You can leave some things like pussy grabbing behind but some shit sticks.
It is a trite story of course. Especially in the week the stories about his background and personal finances came out. They put into perspective clearly the moral and constitutional crusade to ‘drain the swamp.’
The grand knight rides in to rid his country of the rottenness at the core and put things right.
The thought of him being a fuckwit, or whatever else his detractors have him, was irrelevant, the mission was the important thing.
And so too the grand horse he rides in on to his crusade. It being a lying, fraudulent, corrupt steed is irrelevant. They don’t care.
It is clear Trump has a fan base in New Zealand. It seems clear the heroic money making deeds have many here in his thrall. That much of those deeds apparently are a lifetime of fraud, rorts and bullshit is irrelevant. (What bets that those who laud his acumen used their daggers on a local politician who at a young age rorted the system?)
Another negative story about him? Who cares. The more parodies the better.
Agree. Its funny in light of Trumps grandiosity. We have to remember their obsession with Presidential news in US, any president included. They have 24 hr news channels , which we dont have, which every minor event is done – even when he climbs the stairs to “Air Force Twos'” – (hat tip The Project) and there is nothing to see.
Yep it is. Trump is so much just a piece of s**t and that pic sums him up completely.
The world will sigh a sigh of huge relief when we do get to see the back of him for the last time. And when we do get to flush him and all his wicked works down the toilet – so much the better.
It was a “Gerald Ford stumbles” moment. At least it was light comedy, rather than the Gervais-level discomfort that normally comes out of the white house these days.
But I would love it if a group of international leaders at some important meeting all glued a piece of bog roll to their left shoe and walked around without saying a word!
It’s about time there were mandatory minimum redundancy payments and a much greater time frames before companies are allowed to make people redundant. Companies are now doing it to increase profits, not because they are losing money and they don’t care how it effects their employees.
Also time that NZ stops thinking overseas companies will create jobs and make NZ prosperous, the opposite is happening and the only way to stop that from happening is to encourage NZ owned and based companies to flourish who actually have more invested into NZ than just one location on a world map.
Up to 111 job losses as manufacturing moves overseas
Having been laid off twice in 5 years during the early 00s I’d say it would be nice if there was some help .
Faced with the dole or scrambling for what ever you can get sucks .
I chose scrambling but also chose after the second time never to go back to forestry so they lost 9 years experience and a good hard worker.
+1 – then next minute the industry will be complaining about skills shortages and how they can’t get anyone and need to bring in overseas workers!
Sadly redundancy has become the norm in NZ with nothing to stop directors getting their bonus by what traditionally ‘the markets’ love to hear, job losses or just plain incompetence by just short term cost cutting rather than innovating and actually creating better products that out compete other companies.
Funny enough the richest companies in the world like Apple tend to do the opposite and spend money on innovating and keeping ahead of the market rather than just cost cutting.
This is a very revealing article about how much worse off NZ is for redundancy than other countries aka we tend to lose a significant amount of wages post redundancy.
Major companies in the US like Amazon are realising they have to double wages past the (pathetic!) US minimum wage of $7.25
Wonder is that is to do with US direction to make it harder for lower paid workers to enter the US and stop the race to the bottom because companies now have to pay more to attract workers?
Without wanting to start an argument you might want to revisit Apple and Amazon as your examples
For example Apple farms out their manufacturing to China, have appalling conditions for their workers to the point of having to fit a net to the factory roof because workers were offing themselves, and despite Amazon despite it’s sudden appearance of caring for it’s workers treats it’s workers not a huge amount better than Walmart
@Chris T, Yep, you are right about offshore working conditions although apparently is supposed to be getting better.. ha ha.. My point with Apple is that they looked ahead, did not use offshore labour to design the iPhone and spent money on research and development, against many soon to be obsolete tech companies that just focus on cost cutting to save money and don’t spend the money on creating the next big thing.
As for Amazon, they have been forced to raise wages by criticism by Bernie Sanders and Trump (for different reasons) and the cheap factory labour worker was drying up in a tight labour market in the US so they have to raise wages and then hey presto the cheaper workers have somewhere to shift to and the absolute worst employers don’t have anyone to employ unless they just ship in cheap workers to undercut, which sounds like US policy has tightened up on. So business is forced to raise wages.
Funny enough that pay rise will keep more people voting trump, against the democrats position of globalism is so great and makes so much money (just inequality distributed for the 40% living on food stamps or hand to mouth in the US).
Employers like to regard the ‘human resources’ market as being like a toy store. Perhaps one with a lot of little lego figures. All the workers are there on the shelf in suspended animation, lift them down, turn the key and of they go like little kerbals scuttering round to and fro, self-energised.
There is no sense of NZ as a worthy trading nation, one with respect for citizens, and paying a living wage. Other countries are rich, and they don’t have decent wages (USA for a start) so if the elite and aspirational want to be rich well – do the same, learn from the goldmeisters.
@bwaghorn – apparently the ‘official’ version of why forestry can’t get workers is that they are all ‘drugged out’ lazies so interesting to hear your story of being laid off again and again.
When people are laid off constantly eventually workers will have had enough and not go back to that industry and that is where all the ‘experienced’ NZ workers are – disillusioned with being treated like garbage by industry in NZ which is fully supported by our ‘relaxed’ employment rules around redundancy that makes it a process rather than a difficult thing to do without a good reason.
This women managed to steal nearly a million dollars, commit benefit fraud, make whistleblowers redundant, give herself her own leave to escape the country and fraudulently hire two of her relatives. All under the ‘watchful’ sarc. eyes of one of our Auditor-General who was her boss at the time.
“Also time that NZ stops thinking overseas companies will create jobs and make NZ prosperous, the opposite is happening and the only way to stop that from happening is to encourage NZ owned and based companies to flourish…”
While I agree NZ needs to stop thinking overseas companies will make us prosper, I disagree the only way to stop that from happening is to encourage NZ owned and based companies to flourish. This is an area where we should all be pushing for the Government to play a more direct and stronger role.
That was supposed to be the idea around KiwiSaver. It would create a local capital pool which would invest in New Zealand businesses, and reduce overseas domination of our economy. Something I don’t see happening.
A nation grows it wealth via exporting. The problem is, the vast majority of NZ businesses are small and have no desire to export. Thus, leaving Kiwisaver with little viable local investment opportunities.
Not according to Ha Joon Chang. Domestic manufacturing is a path to wealth because that way your workers can afford to buy things.
And of course, unless you’re locked into a colonial low value commodity export model, your domestic market is where you trial and develop new products. Not something we see a lot of here.
“Selling products domestically doesn’t result in new money entering into the local economy, thus doesn’t result in growing a nations wealth.”
It could be said that you’re mistaking money for wealth there – they’re somewhat different things. And of course the old import substitution line remains valid – a penny saved is a penny earned – anything that improves our balance of payments whether by reducing an import or generating increased export value increases local monetary wealth, which can then be used to further inflate our property market, assuming any of it makes its way out of the hands of the large corporates who dominate the export sector.
In terms of domestic products, new or better products are almost invariably outgrowths of existing technologies. Which means that the capacity loss associated with decline of local manufacturing extends beyond the current generation who may lose their jobs in the transition.
Wealth is a term usually used when discussing total net worth. Which includes money, assets, etc…
While reducing an import will produce ongoing savings which will improve our fiscal position, unlike exporting, its growth potential is limited to the related saving made.
Generating increased export value can increase our export returns but if offshore owned, those returns will largely improve the fiscal position of other nations and not our own.
A local market is an obligate step in developing products for export. Unless one wants to be a price-taking commodity exporter, developing the local market is part of the export process.
“Developing the local market is part of the export process.”
Indeed. And as I said before, moving beyond the exporting of raw product requires domestic manufacturing to play a larger role in exporting.
As the majority of local private sector aren’t up to the task and offshore investment isn’t a viable long-term solution, this is where the Government should be taking a more hands on role.
i’m not sure about that millsy 9.24 – at one time the superfunf kiwisaver was only investing a tiny part in nz because of the possibility of skewing the local investment market and being over-exposed to nz business and market movements.
We need to restore many of our industries that we were very good at.
Like our former woolen carpeting factories that always supplied all our former ‘commonwealth’ countries as I saw in Canada and UK, as well as I saw also in the US during the 1980’s though they were outside the commonwealth.
As of now we have virtually no woolen carpeting factories here or around the world.
No date no one else other then China and India are making woolen carpeting (who have our complete wool clip export and are forcing the cost down to less than $3 dollars a kilo killing our sheep farmers incomes.
Woolen carpeting is the very best floor insulation against cold damp houses and would make our homes more healthy to live in now since nylon carpeting is found to be very toxic to our health, and poor at insulating our homes against cold damp homes.
My experience is that the difficulties arise when the NZ company is sold to overseas interests who are much larger entities. The new owner then ‘integrates’ their acquisition – which involves shipping NZ jobs to low wage locations and imposing internal processes and technology that are not necessarily a good fit. The overall effect is that the NZ operation gets hollowed out and the quality of what was being done declines.
I witnessed something like 40-50 well-paying (NZ$60k-100k) jobs being replaced by around 100 workers in India on the equivalent of NZ$15-20k), i.e. wages are 25% while the number of employees is 200%, still a theoretical win.
However, because much of the work required advanced English-language ability, quality declined badly. The new owners then gutted the product to eliminate those aspects where the quality decline was too obvious, threw money at additional training and spent fruitless effort on trying to automate as much as possible. A slow motion train wreck – easily predicted in advance, while those who did predict it were vilified.
Global capital roaming the world for quick returns and creating mayhem at the local level.
We need to protect us from these “carpetbaggers” of taking of our industries that use our “raw products”.
These overseas carpetbaggers hollow out our principal raw produced products and take them as raw products overseas.
Then they control the global buying of these and control our price for these raw products driving down the base price as we see all the time.
Those who say our industries must always be “viable” are hollowing out the argument as they dont consider the reasons above that our base prices given us for raw products are driven down by these overseas “carpetbaggers”.
