Just imagine the weapons to be found in a hardware store. Slashers, pitch forks etc and the list would be endless, taken across all trades and services. If NZ is not immune from terrorism then maybe it's time to lock down all dangerous items, like cigarettes and spray paint?? haha. H & S might blow a fuse with all the work going forward.
Why should it matter if building stores are in city centres or not? I guess tradies and farmers are more likely to have knives on them as a matter of course, but such a work tool (especially if folding & unlockable!) isn't really much of a weapon. "Big strong builders" are certainly not the only customers at hardware stores, and who can say for certain how they would react in a moment of crisis if not trained for it (and even then without warning)?
I don't think I would call the Lynn Mall Terrorist cowardly; deranged – sure, but it has to take some level of courage to perpetrate such attacks with a melee weapon rather than a firearm, vehicle, or explosive. He had to know that his options afterwards were likely; death, deportation, or prison.
Saw this on RNZ earlier and still have the tab open:
Tomlinson, a paramedic of 10 years… said there were three or four of them "yelling at him and giving him instruction to drop the knife".
Them being involved was quite impressive, he said.
"I've had years of emergency training to deal with emergency situations, but for those people they didn't have that.
Mega10 in my hometown is at a mall, next to Countdown, Harvey Normans and many more. Everytime I shop Mega10 there's 200-300 people in there. The Cafe and Garden centre full of woman and children. Builders all outside in the drivethru. It would be hideous if an attack was to happen. How many tradies are black belt in self defence, not many I'd think the rest would take cover. I hope this doesn't become a new normal terrorist attack, nearly impossible to stop.
It is little more than virtue signalling, especially when you see the plethora of glass bottles in supermarkets. Of course if police were aware that their subject had an obsession with knives, they might have reasonably been expected to be stationed in the relevant aisle.
Captain hindsight strikes again: your "reasonably expected" is a bunch of BS before the fact.
As for the term "virtue signalling", maybe you could try getting your head around the fact that a lot of people get weirded out in similar places after something like this.
Is that feeling rational? Nope.
Is it normal? Yep.
Do staff like working in places where everyone instinctively keeps an uncoscious eye on who is loitering near the kitchen utensils? Nope.
Do customers do the same? Yep.
And if basic human consideration isn't a motive for you, do businesses like to see their customers happy so they come in and buy stuff rather than going somewhere else? Most definitely.
So sure, mock companies showing a bit of awareness about normal human reactions. Says more about you than them.
Police were criticised for their lack of urgent action. They inadvertently killed one of the hostages. The terrorist, like ours, was on bail at the time of the attack. It is very sad when history repeats itself.
An urgent inquiry is needed here to ensure whatever mistakes might have been made are not repeated in the future.
As someone who has scant knowledge of these matters, it does seem to me that NZ places too much emphasis on the punishment side of criminal activity and not nearly enough on the rehabilitation of the individuals concerned. Many of them are profoundly damaged mentally due to their upbringing and/or past experiences. According to this expert the terrorist was one of them:
New Zealand peaked at 10,600 in 2018 and are down this year to 8,600.
I do think you point to a really hard question:
When every applicable part of the intelligence, immigration, Police, judiciary, and policy settings have been used on one person and they still get to commit a terror attack, what more must the state do to stop them?
Since they forecast annual death and injury from COVID as worth decreasing everyone's human rights for, then they can do it with terrorism as well.
It's like: we're getting ready for nationwide permanent Level 2 for public health. What about Security Level 2?
Couple of reasons, one because it's pointless in practise and the other because it's significantly more complex theoretically.
The yanks, and other nations, have tried "alert levels" ever since 2001. Fucking useless. Yanks ditched their colour-coding system in 2011. Most people have no idea what they were supposed to do in a "high" level as opposed to "elevated", let alone "guarded" vs "low".
From a theoretical level, we know that if person A has a communicable virus, close contacts are all in significant danger and need to be tested.
But if person B has a tendency towards violence in Dunedin, the next similar attack can happen in Auckland, by person Q. And nobody has a pcr-level test for individual actions, do they? Otherwise economists would all be in agreement, and correct.
Viruses have a given probability of infection, hospitalisation, and death. We can make estimates based on those probabilities.
The Rand corporation tried that sort of modelling for violence in the 60s, and people periodically try ever since, but it doesn't work because individuals have so much variation. The assumption-based errors are a mile wide. Every prediction with a reasonable assumption spread would point to a likelihood that includes "no problems" and "human extinction".
Speaking of people with "a tendency towards violence in Dunedin", the person (allegedly) responsible for the Dunedin Central Countdown attacks was reported on in the ODT at 9:32am on the morning of the 3rd of September. Found myself wondering if the news had made it up to Auckland radio (or whatever internet the terrorist was allowed – which I understand was subject to conditions), before he set out to Lynn Mall Countdown. There may not be a connection (difficult to ask him now), but that's a fair coincidence!
The case for the man who allegedly stabbed four people in a Dunedin supermarket has stalled as the court awaits a psychological report…
Crown prosecutor Richard Smith told the court today that the clinician assessing the defendant needed more time to complete their report.
Justice Robert Osborne remanded the man in custody until November.
The issue of name suppression, Mr Smith said, would likely be determined by the contents of the report.
People (especially terrorists) love to think of terrorists as criminal masterminds, intricately planning bold masterstrokes to hold the world in fear.
And fair enough there was a bit of that before governments started targeting coordinators and engineers (rather than the disgruntled teens with two hand grenades and a dream). And, like plugging leaks in a roof, security started getting more professional at spotting vulnerabilities before terrorists could exploit them.
These days, most "terrorists" seem to be, well, sad dicks or sadly disturbed/foolish individuals, generally working with badly-written crap they collected off the internet, and with a lot of personal shit going on in their lives.
