Speech has consequences. Speech intended to eliminate a group of people tends to attract ire. Moreso than 'slurs' in general, especially when the term in question was coined by the people who it is being applied to. Only a slur once it became inconvenient.
It still not clear to you that a large group will feel eliminated if certain policy changes will be implemented. Maybe you are not interested, so be it – but your very nasty misogynistic slur outburst got me reacting.
Your attitude belongs much more at home in the front bench of the NP.
I call BS on that. If they had typed “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” you would have been none the wiser and you would have said “What the fuck is trans-exclusionary radical feminist?”. However, if you did know what “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” stands for you would have known the acronym TERF. You could have looked it up yourself or asked nicely but you did neither because you knew exactly what TERF means, didn’t you? Your foul language gave it away, IMHO.
Why? Afraid that you have a TERF skeleton in your closet that I might find? You don’t trust your own memory? I don’t trust mine so I can understand that.
I have zero trust in my own memory. Someone could have told me what it meant last week and I could have forgotten it while retaining contempt for its bullshitty jargon. Do you have any reason to believe that the person it was flung at, is a radical feminist?
Your contempt was obvious, which caught my attention and it begged the question why you’d react in such a way if you didn’t know what you were reacting to and why. It came across as disingenuous and dishonest. So, I will do some detective work and will get back to you with my findings. At this stage, I think I’ll have difficulty accepting the John Key ‘excuse’ of ‘actually, I have no recollection of that but what I can say, at the end of the day, is that it made my blood boil’. Not too late to come clean 😉
I looked up that link Rosemary. Deals with the female-centred wash from idle, amoral minds swamping the world. Really ugly. In the past one didn't know or even suspect the awful side of people's minds and thoughts. Now they flaunt all their sick-minded unlovely negativity and dislike across the world as if it is some revelation to spread for everyone's education.
It is on a par with what Germany suffered at the hands of Nazis. They built up bad attitudes to Jews, which then enabled them to start physical attacks etc. which were largely accepted, despite protests from many and then increased in severity. Society has indulged itself in punishing the 'other' with witch-baiting and burning, watching mad people as if a circus, seeing public hangings as a spectacle.
We need to be careful of building up outrage, one group versus another, when either group becomes swollen with resentment and anger.
There seems to be a madness that arises from a mindset that can grow in societies – to fix on a group or person to be a scapegoat for all to focus their negative feelings on, their discontent either with themselves, others, or anything. In psychology they call this projection.
The approach of focussing the dark thoughts of society on one thing or being was the subject of a play by a USA author. One person would be stoned to death each year as part of the culture of a particular area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery
More than ever we need to have the study of human personality and philosophy to help us control what must be atavistic tendencies that need to be controlled by the healthy, balanced mind. So we need more Humanities, not seeing them wiped from tertiary study in favour of Science.
Really ugly. In the past one didn't know or even suspect the awful side of people's minds and thoughts. Now they flaunt all their sick-minded unlovely negativity and dislike across the world as if it is some revelation to spread for everyone's education.
Moving this to OM from the "Jacinda’s address to the Labour Congress" post because I want to address it without derailing another author's post.
I consider TERF to be a slur. Like many words directed at women, it has other uses too, but most use now is perjorative and often abusive (thinking twitter here). It is so ubiquitously used as a pejorative now that this is true irrespective of how the person using it intends.
From a moderator perspective, I will maintain boundaries here for the sake of both trans people and gender critical feminists. Calling a commenter a terf will get my moderator attention, calling women offsite might too. Talking about 'terf' in a gender context I'll take each situation as it goes. In this case Sacha, acknowledging letting your bitchy side come out gave some context, but it was still a flamey derail that in other places would have devolved into a shit show.
I'm not willing to let that shitshow happen on TS, for the sake of TS and also for the sake of trans people, women and GCFs. It's already really hard for women to take part here, especially women authors. That longstanding issue has not been resolved and as a feminist who has to limit what she can write about because of that, I'm not ok with another layer of trouble being added to this space. I also consider TS to not be particularly safe for trans and non-binary people either.
It's possible that the gender war issues will be an election issue. Also possible that people here will want to discuss them. So I'm signalling some boundaries around managing those conversations so that the robust debate and the 'tone/language not excluding others' ethos are maintained.
Happy to have discussion about this if anyone needs clarification. I'm not available for an argument today.
The original comment was an utter derail in itself – like responding to a detailed economic policy post by asking what Labour would do about whale strandings or middle-east political prisoners.
Kind of disappointed it was not moved here along with my response. However I do not see any conversation about this ending constructively in this place. So I won't.
To be clear, I do respect your reasoning and your broader understanding of the context here – and I expected other moderators might have moved my comment at the time. Not aiming to cause trouble when election season will bring plenty of that. Cheers
This Moderator made a judgement call yesterday to leave things as they were and see how the thread would evolve rather than to move it pre-emptively. Robust debate sometimes means hanging out the dirty laundry, having the hard conversations, be open and honest – warts and all – but above all, being respectful of others. Unfortunately, I don’t think the TS commentariat is ready for certain conversations. QED.
All joking aside, New Zealand may have to do a Switzerland and become an armed neutrality in order to distance ourselves from our Anzac partner Australia and its developing and alarming cold war machinations with China.
With China's growing aggression and countries building up their arsenal while strengthening their international ties as a counter, one would expect there will be growing international pressure for us to spend more. Therefore, it is unlikely we will cut back our military spend and more likely we will be pressured to up it.
I think the Defence budget is about right. The country needs to be prepared for military issues. Covid-19 has shown me how important it is to have the defence force to fall back on when it comes to quarantine.
Some air craft needed to be decommissioned a decade ago, not sure if the orions or the hercs but I am surprised they are not dropping out of the sky.
Replacing dilapidated aircraft is not cheap but necessary.
Housing the homeless and ensuring beneficiaries attain enough so they can afford to live is also not cheap. Nor is ensuring nurses, teachers and other public servants are fairly paid.
So I guess it all depends on what you deem is more necessary?
I am not sure how much of the 20 billion that the government already has.
I want a Defence Force which is equipped to be deployed were there a major earthquake in Wellington. A frigate which can become operational at the port, aircraft which can land in Wellington (runway may need to be patched) and personnel which can be deployed on the ground and work with the emergency services.
There is no relying on overseas emergency workers and being response ready which the Defence Force is trained to be is required.
Best answer I saw was from an ex-Hercules pilot who pointed out that if you took a supply flight into somewhere in a conflict/emergency situation without weapons, people who did have them could take your plane pretty fast. May have been drawing on experience somewhere in the Pacific..
Guess the same applies to boats, though NZ certainly under-armed our latest frigates to the point of uselessness in a real war zone.
20 billion is far too much to be spending on the military at this point in time.
IIRC, that $20b was announced by National a while ago and was actually a budget cut over the 15 years they suggested.
Right now, we need to be spending $5 to $10 billion per year just to get our defence forces up to scratch. 30 years of budget cuts have done far too much damage to our defence forces.
Housing the homeless and ensuring beneficiaries attain enough so they can afford to live is also not cheap.
Upping defence spending could give many of those beneficiaries a job.
Then if we did our own R&D and made our own aircraft would produce even more jobs and help build up a local industry where we could use the aluminium that we subsidise the production of.
Defence spending is not exclusive in creating jobs. Upping Government spending in other sectors can also create jobs.
True but defence is a necessary spend that needs to be adequate.
This spend up is largely going offshore, thus it won't be creating too many jobs here in NZ.
Which we actually need to change and make it so that all possible defence spending is onshore. Doing so will up the number of jobs created, help develop our economy and remove the vulnerability that comes from importing all our defence gear.
We have the capability and the capacity to do it so why not?
It'd be cheaper than paying private contractors from other nations to do it for us as military doesn't have the economies of scale to drop profit for each item down to a reasonable level. And importation of military equipment is weakness in our supply as the sea lanes could be cut.
So, government R&D becomes a lowish level ongoing cost with manufacture then contracted out to a local manufacturer to produce the aircraft. The development of better manufacturing processes would also be carried out by government R&D and available to NZ businesses – just like the US has been doing for well over a century (The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzucato).
And if you really think about it, the Hercules that we're still flying is a 1950s design.
We have the capability and the capacity to do it so why not?
For one, the whole thing is only the price of the club, as Key acknowledged.
Second, interoperability with other forces is a big part of that scam.
And finally, wouldn't we be withdrawing from the world economy anyway from what you've said before? Military cooperation would go down the toilet just like trade, so why waste any energy building war toys?
I supported National on that issue (enough defence resources) providing it was not going to remove money from social spending.
Shortage in housing was 20 years in the making in not investing enough. The tax breaks under Key could have helped fix housing providing the money was redirected.
Investment is needed in defence and it appears that NZ First was the influence.
That may led to a doubling of the current Defence budget and the doubling of the current DCP? So I’m wondering if Jane is prepared for that, which mean raising taxes? As our distance from such trouble spots and our ever reliance of SLOC from imports & exports is far greater now than WW2 since NZ’s domestic manufacturing has almost gone the way of the Dodo. NZ’s MN has gone the same way as it’s domestic manufacturing and it’s railways system is on about a quarter of what it was during WW2 so it’s going to be interesting on how fuel rationing goes once NZ loses access or degraded access to oil refineries in Singers and or MEAO?
This would also mean re-establishment of lost Defence capabilities such as the RNZAF’s Air Strike Wing, MCM Vessels, increase the Air Maritime Patrol Wing, the Frigate Force up to 6 Vessels, 2-3 Ice Capable Southern Ocean Patrol Ships and the tripling of the OPV size fleet armed with at least 76mm/ 3in gun the ability to fight Subs, Surface to Surface and short/ Close Range Air to Air. Also introducing new capabilities such as Unarmed & Armed UAV’s, Air to Air Tankers etc and that’s before we even to start to look at the Defence Estate around the Country including the Chatham Is. As Airport & ports would have to upgrade to allow a dispersal of Defence Assets when the brown stuff hits the fan
While all this is happening the NZDF still has to carry out it day to day mandated tasks as outlined by the NZG which it struggles to do even in today’s NZ political climate as result of 30+ yrs of cuts to capability, Manning, base closures and reduction in equipment since 91when Ruth the Bitch from the “No Mates Party” cut the MoD/ NZDF by 26% in 90’s. While at the same time saw the 5 major UN Peacekeeping including INTERFET/ Timor-Leste which was biggest Deployment of the NZDF since WW2 and it also included an over the beach landing since WW2 which turn into a bit of a Fuck Fight btw and lucky for the NZDF it wasn’t an opposed landing as it could made Gallipoli look like an Sunday picnic beside the seaside
To make this all happen all of our Political Party’s, including the NZ Greens will have to compromise on their Policies with Trade, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Aid Development. A lot of dead rats have to be swallowed if this does happen or else NZ would have to chose between China or its other major Asian Trading Parters within the Indo/ Asian Pacific Region if and when Conflict breaks out within the Region.
Armed Neutrality is the only option if NZ wants to keep out of the pending Conflict in Asia as most Asian countries see the word “Neutrality” as a form of weakness unless you are armed to the hilt and are prepared to Defend, Deny, Delay, “Attack” to Defend, Ambush, any potential aggressor who is dumb or stupid a enough to have a crack at NZ. It also requires ever Man, Woman, Child to do their bit be it active or passive (CD, Red Cross etc) Defenceof NZ’s Neutrality and willing to die for it?
The country cannot afford the cost of armed neutrality. The NZ Defence Force is always playing catch up when it comes to having a partial functioning defence force. If the defence force is operational ready were a major disaster to occur in NZ, then it would have served it's purpose in saving lives.
Staying out of other people's wars other than for giving humanitarian support to civilians probably reduces the duration of the conflict.
NZ is not likely to be attacked unless they become involved in a major incident. Our open shoreline is not going to be able to be protected.
NZ could afford “Armed Neutrality” but that would required total commitment NZG and the population, but that won’t happen as all the political parties and their various mouth pieces having to swallow a number of dead rats IRT to Defence, Trade, Foreign Affairs Aid Development etc. Also the fact that we have one political party screams tax cut, runs every Government Dept into ground, builds roads and other mob trying to rebuild everything back up due to mismanagement of the other mob, means “Armed Neutrality is a mere pip dream.
Unfortunately NZ will get sucked into the next major conflict in the Indo- Asian- Pacific Region weather it wants to or try’s to avoid it. My assumptions are theses,
1. We are a Trading Nation which means we rely on Freedom of Navigation of the Seas, because it allow us to export our goods overseas and import stuff that we use to make here NZ before the NeoCon Lib’s with their economic theory vandalised NZ’s domestic economy. Just have a look at the Fuck Fight that Covid19 has to both Australia’s and NZ’s import reliance on goods that used to be made within those respective countries before the NeoCon Lib’s vandalised the domestic economies.