This lowers our returns for our commodities and weakens our economy in the end.
“Those who say our industries must always be ‘viable’ are hollowing out the argument as they dont consider the reasons above that our base prices given us for raw products are driven down by these overseas ‘carpetbaggers’”.
Non-viable businesses won’t grow our wealth. Moreover, we require to be more innovated and move beyond merely exporting raw product.
Non-viable businesses won’t grow our wealth. Moreover, we require to be more innovated and move beyond merely exporting raw product.
Can you please clarify for me what you mean by a “non-viable business”?
I’d also like to know how we can be or become more innovative without taking risks and experiencing failures, from which we/others can learn.
Businesses that cease to do business don’t just disappear in thin air. They often feed (into) other existing or start-up businesses. Think of it as an ecosystem where life & death are not the beginning & end of things but simply points of and on an ongoing ‘life-cycle’.
Non-viable businesses are businesses that aren’t producing a return and are unlikely to produce a return going forward.
Risk is generally part and parcel of being in business. The key is minimising the risk. Ensuring one can afford to take a small risk, learn from ones mistake if it all turns to custard while being able to carry on trading (and not go bust) if it doesn’t pan out.
“Businesses that cease to do business don’t just disappear in thin air.”
Unfortunately, some do. Leaving behind a trail of unpaid debt, which can result in other related parties going bust.
From a single focus as business operator I can see that being viable or not may be the be-all-end-all question but from a holistic view of the economy as a business ‘ecosystem’ it looks very different IMO. In fact, I’d argue business failure is essential for a healthy ecosystem.
Existing businesses need to be flexible and adapt to changing conditions. If not, they become non-viable too. This is an inevitable ‘risk’ that’s locked in from even the first concept for a new start-up.
Any business that ceases to operate/exist leaves more than a “a trail of unpaid debt” if any debt at all; some unwind in a more controlled manner. You may want to look up articles on creative destruction, economic apoptosis and uncontrollability.
“Creative destruction”, yes I thought that is what you were initially hinting at.
While creative destruction is part of business evolution, it’s far from a win-win for all. Moreover, not all business failures are due to creative destruction.
Therefore, a failure here and there is to be expected but if business failures were to become systemic, it wouldn’t result in a healthy economy.
Agreed, but I wasn’t arguing for or about systemic large-scale business failure although even a man-made disaster like the GFC (or should that be a GFC?) didn’t destroy the ecosystem (AKA the economy). Businesses recovered, some faster than others, and innovation never really stopped.
Thank you for the positive engagement; you and I haven’t always achieved this but at least now we know it is possible, with a little bit of goodwill and mutual respect.
I agree, we do need improved safety nets and trajectories for those that find themselves no longer required. It’s an accelerating trend that isn’t going away anytime soon.
I also think it’s important to acknowledge that virtually nobody starts a business with the primary motivation of creating employment for people.
You’d be wrong there. We want to start up a business that explicitly wants to hire locals. Our issue is
A) finding local people that have some knowledge that can be built on and
B) ensuring that we can grow organically and ensure we hire accordingly
Most people starting a business realise they have to hire staff.
What you probably mean is: “virtually nobody recognises the need to pay staff in accordance with knowledge and skills rather than as expense accounts that can be opened and closed at will”
It’s a catch 22, NZ employers both foreign and domestic have created an idea that Kiwi workers should be cheap pliable workers and we pay cheap wages here. It started off with the employment contracts bill in the 1990’s and has gone down from there.
That encouraged Kiwi workers to leave to work overseas, as even OZ often paid around 30 -100% more than Kiwi employers and well as the massive sell off of our assets overseas.
To stop the rot they need to get wages in NZ up and keep the skills however it’s a huge issue as even for domestic companies they feel the need to bring in management from overseas that are often destroying wealth by focusing on short term profits and overseas models that don’t necessarily work in NZ (Fonterra, The warehouse) while a massive proportion of NZ companies are also owned by multinationals who couldn’t care a less about their NZ workers and destroy completely workable companies here (Cadbury, Dick Smith) or giving themselves massive profits while giving nothing back (banks).
I don’t think the current government has any handle on the problem as they seem to be enjoying glowing in the international globalist accolade and no doubt a rude shock when coming home in 2 years for the next election to find out that their domestic changes of higher taxes, selling off land and letting foreign and domestic companies rout everyone with higher electrical, water, rates, housing, transport, petrol and people now living in tents because landlords abandon the market and the places are snapped up by our growing migrant population or the Singapore and OZ investors … while the IYI class strategists and MSM tell everyone that things are just peachy and in the next 15 years all their great ideas of globalism and free trade will trickle down…
I not suggesting the Natz would be better in fact they would be worse, but I think that Labour, NZ First and Greens need to have a serious look at why people are not happy with globalism and trade when it effectively is allowed to screw people over (so many examples) and our laws in NZ are not robust enough to do anything about it – because – apparently decent labour laws and environmental laws and societal good laws -“scare the market’ – maybe it’s about time the exploitative employers are scared out of NZ so that we can actually create a prosperous, fair, unpolluted country again.
@James Thrace – perhaps like the old fashioned way you train workers with the knowledge or pay more to steal them from other places or treat them better so you create loyalty…
Hi James, I’ve found that if I don’t start a business with the primary motivation of turning a profit I burn through my start-up capital and before too long have to ask any workers to leave. Paying people well has always been a by-product of profitability in my experience.
I don’t hire workers these days, I appoint contractors. This cuts my workload by heaps, halves the hassles and those granting me their time make more money.
@David Mac, Even if they do set up in NZ, where is the longevity in NZ… like Gameloft, who were a French company that employed a significant migrant workforce into NZ, then after getting 3.5 million in grants, liquidated the company and set up in Nigeria.
Is that really the calibre of corporates we want in NZ?
Knew someone who worked there and he was a migrant worker. He said he could not ask for a pay rise, as every time Gameloft advertised a role, it was cheaper than the last. They just wanted the cheapest workers they could get… so no wonder they went out of business…. pity they were allowed under our laws to operate like that!
Hi Savenz, yep, I’m reluctant to get involved in any business pursuit that can be replicated more cost effectively offshore.
A beachfront holiday on a Kiwi beach can only be done here. Possum fur fibres have unique insulation qualities, they aren’t a mega population pest anywhere else in the world. That Finnish company making fossil fuel based packaging in Henderson that is pulling the pin, with the scrappy muck left behind by our logging operations, the raw materials for a green line of packaging could be close to free.
Competing with countries/companies that can prosper with slave labour is a race to the bottom. As standards of living rise in China, I think it’s just a matter of time until our TVs are assembled in Somalia.
Bridges has not made too many mistakes since becoming leader in February – the biggest one was commissioning the inquiry into the leaked expenses. But what is evident from events this week including his handling of Jami-Lee Ross’s health crisis is that he is an easy magnet for criticism and there is a low tolerance for errors from him. People like to dislike him which is a slight disadvantage in politics.
Though she does drop an unintentional nugget about Jami-Lee Ross:
The pile-on to Bridges seemed excessive – considering he acknowledged the error and offered a plausible explanation – that he was meaning “embarrassment” at having your personal health issues aired so publicly, and not that mental health issues were embarrassing.
Oh Christ! I’d forgotten about that. One of them was Venn Young right?
??
The stench goes back quite a long way really, though that sense of entitlement amongst the gNat elite wasn’t usually expressed in the crassness it is today.
Audrey’s defending the muppet because all the alternatives will lead to all out civil war within the National Party. This would probably be pretty rough and result in a splintered right wing side of New Zealand politics. Whether this is a good thing or not is moot, but if it does happen they will try to make it happen in a controlled manner.
sigh moan is just the placeholder until they can come up with a leader who can command the respect and loyalty of all factions of the party.
My understanding is the formal investigation has found no-one responsible for the leak. That’s right. Read it here first, but National and the power of an open chequebook could find no-one it can finger as being responsible.
…
We are nowhere near the truth, and when you add in the allegedly separate Jami-Lee Ross saga, confusion reigns.
You must have read a different article than i did.
She says he is a dead man walking ( i agree with that)
I would say it was an accurate article. I didn’t see anything about “Soimon being such a good boy”.
I agree that he is hopeless but taking the piss out of him because he cant pronounce words properly is a bit lame.
Have you not heard sparkle pony, poverdy, positividdy, egg widdy.
It seems to be a common fault in our leaders.
Following on from Dennis Franks’ cut and paste last night, cut and paste specialist, Dr Bryce Edwards, regurgitates what we’ve been reading all week.
As usual Dr Bryce provides zero analysis, preferring to let others to do that for him, including Cameron Slater who remarkably gets no political description tag at all, and Chris Trotter who is unfortunate enough to receive the only political designation in the piece from Edwards in being labelled “leftwing”.
In a bizarre attempt at trivialisation of the seriousness of Bridges’ problems, he signs off by linking to the Jono & Ben appearance.
Yes, Dr Bryce does his usual thing when dealing with National’s problems and that is to dispassionately relay what his right-leaning media associates have said.
Contrast this with his opinion heavy RNZ article dated 26 August – his own work this time which is telling.
In it, Dr Bryce literally fawns over Bridges’ decision to open the PWC and Simpson Grierson enquiries describing him as; showing ‘resolve’, being ‘calculated’, ‘star(ing) down a disloyal MP’, ‘responsible and humane’, and ‘reasonable’. Edwards pretty much went against all other analysis at that time who rightly questioned just what the hell Bridges was up to.
Well I wonder what Dr Bryce thinks reading back on that column this weekend!
Hey, not a bad critique, but to be fair to Bryce it seemed his intent was to report a hefty emerging consensus via the method of compiling quotes from sources. I thought it impressive enough to select highlights on the same basis to emphasise the political significance of the opinion swing against Bridges.
Nothing wrong with coming on like a partisan leftist, Muttonbird, inasmuch as this site was designed to cater for sectarian bias. But the leftist political cause can only advance nowadays by establishing sufficient consensus with centrists. Our current government being a suitable model thus far.
