Yet another driver failing to stop for police with tragic consequences. Lets hope the judge uses the full extent of the law when sentencing him to keep him locked up and off the roads for as long as possible.
Oddly enough, I was in Christchurch late last week and paid about 10 cents a litre less (for diesel) than when I got back to Dorkland early this week and filled up at Glen Eden Gull (usually near the cheapest around here).
GAS never seems particularly low-priced here in Orclund, unlike Gull. Whereas the mainland has NPD and Allied which both seemed reliably low-priced. Gull and Waitomo also appear to be starting up down there.
"Apathy towards mainstream politicians has seen support for independent candidates surge by five percentage points, according to a new poll.
The Savanta ComRes poll for the Telegraph found that six per cent of British adults plan to support aspiring MPs who do not belong to any of the six main parties on December 12.
The pollster puts support for “other” parties at 6 per cent – higher than the 4 per cent planning to support the SNP, the 3 per cent behind the Brexit Party and the 2 per cent voting for the Greens.
However, the results may also reflect methodological change .."
.. one week until election day there is still time for public opinion to shift – just as it did away from Theresa May in 2017.
Labour have been steadily narrowing the gap with the Tories, in-part thanks to a relatively popular manifesto, but continue to suffer from the on-going accusations of anti-Semitism which are plaguing both party and leader.
Still some life in the old anti-Semitism canard yet. Whereas the real Islamophobia in the Tories is seldom mentioned. The closing gap can yet again be attributed to the election period rules pegging back the anti-Labour media bias from the stratospheric to the merely blatant.
I understand his personal situation to be genuine and I think he did have a case, which is why I offered to speak to his local MP," Faafoi told Newshub
From the link: "Text messages obtained by Newshub … "
Translation: "Jason Kerrison has given Tova O'Brien … "
There is no other possible source (unless you think Tova can hack into Facebook and phones).
Honest reporting would be: "Today, in an attempt to manipulate me and you, I was sent these messages, which I will now pass off as an exclusive, as if I had done the investigating myself."
Kerrison is his own worst enemy. Faafoi referred his case to Northland MP Matt King who apparently asked Kerrison to contact him. Kerrison apparently never did.
Yeah I had forgotten all about that weirdness. His is not a style of music that resonates with me so seeing his name pop up during the local elections was a surprise.
My son did have the same problems with immigration as Jason had early last year.
Where my son had met a German lady while over there in Germany for a wedding.
His girlfriend later came to NZ after my son returned home to NZ and my son and her approached immigration and requested a work permit for her as she had university certification to show high work value skills for NZ.
Shockingly she was roughly told by the immigration officials "don't bother to send in an application as we will not look at it" !!!!
So as parents both my wife and I arranged to meet with our local MP Stuart Nash and explained the situation that as disabled older folks we needed my son here to care for us.
Stuart Nash said he can't help but would allow his staff to contact the Immigration department to see what they can do, and it never came to anything,
So we lost our son who was a fully licenceed Master Electrician when he went back to Germany to live with his fiance.
Nothing now makes any sense to us when you see the Government is prepared to break up even NZ born families now.
It was bad for my son it be treated that way as my Wife and I remember when our Son told us what Immigration NZ said that they would ignore any application for his Fiance to get a work permit he was very angry.
As he had worked very hard to get his full registration/licence to become a fully fledged Master Electrician he was despondent with legitimate reasons.
Considering almost any other country would welcome a skilled tradesman into their country but not his own with the wife of his choice.
Rest assured @ Cleangreen, our Immigration policy is based on "best practice" (/sarc) – which is pretty much code for not very much of it makes any sense.
I've given up having any sympathy for any of the 'officials ' that have, and continue to make fuckup after fuckup (as a matter of record), AND for ministers/associate minister that refuse to undertake radical reform of the cistern.
Ministers are going to continue to be let down by their "officials", and NZers and immigration applicants are going to continue to be let down by the cistern until they do.
More fool them though eh! As far as I know, masochism and flagellation is legal. Not as though the whole issue of immigration policy could be the tipping point of an election given an opposition wanting to use any dirty trick at their disposal.
* "………..let down by their "officials", and NZers and immigration applicants are going to continue to be let down by the cistern until they do." = " ……….let down by their "officials", and NZers and immigration applicants are going to continue to be let down by the cistern until they (a gummint) do undertake radical reform".
I feel for Kris Faaoi having worked so hard to do so much for NZ to be badgered like that, and then possibly see that work jeopardised by someone you felt that close to. In the interests of NZ the Coalition need to stop trusting that others are as honourable & honest as they are, it looks like many media – certain ones in particular are basing their entire careers on it – some govt employees & those who will call you friend are driven by self interest. It's actually a very sad and undeserved day that Mr Faafoi is facing.
pffffft to all above and below. (I'm desperate to know when we can apply for funding for a series of Border Force NZ. The dogs are in training, some Shortland Street star is rehearsing the smart-arse voice-overs, Julie Christie's bidding for the rights, and NuZullOn Ear are considering funding applications)
By the way …. Does anyone know if that queue jumper Dawn Baxendale's visa has been sorted?
Edit
China attempted to control its projected population growth by decree and brute force. The culture elevates males to carry the family line and fortunes down the generations. One child only was allowed to most people. So males took precedence often. Some people drowned their girl baby in a bucket.
It was a traumatic decree with consequences with now a vastly skewed gender balance which will have the affect of females being greatly prized but also being objects to be controlled and guarded, not free, and likely to be traded in a commercial way for advantage.
Chinese men are looking to Pakistan and women trafficking with 629 victims of a people smuggling ring being accused. But Pakistan wants to obtain agreements 'to cement business with its ally' so witnesses are being told to stay schtum.
To lessen birth numbers the MIT in USA is working on a contraceptive pill that will give a month's protection from only one taken each month. That may be good if it passes trials for safety and effectiveness.
(Items – p.16 Nelson Mail World section Dec 6 2019 Fairfax).
But I think there must be an effort to limit the population burden on countries and the planet. We could allow people to choose their time of death after the age of 75, and ensure that this was properly planned for, with respect and effectively achieved according to the wishes of the person.
He said they were wrong to back the Conservatives and “don’t understand” what is happening in the Labour seats being contested by the Brexit Party. The BBC's Andrew Neil told Mr Farage that links that the MEPs had to the Tories were well known when he “paraded” them as Brexit Party candidates.
(Farage reminds me of pictures of Toad in Wind and the Willows. Anyone else see a likeness?) Confusion in Labour about Brexit – why would they be disturbed at having another Brexit vote? Which must first have a legally raised majority level to ensure it's a widely and firmly supported decision.)
.
In Hartlepool, in northeast England, most people voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. Now they are threatening to switch to pro-Brexit parties. Al Jazeera's Emma Hayward reports from Hartlepool.
.
EU's Donald Tusk (Polish politician) is not confused, he has considered and pronounces: Brexit has been “one of the most spectacular mistakes” in the history of the EU and followed a campaign marked by “an unprecedented readiness to lie”, Donald Tusk has said….
The unabashed anglophile, who recently said he would “in my heart always be a remainer”, put himself at odds with other EU leaders by declaring it would still be better for both sides if Brexit did not happen. Many EU diplomats fear any second referendum leading to a remain result would mean festering divisions in the UK that would block the EU from making decisions – a view Tusk strongly rejected.
A little slow with my Israel Folau comment, but here's my penny's worth:
A satisfactory result for him, all considered it would seem.
He walks away smiling and they, Rugby Australia (RA), get rid of a social media zealot.