People like the coffee-bar hostage taker in Aus, who wanted the cops to get him an ISIS banner because he brought the wrong one, and was up for serious non-political charges at the same time, too.
"Since they forecast annual death and injury from COVID as worth decreasing everyone's human rights for, then they can do it with terrorism as well"
Yeah – though there may be a hierarchy of human rights at play here. The COVID crisis involves restricting freedom of movement (arguably a lesser right) to maximise right to life (arguably a greater one). Crudely stated – there's a net increase in rights that comes out of this calculation and trade off. Whereas stopping terrorism may require going into darker territory, such as taking people out of circulation because of their opinions in order to stop a statistically insignificant amount of harm (compared to a pandemic at least). And that I feel just makes getting the right balance a whole lot harder.
Each policy instrument applied on both entails pretty significant losses of rights, and there's no time like the whole of the population losing a set of rights to start a reasonable debate about whether state control mechanisms are really working.
We've managed not to get too dark after the Christchurch mosque massacre. IMHO we are the more mature for it.
But this current guy should never have been in the country. He have been deported years ago for getting here on fraudulent documents. Why they weren't able to have the Deportation hearing is beyond me.
From what I've seen over the years, Corrections is hopelessly underfunded, our prisons are full of people who're recalcitrant gang members, some of whom are violent thugs virtually running some units & sometimes even dictating terms to warders, recruitment centres for gang membership & training centres for anti-social & criminal activities.
With chronically insufficient money or other resources for in-house education, psychiatric and psychological services for damaged individuals and mentally ill inmates or criminally insane psychopaths – like Bell & Burton appear to be.
Attempts to divert young offenders may not actually be working that well. Last year I read in Stuff somewhere that remand prisoners were clogging up the prisons again. Dunno how the numbers are. Courts seem clogged too.
Our mental health services are seemingly woefully under-resourced.
I'm trying to do a bit of reading up on Islamic de-radicalisation programmes, most seem to involve extremists in custody being taught that Islam is now a peaceful religion by non-radical, orthodox Imams. Not read that much so far. But from google hits headlines they seem to be a bit hit & miss. There's been at least one notable failure in the UK, where someone actually attending such a programme after his release went on a stabbing rampage.
Problem is Islam's a mixture of a multi-faceted religion, ideology & Islamic (Sharia) law. The Quran is pretty muddled in places. Hadiths & Sunnah also complicate what's taught. Open to multiple fatwa interpretations. Taliban, Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Sunni, Shiite, Sufi, Wahhabi, Salafists etc – all can claim they've got the right interpretation.
Hard to shift some people's minds if they're fixated or fanatical & not naturally empathic or they've got narcissistic or psychopathic/sociopathic personalities. One criticism of the UK's programmes was that an evaluation claimed some of these radicals will tell you what you want to hear but remain dangerous.
Cheers Anne. Coincidentally, I've just come across this, which details the parlous state of Corrections funding & resourcing for the rehabilitative services I referred to above.
Just wondering why the attacker was absolutely determined to challenge his deportation while showing such hatred for the western society he lived in here. Would it have been better for him to be back in Sri Lanka where he had family. Did he ever have a working life, friends, mosque contacts? Was he ever a student, apart from apparently initially getting here on a student visa. Nothing has come out about how he spent his time here, apart from time in prison and the various legal/immigration complications going on for many years.
I agree completely. His rationale for claiming refugee status was that his father was a government official that ran afoul of a local Tamil Tiger commander. However the Tamil Tigers were defetaed as an effective military force by 2009 and his father did not flee Sri Lanka like his son. He would have had much more support at home and should NEVER have been granted refugee status at all.
Which govt was in power when he was granted refugee status.Judith Collins was justice minister at the time and ditched reforming the laws around extradition dangerous migrants saying there was no need for such legislation now she is saying we need urgent reform of extradition.The Clark govt so called overstretch of terror laws in the early 2000's ,yet those some of those were found using and training with ak47 style guns.better to be safe than sorry.
It was granted on appeal, rather than by Immigration NZ in this particular case – INZ wanted to decline it and have taken all legal steps since to deport him.
He lied on his application he had a hidden agenda .rehabilitating a fundamentalist good luck with that.
The govt is supposed to be everything to every body with a meagre budget due to our very low tax rates.Prisons,Hospital's,education system etc all underfunded so how are we supposed to rehabilitate and have a proper mental health system ,train enough health worker and retain them. Only 8 new psychology training places for a country of 5 million successive govt's have relied on migrants from poorer countries to fill these positions as it is cheaper than training local people,who many go to wealthier countries.
OECD average 33.8%; NZ 32.3%. So (slightly) below the average, and decreasing?
Revenue Statistics 2020 – New Zealand [pdf] The OECD’s annual Revenue Statistics report found that the tax-to-GDP ratio in New Zealand decreased by 0.6 percentage points from 32.9% in 2018 to 32.3% in 2019. Between 2018 and 2019 the OECD average decreased from 33.9% to 33.8%.
The bar graph at the bottom of the first page puts things in perspective, imho.
NZ is the only OECD country that formally has no social security contributions.
is around the average for the OECD. It is certainly not at a very low level.
That's a meaningless statistic. The tax take needs to be wherever it needs to be to provide optimum services to the public. That is the debate, not where we are compared to other countries.
It is not actually. There is a widely held view is that at some level the economic performance of the country starts to diminish once the overall tax burden reaches a certain percentage of the overall economy. Now you might not subscribe to this but a significant body of people do. That is why there is push back against a much higher tax burden than we have now.
Gosman we have had this argument before I proved you wrong you name the country I 'all prove you wrong .Start with Australia if you like Headline taxes are all the OECD is looking at.