Also, a university political scientist cannot be seen to be partisan, so any public analysis by one will have to critique the left & right in a balanced way. Being fair to Bridges earlier is part of that prescription. Kiwis believe in a fair go, and we give credit where it’s due. Better a moderate, reasonable leader of the Nats than something worse. The current leader becoming irrational is news when it becomes obvious to centrists as well as leftists because it suggests a tectonic shift in voterland.
” university political scientist cannot be seen to be partisan”
Thats not the case. Helen Clark was a part timer while working on her PhD before being elected. The long time of the Department at the time ( Chapman)was clearly national leaning as he wrote books on nationals leaders
I think what you are alluding to is the media want their political scientist talking heads to be ‘balanced’.
Yes, I’ll accept that technical correction. Not just the media, though, because the credibility of any political analyst lies in their capacity for rising above the fray to present a more-or-less impartial view. I agree re Chapman, but political scientists lose credibility in the eyes of their students and peers to the extent that they push a partisan view.
I like to think that the students and peers of a political scientist know when he/she addresses a different audience for a different reason than lecturing or disseminating science.
I think there is a time & place for any political scientist to express their opinions and declare their leanings so to speak. It would be odd not to and stay on the fence forever as some kind of agnostic nihilist.
Yes, I agree that anyone ought to be able to express their political opinion. Political scientists could do so in an inappropriate manner by informing their audience that they are doing so, when they do it. There’s a learnt skill in being dispassionate and impartial, although some people seem more naturally adept at it – while most others are simply unable to transcend subjectivity.
For me, it was a late acquisition, in middle age, honed via self-discipline. The way I frame it internally is in the context of the group mind: any group I participate in, I try to mediate the microcosm/macrocosm relation. If that group is too insular (group-think), then relating issues to the broader societal context (macrocosm) and the body politic is the best way to go.
The professional ethics of academics requires them to declare any potential conflict of interest. Many peer-reviewed scientific journals have made it mandatory.
Academic audiences, be it students or peers, are (ought to be) smart (educated) enough to weigh up one personal’s bias against that of others and even their own.
Bias, or subjectivity, is impossible to avoid and the only proper way to deal with it, IMO, is to declare it. This raises awareness and avoids or minimises confusion from the outset and maybe this makes it possible to transcend subjectivity …
WASHINGTON — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh appeared destined for final confirmation to the Supreme Court after two key undecided senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia — announced Friday that they would support his elevation to the high court after the most divisive confirmation fight in decades.
Ms. Collins’ lengthy speech on the Senate floor dwelled as much on Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial record as on the sexual misconduct charges that have consumed his nomination. She did conclude, “We will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence.”
Looks like Democrats & women are combining to get him across the line. I presume they are motivated by the spirit of bipartisan consensus. Christians would frame that as god working in his usual mysterious way…
Democrat Manchin is only doing so as his state is very strongly pro Trump and hes up for election in a month.
Consensus ! . The self preservation for both . Collins isnt up for re-election this time but she will need big money support for the Republican Senate Campaign Committee if she is to survive in her democratic leaning state.
Interesting fact . The other Senator from Maine Angus King, and independent – but who sits with the Democrats- is facing re- election this year.
His democratic opponent, Zak Ringelstein is the only major-party candidate for Senate to be a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Likely that King will be relected though
Yeah I expected a response like that. Realpolitik. But the interesting part is that these politicians are seeking refuge in a centrist camouflage. In respect of their motivations driven by political psychology, we could reasonably suspect that there’s more to it than the obvious self-interest. Could be a signal of a pendulum swing back from extreme ideological polarisation towards pragmatic centrism.
“Could be a signal of a pendulum swing back from extreme ideological polarisation towards pragmatic centrism.”
Kavanaugh is one of the most partisan of Supreme court judges – ever. hardly a swing to pragmatic centralism- unless the centre has mover far right, even for US.
One of Obamas picks for Scotus was at the time Solicitor general, which acts much like our Solicitor General does. Republicans thought she was to partisan as it was a government job. Kavanaugh is 10x closer to government as he worked in GWB white House.
With Trump around there wont be a swing to consensus/centrisim. It seems to be just a thought of yours rather than something that is real.
Well yeah, but I was actually referring to the behaviour of the Democrat & woman senators who have decided to support Kavanaugh. I’ll reserve judgment on the Trump effect until the mid-term election results. A decisive pattern may emerge (rather than a muddle).
If not, we may get an effective stalemate within both main US parties, in which there’s an approximate balance between pragmatic careerists supporting the establishment and disaffected anti-establishment folk getting even further alienated by the system their democracy has produced.
He frames representative democracy as ” bounded rationality. Most of the people most of the time thought the system more or less worked – at least while their material standard of living kept rising and they felt reasonably safe and secure in their identity as one of a people in a nation. There was a high level of trust, the glue that holds liberal democracies together.”
“Bounded rationality still reigns in this country, where a recent survey found a marked lift since 2016 in trust and confidence in the government, ministers and MPs, thanks probably to the election of a remarkable young woman Prime Minister. But in northern hemisphere liberal democracies, the centre-left/centre-right hegemony has ended and with it bounded rationality.”
“That is because the material standard of living of a growing number of people in those liberal democracies has stalled or fallen or become insecure and/or they feel that migrants and other intrusions from outside such as hyperglobalisation are unstitching the fabric of what they think of as “their” “nation”. As a result, they no longer feel represented by, nor do they trust, the centre-left/centre-right cabal.”
“They see these parties as agents of a self-perpetuating, detached elite: the “other”, not “us”.” Precisely. Representative democracy discredited as a sham. Representatives pretending to represent voters rather than actually doing so, in the hope that voters won’t notice the lack of authenticity. But around half the electorate have now noticed the sham.
Are you for real???? Only 1 (ONE) democrat senator has given his support to Kavanaugh, and that for the craven reason explained by the Duke above.
As for women. Republican women are in many cases just as anti-human rights as their WhiteOldmen counterparts on the senate. In fact rupugnant senators are by and large white, old, and men. There are only a handful of Republican women senators – and one of those actually had enough gumption to vote against the other rupugnants and against Kavanaugh.
That wasn’t what you were saying above tho; was it.
No, Susan Collins has been looking for a way out of doing the decent thing by way of women, and humanity, and voting against Kavanaugh all week. The Whitehouse white wash “investigation” which lasted all of 2 days, interviewed only Kavanaugh supporters, and which only the FBI and senators are privy to, gave her the way out.
She still has time to regain her moral compass and vote “no” as does the Flaker. But be very aware – the US is now a deeply divided country. This in no way represents a swinging of the pendulum to the centre. Women are becoming energised as never before, and the forthcoming midterms are evidence of that. There were thousands protesting in the Senate over the past week and over 300 arrested. This will go down in history as one of Americas darkest moments.
Seems to me you’re allowing your subjective emotional reactions to cloud your view of the situation. I was pointing to the behaviour that could indicate the pendulum has swung so far toward polarisation that it can’t swing further. Historically what you usually get is a shift towards pragmatic acceptance of the need to move beyond the focus on differences to the need for a workable compromise and agreement on common ground.
Colin James explains why representative democracy can’t work when representatives betray the trust of voters. It’s just a question of these politicians waking up to the necessity of honouring their commitments instead of further undermining democracy. Any leftist tribalism and moral outrage is irrelevant (due to perceived lack of evidence) – but I suspect you didn’t even bother to read her reasoning for her decision (in that report).
yes. apparently even this sort of WH briefings have become fairly rare and Trumps press conferences even rarer. he will still occasionally do a Fox news only interview.
Reminds me in a way , of Keys first few years when he wouldnt do any interviews at all for Radio NZ.
None. back then RNZ didnt have audience surveys like now , when we know that Morning Report has the largest ‘weekly’? audience of any news radio station and many music ones.
Nice…. After JFK threatened to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces,… then along comes Howard Hunt and a few other Black Op characters into the the mix at Dealey Plaza…
Then decades later we have a guy who names the characters responsible… despite the fact that many of the perps are now dead because of the passage of time… dont change a thing…
And did you know the Republicans were anti slavery and the Democrats were pro slavery , – hence the American Civil War ??? … bet most of you didn’t, and even if you did,… wanted to hide that distasteful and embarrassing fact away…
The American public are not stupid, and know far more than we do in NZ about what effects their country and ultimately , the global community. I believe on the whole the American public is a good one. No other country on earth has such an open system, – despite the skulduggery that often happens there…they have many faults but just as many good points.
Come back Colonial Viper !
Here’s a magnificent speech by Trump about the reality of just who pulls the strings in this world… and yet all some of you can do is snicker like a pack of schoolkids about some paper around his shoe. He probably owns the company that made the paper.
Donald Trump – Our Movement Is About Replacing A Failed … – YouTube
President Donald Trump is very brave taking on the CIA now as his promise to “drain the washington Swamp” Got to give him credit for getting rid of the evil CIA as they have done some very bad shit over many years too many to document.
Remember the movie “Spy game 2001” with Robert Redford/Brad Pitt?
This movie was very close to the truth there when we see the current CIA administration under Robert Mueller as CIA ‘special investigator’ leaning on Trumps own inner circle for political reasons mostly to get forced admissions from them..
If those admissions of guilt are the truth, and can be backed up by evidence in court – as to date they have been – then what are you complaining about?
There is more evidence to come, and agent orange is in the firing line.
“CIA operative Nathan Muir (Redford) is on the brink of retirement when he finds out that his protege Tom Bishop (Pitt) has been arrested in China for espionage. No stranger to the machinations of the CIA’s top echelon, Muir hones all his skills and irreverent manner in order to find a way to free Bishop. As he embarks on his mission to free Bishop, Muir recalls how he recruited and trained the young rookie, at that time a sergeant in Vietnam, their turbulent times together as operatives and the woman who threatened their friendship.”
hes been fisked before over this tirade against US citizen Soros. But we are supposed to go easy because a brain injury makes him pro Trump !
