.
Correctly sexing someone remains an accurate use of language. Not adhering to demands to redefine man and woman is not harmful – it is just not compliance to excessive demands.
I don't know what is going on in that video because there is no context or evidence for what it is. I can't tell if the person being thrown out is male or female, when it happened, where it happened, what prompted the scene in the first place. It's a piece of gotcha SM clickbait.
Right so this is a problem. You dismiss this but are perfectly accepting of the equivalent if it supports your ideological position.
It's deeply ironic to me that the calls for everyone to 'Listen To Women' necessarily involves not listening to trans people.
Right so this is a problem. You dismiss this but are perfectly accepting of the equivalent if it supports your ideological position.
Please give me at least two examples where I have done this.
I spend a large amount of my online time fact checking. For instance, this morning someone posted a snip of a KJK video. KJK is good for taking out of context because of her hyperbole, she makes good inflammatory clickbait. I went and found the original video, set the start time for the relevant bit and posted it in several places on twitter where I knew people were reacting to the snip. This is my kaupapa. So if you want to suggest I routinely don't do this when it happens to be something I agree with, I'd like some evidence so I know what you are talking about.
It's deeply ironic to me that the calls for everyone to 'Listen To Women' necessarily involves not listening to trans people.
What are you on about? I literally just referenced a group of transsexuals in the point I was making. It's the GI side that thinks listening to women and trans people is somehow incompatible, hence No Debate.
and, any time you see me using low quality, out of context material to support an argument, please pull me up on it. Joe90 has done this once or twice, I’m not perfect.
It's a waste of my time trying to pull you all up on this issue, it's never-ending, especially seeing that many will not change their minds no matter the evidence or lack thereof… Nope, nada never.
It’s not just you, the use of overseas social media sources in this issue is frequent by the regular commenters. A quick sampling of your posts:
I didn’t object to the use of overseas social media sources. I objected to a random video that had no context.
If we look at your first example, it’s a link to a quote by Ani O’Brien, where she posts a photo of a stick on a pole saying “hate trans people? kill yourself”. She says it’s been posted in Wellington, and gives her analysis and opinion about it.
What exactly is wrong with that? There is context, explanation of the issues, a clear image. Is your objection to Ani? The quality of information in the tweet? What?
You seem to be objecting to me posting negative things about gender identity ideology. But you miss the point. Your video would have been an excellent conversation starter if we knew more about it.
I’m not dissing the content, I’m saying it’s poor quality material for a decent debate (and tbh I was surprised you posted it because you are usually better than that).
Yes you did, and we had a conversation about it. Again, what is the problem specifically? Rereading it now, it appears you didn’t realise that there are people actively saying there is a trans holocaust and that feminists are part of the cause. That’s the context of Nutmeg’s tweets. She was pointing out that the comparison between what happens to trans people and the Holocaust is nauseating. It’s the kind of stupid, propaganda hyberbole that KJK uses on the other side.
What’s really happening is that trans people are one of the groups most at risk of rising fascism. That’s different to them being murdered in large numbers by the state. I believe The Disinformation Project that there is a rise in rhetoric from the far right online that is aimed at trans people and wanting them killed or eliminated. This is serious enough without calling it a holocaust or genocide. It seems to me there is a general conflation between genocide rhetoric and murder rates of trans people (the latter being majorly misrepresented in scale and cause. It’s not feminists murdering trans people, it’s usually domestic violence, or in places like South America it’s associated with the sex trade. All wrong and all needing attention but not via bullshit ideologically driven rhetoric).
The Holocaust analogy is, in fact, particularly valid. The virulent anti trans (and now anti rainbow) propaganda, some of which finds its way to The Standard, follows closely the 'degenerate' labelling by nazis of homosexuals and the jewish and romany peoples. Which certainly is well on the path to genocide x. Making trans women out to be predators and groomers without solid evidence is othering and dehumanisation.
As I posted here today, all trans people in Florida have lost their right to healthcare affirming their trans identity, not just minors. It affects around 90,000 people. That was quick. Foment enough fear and hate and you'll see how quickly nasty/nazi shit can happen without pushback.
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Genocide can be any of the above acts, not just mass killing.
You posted this after the SUFW event in Naarm/Melbourne that was attended by neo-nazis. It's specifically about those in attendance being called nazis and 'nutmegs' discomfort with the term and it's an attempt to call those protesting the event holocaust-deniers. It still disgusts me that this was posted.
thanks, that’s substance we can get our teeth into.
Which of those four categories of people do you feel trans people fit into?
Which of those acts apply to trans people, and which groups of people are intent on destroying them?
You posted this after the SUFW event in Naarm/Melbourne that was attended by neo-nazis. It’s specifically about those in attendance being called nazis and ‘nutmegs’ discomfort with the term and it’s an attempt to call those protesting the event holocaust-deniers. It still disgusts me that this was posted.
It wasn’t a SUFW event, that’s a NZ group. It was a Let Women Speak event. Two weeks before I made my comment. I can’t see how BabyBeginner’s tweet is specifically about Melbourne. Her tweet appears to be in response to ongoing issues with conflating trans issues with genocide rhetoric and blaming women for that. That was happening before Melbourne.
As I said at the time, ‘denier’ isn’t a word I would have used. But there is no doubt that there are lots of people misrepresenting what is happening to trans people eg talking about a high trans murder rate is common, but it’s just not true.
If you don't see it then I can't ever convince you. You are prepared to take a charitable interpretation of those echoing GCF talking points but dismiss and tone police those who disagree with the framing and terminology around this topic. I provide scientific papers that are 'countered' by opinion pieces. And the pile-ons! Look around you, look at what you have made. The sheer number of regular voices that have left or forgone commenting at all because of disagreements over this issue. It's sad, and tiring.
If you don’t see it then I can’t ever convince you
See what? If you think there is a trans genocide happening, then step up and do the mahi to convince people. I’ve already told you that I think trans people are at risk in places like the US, this is bloody obvious. I also don’t agree that what is happening to trans people fits the definition of genocide. You do, but you won’t make the argument, so 🤷♀️ You know how things go here, people explain their thinking, but you won’t on this issue. Why is that?
You are prepared to take a charitable interpretation of those echoing GCF talking points but dismiss and tone police those who disagree with the framing and terminology around this topic.
I don’t dismiss and tone police, I make strong arguments against other people’s position. This isn’t a liberal hand holding space. People argue robustly on all topics. You already know this.
And yes, I don’t really rate the argument that I shouldn’t use the term TIM, when it’s not actually an argument but rather someone telling me how to speak and think.
I provide scientific papers that are ‘countered’ by opinion pieces.
This is always a problem here, it’s just part of the work. We make the arguments over time, and some people have better evidence for their views than others. It’s not possible to moderate that any more than we do, but you can always bring this to the attention of moderators.
And the pile-ons! Look around you, look at what you have made. The sheer number of regular voices that have left or forgone commenting at all because of disagreements over this issue. It’s sad, and tiring.
Pile ons? There is definitely an imbalance in the sense that there are more gender critical people here than there are people that support gender identity ideology. But how is this different than all the times women are outnumbered here?
I left the site for 15 months because two male authors trashed the women’s project that a group of women had been working on for a long time. Nothing to do with the sex/gender wars. I can easily count 5 feminist authors that have left here over similar issues, and more women commenters. Again, nothing to do with the sex/gender wars. People come and go, for all sorts of reasons, and some of that is unfair. There are people I miss too.
It’s hard work commenting here. It always has been for those of us that are serious about the politics.
To correct you weka: only 'some' women 'are not going to back down from this'. Count me and many, many other women out of this anti trans crusade.
