some ministers sound increasingly estranged from their departments when discussing operational failures, as if they are talking about something they’ve seen on the news.
So he's noticed it too!
a broad diagnosis of the problem is that ministers can’t tell the public service what they need, and are then upset when they don’t get it.
Well it is the Labour Party, after all. What we've come to expect.
One of the key criticisms of the public spending watchdog was that the fund had a “complex” framework for assessing potential investments, with three tiers, eight objectives and five principles, which it said were “broad” and “difficult to apply”.
I suppose they could organise group chants: simplify, pacify, stultify, kinda thing. What bureaucracy normally does, in other words.
I suspect it is more that the National sycophants that got planted into senior positions when National was in place and who were heard to say things in Wellington like "we'll only have to wait three years til things get back to normal" when Labour first got in – are hanging out for their friends to get back in power.
Resisting Labour, who while neo-liberal, aren't neo-liberal enough for them, is coming to a point where their resistance is becoming obvious/futile. Labour is pretty slack at replacing these vermin living in the public service who don't believe in the public service. Always have been.
They'll be even more distraught if Labour get back in.
Good grief have you ever been in the PS in Wellington?
Just for info it was a Labour Govt that started the neo-lib madness.
Most PS know which functions are better delivered by the State from tradition but again PS departments work to ensure that the policies and procedures of the Govt of the day are put in place. Officials have traditionally wanted the free and frank procedures to work where PS are able to put up possible pitfalls, possible improvements etc. That is their job but if people/politicians think that by doing this they are being biased it does make doing their job more difficult.
From my experience it has been the understanding of the rule of law, as opposed to policy where some intial misunderstandings may arise. By this I mean a govt comes in with ideas to change this or that, forgetting or not knowing in the first place, that this is controlled by legislation.
It just is not possible to change legislation without going through Cabinet, getting a priority on legislative schedules. I have seen PS try to explain this.
So people get to Parliament and then into Govt without knowing how govts work, how rules are made etc. If a Govt got inot power and purported by policy to chnage legislation then the Courts will strike down this. The instance I remember, told as a cautionary tale, is that of Muldoon and Superannuation. Not only was it illegal but Sam Stubbs from Simplicity has argued it was the worst decsion on policy grounds.
I made the suggestion after the Parliamnetary protest that perhaps what we lack here in NZ are lessons in Civics or demorcracy or how laws are made, how policies are made. .
Some Ministers make jobs easier or more difficult and this applies to all parties.
'I made the suggestion after the Parliamnetary protest that perhaps what we lack here in NZ are lessons in Civics or demorcracy or how laws are made, how policies are made. .'
I well recall back in Rob Muldoon's time as PM it was mooted that civics be taught at secondary school level. He refused point blank to let it happen – he said it was akin to a form of communism. I can't recall his actual words, but the idea was stomped on and never took off.
Labour is pretty slack at replacing these vermin living in the public service who don't believe in the public service. Always have been
And we think that politicians decribing others as bottom feeders is terrible but it is quite Ok to call other people 'vermin'.
The so-called 'Bottom feeders' and 'vermin' are people doing the best for themselves and their children, who go home from work and ask what their kids did at school……who do their best at their jobs.
Please Mods can we pull up on this childish name calling so we can have a clear and civilised run to the election where we discuss issues and do not engage in 'othering'/name calling.
Please Mods can we pull up on this childish name calling so we can have a clear and civilised run to the election where we discuss issues and do not engage in ‘othering’/name calling.
Ok free rein it is then……is that what you mean. I thought Weka was valiantly trying to lift the standard of debate here. Cracking down on name calling seems a fairly simple and innocuous first step or at least be consistent.
I find people being described as vermin or rats is little different from calling someone a bottom feeder. If you do the substitution you will see they are equally dopey and hurtful things to say.
Both are similar in term of powerlessness to respond as well. NB DoS that the annonymous PS giving forth about being shouted at was the exception rather than the rule. Many of those described by Luxon also lack the means/ability/power/sleep to mount a protest at being name-called.
Do you not believe that there are people within the public service who do not believe in the public service and wish to dismantle it? Do you not think National put them in place.
Do you really think that free and frank advice remains. People way more learned than me think it is diminished significantly.
"There has been an absence of free and frank advice offered to ministers in recent years.
"If ministers do not receive free and frank advice there is a real risk that this will promote a tendency to politicise the public service and endanger its independence, thereby adversely affecting the quality of advice given and decisions taken."
I would love to see any advice given by the public sector that for instance that suggests nationalising power companies and the benefits of this despite lots of external evidence and research that shows privatisation did not work or deliver the savings in any area other than rubbish disposal.
Where was the public sector advice to say that buying Pike River mine would not be a prudent use of taxpayer money?
Privatisation is the god that failed. As an object of worship, it has proven expensive for the public and a bonanza for comparatively few investors, often overseas. And in key areas such as council housing, it has proven a singular disaster. Yet, remarkably, it is still the preferred solution of any Conservative government for everything from Royal Mail to housing association homes.
Not sure why you take offence to vermin – if I'd said rats would you have objected? Does vermin carry some stronger context for you?
So by the same token there was actually nothing wrong with Luxon and his comment about bottom feeders or is ok for lefties to call others names but not Ok for righties?
Both framing by Luxon and your diatribe about the PS rely on calling others names. I see no difference.
I would love to see any advice given by the public sector that for instance that suggests nationalising power companies and the benefits of this despite lots of external evidence and research that shows privatisation did not work or deliver the savings in any area other than rubbish disposal.
Where was the public sector advice to say that buying Pike River mine would not be a prudent use of taxpayer money?
PS work to support the agenda of the Govt and a rule of thimb is that when giving advice to a Minister that all options are covered.
I am not aware of there being any current proposal by this Govt to do anything at all to revist the privatisation of the energy industry. If there had been Govt Depts would be providing advice on the pros & cons, options and time scale.
Doing something about energy has been one of my biggest beefs about the squandering of the last election's results ie moving towards bringing them back into the Govt's fold. I think all the horses being frightened by the relentless campaign against 3/5 Waters including disgusting race based arguments and Hipkins focus on getting back in has put scary prospects like energy on the back burner.
If doing something about it becomes a programme of a succesful party then the relevant Govt Depts, when asked, would provide info about doing this.
Govt Depts don't just wake up one morning and decide to provide advice that is not on the programmes of Govt of the day. Of course some ministers and their officials 'chew the fat' and get different perspectives on things but this is not formal advice. Might happen in a landrover going to a location or over meal.
I'm not stopping them, Anne. Biodiversity rules. Trying to stop group learning is unwise – it's how folks survive. I'm surprised anyone still believes cancel culture is a good thing!
And how about you dial back on your contributions. Let other people have a go.
Why?
If you want to contribute it is as easy as hitting the reply button or making your own post on an issue of the day that you believe needs raising.