But in a way, Folau has won on two counts;
1. He ends up with a settlement in his back pocket with only a relatively small amount having to be spent on legal "mouthpieces" (paid for by others in any case) and he will probably do well elsewhere in relation to recreational sport as a money making venture.
2. He walks off with the satisfaction of knowing that he has sent RA into a tail spin as it pertains to employment contracts and fine print.
Of course, few ever suggested that RA were anti-Christian and it should be evident that they were, more or less, trying to stay compliant in relation to almost global anti-discrimination laws pertaining to religion, race, gender etc.
But in fact, that which he expressed on social media didn’t appear to break any of those laws.
For example, if I were to take some obscure interpreted verse from the Quran and I were to state that this book of joy suggested death and damnation to the infidel, my advice is that I would not be breaking the law either.
I may seriously have an issue with the comments made by Folau, (and hey, I'm not even homosexual, nor am I a Muslim), but I do congratulate him for his entrepreneurial spirit in relation to the use of contractual law and sport to profit from.
He has proven something that is clearly apparent, people can make oodles of money from virtually doing nothing.
Translation : Someone skilled at playing with balls and his equally skillful ball handling squeeze are cunning as shit-house rats and can now go back into their circle-jerk pretend religion family and spout as many knuckle dragging opinions as they like on the dime of poor innocent rugby players.
Now maybe they'll start doing what their god wishes and start punching out babies instead of focusing on their illustrious careers.
May a God bless them and heal their hurt feelings.
well, contract law or a bit of litigious extortion: you can pay me X to settle, or you'll pay your lawyers X+Y to fight the case in court.
He was allowed to say what he said, I don't think anyone's said it crossed legal lines. He just shat on the brand that was paying him by advertising the brand that's the family business.
Edit
This is really interesting. On Radionz details about a building firm that has put up a new building in Christchurch which a junior structural engineer blew the whistle about. Just as well or probably no-one would have known until there was a disaster. What a story, the young engineer walking past the building, looked past the construction fence, and saw some unnerving evidence of poor construction and reported it. Good on that person, and on his firm to which he first reported.
Then…bad. The building was allowed to be continued. And now sits vacant and pending dangerous.
A full two years of wrangling later – during which time the building was completed, as was one next door – experts have confirmed there are 10 significant weaknesses in the design or construction of columns, bracing, the calculation of seismic loads, hold-down bolts, the pile design and the stairs.
The building consent team at the city council said it was "gutted" the eight-storey design got through its checking systems.
This from another developer who has background on the people and company behind the building.
"Two or three years ago, they approached us, were aware that we wanted to build a carparking building in Hereford Street. They said that they felt that Christchurch was being overcharged for buildings and that they could do it so much better," Mr Gough said.
He looked into Rockwell, he said.
Companies office records show it was set up in 2014 and 2015 by business interests originally from Korea, and in online posts says it offers seismic engineering and specialised construction.
"They had a company that was only about $100 shareholding, was less than a month old and had no experience in New Zealand or Christchurch whatsoever," Mr Gough said.
Don't we check on integrity of people, company, experience, materials etc before approving projects and their formation? Have NZ and particularly, Christchurch planners and regulators, been overcome by some virus that has over-ridden their normal desire to do their jobs well? What sort of background credentials have they, to even get into their jobs? What are they being taught during the time they are studying for their qualifications?
We have so many botches in NZ and it is time for a revolution as all–embracing as that of Douglas & Co, and old worn-out Labour. We can't let this country be run by cowboys with the rodeo running on a national scale. Those who specialise in looking after animal welfare have got rodeos banned. We humans consider ourselves so intelligent, and on a higher level above animals, yet we can't trust our trained and well-paid managers to look after our welfare, and ultimately, their own. We are the animals being spurred and kicked. God help us!
One of the downsides not considered in NZ's unseemly haste to embrace globalization is the issue of enforcement across language barriers. Council inspectors are fairly taxed assuring compliance even among builders from our own culture, and moreso in Christchurch, where large numbers of substandard earthquake repairs seem to have slid through without the inspectorate so much as clearing it's throat. Throw in language and cultural issues and they are more likely to avoid the job than demonstrate the extra vigilance and communication skills required.
Ideally you'd have a surplus & cycle them through the construction sector & polytechs & WEAs during low build times, to upskill and spread the knowledge. Kindof at odds with the black economy model of exploited foreign workers building McMansions though.
"$100 shareholding", more at "$100 company". An old phrase or terminology but still widely used and used most legitimately as a description for a company which might only be worth the cost of the original company registration set up cost, and then even less when the company is being pursued by creditors or other irate individuals or groups.
Indeed the safety and quality assurance concerns are one issue, and also the other issue pertaining to the many who'd have assisted with the construction in good faith and had supplied materials, only to find that as creditors, they may never get paid anything close to their costs, let alone getting paid adequately for their supply and trade.
That, and when we've run out of undies and decide to go jocks "commando style".
Then he can be likened to some used and soggy tea leaves in tea cup, probably only fit to be placed at the window side of a Newmarket cafe on Carlton Gore Road, so as to be mishandled or reused for an even weaker, pallid, lackluster brew and then abused or consumed by any and sundry, in and around the national political set.
"Farm environment plans can be the one thing that you know you need to follow and work to," Ms Ardern told the conference."But then, how do we know those have relevant at the level of each catchment. "So there are things we would like your views on…
Farmers have already fenced off around 25,000 kilometres of riverbank under earlier agreements with the Crown. But most of them were built closer to a river than the five metre setback required under September's Action Plan for Healthy Waterways….
Ms Ardern said the Minister for the Environment, David Parker, would offer farmers a temporary reprieve. "He (Mr Parker) has said there could be a 10-year period (to do this) or a five-year period, so he is being very pragmatic about this."
I have a small creek running through the bottom of my 10 acre mini-farm and wonder what we need to do as the sheep all 40 of them don't go near the creek that we see.
We wonder where to for us now? – do we need to fence that small creek, will Gov’t help fund it?
If not do we just de-stock to keep just a few pet sheep like we had at the beginning of our organic farm?
There are councils/developers that are looking for land to assist in protecting water courses from stock, by providing offsetting mitigation that has resulted from effects of development. You could ask someone at your local authority/council for information as to the suitability of your land, the mitigation can be fencing, riparian planting
If the Pharmac apologists are still floating around here I would be very interested in hearing your views on these latest developments. Just be warned, I'm still recovering from a seizure last night and I'm very stroppy and argumentative(a very common after effect) but I'll do my best to manage it.
I hope you are all right now Kay. Have you got the treatment that you want?
Why can't people be asked to trial it, while they still have their previous medication. And if it doesn't suit, they can change back again. Those with the condition will understand their condition and know when it is suitable to try anything new, and have their other medication handy if there is a reaction.
@grey, thank you, I actually managed to fluke funding to stay on my long-standing brand some months ago before the Pharmac back down, but it could've gone the other way. Had I not, I would've been paying to stay on it and starving in the process, and probably dropping my dose to afford it.
I've been helping out with the fight behind the scenes and in the process have seen so many documents and OIA requests etc, and it's bloody scary what goes on. This fight is not over because Logem is still the sole funded brand and the other 2 brands are only still available here by the grace of the drug companies, ie supply not guaranteed. So we're not out of the woods.
Remember this isn't just a fight over a drug used for a few people with epilepsy and bipolar- this has happened before and will continue to happen, and people will continue to be harmed if this practice is not severely scrutinised and reigned in. And the people who want to back Pharmac blindly are welcome to, but they might want to remember they could be next to be affected.