State taxes average 5•5% over and above federal base tax. Then Medicare 3% then self funding pensions 9%.State stamp duties and land taxes vary.
That's over 12% higher than NZ
France headline taxes average 33% but healthcare tax 8% pension tax over 9% and like much of europe you pay indemnity insurance as well.my daughter and husband
Live their and on slightly more than the average wage pay 66% tax.
In the US taxes between state and federal the health insurance around 66 cents in the dollar.
Just wondering why the attacker was absolutely determined to challenge his deportation while showing such hatred for the western society he lived in here.
They are not mutually exclusive. He wanted to remain here possibly because he saw the opportunity to do most harm here.
It must have been into millions of dollars that was spent on this terrorist over many years through police, judiciary, justice system, lawyers, legal aid, possibly social welfare. I hope the proposed legislation will be water tight enough to prevent this type of utter waste of taxpayer money. There are too many other needs to be funded.
I suppose so, but what I'm wondering, semantically and logically, is whether the label "terrorist" can only be applied to someone who intentionally seeks or succeeds in creating terror in a population, by employing actions that create terror, as a method. If this person struck out with only the intention of killing, not hoping as well to inspire terror in the community, does the table fit?
For clarity, I'm not trying to minimise anything, just wondering about labels.
Many organisations that were officially labelled terrorist by the governments they opposed were not in fact seeking to create terror in the wider population so if we used your definition that would seriously reduce who is officially defined as a Terrorist. I'm not stating that isn't necessarily a desirable outcome just that it needs to be taken in to account if the change in definition is adopted.
Yes, I agree with your comment. Personally, I think the too-casual use of the lable "terrorist" exacerbates the fear felt by people in the wider society. Roblogic (below) describes the person as "the knife attacker" which would terrify readers and listeners far less, imo, than describing them as "the terrorist" and given that it should be beholden upon authorities to reduce the fear felt by the community, more care could be taken with applying these labels.
A common definition of terrorism is the "systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective."[2] However, unlike some other jurisdictions,[3] New Zealand has actually defined terrorism in an Act of Parliament
…
The major piece of terrorist-related legislation in New Zealand is the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.[4] The Act was introduced by the Government to strengthen its counter-terrorism powers, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.[5] The Terrorism Suppression Act defines terrorism, in New Zealand or elsewhere, as an act that "is carried out for the purpose of advancing an ideological, political, or religious cause"[4]and with the following intention:
to induce terror in a civilian population; or
to unduly compel or to force a government or an international organisation to do or abstain from doing any act.
And if it results in one or more of the following outcomes:[4]
the death of, or other serious bodily injury to, one or more persons (other than a person carrying out the act):
a serious risk to the health or safety of a population:
destruction of, or serious damage to, property of great value or importance, or major economic loss, or major environmental damage, if likely to result in one or more outcomes specified in points 1, 2 and 4:
serious interference with, or serious disruption to, an infrastructure facility, if likely to endanger human life:
introduction or release of a disease-bearing organism, if likely to devastate the national economy of a country.
Alternatively, instead of the listed outcomes, "it occurs in a situation of armed conflict and is, at the time and in the place that it occurs, in accordance with rules of international law applicable to the conflict".[4]
Terrorism is usually defined as the use of violence to influence politics or political leadership.
I conciously noted this when when seeking entry to the UK and that the definition on the form was clearly something the UK govt was guilty of in Iraq. Of course the same can be said of certain NZ institutions like the SIS.
The main thing holding it up was appeals as far as I can tell. Maybe instead of throwing the whole thing out, fund the appellate tribunal better (delays have been an issue for years) and expedite the appeals in these instances?
Good riddance. Here’s a bit more on Williams, for those who appreciate the hilariously inept:
Ruining the broadcast of a basketball game in 1983 , offending Cindy Crawford in the 1990s when he carved out a miserably short career as the most incompetent “foreign correspondents” in television history , and championing Don Brash in 2019…
just started reading this book, written by TVNZ journo Jehan Casinader in the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks. good stuff for mental health in these crazy lockdown days.
Just started reading this. He's a compelling writer, but the first chapter is surprisingly intense for something written for seriously depressed or stressed people.
Curious thing. I only discovered today this site has a policy apparently conforming (or similar) to Ardern's policy of not naming the Christchurch or LynnMall terrorist attackers – which I will respect, of course, if I want to post about these attackers here.
My personal view on this is different tho. As soon as their names were publicly known & suppressions lifted, I've been perfectly content to use them. It makes life easier. And it doesn't make any practical difference to how they're portrayed.
But … I'm 95% sure that with the Christchurch terrorist, once suppression was lifted, all our msm tv channels & Stuff & Herald continued for months to not publish or use his name.
Ardern's applying the same policy to the LynnMall terrorist. Which is fair.
But all the msm tv channels & online news outlets aren't. They all seem to be naming him. (Making it difficult to post some links.)
Yawn… You are probably looking for a conspiracy when none exists. This is a volunteer site where volunteer moderators have limited time to moderate. In the case of the ChCh terrorist, the suppression lasted throughout his trial and may even be still in place. I don’t know because what the suppression orders are in place isn’t listed in a searchable form anywhere that I know of.
Apply Occams razor and look for the simplest explanation rather than a complex or ideological conspiracy. Just assume lack of time.
It is entirely possible that a moderation was plugged in when suppression is in effect and not changed afterwards. This makes it easier for time constrained moderators to ensure that suppression breaking comments are not added to our site – and allows us to not have to approve every comment – thereby slowing the debate. It also means that I don’t get to spend time in court because of some dickhead commentator.
I did a brief look and didn’t see a moderation for Lynmall guy. But since I never bothered to find out his name, that isn’t conclusive.
So live with that possible constraint. There is of course another alternate explanation. There is an automatic constraint based on the number of links in a comment. That is there to cause problems for spammers and astroturfers..