I think it is vital for people like Denis Frank and TSmithfield to keep commenting here as without different views we risk becoming an echo chamber and that is not desirable at any time and especially with an election coming up. I value those with an idependent streak, thoughtful views who can see the wood and that the Emperor has no clothes'. Plus it keeps our brains working!
I also think in a small way that if the supporters of a party/wing make comments that may be critical it is better that they are expressed here than stumping a left wing politician who is out on the hustings in 'deepest, darkest Eketahuna', say.
Ditto Anne, I'm beginning to find TS a tad tiresome to wade through these days since Dennis Frank has come back to haunt us. I do enjoy TSmithfield’s considered opinions though I think there is a very concerted and determined effort by the MSM and other commenters to convince voters not to vote Labour/Greens in October. Goodness only know what the Government has had to deal with over the past 6 years, they've every right to feel a bit jaded – the Christchurch massacre, Whakaari/White Island, the Covid 'invasion', the weather bombs which beset parts of the country a few months ago, as well as the effects of global inflation, which despite what Chris Luxon, Nicola Willis et al would have us believe that it's purely a N Z problem. I believe there are some good MPs in the 2020 intake who are biding their time and could well shine if they have the good fortune to be re-elected. It's a bit fraught at times, but I'm keeping the faith.
Wow Philip… is this better… I was probably typing away in a legal office on an Imperial 66 or similar long before you were a wee glint in your father's eye…
Lol Jilly Bee, you keep typing my friend. A rational caring voice is an utter relief.
I would ad that Kat got a flyer from Christopher Luxon, promising a rise every year for pensioners. My antenna went up!! Why??? Was that on his list???
I wondered if they were considering changing it to match the CPI, as for the old GSF. ???
I have both Super and the Government Super Fund I saved into as a Teacher.
The GSF is on the CPI increase and has gone up 40%+ since 2001.
The Super is @ 65% of the average wage and has more than doubled in the same time.
Anything that man mentions is a way? he is going to collect money to do his tax refunds for top earners, and remove tax off Landlords. imo
I like different points of view, but anyone who thinks Whale oil has anything to offer is out on a limb in my book.
Anyone who bags Labour or the Greens casually with "Labour always…' or "That would be the Greens" sweeping generalisations and pokes.
Real pertinent comments are fine, nastiness is not.imo
p u……….I was always under the impression that a new paragraph was required when the subject matter changed……I though my previous post was pretty much dealing with the same subject……
"Ditto Anne, I'm beginning to find TS a tad tiresome to wade through these days…"
Indeed it is sometimes Jilly Bee.
I love the way the young uns automatically assume that because we are old we don't know what we're talking about. We've been around the political traps years longer than they have – we've seen it all before – but nah… we know nuffink. 🙂
I've noted a number of valuable commenters don't visit TS much anymore.
I just disagree with his reckons as to why eg a government which abandoned concrete targets for public service performance….
Education targets resulted in the kids they were inflicted on now struggling to achieve in the education system
It found only 16 per cent of teachers believed National Standards had a positive impact, while two thirds were concerned about the anxiety students felt about their performance and the negative effect this had on their learning.
One principal described it as "soul destroying" for students who make individual progress but remain "below" the standard.
Another said the system had "led to a deterioration in the educational deal our children are receiving".
The report highlighted a number of recurrent concerns, including a belief the system narrows the curriculum as teachers are forced to teach to the standards and they don't accurately reflect student's ability.
Waitlist targets for health resulted in people being kicked off waiting lists and representing years later in a worse state
There has been an ongoing political debate in New Zealand about whether funding injections result in increased and improved service access. Between 2000 and 2006, there was a slight reduction in the total number of people receiving elective treatments (Ministry of Health, 2008). However, the Health Minister suggested that the reduction was a result of more treatments in outpatient settings that were not captured in standard hospital datasets. A clear theme throughout the 7 years of analysis was the constant stories of DHBs having difficulty providing adequate service levels and of patients being removed from waiting lists despite the fact that they had a professionally determined need, as judged by their clinical priority scores, for treatment.
Another theme was the increasing threshold, or required score, for access to elective treatments. Many DHBs, under pressure to provide a response to growing numbers of referred patients, simply raised the number of points required to be eligible for treatment.
‘The figures show the mean score for adults having cardiothoracic surgery has risen from 33.5 in 2001 to 46.4 in 2005. Mean adult general surgery scores have risen from 77.5 to 87.9 and orthopaedic scores from 75.4 to 81.2 over the same period. There has also been a big jump in ophthalmology scores’
Waitlist targets for housing resulted in people being kicked off the waiting list and hiding the size of the problem
When this is placed alongside the wiping of thousands of people off the bottom of Housing New Zealand's waiting lists, the wonder is that National has got this far with little opposition.
One reason is that instead of rushing change, the housing reforms have followed a now familiar process which might be termed the "Bill English Handbook on Managing More Market Reform".
Targets to reduce benefit numbers resulted in people being denied benefits and a toxic environment
The Government has set itself ambitious new targets including 75,000 fewer New Zealanders being on benefits by June 2018 as part of its Better Public Services drive, Finance Minister Bill English and State Services Minister Paula Bennett say.
“AAAP see this treatment of beneficiaries by fraud investigators who are encouraged by MSD to punish beneficiaries as emblematic of the toxic culture of MSD which has turned lethal,” says Vanessa Cole spokesperson for AAAP.
“The former MSD investigator in the case of Wendy Shoebridge revealed that MSD had forced investigation staff to get at least one prosecution, and recover $30,000 in debt per month.
One man with a British accent said he had been in New Zealand for 50 years, but was worried about the growing level of ‘wokeness’, citing grievances such as the growing acceptance of Te Reo Māori usage and gender pronouns.
His answer was peppered with phrases such as “we want to be focused on how we unite the country” and “we should respect each other’s identities”.
Luxon’s take on this hot button issue is endlessly diplomatic. He said he didn’t want to see the divided camps seen in the culture wars overseas, and his answer tiptoed the careful line between either side. But in doing so, he’ll likely please neither camp.
Neither woke nor asleep, somewhere in between. Careful focus on the middle. Well-trained.
But though the Luxon show has become a well-oiled machine in the months on the road, it's still one that’s relatively one-size-fits-all.
“we’ve all been immigrants in some form or another”, he said somewhat curiously.
Ah, the boat people thesis. The notion that although it was your ancestors that did it, you can pretend it was actually you. Somehow I can't see this catching on. I agree most people are delusional, and get why he's playing that card, but they're addicted already to quite different delusions. Still, he didn't use the extraterrestrial genetic alteration theory – which has been around so long it has become conservative. Maybe he's weighing that option…
From biodiversity as a vista, into microcosm of that:
We meet in a central London cafe where, for nearly three hours, she guides me through a life story that takes in the aftermath of the Holocaust, life in communist eastern Europe, her family’s migration to Australia, and a life that has mixed academia and activism with plenty of struggle and hardship. But what we talk about the most is neurodiversity, the concept she quietly introduced to the world in 1997.