#metoo is in his sights as well….
Half of university scholarships go to students from our wealthiest families, dismaying teachers in disadvantaged areas who see even their brightest students struggle to get a foot in the door.
A Weekend Herald investigation into five universities found, last year, high decile schools received four times the number of entry-level scholarships as those in the low deciles.
Schools in the most exclusive neighbourhoods were winning up to $1 million in prizes each year, while schools in more deprived areas were lucky to gain $100,000 in rewards.
For example, Epsom Girls’ Grammar, a decile 10, gained $225,000 worth of scholarships from Auckland University alone. Mangere College, a decile 1, was awarded one prize worth $20,000 by the university.
I found it strange that I as a parent was asked to pay $75 for my son last century to sit the scholarship exam along with the rest of the class. It was money I could not afford and I paid but he was not outstanding and i could have been paying for the child of some wealthier person.
In old books I read about poor children getting a chance to apply for a scholarship, and presumably there was a scholarship fund which paid out its interest and a little capital to provide. And bequests would keep renewing the fund. Schools now act as if everyone has plenty of discretionary money.
Good effort by these mana whenua – this will become more and more of an issue – help out their givealittle page if you can
Whānau of Huramua Marae in Wairoa are raising funds to exhume and shift the remains of 53 relatives buried in Mātiti cemetery, which is being eroded by the Wairoa River.
Chaans Tumataroa-Clarke from Huramua Marae says, “The key principal guiding us is to maintain the authority and heritage of our families, our elders, our ancestors.”
Over the last ten years, locals have attempted to hold the riverbank through planting and remedial work, but 6m on average is falling away every year due to increased rainfall.
Chaans Tumataroa-Clarke says, “We acknowledge the power and life-force of our river, know that we deliberated this issue and concluded to exhume our relatives, our ancestors and move them to rest near our marae.”
The site of Mātiti was an old village dating back to the year 1800, and in 1903 the first body was buried in the cemetery.
…
A large scale project, the exhumation and transport of the remains is estimated to cost over $265,000.
“America accuses Chinese warship of ‘unsafe’ manoeuvres after near collision with USS Decatur in South China Sea
Analysts said the incident shows China’s increasingly aggressive posture in the South China Sea amid an escalating confrontation with the US on both trade and security fronts.”
Worse still now there is another after the ‘Senate’ newly received FBI report has discovered that a witness in the swetnick accusation case has been found to have perjured himself also, – and a probe into that case is now being considered by GOP perhaps to be carried out according to the media..
Report: Ford’s FBI Friend, Monica McLean, Pressured Witness To Modify Testimony and Statement…
Posted on October 5, 2018 by sundance
“If you thought it was sketchy that Ms. Christine Blasey-Ford’s life-long best friend was a recently retired FBI agent and DOJ official, Monica McLean {Go Deep}; and if you thought it was sketchy that McLean and Ford were together on July 30th when Ford was writing a letter to Dianne Feinstein, likely making the friend Ms Ford’s “handler” for the operation against Kavanaugh; then it’s even more sketchy today with a report that McLean was pressuring witness Leland Keyser to shape her statements and testimony to the FBI.”
This case against Brett Kavanaugh was a bunch of absoluite litiny of lies and bulllshit, as the FBI ‘supplimental report was released today. Ford said she was never ‘before made familiar or aware before of any way to operate or use a polygraph machine, so she lied right there.
Quote;
“In a twist, Keyser told FBI investigators that she felt pressured to clarify her original statement saying she was unaware of any incident involving Kavanaugh and Ford, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Keyser, who later said she believed Ford even though she could not corroborate her story, told the investigators that she was urged to clarify her statement by Monica McLean, a former FBI agent and friend of Ford’s. (Ford’s ex-boyfriend told the Judiciary Committee that Ford had helped McLean prepare for a polygraph, directly contradicting Ford’s sworn testimony last Thursday).”
What’s happening in Gisborne cg? The USA can go to hell in a handcart but I don’t want that to happen to us. Can we keep thinking about NZ and our options for better government and policies?
In two minds about this, kinda glad he got prosecuted, but only 2nd degree murder??!? He got a trial which is somthing which many black americans don’t get.
And have to say I’m pissed at the police response. It like they can look at that video, then shrug, and utter “nothing to see here, move along”
I thought about $1 billion for a 20% increase in benefits based on the $5 billion mooted in this year’s Budget, in 1/10/2018 Open Mike discussion on Marama Davidson’s interview.
Shaw calculates $1.5bn for the increase.
Consider what that money would do firstly for the beneficiaries concerned, and secondly what it would do for the local economy since it would be mostly spent in NZ and the profits accrued by the companies getting this extra money then being taxed etc.
A fillip to the economy rather like the 1935 Christmas payment that so boosted the economy in 1935. “As a statement of intent a Christmas bonus was immediately paid to the unemployed and those receiving charitable aid.” https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/michael-joseph-savage-1935
Interestingly, the article above goes on to say, “In 1936 there was a landslide of legislation aimed at stimulating the economy, including a programme of state house construction.”
Here you go multinational companies selling us there chemicals and Genetic engineering. They don’t let the world see all the negative facts on there cancer causing products the long term side effects so what will these products do to our mokopunas low sperm count rising cancer rates ?? I bet these CEO will be eating organic food.
At a time when we need to change of way of life to respect the future generations and Papatuanuku prospects. This is a time to start farming Organically these organizations are trying to sell us there bad products.
NZ just need to target the high value markets with our produce that is some of the best PRODUCTS in the world . We will not lose our place as one of the best producers of safe food It won’t be long and the world will be chasing our food . Ka kite ano link’s below
SPONSORED CONTENT BY Corteva Agriscience, Agriculture Division of DowDupont
Kia ora Newshub look’s like the alcohol companies sales are dropping Lion is trying to sponsor the mental help health line I give a big KNOW to that move as alcohol is a major problem that causes mental health problems hippercritical business people.
I think its a good move turning the Islands in Tauranga were that container ship sunk into a marine sanctuaries
Why is MPI challenging it in court we need more we need more sanctuaries all around Aotearoa on te whenua and Tangaroa especially as I say the Quote system is not doing the job of protecting our fishes like it was sold to us.
There was a bit of compost coming out of that school and what do you know I can not bring up that story about the school that had the problem {cover—— the compost} story .
It was a good effort by the Sliver Ferns be patient wahine all in good time.
Ka kite ano
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
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Opinion: New Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy is authorised to assume operational leadership – chief executive Margie Apa is effectively relegated to his operational deputy The post All-powerful Levy is feudal baron of a $28b fiefdom appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The President is on a roll
Was this a set up?
Is Trump being sabotaged by his own aides?
Or is this another case of the Emperor has no clothes where all his aides were too scared to tell him?
As much as I detest Trump, this is digging down desperate in the trying to bring out yet another negative story about him
You can leave some things like pussy grabbing behind but some shit sticks.
It is a trite story of course. Especially in the week the stories about his background and personal finances came out. They put into perspective clearly the moral and constitutional crusade to ‘drain the swamp.’
The grand knight rides in to rid his country of the rottenness at the core and put things right.
The thought of him being a fuckwit, or whatever else his detractors have him, was irrelevant, the mission was the important thing.
And so too the grand horse he rides in on to his crusade. It being a lying, fraudulent, corrupt steed is irrelevant. They don’t care.
It is clear Trump has a fan base in New Zealand. It seems clear the heroic money making deeds have many here in his thrall. That much of those deeds apparently are a lifetime of fraud, rorts and bullshit is irrelevant. (What bets that those who laud his acumen used their daggers on a local politician who at a young age rorted the system?)
Another negative story about him? Who cares. The more parodies the better.
9I’m not saying it’s bad it’s a negative story.
I mean it’s a pretty pathetic subject to create one.
A person has a piece of paper stuck to their shoe is national news?
It is just another thing he can throw in to his followers to show his bollocks about the media out to get him.
It’s an own goal to the press
And the media seem too stupid to work it out.
It’s like the boy who cried wolf
C,mon Chris T. It’s funny. I’m glad Jenny posted it.
Do you not have a SoH?
Yes, but it is stretched pretty thin with Trump
🙂
Totally agree the piece of bog roll is spread pretty thin! We will need a much larger bog roll to flush him, and all he represents down the toilet.
Agree. Its funny in light of Trumps grandiosity. We have to remember their obsession with Presidential news in US, any president included. They have 24 hr news channels , which we dont have, which every minor event is done – even when he climbs the stairs to “Air Force Twos'” – (hat tip The Project) and there is nothing to see.
Unintentional though it may be, in a metaphorical sense I think it is highly appropriate. 🙂
Yep it is. Trump is so much just a piece of s**t and that pic sums him up completely.
The world will sigh a sigh of huge relief when we do get to see the back of him for the last time. And when we do get to flush him and all his wicked works down the toilet – so much the better.
I think it’s great. I bet Chris T would be all over it if it was Jacinda.
??
If you say so
It was a “Gerald Ford stumbles” moment. At least it was light comedy, rather than the Gervais-level discomfort that normally comes out of the white house these days.
It isn’t really a story.
But I would love it if a group of international leaders at some important meeting all glued a piece of bog roll to their left shoe and walked around without saying a word!
Trump takes himself very seriously.
That, would be funny
Lol
“Trump takes himself very seriously”
That would be them laughing with him 😉
It’s about time there were mandatory minimum redundancy payments and a much greater time frames before companies are allowed to make people redundant. Companies are now doing it to increase profits, not because they are losing money and they don’t care how it effects their employees.
Also time that NZ stops thinking overseas companies will create jobs and make NZ prosperous, the opposite is happening and the only way to stop that from happening is to encourage NZ owned and based companies to flourish who actually have more invested into NZ than just one location on a world map.
Up to 111 job losses as manufacturing moves overseas
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018665614/up-to-111-job-losses-as-manufacturing-moves-overseas
Having been laid off twice in 5 years during the early 00s I’d say it would be nice if there was some help .