You seem to be using quite a lot of links… ~11 in the last comment that I had to release – most of then appear to be copies from where ever you copied the text from. Could you constrain those down. And use the quote control when you use quotes so that others know what are your words, and what are those of others. Italics are less useful than a specific quote tool.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I understand your site policy. It's fine. I've posted elsewhere where the names were able be used once suppressions lapsed.
What I'm curious about is why the mainstream media seem to be applying a different rule. Naming this guy as soon as suppression was lifted. Name suppression was eventually lifted for the Christchurch shooter but media carried on not naming him for some time beyond that.
PS: Yes, sorry – I’ve noticed my article excerpts have been a bit long, with double-ups. Will try to cut them back in future.
There was an element of suspicion the Christchurch fuckwit was a glory-hound, in his own perverted demented way. Hence his live-streaming. Not using his name is a minor means of denying him the twisted recognition he craved.
With our New Lynn fuckwit, there doesn't seem to be the same suggestion he was in it for personal gain. Unless maybe he thought there were 72 virgins waiting for him in the afterlife. In any case, he's dead now, whether his name gets used or not has no potential effect on him. Nor is using his name, or not, likely to be influential in whether others get inspired to copy-cat his repugnant actions.
That's an interesting point & makes sense. I see Newshub made a point out of naming the Chch shooter when others still weren't.
Straight off the bat the news chiefs all agreed on one thing: we were going to keep naming the alleged gunman. The Prime Minister had said she wasn't going to name him and implored others to do the same; she didn't want him to gain the notoriety he sought. But the editors were of one mind: in covering his trial, we would name [redacted].
[If you copy someone else’s words to this site, you have to either link, or provide a clear reference. If the URL contains a word that might be a problem for the site, let the mods deal with it. In this case, I added the link via a phrase instead of straight, as you can see. You can do this yourself if you use the comment editor, ask if you are not sure – weka]
Gezza, if you want to link to a comment elsewhere on The Standard and just have it appear as a naked link, just make sure there's some text in the same line as the link. Even just a full stop before the link does the trick.
For instance, here's one of your earlier comments today with a full stop just in front:
if you just paste the link by itself, for some reason the #commentnumber gets chopped off and the link you end up with just goes to the post, not the comment.
Or if you want to embed a link, just select the text that you want to appear in blue to indicate it's the link, then click the button that looks like two Cs facing each other with a dash in between on a 45 degree angle(far left second row on my display), then paste the URL into the dialog box that pops up.
Let's see what happens when a non-mod tries to embed a link with a moderation list word in the URL. I'm pretty sure I tried it before, and the site said no. But maybe the latest comment editor will let it through.
edit: comment editor still says no. But it lets me edit, which I don’t think happened last time.
As soon as their names were publicly known & suppressions lifted, I've been perfectly content to use them. It makes life easier. And it doesn't make any practical difference to how they're portrayed.
This site is not a (commercial) news site or part of MSM.
It is also not about making your life easier by turning their names into household names.
They don’t deserve name recognition or fame.
It could stoke a competitive element with other deranged who would want to go down into the history books as the ‘greatest’. Nobody needs that.
I’m sure you’ll find a way to say what you’d want to say without the need to name them.
We don't like different opinions here do we? That's okay, it's been moderated to the point of irrelevancy. Perhaps the knitting circle of conformist views gather round the small kitchen table to share the echo chamber when alert levels permit.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[Looks like we have a sockpuppet here!
I just love it when banned commenters try to bypass their ban and then draw attention by preaching to us about moderation here and being an echo chamber. Such stupidity is rare and it never stops to amaze me.
This sockpuppet is now banned permanently – Incognito]
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 19 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
The Tribunal had called on Minister for Children Karen Chhour to provide evidence at an urgent inquiry into the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Midjourney image by T.J. Thomson As more than half of Australian office workers report using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for work, we’re starting to see this technology affect every ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nicole Sharwood, Injury epidemiologist | Expert Witness, UNSW Sydney Sergey Novikov/Shutterstock Injuries are the leading cause of disability and death among Australian children and adolescents. At least a quarter of all emergency department presentations during childhood are injury-related. Injuries can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Winkler, Adjunct Associate Professor, Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University Shutterstock/Ground PictureMany Australians with disability feel on the edge of a precipice right now. Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Salman Shooshtarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University Salman Shooshtarian Asbestos has been found in mulch used for playgrounds, schools, parks and gardens across Sydney and Melbourne. Local communities naturally fear for the health of their ...
Family First says that the latest abortion statistics make grim and upsetting reading, with a 25% increase in abortions since the decriminalisation of abortion in March 2020. According to an Official Information Act request received by Right to Life ...
Ipsos New Zealand's inaugural participation in a global study on populism reveals a pervasive sense of societal and economic decline among New Zealanders. MORE DETAILS AND FULL REPORT HERE Ipsos New Zealand's inaugural participation in a global study ...
Countdown to take knives and scissors off their shelves as a reaction to Lynmall incident. https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/knives-taken-off-supermarket-shelves-in-new-zealand-after-terrorist-attack/ar-AAO7X5n?li=BBqdg4K.
Just imagine the weapons to be found in a hardware store. Slashers, pitch forks etc and the list would be endless, taken across all trades and services. If NZ is not immune from terrorism then maybe it's time to lock down all dangerous items, like cigarettes and spray paint?? haha. H & S might blow a fuse with all the work going forward.
It's probably more about helping their staff and customers feel safe, rather than actual OSH.
Leave it a while. Not many people going into mitre10 right now, anyway.
More 10 visitors more likely to be big strong builders cowardly attackers wouldn't last long .Besides building stores are not usually in city centres.