To quote from the definitive autism history Neurotribes, by the American writer Steve Silberman, “it was in these talks with Blume that she came up with the term neurodiversity”. In the meantime, Singer had decided to write a thesis focused on the online communities she was now part of, and her sense that they were cohering into a new social movement, comparable to those focused on feminism and gay rights.
autistics have begun to elaborate a new kind of identity. They counterpose themselves against those they have dubbed ‘neurotypical’ or NT, a term they have coined to sideline the word ‘normal’ with all its prescriptive connotations. Autistics are beginning to see themselves as a kind of neurological ‘other’ who have existed amongst and been oppressed by the dominant neurological type, the NT, whose hegemony has until now neither been noticed nor challenged.”
Messy. Folks have an inherent right to define their own identity but categories are social entities and language is a commons. When they battle over word-meanings it seems to be due to collective inability to reach consensus on the various categories involved. I suppose it will settle down eventually and a common view of how to handle such biodiversity will gel.
All these different groupings are user-driven, eh? So each group forms a social ecosystem in which users take refuge and then bond in solidarity. I still feel however, that pretending to be a woman when you aren't biologically is delusional. When such people misrepresent themselves to the detriment of women, seems logical they ought to be prosecuted for fraud. I wonder why I haven't heard of any such prosecution.
Can't imagine you had time to watch mica's vessay, which examines the ableist attitude that autistic people cannot decide for themselves they are trans. There is already an ableist attack on autistic persons accessing transition care in some US states.
Gun nuts here will be contemplating their admirable restraint:
The shooting in Shreveport is the 17th mass shooting to be reported across the country since the holiday weekend began on Friday evening, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The total death toll from these shootings stands at 19, and more than 100 others were injured.
The overall effect seems rather scattershot. I guess it's hard, when you're enraged, to shoot accurately. Still, celebrating Independence Day is tedious if you don't take out a few irritants here & there…
You know, the car and contents are insured. But I doubt the wounds of being outted in the Herald as living in a Glen Eden postcode when you've told all your friends you live in Oratia will ever quite heal.
A number of fascinating aspects to this story. Many people have a ‘company car.’
Not many have half million plus models. Not many have half million plus models with close at hand thieves ready to move in if they whip up the road.
The mayor of Wellington having a bit of a bender, getting a bit slurry and generally doing what a lot of people do and then being shat on by the business that was happy to take her money but didn't believe it owes any discretion to it's customers is apparently a scandal of the first order and worthy of days of pearl clutching headlines.
Meanwhile, a bunch of nasty old white boomer uncles getting together to tell jokes in public that have gone down like a cup of cold sick at the family Christmas for the last decade is just boys being boys.
Don't talk to me about there being no structural racism and sexism in this country.
And what is it with old men and their inability to grasp that they've had their day and culture, manners and society moves on? No wonder rugby stadiums are full of appalling retro pop played far too loud – These old pricks run the place and think it still represents the pinnacle of popular culture and they can't hear it at normal volumes without turning up their hearing aids to max, which would never do since it might put them out a bit.
I must admit I find these old bastards odious and interesting in equal measure.
This sort of public posturing works as a rallying cry insofar as it is a structure-of-feeling that is pervasive on the culture war Right in NZ and across the wider Anglosphere: that they have been excluded and marginalised from legitimate power by an illegitimate, parasitic elite. These old buggers are neither cynical nor sincere; they are both. Malloy and Henry and Plunkett and Brown act as a relay, through which the passions of the reactionary crowd they pander to pass and are returned in a louder and more garish form. They say what the crowd thinks.
That is where their power lies, beause the axiomatic received wisdom of an establishment MSM deeply wedded to the institutions that prop up these guys aligns with their world view.
The reason they hate the new elites lies precisely in the fact that they have new power structures and ways of doing things.
Agree – it is a "structure of feeling",and rather than being an emergent form as in the dictionary definition, it is a submergent form that fears it is on the way out. Rather than trying to become the new orthodoxy, it is the old orthodoxy fighting for its life.
As the attitudes and ideological stances you, mostly rightly, oppose, are just as much apparent in many young buggers, David Seymour being an indicative example, characterising them as unique to "boomers" and " old buggers" is not only inaccurate but alienates many who would otherwise agree with you.
Playing into the hands of those who want to take attention away from the fact that it is class, and those who want to steal from society, rather than contribute to it, of all ages.
Making it about "boomers" conveniently takes the focus on the whole new generations of entitled"little Lord Fantleroys"who are intent destroying my grandkids future for the gains of a few..
Agree entirely kjt. A whole bunch of us "boomers" were protesting the American war in Vietnam, and the South African apartheid regime, before we even left High School.
We moved on to the Women's Movement and Gay Liberation in our 20's and then to the Union Movement in our 30's.
We raised the $$$$ for the Rape Crisis Centres and the Women's Refuges, we were marshals and organisers for the 1981 Anti Tour actions.
We are still working for progressive causes in our retirement.
We have never voted for any variety of Tory in our lives.
"Profanity is the sign of a lazy mind." The amount of profanity used by the 'boomer uncles' puts on display some very lazy minds, who sadly think they were being clever.
It would appear that a lot of the profanity was coming from the Mayor and her friend, at least as recounted by one person who was there.
"One man, who asked not to be identified, said he and his 13 and 15-year-old teenagers were sitting near Whanau and her friend and heard a lot of loud swearing: “Lots of words beginning with F.”"
The mayor of Wellington having a bit of a bender, getting a bit slurry and generally doing what a lot of people do and then being shat on by the business that was happy to take her money but didn't believe it owes any discretion to it's customers is apparently a scandal of the first order and worthy of days of pearl clutching headlines.
I'm not sure that's what happened. Afaik the manager responded to media enquiries, they didn't go to the media. Whether the story originally came from staff or patrons, I don't think the business itself can be held responsible for that.
I am just telling you stright how I would have dealt with a staff member if they'd made an unauthorised statement to the media – assuming you run an establishment which offers protection to it's patrons. It potentially can seriously affect business reputation.
Personally, I suspect the staff memeber was probably the stalking horse for a management to gutless to front the media themselves but not happy with recent changes around poedestrianisation in Wellington.
oh I completely agree with you that the business should be protecting customers as well as their own reputation, and that staff shouldn't be speaking to the media.
I'm not sure if it's legal to fire someone like that for sometimes like this. Gross misconduct? Depends on what happened (and I'm not a union or employment law bod). I suspect there are other ways of dealing with it, although again, it depends on what happened, and as per usual with MSM bollocks we don't really know.