The ‘count me out’ women include the 30-40% of 'real' women in the 2000-4000 people opposing Posie Parker in Auckland. There were more 'real' women than trans women on the organising committee for the Wellington anti-Parker rally. There were 'real' women who directly opposed Posie Parker's message, like Senator Lidia Thorpe, manhandled in Canberra; and the women who was grabbed around the throat by security and removed from the microphone when she began to speak in opposition at Parker's Melbourne rally.
Weka, I think/know that some want to frame the concern about access to women's safe spaces as being anti-trans when it is nothing of the sort. I am resolutely pro women and my stance comes from this perspective.
As far as trans argument it is live and let live, though I do have concerns about child safe guarding, making decsions while too young to make them and the irrevocable nature of some of the decisions but my overriding concern is that women remain able to access safe spaces. To determine what constitutes a safe space for women obviously means that we ask and are guided by what women say, not men.
I also realise that even though the argument is pro women rather than anti trans and this is not a nuanced view ie it is a clear, palin ad simple one, it seems difficult for some to understand. Why is this I wonder?
What would happen if we actually put this view to the forefront?
Would we get better decison making re safe spaces for women and trans people?
To answer my own question I believe if we looked at it from the point of view of maintaining safe spaces for women, access to sport for women while asking ourselves what we can do to make safe spaces for transwomen then we would have been much further forward.
The reason we are not and there is suspicion and vitriol, is that we were presented with the need to deny biology, our own eyes and agree to the 'Emperor has no clothes' mantra of transwomen are (real) women. Pushback was inevitable.
Yes Weka, some of these quotes/opinions are bare faced misogyny/sexism. Having been around for a while, years-wise and fought a few battles for womens lib back in the day, and having had a mother and grandmother whose 'spidy' sense could pick a sexist at a 1000 paces I can pick the dudes wanting to deny women.
Strangely or not they seem to be the same and hold the same sexist views as their predecessors. Though they are able to dress it up as mysterious and new as it relates to poor hard done by men (though disguised)
I realise that perhaps my words are tough. Where and how did we get to have these unseeing, uncritical people who think biological sex can be changed and who inflict court/tribunal cases on people for such felonies as pronouns, dead-naming.
I am glad that some jurisdictions are pulling back on the child transitions. Why would we let a child or their parents make a decision that can mean an inability to father/bear a child or, fundamentally, to have a sexual relationship that involves orgasm. Who are these cruel people and who gives them the right to do this to others?
Gosh, resorting to hairsplitting about terminology. To paraphrase you Shanreagh:
'I don't agree with arkie's vocab, it doesn't fit with my GC ideology – therefore none of arkie's points are worth considering'
Cis woman and cis man are terms that trans inclusionary feminists, rainbow supporters, and many men are quite comfortable using to describe themselves in context, eg, when talking about trans issues.
'Karen' is a meme. Here is what is considered to be a classic 'Karen ' example, a young woman who uses her white woman privilege to falsely accuse a black man of assault after he asks her to put her dog on a leash in a designated bird nesting area.
No I was not looking looking at it from a GC point of view but from a student of the English language and linguistics.
Of course groups have their own 'in' words and sayings and this serves as an inclusionary purpose. The words used in Govt circles, economics are shorthand and inclusionary or exclusionary depending on which side the group you stand.
One of the hallmarks of this trans movement is the erasure of language about those who are the targets. So women and women's spaces are the targets for males wanting to access females safe spaces. So we don't have breast feeding but chest feeding…..
We have males trying to gate-crash lesbian groups, we have males asking the authorities to censure lesbian groups under rights legislation. These men do not seem to grasp that lesbians care not for the male body, even when it has been tweaked and 'chemicalised'. They are what is called same sex attracted and that same sex is women ie those who are and remain women.
So we find also that words describing 1-5% of the community need to influence words describing 51%. So instead of the wider word being reserved for the majority we now find that the wider word 'women' has to have an unneeded, additional and uneuphonious (if that is a word – I mean hard on the ear) word added and this is 'cis'. Surely there are bio women and trans women or women and trans women.
We have the OTT use of the word 'genocide', this truly horrifies me that people in this movement truly believe that what they have essentially brought/wrought on themselves (ie there is a choice about taking drugs or embarking on surgery) is in any way the same as a state/Nazi sanctioned abuse wrought on others such as travellers, Jews, intellectually impaired etc etc. who had no means ie choice to avoid the stigma.
My distaste for the Karen slur surely needs no explaining. It is ageist and sexist.
My takeaway from the wider trans movement has been the intense dislike/hatred of women, it seems to be an intensely misogynistic movement, as befits a 'boys own/man's own' adventure.
I do feel that there are those with gender disphoria and the phrase 'watch-ful waiting' is surely a good one here…..care for the soul/psychiatric help until children reach past puberty and have the mind/experience and tools of life on which to base decisions on whether to take action that may be irrevocable.
Do you think this result may have been foreseeable (and is justified) by the legal actions of WPATH, the AAP and the Endocrine Society who not only failed to provide the clinical evidence requested by Florida to support their proscribed methods of care, but joined together to attempt to legally avoid having to do so?
Edit: Link to court document appealing the subpoeana for data – “JOINT MOTION OF NONPARTIES AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS, WORLD PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR TRANSGENDER HEALTH, AND ENDOCRINE SOCIETY TO QUASH RULE 45 SUBPOENAS “
I have a suspicion that the main difference is that in the past, the vast majority of trans identified people were same sex attracted.
These days it is not so easy. I have been in the same Ladies Toilet facility with Georgina Beyer a couple of times at Labour Party Conferences. We were both there for the same reasons, use the facilities, flush, wash our hands and depart. We were not there to snap "bathroom selfies" with a bunch of schoolgirls, to achieve our "gender euphoria" or to steal used sanitary products for menstrual fetishes.
Nobody then was demanding a right for male bodied people to use changing rooms or locker rooms where women get undressed, or to use the women's section of a Spa. The person in the Wi Spa incident – although vigorously defended by Trans Rights Activists, got dropped like a hot brick when it turned out he was a registered sex offender with past convictions for displaying himself in women's spaces.
Remember – with self ID – any man can say he is trans.
The accommodations made in the past for transsexuals – was legislatively enacted, and required legal recognition based on GRS.
As you mention that distinction no longer is in place with current interpretations of the law, and the introduction of Self-ID.
However, I would like to point out that there would have been women that self-excluded – for whatever reasons – when they became aware they were expected to share single-sex provisions with a male. We will never know how many did this.
It is also worthwhile to consider that consent of all women was assumed – when this provision was passed into law. And consent – above all – is not transferable when it comes to adults.
Our admiration for individuals such as Georgina Beyer, should not overcome basic safeguarding principles that apply to all. It is an uncomfortable position but a necessary one, because good safeguarding practice is not based on emotion.
Oh gosh, Visubversa, maybe the US Wi Spa was not a trans issue, because the person involved was a predator who happened also to be trans.
One reason it was taken up by the trans community at first was because a perfectly innocent trans woman was incorrectly identified as the predator, after which she was mobbed online from all over the world.
There are around 100, 000 trans women in California. Are there 100, 000 trans predators in California?
Oh yea…and deny climate change..and dairy NZ contributions to
On that. I see ex Fed Farm spokes mouth Andrew Hoggard has nailed his dairy shit brown colours to acts mast
Federated Farmers' president Andrew Hoggard has stepped down from the top role in order to contest this year's election as the ACT party's Rangitīkei candidate.
People whorry about how many billboards all that billionaire dosh buys National and ACT. What they should be worried about is how many nasty little right wing shits with comms skills it buys to spend endless days digging for dirt that can be then laundered through the Herald.
More than anything, potential MPs really should be over their investments and potential conflicts before being elected. As you say, could all be easily avoided.
" I would donate the money to a charity and do a mea culpa."
My bet is, that is what he will do.