2. Where are Australia’s Left Flank and the key to the Sth Pacific, which allows it to maintain its supply and military support from the US. Just asmuch as Australia is our right flank as it guarantees our supply line to SEA via the Singapore hub and our supplies of petroleum oil and lubricants (POL) via the Middle East & Singaporean oil refineries. If NZ loses some of its Asian exports, Australia is still one of our major export economy and Vice versa.
So if China wants to take on Australia its got to surround Australia by cutting its supply & support line to its left and right flanks and force those convoy’s into Lat 40& 50deg’s which would make the Russian Convoys look like Cook Strait crossing look quite Pleasant on a rough crossing. This was the long term strategic goal of the Japs in WW2, but they came short with the Battle of the Coral Sea only by a bees dick.
3. We are regarded as the gateway to the Antarctic and the Antarctic Treaty is up for renewal in 2044, if the Antarctic Treaty collapses then we’ll see the last great land grab since western colonisation.
4. NZ has been attack before in the last two World Wars via the indirect route of attacking NZ’s Shipping on the Surface from Surface Raiders and below the surface by the laying of sea mines off NZ Ports and Coastal Sea Lanes. Also NZ in WW2 had two over flights by the Japs from their I Boats ( Submarines) looking for the invasion fleet for Solly’s which they just miss by a number of days and we had also DKM U Boats conduct a couple sorties in NZ waters. Then we have the Frogs in 87 with the Rainbow Warrior as well.
I was thinking more of the line of 5 Direct Action Teams, Cyber Attack on the NZSX, over spin the turbines at Sth Is Power Stations, a couple of mad professors run about with a couple of virals of foot & mouth, PSA Mbiovs etc and a doz + Submarines with orders if it’s floats sink it and lay a few mines near Major Shipping ports.
Probable all up man power inside NZ’s land borders between 100& 120 pers within a population of 5m. Using prearranged dead drops, single use code pads, snail mail, other single use codes listening watch etc.
I hope haven't put you off from discussing this tropic? As I feel that this needs to be discuss at weather NZ adopts "Armed Neutrality" or the other option is which side it picks when jaw jaw stops and becomes war war. Having that discussion then is not a good option, if NZ wants to a adopt "Armed Neutrality" it has to start now.
As it well take time to re-orient the MFAT, Defence, Foreign Aid, NZ's economy including a Carbon Neutral Economy, build up the NZDF in particularly the Airforce and Navy, and finally infrastructure both public and private.
Solid comment Scud. I only wish these issues got more airtime here than all the 'ism wrangling.
All of those points are make a lot of sense, but the one I suspect will bite us in the arse much sooner than we expect is what happens when the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf in particular blows up … as it inevitably will when the US finally goes home altogether.
A couple of missed supertankers and Aus/NZ suddenly look very sick indeed.
The real issue Red is not so much the ME but the economic effect if and when conflict breaks out in Asia. Even just a simple reduction of 25% of POL supplies to the following counties Taiwan, Sth Korea & Japan would cause economic distress to both Oz & NZ before we even consider the economic fallout with China.
My gut feeling is that we are likely first to see conflict in the Indo -Asian -Pacific Region before the Jews, Arabs (Yanks) and the Persians settle a few old scores.
But the flip side to this as you pointed out that, the ME might go first which is likely to dilute the US Naval strength in the Asian- Pacific Region which could just give Chinese parity in the SCS and Taiwan. The question has to be asked, what would the Nth Koreans and Putin's Pacific Military Forces intent? Any offensive action by them would farther dilute the US PACCOM Forces. Which could cause issues in the low half of the Asian- Pacific Region, this would include NZ an the Sth Pacific?
So the next question would be who's side is NZ going to pick or does NZ starts serious looking at Armed Neutrality which means the discussion has to start now and not when Conflict starts.
New Zealand atm reminds of Norway just prior to WW2 where the Norwegian Government (which was a Labour btw) was at odds and reality with its Military not only with its lack of preparedness if and when Hitler makes his move on the West, but also the Military was getting very concern of the activities of both Germany & GB IRT its Neutrality.
If New Zealand want to avoid another oil shock as result of conflict, it has to adopt a Carbon Neutral Economy and rebuild its domestic manufacturing capacity which also in the Government input from the likes of the DSIR & MoW both as we know went the way of the Dodo in the 90's.
Pretty much agree with all of that. Two minor things to add in:
But the flip side to this as you pointed out that, the ME might go first which is likely to dilute the US Naval strength in the Asian- Pacific Region which could just give Chinese parity in the SCS and Taiwan.
It's my belief the US wouldn't commit much resource at all; they're pretty much energy independent now, and highly decoupled from ME oil. And regardless of who wins in November, neither President is likely to put American lives in harm's way to stabilise oil supplies for Europe or Asia. They just don’t care enough anymore.
So the next question would be who's side is NZ going to pick or does NZ starts serious looking at Armed Neutrality.
I can see the appeal of 'Armed Neutrality" but honestly when it came down to it, unless we had nuclear weapons and capable delivery systems, we could never mount an adequate deterrence. While the Pacific gives us a nice defensive space, it also makes it very hard for us to strike back with conventional weapons once the enemy’s navy was blockading our harbours … and that is the only basis on which this strategy might work.
In my view we have two realistic security options; the traditional ANZUS alliance that depending on events in the US may or may not be open to us, or a wholly new configuration of SE Asian nations, consisting of Japan/Korea/Philippines/Indonesia/Malaysia/India/Australia in a new alliance. It's not as unlikely as it seems, after all the Japanese arguably have the second most capable blue-water navy after the US, and if the politics were managed competently the whole alliance would be formidable indeed.
First of all thanks for jointing my memory IRT the US Shale Oil industry, as forgot that the US is almost totally free from the ME Oil dependency these days.
I've roughly crack the numbers on Nuke wpns vs Submarine both D/E and nuclear power vs more bang for your buck. I believe that a Submarine fleet would be practical and cheaper to run long term than if NZ wanted to adopt some form of Nuclear Wpn capability.
The main issue would be what type of Submarine would suit NZ's needs if NZ adopted "Armed Neutrally". Having a Nuclear Powered Attack Sub a has number of benefits on the plus side, but there are number of minuses. Apart from setting a Submarine Fleet would be huge as we have no corporate background in the use of Sub's, also of note that NZ DWP from 1982 or 83 did discuss and crunch the numbers of NZ obtaining Subs. The issue with a Nuke Sub we would still beholding tries to that country we purchase the a fleet of 6-9 Subs for technical support especially for refuelling the reactor and other deep level maintenance that would be require to do at the same time.
A D/E Sub on the other hand well have less risk, it would a lot easily to setup our maintenance in house, the other is being able to tap into the STEM and other technical trades. The other big factors is we won't be beholding to tires any country a part from very minor technical support during refits and the other more options in terms of variety of manufactures of D/E from Sweden with the their "Son of Collins Class", the German UBoats which to some are the Bee's Knees and the Jap S Boats which has combine the best of German and Swedish know how to produce a very capable boat, then we have the French, Russia D/E Subs and of cause the Brits with their U Boats, but like the Yanks haven't built D/E in donkeys years.
A Submarine Force with a Combine Surface and Air Force would give the NZG a number of options in Defence of its "Armed Neutrally". For example NZ would able to conduct Defence in Depth which cause all sort of problems anyone who is stupid a enough to close in on NZ, as they would a long way from support and it would leave them very open for the NZ Submarine Force to attack its Fleet train. Which would less ships up front as more would be need to defence its Fleet train and its support base along the way. Which was something that the Japs forgot to do in WW2, but the Germans did against the Brits and almost pulled it off. If it wasn't for some management issues within the German Sub Fleet command, the SKL (Naval Command) and finally Hitler's melding within the OKW.
There is a lot to think about NZ's direction on weather it adopts "Armed Neutrally" or it attempts to shore up it traditional Alliance aka ANZUS or the FPDA or looks at something similar to what you have mention (I prefer the last two options if NZ decides not to adopt Armed Neutrally") and, or its sides with China which doesn't have any of NZ traditional values.
Above all it would require cross party support and us punters need know the options for & against. Once NZ decided what the option they want and doing nothing is not an option btw, as it would require 100% commitment from everybody from the top end of town to the bottom end of town and in between.
Excellent. I really appreciate your input around a potential submarine fleet to provide a 'defense in depth' capability. Although they aren't cheap or easy, as the Aussies are finding that out with their French subs. I wonder if NZ shouldn't piggy back on that program, just from a support perspective alone.
Incidentally one of the guys I work with most days is ex-Collin Class submariner. They really are a breed apart, and as you say NZ has no corporate experience in this arena; it would be a hell of a commitment to go down this path.
But you are right, whether we went down the 'armed neutrality' or 'SE Asia Alliance' path, submarines would be by far the most useful capability we could have. And given the sheer size of the Pacific, Tasman and Southern Oceans we would have to operate in, maybe there is a case for nuclear, however extreme that might feel at the moment.
Namely the 20 billion to be spent over the next 11 years, which could be much better spent enhancing lives
Yes, because making ourselves even more vulnerable in a world gone haywire is such a Good Idea.
/sarc
BTW, think of how many thousands of people employed by the defence forces that would be out of a job and thus increasing poverty if we didn't spend that money.
Partisans vs democracy. Joshua Ferrer examines their track record of success:
I have spent the past year at the University of Otago studying every reform to New Zealand’s democratic rules of the game since 1970. I have also interviewed over two-dozen politicians, election officials and academic experts on New Zealand election law.
My research has revealed partisan election reforms to be common practice. Politicians have enacted 66 election reforms over the past 50 years. Of these, 19 were passed with only government support. Twenty-nine election reforms involved significant amounts of contention, while only 12 substantive changes to the rules of the game were free of partisan intrigue.
Election reforms can affect voter turnout and alter electoral outcomes. Partisan manipulation of election laws has been shown to erode public faith in the democratic process, faith that is required for the system to have legitimacy in the first place.
All too often, Labour governments have been the propagators of highly partisan election reforms. Over half of Labour’s election reforms have been partisan, compared with only 11% of National’s. Labour governments have passed 15 election reforms with high levels of partisanship, compared with only five reforms passed by National. The current government has now passed more electoral reforms with government-only support than with broader support.
National governments are not completely free of blame. They are responsible for passing 13 election changes that engendered moderate or significant partisan disagreement. More worrisome are the five laws National has passed that have increased barriers to the ballot box or otherwise diminished electoral participation (Labour has passed two).
Joshua concludes by advocating use of "citizens’ assemblies on election reform" to provide "a valuable new form of direct democracy". Seems a worthwhile initiative. To make it happen, we need a citizens' advocacy group with organising skills. However it does create an opportunity for any political party with a tradition of calling itself progressive. They could validate their claim by leading the implementation process!
Without reading the whole article – is this actually looking through the correct lens?
Should the criteria for measuring the reforms be "is this going to expand the democratic franchise and enable more participation with an electoral outcome that reflects those votes"- not which party did it?
The party is a secondary consideration – so is this research with a major flaw or bias?
To call them partisan reforms not partisan outcomes is very poor framing.
To call them partisan reforms not partisan outcomes is very poor framing.
I see where you're coming from, but I suspect he is simply recycling the framing used at the time: touting an act of parliament as a reform is trad pr for both major parties.
I agree that such acts which don't improve democratic participation look more like outcomes than reforms, since reforms are usually interpreted as progress. Technically, a didact could point out that the term originally meant just a change of form though. So no, I see no good reason to assume he's compromised by perceptual flaw or bias.
We need more participation, from informed people. This old business of thinking we are in charge because we voted some bods in, and that they know what they are doing because they convinced us to vote them in, a bit circular what! And they rely on a supposedly effective, efficient and knowledgable group that are either lifetimers in administration (old idea) or interchangeable between private and government (new idea) or university trained in the latest methods of efficiency in any sort of management (neo lib idea).
And all this going on over the heads of unthinking and uncaring (till it hits them on the head like seagull's droppings) citizens stolidly going on their dim-witted way stamping out bushfires preferably before ideas actually start smouldering.
That's democracy at present folks. Getting that changed would be a herculean task to do it right. Of course it could be done a la Roger et Al, who just upended the table and the board game or jigsaw or whatever was being played fell to the floor and never got put together again. If we lived in Holland the dykes would never have been put together sweetly and strongly, we would all be boat people being turned away as undesirable.
Richard Harman assesses the PM's conference speech:
“Poverty, inequality, persistent unemployment. It does not have to be this way, and under Labour, it won’t. We are the Party that puts people first. It is in our DNA.”
That got thunderous and prolonged applause. If it was designed to provoke the “Ruth Richardson” inside National, it didn’t quite hit the mark. The response from Leader, Todd Muller, was hesitant. “Nothing Labour promises you this election will be delivered – except more tax for you to pay,” he said. But National is vulnerable with its “no new taxes” promise; Labour can legitimately ask how, with debt repayments and the social welfare bill likely to increase, what Government services National might cut if it won’t raise any more taxation.
He also claimed that Labour is going it alone this election, that it wants to govern on its own. Another centre right pundit trying to put the last nails in the Green’s coffin.