Faced with the dole or scrambling for what ever you can get sucks .
I chose scrambling but also chose after the second time never to go back to forestry so they lost 9 years experience and a good hard worker.
+1 – then next minute the industry will be complaining about skills shortages and how they can’t get anyone and need to bring in overseas workers!
Sadly redundancy has become the norm in NZ with nothing to stop directors getting their bonus by what traditionally ‘the markets’ love to hear, job losses or just plain incompetence by just short term cost cutting rather than innovating and actually creating better products that out compete other companies.
Funny enough the richest companies in the world like Apple tend to do the opposite and spend money on innovating and keeping ahead of the market rather than just cost cutting.
This is a very revealing article about how much worse off NZ is for redundancy than other countries aka we tend to lose a significant amount of wages post redundancy.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/big-read-why-being-made-redundant-nz-so-tough
Major companies in the US like Amazon are realising they have to double wages past the (pathetic!) US minimum wage of $7.25
Wonder is that is to do with US direction to make it harder for lower paid workers to enter the US and stop the race to the bottom because companies now have to pay more to attract workers?
Amazon jumps out ahead of its rivals, raises wages to $15
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/oct/02/amazon-ups-hourlywage-15-will-advocate-higher-pay/
Without wanting to start an argument you might want to revisit Apple and Amazon as your examples
For example Apple farms out their manufacturing to China, have appalling conditions for their workers to the point of having to fit a net to the factory roof because workers were offing themselves, and despite Amazon despite it’s sudden appearance of caring for it’s workers treats it’s workers not a huge amount better than Walmart
Having said that I get your over all point
@Chris T, Yep, you are right about offshore working conditions although apparently is supposed to be getting better.. ha ha.. My point with Apple is that they looked ahead, did not use offshore labour to design the iPhone and spent money on research and development, against many soon to be obsolete tech companies that just focus on cost cutting to save money and don’t spend the money on creating the next big thing.
As for Amazon, they have been forced to raise wages by criticism by Bernie Sanders and Trump (for different reasons) and the cheap factory labour worker was drying up in a tight labour market in the US so they have to raise wages and then hey presto the cheaper workers have somewhere to shift to and the absolute worst employers don’t have anyone to employ unless they just ship in cheap workers to undercut, which sounds like US policy has tightened up on. So business is forced to raise wages.
Funny enough that pay rise will keep more people voting trump, against the democrats position of globalism is so great and makes so much money (just inequality distributed for the 40% living on food stamps or hand to mouth in the US).
Employers like to regard the ‘human resources’ market as being like a toy store. Perhaps one with a lot of little lego figures. All the workers are there on the shelf in suspended animation, lift them down, turn the key and of they go like little kerbals scuttering round to and fro, self-energised.
There is no sense of NZ as a worthy trading nation, one with respect for citizens, and paying a living wage. Other countries are rich, and they don’t have decent wages (USA for a start) so if the elite and aspirational want to be rich well – do the same, learn from the goldmeisters.
@bwaghorn – apparently the ‘official’ version of why forestry can’t get workers is that they are all ‘drugged out’ lazies so interesting to hear your story of being laid off again and again.
When people are laid off constantly eventually workers will have had enough and not go back to that industry and that is where all the ‘experienced’ NZ workers are – disillusioned with being treated like garbage by industry in NZ which is fully supported by our ‘relaxed’ employment rules around redundancy that makes it a process rather than a difficult thing to do without a good reason.
This women managed to steal nearly a million dollars, commit benefit fraud, make whistleblowers redundant, give herself her own leave to escape the country and fraudulently hire two of her relatives. All under the ‘watchful’ sarc. eyes of one of our Auditor-General who was her boss at the time.
Whistleblowers tell of ‘incredible’ day their jobs were axed
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/331250/whistleblowers-tell-of-incredible-day-their-jobs-were-axed
Did fraud suspect Joanne Harrison approve her own leave then flee NZ?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/82387108/did-fraud-suspect-joanne-harrison-approve-her-own-leave-then-flee-nz
Extra jail time for Joanne Harrison after benefit fraud charges added
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11954395
“Also time that NZ stops thinking overseas companies will create jobs and make NZ prosperous, the opposite is happening and the only way to stop that from happening is to encourage NZ owned and based companies to flourish…”
While I agree NZ needs to stop thinking overseas companies will make us prosper, I disagree the only way to stop that from happening is to encourage NZ owned and based companies to flourish. This is an area where we should all be pushing for the Government to play a more direct and stronger role.
That was supposed to be the idea around KiwiSaver. It would create a local capital pool which would invest in New Zealand businesses, and reduce overseas domination of our economy. Something I don’t see happening.
A nation grows it wealth via exporting. The problem is, the vast majority of NZ businesses are small and have no desire to export. Thus, leaving Kiwisaver with little viable local investment opportunities.
“The problem is, the vast majority of NZ businesses are small and have no desire to export.”
You cannot export services or houses.
Some services can be and are exported while others attain the export dollar (whether directly or indirectly) from tourism.
Complex business exporting you need to be very financially sound, have strong cashflow’s and an understanding banker.
“A nation grows its wealth via exporting.”
Not according to Ha Joon Chang. Domestic manufacturing is a path to wealth because that way your workers can afford to buy things.
And of course, unless you’re locked into a colonial low value commodity export model, your domestic market is where you trial and develop new products. Not something we see a lot of here.
Moving beyond the exporting of raw product requires domestic manufacturing to play a larger role in exporting.
A nation can only grow its wealth via exporting dollars entering into its economy.
Selling products domestically doesn’t result in new money entering into the local economy, thus doesn’t result in growing a nations wealth.
“Selling products domestically doesn’t result in new money entering into the local economy, thus doesn’t result in growing a nations wealth.”
It could be said that you’re mistaking money for wealth there – they’re somewhat different things. And of course the old import substitution line remains valid – a penny saved is a penny earned – anything that improves our balance of payments whether by reducing an import or generating increased export value increases local monetary wealth, which can then be used to further inflate our property market, assuming any of it makes its way out of the hands of the large corporates who dominate the export sector.
In terms of domestic products, new or better products are almost invariably outgrowths of existing technologies. Which means that the capacity loss associated with decline of local manufacturing extends beyond the current generation who may lose their jobs in the transition.
Wealth is a term usually used when discussing total net worth. Which includes money, assets, etc…
While reducing an import will produce ongoing savings which will improve our fiscal position, unlike exporting, its growth potential is limited to the related saving made.
Generating increased export value can increase our export returns but if offshore owned, those returns will largely improve the fiscal position of other nations and not our own.
A local market is an obligate step in developing products for export. Unless one wants to be a price-taking commodity exporter, developing the local market is part of the export process.
“Developing the local market is part of the export process.”
Indeed. And as I said before, moving beyond the exporting of raw product requires domestic manufacturing to play a larger role in exporting.
As the majority of local private sector aren’t up to the task and offshore investment isn’t a viable long-term solution, this is where the Government should be taking a more hands on role.
i’m not sure about that millsy 9.24 – at one time the superfunf kiwisaver was only investing a tiny part in nz because of the possibility of skewing the local investment market and being over-exposed to nz business and market movements.
Agreed Chairman,
We need to restore many of our industries that we were very good at.
Like our former woolen carpeting factories that always supplied all our former ‘commonwealth’ countries as I saw in Canada and UK, as well as I saw also in the US during the 1980’s though they were outside the commonwealth.
As of now we have virtually no woolen carpeting factories here or around the world.
No date no one else other then China and India are making woolen carpeting (who have our complete wool clip export and are forcing the cost down to less than $3 dollars a kilo killing our sheep farmers incomes.
Woolen carpeting is the very best floor insulation against cold damp houses and would make our homes more healthy to live in now since nylon carpeting is found to be very toxic to our health, and poor at insulating our homes against cold damp homes.
http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/03/22/the-toxic-dangers-of-carpetingare-the-carpets-in-your-home-or-office-a-health-hazard.htm
“We need to restore many of our industries that we were very good at.”
Only if they are viable, thus can produce a return we capitalize from.
Additionally, we also need to create new opportunities.
My experience is that the difficulties arise when the NZ company is sold to overseas interests who are much larger entities. The new owner then ‘integrates’ their acquisition – which involves shipping NZ jobs to low wage locations and imposing internal processes and technology that are not necessarily a good fit. The overall effect is that the NZ operation gets hollowed out and the quality of what was being done declines.
I witnessed something like 40-50 well-paying (NZ$60k-100k) jobs being replaced by around 100 workers in India on the equivalent of NZ$15-20k), i.e. wages are 25% while the number of employees is 200%, still a theoretical win.
However, because much of the work required advanced English-language ability, quality declined badly. The new owners then gutted the product to eliminate those aspects where the quality decline was too obvious, threw money at additional training and spent fruitless effort on trying to automate as much as possible. A slow motion train wreck – easily predicted in advance, while those who did predict it were vilified.
Global capital roaming the world for quick returns and creating mayhem at the local level.
+1000 AB
That is where our domestic laws should not allow this to happen.
100% SaveNZ.
We need to protect us from these “carpetbaggers” of taking of our industries that use our “raw products”.
These overseas carpetbaggers hollow out our principal raw produced products and take them as raw products overseas.
Then they control the global buying of these and control our price for these raw products driving down the base price as we see all the time.
Those who say our industries must always be “viable” are hollowing out the argument as they dont consider the reasons above that our base prices given us for raw products are driven down by these overseas “carpetbaggers”.
This lowers our returns for our commodities and weakens our economy in the end.
“Those who say our industries must always be ‘viable’ are hollowing out the argument as they dont consider the reasons above that our base prices given us for raw products are driven down by these overseas ‘carpetbaggers’”.
Non-viable businesses won’t grow our wealth. Moreover, we require to be more innovated and move beyond merely exporting raw product.
Can you please clarify for me what you mean by a “non-viable business”?