I was wondering if the business is run by people with little media experience, and possibly English as a second language. I haven't seen anything to suggest that they were gunning for the mayor politically, but who knows. Would the business be affected by changes to urban planning?
The bunch of mostly old blokes in Auckland seemingly got away with their schoolboy behaviour while the Wellington mayor, being female, youngish and Māori, gets no such tolerance. And no male politician was ever put through the disgraceful online bile that Jacinda Ardern was subjected to.
US Supreme Court Justice Brown has done a pretty cool dissenting opinion which, if you read it, has a whole lot of parallels to our own debates about whether Maori get favoured treatment in many areas of society.
So Laura Norder is being called for at the top level:
scientists and experts have called on the world to act, declaring AI an existential threat to humanity on a par with the risk of nuclear war,” the UN chief said.
UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward on Monday (local time) announced the July 18 meeting as the centrepiece of its presidency of the council this month. It will include briefings by international AI experts and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who last month called the alarm bells over the most advanced form of AI “deafening,” and loudest from its developers.
The establishment need their control system to get a grip on upstart rebel developers…
Just as an aside – I am of the view that nuclear power is clearly the best solution we have right now using exisiting technology to reduce carbon emissions, and NZ need to think about SMR (Small Modular Reactor) technologies to help provide baseload.
However, this study tells us that of180 nuclear power construction projects, 195 were late by an average of 64% longer that planned to build and over budget to an average of 117%
Unfortunately RL got banned for a while & he's been urging us toward this. Around 7 years ago here I cited Stewart Brand's book Whole Earth Discipline where he has a chapter on the same theme.
My take from sporadic reading around the industry situation is that inertia prevails but some tech progress does happen – slowly. Still, climate change pressures everyone towards a collective solution and the logic of safe reactors will become inexorable eventually. Those that consume waste nuclear products are Greenest!
'Using their model, Barron and Hill found that nuclear power is likely to be a far less cost-effective, low-carbon energy source than others had suggested. In fact, their models find nuclear waste disposal to be 2.5 to 4 times more expensive than other models have suggested.
These new findings support the argument that nuclear power, despite being a low-carbon energy source, may not be cost effective.'
In so far as I can ascertain, none of the models include the energy required to mitigate/ decommission nuclear plants and their waste products….if you included such I suspect they would end up being net energy negative.
I expect, however, you need to compare to coal-fired plants, rather than to 'green' technologies, like wind or solar.
Bearing in mind, that there is little, if any, prospect of significant wind, solar or hydro capacity in many countries. So their choices are: continue to burn fossil fuels; massively restrict energy use (unlikely to happen); nuclear power.
“Waste disposal and decommissioning costs are usually fully included in the operating costs. If the social, health and environmental costs of fossil fuels are also taken into account, the competitiveness of nuclear power is improved.”
Nuclear power companies are never honest about decommissioning costs which are often massive.
When this is taken into account solar is now cheaper and easier…because of this why would anyone choose nuclear, especially given Ukraine type situations.
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The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Chinese have politely told the Kiwis to back off. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters that China and the Cook Islands have had diplomatic relations since 1997 which “should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party”. “New Zealand is rightly furious about it,” a TVNZ Pacific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When parliamentarians left Canberra on Thursday after the fortnight sitting, federal politics had the air of an uneasy waiting game. Waiting for the election date, although the campaign has been running for months. ...
The Health Committee has heard from both the Minister for Mental Health, and from members of the public offering their own lived experience of mental health treatment. ...
The regional imperialist powers, including Australia, New Zealand and France have maintained neo-colonial control over the Southwest Pacific for more than a century, keeping the fragile island nations in a state of dependency with conditions of poverty ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Public transport in Queensland now costs just 50 cents. Yet in the first six months of the trial, it’s been revealed that thousands of commuters were ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Harris Rimmer, Professor, Griffith Law School, Griffith University Two federal politicians from opposing camps reached across the aisle this week to promote a valuable cause – the wellbeing of future Australian generations. Independent MP Sophie Scamps tabled the Wellbeing of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Younger, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Vertebrate Ecology, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania Australia’s Antarctic territory represents the largest sliver of the ice continent. For decades, Australian scientists have headed to one of our three bases – Mawson, ...
A Māori Purposes Bill is an omnibus bill that enables minor, technical, and non-controversial amendments to legislation relating to Māori affairs. This Māori Purposes Bill aims to modernise some legislation relating to Māori Affairs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Campbell, Lecturer, Performing Arts, UniSA Creative, University of South Australia Matt Byrne/STCSA Housework, a new play by Emily Steel, lifts the rock off politics to expose its crawling, ruthless, yet undeniably comic underside. The result is masterful, hilarious and deeply ...
After two years of major damage from storms, a key government unit has made an abrupt change to focus on cyber security over and above natural disasters. ...
Pacific Media Watch Papua New Guinea’s civic space has been rated as “obstructed” by the Civicus Monitor and the country has been criticised for pushing forward with a controversial media law in spite of strong opposition. Among concerns previously documented by the civil rights watchdog are harassment and threats against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Younger, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Vertebrate Ecology, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania Australia’s Antarctic territory represents the largest sliver of the ice continent. For decades, Australian scientists have headed to one of our three bases – Mawson, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Dwyer, Research Director, Energy Futures, University of Technology Sydney 24K-Productions Our cars sit unused most of the time. If you have an electric vehicle, you might leave it charging at home or work after driving it. But there’s another step ...
Everything you missed from day four of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard two hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.Parliament’s Room 3 was the same old, same old on Thursday morning for the fourth Treaty principles bill hearing – brown ...
By Melina Etches of the Cook Islands News A motion of no confidence has been filed against the Prime Minister and his Cabinet following the recent fiasco involving the now-abandoned Cook Islands passport proposal and the comprehensive strategic partnership the country will sign with China this week. Cook Islands United ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Dwyer, Research Director, Energy Futures, University of Technology Sydney 24K-Productions Our cars sit unused most of the time. If you have an electric vehicle, you might leave it charging at home or work after driving it. But there’s another step ...
The December results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2024 (HYEFU 2024), published on 17 December 2024, and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ajay Narendra, Associate Professor of Insect Neuroethology, Macquarie University Pranav Joshi Jumping spiders – one of the largest spider families – get their name from the extraordinary jumps they make to hunt prey, to navigate and also to evade predators. Male ...
Both ministers have confirm they shared a phone call on Thursday morning, with the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement due to expire next month. ...
The final designs for the long-awaited Courtenay Place revamp have been released. Joel MacManus takes a closer look at the details. At an embargoed media briefing on Wednesday, Wellington mayor Tory Whanau and a team of council staff showed journalists a 3D-printed model of Courtenay Place. For about an hour, ...
The Economic Growth Minister is targeting increasing competition in the banking, grocery, and electricity sectors for the government to address this year. ...