Or does that fall under Deborah Russels protfolio of 'how can they – small businesses – not survive in a pandemic with no income i have no idea……i am an academic, a beige suit on the government tit, so how the fuck would i know anything about free enterprise and working for ones wages."
Cause as of today, the Government has done fuck all to help people who are stuck owing tens of thousands of dollars to landlords who will NOT negotiate unless they are forced to by Government. Or does that fall in the too fucking hard basket?
And for those that get upset at a little critic thrown at the current government and their leader, suck it up.
This failure to reign in property holders/speculators/landbankers/leeches on society has been a spectacular bipartisan failure of the National Party and the Labour Party. So dear Labour Party and parties of the coalition, go do something. You can not just let people go all the way to bankruptcy just because you don't want to finally tackle the abuse of Landlords that literally everyone, residential or commercial tenants is suffering from.
And for those that want to simply not give a shit about the people of NZ that have businesses please remember that these are the guys generating tax revenue, paying wages, GST, and Rates. Also they are New Zealanders just in case people forgot.
Also remember that the wage subsidy only pays for one thing, Rent at home plus food, or a commercial rent. It does not take care of both.
The owner of a travel agency facing shop closure due to Covid-19, claims she has to pay more than $50,000 if she wants to be released from her lease – with no money back if a new tenant is found.
Part of the small subset of commercial landlords who see a distressed tenant as an opportunity to create a debt, and obtain a judgement to take the tenants assets. One of the risks you take when you go into business
not naming any names, but apparently a local retail landlord wanted to sell their business so got an earthquake structural report pre-covid. They then refused to let any of their commercial tenants off paying rent during lockdown.
Post covid, two of their major tenants aren't renewing their lease, and one is refusing to reopen because of the earthquake report highlighting "health and safety" risks (which suggests to me they're arguing the landlord is failing to provide suitable retail space, so they won't be paying rent until the lease runs out).
Nice to see the occasional bastard get their comeuppance.
Easiest way is to not own anything, why people who own businesses have trusts. Companies don't protect you that much now because everything requires personal guarantees now, especially leases.
yeah, I was a bit surprised at that requirement for a personal guarantee when a group I was involved with was leasing a space. Seems a bit bloody weird to me.
I think Treetop's idea would be reasonable, for some tight criteria. It would be DamienGrant-dodgy to pay the rent with the covid loan and then wind the company up at the end of the lease.
It will probably require a purpose built entity to take the leases off the distressed tenants and deal with the contractual issues with the lease.
This is where Little's bluff fell over, it sort of dealt with the lockdown period, but trying to deal with distressed leases using the ADLS 27.5 and 27.6 clauses was really going cause problems.
Getting a fair deal for the likes of the Travel Agent, but not allowing the wide boys to demand a lease renegotiation will be tricky. Everything will be subjective and nothing meaningfully objective.
From where I'm sitting a Crown agency that takes over leases of genuinely distressed tenants and then manages the reletting could be the way to deal with it. It will probably only do a couple of hundred leases where relationships have broken down completely already and they have got themselves into a corner they can't get out of, and then the message will get through and both sides of the letting relationship will settle down.
Generally Queenstown isn't to bad in this regard. There's a couple of wanker landlords, but also a couple of really good ones which has kept things under control. But I know of a couple of situations that have become disfunctional. But the market's still fluid, someone moves out, then there's someone moving in straight away.
There's also a review of the ADLS lease underway, it gets reviewed every 10 years with updates between. Our beagle is saying this aspect of the lease is in for a major overhaul.
Speaking of commercial leases, this is how Harvey Norman dealt with their landlords.
The Australian-owned company sent the letter to a number of landlords around New Zealand on March 25 telling them that it would not pay rent while its stores were closed.
The letter, provided to Stuff, tells landlords that they had 24 hours to respond otherwise Harvey Norman would consider the matter settled.
Underlying much of this, Brooks argues, is an acceptance of prevailing inequalities — economic, gender, and racial — as natural. The IDW’s leading lights uncritically defend capitalism while drawing on biology and the dreary science of ‘IQ’ to bolster the status quo. They aim to “naturalize or mythologize historically contingent power relations”, as Brooks puts it.
Behind every one of Peterson’s self-help homilies is an unbending fealty to the status quo. Hierarchies are hard-wired because lobsters follow them. Gender differences are real because women gravitate towards people and men towards things. Envy and resentment at the success of others will rot your soul.
Naturalism is littered with conceptual pitfalls, true. But Greens did derive their belief system from nature, and it remains valid, so the lesson to learn is `do it right'.
Meritocracy, as the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu once put it, is an imaginary world in which “every prize can be attained, instantaneously, by everyone, so that at each moment anyone can become anything”.
Meritocracy is a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individual people on the basis of talent, effort, and achievement, rather than wealth or social class.
Dennis, when I lived in Australia the Govt there argued "Meritocracy" was the reason there was only 1 woman on the front bench in Parliament.
The Liberal Party of Australia, many punters I met said they no longer vote for them as they no longer represent Liberal values, they're actually Right Wing Christian Conservatives.
Yeah men have traditionally struggled to get their heads around the notion that women have complementary skills that are just as valid in politics & governance. I see emotional intelligence, for instance, as a competitive advantage in group psychodynamics. Conservative culture prevents such learning so sexism persists. And I agree that the Oz liberal tag is a misnomer. Justin Trudeau puts them to shame! I read a biography of him from the library a while back. He's authentic.
Liberals in the classic sense seem a different kind of animal. They are as likely to adopt a conservative stance as a progressive stance, for instance. Often centrist.
Not sure why you would want to interpret his call for an evidence-based approach to the issue of war crime responsibility as moral cowardice. Temporary short-circuit in the brain??
As regards wearing a black face, I've never done it – but depends what year he did it eh? Weren't they still broadcasting re-runs of the Black & White Minstrel Show here in the '80s?
Regency Artists Pty Ltd & Bruce Warwick Ltd … proudly present the world's longest running musical show, the fabulous Black & White Minstrel Show. based on the popular BBC TV series. Souvenir N.Z. programme [19]84.
What is shown in the Twitter feed I linked to is that Trudeau swiftly abandoned his call for an evidence-based approach, and supported the Trump regime's highly contentious and unproven allegations. He also, infamously, supported the Trump/Pompeo propaganda line against the elected government of Venezuela.
His black-face shenanigans would not, in themselves, count for very much if taken in isolation. However, considering everything else he has done, they point to someone who is anything but "authentic."
No way would I view Assad favourably so I share your feeling there. But we don't know what intelligence-sharing happened to change his mind, do we? Re Venezuela, that's a typical binary with a path thro the middle for those who prefer a balanced view. I see the idiocies of both sides clearly.
Being stuck in bias is bad for one's mental health often. If you have an open mind, read Justin's autobiography. The only reason I did so was due to the negative views of him expressed by you & one or two others in the past. That got me intrigued and sceptical of his character. I was impressed somewhat against my will as a result. In my local library – probably in yours…
Correction: I read his autobiography, not a biography. You get a better sense of where a person is coming from (in terms of values, motivations,ideals) when you read them telling their own story. For instance, he spent many years determined not to be a politician. What he did during those years is instructive.
Yep , dogs running after phantom sticks again, just when theres talk of withdrawing all the troops
How people still unquestionably believe all the BS emanating from anonymous officials is beyond me .I suspect it's wishful thinking and confirmation bias at work
A clue for the clueless: what makes the russian bounties thing a story is the Great White Shart's reaction to the possibility of russia paying bounties on dead US soldiers, or to be more precise, his utter lack of interest. Much more than whether or not the allegations are accurate.
Of course the lack of any proof is the final confirmation that this story—provided by "unnamed sources"—is true. Those dastardly Russian masterminds and their puppet in Washington!
The Russians are laughing at us. Look at this smug Russki bastard….
Aaahhh, of course good ol' Andre always ready and willing to gulp down what ever unsubstantiated fact free nonsense his MSM liberal tell him..and then spew it back out as fact…a true camp guard, no training needed.
When the same stupid GIF used for the 3rd time and a YT clip are all bring to the table it is obvious that you’ve got nothing of substance to add in which case it might be better that you say nothing.
More clues for the clueless: An organisation that calls itself "Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting" that fails to acknowledge that anonymous sourcing does in fact have a reasonable place in responsible journalism, among other misrepresentations in that piece, itself bears more resemblance to the Ministry of Truth than to what it claims on its label. Particularly given the tiny-fisted fascist's inclination to go hard after everyone that provides information that is even the slightest bit unfavourable to his interests.
Meanwhile, for anyone interested in the appropriate role of anonymous sourcing and how much credence to give anonymously sourced info, here's a few pieces to consider:
RNZ National is full of people who have uncritically gulped down this nonsense, hook, line, and sinker. The problem is that they then use their platform to regurgitate the propaganda. Chief among the Russiagate true believers are Dame Kim Hill, Bernard Hickey, and Jim Mora, the long-time host of the light chat show The Panel.
Back in November 2015, regular Panel guest Ella Henry treated Nat. Radio listeners to the fruits of her extensive knowledge and wide reading on the subject of Russian leader Vladimir Putin:
"Hur hur! I just see an ex-KGB agent, y’know what I’m sayin’?"
In October 2016 poor, bewildered Jesse Mulligan—Mora's replacement as Panel host— tried his hardest to seriously address the m-m-m-m-menace from Moscow….
JESSE MULLIGAN:[speaking very slowly, to convey thoughtfulness] Sometimes when I read this stuff I get the sense that Russia are L-L-L-LOOKIN’ for trouble, are L-L-L-LOOKIN’ to create tension with the U.S. Is that fair?
….Long pause….
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE:[slowly, deliberately, to convey deep thinking] Ahhhhhmmm, partly, partly not. I mean, Russia’s there by a treaty it had with Syria from the early 1970s, a legitimate treaty for a defensive alliance, and Assad is still to a degree in power, so Russia’s doing what it was bound to do by treaty. The problem is, that at some point, as long as you’re propping up these sides the war will continue and you may have to, everyone just back out and see what the actual outcome is.
….Long pause…
JESSE MULLIGAN: Meanwhile, there’s this OTHER story around today, that Russia have walked away from the protocol on weapons-grade plutonium control. Can you give us a bit of background to that, Al?
While I think my star sign is Cynical, the MSM has become a slither of it's former selves. Helped, no doubt, by the decades of market reforms, the race to the bottom is picking up speed.
Before clickbait was a thing… I had a pub in a small country town. We had a big Friday night and 3 brothers came in, I knew 2 of them were under age so I asked them to leave. On their way out, they came across the kitchen hand, assumed he had narked on them and proceeded to give him a hiding.
The Monday issue of the local paper has a story headlined "Teens Fight in Local Bar". They go on to quote the local Senior Sergeant who knew nothing about it, about 'youngsters these days….'
Took a few calls to the editor to get a retraction printed, buried deep in the paper. I stopped advertising with them and got creative with other marketing ideas.
The Guardian, oft cited as the font of all wisdom, has sullied or confirmed (depending on your view of it) it's reputation with it's treatment of Jeremy Corbyn.
The opposition said they have a moral obligation to win. No. Winning an election is not a moral obligation.
We are morally obligated to look after New Zealanders, our most vulnerable, our families and our children; to represent our diverse nation, to have people from all walks of life of every colour race and creed sit at the decision-making table.
To do what is best for New Zealand, to govern in the best interests of New Zealanders; to be honest, to be fair.
I understand that addressing commercial leaseholders difficulties has been on the table.
Held up by some snags.
Including NZ first and the banks, but also how do you help out genuinely distressed leases without allowing some big arsehole ones to wriggle out of their obligations.
Good to hear. You don't want the unscrupulous renters voiding leases they can well afford to pay while needing to offer some solution to prevent the unscrupulous landlords bankrupting smaller business owners who have a no or a much reduced business meaning they bear the whole financial outcome of the "covid disruption lottery " and recognising that no rent would also bankrupt some smaller landlords.
Today's bunch of useless under performing employers who can't plan for more than 5 minutes into the future and now want the government to bail them out.
You've had six months to get yourselves organised – why didn't you use it! Be proactive. Why have you rolled some visa's for years instead of training. Bear in mind that it appears only about 10,000 have been here for 5+ years.
Why do these visa holders who have been here so little time apparently have skills that can't be taught in the short term to locals. Many of these visa's would not have been renewed anyway- tourist, student and under 30 work permits so you would have needed to replace them anyway.
I'd like to give a special mention to the Hospo association. Not only is this an industry that will shrink but:
why have you not designed a few basic courses,
found or used a current provider for those courses,
invited employers when they are interviewing to recommend individuals to undertake those courses because they will hire them at the end
Then if you asked for a small government subsidy I'm sure it would have been granted or employers could pay for it. Then you could also promote some existing workers. It's not rocket science.
Lastly why does the news media just accept the employer whinging without any further inquiry or hard facts. A lot of those dairy jobs are short term to cover the start of the season.