I’d also like to know how we can be or become more innovative without taking risks and experiencing failures, from which we/others can learn.
Businesses that cease to do business don’t just disappear in thin air. They often feed (into) other existing or start-up businesses. Think of it as an ecosystem where life & death are not the beginning & end of things but simply points of and on an ongoing ‘life-cycle’.
Non-viable businesses are businesses that aren’t producing a return and are unlikely to produce a return going forward.
Risk is generally part and parcel of being in business. The key is minimising the risk. Ensuring one can afford to take a small risk, learn from ones mistake if it all turns to custard while being able to carry on trading (and not go bust) if it doesn’t pan out.
“Businesses that cease to do business don’t just disappear in thin air.”
Unfortunately, some do. Leaving behind a trail of unpaid debt, which can result in other related parties going bust.
Thank you for your reply.
By “return” you mean profit, I assume.
From a single focus as business operator I can see that being viable or not may be the be-all-end-all question but from a holistic view of the economy as a business ‘ecosystem’ it looks very different IMO. In fact, I’d argue business failure is essential for a healthy ecosystem.
Existing businesses need to be flexible and adapt to changing conditions. If not, they become non-viable too. This is an inevitable ‘risk’ that’s locked in from even the first concept for a new start-up.
Any business that ceases to operate/exist leaves more than a “a trail of unpaid debt” if any debt at all; some unwind in a more controlled manner. You may want to look up articles on creative destruction, economic apoptosis and uncontrollability.
https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/en/publications/economic-apoptosis-and-uncontrollability(28f3f06d-2ee2-4f55-9886-ebeb835b8abe).html
Edit: for some reason (?) the link changed in the comment; you’ll need to copy the whole link including the “.html”
“Creative destruction”, yes I thought that is what you were initially hinting at.
While creative destruction is part of business evolution, it’s far from a win-win for all. Moreover, not all business failures are due to creative destruction.
Therefore, a failure here and there is to be expected but if business failures were to become systemic, it wouldn’t result in a healthy economy.
Agreed, but I wasn’t arguing for or about systemic large-scale business failure although even a man-made disaster like the GFC (or should that be a GFC?) didn’t destroy the ecosystem (AKA the economy). Businesses recovered, some faster than others, and innovation never really stopped.
Thank you for the positive engagement; you and I haven’t always achieved this but at least now we know it is possible, with a little bit of goodwill and mutual respect.
Timber would be a classic example ?
I agree, we do need improved safety nets and trajectories for those that find themselves no longer required. It’s an accelerating trend that isn’t going away anytime soon.
I also think it’s important to acknowledge that virtually nobody starts a business with the primary motivation of creating employment for people.
You’d be wrong there. We want to start up a business that explicitly wants to hire locals. Our issue is
A) finding local people that have some knowledge that can be built on and
B) ensuring that we can grow organically and ensure we hire accordingly
Most people starting a business realise they have to hire staff.
What you probably mean is: “virtually nobody recognises the need to pay staff in accordance with knowledge and skills rather than as expense accounts that can be opened and closed at will”
It’s a catch 22, NZ employers both foreign and domestic have created an idea that Kiwi workers should be cheap pliable workers and we pay cheap wages here. It started off with the employment contracts bill in the 1990’s and has gone down from there.
That encouraged Kiwi workers to leave to work overseas, as even OZ often paid around 30 -100% more than Kiwi employers and well as the massive sell off of our assets overseas.
To stop the rot they need to get wages in NZ up and keep the skills however it’s a huge issue as even for domestic companies they feel the need to bring in management from overseas that are often destroying wealth by focusing on short term profits and overseas models that don’t necessarily work in NZ (Fonterra, The warehouse) while a massive proportion of NZ companies are also owned by multinationals who couldn’t care a less about their NZ workers and destroy completely workable companies here (Cadbury, Dick Smith) or giving themselves massive profits while giving nothing back (banks).
I don’t think the current government has any handle on the problem as they seem to be enjoying glowing in the international globalist accolade and no doubt a rude shock when coming home in 2 years for the next election to find out that their domestic changes of higher taxes, selling off land and letting foreign and domestic companies rout everyone with higher electrical, water, rates, housing, transport, petrol and people now living in tents because landlords abandon the market and the places are snapped up by our growing migrant population or the Singapore and OZ investors … while the IYI class strategists and MSM tell everyone that things are just peachy and in the next 15 years all their great ideas of globalism and free trade will trickle down…
I not suggesting the Natz would be better in fact they would be worse, but I think that Labour, NZ First and Greens need to have a serious look at why people are not happy with globalism and trade when it effectively is allowed to screw people over (so many examples) and our laws in NZ are not robust enough to do anything about it – because – apparently decent labour laws and environmental laws and societal good laws -“scare the market’ – maybe it’s about time the exploitative employers are scared out of NZ so that we can actually create a prosperous, fair, unpolluted country again.
@James Thrace – perhaps like the old fashioned way you train workers with the knowledge or pay more to steal them from other places or treat them better so you create loyalty…
Hi James, I’ve found that if I don’t start a business with the primary motivation of turning a profit I burn through my start-up capital and before too long have to ask any workers to leave. Paying people well has always been a by-product of profitability in my experience.
I don’t hire workers these days, I appoint contractors. This cuts my workload by heaps, halves the hassles and those granting me their time make more money.
@David Mac, Even if they do set up in NZ, where is the longevity in NZ… like Gameloft, who were a French company that employed a significant migrant workforce into NZ, then after getting 3.5 million in grants, liquidated the company and set up in Nigeria.
Is that really the calibre of corporates we want in NZ?
Knew someone who worked there and he was a migrant worker. He said he could not ask for a pay rise, as every time Gameloft advertised a role, it was cheaper than the last. They just wanted the cheapest workers they could get… so no wonder they went out of business…. pity they were allowed under our laws to operate like that!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11581181
Hi Savenz, yep, I’m reluctant to get involved in any business pursuit that can be replicated more cost effectively offshore.
A beachfront holiday on a Kiwi beach can only be done here. Possum fur fibres have unique insulation qualities, they aren’t a mega population pest anywhere else in the world. That Finnish company making fossil fuel based packaging in Henderson that is pulling the pin, with the scrappy muck left behind by our logging operations, the raw materials for a green line of packaging could be close to free.
Competing with countries/companies that can prosper with slave labour is a race to the bottom. As standards of living rise in China, I think it’s just a matter of time until our TVs are assembled in Somalia.
Soimon is such a good boy despite all that political failure that surrounds him, insists Nat hack Audrey Young: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12137567
Though she does drop an unintentional nugget about Jami-Lee Ross:
Did Audrey’s column on Simon read like a doting Mum excusing a wayward child regardless of the depth of his flaws?
Audrey has long been an NZ Herald ’embed’ in national party caucus. Her brother and father were national Mps after all.
Oh Christ! I’d forgotten about that. One of them was Venn Young right?
??
The stench goes back quite a long way really, though that sense of entitlement amongst the gNat elite wasn’t usually expressed in the crassness it is today.
Quite funny really if it wasn’t so sad.
How blatant a puff piece is that? Would Young have ever, ever shown Cunliffe or Little such consideration?
She turns a piece about Bridges in his worst week in politics into a pages long criticism of the government!
Young = RWNJ hack.
Audrey’s defending the muppet because all the alternatives will lead to all out civil war within the National Party. This would probably be pretty rough and result in a splintered right wing side of New Zealand politics. Whether this is a good thing or not is moot, but if it does happen they will try to make it happen in a controlled manner.
sigh moan is just the placeholder until they can come up with a leader who can command the respect and loyalty of all factions of the party.
Tracy Watkins polishes her kneepads and delivers another defense of the indefensible: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/107630645/tracy-watkins-is-simon-bridges-a-dead-man-walking
The increasingly-frothy Duncan Garner adds some insider goss: https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/107639457/An-embarrassing-own-goal-when-Nationals-defence-wasn-t-even-under-pressure
Probably some confusion how the leak got out and there is probably not enough evidence to conduct an internal prosecution ?
You must have read a different article than i did.
She says he is a dead man walking ( i agree with that)
I would say it was an accurate article. I didn’t see anything about “Soimon being such a good boy”.
I agree that he is hopeless but taking the piss out of him because he cant pronounce words properly is a bit lame.
Have you not heard sparkle pony, poverdy, positividdy, egg widdy.
It seems to be a common fault in our leaders.
Which of the 3 articles I’ve linked to here are you talking about?
I read your post at 3 then read this link at 3.3
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/107630645/tracy-watkins-is-simon-bridges-a-dead-man-walking
So you’re a complete idiot, then.
Crawl back in your sewer Muttonhead
But he talks like a baby Nastiman. A big windy spoilt baby.
Following on from Dennis Franks’ cut and paste last night, cut and paste specialist, Dr Bryce Edwards, regurgitates what we’ve been reading all week.
As usual Dr Bryce provides zero analysis, preferring to let others to do that for him, including Cameron Slater who remarkably gets no political description tag at all, and Chris Trotter who is unfortunate enough to receive the only political designation in the piece from Edwards in being labelled “leftwing”.
In a bizarre attempt at trivialisation of the seriousness of Bridges’ problems, he signs off by linking to the Jono & Ben appearance.
Yes, Dr Bryce does his usual thing when dealing with National’s problems and that is to dispassionately relay what his right-leaning media associates have said.
Contrast this with his opinion heavy RNZ article dated 26 August – his own work this time which is telling.
In it, Dr Bryce literally fawns over Bridges’ decision to open the PWC and Simpson Grierson enquiries describing him as; showing ‘resolve’, being ‘calculated’, ‘star(ing) down a disloyal MP’, ‘responsible and humane’, and ‘reasonable’. Edwards pretty much went against all other analysis at that time who rightly questioned just what the hell Bridges was up to.
Well I wonder what Dr Bryce thinks reading back on that column this weekend!
Embarrassed?