As a minister who has one of the heaviest workloads, it is unsurprising he never got around to it. He put his portfolios before a handful of shares he bought nearly 40 years ago!
It reminds me of the petty-fogging, officious senior public servants I encountered who were more concerned about somebody arriving to work a few minutes late (usually for good reason) than they were on the person's excellent out-put during working hours.
Friggin annoyed at Chris Hipkins knee jerking to the trifling issue of old shares. Michael Wood should have been spoken to, and his reasons for forgetting to follow up his initial action to sell shares listened to. And then just let him do just that. Sell them. Probably the same reason John key reasoned that he didn’t remember. But then maybe not. Key out and out lied to his tame media and they accepted it Just like that. Super annoyed. Michael Wood is one of the best that Labour has. He stays! However, I am betting that Chris Lux isn’t going to be keys favourite person for a while.
I'm annoyed with Hipkins too. I don't mind Wood being temporarily stood down but I do get impatient with this "deer in the headlights" acceptance of opposition framing. He has to counter-attack. Control the narrative. Challenge Luxon with language like this …
"I warn the leader of the National party that to play holier-than-thou is a game no politician should play, unless he is surrounded by saints. And he knows he is not."
"If Mr Luxon believes that making a mistake is a sacking offence, then Mr Luxon should have sacked Mr Luxon by now. He has blamed his own staff for everything from his own social media to candidate selection to campaign tactics. Apparently Mr Luxon is responsible for nothing."
"If Mr Luxon has already forgotten his own MPs' sins perhaps he would like a list … [provide long list of MPs …]
And so on, and so on. Who is writing Hipkins' lines? They are weak. FFS, fight back.
For example, does anyone remember this "mistake"? Of course not, because Labour never talk about it but if the roles were reversed National would be all over it. And the media would follow …
I get sick of this pussy-footing around. Michael did nothing much wrong. It seems he requested a stockbroker sell the shares then forgot about them…until he later discovered the stockbroker didn't sell the shares.
If I recall correctly my 'teenage' shares tanked not long after I bought em and never recovered. Dunno what happened to them but never ventured onto the stock-market again. Life is too short to be f****d about a handful of shares.
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This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
The pair opened their first fully collaborative exhibition, Nina for Flowers, last Saturday. Gabi Lardies visited their studio to find out who Nina is and what working together was like.‘It didn’t start out like, ‘This is a show about Nina,’” says Josephine Jelicich, gripping a thermos of peppermint tea. ...
Thank you, Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, for your brilliant invention. I’m another mid-20s Kiwi who had an OE last year. I hopped on my bicycle where France meets the Atlantic and cycled east. I pedalled through the Loire Valley, down rivers lined with willows and ancient wisteria-draped chateaus. I relished ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
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I guess TVNZ was too busy leading with crime stories basically every day for the last two weeks to do any actual journalism, but I would have thought questions to the government on if it has any exposure to this humdinger of a scandal involving Price Waterhouse-Coopers in Australia would have been of interest.
Basicallt, PWC worked on tax law changes for the government then passed on the details of those changes to it's corporate clients so they could get their new tax avoidance measures in place ahead of the law changes.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/05/pwc-australia-names-former-partners-it-says-misused-confidential-information-in-tax-scandal
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/pwcs-future-in-australia-under-threat-as-crisis-grows/ZGMBIS6CW5BMVJ77M2OVT4E4UM/
The Listener 3-9 June touches on the same issue. Tom Seymour and Peter Collins from PwC were named in the tax avoidance tricks. Part of an article about getting rid of consultants and investing in skilled public servants.
Meanwhile a beneficiary gets headlines for a few hundred dollars overpayments.
The rights and wellbeing of renters are supported by the Green party:
Listen to the interview with Corin Dann: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018893147/greens-say-it-s-time-for-renters-to-tell-it-like-it-is
Submit your story here: https://www.greens.org.nz/greens_launch_rental_stories_campaign
The healthy homes standards became law on 1 July 2019.
So what is the actual aim of this new Green campaign?
Many landlords are failing to meet those standards:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/07/renters-stuck-in-draughty-mouldy-homes-as-landlord-compliance-with-healthy-homes-standards-lags-advocates.html
The Government is not monitoring or enforcing the law:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/government-not-collecting-data-on-healthy-homes-standards-compliance.html
So they are seeking more enforcement of compliance? Such as a WOF for rentals?
This will seemingly add further costs to landlords, thus tenants.
Do the Greens have something in mind to overcome this?
Yea. The supermarket duopolists are never going to do it willingly. They could give a rats arse about people (despite their bullshit "feelgood" advertising)
Good on Consumer…fighting for NZ consumers.
The 2023 version of Dirty Politics is in progress:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/transport-minister-michael-woods-wife-julie-fairey-has-a-separate-interest-in-auckland-airport/RXHISVIZQBG2ZAAMXFEWORVTGA/
So Michael Woods had a little over 1000 Airport shares in a trust fund. He took them out as a teenager – must have been 30 plus years ago. So somebody has been digging around inside his personal financial affairs. Is that legal?
Somebody talked me into taking out 500 shares (not Airport) when I was a teenager. I forgot for years they even existed. Some National luminaries, at least in days gone by, cooked their books on a regular basis but that was okay. Minor infringements usually committed unwittingly by Labour luminaries are a different story?
When have National EVER contested an election without resorting to lies and dirty tricks?
Answer: not in my lifetime at least.
What National lies? Does Minster Woods own the shares – yes or no? How is this a National issue?
So Minister Woods bought the shares as a teenager and they’re held in a Trust. What teenager has a trust?
He thought he sold them? Until he didn’t.
Now we are hearing his wife has an interest in the shares (per Anne’s link above). Assuming she will recuse herself from the Auckland Council vote on said share sale later this week.
This story has quite some way to go I suspect.
Wood has owned a completely trivial number of shares for a long time. If as Minister he was able to do something that increased the value of those shares, he stands to gain by a few hundred dollars at best. And in reality, the value of airport shares is more likely to increase if Brownie is able to sell the Council's holding – something that Wood probably opposes, and his partner Ms Fairey, does oppose.
This looks like an inconsequential and inadvertent technical breach of the rules by Wood. He should correct the record and move on.
As usual with the political right, their accusations are a form of projection. They accuse others of doing exactly the sort of dodgy things they would do given the same opportunity, or are in fact are already doing in private.
Go it. The rules around declaring financial interests, particularly when they relate to a Minister with direct portfolio responsibilities, are just there for funsies. Glad to have that sorted.
Then John Key's political career should have been over before he ever became PM. See Joe90's link below (of course I assume you do remember, and the political reporters remember, but these tedious games of fake outrage must be played).
But I don't think Key's omission was enough to make him resign, any more than Wood's is today. If that's the ethical bar, then half the National cabinet should have been hounded out of office. For example …
Today's words to Google: "Murray McCully" and "Saudi sheep".
Ever heard the words "Family Trust"? Many couples have their house etc in a Family Trust. My parents did.
See also David Seymour … which is why he has been careful not to start throwing stones on this matter.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/act-leader-david-seymours-embarrassment-cant-afford-to-buy-guy-has-an-interest-in-three-properties/H6PC3IOARTNTLTIKGBZP3NN34I/
As usual Luxon is showing poor judgement in attacking Wood, because if he really wants Wood's error to be the new resignation standard, he's going to have a very nervous caucus. Reap what you sow …
No, he won’t resign or be sacked. We’ve already hit the bottom of the Cabinet talent barrel with Tenitti.
[Please correct your e-mail address in your next comment, thanks. You might also want to tone down the increasing troll-level of your comments – Incognito]
Mod note
The Rimmer effect…
But did anyone ever ask?
In an interview with One News last night, Mr Key faltered when asked about the shares, initially saying his family owned 25,000-50,000 shares, then shifting to "sometimes 50,000, sometimes 100,000" then finally "yeah, sorry, it was 100,000 in total".