It is amazing to see how things work out. We are talking about a drug for people who will be ill without it. There is a right dose, neither too little and certainly not too much will give the required effect.
The government has to be careful with its health budget and we all know that. So they try to be careful with expenditure, and yet need to keep the right amount of health treatment available. They want to take a balanced approach.
Then they allow their agent Pharmac to go OTT in a type of experiment, as it cannot be predicted just how many people will not be able to utilise the new type of the old drug. So they are prepared for them to underdose on the budget availability for epilepsy drugs and take a risk in the process, with your life. No wonder you are angry. They are virtually taking a guinea pig approach (sorry for any guinea pigs that have been hurt in the process).
If you wanted to boost support for the PM, it would go something like this:
"Stage a gun protest outside a primary school. Have no connection at all with the location, the event, the people. Involve ultra-fringe groups like the New Conservatives. Make sure you get on telly. Antagonise the public as much as possible."
Perhaps people who are agitated and excited seem silly and journalists only respect cold-blooded types like the March gunman who apparently remained detached while he created mayhem. He wasn't highly agitated although others were. Journos need to look for the cool one, at the eye of the storm.
Whenever there is a protest by lefties/greenies/Maori, especially during weekday work hours, they are immediately labelled "rentamob". (Disclosure: nobody has ever paid me rent to go and protest, but my rates are available on request).
Why is "rentamob" never used for right wing protests?
I've my digs, a billy and some te secured in a fag end wrap, attached to the end of a broomstick handle, and I’m off to seek my fortune in marketing and script writing.
No more the philosophical journeys (imposed or otherwise) down a path of hand to mouth monk hood if I can help it.
It's been a pleasure, am sure. One to one, to many and a chance to deliberate the wherefores and y's.
Don't leave us – now we have learned to appreciate your sterling qualities and ideas. If you have an idea why not drop it in – just takes a moment and then leave it to us to note it or thrash it out. Something of interest that intrigues you. Maybe just give us a link and a steer – this for the USA political watchers or Climate Change findings etc. Set a time limit for yourself which I have to do now. I confess I have to have a wind up device that ticks off the minutes. It's quirky, shaped like a tomato and dings when my time is up.
Nearly all family visitors start to grind on each other after a while. I love my beautiful ol Dad to bits but gee after 2 days of sharing the same space together…
The true and divine pleasure lives in the anticipation of being together again Clean and you're rolling in clover.
I was thinking today about protesting and if there could be a better way.
Traditionally, it is about getting in the face of perpetrators or influencers and harping 'We don't like what you're doing, stop it.'
It's a very basic strategy, rudimentary.
I wonder if we could be doing more with the same energy if we got in Twyford's face and demanded free rego and a rebate on the sticker price for electric vehicles as opposed to inhibiting OMV vessels from leaving port.
Creative protesting. Abseiling up the beehive will draw popular media coverage to a cause.
I don't know about you but I'm a long way from Wellington and a first-time abseiler…should that be absailor? If not, it should be.
Anyway, creative protesting. making the most effective noise possible with the least energy.
There must be better ways than standing outside Rio Tinto's head office chanting 'Stop all Mining you bastards'.
Traditional protesting is about 'Stop doing that'. I think protesting stands a much better chance of attracting a groundswell of popular support if it's focused on 'Lets do this instead'. Like hassling Twyford to make owning an electric car so easy and attractive you'd be a mug not to.
Imagine the kudos if an energy minister could declare '3 new geothermal generators are coming on line. There will be 30 fewer tankers tying up to the Marsden Point refinery this year. 300,000 more Kiwis will be getting around courtesy of the steam escaping from our beautiful country.'
Politicians with stories like that don't get voted out.
Early Nissan Leafs with gasping batteries are worthless.
If I had a burning desire to make money, I'd be looking for a way to give a worthless Leaf a new lease on life on a tight budget.
I could keep my Princess as she is accustomed rebirthing orthodox Leafs but if I could convince Mr Twyford to go absolutely loopy over electric cars I think I could make serious money with a competition range.
The Nissan Bud with the sticky head handling package.
How much dope do you reckon Phil Twyford has smoked? That Kiwibuild thing was a bit of a stoner's FU hey.
Great thoughts David Mac. Your idea of positive protesting is wise. We can whine about what is being done wrong and be accused of being airy-fairy theoretical types. But practical ideas are springing out of this blog like shoots from a creeper. Can we use this place as a central post to grow round and stick out individual shoots, carry them out and report we did it? Not sure about too much info. We will have to consider, sooner or later we will be annoying enough to the uncouth pollies and their dainty wealthy friends who will find us uncouth in turn.
There are groups around NZ who can see NZ is on the decline and doing something about it. When I mentioned decline here the other day a regular said What? explain yourself. Hollow laughter from me. The thinking and practical need to keep in touch off the big screen in a way that does not make them vulnerable.
That's the way Opotiki tangata 5000 signed petition to take to the Bop health board to keep the birth unit open you will have fresh taringa now that should listen.
Alcohol and hard drugs is making a big mess of Maori and Pacific tangata lives That's the way let all the people know the stuff is rotten with your march .
I sports is a great way for tangata Stars to shine Bright.
For some rural ports along the East Coast, this is the closest birthing Uni, which is up to an hours drive to opotiki! And yes this affects Hapū Māmā, but they are also effecting changes to emergency services, so it actually affects all whānau.
This sounds similar to Southland's situation. The country being run like a factory business – there must be a certain volume of units going through to be efficient.
Get those machine-minds out of their comfy chairs! Including those of Parliament. Big sale – must clear – comfy chairs from Parliament, each one personally signed by its previous owner. Great souveniers and talking points at parties. Can be used as fund raisers along with cake stalls – a koha per minute of sitting in The Chair and addressing the audience about the things that you would do for the country if you were elected.
Now that is a great idea don't you all think? Making fun and frolic with the empty pomposity and cunning conversation that we hear from the powers-that-be.
Andy Te Tangata Whenua all know that the treaty settlement putea is only 1 cent in the dollar of the Whenua that was stolen from us stop playing hard ball a pony up more putea. That's what it is some are settling for bugger all while we watch the fat cats who got our whenua cheap going on holiday with flash waka boats while our whano struggle to keep our whanau afloat.
Hine brand looks great that is needed encouragement for our Tangata to keep fit and keep Wahine heads held up.
We need to protect our beautiful wildlife from being over exploitatived.
Measures to arrest nature's decline must be passed into law, say MEPs
Officials call for global targets on protection of land, oceans and wildlife to be subject to Paris-style legal framework.
If humanity wants to reverse the widespread destruction of the natural world, biodiversity needs legal protection like the Paris agreement on climate change, members of the European parliament have said.
Action to halt biodiversity decline is based on voluntary commitments but, less than a year before a crucial UN biodiversity conference in China, MEPs pointed to the destruction of precious ecosystems and the more than 1m species facing extinction as evidence that the approach is failing
The global biomass of wild animals has fallen by 82% since records began and 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. The IPBES report also found there was a strong link between climate change and loss of biodiversity and one could not be solved without the other.
“The dual emergency of nature decline alongside climate breakdown means transformational action is needed,” said Sandra Bell from Friends of the Earth.
“We seem to have lost sight of the fact that nature provides us with healthy soils, water and air. In the UK, and across the EU, existing targets haven’t worked because they have lacked action, so it’s up to the EU commission and national governments to enforce nature laws
Global Warming is creating huge problems we have to minimise our use of green house gases ASAP.