Ecomatters Bike Hub has helped 30,000 Aucklanders start cycling. Shanti Mathias rides over to understand the impact of these community bike workshops.When An Na moved with her husband and two kids to Auckland in 2022, it took a while to start learning their way around. “We started taking our ...
Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Labour leader Chris Hipkins is on the war path – the path being the overthrowing of Act leader David Seymour, and hopefully ...
Callaghan Innovation told 63 workers their roles were being made redundant, including 16 commercialisation roles, 14 scientists and engineers, 6 Māori Innovation roles, and others working in data, digital, product design, risk and audit, marketing, government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Sheedy, Professor – Risk governance, culture, remuneration, Macquarie University This week the corporate regulator is taking on executives and directors of Star Entertainment in the Federal Court, in a landmark case for Australian corporate governance. ASIC will allege that despite multiple ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cameron Allen, Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Shutterstock It’s hard to remember a time the United States seemed as tense and divided as it does today. That should serve as a stark reminder of just how important it is to monitor ...
I’m a proud atheist who outgrew my religious upbringing. So why am I getting antsy about the rapture all of a sudden? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nz Dear Hera,I’m a proud atheist and since I managed to move past the childhood trauma of my religious upbringing ...
Funny, that:
So he's noticed it too!
Well it is the Labour Party, after all. What we've come to expect.
I suppose they could organise group chants: simplify, pacify, stultify, kinda thing. What bureaucracy normally does, in other words.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300921772/what-might-lie-beneath-kiri-allans-problem-with-the-bureaucrats
I suspect it is more that the National sycophants that got planted into senior positions when National was in place and who were heard to say things in Wellington like "we'll only have to wait three years til things get back to normal" when Labour first got in – are hanging out for their friends to get back in power.
Resisting Labour, who while neo-liberal, aren't neo-liberal enough for them, is coming to a point where their resistance is becoming obvious/futile. Labour is pretty slack at replacing these vermin living in the public service who don't believe in the public service. Always have been.
They'll be even more distraught if Labour get back in.
Good grief have you ever been in the PS in Wellington?
Just for info it was a Labour Govt that started the neo-lib madness.
Most PS know which functions are better delivered by the State from tradition but again PS departments work to ensure that the policies and procedures of the Govt of the day are put in place. Officials have traditionally wanted the free and frank procedures to work where PS are able to put up possible pitfalls, possible improvements etc. That is their job but if people/politicians think that by doing this they are being biased it does make doing their job more difficult.
From my experience it has been the understanding of the rule of law, as opposed to policy where some intial misunderstandings may arise. By this I mean a govt comes in with ideas to change this or that, forgetting or not knowing in the first place, that this is controlled by legislation.
It just is not possible to change legislation without going through Cabinet, getting a priority on legislative schedules. I have seen PS try to explain this.
So people get to Parliament and then into Govt without knowing how govts work, how rules are made etc. If a Govt got inot power and purported by policy to chnage legislation then the Courts will strike down this. The instance I remember, told as a cautionary tale, is that of Muldoon and Superannuation. Not only was it illegal but Sam Stubbs from Simplicity has argued it was the worst decsion on policy grounds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzgerald_v_Muldoon
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/300327451/the-worst-decision-by-a-new-zealand-politician-ever
I made the suggestion after the Parliamnetary protest that perhaps what we lack here in NZ are lessons in Civics or demorcracy or how laws are made, how policies are made. .
Some Ministers make jobs easier or more difficult and this applies to all parties.
'I made the suggestion after the Parliamnetary protest that perhaps what we lack here in NZ are lessons in Civics or demorcracy or how laws are made, how policies are made. .'
I well recall back in Rob Muldoon's time as PM it was mooted that civics be taught at secondary school level. He refused point blank to let it happen – he said it was akin to a form of communism. I can't recall his actual words, but the idea was stomped on and never took off.
And we think that politicians decribing others as bottom feeders is terrible but it is quite Ok to call other people 'vermin'.
The so-called 'Bottom feeders' and 'vermin' are people doing the best for themselves and their children, who go home from work and ask what their kids did at school……who do their best at their jobs.
Please Mods can we pull up on this childish name calling so we can have a clear and civilised run to the election where we discuss issues and do not engage in 'othering'/name calling.
Please tell us that you are not serious.
Ok free rein it is then……is that what you mean. I thought Weka was valiantly trying to lift the standard of debate here. Cracking down on name calling seems a fairly simple and innocuous first step or at least be consistent.
I find people being described as vermin or rats is little different from calling someone a bottom feeder. If you do the substitution you will see they are equally dopey and hurtful things to say.
Both are similar in term of powerlessness to respond as well. NB DoS that the annonymous PS giving forth about being shouted at was the exception rather than the rule. Many of those described by Luxon also lack the means/ability/power/sleep to mount a protest at being name-called.
Do you not believe that there are people within the public service who do not believe in the public service and wish to dismantle it? Do you not think National put them in place.
Do you really think that free and frank advice remains. People way more learned than me think it is diminished significantly.
"There has been an absence of free and frank advice offered to ministers in recent years.
"If ministers do not receive free and frank advice there is a real risk that this will promote a tendency to politicise the public service and endanger its independence, thereby adversely affecting the quality of advice given and decisions taken."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95499693/chris-eichbaum–free-and-frank-advice-fast-disappearing
I would love to see any advice given by the public sector that for instance that suggests nationalising power companies and the benefits of this despite lots of external evidence and research that shows privatisation did not work or deliver the savings in any area other than rubbish disposal.
Where was the public sector advice to say that buying Pike River mine would not be a prudent use of taxpayer money?
Or more recently.
https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/public-sector-project/free-frank-and-political-advice-the-state-of-the-public-service
Privatisation is the god that failed. As an object of worship, it has proven expensive for the public and a bonanza for comparatively few investors, often overseas. And in key areas such as council housing, it has proven a singular disaster. Yet, remarkably, it is still the preferred solution of any Conservative government for everything from Royal Mail to housing association homes.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/22/the-guardian-view-on-privatisation-the-god-that-failed
Just for info it was a Labour Govt that started the neo-lib madness.
Pretty sure I covered that off.
Resisting Labour, who while neo-liberal,
Not sure why you take offence to vermin – if I'd said rats would you have objected? Does vermin carry some stronger context for you?
Not sure why you take offence to vermin – if I'd said rats would you have objected? Does vermin carry some stronger context for you?
So by the same token there was actually nothing wrong with Luxon and his comment about bottom feeders or is ok for lefties to call others names but not Ok for righties?
Both framing by Luxon and your diatribe about the PS rely on calling others names. I see no difference.
PS work to support the agenda of the Govt and a rule of thimb is that when giving advice to a Minister that all options are covered.
I am not aware of there being any current proposal by this Govt to do anything at all to revist the privatisation of the energy industry. If there had been Govt Depts would be providing advice on the pros & cons, options and time scale.