Why should it matter if building stores are in city centres or not? I guess tradies and farmers are more likely to have knives on them as a matter of course, but such a work tool (especially if folding & unlockable!) isn't really much of a weapon. "Big strong builders" are certainly not the only customers at hardware stores, and who can say for certain how they would react in a moment of crisis if not trained for it (and even then without warning)?
I don't think I would call the Lynn Mall Terrorist cowardly; deranged – sure, but it has to take some level of courage to perpetrate such attacks with a melee weapon rather than a firearm, vehicle, or explosive. He had to know that his options afterwards were likely; death, deportation, or prison.
Saw this on RNZ earlier and still have the tab open:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/450843/man-chased-by-lynnmall-terrorist-says-kiwis-stood-up-for-what-s-right
Sounds like he wasn't all there.
Why I said that is because terrorists want the maximum publicity .
Mega10 in my hometown is at a mall, next to Countdown, Harvey Normans and many more. Everytime I shop Mega10 there's 200-300 people in there. The Cafe and Garden centre full of woman and children. Builders all outside in the drivethru. It would be hideous if an attack was to happen. How many tradies are black belt in self defence, not many I'd think the rest would take cover. I hope this doesn't become a new normal terrorist attack, nearly impossible to stop.
You are right, Greenbus.
It is little more than virtue signalling, especially when you see the plethora of glass bottles in supermarkets. Of course if police were aware that their subject had an obsession with knives, they might have reasonably been expected to be stationed in the relevant aisle.
Captain hindsight strikes again: your "reasonably expected" is a bunch of BS before the fact.
As for the term "virtue signalling", maybe you could try getting your head around the fact that a lot of people get weirded out in similar places after something like this.
Is that feeling rational? Nope.
Is it normal? Yep.
Do staff like working in places where everyone instinctively keeps an uncoscious eye on who is loitering near the kitchen utensils? Nope.
Do customers do the same? Yep.
And if basic human consideration isn't a motive for you, do businesses like to see their customers happy so they come in and buy stuff rather than going somewhere else? Most definitely.
So sure, mock companies showing a bit of awareness about normal human reactions. Says more about you than them.
You mentioned the Lindt cafe terrorist attack.
Police were criticised for their lack of urgent action. They inadvertently killed one of the hostages. The terrorist, like ours, was on bail at the time of the attack. It is very sad when history repeats itself.
An urgent inquiry is needed here to ensure whatever mistakes might have been made are not repeated in the future.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40024143
Not urgent.
Careful, methodical, and precise.
Like the coronial inquiry you linked to, released ~2.5 years after the attack.
Guess what – we'll have a coroner's inquest, too. And multiple other reviews. You're calling for action that has already, in some instances, begun.
As someone who has scant knowledge of these matters, it does seem to me that NZ places too much emphasis on the punishment side of criminal activity and not nearly enough on the rehabilitation of the individuals concerned. Many of them are profoundly damaged mentally due to their upbringing and/or past experiences. According to this expert the terrorist was one of them:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/450835/missed-opportunities-to-deradicalise-lynnmall-attacker-says-criminologist
Very sad. I wonder how many of these people, if properly treated, would go on to lead useful lives.
New Zealand peaked at 10,600 in 2018 and are down this year to 8,600.
I do think you point to a really hard question:
When every applicable part of the intelligence, immigration, Police, judiciary, and policy settings have been used on one person and they still get to commit a terror attack, what more must the state do to stop them?
Since they forecast annual death and injury from COVID as worth decreasing everyone's human rights for, then they can do it with terrorism as well.
It's like: we're getting ready for nationwide permanent Level 2 for public health. What about Security Level 2?
Not sure the parallel goes through, there.
Couple of reasons, one because it's pointless in practise and the other because it's significantly more complex theoretically.
The yanks, and other nations, have tried "alert levels" ever since 2001. Fucking useless. Yanks ditched their colour-coding system in 2011. Most people have no idea what they were supposed to do in a "high" level as opposed to "elevated", let alone "guarded" vs "low".
From a theoretical level, we know that if person A has a communicable virus, close contacts are all in significant danger and need to be tested.
But if person B has a tendency towards violence in Dunedin, the next similar attack can happen in Auckland, by person Q. And nobody has a pcr-level test for individual actions, do they? Otherwise economists would all be in agreement, and correct.
Viruses have a given probability of infection, hospitalisation, and death. We can make estimates based on those probabilities.
The Rand corporation tried that sort of modelling for violence in the 60s, and people periodically try ever since, but it doesn't work because individuals have so much variation. The assumption-based errors are a mile wide. Every prediction with a reasonable assumption spread would point to a likelihood that includes "no problems" and "human extinction".
Speaking of people with "a tendency towards violence in Dunedin", the person (allegedly) responsible for the Dunedin Central Countdown attacks was reported on in the ODT at 9:32am on the morning of the 3rd of September. Found myself wondering if the news had made it up to Auckland radio (or whatever internet the terrorist was allowed – which I understand was subject to conditions), before he set out to Lynn Mall Countdown. There may not be a connection (difficult to ask him now), but that's a fair coincidence!
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/crime/case-supermarket-stabbing-accused-stalls
People (especially terrorists) love to think of terrorists as criminal masterminds, intricately planning bold masterstrokes to hold the world in fear.
And fair enough there was a bit of that before governments started targeting coordinators and engineers (rather than the disgruntled teens with two hand grenades and a dream). And, like plugging leaks in a roof, security started getting more professional at spotting vulnerabilities before terrorists could exploit them.
These days, most "terrorists" seem to be, well, sad dicks or sadly disturbed/foolish individuals, generally working with badly-written crap they collected off the internet, and with a lot of personal shit going on in their lives.
People like the coffee-bar hostage taker in Aus, who wanted the cops to get him an ISIS banner because he brought the wrong one, and was up for serious non-political charges at the same time, too.