1.9 billion people at risk from mountain water shortages, study shows
Rising demand and climate crisis threaten entire mountain ecosystem, say scientists
A quarter of the world’s population are at risk of water supply problems as mountain glaciers, snow-packs and alpine lakes are run down by global heating and rising demand, according to an international study.
The first inventory of high-altitude sources finds the Indus is the most important and vulnerable “water tower” due to run-off from the Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Ladakh, and Himalayan mountain ranges, which flow downstream to a densely populated and intensively irrigated basin in Pakistan, India, China and Afghanistan.
The world has a third pole – and it's melting quickly
Read more
The authors warn this vast water tower – a term they use to describe the role of water storage and supply that mountain ranges play to sustain environmental and human water demands downstream – is unlikely to sustain growing pressure by the middle of the century when temperatures are projected to rise by 1.9C (35.4F), rainfall to increase by less than 2%, but the population to grow by 50% and generate eight times more GDP
Its not looking good for New Zealand's toursim flooding down south roads washed out desaster in the north a earthquake in Te Tairawhiti that was felt in Whakatane what next.
I remember reading stories from the deniers that Wind power and Solar power ie Green energy can never replace coal. Well in your face Global warming deniers no only is Wind and Solar replacing Coal its cheaper and cleaner they use a fraction of the water that is need to burn coal. This tells me one thing the World is corupt for these lieing fools being able to get away with their lies for 40 years.
Windfarms drive fall in wholesale energy price with lower bills forecast for 2020
Australian Energy Market Commission says prices will begin to fall next year and by 2022 will be $97 a year lower
The price of residential electricity is estimated to start falling next year and continue to fall until 2022, the Australian Energy Market Commission says.
The AEMC’s annual report on electricity price trends shows an overall falling price outlook over the next few years, mostly due to decreases in the wholesale cost from increased generation capacity, particularly from windfarms.
By the end of 2022, almost all Australians are expected to spend an average $97 less on their annual power bills after prices start falling in 2020, the Australian Energy Market Commission says.
Annual bills during the financial year 2018-19 reached $1,370 and have been calculated to fall to $1,273 by June 2022.
This drop is not expected for Western Australia, where annual bills are estimated to be $100 more expensive
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David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tesch, Visiting Fellow at the ANU Centre for European Studies, Australian National University In perhaps the least surprising news of the year, Vladimir Putin has triumphed at the Russian ballot box and been enthroned for the fifth time as president. He ...
The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court has stopped a byelection for the Madang Open seat being held until an appeal filed by former MP Bryan Kramer is concluded. Kramer had appealed to the Supreme Court over a National Court decision not to review his application of the Leadership Tribunal decision ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Despite a “historic” ceasefire agreement in Papua New Guinea between Enga authorities and tribal leaders after months of bitter warfare, a young woman has been found brutally killed near Kaekin village, Wapenamanda. Despite the peace agreement and signing concluded in Port Moresby last Thursday ...
The second season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud is a sadder and slower entry into his canon of true story-telling, leaning heavily on a verdict about the cost of a single work of art. Hollywood heavyweight Ryan Murphy has had a bit of “ick” about him in the last few years. ...
Yet another driver failing to stop for police with tragic consequences. Lets hope the judge uses the full extent of the law when sentencing him to keep him locked up and off the roads for as long as possible.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12291153
Sad eh; right before Xmas I feel for the family left behind, as much as the father who will never spend time with a loving family. Very sad..
I agree, the driver and their supervising officer should be in the dock facing charges.
I lack trust in the evidence the police would bring.
Do we remember when petrol was priced the same no matter where we bought it? A remote country store, a petrol pump and same price as in the city.
If so, why was it changed?
Oddly, last year we found a remote country town has petrol 30c cheaper that the local city price!!!!!
dv – probably the price to lease land out in the country is cheaper so less overhead cost.
We saw this effect of lower prices outside the US cities to for the 10 yrs we spent over there,
Yeah, the Gulls at Atiamuri and Te Kuiti are reliably way lower price than just about anywhere else.
And why is petrol so expensive in Christchurch (more than Auckland I think) as they do not have the Auckland extra tax?
I am guessing because higher transport costs from Marsden Point, and maybe higher distribution costs within ChCh.
Could also be because ChCh has less fuel station chains (eg GAS etc in Auckland maybe undermines the old Big Four cosy cartel) .
Oddly enough, I was in Christchurch late last week and paid about 10 cents a litre less (for diesel) than when I got back to Dorkland early this week and filled up at Glen Eden Gull (usually near the cheapest around here).
GAS never seems particularly low-priced here in Orclund, unlike Gull. Whereas the mainland has NPD and Allied which both seemed reliably low-priced. Gull and Waitomo also appear to be starting up down there.
"Apathy towards mainstream politicians has seen support for independent candidates surge by five percentage points, according to a new poll.
The Savanta ComRes poll for the Telegraph found that six per cent of British adults plan to support aspiring MPs who do not belong to any of the six main parties on December 12.
The pollster puts support for “other” parties at 6 per cent – higher than the 4 per cent planning to support the SNP, the 3 per cent behind the Brexit Party and the 2 per cent voting for the Greens.
However, the results may also reflect methodological change .."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/04/surge-independents-poll-finds-voters-set-boycott-main-parties/
More from Ashcroft’s Conservative Home ..
https://www.conservativehome.com/frontpage/2019/12/newslinks-for-thursday-5th-december-2019.html
Tory lead slips to single figures
.. one week until election day there is still time for public opinion to shift – just as it did away from Theresa May in 2017.
Labour have been steadily narrowing the gap with the Tories, in-part thanks to a relatively popular manifesto, but continue to suffer from the on-going accusations of anti-Semitism which are plaguing both party and leader.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/05/general-election-2019-opinion-polls-latest-odds-uk-labour-conservative/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget
Still some life in the old anti-Semitism canard yet. Whereas the real Islamophobia in the Tories is seldom mentioned. The closing gap can yet again be attributed to the election period rules pegging back the anti-Labour media bias from the stratospheric to the merely blatant.
not a good look….'bro'
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/12/i-m-on-it-bro-messages-show-kris-faafoi-offering-help-to-friend-jason-kerrison-over-immigration-case.html
Mountain, molehill.
As long as he just passed it on to the local MP then no problem.
From the link: "Text messages obtained by Newshub … "
Translation: "Jason Kerrison has given Tova O'Brien … "
There is no other possible source (unless you think Tova can hack into Facebook and phones).
Honest reporting would be: "Today, in an attempt to manipulate me and you, I was sent these messages, which I will now pass off as an exclusive, as if I had done the investigating myself."
Being used isn't journalism, it's laziness.
I do not get what would be in it for Kerrison to leak this stuff to the media. Won't help his family's case.
"I'm angry so I'll screw you even if it screws me" is a story as old as history (and Hollywood).
Kerrison is his own worst enemy. Faafoi referred his case to Northland MP Matt King who apparently asked Kerrison to contact him. Kerrison apparently never did.
Thanks Formerly Ross
So Matt King was going to assist too was he just???
Very interesting, so the plot thickens eh?
We wonder if tonight on Newshub Tova OBrien is 'chirping' about National MP's wanting to assist Jason Kerriston as well??
Not likely as she is anti labour isn't she?
Remember this is the guy who built a bunker in 2012 to prepare for the end of the world…
Yeah I had forgotten all about that weirdness. His is not a style of music that resonates with me so seeing his name pop up during the local elections was a surprise.