Doing something about energy has been one of my biggest beefs about the squandering of the last election's results ie moving towards bringing them back into the Govt's fold. I think all the horses being frightened by the relentless campaign against 3/5 Waters including disgusting race based arguments and Hipkins focus on getting back in has put scary prospects like energy on the back burner.
If doing something about it becomes a programme of a succesful party then the relevant Govt Depts, when asked, would provide info about doing this.
Govt Depts don't just wake up one morning and decide to provide advice that is not on the programmes of Govt of the day. Of course some ministers and their officials 'chew the fat' and get different perspectives on things but this is not formal advice. Might happen in a landrover going to a location or over meal.
Oh yes, Ben Thomas. National Party lackey from way back. A subtle stab in the back from a Nat posing as a non partisan political commentator.
How come you never point out these little anomalies Dennis Frank?
And how about you dial back on your contributions. Let other people have a go.
I'm not stopping them, Anne. Biodiversity rules. Trying to stop group learning is unwise – it's how folks survive. I'm surprised anyone still believes cancel culture is a good thing!
Why?
If you want to contribute it is as easy as hitting the reply button or making your own post on an issue of the day that you believe needs raising.
I think it is vital for people like Denis Frank and TSmithfield to keep commenting here as without different views we risk becoming an echo chamber and that is not desirable at any time and especially with an election coming up. I value those with an idependent streak, thoughtful views who can see the wood and that the Emperor has no clothes'. Plus it keeps our brains working!
I also think in a small way that if the supporters of a party/wing make comments that may be critical it is better that they are expressed here than stumping a left wing politician who is out on the hustings in 'deepest, darkest Eketahuna', say.
Ditto Anne, I'm beginning to find TS a tad tiresome to wade through these days since Dennis Frank has come back to haunt us. I do enjoy TSmithfield’s considered opinions though I think there is a very concerted and determined effort by the MSM and other commenters to convince voters not to vote Labour/Greens in October. Goodness only know what the Government has had to deal with over the past 6 years, they've every right to feel a bit jaded – the Christchurch massacre, Whakaari/White Island, the Covid 'invasion', the weather bombs which beset parts of the country a few months ago, as well as the effects of global inflation, which despite what Chris Luxon, Nicola Willis et al would have us believe that it's purely a N Z problem. I believe there are some good MPs in the 2020 intake who are biding their time and could well shine if they have the good fortune to be re-elected. It's a bit fraught at times, but I'm keeping the faith.
Jilly bee…meet space-bar ..!
Please..!
Wow Philip… is this better… I was probably typing away in a legal office on an Imperial 66 or similar long before you were a wee glint in your father's eye…
Lol Jilly Bee, you keep typing my friend. A rational caring voice is an utter relief.
I would ad that Kat got a flyer from Christopher Luxon, promising a rise every year for pensioners. My antenna went up!! Why??? Was that on his list???
I wondered if they were considering changing it to match the CPI, as for the old GSF. ???
I have both Super and the Government Super Fund I saved into as a Teacher.
The GSF is on the CPI increase and has gone up 40%+ since 2001.
The Super is @ 65% of the average wage and has more than doubled in the same time.
Anything that man mentions is a way? he is going to collect money to do his tax refunds for top earners, and remove tax off Landlords. imo
I like different points of view, but anyone who thinks Whale oil has anything to offer is out on a limb in my book.
Anyone who bags Labour or the Greens casually with "Labour always…' or "That would be the Greens" sweeping generalisations and pokes.
Real pertinent comments are fine, nastiness is not.imo
@ jb..
Did the imperial 66 not have a space bar…?
How on earth did you paragraph…back in those byegone days…?
p u……….I was always under the impression that a new paragraph was required when the subject matter changed……I though my previous post was pretty much dealing with the same subject……
No no j.b….
That all stems from when paper was very expensive…so cramming as much in as possible made economic sense…
What the internet has wrought for us is unlimited free paper…so words/sentences can now breathe..
I don't think/use paragraph as such..
I think each new sentence deserves the respect of a new line..all of its own..
And when I can I scorn the false honorific of the capital letter…
I mean..why..?.. exactly..?
And going on your reckons on my age…..you must be about 115…(!)
Well done you..!
You are holding up well…
With a double carriage return, Phillip ure..
The "space bar" was – and still is – used to insert a space.
The modern space-bar gives you a new/fresh line…
"Ditto Anne, I'm beginning to find TS a tad tiresome to wade through these days…"
Indeed it is sometimes Jilly Bee.
I love the way the young uns automatically assume that because we are old we don't know what we're talking about. We've been around the political traps years longer than they have – we've seen it all before – but nah… we know nuffink. 🙂
I've noted a number of valuable commenters don't visit TS much anymore.
@ anne…
Did you read the piece from thomas before your dennunciation..?
If you did… could you please point out just what you found wrong with it..?
As I read it as detailing the failings of the beaurocrats..in a govt agency..
And if anything a defence of allen…on the grounds of extreme provocation..
I just disagree with his reckons as to why eg a government which abandoned concrete targets for public service performance….
Education targets resulted in the kids they were inflicted on now struggling to achieve in the education system
It found only 16 per cent of teachers believed National Standards had a positive impact, while two thirds were concerned about the anxiety students felt about their performance and the negative effect this had on their learning.
One principal described it as "soul destroying" for students who make individual progress but remain "below" the standard.
Another said the system had "led to a deterioration in the educational deal our children are receiving".
The report highlighted a number of recurrent concerns, including a belief the system narrows the curriculum as teachers are forced to teach to the standards and they don't accurately reflect student's ability.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/national-standards-no-positive-impact-on-achievement-say-teachers/PJVHTVPTCYRHOKSHL7JRBC7PDY/
Waitlist targets for health resulted in people being kicked off waiting lists and representing years later in a worse state
There has been an ongoing political debate in New Zealand about whether funding injections result in increased and improved service access. Between 2000 and 2006, there was a slight reduction in the total number of people receiving elective treatments (Ministry of Health, 2008). However, the Health Minister suggested that the reduction was a result of more treatments in outpatient settings that were not captured in standard hospital datasets. A clear theme throughout the 7 years of analysis was the constant stories of DHBs having difficulty providing adequate service levels and of patients being removed from waiting lists despite the fact that they had a professionally determined need, as judged by their clinical priority scores, for treatment.
Another theme was the increasing threshold, or required score, for access to elective treatments. Many DHBs, under pressure to provide a response to growing numbers of referred patients, simply raised the number of points required to be eligible for treatment.
‘The figures show the mean score for adults having cardiothoracic surgery has risen from 33.5 in 2001 to 46.4 in 2005. Mean adult general surgery scores have risen from 77.5 to 87.9 and orthopaedic scores from 75.4 to 81.2 over the same period. There has also been a big jump in ophthalmology scores’
Waitlist targets for housing resulted in people being kicked off the waiting list and hiding the size of the problem
When this is placed alongside the wiping of thousands of people off the bottom of Housing New Zealand's waiting lists, the wonder is that National has got this far with little opposition.