Sad characters, many of them.
"Since they forecast annual death and injury from COVID as worth decreasing everyone's human rights for, then they can do it with terrorism as well"
Yeah – though there may be a hierarchy of human rights at play here. The COVID crisis involves restricting freedom of movement (arguably a lesser right) to maximise right to life (arguably a greater one). Crudely stated – there's a net increase in rights that comes out of this calculation and trade off. Whereas stopping terrorism may require going into darker territory, such as taking people out of circulation because of their opinions in order to stop a statistically insignificant amount of harm (compared to a pandemic at least). And that I feel just makes getting the right balance a whole lot harder.
Each policy instrument applied on both entails pretty significant losses of rights, and there's no time like the whole of the population losing a set of rights to start a reasonable debate about whether state control mechanisms are really working.
We've managed not to get too dark after the Christchurch mosque massacre. IMHO we are the more mature for it.
But this current guy should never have been in the country. He have been deported years ago for getting here on fraudulent documents. Why they weren't able to have the Deportation hearing is beyond me.
From what I've seen over the years, Corrections is hopelessly underfunded, our prisons are full of people who're recalcitrant gang members, some of whom are violent thugs virtually running some units & sometimes even dictating terms to warders, recruitment centres for gang membership & training centres for anti-social & criminal activities.
With chronically insufficient money or other resources for in-house education, psychiatric and psychological services for damaged individuals and mentally ill inmates or criminally insane psychopaths – like Bell & Burton appear to be.
Attempts to divert young offenders may not actually be working that well. Last year I read in Stuff somewhere that remand prisoners were clogging up the prisons again. Dunno how the numbers are. Courts seem clogged too.
Our mental health services are seemingly woefully under-resourced.
I'm trying to do a bit of reading up on Islamic de-radicalisation programmes, most seem to involve extremists in custody being taught that Islam is now a peaceful religion by non-radical, orthodox Imams. Not read that much so far. But from google hits headlines they seem to be a bit hit & miss. There's been at least one notable failure in the UK, where someone actually attending such a programme after his release went on a stabbing rampage.
Problem is Islam's a mixture of a multi-faceted religion, ideology & Islamic (Sharia) law. The Quran is pretty muddled in places. Hadiths & Sunnah also complicate what's taught. Open to multiple fatwa interpretations. Taliban, Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Sunni, Shiite, Sufi, Wahhabi, Salafists etc – all can claim they've got the right interpretation.
Hard to shift some people's minds if they're fixated or fanatical & not naturally empathic or they've got narcissistic or psychopathic/sociopathic personalities. One criticism of the UK's programmes was that an evaluation claimed some of these radicals will tell you what you want to hear but remain dangerous.
I expect some White Supremacists are the same.
Thanks for that Gezza. Informative.
Cheers Anne. Coincidentally, I've just come across this, which details the parlous state of Corrections funding & resourcing for the rehabilitative services I referred to above.
"8:38 am on 11 August 2021
Department of Corrections is under resourced, leaving inmates waiting years for psychological help and rehab programmes, the Parole Board says."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/448927/parole-board-says-prisoners-waiting-for-rehab-psych-help
Pretty depressing reading.
Just wondering why the attacker was absolutely determined to challenge his deportation while showing such hatred for the western society he lived in here. Would it have been better for him to be back in Sri Lanka where he had family. Did he ever have a working life, friends, mosque contacts? Was he ever a student, apart from apparently initially getting here on a student visa. Nothing has come out about how he spent his time here, apart from time in prison and the various legal/immigration complications going on for many years.
I agree completely. His rationale for claiming refugee status was that his father was a government official that ran afoul of a local Tamil Tiger commander. However the Tamil Tigers were defetaed as an effective military force by 2009 and his father did not flee Sri Lanka like his son. He would have had much more support at home and should NEVER have been granted refugee status at all.
Which govt was in power when he was granted refugee status.Judith Collins was justice minister at the time and ditched reforming the laws around extradition dangerous migrants saying there was no need for such legislation now she is saying we need urgent reform of extradition.The Clark govt so called overstretch of terror laws in the early 2000's ,yet those some of those were found using and training with ak47 style guns.better to be safe than sorry.
You may well be right. I am no fan of Collins. However that does not excuse the inaction of the current government on this issue as well.
It's all Judith Collins' fault.
It's all Judith Collins' fault.
It's all Judith Collins' fault.
It's all Judith Collins' fault.
Now do you really have anything useful to contribute?
[you obviously don’t have anything useful to contribute today, so take the rest of the day off – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 11:12 am.
It was granted on appeal, rather than by Immigration NZ in this particular case – INZ wanted to decline it and have taken all legal steps since to deport him.
He lied on his application he had a hidden agenda .rehabilitating a fundamentalist good luck with that.
The govt is supposed to be everything to every body with a meagre budget due to our very low tax rates.Prisons,Hospital's,education system etc all underfunded so how are we supposed to rehabilitate and have a proper mental health system ,train enough health worker and retain them. Only 8 new psychology training places for a country of 5 million successive govt's have relied on migrants from poorer countries to fill these positions as it is cheaper than training local people,who many go to wealthier countries.
Our tax burden as a percentage of our GDP is around the average for the OECD. It is certainly not at a very low level.
OECD average 33.8%; NZ 32.3%. So (slightly) below the average, and decreasing?
The bar graph at the bottom of the first page puts things in perspective, imho.
NZ is the only OECD country that formally has no social security contributions.
That's a meaningless statistic. The tax take needs to be wherever it needs to be to provide optimum services to the public. That is the debate, not where we are compared to other countries.