I don't think Jason Kerrison will be getting a Christmas card from Kris this year.
My son did have the same problems with immigration as Jason had early last year.
Where my son had met a German lady while over there in Germany for a wedding.
His girlfriend later came to NZ after my son returned home to NZ and my son and her approached immigration and requested a work permit for her as she had university certification to show high work value skills for NZ.
Shockingly she was roughly told by the immigration officials "don't bother to send in an application as we will not look at it" !!!!
So as parents both my wife and I arranged to meet with our local MP Stuart Nash and explained the situation that as disabled older folks we needed my son here to care for us.
Stuart Nash said he can't help but would allow his staff to contact the Immigration department to see what they can do, and it never came to anything,
So we lost our son who was a fully licenceed Master Electrician when he went back to Germany to live with his fiance.
Nothing now makes any sense to us when you see the Government is prepared to break up even NZ born families now.
So much for the free market when it applies to NZ people who genuinely would like to access its cross-border benefits.
Agreed GWS
It was bad for my son it be treated that way as my Wife and I remember when our Son told us what Immigration NZ said that they would ignore any application for his Fiance to get a work permit he was very angry.
As he had worked very hard to get his full registration/licence to become a fully fledged Master Electrician he was despondent with legitimate reasons.
Considering almost any other country would welcome a skilled tradesman into their country but not his own with the wife of his choice.
Rest assured @ Cleangreen, our Immigration policy is based on "best practice" (/sarc) – which is pretty much code for not very much of it makes any sense.
I've given up having any sympathy for any of the 'officials ' that have, and continue to make fuckup after fuckup (as a matter of record), AND for ministers/associate minister that refuse to undertake radical reform of the cistern.
Ministers are going to continue to be let down by their "officials", and NZers and immigration applicants are going to continue to be let down by the cistern until they do.
More fool them though eh! As far as I know, masochism and flagellation is legal. Not as though the whole issue of immigration policy could be the tipping point of an election given an opposition wanting to use any dirty trick at their disposal.
Shudda Cudda Wudda
* "………..let down by their "officials", and NZers and immigration applicants are going to continue to be let down by the cistern until they do." = " ……….let down by their "officials", and NZers and immigration applicants are going to continue to be let down by the cistern until they (a gummint) do undertake radical reform".
Thanks Once Was Tim.
Yes it’s cold comfort to see the Minister being lamb-basted by the media hounds when it was the bureaucrats that have caused the mess not him.
So a restructuring of the obviously dysfunctional system needs radical change now as you allude too.
Since so many mistakes have been found.
Kris is a casualty of this dysfunctional bureaucratic mess.and must be excused for thinking they were doing right for all of us.
I feel for Kris Faaoi having worked so hard to do so much for NZ to be badgered like that, and then possibly see that work jeopardised by someone you felt that close to. In the interests of NZ the Coalition need to stop trusting that others are as honourable & honest as they are, it looks like many media – certain ones in particular are basing their entire careers on it – some govt employees & those who will call you friend are driven by self interest. It's actually a very sad and undeserved day that Mr Faafoi is facing.
pffffft to all above and below. (I'm desperate to know when we can apply for funding for a series of Border Force NZ. The dogs are in training, some Shortland Street star is rehearsing the smart-arse voice-overs, Julie Christie's bidding for the rights, and NuZullOn Ear are considering funding applications)
By the way …. Does anyone know if that queue jumper Dawn Baxendale's visa has been sorted?
So much more important (/sarc)
OWT yes she (Dawn Baxendale) will get a free pass for her TV interest and her looks I would imagine; – unless she is a he; (sarc..
Edit
China attempted to control its projected population growth by decree and brute force. The culture elevates males to carry the family line and fortunes down the generations. One child only was allowed to most people. So males took precedence often. Some people drowned their girl baby in a bucket.
It was a traumatic decree with consequences with now a vastly skewed gender balance which will have the affect of females being greatly prized but also being objects to be controlled and guarded, not free, and likely to be traded in a commercial way for advantage.
Chinese men are looking to Pakistan and women trafficking with 629 victims of a people smuggling ring being accused. But Pakistan wants to obtain agreements 'to cement business with its ally' so witnesses are being told to stay schtum.
To lessen birth numbers the MIT in USA is working on a contraceptive pill that will give a month's protection from only one taken each month. That may be good if it passes trials for safety and effectiveness.
(Items – p.16 Nelson Mail World section Dec 6 2019 Fairfax).
But I think there must be an effort to limit the population burden on countries and the planet. We could allow people to choose their time of death after the age of 75, and ensure that this was properly planned for, with respect and effectively achieved according to the wishes of the person.
Source ?
https://apnews.com/c586d0f73fe249718ec06f6867b0244e
To date – Brexit in the UK generally
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-50670627/general-election-2019-farage-on-meps-leaving-brexit-party
General election 2019: Farage on MEPs leaving Brexit Party
Nigel Farage said three of the MEPs who have left his Brexit Party have links to the Conservative party.
He said they were wrong to back the Conservatives and “don’t understand” what is happening in the Labour seats being contested by the Brexit Party.
The BBC's Andrew Neil told Mr Farage that links that the MEPs had to the Tories were well known when he “paraded” them as Brexit Party candidates.
(Farage reminds me of pictures of Toad in Wind and the Willows. Anyone else see a likeness?) Confusion in Labour about Brexit – why would they be disturbed at having another Brexit vote? Which must first have a legally raised majority level to ensure it's a widely and firmly supported decision.)
.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/uk-labour-supporters-unhappy-prospect-brexit-vote-191205121502167.html
The decision by Britain's main opposition Labour party to hold another Brexit vote if it wins the upcoming election has upset some supporters.
In Hartlepool, in northeast England, most people voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.
Now they are threatening to switch to pro-Brexit parties.
Al Jazeera's Emma Hayward reports from Hartlepool.
.
EU's Donald Tusk (Polish politician) is not confused, he has considered and pronounces:
Brexit has been “one of the most spectacular mistakes” in the history of the EU and followed a campaign marked by “an unprecedented readiness to lie”, Donald Tusk has said….
The unabashed anglophile, who recently said he would “in my heart always be a remainer”, put himself at odds with other EU leaders by declaring it would still be better for both sides if Brexit did not happen. Many EU diplomats fear any second referendum leading to a remain result would mean festering divisions in the UK that would block the EU from making decisions – a view Tusk strongly rejected.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/05/brexit-one-of-most-spectacular-mistakes-in-eu-history-donald-tusk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Tusk
A little slow with my Israel Folau comment, but here's my penny's worth:
A satisfactory result for him, all considered it would seem.
He walks away smiling and they, Rugby Australia (RA), get rid of a social media zealot.
But in a way, Folau has won on two counts;
1. He ends up with a settlement in his back pocket with only a relatively small amount having to be spent on legal "mouthpieces" (paid for by others in any case) and he will probably do well elsewhere in relation to recreational sport as a money making venture.
2. He walks off with the satisfaction of knowing that he has sent RA into a tail spin as it pertains to employment contracts and fine print.
Of course, few ever suggested that RA were anti-Christian and it should be evident that they were, more or less, trying to stay compliant in relation to almost global anti-discrimination laws pertaining to religion, race, gender etc.
But in fact, that which he expressed on social media didn’t appear to break any of those laws.
For example, if I were to take some obscure interpreted verse from the Quran and I were to state that this book of joy suggested death and damnation to the infidel, my advice is that I would not be breaking the law either.