One reason is that instead of rushing change, the housing reforms have followed a now familiar process which might be termed the "Bill English Handbook on Managing More Market Reform".
https://www.cpag.org.nz/media-releases/why-are-we-only-seeing-band-aid-responses
Targets to reduce benefit numbers resulted in people being denied benefits and a toxic environment
The Government has set itself ambitious new targets including 75,000 fewer New Zealanders being on benefits by June 2018 as part of its Better Public Services drive, Finance Minister Bill English and State Services Minister Paula Bennett say.
“AAAP see this treatment of beneficiaries by fraud investigators who are encouraged by MSD to punish beneficiaries as emblematic of the toxic culture of MSD which has turned lethal,” says Vanessa Cole spokesperson for AAAP.
“The former MSD investigator in the case of Wendy Shoebridge revealed that MSD had forced investigation staff to get at least one prosecution, and recover $30,000 in debt per month.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1612/S00117/investigation-is-proof-winz-s-toxic-culture-is-lethal.htm
Dumpty goes west: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/luxon-goes-west
Neither woke nor asleep, somewhere in between. Careful focus on the middle. Well-trained.
Ah, the boat people thesis. The notion that although it was your ancestors that did it, you can pretend it was actually you. Somehow I can't see this catching on. I agree most people are delusional, and get why he's playing that card, but they're addicted already to quite different delusions. Still, he didn't use the extraterrestrial genetic alteration theory – which has been around so long it has become conservative. Maybe he's weighing that option…
From biodiversity as a vista, into microcosm of that:
She's a paradigm-shifter:
Singer has recently lost respect with many in the autistic community because of her support for a gender-critical position. Mica at ponderful discusses where GC and trans autistic people disagree.
Messy. Folks have an inherent right to define their own identity but categories are social entities and language is a commons. When they battle over word-meanings it seems to be due to collective inability to reach consensus on the various categories involved. I suppose it will settle down eventually and a common view of how to handle such biodiversity will gel.
All these different groupings are user-driven, eh? So each group forms a social ecosystem in which users take refuge and then bond in solidarity. I still feel however, that pretending to be a woman when you aren't biologically is delusional. When such people misrepresent themselves to the detriment of women, seems logical they ought to be prosecuted for fraud. I wonder why I haven't heard of any such prosecution.
Can't imagine you had time to watch mica's vessay, which examines the ableist attitude that autistic people cannot decide for themselves they are trans. There is already an ableist attack on autistic persons accessing transition care in some US states.
Gun nuts here will be contemplating their admirable restraint:
The overall effect seems rather scattershot. I guess it's hard, when you're enraged, to shoot accurately. Still, celebrating Independence Day is tedious if you don't take out a few irritants here & there…
You know, the car and contents are insured. But I doubt the wounds of being outted in the Herald as living in a Glen Eden postcode when you've told all your friends you live in Oratia will ever quite heal.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/grant-theft-auto-new-850k-rolls-royce-ghost-stolen-from-glen-eden-womans-home/E73RDLY3YZB27PNKICDNG3IE5E/
A number of fascinating aspects to this story. Many people have a ‘company car.’
Not many have half million plus models. Not many have half million plus models with close at hand thieves ready to move in if they whip up the road.
The mayor of Wellington having a bit of a bender, getting a bit slurry and generally doing what a lot of people do and then being shat on by the business that was happy to take her money but didn't believe it owes any discretion to it's customers is apparently a scandal of the first order and worthy of days of pearl clutching headlines.
Meanwhile, a bunch of nasty old white boomer uncles getting together to tell jokes in public that have gone down like a cup of cold sick at the family Christmas for the last decade is just boys being boys.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wayne-brown-leo-molloy-sir-graham-henry-guy-williams-judith-collins-front-foul-mouthed-charity-debate/UK3KQPBGL5FJJLVH37KU7V6R4A/
Don't talk to me about there being no structural racism and sexism in this country.
And what is it with old men and their inability to grasp that they've had their day and culture, manners and society moves on? No wonder rugby stadiums are full of appalling retro pop played far too loud – These old pricks run the place and think it still represents the pinnacle of popular culture and they can't hear it at normal volumes without turning up their hearing aids to max, which would never do since it might put them out a bit.
Whatever did your Grandparents do to you?
I must admit I find these old bastards odious and interesting in equal measure.
This sort of public posturing works as a rallying cry insofar as it is a structure-of-feeling that is pervasive on the culture war Right in NZ and across the wider Anglosphere: that they have been excluded and marginalised from legitimate power by an illegitimate, parasitic elite. These old buggers are neither cynical nor sincere; they are both. Malloy and Henry and Plunkett and Brown act as a relay, through which the passions of the reactionary crowd they pander to pass and are returned in a louder and more garish form. They say what the crowd thinks.
That is where their power lies, beause the axiomatic received wisdom of an establishment MSM deeply wedded to the institutions that prop up these guys aligns with their world view.
The reason they hate the new elites lies precisely in the fact that they have new power structures and ways of doing things.
Agree – it is a "structure of feeling",and rather than being an emergent form as in the dictionary definition, it is a submergent form that fears it is on the way out. Rather than trying to become the new orthodoxy, it is the old orthodoxy fighting for its life.
An elite fighting for life, and making sure it takes down others with it.
As the attitudes and ideological stances you, mostly rightly, oppose, are just as much apparent in many young buggers, David Seymour being an indicative example, characterising them as unique to "boomers" and " old buggers" is not only inaccurate but alienates many who would otherwise agree with you.
Playing into the hands of those who want to take attention away from the fact that it is class, and those who want to steal from society, rather than contribute to it, of all ages.
Making it about "boomers" conveniently takes the focus on the whole new generations of entitled"little Lord Fantleroys"who are intent destroying my grandkids future for the gains of a few..
@kjt..
I agree with your observation that it is about class…and not about age…
And that making it about age..is just a self-serving distraction from the real problems…
Tho' those in that story re mayor and others…really are from the obnoxious end of the boomer spectrum…
And I guess the most charitable description of their attempts at humour…
..is gauche…
Totally agree.
Agree entirely kjt. A whole bunch of us "boomers" were protesting the American war in Vietnam, and the South African apartheid regime, before we even left High School.
We moved on to the Women's Movement and Gay Liberation in our 20's and then to the Union Movement in our 30's.
We raised the $$$$ for the Rape Crisis Centres and the Women's Refuges, we were marshals and organisers for the 1981 Anti Tour actions.
We are still working for progressive causes in our retirement.
We have never voted for any variety of Tory in our lives.
Sounds like my life.
Though I have to throw in some Maori causes as well…..