Asked why he had only ever admitted to the 30,000 shares owned by the family trust, Mr Key said: "No one's ever asked me the number I owned."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/key-caught-out-over-rail-shares/6USXEACH6DEXR3FAI4V2SD5RQE/
Yep, the Natzo underwear sniffers and wheelie bin snoopers are officially back Anne!
Ex PM Mr Key’s largish holding of rail shares, as several posters have reminded us above, was fine back in the day–nothing to see here for the media that used to give JK hot towels and back rubs. But I guess with the Supercity Airport shares up for flogging off to the nearest venture capitalist or pension investment fund, this has some further importance for certain people.
Agee 100% Anne
It's all about optics, everyone knows Key and the Tory's have shares in everything and will exploit every loophole, this kind of thing is expected of national.
Labour and the Greens, are held to a different standard, not just by media but by voters and their own members.
$13000 is a lot of money for most people in NZ, who can barely rub two dollars together, for many voters $13 k is not insignificant and hearing the minister responsible has undeclared conflicts looks grubby and it is inappropriate.
Im glad Hipkins acted swiftly and removed Wood while the issue is sorted turning it into a non issue.
$13 is a shit load of money to the people labour need to vote for it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/491423/transport-minister-michael-wood-stood-down-after-airport-shares-controversy
Wood was born in 1980. If anything, the Nats should be in absolute awe of his prudent investment that has grown in value over more than two decades and that shows long-term vision and patience, none of which you’d expect to find in a Nat MP.
The guy cannot hold his story – He was going to sell them in 2020 then he didn't, for some reason."There were about six times that there had been discussions between Wood and the Cabinet office about divesting his shares, Hipkins said. That was since the end of 2020 when those six instances occurred." SIX !!!! Now he acts.
He received dividends and declares the income under his tax returns & financial reports mailed under his name would that not prompt a reminder who owns them ??
again it its the ever shifting story as more details are reported- that is what is sinking him IMO
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/prime-minister-chris-hipkins-to-face-further-questions-over-michael-woods-auckland-airport-shares-controversy/FOHZP2TOBNDRRI7NHTRKRUPEGU/
He thought they were in a trust then we find out he owns them outright. When he prepares his tax return the dividends would have been declared under his tax return.
The last Financial Year in which those shares paid dividend was 2019.
https://corporate.aucklandairport.co.nz/investors/shares-and-bonds
In other words, there was nothing to declare on his Tax Return.
Please stop making up shit, thanks.
There were dividends to declare pre 2019 no stop trying to deflect, My comment is not limited to the last few years and does hold up, I am not making anything up, perhaps some need to take a breath before firing off false accusation at others ?? If you need an English lesson "He received dividends and declares the income under his tax returns" my comments were plural, so that then covers any period, including pre 2019 !!!! When I note he was the Senior Whip and Deputy Leader of the House- A senior within the 1st Jacinda Adern govt.
And now we are told he thought he sold them "Wood said he did not disclose them as he thought they had been sold." And what about the SIX times he was asked about divesting from the shares ???
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/491423/transport-minister-michael-wood-stood-down-after-airport-shares-controversy
Of course, you were making up shit.
You wrote this:
And you blabbered something about declaring income from dividends on his Tax Returns when there hasn’t been anything paid since FY-2019.
Yet now you claim:
Do your comments go back all the way to 1998? Just asking, so that you can make up your mind what BS comment you can come up with this time, singular or plural, it doesn’t make a difference.
If you would have taken time and notice that the 2022 comment was within quote marks and there was a link ?? So I was NOT making it up, I was quoting the NZ Herald. So perhaps you need to STOP making things up ??? And how about an apology for claiming that I was making things up !!!
Your 1st comment made no reference about 2022, it related to dividends which I responded. Now it is something else, you are all over the place.
"Wood said he did not disclose them as he thought they had been sold."
"Having indicated back in 2020 that he was intending to dispose of them, he should have done that."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/491423/transport-minister-michael-wood-stood-down-after-airport-shares-controversy
Oh dear, we have a live one here!!!!!!!!!
Firstly, there is no “2022 comment”.
Secondly, you wrote:
This was not within quote marks, not quoted from the NZ Herald, and indeed the NZH does not refer to dividends and Tax Returns as far as I can tell. In other words, they were your words and you made them up.
It was BS and thus you made up shit, about declaring or not declaring non-existing dividends on Tax Returns, since the end of 2020.
The only one who’s all over the place and doesn’t even realise it is you.
"must have been 30 plus years ago".
Well no actually. They listed on 28 July 1998 when he was 18.
It is pretty hard to forget owning shares. They keep sending you stuff, including the dividend statements that would tell him exactly who owned them and how many he owned.
Associated Press reports law against trans affirming care in Florida also applies to ongoing treatments for trans adults
The covert agenda of the US right becomes clearer.
The "religious right" just can't stand the competition. They are scared that one day people might work out that there is exactly the same empirical evidence for the possession of a "gendered soul" that there is for an "immortal soul".
Brilliant Visubversa!
They can always tell /s
https://twitter.com/KarbonSays/status/1659966632926801920
That's a foreseeable additional harm to women, from the threat of men using single-sex spaces.
It is not a reasonable argument for the abandonment of single-sex provisions.
How do you propose to enforce 'single-sex provisions' in bathrooms that do not result in this 'additional' harm to women?
Clarity. Stop the linguistic gymnastics that pretend that single-sex provisions are not related to sex. Clear boundaries make transgressions easier to identity and address because they are uncommon. Thereby, reducing the challenge to non-confirming people of both sexes.
Single-sex spaces are neither femininity nor masculinity testing stations.
They will however demonstrate the cognitive capacity, and/or decision making level of those that knowingly break those single-sex boundaries by prioritising personal feelings.
BTW, still not an argument for the elimination of single-sex provisions. Just a diversion.
Trans people exist. Would you have transmen in women's bathrooms too? Wouldn't they also have cops called on them, seeing that they look, for all intents and purposes, to be men? Anti-trans people already have difficulty determining 'sex' and differentiating between that and gender norms, as the above example proves.
It's interesting that you prefer to prioritise your personal feelings.
"Trans people exist."
Where have I implied otherwise?
"Would you have transmen in women's bathrooms too?"
Given that they are women, Yes. But depending on their degree of transition and presentation, they should be aware that they will be challenged more often – primarily because of the lack of clarity I spoke of before that has been interpreted by many men as permission to break single-sex boundaries. It is a natural consequence of both those aspects.
"Wouldn't they also have cops called on them, seeing that they look, for all intents and purposes, to be men?"
Unlikely. Calling the police is not a response of many women and girls to men invading their spaces. They usually just get out as fast as possible, and/or report to the service provider.
"Anti-trans people already have difficulty determining 'sex' and differentiating between that and gender norms, as the above example proves."
This sentence doesn't make sense.
"It's interesting that you prefer to prioritise your personal feelings."
I understand there are differences between biological sexes in terms of practical needs, privacy, dignity, and safety. These realities are identifiable, and in cases of assault – recorded in statistical data.
Safeguarding risk assessments that resulted in single-sex provisions as significantly reducing (not eliminating) risk of harm, did not rely on my personal feelings – but robust statistical evidence.
It is the same robust statistical evidence that has to be provided in support of boundary breaking – and then weighted against – the issues of safety, privacy, dignity and consent, before considering whether single-sex boundaries can reasonably be broken.
Look to Chesterton's Fence – for where to start when you seek to dismantle existing boundaries:
https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/
Anti-trans people called the police on a cisgender woman because they thought she was trans. They failed to determine her sex and assumed it based on their own interpretations of gender norms. If these anti-trans people were always capable of determining sex as is claimed, then they wouldn't have called police to eject a woman from the women's bathroom would they?