I may seriously have an issue with the comments made by Folau, (and hey, I'm not even homosexual, nor am I a Muslim), but I do congratulate him for his entrepreneurial spirit in relation to the use of contractual law and sport to profit from.
He has proven something that is clearly apparent, people can make oodles of money from virtually doing nothing.
Translation : Someone skilled at playing with balls and his equally skillful ball handling squeeze are cunning as shit-house rats and can now go back into their circle-jerk pretend religion family and spout as many knuckle dragging opinions as they like on the dime of poor innocent rugby players.
Now maybe they'll start doing what their god wishes and start punching out babies instead of focusing on their illustrious careers.
May a God bless them and heal their hurt feelings.
You have a way with words, Red Blooded One.
You have pretty much expressed what I was thinking when I was tapping away earlier on, but where my words came out a little too politely.
well, contract law or a bit of litigious extortion: you can pay me X to settle, or you'll pay your lawyers X+Y to fight the case in court.
He was allowed to say what he said, I don't think anyone's said it crossed legal lines. He just shat on the brand that was paying him by advertising the brand that's the family business.
Edit
This is really interesting. On Radionz details about a building firm that has put up a new building in Christchurch which a junior structural engineer blew the whistle about. Just as well or probably no-one would have known until there was a disaster. What a story, the young engineer walking past the building, looked past the construction fence, and saw some unnerving evidence of poor construction and reported it. Good on that person, and on his firm to which he first reported.
Then…bad. The building was allowed to be continued. And now sits vacant and pending dangerous.
A full two years of wrangling later – during which time the building was completed, as was one next door – experts have confirmed there are 10 significant weaknesses in the design or construction of columns, bracing, the calculation of seismic loads, hold-down bolts, the pile design and the stairs.
The building consent team at the city council said it was "gutted" the eight-storey design got through its checking systems.
This from another developer who has background on the people and company behind the building.
"Two or three years ago, they approached us, were aware that we wanted to build a carparking building in Hereford Street. They said that they felt that Christchurch was being overcharged for buildings and that they could do it so much better," Mr Gough said.
He looked into Rockwell, he said.
Companies office records show it was set up in 2014 and 2015 by business interests originally from Korea, and in online posts says it offers seismic engineering and specialised construction.
"They had a company that was only about $100 shareholding, was less than a month old and had no experience in New Zealand or Christchurch whatsoever," Mr Gough said.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/404956/developer-declined-rockwell-group-responsible-for-substandard-building-in-christchurch
Don't we check on integrity of people, company, experience, materials etc before approving projects and their formation? Have NZ and particularly, Christchurch planners and regulators, been overcome by some virus that has over-ridden their normal desire to do their jobs well? What sort of background credentials have they, to even get into their jobs? What are they being taught during the time they are studying for their qualifications?
We have so many botches in NZ and it is time for a revolution as all–embracing as that of Douglas & Co, and old worn-out Labour. We can't let this country be run by cowboys with the rodeo running on a national scale. Those who specialise in looking after animal welfare have got rodeos banned. We humans consider ourselves so intelligent, and on a higher level above animals, yet we can't trust our trained and well-paid managers to look after our welfare, and ultimately, their own. We are the animals being spurred and kicked. God help us!
One of the downsides not considered in NZ's unseemly haste to embrace globalization is the issue of enforcement across language barriers. Council inspectors are fairly taxed assuring compliance even among builders from our own culture, and moreso in Christchurch, where large numbers of substandard earthquake repairs seem to have slid through without the inspectorate so much as clearing it's throat. Throw in language and cultural issues and they are more likely to avoid the job than demonstrate the extra vigilance and communication skills required.
not to mention the dearth of capability in house to assess the performance of the design
Really needs to be a lot more inspectors, pain in the ass trying to get an inspector in to sign off on an inspections.
Ideally you'd have a surplus & cycle them through the construction sector & polytechs & WEAs during low build times, to upskill and spread the knowledge. Kindof at odds with the black economy model of exploited foreign workers building McMansions though.
Good point there Stuart.100%
"$100 shareholding", more at "$100 company". An old phrase or terminology but still widely used and used most legitimately as a description for a company which might only be worth the cost of the original company registration set up cost, and then even less when the company is being pursued by creditors or other irate individuals or groups.
Indeed the safety and quality assurance concerns are one issue, and also the other issue pertaining to the many who'd have assisted with the construction in good faith and had supplied materials, only to find that as creditors, they may never get paid anything close to their costs, let alone getting paid adequately for their supply and trade.
https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1202305787705606144
I would like to imagine you to be our Aotearoa (TS) version, Weka.
Like a Weka Thunberg.
☺️
I have been known to sit in paddocks of long grass. Not a Thunberg but appreciate the encouragement 🙂
yep to that Karol21 – weka is awesome.
Greta has to be an inspiration to any human being.
Like the boy who cried wolf, Simon squeaks Meka, Clare, Grant, Ian, Shane, Stuart, Kris must resign!. Everyone resign!, anyone?, hello?, hello?…
A sad lonely voice crying in the wilderness. Poor little Simon.
To be fair though, when in opposition they did cry the same about National ministers whenever they could.
That's part of the job we pay him to do.
Well, maybe I should take a more considered view of Mr Bridges.
Here goes…
Simon is like the skidmark on my undies. Doesn't pass the sniff test, is always unpleasant, but sometimes is just plain unavoidable.
That, and when we've run out of undies and decide to go jocks "commando style".
Then he can be likened to some used and soggy tea leaves in tea cup, probably only fit to be placed at the window side of a Newmarket cafe on Carlton Gore Road, so as to be mishandled or reused for an even weaker, pallid, lackluster brew and then abused or consumed by any and sundry, in and around the national political set.
NoRightTurn nails it again.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/12/faafoi-should-be-fired.html?m=1
Acta non verba
Something good happening because Labour is working for the country.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/404936/help-may-be-on-the-way-for-farmers-struggling-with-farm-environment-plans
5.12.2019 Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern indicated help could be on the way, in answer to a question at a farmers' conference, on what might be available for farmers in next year's budget.
"Farm environment plans can be the one thing that you know you need to follow and work to," Ms Ardern told the conference."But then, how do we know those have relevant at the level of each catchment. "So there are things we would like your views on…
Farmers have already fenced off around 25,000 kilometres of riverbank under earlier agreements with the Crown.
But most of them were built closer to a river than the five metre setback required under September's Action Plan for Healthy Waterways….
Ms Ardern said the Minister for the Environment, David Parker, would offer farmers a temporary reprieve.
"He (Mr Parker) has said there could be a 10-year period (to do this) or a five-year period, so he is being very pragmatic about this."
I have a small creek running through the bottom of my 10 acre mini-farm and wonder what we need to do as the sheep all 40 of them don't go near the creek that we see.
We wonder where to for us now? – do we need to fence that small creek, will Gov’t help fund it?
If not do we just de-stock to keep just a few pet sheep like we had at the beginning of our organic farm?
There are councils/developers that are looking for land to assist in protecting water courses from stock, by providing offsetting mitigation that has resulted from effects of development. You could ask someone at your local authority/council for information as to the suitability of your land, the mitigation can be fencing, riparian planting
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/104195114/developers-fund-25-million-project-to-return-concrete-culvert-to-stream-in-reserve-on-aucklands-north-shore
Herodotus; -Thanks
Yes I will ask when next at the GDC, as we do always want the steam protected from any pollution inundation.
We came hare 14 yrs ago to escape the Napier city pollution, under doctors orders, so it has been in in our mind for years.
But on a small fixed pension we have very limited funds..
