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.
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It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 7, 2024 thru Sat, April 13, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week is about adults in the room setting terms and conditions of ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
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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.
Just is
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…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maLIXQLxvvA
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
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.
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.