It is not actually. There is a widely held view is that at some level the economic performance of the country starts to diminish once the overall tax burden reaches a certain percentage of the overall economy. Now you might not subscribe to this but a significant body of people do. That is why there is push back against a much higher tax burden than we have now.
There is, particularly the Laffer curve, but 33% isn't it.
Gosman we have had this argument before I proved you wrong you name the country I 'all prove you wrong .Start with Australia if you like Headline taxes are all the OECD is looking at.
State taxes average 5•5% over and above federal base tax. Then Medicare 3% then self funding pensions 9%.State stamp duties and land taxes vary.
That's over 12% higher than NZ
France headline taxes average 33% but healthcare tax 8% pension tax over 9% and like much of europe you pay indemnity insurance as well.my daughter and husband
Live their and on slightly more than the average wage pay 66% tax.
In the US taxes between state and federal the health insurance around 66 cents in the dollar.
Just wondering why the attacker was absolutely determined to challenge his deportation while showing such hatred for the western society he lived in here.
They are not mutually exclusive. He wanted to remain here possibly because he saw the opportunity to do most harm here.
I guess he hated the west so much that he preferred to stay on and attack it from inside.
It must have been into millions of dollars that was spent on this terrorist over many years through police, judiciary, justice system, lawyers, legal aid, possibly social welfare. I hope the proposed legislation will be water tight enough to prevent this type of utter waste of taxpayer money. There are too many other needs to be funded.
Was his intention to create terror in the community, or was it to kill people he hated? Has this been made clear (can it be made clear?)
Surely the later would lead to the former?
I suppose so, but what I'm wondering, semantically and logically, is whether the label "terrorist" can only be applied to someone who intentionally seeks or succeeds in creating terror in a population, by employing actions that create terror, as a method. If this person struck out with only the intention of killing, not hoping as well to inspire terror in the community, does the table fit?
For clarity, I'm not trying to minimise anything, just wondering about labels.
Many organisations that were officially labelled terrorist by the governments they opposed were not in fact seeking to create terror in the wider population so if we used your definition that would seriously reduce who is officially defined as a Terrorist. I'm not stating that isn't necessarily a desirable outcome just that it needs to be taken in to account if the change in definition is adopted.
Yes, I agree with your comment. Personally, I think the too-casual use of the lable "terrorist" exacerbates the fear felt by people in the wider society. Roblogic (below) describes the person as "the knife attacker" which would terrify readers and listeners far less, imo, than describing them as "the terrorist" and given that it should be beholden upon authorities to reduce the fear felt by the community, more care could be taken with applying these labels.
Interesting point.
A common definition of terrorism is the "systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective."[2] However, unlike some other jurisdictions,[3] New Zealand has actually defined terrorism in an Act of Parliament
…
The major piece of terrorist-related legislation in New Zealand is the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.[4] The Act was introduced by the Government to strengthen its counter-terrorism powers, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.[5] The Terrorism Suppression Act defines terrorism, in New Zealand or elsewhere, as an act that "is carried out for the purpose of advancing an ideological, political, or religious cause"[4]and with the following intention:
And if it results in one or more of the following outcomes:[4]
Alternatively, instead of the listed outcomes, "it occurs in a situation of armed conflict and is, at the time and in the place that it occurs, in accordance with rules of international law applicable to the conflict".[4]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_New_Zealand
I think the LynnMall stabber revelled in the panic & terror he plainly did cause. As did the mosque shooter.
How would you define a terrorist?
Terrorism is usually defined as the use of violence to influence politics or political leadership.
I conciously noted this when when seeking entry to the UK and that the definition on the form was clearly something the UK govt was guilty of in Iraq. Of course the same can be said of certain NZ institutions like the SIS.
The main thing holding it up was appeals as far as I can tell. Maybe instead of throwing the whole thing out, fund the appellate tribunal better (delays have been an issue for years) and expedite the appeals in these instances?
The knife attacker's family wrote a heartfelt letter to his Kiwi victims…
LynnMall terrorist's family: 'We are heartbroken' | RNZ News
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/126293423/peter-williams-to-retire-from-magic-talk-radio
And not a moment too soon.
I can forgive a good golfer most things, but not racism, misogyny, and stupidity.
I'm pleased to hear that – he was a smooth anti-vaxxer.
Good riddance. Here’s a bit more on Williams, for those who appreciate the hilariously inept:
Ruining the broadcast of a basketball game in 1983 , offending Cindy Crawford in the 1990s when he carved out a miserably short career as the most incompetent “foreign correspondents” in television history , and championing Don Brash in 2019…
. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17-07-2019/#comment-1637754
Joking about President Duterte in 2016…
. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17122016/#comment-1276952
Another right wing toady bites the dust.
I can even forgive a good golfer for playing golf.
just started reading this book, written by TVNZ journo Jehan Casinader in the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks. good stuff for mental health in these crazy lockdown days.
This Is Not How It Ends: How Rewriting Your Story Can Save Your Life by Jehan Casinader (goodreads.com)
Just started reading this. He's a compelling writer, but the first chapter is surprisingly intense for something written for seriously depressed or stressed people.
More good stuff from Sarb Johal,
https://twitter.com/sarb/status/1434687247094190081?s=21
Curious thing. I only discovered today this site has a policy apparently conforming (or similar) to Ardern's policy of not naming the Christchurch or LynnMall terrorist attackers – which I will respect, of course, if I want to post about these attackers here.
My personal view on this is different tho. As soon as their names were publicly known & suppressions lifted, I've been perfectly content to use them. It makes life easier. And it doesn't make any practical difference to how they're portrayed.
But … I'm 95% sure that with the Christchurch terrorist, once suppression was lifted, all our msm tv channels & Stuff & Herald continued for months to not publish or use his name.
Ardern's applying the same policy to the LynnMall terrorist. Which is fair.