Absent a chromosome test and/or genital inspections we rely on gender and the societal expectations of such, to determine which 'single-sex' space someone should occupy. This can go wrong, as above, and in your preferred scenario would be much more common and confusing with male-presenting people in the women's bathroom and vice versa.
Please supply this 'robust' evidence.
arkie, you are focusing on one incident and extrapolating that as if it is indicative of a persuasive argument. It is not. It is a waste of my time to point this out to you repeatedly so I will not.
"Absent a chromosome test and/or genital inspections we rely on gender and the societal expectations of such, to determine which 'single-sex' space someone should occupy. "
This conflation of DSD's with gender identities is common, and along with conflation of sex with gender identities, is just poor logic.
"Please supply this 'robust' evidence."
I am surprised you are unaware.
However, a link for you. Please note the proviso, it is becoming increasingly hard to find up-to-date figures that distinguish by sex, due to the capture of statistical departments (including our own) who interchange sex and gender identity without regard to accuracy:
https://supportingsurvivors.humboldt.edu/statistics#:~:text=An%20estimated%2091%25%20of%20victims,identify%20in%20these%20gender%20boxes.
Did you honestly require a statistical reference for this?
Looking forward to reading yours.
If transmen are to use women's bathrooms surely that makes it easier for male predators to enter those spaces without 'pretending to be a woman' to gain that access?
90% of women survivors were victimised by someone known to them, 23% of women were assaulted by a partner or ex-partner, 24% were assaulted a family member, 44% were assaulted by "another known person". Just 9% were assaulted by strangers.
I was specifically asking for the 'robust' evidence that transwomen are a risk to women in bathrooms. This isn't actually possible because they are not.
@arkie
I provided the statistics on my contribution which is based on "sex". I do not conflate sex with gender identity, and the single-sex provisions relate to sexed differences.
"I was specifically asking for the 'robust' evidence that transwomen are a risk to women in bathrooms. This isn't actually possible because they are not."
I don't need to provide it. Alongside many other males, they are included in the statistics I have given you. Along with males who are eight years old, blind teenaged boys, men with mobility issues, men and boys with cancer, men with mental incapacity – they are included.
Because you wish to extract men with gender identities from these statistics, so that they can be treated independently of their sex, you need to find the data that supports that treatment. Then any advantages to that cohort must be considered and weighted against the impact on women and girls.
Until you provide the 'robust' evidence that they are significantly different to other males, then you cannot make the second claim. In fact, you cannot make the second claim unless you provide evidence that NO harm will be enacted on women at ANY time, in ANY place by men with gender identities.
"This isn't actually possible because they are not."
You are the one making this extraordinary claim.
I wait for your extraordinary evidence to support it.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-018-0335-z
Interestingly cismen are the most concerned about transwomen's access to women's bathrooms
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12147-016-9181-6
@arkie
Paywalled, so I can't read methodology.
Also, a couple of points:
That statement is negated by the existence of one such incident. I'll choose this one from many I am aware of.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/oklahoma-transgender-student-charged-assaulting-female-high-school-classmates-bathroom
For example, I could make the same claim about male gardeners. eg. There exists no evidence to show that male gardeners are of harm to women and girls.
It is both poor reasoning and evidence.
The only comprehensive evidence we have is that based on sex.
As for the second social media analysis. I'm not really that interested in the ratio of that kind of limited analysis, which is all it offers. Counting the uninformed reckons of people on the internet is good for polling, but not for considered reasoning.
As usual I never expected you to argue in good faith. I have provided the 'extraordinary' evidence you required that your concerns are unfounded ie Not Empirically Grounded. You choose to ignore it so that you can continue your monomania. Enjoy.
@arkie
I always engage in good faith, and with honesty.
"I have provided the 'extraordinary' evidence you required that your concerns are unfounded ie Not Empirically Grounded. You choose to ignore it so that you can continue your monomania. "
I do not agree about the quality of your evidence – and said why.
Instead of providing the missing methodology or responding to points raised, you seem to fall into personal insults while running away.
That's OK. Catch you another time.
Trans women are men :: all men rape :: transwomen using womens's toilets rape.
Molly, this is how your argument develops.
@tWiggle
"Trans women are men :: all men rape :: transwomen using womens's toilets rape.
Molly, this is how your argument develops."
No. It does not.
(Despite how much you may want it to – in order to justify your inability to provide a good argument for your perspective.)
If you want to link to where I have said this – go ahead.
I'll wait.
An article relating the second point made in this comment:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-06-06-2023/#comment-1952846
https://www.feministcurrent.com/2023/06/06/my-mother-is-courageous-but-faced-with-a-man-in-her-change-room-at-ottawas-nepean-sportsplex-she-went-silent/
Also meant to mention, that the impact on women's and girls on males entering their single-sex provisions is significantly different than the impact on men and boys of females doing the same.
Because of the sexed differences listed above.
In terms of safety and statistics, a women entering a male single-sex provision raises the safety of the male users – and reduces her own. A male entering a women's single-sex space, statistically reduces the likelihood of harm to themselves, while significantly raising the risk for the female users.
Because of the sexed differences listed above.
I think Molly is prioritizing her own personal feelings and also biological reality.
Public toilets and change rooms have long been separated based on sex.
That trans people have a problem and with that, I have some sympathy for. But I am afraid there is no way I will accept as the solution that male bodied people who identify as women be allowed into womens change rooms. Nope, nada never……..And the good people of Invercargill are fighting this very issue right now.
Megyn Kelly who was initally a cheer leader for Trans rights says it very well here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxB0LHvS4fg
Why can't you accept no for an answer Arkie?
Hey, Anker.
"I think Molly is prioritizing her own personal feelings and also biological reality."
Thanks for that. I agree with the second, but not with the first.
I approach this from a place of logic, and my feelings remain personal and strong, but are not put forward as an argument about the non-emotive aspects of single-sex provisions. And I don’t often talk about the comfort of such provisions, so my feelings are not often part of my reasoning.
The insistence on removing or ignoring single-sex boundaries doesn't make sense to me, which is why I'm happy to engage in discussions regarding it. With the right questions, someone may be able to come up with an explanation that does make sense, and be able to address the concerns raised with solutions – rather than a demand for capitulation.
Till then…
Trans women having been using womens's spaces for decades. In the UK, it's been legal since 2010. No sex or harrassment crimes reported in the UK by trans women in womens' spaces in the 12 years since.
In the US, in 2015, the first 'preventative' legislation to ban trans women was introduced, in Louisiana, I think. 10 US states had had trans inclusive legislation for up to a decade. There were no reports from police, rape crisis organisations, etc from those 10 trans inclusive states of sexual attacks by trans women in those spaces. The legislator introducing the bill, which was passed, had no evidence of harm, he just wanted to 'prevent' trans women.
Talking about 'men in dresses who bring penises into bathrooms', is wanting to 'prevent' NZ trans women from going about their lives, as they have been doing, without proof.
the best solution I have heard was in a recent twitter Space where transsexual people were talking about the need to go where you fit in. So a TM who has done the full works is probably going to be better off in a male toilet. A TW who has socially transitioned but still looks male, is better off in a male toilet too.
In a place like NZ we still have some choices which way this goes. But that won't last forever and the more that cross dressing and NB males push the boundaries on this, the more public backlash there will be. Most people don't care that much if fully transition TW use women's toilets where they just want to go and not cause a hassle. It's the AGPs and activists who are making a song and a dance and worse (cue references to AGPs masturbating in women's toilets and posting that online). No-one will put up with that shit because it's hugely disrespectful and it breaches social norms. (by no-one, I mean the general public).