Yesterday we were able to get this "study" shut down
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/404933/epilepsy-patients-angry-at-being-told-symptoms-all-in-their-heads
Today, this happened
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/404964/chief-coroner-opens-inquiry-into-deaths-linked-to-anti-epileptic-medication
If the Pharmac apologists are still floating around here I would be very interested in hearing your views on these latest developments. Just be warned, I'm still recovering from a seizure last night and I'm very stroppy and argumentative(a very common after effect) but I'll do my best to manage it.
Although I acknowledge the patients’ rights to be angry the irony is that the study aimed to improve health outcomes for said patients.
I hope you are all right now Kay. Have you got the treatment that you want?
I hope you are all right now Kay. Have you got the treatment that you want?
Why can't people be asked to trial it, while they still have their previous medication. And if it doesn't suit, they can change back again. Those with the condition will understand their condition and know when it is suitable to try anything new, and have their other medication handy if there is a reaction.
@grey, thank you, I actually managed to fluke funding to stay on my long-standing brand some months ago before the Pharmac back down, but it could've gone the other way. Had I not, I would've been paying to stay on it and starving in the process, and probably dropping my dose to afford it.
I've been helping out with the fight behind the scenes and in the process have seen so many documents and OIA requests etc, and it's bloody scary what goes on. This fight is not over because Logem is still the sole funded brand and the other 2 brands are only still available here by the grace of the drug companies, ie supply not guaranteed. So we're not out of the woods.
Remember this isn't just a fight over a drug used for a few people with epilepsy and bipolar- this has happened before and will continue to happen, and people will continue to be harmed if this practice is not severely scrutinised and reigned in. And the people who want to back Pharmac blindly are welcome to, but they might want to remember they could be next to be affected.
It is amazing to see how things work out. We are talking about a drug for people who will be ill without it. There is a right dose, neither too little and certainly not too much will give the required effect.
The government has to be careful with its health budget and we all know that. So they try to be careful with expenditure, and yet need to keep the right amount of health treatment available. They want to take a balanced approach.
Then they allow their agent Pharmac to go OTT in a type of experiment, as it cannot be predicted just how many people will not be able to utilise the new type of the old drug. So they are prepared for them to underdose on the budget availability for epilepsy drugs and take a risk in the process, with your life. No wonder you are angry. They are virtually taking a guinea pig approach (sorry for any guinea pigs that have been hurt in the process).
If you wanted to boost support for the PM, it would go something like this:
"Stage a gun protest outside a primary school. Have no connection at all with the location, the event, the people. Involve ultra-fringe groups like the New Conservatives. Make sure you get on telly. Antagonise the public as much as possible."
Top work, guys!
A motorist yelled at the gun owning protesters : "Why outside a primary school you maniacs ."
The Herald describes the motorist as an "highly agitated driver".
Of course he was agitated. So, I bet were many other passers-by.
How dumb can some of these journos be?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12291623
Perhaps people who are agitated and excited seem silly and journalists only respect cold-blooded types like the March gunman who apparently remained detached while he created mayhem. He wasn't highly agitated although others were. Journos need to look for the cool one, at the eye of the storm.
Exactly as dumb as they need to be to secure continued employment with Granny Herald. 'The NZ Herald – lowering the bar since forever.'
Whenever there is a protest by lefties/greenies/Maori, especially during weekday work hours, they are immediately labelled "rentamob". (Disclosure: nobody has ever paid me rent to go and protest, but my rates are available on request).
Why is "rentamob" never used for right wing protests?
Especially as the typsetting on their posters seems suspiciously uniform. Someone shelled out a few bucks for each placard.
Anne at 19.1
Jouro's by name only but low quality ones at that!!!
How sad that the journo said only the (gun) weapon user was agitated??
Statement from Kris Faafoi,
https://twitter.com/David_Cormack/status/1202781916828598275
Adios Amigos (and others).
I've my digs, a billy and some te secured in a fag end wrap, attached to the end of a broomstick handle, and I’m off to seek my fortune in marketing and script writing.
No more the philosophical journeys (imposed or otherwise) down a path of hand to mouth monk hood if I can help it.
It's been a pleasure, am sure. One to one, to many and a chance to deliberate the wherefores and y's.
Don't go…
Don't leave us – now we have learned to appreciate your sterling qualities and ideas. If you have an idea why not drop it in – just takes a moment and then leave it to us to note it or thrash it out. Something of interest that intrigues you. Maybe just give us a link and a steer – this for the USA political watchers or Climate Change findings etc. Set a time limit for yourself which I have to do now. I confess I have to have a wind up device that ticks off the minutes. It's quirky, shaped like a tomato and dings when my time is up.
Awh, we need you here, thoughtful, poetic and polite. Good luck with your fortune seeking and maybe visit occasionally.
Yeah, good luck Karol, I hope your flight wings you to contentment. You look to be on the way to me.
Well my daughter flew out yesterday so we are 'alone again naturally' (Gilbert o' Sullivan) cera 1974. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTF3BTKlj9Q
Nearly all family visitors start to grind on each other after a while. I love my beautiful ol Dad to bits but gee after 2 days of sharing the same space together…
The true and divine pleasure lives in the anticipation of being together again Clean and you're rolling in clover.
I was thinking today about protesting and if there could be a better way.
Traditionally, it is about getting in the face of perpetrators or influencers and harping 'We don't like what you're doing, stop it.'
It's a very basic strategy, rudimentary.
I wonder if we could be doing more with the same energy if we got in Twyford's face and demanded free rego and a rebate on the sticker price for electric vehicles as opposed to inhibiting OMV vessels from leaving port.
Do to oil what Henry Ford did to the horse.
Creative protesting. Abseiling up the beehive will draw popular media coverage to a cause.
I don't know about you but I'm a long way from Wellington and a first-time abseiler…should that be absailor? If not, it should be.
Anyway, creative protesting. making the most effective noise possible with the least energy.
There must be better ways than standing outside Rio Tinto's head office chanting 'Stop all Mining you bastards'.
Traditional protesting is about 'Stop doing that'. I think protesting stands a much better chance of attracting a groundswell of popular support if it's focused on 'Lets do this instead'. Like hassling Twyford to make owning an electric car so easy and attractive you'd be a mug not to.
Imagine the kudos if an energy minister could declare '3 new geothermal generators are coming on line. There will be 30 fewer tankers tying up to the Marsden Point refinery this year. 300,000 more Kiwis will be getting around courtesy of the steam escaping from our beautiful country.'
Politicians with stories like that don't get voted out.
Early Nissan Leafs with gasping batteries are worthless.
If I had a burning desire to make money, I'd be looking for a way to give a worthless Leaf a new lease on life on a tight budget.
I could keep my Princess as she is accustomed rebirthing orthodox Leafs but if I could convince Mr Twyford to go absolutely loopy over electric cars I think I could make serious money with a competition range.
The Nissan Bud with the sticky head handling package.
How much dope do you reckon Phil Twyford has smoked? That Kiwibuild thing was a bit of a stoner's FU hey.
Great thoughts David Mac. Your idea of positive protesting is wise. We can whine about what is being done wrong and be accused of being airy-fairy theoretical types. But practical ideas are springing out of this blog like shoots from a creeper. Can we use this place as a central post to grow round and stick out individual shoots, carry them out and report we did it? Not sure about too much info. We will have to consider, sooner or later we will be annoying enough to the uncouth pollies and their dainty wealthy friends who will find us uncouth in turn.