And the hospo industry is claiming to be a 40 billion dollar industry, talk about "don't you know who I am-ism ". What a load of bullshit, that would make a city of 50,000 have a hospo industry of 400 million. I have had a gutsful of this inflating of value every time some entity is trying to extract something from the government.
Absolute crap regarding dairy farmers. The truth is we have received no wage subsidies,Jacinda is sending key workers back to poverty and disease and There is no way NZ unemployed will fill the gap.The treatment of our workers by a so called Kind government is disgusting.
Er I think these statements may prove my point. But hey why didn't the dairy industry not try to make itself more resilient? The rewards have been high enough – maybe profit sharing like say 'sharemilkers'?
What is it about having to do "courses " to do anything from carrying a cup of coffee from a kitchen to a table or wash a floor or clean a bench. If a person can't do any of most things required to hold down a simple job then they must have been on 24 hour life support since birth. You don't need training just get on and fucking do it.
I don't really think they need courses for a lot of this stuff either. Maybe an hour or two to make sure the bed making is up to standard. But the onus should be pushed back onto these industry groups to come up with concrete plans for how to manage (beyond "we need work visas") so then the government pen can be put through 2 week bed making courses.
The hospo industry should also have been asked for how many of these employees needed are at or close to the minimum wage. Which suggests jobs that don't need huge skills.
and FWIW 56000 extra people have registered for the unemployment plus those who don't need to but could work. Trademe and seek – who will overlap- show around 13000 to 14000 listings for the last 4 weeks
News media seem to accept this employer whinging uncritically without any challenge or filter.
Companies have done a great job over recent decades shifting responsibility for staff training onto everybody else to pay for.
We really need to get NZ out of the low-wage economy trap where employers fear to set their prices high enough to cover such costs unless they are only serving the luxury market. And more profits need to come back to workers, not owners.
Yep and step one would be for the media to expand their horizons and stop printing employer whinging without question or pushback, They seem to have lost that skill and stuff being now locally owned needs to find it in spades.
After a life in kitchens, I learnt a good tip during my 'Chemicals training': Spray your cleaning cloth with the fluid (sanitiser/window cleaner), not the surface. You use less and get a better finish.
On the other hand, and no doubt with support from the Labour government, I am having post earthquake remediation finally, using a firm who employs three female apprentices. Today, on learning that one apprentice was receiving her first visit from her industry supervisor/ trainer/ inspector person, I congratulated him on his willingness to train apprentices. Lots of 'doing', but with supervision and advice ongoing.
Adrian agree 100%. Worked in hospo in my 20's . No training, just figuring it out.
Also thinking about all those unemployed flight attendants. Surely their skills generalize? Good customer service, serving people coffee etc. It's just bollock that we have to have migrants to fill these jobs.
NSW is to close the border with Victoria midnight tomorrow. First time it’s been closed in a hundred years. 53 cases – 16 new today – at the Melbourne public housing towers. 127 new cases in Victoria overall today.
This Melbourne case should be kept in mind when public housing is built here again. Do not use this type of tower block housing, it is bad for human mental and physical health to be WAREHOUSED. Under one picture of someone looking out from a window: '
The units have no balconies and windows that only open a small amount.'. No wonder some complain there is no fresh air, and also they say there is no sunlight. When you see how closely the huge blocks stand together, it is plain that there would never be sunlight in some of them. There isn't any room for it to angle into any of the rooms.
This is an unpleasant note from officialdom's view of the public housing lockdown, that they are places where viruses may be "incubating":
"This is not just a matter of 23- to 30-odd people, this is a matter of many hundreds who have already been exposed and who may already be incubating," Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen said on Saturday.
Some of them may be nearly starving soon.
…It was only when Tekeste Hailu tried to leave his building that he realised he was one of 3,000 people in mandatory lockdown. Mr Hailu, 27, lives with his grandmother in public housing on Racecourse Rd, one of nine Melbourne buildings that was placed into sudden "hard lockdown" on Saturday afternoon. But the first Mr Hailu was told was when he tried to leave to buy groceries, only to be greeted by "the whole building surrounded by police".
…Hulya Selin, who lives with her young son in a two-bedroom apartment on the 12th floor of a tower on Racecourse Road, said losing her freedom removed was "scary"…. Ms Selin said by 10:000am Sunday, 18 hours after the lockdown began, no-one had come to the door to provide her with any information or food. She first heard about the lockdown from a post on Facebook. "I went downstairs just to check if this was all true and there were so many police officers there at that point," she said. "I actually spoke to one of the officers and he said the only information they had was that no-one is allowed out." She said she was told by an officer later that having food delivered was OK, but when the delivery worker arrived, they were not allowed near the building…
Other comment: There have also been concerns raised about the lack of information in languages other than English. By late on Saturday night, Mr Hailu said he was yet to see any professional health workers, social workers or interpreters to support the hundreds of residents in his building….
Residents from three separate towers said it was common for lifts in the high-rise buildings to be out of order on a regular basis, meaning there was one way up and down the buildings [the stairs] for hundreds of residents. Jenny said she took the stairs because she was "fit and young", but that was impossible for many others.
Is this high-rise nightmare what Auckland will try to come up with, having mismanaged its residential requirements for so long, and letting developers play housie with what are commodities to them, but expensive essential services to the peeps?
…The most visible legacy of the Commission is the 47 or so high-rise apartment towers in inner Melbourne, all built using the same pre-cast concrete panel technology. .. Approximately 27 of these precast concrete 20 to 30 storey height buildings were constructed around Melbourne, until the type of development fell into disrepute. By 1970 nearly 4000 privately owned dwellings had been compulsory acquired and replaced by nearly 7000 high rise flats..
I think it will be sometime before we have sufficient evidence to categorically rule, in or out, China's involvement in this global pandemic, there certainly is plenty of speculation, but I'll wait for tangible evidence before I make up my mind
As an aside I am intrigued by the use of "apace." Dr Bloomfield used it in his reports a number of times. "Development in that process is happening apace." Now I have heard "apace" being used in news reports several times recently. How cute is that?
The Government is developing post Covid policies apace.
I am very retiring Adrian. At pace. O'clock. (Of the clock) Must be others around. But I like the idea that a great Public Servant can insert an old word word into the consciousness and usage of others.
You're right, of course, ianmac. I just wanted to get a joke in. 'Never let the truth stand in the way of a good joke', as they say. You, of course, might respond that you're still waiting…….
The selection committee, advisers say, hasn’t finished assembling a final shortlist of candidates for consideration by Biden, who has made it clear he’ll take his time and make his selection by Aug. 1 based on his personal relationship with the candidate and how “simpatico” they are.
The foundation’s research also shows that women are generally viewed as having more empathy and being multi-taskers who are perceived as having a “virtue advantage” over men because they’re more trustworthy…
in 2018, a record number of women were elected to Congress, and many won by emphasizing their personal life experience instead of just political experience.
I gave the running mate a thought the other day. Needs to be energetic, able to be presidential and in the early fifties or late forties of African American heritage.
Physically I doubt Trump would last another term and Pence is not visible or able to have a different point of view than Trump.
I mentioned the other day the likelihood of Biden dying in office. Feasibility of that scenario would be driving the advice from long-time Democrat stalwarts. So the non-white woman he selects has to be tough enough to survive & prosper in the top job. And already seen as such by those who matter (in the liberal US establishment).
I assume Biden is open to advice from Hilary Clinton on that. Her life-long progression from ultra-conservative to democrat proves her capacity to transcend established political categories in a life-transforming way. Her selection of a short list of candidates for Biden would be extremely useful. Probably the first time I've ever written something favourable about that woman! 🙃
I assume Biden is open to advice from Hilary Clinton on that. Her life-longprogression from ultra-conservative to democratproves her capacity to transcend established political categories in a life-transforming way.
She backed Biden's horrific Crime Bill in 1994, and denounced black teenagers as "predators." She and her husband started the racist allegation, taken up with a vengeance by Donald Trump, that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. After the horrific death of Colonel Gaddafi—U.S./U.K.-supported Islamist fanatics sodomized him with swords—she laughed her head off about it: "He came, he saw, he DID!"
Going from Goldwater Girl to Democrat Senator. Obviously! I suspect you're just playing dumb, of course, but sometimes people do need to have the obvious pointed out to them. You're welcome. 😉
Once sung by descendants of the 7th Cavalry, Irish air "Garrymore" will no longer cause pain for Native Americans.
“Garryowen,” an Irish drinking song with a marching cadence, is to Native Americans what “Deutschland Uber Alles” is to Jews, a hated reminder of the evil past.
“Garryowen” was the marching song of the 7th Cavalry and the infamous Lt Colonel George Custer when they massacred native American villages in the all-out campaign in the 1870s to rid the plains and the west of “redskins.” The tune was played quite deliberately right before attacks.
How does this sort of nonsensical trash get past the editors at Stuff?
"The Greens elect their list on an internal party ballot, which means party members prefer Swarbrick over a minister with tangible results under her belt. And if party members think this way, their voters must be even more ambivalent about real policy wins."
This idiot's whole theory is based on one totally illogical assumption, which is that the way the party determines its list means that Green voters don't care value policy wins. There's a lot of truth in the view that sees only three kinds of right winger, which are eitther stupid, nasty or both.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
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Yep, sucking up to TERFs is surely the key to our recovery. Wonder how it got missed from her speech..
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[non-bold, general moderator comment below. Everyone please read before commenting in this subthread – weka]
Expecting this irrelevant comment to be moved to Open Mike in 3,2,1..
Your comment seems uncharacteristically off!?
TERFs bring out my bitchy side.
We all have our Achilles’ heels.
Irrelevant bandwagonning is another #MatchingPair
Sasha
Who needs misogyny when you have women who use slurs to shut other women up – the mob cancel culture.
Who dare they to express their concerns.
Tubletennis
Speech has consequences. Speech intended to eliminate a group of people tends to attract ire. Moreso than 'slurs' in general, especially when the term in question was coined by the people who it is being applied to. Only a slur once it became inconvenient.
It still not clear to you that a large group will feel eliminated if certain policy changes will be implemented. Maybe you are not interested, so be it – but your very nasty misogynistic slur outburst got me reacting.
Your attitude belongs much more at home in the front bench of the NP.
Perhaps reflect on 'feels' eliminated vs actually being eliminated. I'm sure the KKK feel really victimised these days too.
….reflect on 'feels'…
Kinda like 'feeling' like a woman and actually being a woman?
Essentialism will not end where you want it to.
What the fuck is TERF?
WTF don’t you use Google or another search engine?
First hit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERF
So lazy fuckers take the time to type their bullshitty jargon out in full that's why the fuck.
I call BS on that. If they had typed “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” you would have been none the wiser and you would have said “What the fuck is trans-exclusionary radical feminist?”. However, if you did know what “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” stands for you would have known the acronym TERF. You could have looked it up yourself or asked nicely but you did neither because you knew exactly what TERF means, didn’t you? Your foul language gave it away, IMHO.
I know now and it was clearly a lie, which would have been apparent had it been written in full. Probably why it wasn't, IMHO.
Let’s do a search here on TS on “Gabby” and “TERF” and see what comes up, shall we?
Any guesses what we might find?
Go on then, IYHO what are you predicting?
My guess is that there’s high chance that it will show that in all likelihood you knew the meaning of the acronym. Are you still denying that?
Have you done it yet?
No, not yet, but I’ll get to it, don’t you worry. I can’t stand dishonesty.
I'm not a big fan of dishonesty either.
Well I've just invested 30 secs of time and .. nuttin. Looking forward to your findings.
Why? Afraid that you have a TERF skeleton in your closet that I might find? You don’t trust your own memory? I don’t trust mine so I can understand that.
I have zero trust in my own memory. Someone could have told me what it meant last week and I could have forgotten it while retaining contempt for its bullshitty jargon. Do you have any reason to believe that the person it was flung at, is a radical feminist?
Your contempt was obvious, which caught my attention and it begged the question why you’d react in such a way if you didn’t know what you were reacting to and why. It came across as disingenuous and dishonest. So, I will do some detective work and will get back to you with my findings. At this stage, I think I’ll have difficulty accepting the John Key ‘excuse’ of ‘actually, I have no recollection of that but what I can say, at the end of the day, is that it made my blood boil’. Not too late to come clean 😉
Do you have any reason to believe that the person hectored is a radical feminist? That's what the RF stands for.
https://rdln.wordpress.com/category/womens-rights-womens-liberation/
Fill your boots Gabby.
I looked up that link Rosemary. Deals with the female-centred wash from idle, amoral minds swamping the world. Really ugly. In the past one didn't know or even suspect the awful side of people's minds and thoughts. Now they flaunt all their sick-minded unlovely negativity and dislike across the world as if it is some revelation to spread for everyone's education.