I don't know what is going on in that video because there is no context or evidence for what it is. I can't tell if the person being thrown out is male or female, when it happened, where it happened, what prompted the scene in the first place. It's a piece of gotcha SM clickbait.
Beyond the toilet issue, it basically comes down to whether people support women's sex based rights or not. Women aren't going to back down from this, because our rights matter. How that plays out is as much on liberals as anyone else.
"the best solution I have heard was in a recent twitter Space where transsexual people were talking about the need to go where you fit in. So a TM who has done the full works is probably going to be better off in a male toilet."
The very real concern I have for this as a solution, is the added impetus it gives to young people – and others but particularly the young – to approach transition as means to get access to single-sex spaces, rather than significant interventions to be approached with caution, maturity and full understanding of impacts.
As the number of detransitioners continues to grow – particularly among the young – this concern about the added pressure on young people to pass as the opposite sex becomes stronger.
For that reason, I don't think it is a good solution in the current climate.
(It also performs the usual conflation of gender identity and sex, which at the moment, I have little patience for.)
I don't think girls transition to gain access to men's spaces (in fact some get a shock once they do access at what that means for them). Many are transitioning to try and escape being female. Those girls are always welcome in women's spaces. But if they have fully transitioned (Buck Angel level transition), then it may work better for them to use male toilets.
AGPs on the other hand, do seem to transition to access spaces. In NZ I think the number of passing AGPs is relatively small, so I'm less concerned about this.
I'm not following you there. Can you please explain in a different way?
Basically I'm saying that TIFs should go to whatever toilet works. Same with transsexual TIMs. AGPs are a different matter and the sooner the public gets to knowing what AGP is the better (preferably without the whole groomer/pervert rhetoric)
Watching the stories from those who have transitioned, there often seems to be a number of milestones that they follow.
For females, it is puberty blockers, testosterone injections, breast removal etc. and the testing of the success of these interventions is reliant on their ability to pass as the opposite sex.
As some who later on detransition relate, that validation of being able to use a male facility or not be challenged when doing so, is already a big incentive to go on testosterone, have surgery etc. These are significant medical interventions.
If single-sex policies are rewritten to accommodate such passing – that compulsion that looks for external validation, is further supported by public policy which has an impact on decision making.
It also ignores aspects that do not have anything to do with safety. Biological differences in practical needs, dignity, privacy safety and consent.
These considerations apply to men as well. The safety factor, perhaps the one most significantly different to women.
AGP or autogynephilia is a pseudoscientific, disease-based theory that if applied to cis women would result is 93% of them being diagnosed as autogynephilic: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00918360903005212
TIF and TIM are not the accepted terms, they are trans man and trans woman respectively. To do otherwise is to deliberately misgender:
https://ovarit.com/o/GenderCritical/44438/pronouncing-tim-and-tif
@arkie
AGP is vehemently protested because it confirms a sexual aspect and motivation to some men with gender identities. Some men, however, acknowledge their AGP openly:
http://www.annelawrence.com/autogynephilia_&_MtF_typology.html
It's worthwhile to research Ray Blanchard, and listen to interviews or lectures he gives. He is quite sympathetic to the patients he draws his perspective from, and worked as a clinician for many years. From a purely personal point of view, I find some of his off-hand comments to be revealing of a disparaging view of women. But that doesn't negate his experience or observations.
There is a good analysis of Charles Moser's paper here:
https://www.rodfleming.com/mischievous-charles-moser/
Anne Lawrence PhD – mentioned above – also has critiqued Charles Moser's work in an article that was published in The Journal of Sex Research in 2009:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224490903230061
As for the rest, compelled speech is abhorrent. Regardless of political position, everyone should be against such compulsions.
Correctly sexing someone remains an accurate use of language. Not adhering to demands to redefine man and woman is not harmful – it is just not compliance to excessive demands.
AGP is short for autogynephile and is transphobic hate speech.
@tWiggle
"AGP is short for autogynephile and is transphobic hate speech."
Right so this is a problem. You dismiss this but are perfectly accepting of the equivalent if it supports your ideological position.
It's deeply ironic to me that the calls for everyone to 'Listen To Women' necessarily involves not listening to trans people.
Please give me at least two examples where I have done this.
I spend a large amount of my online time fact checking. For instance, this morning someone posted a snip of a KJK video. KJK is good for taking out of context because of her hyperbole, she makes good inflammatory clickbait. I went and found the original video, set the start time for the relevant bit and posted it in several places on twitter where I knew people were reacting to the snip. This is my kaupapa. So if you want to suggest I routinely don't do this when it happens to be something I agree with, I'd like some evidence so I know what you are talking about.
What are you on about? I literally just referenced a group of transsexuals in the point I was making. It's the GI side that thinks listening to women and trans people is somehow incompatible, hence No Debate.
and, any time you see me using low quality, out of context material to support an argument, please pull me up on it. Joe90 has done this once or twice, I’m not perfect.
It's not just you, the use of overseas social media sources in this issue is frequent by the regular commenters. A quick sampling of your posts:
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11-04-2023/#comment-1945102
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-20-04-2023/#comment-1946658
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-20-04-2023/#comment-1946663
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15-05-2023/#comment-1949922
and this one I did specifically call you out:
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-29-03-2023/#comment-1942509
It's a waste of my time trying to pull you all up on this issue, it's never-ending, especially seeing that many will not change their minds no matter the evidence or lack thereof… Nope, nada never.
I didn’t object to the use of overseas social media sources. I objected to a random video that had no context.
If we look at your first example, it’s a link to a quote by Ani O’Brien, where she posts a photo of a stick on a pole saying “hate trans people? kill yourself”. She says it’s been posted in Wellington, and gives her analysis and opinion about it.
What exactly is wrong with that? There is context, explanation of the issues, a clear image. Is your objection to Ani? The quality of information in the tweet? What?
You seem to be objecting to me posting negative things about gender identity ideology. But you miss the point. Your video would have been an excellent conversation starter if we knew more about it.
I’m not dissing the content, I’m saying it’s poor quality material for a decent debate (and tbh I was surprised you posted it because you are usually better than that).
Yes you did, and we had a conversation about it. Again, what is the problem specifically? Rereading it now, it appears you didn’t realise that there are people actively saying there is a trans holocaust and that feminists are part of the cause. That’s the context of Nutmeg’s tweets. She was pointing out that the comparison between what happens to trans people and the Holocaust is nauseating. It’s the kind of stupid, propaganda hyberbole that KJK uses on the other side.
What’s really happening is that trans people are one of the groups most at risk of rising fascism. That’s different to them being murdered in large numbers by the state. I believe The Disinformation Project that there is a rise in rhetoric from the far right online that is aimed at trans people and wanting them killed or eliminated. This is serious enough without calling it a holocaust or genocide. It seems to me there is a general conflation between genocide rhetoric and murder rates of trans people (the latter being majorly misrepresented in scale and cause. It’s not feminists murdering trans people, it’s usually domestic violence, or in places like South America it’s associated with the sex trade. All wrong and all needing attention but not via bullshit ideologically driven rhetoric).
The Holocaust analogy is, in fact, particularly valid. The virulent anti trans (and now anti rainbow) propaganda, some of which finds its way to The Standard, follows closely the 'degenerate' labelling by nazis of homosexuals and the jewish and romany peoples. Which certainly is well on the path to genocide x. Making trans women out to be predators and groomers without solid evidence is othering and dehumanisation.
As I posted here today, all trans people in Florida have lost their right to healthcare affirming their trans identity, not just minors. It affects around 90,000 people. That was quick. Foment enough fear and hate and you'll see how quickly nasty/nazi shit can happen without pushback.
The United Nations Genocide Convention:
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml
Genocide can be any of the above acts, not just mass killing.