There are groups around NZ who can see NZ is on the decline and doing something about it. When I mentioned decline here the other day a regular said What? explain yourself. Hollow laughter from me. The thinking and practical need to keep in touch off the big screen in a way that does not make them vulnerable.
Kia Ora 1 News.
Way down south
There ways blocked from flooding taking out the main roads Tawhirimate has been given heaps of Mana with Global Warming.
That's a great way for the District Health Board to be governed having half Wahine and Tangata whenua on the Board is good.
Well there you go I knew who is not happy with our common peoples government.
Awsome to the Salvation Army running the unit to keep people out of the Hinaki.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
That's the way Opotiki tangata 5000 signed petition to take to the Bop health board to keep the birth unit open you will have fresh taringa now that should listen.
Alcohol and hard drugs is making a big mess of Maori and Pacific tangata lives That's the way let all the people know the stuff is rotten with your march .
I sports is a great way for tangata Stars to shine Bright.
Ka kite Ano
The birthing unit at Opotiki closed down with three days notice on 1st December 2019. WTF!
https://www.change.org/p/bay-of-plenty-district-health-board-stop-the-closing-of-the-opotiki-birthing-centre-and-emergency-services
For some rural ports along the East Coast, this is the closest birthing Uni, which is up to an hours drive to opotiki! And yes this affects Hapū Māmā, but they are also effecting changes to emergency services, so it actually affects all whānau.
This sounds similar to Southland's situation. The country being run like a factory business – there must be a certain volume of units going through to be efficient.
Get those machine-minds out of their comfy chairs! Including those of Parliament. Big sale – must clear – comfy chairs from Parliament, each one personally signed by its previous owner. Great souveniers and talking points at parties. Can be used as fund raisers along with cake stalls – a koha per minute of sitting in The Chair and addressing the audience about the things that you would do for the country if you were elected.
Now that is a great idea don't you all think? Making fun and frolic with the empty pomposity and cunning conversation that we hear from the powers-that-be.
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora 1 News.
Its better to re use glass bottles.
I think My food bag being delivered to the poorest peoples door is a excellent idea.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Andy Te Tangata Whenua all know that the treaty settlement putea is only 1 cent in the dollar of the Whenua that was stolen from us stop playing hard ball a pony up more putea. That's what it is some are settling for bugger all while we watch the fat cats who got our whenua cheap going on holiday with flash waka boats while our whano struggle to keep our whanau afloat.
Hine brand looks great that is needed encouragement for our Tangata to keep fit and keep Wahine heads held up.
Mana Wahine
Kia Ora Breakfast.
Well I don't have to worry about personal alcohol problems as I don't touch the stuff anymore.
Is it a coincidence that Bus strikes are happening in the lead up to Christmas. I bet the owners of the bus company's are blue flags wavers.??????.
New Zealand needs to learn to respect all cultures.
trump is not going to win some one else is going to Trump him.
Ka kite Ano
We need to protect our beautiful wildlife from being over exploitatived.
Measures to arrest nature's decline must be passed into law, say MEPs
If humanity wants to reverse the widespread destruction of the natural world, biodiversity needs legal protection like the Paris agreement on climate change, members of the European parliament have said.
Action to halt biodiversity decline is based on voluntary commitments but, less than a year before a crucial UN biodiversity conference in China, MEPs pointed to the destruction of precious ecosystems and the more than 1m species facing extinction as evidence that the approach is failing
The global biomass of wild animals has fallen by 82% since records began and 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. The IPBES report also found there was a strong link between climate change and loss of biodiversity and one could not be solved without the other.
“The dual emergency of nature decline alongside climate breakdown means transformational action is needed,” said Sandra Bell from Friends of the Earth.
“We seem to have lost sight of the fact that nature provides us with healthy soils, water and air. In the UK, and across the EU, existing targets haven’t worked because they have lacked action, so it’s up to the EU commission and national governments to enforce nature laws
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/06/measures-to-arrest-natures-decline-must-be-passed-into-law-say-meps
https://youtu.be/QAB6aXOfUmU
Kia Ora 1 News.
Let's hope the government makes decisions that minimise our carbon footprint and not just to maximise Te putea.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Te puia o whakaai is erupting.
You see the bus company's owner are not just blue flag wavers they are climate change deniers.
I agree one must show respect for Tangaroa.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Breakfast.
Condolences to the tangata who lost whanau on Te Puia O Whakaai out of respect for the dead I will say no more on the subject.
Ka kite Ano
Global Warming is creating huge problems we have to minimise our use of green house gases ASAP.
1.9 billion people at risk from mountain water shortages, study shows
Rising demand and climate crisis threaten entire mountain ecosystem, say scientists
A quarter of the world’s population are at risk of water supply problems as mountain glaciers, snow-packs and alpine lakes are run down by global heating and rising demand, according to an international study.
The first inventory of high-altitude sources finds the Indus is the most important and vulnerable “water tower” due to run-off from the Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Ladakh, and Himalayan mountain ranges, which flow downstream to a densely populated and intensively irrigated basin in Pakistan, India, China and Afghanistan.
The world has a third pole – and it's melting quickly
Read more
The authors warn this vast water tower – a term they use to describe the role of water storage and supply that mountain ranges play to sustain environmental and human water demands downstream – is unlikely to sustain growing pressure by the middle of the century when temperatures are projected to rise by 1.9C (35.4F), rainfall to increase by less than 2%, but the population to grow by 50% and generate eight times more GDP
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/09/billion-people-risk-water-supply-rising-demand-global-heating-mountain-ecosystem
Kia Ora 1 News.
Its not looking good for New Zealand's toursim flooding down south roads washed out desaster in the north a earthquake in Te Tairawhiti that was felt in Whakatane what next.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
I agree we have to be thankful for what we have in Aotearoa it good to see tangata helping out Samoa in there time of sorrow and need.
That's will be Awesome to see St Stevens Maori school reopen soon we must keep tangata whenua culture going Mana.
Great to see Te Rangatahi enjoying Maori sports.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Breakfast.
Should have had a question to spend the putea on Greening Aotearoa economy that can make the economy grow and create jobs and save our environment.
Our whole transport system needs to be changed to a low carbon low cost system.
You might think you are funny pakiha.
Ka kite Ano.
Doesn't matter everyone can see Te Eco Maori affect on you.
I remember reading stories from the deniers that Wind power and Solar power ie Green energy can never replace coal. Well in your face Global warming deniers no only is Wind and Solar replacing Coal its cheaper and cleaner they use a fraction of the water that is need to burn coal. This tells me one thing the World is corupt for these lieing fools being able to get away with their lies for 40 years.
Windfarms drive fall in wholesale energy price with lower bills forecast for 2020
Australian Energy Market Commission says prices will begin to fall next year and by 2022 will be $97 a year lower
The price of residential electricity is estimated to start falling next year and continue to fall until 2022, the Australian Energy Market Commission says.
The AEMC’s annual report on electricity price trends shows an overall falling price outlook over the next few years, mostly due to decreases in the wholesale cost from increased generation capacity, particularly from windfarms.
By the end of 2022, almost all Australians are expected to spend an average $97 less on their annual power bills after prices start falling in 2020, the Australian Energy Market Commission says.
Annual bills during the financial year 2018-19 reached $1,370 and have been calculated to fall to $1,273 by June 2022.
This drop is not expected for Western Australia, where annual bills are estimated to be $100 more expensive
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/09/windfarms-drive-fall-in-wholesale-energy-price-with-lower-bills-forecast-for-2020
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
https://youtu.be/5Yj4j_lZMBo