It is on a par with what Germany suffered at the hands of Nazis. They built up bad attitudes to Jews, which then enabled them to start physical attacks etc. which were largely accepted, despite protests from many and then increased in severity. Society has indulged itself in punishing the 'other' with witch-baiting and burning, watching mad people as if a circus, seeing public hangings as a spectacle.
We need to be careful of building up outrage, one group versus another, when either group becomes swollen with resentment and anger.
There seems to be a madness that arises from a mindset that can grow in societies – to fix on a group or person to be a scapegoat for all to focus their negative feelings on, their discontent either with themselves, others, or anything. In psychology they call this projection.
Psychological projection is a defense mechanism people subconsciously employ in order to cope with difficult feelings or emotions. Psychological projection involves projecting undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else, rather than admitting to or dealing with the unwanted feelings. https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/psychological-projection-dealing-with-undesirable-emotions/
eg as in – https://rdln.wordpress.com/2020/06/24/new-misogyny-has-many-forms/
and then a heightened response to every comment prevents any rationality in discussion – https://rdln.wordpress.com/2020/06/20/stuff-continues-the-diatribes-against-j-k-rowling/
The approach of focussing the dark thoughts of society on one thing or being was the subject of a play by a USA author. One person would be stoned to death each year as part of the culture of a particular area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery
More than ever we need to have the study of human personality and philosophy to help us control what must be atavistic tendencies that need to be controlled by the healthy, balanced mind. So we need more Humanities, not seeing them wiped from tertiary study in favour of Science.
Really ugly. In the past one didn't know or even suspect the awful side of people's minds and thoughts. Now they flaunt all their sick-minded unlovely negativity and dislike across the world as if it is some revelation to spread for everyone's education.
Yep.
https://lesbian-rights-nz.org/shame-receipts/
Moving this to OM from the "Jacinda’s address to the Labour Congress" post because I want to address it without derailing another author's post.
I consider TERF to be a slur. Like many words directed at women, it has other uses too, but most use now is perjorative and often abusive (thinking twitter here). It is so ubiquitously used as a pejorative now that this is true irrespective of how the person using it intends.
From a moderator perspective, I will maintain boundaries here for the sake of both trans people and gender critical feminists. Calling a commenter a terf will get my moderator attention, calling women offsite might too. Talking about 'terf' in a gender context I'll take each situation as it goes. In this case Sacha, acknowledging letting your bitchy side come out gave some context, but it was still a flamey derail that in other places would have devolved into a shit show.
I'm not willing to let that shitshow happen on TS, for the sake of TS and also for the sake of trans people, women and GCFs. It's already really hard for women to take part here, especially women authors. That longstanding issue has not been resolved and as a feminist who has to limit what she can write about because of that, I'm not ok with another layer of trouble being added to this space. I also consider TS to not be particularly safe for trans and non-binary people either.
It's possible that the gender war issues will be an election issue. Also possible that people here will want to discuss them. So I'm signalling some boundaries around managing those conversations so that the robust debate and the 'tone/language not excluding others' ethos are maintained.
Happy to have discussion about this if anyone needs clarification. I'm not available for an argument today.
edited.
The original comment was an utter derail in itself – like responding to a detailed economic policy post by asking what Labour would do about whale strandings or middle-east political prisoners.
Kind of disappointed it was not moved here along with my response. However I do not see any conversation about this ending constructively in this place. So I won't.
To be clear, I do respect your reasoning and your broader understanding of the context here – and I expected other moderators might have moved my comment at the time. Not aiming to cause trouble when election season will bring plenty of that. Cheers
This Moderator made a judgement call yesterday to leave things as they were and see how the thread would evolve rather than to move it pre-emptively. Robust debate sometimes means hanging out the dirty laundry, having the hard conversations, be open and honest – warts and all – but above all, being respectful of others. Unfortunately, I don’t think the TS commentariat is ready for certain conversations. QED.
Great stuff Weka. Thanks
Will Labour review the Defence budget in light of the economic effect of Covid?
Namely the 20 billion to be spent over the next 11 years, which could be much better spent enhancing lives
I'm all for the idea of armed neutrality
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/122026503/new-defence-recruits-may-be-buy-into-a-sea-of-trouble
With China's growing aggression and countries building up their arsenal while strengthening their international ties as a counter, one would expect there will be growing international pressure for us to spend more. Therefore, it is unlikely we will cut back our military spend and more likely we will be pressured to up it.
It's a losing game, the NY Police force has a bigger budget than the NZ military, and that's with the NYP slashing theirs by a billion dollars.
It's largely a loss for our economy but no doubt a gain for the arms dealers.
Armed neutrality is very expensive. I propose allowing the people who own the country to defend it. That's Australia and China mostly.
Hah!
I'm sure they can agree
I think the Defence budget is about right. The country needs to be prepared for military issues. Covid-19 has shown me how important it is to have the defence force to fall back on when it comes to quarantine.
Some air craft needed to be decommissioned a decade ago, not sure if the orions or the hercs but I am surprised they are not dropping out of the sky.
National supported the 20 billion spend. Little wasn't convinced but Labour's stance changed when Jacinda became leader.
109 trades on offer in Defence. I have seen overseas how important it is to be able to deploy the military in your own country.
Replacing dilapidated aircraft is not cheap but necessary.
Housing the homeless and ensuring beneficiaries attain enough so they can afford to live is also not cheap. Nor is ensuring nurses, teachers and other public servants are fairly paid.
So I guess it all depends on what you deem is more necessary?
All necessary and more.
What sort of Defence Force would you like NZ to have?
One that better reflects our ability to fund it.
With all the problems we currently face in this small country, 20 billion is far too much to be spending on the military at this point in time.
I am not sure how much of the 20 billion that the government already has.
I want a Defence Force which is equipped to be deployed were there a major earthquake in Wellington. A frigate which can become operational at the port, aircraft which can land in Wellington (runway may need to be patched) and personnel which can be deployed on the ground and work with the emergency services.
There is no relying on overseas emergency workers and being response ready which the Defence Force is trained to be is required.
No weapons needed then.
I knew that question would come up.
It depends on what the operation is. Aircraft need to have the capacity to carry weapons, this does not mean that they are carried when unwarranted.
And weapons do kill innocent people just like drunk drivers do and alcohol is still sold. Neither is right and both cause a lot of harm.
There would need to be a total ban on weapons and alcohol across the globe to save lives from weapon use and drinking alcohol.
Best answer I saw was from an ex-Hercules pilot who pointed out that if you took a supply flight into somewhere in a conflict/emergency situation without weapons, people who did have them could take your plane pretty fast. May have been drawing on experience somewhere in the Pacific..
Guess the same applies to boats, though NZ certainly under-armed our latest frigates to the point of uselessness in a real war zone.
IIRC, that $20b was announced by National a while ago and was actually a budget cut over the 15 years they suggested.
Right now, we need to be spending $5 to $10 billion per year just to get our defence forces up to scratch. 30 years of budget cuts have done far too much damage to our defence forces.
Yes, it was announced by National, hence they support it.
We could spend billions on our military, but as a nation, it all comes down to what we think is more a priority – ie education, health, poverty, etc.
We could spend billions on our military, but as a nation, it all comes down to what we think is more a priority – ie education, health, poverty, etc.
Incorrect. As a nation we can do all of them if we use our resources correctly which the free-market is failing to do.
Upping defence spending could give many of those beneficiaries a job.
Then if we did our own R&D and made our own aircraft would produce even more jobs and help build up a local industry where we could use the aluminium that we subsidise the production of.
Defence spending is not exclusive in creating jobs. Upping Government spending in other sectors can also create jobs.
This spend up is largely going offshore, thus it won't be creating too many jobs here in NZ.
True but defence is a necessary spend that needs to be adequate.
Which we actually need to change and make it so that all possible defence spending is onshore. Doing so will up the number of jobs created, help develop our economy and remove the vulnerability that comes from importing all our defence gear.
Local military plane manufacture? Dreaming.
Oh I dunno. Take a leaf out of Erik Prince's book and set to work on some of Pacific Aerospace's products in Hamilton …
Or not.
Its only 'dreaming' if we don't do it.
We have the capability and the capacity to do it so why not?
It'd be cheaper than paying private contractors from other nations to do it for us as military doesn't have the economies of scale to drop profit for each item down to a reasonable level. And importation of military equipment is weakness in our supply as the sea lanes could be cut.
So, government R&D becomes a lowish level ongoing cost with manufacture then contracted out to a local manufacturer to produce the aircraft. The development of better manufacturing processes would also be carried out by government R&D and available to NZ businesses – just like the US has been doing for well over a century (The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzucato).
And if you really think about it, the Hercules that we're still flying is a 1950s design.
For one, the whole thing is only the price of the club, as Key acknowledged.
Second, interoperability with other forces is a big part of that scam.
And finally, wouldn't we be withdrawing from the world economy anyway from what you've said before? Military cooperation would go down the toilet just like trade, so why waste any energy building war toys?
Minimising trade isn't the same as withdrawing from the world.
What would we pay for imports with if we no longer take part in the world finance scam?
National created it.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11652807
I supported National on that issue (enough defence resources) providing it was not going to remove money from social spending.
Shortage in housing was 20 years in the making in not investing enough. The tax breaks under Key could have helped fix housing providing the money was redirected.
Investment is needed in defence and it appears that NZ First was the influence.
Yeah I think it was warranted.
There are only so many layers of gaffer tape you can add to bodge fix planes before they start falling out of the sky.
Lol
There is so much wastage of money going into repairs of the aircraft.
Mind you a lot of wastage of money having gone into leaky hospital buildings and poor earthquake design of buildings.
Some other infrastructure has had a high blowout.
That may led to a doubling of the current Defence budget and the doubling of the current DCP? So I’m wondering if Jane is prepared for that, which mean raising taxes? As our distance from such trouble spots and our ever reliance of SLOC from imports & exports is far greater now than WW2 since NZ’s domestic manufacturing has almost gone the way of the Dodo. NZ’s MN has gone the same way as it’s domestic manufacturing and it’s railways system is on about a quarter of what it was during WW2 so it’s going to be interesting on how fuel rationing goes once NZ loses access or degraded access to oil refineries in Singers and or MEAO?
This would also mean re-establishment of lost Defence capabilities such as the RNZAF’s Air Strike Wing, MCM Vessels, increase the Air Maritime Patrol Wing, the Frigate Force up to 6 Vessels, 2-3 Ice Capable Southern Ocean Patrol Ships and the tripling of the OPV size fleet armed with at least 76mm/ 3in gun the ability to fight Subs, Surface to Surface and short/ Close Range Air to Air. Also introducing new capabilities such as Unarmed & Armed UAV’s, Air to Air Tankers etc and that’s before we even to start to look at the Defence Estate around the Country including the Chatham Is. As Airport & ports would have to upgrade to allow a dispersal of Defence Assets when the brown stuff hits the fan
While all this is happening the NZDF still has to carry out it day to day mandated tasks as outlined by the NZG which it struggles to do even in today’s NZ political climate as result of 30+ yrs of cuts to capability, Manning, base closures and reduction in equipment since 91when Ruth the Bitch from the “No Mates Party” cut the MoD/ NZDF by 26% in 90’s. While at the same time saw the 5 major UN Peacekeeping including INTERFET/ Timor-Leste which was biggest Deployment of the NZDF since WW2 and it also included an over the beach landing since WW2 which turn into a bit of a Fuck Fight btw and lucky for the NZDF it wasn’t an opposed landing as it could made Gallipoli look like an Sunday picnic beside the seaside
To make this all happen all of our Political Party’s, including the NZ Greens will have to compromise on their Policies with Trade, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Aid Development. A lot of dead rats have to be swallowed if this does happen or else NZ would have to chose between China or its other major Asian Trading Parters within the Indo/ Asian Pacific Region if and when Conflict breaks out within the Region.
Armed Neutrality is the only option if NZ wants to keep out of the pending Conflict in Asia as most Asian countries see the word “Neutrality” as a form of weakness unless you are armed to the hilt and are prepared to Defend, Deny, Delay, “Attack” to Defend, Ambush, any potential aggressor who is dumb or stupid a enough to have a crack at NZ. It also requires ever Man, Woman, Child to do their bit be it active or passive (CD, Red Cross etc) Defence of NZ’s Neutrality and willing to die for it?
The country cannot afford the cost of armed neutrality. The NZ Defence Force is always playing catch up when it comes to having a partial functioning defence force. If the defence force is operational ready were a major disaster to occur in NZ, then it would have served it's purpose in saving lives.
Staying out of other people's wars other than for giving humanitarian support to civilians probably reduces the duration of the conflict.
NZ is not likely to be attacked unless they become involved in a major incident. Our open shoreline is not going to be able to be protected.
NZ could afford “Armed Neutrality” but that would required total commitment NZG and the population, but that won’t happen as all the political parties and their various mouth pieces having to swallow a number of dead rats IRT to Defence, Trade, Foreign Affairs Aid Development etc. Also the fact that we have one political party screams tax cut, runs every Government Dept into ground, builds roads and other mob trying to rebuild everything back up due to mismanagement of the other mob, means “Armed Neutrality is a mere pip dream.