You posted this after the SUFW event in Naarm/Melbourne that was attended by neo-nazis. It's specifically about those in attendance being called nazis and 'nutmegs' discomfort with the term and it's an attempt to call those protesting the event holocaust-deniers. It still disgusts me that this was posted.
thanks, that’s substance we can get our teeth into.
Which of those four categories of people do you feel trans people fit into?
Which of those acts apply to trans people, and which groups of people are intent on destroying them?
It wasn’t a SUFW event, that’s a NZ group. It was a Let Women Speak event. Two weeks before I made my comment. I can’t see how BabyBeginner’s tweet is specifically about Melbourne. Her tweet appears to be in response to ongoing issues with conflating trans issues with genocide rhetoric and blaming women for that. That was happening before Melbourne.
As I said at the time, ‘denier’ isn’t a word I would have used. But there is no doubt that there are lots of people misrepresenting what is happening to trans people eg talking about a high trans murder rate is common, but it’s just not true.
If you don't see it then I can't ever convince you. You are prepared to take a charitable interpretation of those echoing GCF talking points but dismiss and tone police those who disagree with the framing and terminology around this topic. I provide scientific papers that are 'countered' by opinion pieces. And the pile-ons! Look around you, look at what you have made. The sheer number of regular voices that have left or forgone commenting at all because of disagreements over this issue. It's sad, and tiring.
See what? If you think there is a trans genocide happening, then step up and do the mahi to convince people. I’ve already told you that I think trans people are at risk in places like the US, this is bloody obvious. I also don’t agree that what is happening to trans people fits the definition of genocide. You do, but you won’t make the argument, so 🤷♀️ You know how things go here, people explain their thinking, but you won’t on this issue. Why is that?
I don’t dismiss and tone police, I make strong arguments against other people’s position. This isn’t a liberal hand holding space. People argue robustly on all topics. You already know this.
And yes, I don’t really rate the argument that I shouldn’t use the term TIM, when it’s not actually an argument but rather someone telling me how to speak and think.
This is always a problem here, it’s just part of the work. We make the arguments over time, and some people have better evidence for their views than others. It’s not possible to moderate that any more than we do, but you can always bring this to the attention of moderators.
Pile ons? There is definitely an imbalance in the sense that there are more gender critical people here than there are people that support gender identity ideology. But how is this different than all the times women are outnumbered here?
I left the site for 15 months because two male authors trashed the women’s project that a group of women had been working on for a long time. Nothing to do with the sex/gender wars. I can easily count 5 feminist authors that have left here over similar issues, and more women commenters. Again, nothing to do with the sex/gender wars. People come and go, for all sorts of reasons, and some of that is unfair. There are people I miss too.
It’s hard work commenting here. It always has been for those of us that are serious about the politics.
Weka. GC feminism is an ideology too. And at odds with trans inclusionary feminism.
To correct you weka: only 'some' women 'are not going to back down from this'. Count me and many, many other women out of this anti trans crusade.
The ‘count me out’ women include the 30-40% of 'real' women in the 2000-4000 people opposing Posie Parker in Auckland. There were more 'real' women than trans women on the organising committee for the Wellington anti-Parker rally. There were 'real' women who directly opposed Posie Parker's message, like Senator Lidia Thorpe, manhandled in Canberra; and the women who was grabbed around the throat by security and removed from the microphone when she began to speak in opposition at Parker's Melbourne rally.
of course #notallwomen.
In the context of my comment it was clear I was talking about women who value women's sex based rights, I didn't need to qualify that by 'some'.
I'm not on an anti-trans crusade, so I assume you really have no clue what is going on here.
Weka, I think/know that some want to frame the concern about access to women's safe spaces as being anti-trans when it is nothing of the sort. I am resolutely pro women and my stance comes from this perspective.
As far as trans argument it is live and let live, though I do have concerns about child safe guarding, making decsions while too young to make them and the irrevocable nature of some of the decisions but my overriding concern is that women remain able to access safe spaces. To determine what constitutes a safe space for women obviously means that we ask and are guided by what women say, not men.
I also realise that even though the argument is pro women rather than anti trans and this is not a nuanced view ie it is a clear, palin ad simple one, it seems difficult for some to understand. Why is this I wonder?
What would happen if we actually put this view to the forefront?
Would we get better decison making re safe spaces for women and trans people?
To answer my own question I believe if we looked at it from the point of view of maintaining safe spaces for women, access to sport for women while asking ourselves what we can do to make safe spaces for transwomen then we would have been much further forward.
The reason we are not and there is suspicion and vitriol, is that we were presented with the need to deny biology, our own eyes and agree to the 'Emperor has no clothes' mantra of transwomen are (real) women. Pushback was inevitable.
Two reasons why this comment by Arkie 6 June 2023 at 1:25 pm is probably not worth the time to parse it
a) the use of the word 'cis', most beloved of the trans community, (who also probably believe it is possible for males to become lesbians), and
b) the use of the word 'Karen' most beloved by no-one as many recognise it is sexist and probably age-ist.
Other than that it probably provided some exercise for someone's fingers on the keyboard and I guess that is a plus.
also this,
Which is basically a dude in a tweet saying women don't get to have their own perception of the world.
Yes Weka, some of these quotes/opinions are bare faced misogyny/sexism. Having been around for a while, years-wise and fought a few battles for womens lib back in the day, and having had a mother and grandmother whose 'spidy' sense could pick a sexist at a 1000 paces I can pick the dudes wanting to deny women.
Strangely or not they seem to be the same and hold the same sexist views as their predecessors. Though they are able to dress it up as mysterious and new as it relates to poor hard done by men (though disguised)
I realise that perhaps my words are tough. Where and how did we get to have these unseeing, uncritical people who think biological sex can be changed and who inflict court/tribunal cases on people for such felonies as pronouns, dead-naming.
I am glad that some jurisdictions are pulling back on the child transitions. Why would we let a child or their parents make a decision that can mean an inability to father/bear a child or, fundamentally, to have a sexual relationship that involves orgasm. Who are these cruel people and who gives them the right to do this to others?
Gosh, resorting to hairsplitting about terminology. To paraphrase you Shanreagh:
'I don't agree with arkie's vocab, it doesn't fit with my GC ideology – therefore none of arkie's points are worth considering'
Cis woman and cis man are terms that trans inclusionary feminists, rainbow supporters, and many men are quite comfortable using to describe themselves in context, eg, when talking about trans issues.
'Karen' is a meme. Here is what is considered to be a classic 'Karen ' example, a young woman who uses her white woman privilege to falsely accuse a black man of assault after he asks her to put her dog on a leash in a designated bird nesting area.
No I was not looking looking at it from a GC point of view but from a student of the English language and linguistics.
Of course groups have their own 'in' words and sayings and this serves as an inclusionary purpose. The words used in Govt circles, economics are shorthand and inclusionary or exclusionary depending on which side the group you stand.
One of the hallmarks of this trans movement is the erasure of language about those who are the targets. So women and women's spaces are the targets for males wanting to access females safe spaces. So we don't have breast feeding but chest feeding…..
We have males trying to gate-crash lesbian groups, we have males asking the authorities to censure lesbian groups under rights legislation. These men do not seem to grasp that lesbians care not for the male body, even when it has been tweaked and 'chemicalised'. They are what is called same sex attracted and that same sex is women ie those who are and remain women.
So we find also that words describing 1-5% of the community need to influence words describing 51%. So instead of the wider word being reserved for the majority we now find that the wider word 'women' has to have an unneeded, additional and uneuphonious (if that is a word – I mean hard on the ear) word added and this is 'cis'. Surely there are bio women and trans women or women and trans women.
We have the OTT use of the word 'genocide', this truly horrifies me that people in this movement truly believe that what they have essentially brought/wrought on themselves (ie there is a choice about taking drugs or embarking on surgery) is in any way the same as a state/Nazi sanctioned abuse wrought on others such as travellers, Jews, intellectually impaired etc etc. who had no means ie choice to avoid the stigma.