Hey, not a bad critique, but to be fair to Bryce it seemed his intent was to report a hefty emerging consensus via the method of compiling quotes from sources. I thought it impressive enough to select highlights on the same basis to emphasise the political significance of the opinion swing against Bridges.
Nothing wrong with coming on like a partisan leftist, Muttonbird, inasmuch as this site was designed to cater for sectarian bias. But the leftist political cause can only advance nowadays by establishing sufficient consensus with centrists. Our current government being a suitable model thus far.
Also, a university political scientist cannot be seen to be partisan, so any public analysis by one will have to critique the left & right in a balanced way. Being fair to Bridges earlier is part of that prescription. Kiwis believe in a fair go, and we give credit where it’s due. Better a moderate, reasonable leader of the Nats than something worse. The current leader becoming irrational is news when it becomes obvious to centrists as well as leftists because it suggests a tectonic shift in voterland.
” university political scientist cannot be seen to be partisan”
Thats not the case. Helen Clark was a part timer while working on her PhD before being elected. The long time of the Department at the time ( Chapman)was clearly national leaning as he wrote books on nationals leaders
I think what you are alluding to is the media want their political scientist talking heads to be ‘balanced’.
Add to that professor Claire Robinson who is nothing more than the defacto president of the John Key fan club.
Yes, I’ll accept that technical correction. Not just the media, though, because the credibility of any political analyst lies in their capacity for rising above the fray to present a more-or-less impartial view. I agree re Chapman, but political scientists lose credibility in the eyes of their students and peers to the extent that they push a partisan view.
Interesting comments as usual, Dennis.
I like to think that the students and peers of a political scientist know when he/she addresses a different audience for a different reason than lecturing or disseminating science.
I think there is a time & place for any political scientist to express their opinions and declare their leanings so to speak. It would be odd not to and stay on the fence forever as some kind of agnostic nihilist.
Yes, I agree that anyone ought to be able to express their political opinion. Political scientists could do so in an inappropriate manner by informing their audience that they are doing so, when they do it. There’s a learnt skill in being dispassionate and impartial, although some people seem more naturally adept at it – while most others are simply unable to transcend subjectivity.
For me, it was a late acquisition, in middle age, honed via self-discipline. The way I frame it internally is in the context of the group mind: any group I participate in, I try to mediate the microcosm/macrocosm relation. If that group is too insular (group-think), then relating issues to the broader societal context (macrocosm) and the body politic is the best way to go.
The professional ethics of academics requires them to declare any potential conflict of interest. Many peer-reviewed scientific journals have made it mandatory.
Academic audiences, be it students or peers, are (ought to be) smart (educated) enough to weigh up one personal’s bias against that of others and even their own.
Bias, or subjectivity, is impossible to avoid and the only proper way to deal with it, IMO, is to declare it. This raises awareness and avoids or minimises confusion from the outset and maybe this makes it possible to transcend subjectivity …
Oct. 5, 2018
WASHINGTON — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh appeared destined for final confirmation to the Supreme Court after two key undecided senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia — announced Friday that they would support his elevation to the high court after the most divisive confirmation fight in decades.
Ms. Collins’ lengthy speech on the Senate floor dwelled as much on Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial record as on the sexual misconduct charges that have consumed his nomination. She did conclude, “We will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/us/politics/brett-kavanaugh-vote-confirmed.html
Looks like Democrats & women are combining to get him across the line. I presume they are motivated by the spirit of bipartisan consensus. Christians would frame that as god working in his usual mysterious way…
Democrat Manchin is only doing so as his state is very strongly pro Trump and hes up for election in a month.
Consensus ! . The self preservation for both . Collins isnt up for re-election this time but she will need big money support for the Republican Senate Campaign Committee if she is to survive in her democratic leaning state.
Interesting fact . The other Senator from Maine Angus King, and independent – but who sits with the Democrats- is facing re- election this year.
His democratic opponent, Zak Ringelstein is the only major-party candidate for Senate to be a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Likely that King will be relected though
Yeah I expected a response like that. Realpolitik. But the interesting part is that these politicians are seeking refuge in a centrist camouflage. In respect of their motivations driven by political psychology, we could reasonably suspect that there’s more to it than the obvious self-interest. Could be a signal of a pendulum swing back from extreme ideological polarisation towards pragmatic centrism.
“Could be a signal of a pendulum swing back from extreme ideological polarisation towards pragmatic centrism.”
Kavanaugh is one of the most partisan of Supreme court judges – ever. hardly a swing to pragmatic centralism- unless the centre has mover far right, even for US.
One of Obamas picks for Scotus was at the time Solicitor general, which acts much like our Solicitor General does. Republicans thought she was to partisan as it was a government job. Kavanaugh is 10x closer to government as he worked in GWB white House.
With Trump around there wont be a swing to consensus/centrisim. It seems to be just a thought of yours rather than something that is real.
Well yeah, but I was actually referring to the behaviour of the Democrat & woman senators who have decided to support Kavanaugh. I’ll reserve judgment on the Trump effect until the mid-term election results. A decisive pattern may emerge (rather than a muddle).
If not, we may get an effective stalemate within both main US parties, in which there’s an approximate balance between pragmatic careerists supporting the establishment and disaffected anti-establishment folk getting even further alienated by the system their democracy has produced.
Colin James has a relevant analysis here: http://www.colinjames.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ASPG-NZ-version-18Sep12.pdf
He frames representative democracy as ” bounded rationality. Most of the people most of the time thought the system more or less worked – at least while their material standard of living kept rising and they felt reasonably safe and secure in their identity as one of a people in a nation. There was a high level of trust, the glue that holds liberal democracies together.”
“Bounded rationality still reigns in this country, where a recent survey found a marked lift since 2016 in trust and confidence in the government, ministers and MPs, thanks probably to the election of a remarkable young woman Prime Minister. But in northern hemisphere liberal democracies, the centre-left/centre-right hegemony has ended and with it bounded rationality.”
“That is because the material standard of living of a growing number of people in those liberal democracies has stalled or fallen or become insecure and/or they feel that migrants and other intrusions from outside such as hyperglobalisation are unstitching the fabric of what they think of as “their” “nation”. As a result, they no longer feel represented by, nor do they trust, the centre-left/centre-right cabal.”
“They see these parties as agents of a self-perpetuating, detached elite: the “other”, not “us”.” Precisely. Representative democracy discredited as a sham. Representatives pretending to represent voters rather than actually doing so, in the hope that voters won’t notice the lack of authenticity. But around half the electorate have now noticed the sham.
Are you for real????
Only 1 (ONE) democrat senator has given his support to Kavanaugh, and that for the craven reason explained by the Duke above.
As for women. Republican women are in many cases just as anti-human rights as their W
hiteOldmen counterparts on the senate. In fact rupugnant senators are by and large white, old, and men. There are only a handful of Republican women senators – and one of those actually had enough gumption to vote against the other rupugnants and against Kavanaugh.Well the headline news was real: “Susan Collins says she will vote yes to confirm Brett Kavanaugh”. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2018/oct/05/brett-kavanaugh-vote-latest-live-news-updates-confirmation-supreme-court-christine-blasey-ford-fbi-report
So she has publicised her voting intention. Doesn’t seem much chance she will change her mind in the next few hours.
That wasn’t what you were saying above tho; was it.
No, Susan Collins has been looking for a way out of doing the decent thing by way of women, and humanity, and voting against Kavanaugh all week. The Whitehouse white wash “investigation” which lasted all of 2 days, interviewed only Kavanaugh supporters, and which only the FBI and senators are privy to, gave her the way out.
She still has time to regain her moral compass and vote “no” as does the Flaker. But be very aware – the US is now a deeply divided country. This in no way represents a swinging of the pendulum to the centre. Women are becoming energised as never before, and the forthcoming midterms are evidence of that. There were thousands protesting in the Senate over the past week and over 300 arrested. This will go down in history as one of Americas darkest moments.
Seems to me you’re allowing your subjective emotional reactions to cloud your view of the situation. I was pointing to the behaviour that could indicate the pendulum has swung so far toward polarisation that it can’t swing further. Historically what you usually get is a shift towards pragmatic acceptance of the need to move beyond the focus on differences to the need for a workable compromise and agreement on common ground.
Colin James explains why representative democracy can’t work when representatives betray the trust of voters. It’s just a question of these politicians waking up to the necessity of honouring their commitments instead of further undermining democracy. Any leftist tribalism and moral outrage is irrelevant (due to perceived lack of evidence) – but I suspect you didn’t even bother to read her reasoning for her decision (in that report).
vs
I’ll leave it at that.
“White House Denies Trump Was Mocking Kavanaugh Accuser After Trump Mocks Kavanaugh Accuser”
yes. apparently even this sort of WH briefings have become fairly rare and Trumps press conferences even rarer. he will still occasionally do a Fox news only interview.
Reminds me in a way , of Keys first few years when he wouldnt do any interviews at all for Radio NZ.
None. back then RNZ didnt have audience surveys like now , when we know that Morning Report has the largest ‘weekly’? audience of any news radio station and many music ones.
Brilliant headline. Wonder how many here will actually miss its point. ROFL.
The ZAPRUDER film HQ real HQ – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7rLYh52fPE
Nice…. After JFK threatened to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces,… then along comes Howard Hunt and a few other Black Op characters into the the mix at Dealey Plaza…
Enjoy.
Gotta love those globalists.
Then decades later we have a guy who names the characters responsible… despite the fact that many of the perps are now dead because of the passage of time… dont change a thing…
And did you know the Republicans were anti slavery and the Democrats were pro slavery , – hence the American Civil War ??? … bet most of you didn’t, and even if you did,… wanted to hide that distasteful and embarrassing fact away…
The American public are not stupid, and know far more than we do in NZ about what effects their country and ultimately , the global community. I believe on the whole the American public is a good one. No other country on earth has such an open system, – despite the skulduggery that often happens there…they have many faults but just as many good points.
Come back Colonial Viper !
Here’s a magnificent speech by Trump about the reality of just who pulls the strings in this world… and yet all some of you can do is snicker like a pack of schoolkids about some paper around his shoe. He probably owns the company that made the paper.