Unfortunately NZ will get sucked into the next major conflict in the Indo- Asian- Pacific Region weather it wants to or try’s to avoid it. My assumptions are theses,
1. We are a Trading Nation which means we rely on Freedom of Navigation of the Seas, because it allow us to export our goods overseas and import stuff that we use to make here NZ before the NeoCon Lib’s with their economic theory vandalised NZ’s domestic economy. Just have a look at the Fuck Fight that Covid19 has to both Australia’s and NZ’s import reliance on goods that used to be made within those respective countries before the NeoCon Lib’s vandalised the domestic economies.
2. Where are Australia’s Left Flank and the key to the Sth Pacific, which allows it to maintain its supply and military support from the US. Just asmuch as Australia is our right flank as it guarantees our supply line to SEA via the Singapore hub and our supplies of petroleum oil and lubricants (POL) via the Middle East & Singaporean oil refineries. If NZ loses some of its Asian exports, Australia is still one of our major export economy and Vice versa.
So if China wants to take on Australia its got to surround Australia by cutting its supply & support line to its left and right flanks and force those convoy’s into Lat 40& 50deg’s which would make the Russian Convoys look like Cook Strait crossing look quite Pleasant on a rough crossing. This was the long term strategic goal of the Japs in WW2, but they came short with the Battle of the Coral Sea only by a bees dick.
3. We are regarded as the gateway to the Antarctic and the Antarctic Treaty is up for renewal in 2044, if the Antarctic Treaty collapses then we’ll see the last great land grab since western colonisation.
4. NZ has been attack before in the last two World Wars via the indirect route of attacking NZ’s Shipping on the Surface from Surface Raiders and below the surface by the laying of sea mines off NZ Ports and Coastal Sea Lanes. Also NZ in WW2 had two over flights by the Japs from their I Boats ( Submarines) looking for the invasion fleet for Solly’s which they just miss by a number of days and we had also DKM U Boats conduct a couple sorties in NZ waters. Then we have the Frogs in 87 with the Rainbow Warrior as well.
Several strategically placed long range non radioactive missiles and it is all over for NZ.
I was thinking more of the line of 5 Direct Action Teams, Cyber Attack on the NZSX, over spin the turbines at Sth Is Power Stations, a couple of mad professors run about with a couple of virals of foot & mouth, PSA Mbiovs etc and a doz + Submarines with orders if it’s floats sink it and lay a few mines near Major Shipping ports.
Probable all up man power inside NZ’s land borders between 100& 120 pers within a population of 5m. Using prearranged dead drops, single use code pads, snail mail, other single use codes listening watch etc.
I usually do not contribute to a thread on the military.
Not sure why, other than the thought of being placed on a list for expressing my thoughts.
I hope haven't put you off from discussing this tropic? As I feel that this needs to be discuss at weather NZ adopts "Armed Neutrality" or the other option is which side it picks when jaw jaw stops and becomes war war. Having that discussion then is not a good option, if NZ wants to a adopt "Armed Neutrality" it has to start now.
As it well take time to re-orient the MFAT, Defence, Foreign Aid, NZ's economy including a Carbon Neutral Economy, build up the NZDF in particularly the Airforce and Navy, and finally infrastructure both public and private.
Solid comment Scud. I only wish these issues got more airtime here than all the 'ism wrangling.
All of those points are make a lot of sense, but the one I suspect will bite us in the arse much sooner than we expect is what happens when the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf in particular blows up … as it inevitably will when the US finally goes home altogether.
A couple of missed supertankers and Aus/NZ suddenly look very sick indeed.
The real issue Red is not so much the ME but the economic effect if and when conflict breaks out in Asia. Even just a simple reduction of 25% of POL supplies to the following counties Taiwan, Sth Korea & Japan would cause economic distress to both Oz & NZ before we even consider the economic fallout with China.
My gut feeling is that we are likely first to see conflict in the Indo -Asian -Pacific Region before the Jews, Arabs (Yanks) and the Persians settle a few old scores.
But the flip side to this as you pointed out that, the ME might go first which is likely to dilute the US Naval strength in the Asian- Pacific Region which could just give Chinese parity in the SCS and Taiwan. The question has to be asked, what would the Nth Koreans and Putin's Pacific Military Forces intent? Any offensive action by them would farther dilute the US PACCOM Forces. Which could cause issues in the low half of the Asian- Pacific Region, this would include NZ an the Sth Pacific?
So the next question would be who's side is NZ going to pick or does NZ starts serious looking at Armed Neutrality which means the discussion has to start now and not when Conflict starts.
New Zealand atm reminds of Norway just prior to WW2 where the Norwegian Government (which was a Labour btw) was at odds and reality with its Military not only with its lack of preparedness if and when Hitler makes his move on the West, but also the Military was getting very concern of the activities of both Germany & GB IRT its Neutrality.
If New Zealand want to avoid another oil shock as result of conflict, it has to adopt a Carbon Neutral Economy and rebuild its domestic manufacturing capacity which also in the Government input from the likes of the DSIR & MoW both as we know went the way of the Dodo in the 90's.
Pretty much agree with all of that. Two minor things to add in:
But the flip side to this as you pointed out that, the ME might go first which is likely to dilute the US Naval strength in the Asian- Pacific Region which could just give Chinese parity in the SCS and Taiwan.
It's my belief the US wouldn't commit much resource at all; they're pretty much energy independent now, and highly decoupled from ME oil. And regardless of who wins in November, neither President is likely to put American lives in harm's way to stabilise oil supplies for Europe or Asia. They just don’t care enough anymore.
So the next question would be who's side is NZ going to pick or does NZ starts serious looking at Armed Neutrality.
I can see the appeal of 'Armed Neutrality" but honestly when it came down to it, unless we had nuclear weapons and capable delivery systems, we could never mount an adequate deterrence. While the Pacific gives us a nice defensive space, it also makes it very hard for us to strike back with conventional weapons once the enemy’s navy was blockading our harbours … and that is the only basis on which this strategy might work.
In my view we have two realistic security options; the traditional ANZUS alliance that depending on events in the US may or may not be open to us, or a wholly new configuration of SE Asian nations, consisting of Japan/Korea/Philippines/Indonesia/Malaysia/India/Australia in a new alliance. It's not as unlikely as it seems, after all the Japanese arguably have the second most capable blue-water navy after the US, and if the politics were managed competently the whole alliance would be formidable indeed.
Sorry for my late reply to this,
First of all thanks for jointing my memory IRT the US Shale Oil industry, as forgot that the US is almost totally free from the ME Oil dependency these days.
I've roughly crack the numbers on Nuke wpns vs Submarine both D/E and nuclear power vs more bang for your buck. I believe that a Submarine fleet would be practical and cheaper to run long term than if NZ wanted to adopt some form of Nuclear Wpn capability.
The main issue would be what type of Submarine would suit NZ's needs if NZ adopted "Armed Neutrally". Having a Nuclear Powered Attack Sub a has number of benefits on the plus side, but there are number of minuses. Apart from setting a Submarine Fleet would be huge as we have no corporate background in the use of Sub's, also of note that NZ DWP from 1982 or 83 did discuss and crunch the numbers of NZ obtaining Subs. The issue with a Nuke Sub we would still beholding tries to that country we purchase the a fleet of 6-9 Subs for technical support especially for refuelling the reactor and other deep level maintenance that would be require to do at the same time.
A D/E Sub on the other hand well have less risk, it would a lot easily to setup our maintenance in house, the other is being able to tap into the STEM and other technical trades. The other big factors is we won't be beholding to tires any country a part from very minor technical support during refits and the other more options in terms of variety of manufactures of D/E from Sweden with the their "Son of Collins Class", the German UBoats which to some are the Bee's Knees and the Jap S Boats which has combine the best of German and Swedish know how to produce a very capable boat, then we have the French, Russia D/E Subs and of cause the Brits with their U Boats, but like the Yanks haven't built D/E in donkeys years.
A Submarine Force with a Combine Surface and Air Force would give the NZG a number of options in Defence of its "Armed Neutrally". For example NZ would able to conduct Defence in Depth which cause all sort of problems anyone who is stupid a enough to close in on NZ, as they would a long way from support and it would leave them very open for the NZ Submarine Force to attack its Fleet train. Which would less ships up front as more would be need to defence its Fleet train and its support base along the way. Which was something that the Japs forgot to do in WW2, but the Germans did against the Brits and almost pulled it off. If it wasn't for some management issues within the German Sub Fleet command, the SKL (Naval Command) and finally Hitler's melding within the OKW.
There is a lot to think about NZ's direction on weather it adopts "Armed Neutrally" or it attempts to shore up it traditional Alliance aka ANZUS or the FPDA or looks at something similar to what you have mention (I prefer the last two options if NZ decides not to adopt Armed Neutrally") and, or its sides with China which doesn't have any of NZ traditional values.
Above all it would require cross party support and us punters need know the options for & against. Once NZ decided what the option they want and doing nothing is not an option btw, as it would require 100% commitment from everybody from the top end of town to the bottom end of town and in between.
Excellent. I really appreciate your input around a potential submarine fleet to provide a 'defense in depth' capability. Although they aren't cheap or easy, as the Aussies are finding that out with their French subs. I wonder if NZ shouldn't piggy back on that program, just from a support perspective alone.
Incidentally one of the guys I work with most days is ex-Collin Class submariner. They really are a breed apart, and as you say NZ has no corporate experience in this arena; it would be a hell of a commitment to go down this path.
But you are right, whether we went down the 'armed neutrality' or 'SE Asia Alliance' path, submarines would be by far the most useful capability we could have. And given the sheer size of the Pacific, Tasman and Southern Oceans we would have to operate in, maybe there is a case for nuclear, however extreme that might feel at the moment.
am pretty sure nz cant afford 20 billion per (over rated and under performing) submarine…not to mention the additional maintenance and training costs
Yes, because making ourselves even more vulnerable in a world gone haywire is such a Good Idea.
/sarc
BTW, think of how many thousands of people employed by the defence forces that would be out of a job and thus increasing poverty if we didn't spend that money.
Partisans vs democracy. Joshua Ferrer examines their track record of success:
Joshua concludes by advocating use of "citizens’ assemblies on election reform" to provide "a valuable new form of direct democracy". Seems a worthwhile initiative. To make it happen, we need a citizens' advocacy group with organising skills. However it does create an opportunity for any political party with a tradition of calling itself progressive. They could validate their claim by leading the implementation process!
Without reading the whole article – is this actually looking through the correct lens?
Should the criteria for measuring the reforms be "is this going to expand the democratic franchise and enable more participation with an electoral outcome that reflects those votes"- not which party did it?
The party is a secondary consideration – so is this research with a major flaw or bias?
To call them partisan reforms not partisan outcomes is very poor framing.
To call them partisan reforms not partisan outcomes is very poor framing.
I see where you're coming from, but I suspect he is simply recycling the framing used at the time: touting an act of parliament as a reform is trad pr for both major parties.
I agree that such acts which don't improve democratic participation look more like outcomes than reforms, since reforms are usually interpreted as progress. Technically, a didact could point out that the term originally meant just a change of form though. So no, I see no good reason to assume he's compromised by perceptual flaw or bias.
We need more participation, from informed people. This old business of thinking we are in charge because we voted some bods in, and that they know what they are doing because they convinced us to vote them in, a bit circular what! And they rely on a supposedly effective, efficient and knowledgable group that are either lifetimers in administration (old idea) or interchangeable between private and government (new idea) or university trained in the latest methods of efficiency in any sort of management (neo lib idea).
And all this going on over the heads of unthinking and uncaring (till it hits them on the head like seagull's droppings) citizens stolidly going on their dim-witted way stamping out bushfires preferably before ideas actually start smouldering.
That's democracy at present folks. Getting that changed would be a herculean task to do it right. Of course it could be done a la Roger et Al, who just upended the table and the board game or jigsaw or whatever was being played fell to the floor and never got put together again. If we lived in Holland the dykes would never have been put together sweetly and strongly, we would all be boat people being turned away as undesirable.
Probably due to the natsys fighting tooth and nail to resist any reform that enhanced democracy in praxis eh.
Richard Harman assesses the PM's conference speech:
He also claimed that Labour is going it alone this election, that it wants to govern on its own. Another centre right pundit trying to put the last nails in the Green’s coffin.
So is the Government finally going to do something for people that can't pay their commercial leases because their business is dead?
Cause this is what you can 'have' – nothing, zilch, nada, fuck all as per the CAB
https://www.cab.org.nz/article/KB00039675
Or does that fall under Deborah Russels protfolio of 'how can they – small businesses – not survive in a pandemic with no income i have no idea……i am an academic, a beige suit on the government tit, so how the fuck would i know anything about free enterprise and working for ones wages."
Cause as of today, the Government has done fuck all to help people who are stuck owing tens of thousands of dollars to landlords who will NOT negotiate unless they are forced to by Government. Or does that fall in the too fucking hard basket?