But all the msm tv channels & online news outlets aren't. They all seem to be naming him. (Making it difficult to post some links.)
Why the difference? Anybody got views?
no need to give twisted psychos (or their pathetic manifestos) a moment of fame
Yawn… You are probably looking for a conspiracy when none exists. This is a volunteer site where volunteer moderators have limited time to moderate. In the case of the ChCh terrorist, the suppression lasted throughout his trial and may even be still in place. I don’t know because what the suppression orders are in place isn’t listed in a searchable form anywhere that I know of.
Apply Occams razor and look for the simplest explanation rather than a complex or ideological conspiracy. Just assume lack of time.
It is entirely possible that a moderation was plugged in when suppression is in effect and not changed afterwards. This makes it easier for time constrained moderators to ensure that suppression breaking comments are not added to our site – and allows us to not have to approve every comment – thereby slowing the debate. It also means that I don’t get to spend time in court because of some dickhead commentator.
I did a brief look and didn’t see a moderation for Lynmall guy. But since I never bothered to find out his name, that isn’t conclusive.
So live with that possible constraint. There is of course another alternate explanation. There is an automatic constraint based on the number of links in a comment. That is there to cause problems for spammers and astroturfers..
You seem to be using quite a lot of links… ~11 in the last comment that I had to release – most of then appear to be copies from where ever you copied the text from. Could you constrain those down. And use the quote control when you use quotes so that others know what are your words, and what are those of others. Italics are less useful than a specific quote tool.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I understand your site policy. It's fine. I've posted elsewhere where the names were able be used once suppressions lapsed.
What I'm curious about is why the mainstream media seem to be applying a different rule. Naming this guy as soon as suppression was lifted. Name suppression was eventually lifted for the Christchurch shooter but media carried on not naming him for some time beyond that.
PS: Yes, sorry – I’ve noticed my article excerpts have been a bit long, with double-ups. Will try to cut them back in future.
There was an element of suspicion the Christchurch fuckwit was a glory-hound, in his own perverted demented way. Hence his live-streaming. Not using his name is a minor means of denying him the twisted recognition he craved.
With our New Lynn fuckwit, there doesn't seem to be the same suggestion he was in it for personal gain. Unless maybe he thought there were 72 virgins waiting for him in the afterlife. In any case, he's dead now, whether his name gets used or not has no potential effect on him. Nor is using his name, or not, likely to be influential in whether others get inspired to copy-cat his repugnant actions.
That's an interesting point & makes sense. I see Newshub made a point out of naming the Chch shooter when others still weren't.
Won't post the link cos it names him.
Link for quote.
[If you copy someone else’s words to this site, you have to either link, or provide a clear reference. If the URL contains a word that might be a problem for the site, let the mods deal with it. In this case, I added the link via a phrase instead of straight, as you can see. You can do this yourself if you use the comment editor, ask if you are not sure – weka]
mod note for you, please respond.
Already did, see below.
Thanks. I didn't want to make work for a mod deleting the name, as here, earlier:
. https://thestandard.org.nz/the-politics-of-the-new-lynn-attack/#comment-1813967
I don't know how to create a short link like that, using the comment editor Weka. 😰
Gezza, if you want to link to a comment elsewhere on The Standard and just have it appear as a naked link, just make sure there's some text in the same line as the link. Even just a full stop before the link does the trick.
For instance, here's one of your earlier comments today with a full stop just in front:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-06-09-2021/#comment-1813942
if you just paste the link by itself, for some reason the #commentnumber gets chopped off and the link you end up with just goes to the post, not the comment.
Or if you want to embed a link, just select the text that you want to appear in blue to indicate it's the link, then click the button that looks like two Cs facing each other with a dash in between on a 45 degree angle(far left second row on my display), then paste the URL into the dialog box that pops up.
Thanks Andre. I was trying to link to this comment:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/the-politics-of-the-new-lynn-attack/#comment-1813967
And ta for the short link guidance too. Will use in future.
LynnMall guy's name is in the Moderation list (down the bottom). Comment in back end.
Let's see what happens when a non-mod tries to embed a link with a moderation list word in the URL. I'm pretty sure I tried it before, and the site said no. But maybe the latest comment editor will let it through.
edit: comment editor still says no. But it lets me edit, which I don’t think happened last time.
Thanks, very helpful, I didn’t know that.
A work around would be to put links in a reply. Will have to wait for a mod to release but won’t hold up the comment.
Depends on the Mod, it seems. I also delete/moderate links that contain certain words; it doesn’t matter to me where exactly the words appear.
not really following you there. Do you mean some mods won't let the link on its own through?
left a note for you in the back end about something else.
This site is not a (commercial) news site or part of MSM.
It is also not about making your life easier by turning their names into household names.
They don’t deserve name recognition or fame.
It could stoke a competitive element with other deranged who would want to go down into the history books as the ‘greatest’. Nobody needs that.
I’m sure you’ll find a way to say what you’d want to say without the need to name them.
Yep, certainly can & will avoid using their names here.
We don't like different opinions here do we? That's okay, it's been moderated to the point of irrelevancy. Perhaps the knitting circle of conformist views gather round the small kitchen table to share the echo chamber when alert levels permit.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[Looks like we have a sockpuppet here!
I just love it when banned commenters try to bypass their ban and then draw attention by preaching to us about moderation here and being an echo chamber. Such stupidity is rare and it never stops to amaze me.
This sockpuppet is now banned permanently – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 5:33 pm.
do we like difference of opinion on this site or do we moderate it to an echo chamber of irrelevance?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Read the site Policy and find out. I’ve changed your name to something not designed to wind people up. No point in starting out as a troll, is there.
Much depends on whether the opinion is informed.
Prejudices – vagrant opinions loitering without means of support – may attract rebuttal.