Donald Trump – Our Movement Is About Replacing A Failed … – YouTube
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Bloody hell! A trumpkin on The Standard! What next???
Have you completely lost your sense of reason?
lol – it wasn’t the paper that was the problem bubby – it’s the poo it was attached to.
I dunno mate – CV was pretty free with his facts toward the end there.
Nah katty, the yanker public are dumb as dirt.
1000% bang on perfectly Wild Katipo.
President Donald Trump is very brave taking on the CIA now as his promise to “drain the washington Swamp” Got to give him credit for getting rid of the evil CIA as they have done some very bad shit over many years too many to document.
Remember the movie “Spy game 2001” with Robert Redford/Brad Pitt?
https://www.idealfound.com/ottrack/cinematrix/?tag=pc_movie_top&moviename=Spy%2520Game
This movie was very close to the truth there when we see the current CIA administration under Robert Mueller as CIA ‘special investigator’ leaning on Trumps own inner circle for political reasons mostly to get forced admissions from them..
If those admissions of guilt are the truth, and can be backed up by evidence in court – as to date they have been – then what are you complaining about?
There is more evidence to come, and agent orange is in the firing line.
“CIA operative Nathan Muir (Redford) is on the brink of retirement when he finds out that his protege Tom Bishop (Pitt) has been arrested in China for espionage. No stranger to the machinations of the CIA’s top echelon, Muir hones all his skills and irreverent manner in order to find a way to free Bishop. As he embarks on his mission to free Bishop, Muir recalls how he recruited and trained the young rookie, at that time a sergeant in Vietnam, their turbulent times together as operatives and the woman who threatened their friendship.”
yeah just like real life lol
brave t.rump – oxymoronic!!!
Ooh look, a whole post about the latest US shenanigans: https://thestandard.org.nz/meanwhile-in-america/
US Democratic Party was hi-jacked by the billionaire Hungarian global convicted criminal; – George Soros of course read this;
http://humanevents.com/2011/04/02/top-10-reasons-george-soros-is-dangerous/
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro-abort-billionaire-george-soros-gave-nearly-90-million-to-feminist-anti
https://yournewswire.com/george-soros-lawsuit-impeach-president-trump/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/20/george-soros-democracy-alliance-anti-trump-activists-meeting/99417808/
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I for one would appreciate it if you comment over on the dedicated post rather than here.
hes been fisked before over this tirade against US citizen Soros. But we are supposed to go easy because a brain injury makes him pro Trump !
#metoo is in his sights as well….
im confused – what was your leading comment at 2.08 sacha but an invitation to cg?
Sorry, should have clearly written ‘hey go over there instead’.
Yes sacha it seems that cg is getting beyond irony.
I do have sympathy, but it has limits.
This is appalling
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12137326
So the poor and disadvantaged continue to get pushed down.
There is a reckoning coming…
“So the poor and disadvantaged continue to get pushed down. Their is a reckoning coming…”
What “reckoning ” – please explain with evidence & citations.
lol – weak attempt cg
That is an important story. Social mobility is the exact opposite of what our current system encourages.
And this again exposes the ‘meritocracy’ lie, so loved by National and the right.
But there’s a year free education, that’s supposed to restore the meritocracy
Something wrong there especially if it is Public Money $$$’s ?
Scholarships are a poor way to get poorer people into tertiary education, Essentially it is charity for a chosen few.
I found it strange that I as a parent was asked to pay $75 for my son last century to sit the scholarship exam along with the rest of the class. It was money I could not afford and I paid but he was not outstanding and i could have been paying for the child of some wealthier person.
In old books I read about poor children getting a chance to apply for a scholarship, and presumably there was a scholarship fund which paid out its interest and a little capital to provide. And bequests would keep renewing the fund. Schools now act as if everyone has plenty of discretionary money.
Good effort by these mana whenua – this will become more and more of an issue – help out their givealittle page if you can
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/matiti-urupa-risk-erosion-wairoa-river
Was China really our quiet friend?
Now the Chinese dragon roars to life; Naval incident again; 5th October 2018.
China is now threatening US warships in the south pacific now and shows China’s increasingly aggressive posture .
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/2166849/us-chinese-warships-within-metres-collision-south-china-sea
“America accuses Chinese warship of ‘unsafe’ manoeuvres after near collision with USS Decatur in South China Sea
Analysts said the incident shows China’s increasingly aggressive posture in the South China Sea amid an escalating confrontation with the US on both trade and security fronts.”
they think that usa should stop trying to rule the world especially the bits they haven’t bombed or destroyed politically
Turnip futures surge in eastern Romania. Read all about it!
turn up for the books = but you didn’t supply link or context
Texas pork rind shortage too, I hear. Terrible. Up the workers!
Opps !!!!!
There are flaws of ‘witness tampering’ going on inside the anti -Kavanaugh camp now!!! –
https://www.foxnews.com/shows/tucker-carlson-tonight
Worse still now there is another after the ‘Senate’ newly received FBI report has discovered that a witness in the swetnick accusation case has been found to have perjured himself also, – and a probe into that case is now being considered by GOP perhaps to be carried out according to the media..
https://www.foxnews.com/shows/tucker-carlson-tonight
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/10/05/report-fords-fbi-friend-monica-mclean-pressured-witness-to-modify-testimony-and-statement/comment-page-5/
Report: Ford’s FBI Friend, Monica McLean, Pressured Witness To Modify Testimony and Statement…
Posted on October 5, 2018 by sundance
“If you thought it was sketchy that Ms. Christine Blasey-Ford’s life-long best friend was a recently retired FBI agent and DOJ official, Monica McLean {Go Deep}; and if you thought it was sketchy that McLean and Ford were together on July 30th when Ford was writing a letter to Dianne Feinstein, likely making the friend Ms Ford’s “handler” for the operation against Kavanaugh; then it’s even more sketchy today with a report that McLean was pressuring witness Leland Keyser to shape her statements and testimony to the FBI.”
This case against Brett Kavanaugh was a bunch of absoluite litiny of lies and bulllshit, as the FBI ‘supplimental report was released today. Ford said she was never ‘before made familiar or aware before of any way to operate or use a polygraph machine, so she lied right there.
Quote;
“In a twist, Keyser told FBI investigators that she felt pressured to clarify her original statement saying she was unaware of any incident involving Kavanaugh and Ford, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Keyser, who later said she believed Ford even though she could not corroborate her story, told the investigators that she was urged to clarify her statement by Monica McLean, a former FBI agent and friend of Ford’s. (Ford’s ex-boyfriend told the Judiciary Committee that Ford had helped McLean prepare for a polygraph, directly contradicting Ford’s sworn testimony last Thursday).”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judiciary-committee-releases-executive-summary-of-supplemental-fbi-report-on-kavanaugh
What’s happening in Gisborne cg? The USA can go to hell in a handcart but I don’t want that to happen to us. Can we keep thinking about NZ and our options for better government and policies?
In two minds about this, kinda glad he got prosecuted, but only 2nd degree murder??!? He got a trial which is somthing which many black americans don’t get.
And have to say I’m pissed at the police response. It like they can look at that video, then shrug, and utter “nothing to see here, move along”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-06/jason-van-dyke-chicago-police-convicted-murder-laquan-mcdonald/10346276
The police unions are a reminder that not all unions are on the side of good.
Yenta Hodge, start packing your bags
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/10/03/dame-hodge-start-packing-your-bag/
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/10/james-shaw-fronts-with-the-welfare-numbers-marama-davidson-forgot.html
I thought about $1 billion for a 20% increase in benefits based on the $5 billion mooted in this year’s Budget, in 1/10/2018 Open Mike discussion on Marama Davidson’s interview.
Shaw calculates $1.5bn for the increase.
Consider what that money would do firstly for the beneficiaries concerned, and secondly what it would do for the local economy since it would be mostly spent in NZ and the profits accrued by the companies getting this extra money then being taxed etc.
A fillip to the economy rather like the 1935 Christmas payment that so boosted the economy in 1935. “As a statement of intent a Christmas bonus was immediately paid to the unemployed and those receiving charitable aid.” https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/michael-joseph-savage-1935
Interestingly, the article above goes on to say, “In 1936 there was a landslide of legislation aimed at stimulating the economy, including a programme of state house construction.”
What do the wise heads on the Standard say?
Here you go multinational companies selling us there chemicals and Genetic engineering. They don’t let the world see all the negative facts on there cancer causing products the long term side effects so what will these products do to our mokopunas low sperm count rising cancer rates ?? I bet these CEO will be eating organic food.
At a time when we need to change of way of life to respect the future generations and Papatuanuku prospects. This is a time to start farming Organically these organizations are trying to sell us there bad products.
NZ just need to target the high value markets with our produce that is some of the best PRODUCTS in the world . We will not lose our place as one of the best producers of safe food It won’t be long and the world will be chasing our food . Ka kite ano link’s below
SPONSORED CONTENT BY Corteva Agriscience, Agriculture Division of DowDupont
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/107618005/adopt-ge-or-risk-falling-behind-
competitors-federated-farmers-president
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/107599053/dramatic-increases-in-yield-a-possibility-for-kiwi-farmers P.S notice the word possibility like could or would
Some Eco Maori Music.
Kia ora Newshub look’s like the alcohol companies sales are dropping Lion is trying to sponsor the mental help health line I give a big KNOW to that move as alcohol is a major problem that causes mental health problems hippercritical business people.
I think its a good move turning the Islands in Tauranga were that container ship sunk into a marine sanctuaries
Why is MPI challenging it in court we need more we need more sanctuaries all around Aotearoa on te whenua and Tangaroa especially as I say the Quote system is not doing the job of protecting our fishes like it was sold to us.
There was a bit of compost coming out of that school and what do you know I can not bring up that story about the school that had the problem {cover—— the compost} story .
It was a good effort by the Sliver Ferns be patient wahine all in good time.
Ka kite ano