And for those that get upset at a little critic thrown at the current government and their leader, suck it up.
This failure to reign in property holders/speculators/landbankers/leeches on society has been a spectacular bipartisan failure of the National Party and the Labour Party. So dear Labour Party and parties of the coalition, go do something. You can not just let people go all the way to bankruptcy just because you don't want to finally tackle the abuse of Landlords that literally everyone, residential or commercial tenants is suffering from.
And for those that want to simply not give a shit about the people of NZ that have businesses please remember that these are the guys generating tax revenue, paying wages, GST, and Rates. Also they are New Zealanders just in case people forgot.
Also remember that the wage subsidy only pays for one thing, Rent at home plus food, or a commercial rent. It does not take care of both.
There's some mongrels out there
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12337502
Part of the small subset of commercial landlords who see a distressed tenant as an opportunity to create a debt, and obtain a judgement to take the tenants assets. One of the risks you take when you go into business
not naming any names, but apparently a local retail landlord wanted to sell their business so got an earthquake structural report pre-covid. They then refused to let any of their commercial tenants off paying rent during lockdown.
Post covid, two of their major tenants aren't renewing their lease, and one is refusing to reopen because of the earthquake report highlighting "health and safety" risks (which suggests to me they're arguing the landlord is failing to provide suitable retail space, so they won't be paying rent until the lease runs out).
Nice to see the occasional bastard get their comeuppance.
Is there some way that a form of pandemic bankruptcy can be declared without losing your home and car?
Easiest way is to not own anything, why people who own businesses have trusts. Companies don't protect you that much now because everything requires personal guarantees now, especially leases.
yeah, I was a bit surprised at that requirement for a personal guarantee when a group I was involved with was leasing a space. Seems a bit bloody weird to me.
I think Treetop's idea would be reasonable, for some tight criteria. It would be DamienGrant-dodgy to pay the rent with the covid loan and then wind the company up at the end of the lease.
It will probably require a purpose built entity to take the leases off the distressed tenants and deal with the contractual issues with the lease.
This is where Little's bluff fell over, it sort of dealt with the lockdown period, but trying to deal with distressed leases using the ADLS 27.5 and 27.6 clauses was really going cause problems.
Getting a fair deal for the likes of the Travel Agent, but not allowing the wide boys to demand a lease renegotiation will be tricky. Everything will be subjective and nothing meaningfully objective.
From where I'm sitting a Crown agency that takes over leases of genuinely distressed tenants and then manages the reletting could be the way to deal with it. It will probably only do a couple of hundred leases where relationships have broken down completely already and they have got themselves into a corner they can't get out of, and then the message will get through and both sides of the letting relationship will settle down.
Generally Queenstown isn't to bad in this regard. There's a couple of wanker landlords, but also a couple of really good ones which has kept things under control. But I know of a couple of situations that have become disfunctional. But the market's still fluid, someone moves out, then there's someone moving in straight away.
There's also a review of the ADLS lease underway, it gets reviewed every 10 years with updates between. Our beagle is saying this aspect of the lease is in for a major overhaul.
Sabine, your anger is better directed at Winston. He's the prick who has proudly thwarted govt help on commercial leases/rent.
Speaking of commercial leases, this is how Harvey Norman dealt with their landlords.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/120728348/harvey-norman-tells-landlords-it-wont-pay-rent
Into cultural analysis? Check this out: https://unherd.com/2020/07/the-emptiness-of-the-intellectual-dark-web/
Naturalism is littered with conceptual pitfalls, true. But Greens did derive their belief system from nature, and it remains valid, so the lesson to learn is `do it right'.
Crap. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy
Dennis, when I lived in Australia the Govt there argued "Meritocracy" was the reason there was only 1 woman on the front bench in Parliament.
The Liberal Party of Australia, many punters I met said they no longer vote for them as they no longer represent Liberal values, they're actually Right Wing Christian Conservatives.
Yeah men have traditionally struggled to get their heads around the notion that women have complementary skills that are just as valid in politics & governance. I see emotional intelligence, for instance, as a competitive advantage in group psychodynamics. Conservative culture prevents such learning so sexism persists. And I agree that the Oz liberal tag is a misnomer. Justin Trudeau puts them to shame! I read a biography of him from the library a while back. He's authentic.
Justin Trudeau puts them to shame! I read a biography of him from the library a while back. He's authentic.
???????
Funny, but to anyone with eyes he looks like a racist and a moral coward.
https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/teens-react-to-images-of-justin-trudeau-in-blackface
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/850364412397531138?lang=en
But he was comparing him to the current Liberal Govt in Australia, and by that comparison, Trudeau ptobably is more Liberal.
Liberals in the classic sense seem a different kind of animal. They are as likely to adopt a conservative stance as a progressive stance, for instance. Often centrist.
Not sure why you would want to interpret his call for an evidence-based approach to the issue of war crime responsibility as moral cowardice. Temporary short-circuit in the brain??
As regards wearing a black face, I've never done it – but depends what year he did it eh? Weren't they still broadcasting re-runs of the Black & White Minstrel Show here in the '80s?
I recall them from the 1970s but not the 80s.
The stage show toured during the 80's
Regency Artists Pty Ltd & Bruce Warwick Ltd … proudly present the world's longest running musical show, the fabulous Black & White Minstrel Show. based on the popular BBC TV series. Souvenir N.Z. programme [19]84.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22799132?search%5Bi%5D%5Bname_authority_id%5D=-145880&search%5Bpath%5D=items
What is shown in the Twitter feed I linked to is that Trudeau swiftly abandoned his call for an evidence-based approach, and supported the Trump regime's highly contentious and unproven allegations. He also, infamously, supported the Trump/Pompeo propaganda line against the elected government of Venezuela.
His black-face shenanigans would not, in themselves, count for very much if taken in isolation. However, considering everything else he has done, they point to someone who is anything but "authentic."
No way would I view Assad favourably so I share your feeling there. But we don't know what intelligence-sharing happened to change his mind, do we? Re Venezuela, that's a typical binary with a path thro the middle for those who prefer a balanced view. I see the idiocies of both sides clearly.
Being stuck in bias is bad for one's mental health often. If you have an open mind, read Justin's autobiography. The only reason I did so was due to the negative views of him expressed by you & one or two others in the past. That got me intrigued and sceptical of his character. I was impressed somewhat against my will as a result. In my local library – probably in yours…
Correction: I read his autobiography, not a biography. You get a better sense of where a person is coming from (in terms of values, motivations,ideals) when you read them telling their own story. For instance, he spent many years determined not to be a politician. What he did during those years is instructive.
I find it interesting that TV3 has not provided their poll yet. Is Toll Mudler's attack method not moving the numbers in the desired direction?
Perhaps we have seen it all before?
Maybe they’re too skint to conduct one?
Maybe the numbers are so bad that they're doing what Simon Bridges did with his polling numbers, not tell anyone
More unsubstantiated news, often referred to as fake news, being disseminated by international MSM and mindlessly parroted by our own beloved RNZ….
In ‘Russian Bounty’ Story, Evidence-Free Claims From Nameless Spies Became Fact Overnight
https://fair.org/home/in-russian-bounty-story-evidence-free-claims-from-nameless-spies-became-fact-overnight/
Yep , dogs running after phantom sticks again, just when theres talk of withdrawing all the troops
How people still unquestionably believe all the BS emanating from anonymous officials is beyond me .I suspect it's wishful thinking and confirmation bias at work
"I suspect it's wishful thinking and confirmation bias at work" Yeah true that..unfortunately.
A clue for the clueless: what makes the russian bounties thing a story is the Great White Shart's reaction to the possibility of russia paying bounties on dead US soldiers, or to be more precise, his utter lack of interest. Much more than whether or not the allegations are accurate.
Of course the lack of any proof is the final confirmation that this story—provided by "unnamed sources"—is true. Those dastardly Russian masterminds and their puppet in Washington!
The Russians are laughing at us. Look at this smug Russki bastard….
https://media1.tenor.com/images/111dc5bade94457d9f91e5eafa38c7f3/tenor.gif?itemid=7576941
Aaahhh, of course good ol' Andre always ready and willing to gulp down what ever unsubstantiated fact free nonsense his MSM liberal tell him..and then spew it back out as fact…a true camp guard, no training needed.
Here's our friend Andre back in the 1950s…
When the same stupid GIF used for the 3rd time and a YT clip are all bring to the table it is obvious that you’ve got nothing of substance to add in which case it might be better that you say nothing.
More clues for the clueless: An organisation that calls itself "Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting" that fails to acknowledge that anonymous sourcing does in fact have a reasonable place in responsible journalism, among other misrepresentations in that piece, itself bears more resemblance to the Ministry of Truth than to what it claims on its label. Particularly given the tiny-fisted fascist's inclination to go hard after everyone that provides information that is even the slightest bit unfavourable to his interests.
Meanwhile, for anyone interested in the appropriate role of anonymous sourcing and how much credence to give anonymously sourced info, here's a few pieces to consider:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/when-to-trust-a-story-that-uses-unnamed-sources/
https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/resources/publications/ethics-in-the-news/handling-sources
https://www.ap.org/about/news-values-and-principles/telling-the-story/anonymous-sources
In a way I am impressed your sticking to this line even days later.
I guess you will be pitching for a less wooden actor in the headline role come November?
RNZ National is full of people who have uncritically gulped down this nonsense, hook, line, and sinker. The problem is that they then use their platform to regurgitate the propaganda. Chief among the Russiagate true believers are Dame Kim Hill, Bernard Hickey, and Jim Mora, the long-time host of the light chat show The Panel.
Back in November 2015, regular Panel guest Ella Henry treated Nat. Radio listeners to the fruits of her extensive knowledge and wide reading on the subject of Russian leader Vladimir Putin:
In October 2016 poor, bewildered Jesse Mulligan—Mora's replacement as Panel host— tried his hardest to seriously address the m-m-m-m-menace from Moscow….
et cetera, ad absurdum, ad nauseam…
While I think my star sign is Cynical, the MSM has become a slither of it's former selves. Helped, no doubt, by the decades of market reforms, the race to the bottom is picking up speed.
Before clickbait was a thing… I had a pub in a small country town. We had a big Friday night and 3 brothers came in, I knew 2 of them were under age so I asked them to leave. On their way out, they came across the kitchen hand, assumed he had narked on them and proceeded to give him a hiding.
The Monday issue of the local paper has a story headlined "Teens Fight in Local Bar". They go on to quote the local Senior Sergeant who knew nothing about it, about 'youngsters these days….'
Took a few calls to the editor to get a retraction printed, buried deep in the paper. I stopped advertising with them and got creative with other marketing ideas.
The Guardian, oft cited as the font of all wisdom, has sullied or confirmed (depending on your view of it) it's reputation with it's treatment of Jeremy Corbyn.
STOP PRESS! (Is that still a thing?)
Stuff shows it ain't just about the money, principles play a part: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/122048365/stuff-stops-all-activity-on-facebook-in-trial-inspired-by-principle
Anyone else keen to boycott the platform?
Boom!
The opposition said they have a moral obligation to win. No. Winning an election is not a moral obligation.
We are morally obligated to look after New Zealanders, our most vulnerable, our families and our children; to represent our diverse nation, to have people from all walks of life of every colour race and creed sit at the decision-making table.
To do what is best for New Zealand, to govern in the best interests of New Zealanders; to be honest, to be fair.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/kelvin-davis-our-moral-obligation
This from a party of no morals, as proven daily on any media format
Graeme's comment at 5.1.
I understand that addressing commercial leaseholders difficulties has been on the table.
Held up by some snags.
Including NZ first and the banks, but also how do you help out genuinely distressed leases without allowing some big arsehole ones to wriggle out of their obligations.
Good to hear. You don't want the unscrupulous renters voiding leases they can well afford to pay while needing to offer some solution to prevent the unscrupulous landlords bankrupting smaller business owners who have a no or a much reduced business meaning they bear the whole financial outcome of the "covid disruption lottery " and recognising that no rent would also bankrupt some smaller landlords.
Snags 'including' NZ First?
All about them wagging the dog.
Today's bunch of useless under performing employers who can't plan for more than 5 minutes into the future and now want the government to bail them out.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300050195/bosses-scramble-to-fill-jobs-as-visas-set-to-expire-en-masse
You've had six months to get yourselves organised – why didn't you use it! Be proactive. Why have you rolled some visa's for years instead of training. Bear in mind that it appears only about 10,000 have been here for 5+ years.
Why do these visa holders who have been here so little time apparently have skills that can't be taught in the short term to locals. Many of these visa's would not have been renewed anyway- tourist, student and under 30 work permits so you would have needed to replace them anyway.
I'd like to give a special mention to the Hospo association. Not only is this an industry that will shrink but:
why have you not designed a few basic courses,
found or used a current provider for those courses,
invited employers when they are interviewing to recommend individuals to undertake those courses because they will hire them at the end
Then if you asked for a small government subsidy I'm sure it would have been granted or employers could pay for it. Then you could also promote some existing workers. It's not rocket science.