My distaste for the Karen slur surely needs no explaining. It is ageist and sexist.
My takeaway from the wider trans movement has been the intense dislike/hatred of women, it seems to be an intensely misogynistic movement, as befits a 'boys own/man's own' adventure.
I do feel that there are those with gender disphoria and the phrase 'watch-ful waiting' is surely a good one here…..care for the soul/psychiatric help until children reach past puberty and have the mind/experience and tools of life on which to base decisions on whether to take action that may be irrevocable.
Do you think this result may have been foreseeable (and is justified) by the legal actions of WPATH, the AAP and the Endocrine Society who not only failed to provide the clinical evidence requested by Florida to support their proscribed methods of care, but joined together to attempt to legally avoid having to do so?
https://t.co/Q7CxTO4AX5
Edit: Link to court document appealing the subpoeana for data – “JOINT MOTION OF NONPARTIES AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS, WORLD PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR TRANSGENDER HEALTH, AND ENDOCRINE SOCIETY TO QUASH RULE 45 SUBPOENAS “
For further information, this was discussed back in April.
It may be of interest to note that the organisations that we refer to here in NZ for treatment protocols are the same three. (WPATH via PATHA).
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19-04-2023/#comment-1946321
I have a suspicion that the main difference is that in the past, the vast majority of trans identified people were same sex attracted.
These days it is not so easy. I have been in the same Ladies Toilet facility with Georgina Beyer a couple of times at Labour Party Conferences. We were both there for the same reasons, use the facilities, flush, wash our hands and depart. We were not there to snap "bathroom selfies" with a bunch of schoolgirls, to achieve our "gender euphoria" or to steal used sanitary products for menstrual fetishes.
Nobody then was demanding a right for male bodied people to use changing rooms or locker rooms where women get undressed, or to use the women's section of a Spa. The person in the Wi Spa incident – although vigorously defended by Trans Rights Activists, got dropped like a hot brick when it turned out he was a registered sex offender with past convictions for displaying himself in women's spaces.
Remember – with self ID – any man can say he is trans.
The accommodations made in the past for transsexuals – was legislatively enacted, and required legal recognition based on GRS.
As you mention that distinction no longer is in place with current interpretations of the law, and the introduction of Self-ID.
However, I would like to point out that there would have been women that self-excluded – for whatever reasons – when they became aware they were expected to share single-sex provisions with a male. We will never know how many did this.
It is also worthwhile to consider that consent of all women was assumed – when this provision was passed into law. And consent – above all – is not transferable when it comes to adults.
Our admiration for individuals such as Georgina Beyer, should not overcome basic safeguarding principles that apply to all. It is an uncomfortable position but a necessary one, because good safeguarding practice is not based on emotion.
Oh gosh, Visubversa, maybe the US Wi Spa was not a trans issue, because the person involved was a predator who happened also to be trans.
One reason it was taken up by the trans community at first was because a perfectly innocent trans woman was incorrectly identified as the predator, after which she was mobbed online from all over the world.
There are around 100, 000 trans women in California. Are there 100, 000 trans predators in California?
"…One reason it was taken up by the trans community at first was because a perfectly innocent trans woman was incorrectly identified as the predator,"
Not aligned with my recollection, where the woman raising concerns was hounded off social media, and vilified in mainstream press:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/anti-trans-video-los-angeles-protest-wi-spa
Can you link to your revisionist alternate?
Oh yea…and deny climate change..and dairy NZ contributions to
On that. I see ex Fed Farm spokes mouth Andrew Hoggard has nailed his dairy shit brown colours to acts mast
We must beat Nact. NZ and its Future will be fucked else.
Holy Cow I hope we don't lose Michael Wood
People whorry about how many billboards all that billionaire dosh buys National and ACT. What they should be worried about is how many nasty little right wing shits with comms skills it buys to spend endless days digging for dirt that can be then laundered through the Herald.
In the Key era, NZH trawled for stories off Whaleoil, rather than twitter accounts of NACT operatives.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/06/transport-minister-michael-wood-stood-down-by-chris-hipkins-over-auckland-airport-shares-fiasco.html
This could have been avoided if Wood had off-loaded those shares stat.
Wood will now be the keenest person in NZ wanting to sell his AIA shares, followed at the heels by Wayne Brown, of course.
If I were Wood, I would donate the money to a charity and do a mea culpa.
Yes, after he has off-loaded them he may be able to return to his previous position:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/491423/transport-minister-michael-wood-stood-down-after-airport-shares-controversy
More than anything, potential MPs really should be over their investments and potential conflicts before being elected. As you say, could all be easily avoided.
" I would donate the money to a charity and do a mea culpa."
My bet is, that is what he will do.
As a minister who has one of the heaviest workloads, it is unsurprising he never got around to it. He put his portfolios before a handful of shares he bought nearly 40 years ago!
It reminds me of the petty-fogging, officious senior public servants I encountered who were more concerned about somebody arriving to work a few minutes late (usually for good reason) than they were on the person's excellent out-put during working hours.
Well we did not lose Key, so why should Michael be pinged?
Chris, don’t dance to the Rights dirt digging.
Michael, donate the shares to Women’s Refuge, and apologise to the Prime Minister and House.
So this is how we descend into slavery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWjqkjFi7-g
Thanks Adam. I knew of the US legislation, but it's good to have the consequences laid out. Some women in the US are already in prison because they were judged to have manslaughtered their fetuses when they miscarried, if they used drugs like meth.
Happy to put women in prison, not keen to support anti-addiction services.
Friggin annoyed at Chris Hipkins knee jerking to the trifling issue of old shares. Michael Wood should have been spoken to, and his reasons for forgetting to follow up his initial action to sell shares listened to. And then just let him do just that. Sell them. Probably the same reason John key reasoned that he didn’t remember. But then maybe not. Key out and out lied to his tame media and they accepted it Just like that. Super annoyed. Michael Wood is one of the best that Labour has. He stays! However, I am betting that Chris Lux isn’t going to be keys favourite person for a while.
I'm annoyed with Hipkins too. I don't mind Wood being temporarily stood down but I do get impatient with this "deer in the headlights" acceptance of opposition framing. He has to counter-attack. Control the narrative. Challenge Luxon with language like this …
"I warn the leader of the National party that to play holier-than-thou is a game no politician should play, unless he is surrounded by saints. And he knows he is not."
"If Mr Luxon believes that making a mistake is a sacking offence, then Mr Luxon should have sacked Mr Luxon by now. He has blamed his own staff for everything from his own social media to candidate selection to campaign tactics. Apparently Mr Luxon is responsible for nothing."
"If Mr Luxon has already forgotten his own MPs' sins perhaps he would like a list … [provide long list of MPs …]
And so on, and so on. Who is writing Hipkins' lines? They are weak. FFS, fight back.
For example, does anyone remember this "mistake"? Of course not, because Labour never talk about it but if the roles were reversed National would be all over it. And the media would follow …
https://twitter.com/henrycooke/status/1524219315951906817
Well he is management , so he's practiced at shitting on inferior subordinates
Bang on observer.
I get sick of this pussy-footing around. Michael did nothing much wrong. It seems he requested a stockbroker sell the shares then forgot about them…until he later discovered the stockbroker didn't sell the shares.
If I recall correctly my 'teenage' shares tanked not long after I bought em and never recovered. Dunno what happened to them but never ventured onto the stock-market again. Life is too short to be f****d about a handful of shares.
Onya Michael Wood.
Perhaps Hipkins knows more than we do about this matter.
Ignoring the six discussions he had with the Cabinet Office – the seventh time was going to be the charm right?
Don't sell Auckland Airport shares!
Nek minutes…