"Now now Trish they can't help it!!" muck in=muckout.
Like button! Agree wholeheartedly with this, ka pai
I totally agree Sanctuary.
"Profanity is the sign of a lazy mind." The amount of profanity used by the 'boomer uncles' puts on display some very lazy minds, who sadly think they were being clever.
I agree with this but I also think the issue with profanity is wider than 'boomer' uncles, unless some 'boomer uncles' have slipped in here……..
Name calling and profanity at a person are sides of the same disrepect of the views of others…she said prudishly.
Are people so angry when they write here or enage in debate that they have to use profanity? Worrying if so.
One person's profanity…is another's salty seasoning..
An underlining..
Tho' brown..when given a small road cone said he would insert in in someone's rear end..( his actual words are a more salty version of mine..)
And having pictures of media people pasted into urinals..so people can piss on them…
Have these old right-wing idjits reverted to early adolescence..?
Why is the media not all over this..?
And just focusing on the wellington mayor non-story..?
It would appear that a lot of the profanity was coming from the Mayor and her friend, at least as recounted by one person who was there.
"One man, who asked not to be identified, said he and his 13 and 15-year-old teenagers were sitting near Whanau and her friend and heard a lot of loud swearing: “Lots of words beginning with F.”"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/wellington/132466793/tory-whanau-saga-we-shouldnt-expect-anyone–to-be-a-complete-saint
Alwyn must be a hot favourite for today's pearl-clutching award…surely..?
I'm not sure that's what happened. Afaik the manager responded to media enquiries, they didn't go to the media. Whether the story originally came from staff or patrons, I don't think the business itself can be held responsible for that.
The story directly quoted a staff member. When I was the bar manager of a similar establishment that would have got you fired.
We of course would never support firing someone for answering a journalists questions however.
it's always so interesting seeing lefties advocating firing people. Especially when commenting on a labour movement aligned blog.
Do we know how the manager has dealt with the issue internally? Can they even get more staff at the moment?
I am just telling you stright how I would have dealt with a staff member if they'd made an unauthorised statement to the media – assuming you run an establishment which offers protection to it's patrons. It potentially can seriously affect business reputation.
Personally, I suspect the staff memeber was probably the stalking horse for a management to gutless to front the media themselves but not happy with recent changes around poedestrianisation in Wellington.
oh I completely agree with you that the business should be protecting customers as well as their own reputation, and that staff shouldn't be speaking to the media.
I'm not sure if it's legal to fire someone like that for sometimes like this. Gross misconduct? Depends on what happened (and I'm not a union or employment law bod). I suspect there are other ways of dealing with it, although again, it depends on what happened, and as per usual with MSM bollocks we don't really know.
I was wondering if the business is run by people with little media experience, and possibly English as a second language. I haven't seen anything to suggest that they were gunning for the mayor politically, but who knows. Would the business be affected by changes to urban planning?
otoh, I did see Slater's name crop up yesterday. Didn't read the piece, but it's possible it's just a straight out Dirty Politics job.
Not so long ago a nat mp got sacked for being drunk in charge of an ego!!
LMAO
The bunch of mostly old blokes in Auckland seemingly got away with their schoolboy behaviour while the Wellington mayor, being female, youngish and Māori, gets no such tolerance. And no male politician was ever put through the disgraceful online bile that Jacinda Ardern was subjected to.
US Supreme Court Justice Brown has done a pretty cool dissenting opinion which, if you read it, has a whole lot of parallels to our own debates about whether Maori get favoured treatment in many areas of society.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/kbj-dissent-affirmative-action/
You can't quite 'search and replace' the term black for Maori, but you do get the idea.
We have to go a way back to Lord Cooke of Thorndon to get a senior judge going straight into this territory here.
For the longer version pertinent to NZ, refer to Professor Walker's Struggle Without End.
So Laura Norder is being called for at the top level:
It's a British tory initiative:
The establishment need their control system to get a grip on upstart rebel developers…
Just as an aside – I am of the view that nuclear power is clearly the best solution we have right now using exisiting technology to reduce carbon emissions, and NZ need to think about SMR (Small Modular Reactor) technologies to help provide baseload.
However, this study tells us that of180 nuclear power construction projects, 195 were late by an average of 64% longer that planned to build and over budget to an average of 117%
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9374057
In the meantime, renewables continue to fall in cost. IMHO, the future lies in base hydro and nuclear with reenewables being used as much as possible.
Unfortunately RL got banned for a while & he's been urging us toward this. Around 7 years ago here I cited Stewart Brand's book Whole Earth Discipline where he has a chapter on the same theme.
My take from sporadic reading around the industry situation is that inertia prevails but some tech progress does happen – slowly. Still, climate change pressures everyone towards a collective solution and the logic of safe reactors will become inexorable eventually. Those that consume waste nuclear products are Greenest!
"over budget to an average of 117%".
That sounds pretty good to me. That certainly looks better than the road in Tauranga.
"The new forecast of $292m is up from $262m a year ago, almost three times the original 2015 estimate"
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/493202/tauranga-s-1-point-7km-highway-link-cost-blows-out-to-300m
Or consider the proposed cycleway from Wellington to Petone. It was originally estimated at $94 million and is now up to $312 million
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/129345651/cost-blowout-for-harbour-pathway-between-wellington-and-hutt-valley
A mere 117% sounds like a bargain.
Taking a whole life-cycle approach to costing nuclear power:
'Using their model, Barron and Hill found that nuclear power is likely to be a far less cost-effective, low-carbon energy source than others had suggested. In fact, their models find nuclear waste disposal to be 2.5 to 4 times more expensive than other models have suggested.
These new findings support the argument that nuclear power, despite being a low-carbon energy source, may not be cost effective.'
In so far as I can ascertain, none of the models include the energy required to mitigate/ decommission nuclear plants and their waste products….if you included such I suspect they would end up being net energy negative.
I expect, however, you need to compare to coal-fired plants, rather than to 'green' technologies, like wind or solar.
Bearing in mind, that there is little, if any, prospect of significant wind, solar or hydro capacity in many countries. So their choices are: continue to burn fossil fuels; massively restrict energy use (unlikely to happen); nuclear power.
“Waste disposal and decommissioning costs are usually fully included in the operating costs. If the social, health and environmental costs of fossil fuels are also taken into account, the competitiveness of nuclear power is improved.”
https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/economics-of-nuclear-power.aspx
Nuclear power companies are never honest about decommissioning costs which are often massive.
When this is taken into account solar is now cheaper and easier…because of this why would anyone choose nuclear, especially given Ukraine type situations.
Meta introduces Threads – a rival to Twitter – log in is via Instagram.
500 character limit.
It should probably help Twitter with its data management problems, if not the bottom line.
Musk fans using Instagram will be pulled over …those not on Instagram will have to go through their personal data regime to get on.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66112648