Lastly why does the news media just accept the employer whinging without any further inquiry or hard facts. A lot of those dairy jobs are short term to cover the start of the season.
And the hospo industry is claiming to be a 40 billion dollar industry, talk about "don't you know who I am-ism ". What a load of bullshit, that would make a city of 50,000 have a hospo industry of 400 million. I have had a gutsful of this inflating of value every time some entity is trying to extract something from the government.
Absolute crap regarding dairy farmers. The truth is we have received no wage subsidies,Jacinda is sending key workers back to poverty and disease and There is no way NZ unemployed will fill the gap.The treatment of our workers by a so called Kind government is disgusting.
Er I think these statements may prove my point. But hey why didn't the dairy industry not try to make itself more resilient? The rewards have been high enough – maybe profit sharing like say 'sharemilkers'?
The Merriam Webster's definition of "SHAMBOLIC"
"Obviously disorganised or confused"
First used in 1970, evidently.
Nationals new go to word.
In reality it eloquently describes John Keys reign of destruction.
What is it about having to do "courses " to do anything from carrying a cup of coffee from a kitchen to a table or wash a floor or clean a bench. If a person can't do any of most things required to hold down a simple job then they must have been on 24 hour life support since birth. You don't need training just get on and fucking do it.
I don't really think they need courses for a lot of this stuff either. Maybe an hour or two to make sure the bed making is up to standard. But the onus should be pushed back onto these industry groups to come up with concrete plans for how to manage (beyond "we need work visas") so then the government pen can be put through 2 week bed making courses.
The hospo industry should also have been asked for how many of these employees needed are at or close to the minimum wage. Which suggests jobs that don't need huge skills.
and FWIW 56000 extra people have registered for the unemployment plus those who don't need to but could work. Trademe and seek – who will overlap- show around 13000 to 14000 listings for the last 4 weeks
News media seem to accept this employer whinging uncritically without any challenge or filter.
Companies have done a great job over recent decades shifting responsibility for staff training onto everybody else to pay for.
We really need to get NZ out of the low-wage economy trap where employers fear to set their prices high enough to cover such costs unless they are only serving the luxury market. And more profits need to come back to workers, not owners.
Yep and step one would be for the media to expand their horizons and stop printing employer whinging without question or pushback, They seem to have lost that skill and stuff being now locally owned needs to find it in spades.
After a life in kitchens, I learnt a good tip during my 'Chemicals training': Spray your cleaning cloth with the fluid (sanitiser/window cleaner), not the surface. You use less and get a better finish.
Private business can charge to train people which will either be paid for by the person or by government and is thus a profitable business.
Actually training people takes time and money which the business doesn't want to spend.
Put these two together and we have the perfect profit making excuse to bring people in from offshore and thus lower wages here.
On the other hand, and no doubt with support from the Labour government, I am having post earthquake remediation finally, using a firm who employs three female apprentices. Today, on learning that one apprentice was receiving her first visit from her industry supervisor/ trainer/ inspector person, I congratulated him on his willingness to train apprentices. Lots of 'doing', but with supervision and advice ongoing.
Great news. Are they dragging it up from the river and nailing to the bank at last?
Couldn't help myself.
Adrian agree 100%. Worked in hospo in my 20's . No training, just figuring it out.
Also thinking about all those unemployed flight attendants. Surely their skills generalize? Good customer service, serving people coffee etc. It's just bollock that we have to have migrants to fill these jobs.
NSW is to close the border with Victoria midnight tomorrow. First time it’s been closed in a hundred years. 53 cases – 16 new today – at the Melbourne public housing towers. 127 new cases in Victoria overall today.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/coronavirus-australia-updates-live-global-covid-19-cases-surpass-11-3-million-australia-death-toll-at-104-20200706-p559a2.html
But Australia are doing better than us!
Certainly played into the PM’s hands and shut the Tasman bubble-pushers right up.
Would that be the places put into 'hard lockdown'? https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122045148/nine-melbourne-tower-blocks-put-into-hard-lockdown–what-does-it-mean-and-will-it-work
When can we get that here? Muller knows plenty of tradies could be employed to be hard!
Today Victoria also reported 645 active cases, 31 in hospital, 5 in ICU and 1 new death.
https://mobile.twitter.com/covidliveau/status/1279941831812235265
https://www.twitter.com/JennyMikakos/status/1279988308068585472
No doubt the military will be required to police the check points.
I need to look up and see what support the Aboriginal communities are getting.
This Melbourne case should be kept in mind when public housing is built here again. Do not use this type of tower block housing, it is bad for human mental and physical health to be WAREHOUSED. Under one picture of someone looking out from a window: '
The units have no balconies and windows that only open a small amount.'. No wonder some complain there is no fresh air, and also they say there is no sunlight. When you see how closely the huge blocks stand together, it is plain that there would never be sunlight in some of them. There isn't any room for it to angle into any of the rooms.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-06/why-melbourne-locked-down-public-towers-are-a-coronavirus-worry/12423934
This is an unpleasant note from officialdom's view of the public housing lockdown, that they are places where viruses may be "incubating":
"This is not just a matter of 23- to 30-odd people, this is a matter of many hundreds who have already been exposed and who may already be incubating," Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen said on Saturday.
Some of them may be nearly starving soon.
…It was only when Tekeste Hailu tried to leave his building that he realised he was one of 3,000 people in mandatory lockdown.
Mr Hailu, 27, lives with his grandmother in public housing on Racecourse Rd, one of nine Melbourne buildings that was placed into sudden "hard lockdown" on Saturday afternoon.
But the first Mr Hailu was told was when he tried to leave to buy groceries, only to be greeted by "the whole building surrounded by police".
…Hulya Selin, who lives with her young son in a two-bedroom apartment on the 12th floor of a tower on Racecourse Road, said losing her freedom removed was "scary"….
Ms Selin said by 10:000am Sunday, 18 hours after the lockdown began, no-one had come to the door to provide her with any information or food.
She first heard about the lockdown from a post on Facebook.
"I went downstairs just to check if this was all true and there were so many police officers there at that point," she said.
"I actually spoke to one of the officers and he said the only information they had was that no-one is allowed out."
She said she was told by an officer later that having food delivered was OK, but when the delivery worker arrived, they were not allowed near the building…
Other comment: There have also been concerns raised about the lack of information in languages other than English.
By late on Saturday night, Mr Hailu said he was yet to see any professional health workers, social workers or interpreters to support the hundreds of residents in his building….
Residents from three separate towers said it was common for lifts in the high-rise buildings to be out of order on a regular basis, meaning there was one way up and down the buildings [the stairs] for hundreds of residents.
Jenny said she took the stairs because she was "fit and young", but that was impossible for many others.
Is this high-rise nightmare what Auckland will try to come up with, having mismanaged its residential requirements for so long, and letting developers play housie with what are commodities to them, but expensive essential services to the peeps?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_Commission_of_Victoria
…The most visible legacy of the Commission is the 47 or so high-rise apartment towers in inner Melbourne, all built using the same pre-cast concrete panel technology. ..
Approximately 27 of these precast concrete 20 to 30 storey height buildings were constructed around Melbourne, until the type of development fell into disrepute. By 1970 nearly 4000 privately owned dwellings had been compulsory acquired and replaced by nearly 7000 high rise flats..
Since there is so much fevered speculation that 'China done it' …
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300050250/coronavirus-pandemic-may-not-have-started-in-china-experts-say
Either way, let's hope science keep the debate honest, rather than conspiracy theory.
aj
I think it will be sometime before we have sufficient evidence to categorically rule, in or out, China's involvement in this global pandemic, there certainly is plenty of speculation, but I'll wait for tangible evidence before I make up my mind
quote from RNZ
"Nationally, Spain's outbreak has been essentially brought under control."
now they only just a teensy bit pregnant
As an aside I am intrigued by the use of "apace." Dr Bloomfield used it in his reports a number of times. "Development in that process is happening apace." Now I have heard "apace" being used in news reports several times recently. How cute is that?
The Government is developing post Covid policies apace.
Haha. Would that be a-payce or ahparchay?
Is it an old English abbreviation of "at pace ". You were a school teacher Ian, give us a lesson. Cheers.
I am very retiring Adrian. At pace. O'clock. (Of the clock) Must be others around. But I like the idea that a great Public Servant can insert an old word word into the consciousness and usage of others.
Funnily, I used the word to describe the remediation work, mentioned in 14.4., in an email today as "continuing apace".
It is the opposite in meaning to 'soon' which is, in the great Irish joke, similar in meaning to 'manãnã' but 'without the same sense of urgency'!
Thought it meant quickly:
That's what I thought it meant![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
I always thought it meant "in a measured way " ie not fast and not slow.
Language history is fascinating, I wish I had paid more attention in school instead of just doodling and eating my lunch.
You're right, of course, ianmac. I just wanted to get a joke in. 'Never let the truth stand in the way of a good joke', as they say. You, of course, might respond that you're still waiting…….
Oops Mac 1. I shoulda checked 14.4. Sorry.
apace in Thorndon circles means at a recklessly normal speed for everyone else. 🙂
Biden's way of choosing his running mate: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/30/biden-vice-president-346149
I gave the running mate a thought the other day. Needs to be energetic, able to be presidential and in the early fifties or late forties of African American heritage.
Physically I doubt Trump would last another term and Pence is not visible or able to have a different point of view than Trump.
I mentioned the other day the likelihood of Biden dying in office. Feasibility of that scenario would be driving the advice from long-time Democrat stalwarts. So the non-white woman he selects has to be tough enough to survive & prosper in the top job. And already seen as such by those who matter (in the liberal US establishment).
I assume Biden is open to advice from Hilary Clinton on that. Her life-long progression from ultra-conservative to democrat proves her capacity to transcend established political categories in a life-transforming way. Her selection of a short list of candidates for Biden would be extremely useful. Probably the first time I've ever written something favourable about that woman! 🙃
I am neutral on the gender for Vice President. What is important is the manifesto to address inequality and injustice.
I assume Biden is open to advice from Hilary Clinton
on that. Her life-long progression from ultra-conservative to democrat
proves her capacity to transcend established political categories in a life-transforming way. ![sad sad](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/sad_smile.png)
She backed Biden's horrific Crime Bill in 1994, and denounced black teenagers as "predators." She and her husband started the racist allegation, taken up with a vengeance by Donald Trump, that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. After the horrific death of Colonel Gaddafi—U.S./U.K.-supported Islamist fanatics sodomized him with swords—she laughed her head off about it: "He came, he saw, he DID!"
Where's the "life-transforming" part about her?
Where's the "life-transforming" part about her?
Going from Goldwater Girl to Democrat Senator. Obviously! I suspect you're just playing dumb, of course, but sometimes people do need to have the obvious pointed out to them. You're welcome. 😉
Queensland's finest, Pauline Hanson: ‘Drug addict’ refugees to blame for lockdown.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12345818
Yea, it's an impediment, the same one Trump has.
Neither have any idea what the definition of Diplomacy is.
Both get the same reactions to their statements, you either love them or hate them, not much inbetween.
Article surveying some current NZ stances on tax (includes the usual silliness) https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/122025044/tax-is-back-how-do-you-fix-a-49-billion-hole
感谢您的忠诚服务同志。
Todd Muller defends Chinese Communist Party-linked National MP Jian Yang.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/todd-muller-defends-chinese-communist-party-linked-national-mp-jian-yang-who-s-accused-of-avoiding-english-media.html
'Close to' 10 in 18 months (ie not even 10)? Jeez Comrade Colonel, let someone else get a word in.
Deliberate, pervasive cruelty.
But her emails.
/
https://twitter.com/D_historyMan/status/1279939327963906049
Once sung by descendants of the 7th Cavalry, Irish air "Garrymore" will no longer cause pain for Native Americans.
“Garryowen,” an Irish drinking song with a marching cadence, is to Native Americans what “Deutschland Uber Alles” is to Jews, a hated reminder of the evil past.
“Garryowen” was the marching song of the 7th Cavalry and the infamous Lt Colonel George Custer when they massacred native American villages in the all-out campaign in the 1870s to rid the plains and the west of “redskins.” The tune was played quite deliberately right before attacks.
'
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/ireland-song-garryowen-banned-custer
Tory filth.
https://twitter.com/TheSpinoffTV/status/1279187626235293696
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/122019615/the-greens-bear-responsibility-for-capitulation-to-nz-first-and-big-fish
How does this sort of nonsensical trash get past the editors at Stuff?
"The Greens elect their list on an internal party ballot, which means party members prefer Swarbrick over a minister with tangible results under her belt. And if party members think this way, their voters must be even more ambivalent about real policy wins."
This idiot's whole theory is based on one totally illogical assumption, which is that the way the party determines its list means that Green voters don't care value policy wins. There's a lot of truth in the view that sees only three kinds of right winger, which are eitther stupid, nasty or both.