I’ve just been watching Max Keiser Report number 947, and it gave me food for thought.
Inequality has become quite grotesque in the USA and in New Zealand, with the richest people in this country increasing their wealth by obscene amounts while the rest of the country struggle to make ends meet. (Slight exaggeration)
It seems to me that, unless we elect a government determined to reverse this trend, we really will end up as serfs. Automation will destroy jobs in the future, so more and more people will join the precariate, while the profits from employing less humans will go straight to the top ten per-cent.
So, as I would suggest, we stand at a crossroads in the history of our country. If we continue on as we are, then we will cement in a new aristocracy, the money-owners, and a new peasantry, the working class who exist on minimum wages and zero hours, or reluctant government handouts.
Or we can take a really radical direction and aim to share the benefits of the economy equally among all the people who live in this country. Radical reform may include a UBI. It must include tax redistribution, shifting the burden of tax from the poor, who can’t escape paying, to the rich, who now avoid paying.
What is absolutely certain is that we cannot do nothing.
Just as an aside, this is why I would support a Trump presidency. Will Clinton nothing meaningful will change. She has been bought and paid for by the very people who don’t want to see economic equality, and she’ll do their bidding.
With the Donald, hell, we don’t know what we’re getting, but it sure isn’t
e*t*b*i*h*e*t. (I bet that will get past moderation!) Yes, I think the man is a shallow showman, and there’s more than a suggestion he might be deliberately throwing his chances of being elected, but if he does get the nod, he won’t tug his forelock to the – to that word again.
But I look in vain in New Zealand for a political party with the gumption to propose a legislative revolution. I fear we shall have to take to the streets in the end, to force political change and to unseat the (God, there’s that word again – can I never get away from it?)
“It seems to me that, unless we elect a government determined to reverse this trend, we really will end up as serfs.”
Unless we also look at improving our political structure, the elite (through political donations or corporate lobbying) can end up commanding the Government we elect.
Tony, there are historical parallels for your Trump leaning. And history tells us that they always work out badly for working people. Reagan, Thatcher, the Austrian bloke who ran Germany in the thirties … all elected on the promise to end the establishment. All cemented the establishment in place.
It’s an infantile pretension, similar to the extreme left concept that we need concentration camps before the lumpen proles will rise up.
On the up side, Trump, who had to admit lying this morning, has surged to a massive 8% chance of winning, according to 538. Hillary Clinton has a mere 91% chance of becoming president.
TRP – I do really agree with what you’re saying. If I were an American voter I would cast my ballot for Jill Stein, and to hell with the consequences. But don’t look to HRC for any meaningful change in the USA.
And perhaps it is unhealthy to oppose the Clintons?
Trump’s Democratic opponents and a growing number of republicans say Trump is temperamentally unsuitable for the presidency. They need to delete the ‘tempera’ part of the adverb. He is mentally ‘unsuitable’..
Honestly, if he were an ordinary person ranting on the street without his money or power, the people in white coats would pick him up, give him a nice room and some medication.
te reo putake I don’t think there is any chance of a goodwin when we talk about what a fascist state has done to working people.
I know Bill and I bring up Franco a lot, there is a reason. Franco’s Spain was a nightmare, the way that economy worked was to brutalise sections of the working class based on ethnicity and/or whether they had fought for republic or not. Even then the so called pro-Franco peasants did not do that well.
trump is a fascist, he may not be a hitler, but his economics and his approach is fascist. This does not bode well for working people, the sick, the disabled, and most of all women. And we should smack him and his ideas down like the destructive force they are.
…while the profits from employing less humans will go straight to the top ten per-cent.
As it always has done under capitalists type systems. We see the same thing in Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt and we all know what happened to them.
It really is capitalism that doesn’t work. Unfortunately a few get rich until it all falls down and they’re the ones making the rules to suit themselves.
If we continue on as we are, then we will cement in a new aristocracy, the money-owners, and a new peasantry, the working class who exist on minimum wages and zero hours, or reluctant government handouts.
QFT
Of course, the money owners like that idea which is why they always advocate and lobby government for the policies that will bring it about.
Radical reform may include a UBI. It must include tax redistribution, shifting the burden of tax from the poor, who can’t escape paying, to the rich, who now avoid paying.
It must include a UBI and changing all businesses to cooperatives. The workers need to control the business and have a say in who gets paid how much. Shares will need to be converted to loans so that shareholders no longer have a say in running a business and the business itself cannot be owned by the workers either – it needs to be self-owned.
It must include tax redistribution, shifting the burden of tax from the poor, who can’t escape paying, to the rich, who now avoid paying.
That’s how capitalism works. The rich get rich by having the poor pay them for everything. And that is why it also fails.
But I look in vain in New Zealand for a political party with the gumption to propose a legislative revolution.
And that is the problem that we have. No political party is willing to throw out the failed system that is capitalism and look for a better system.
Look ahead a bit to the long game with Trump. The likes of Koch brothers haven’t just tamely accepted it but will move onto the next strategy.
Should Trump get in he would be surrounded by the Republican far right who will isolate him as much as possible and do the governing in his name.
And how long is it before Trump is impeached or assassinated ( not that I would wish that on anyone) and then Mike Pence ( a tea party far right) becomes president in a job nobody would ever vote him into. At that point the Tea party has the reigns of power.
Coming down the road behind every Trotsky is a Lenin and a Stalin.
But HRC really needs to up her game to and make concrete moves towards the Bernie position. Other wise there will be an action replay of this in 4 years.
We became serfs in our own country a long time ago its just credit and low interest rates and cheap crappy goods and men like Key smiling and telling us in a soothing voice we all can be rich if we just elect him and his party and BELIEVE in the BRIGHTER FUTURE we can all have our own cardboard box too live in or move up to the family stationwagon or garage.
Exactly why did someone assign today – the coldest and wettest day of the year – to get me up at 6am to put up their electoral hoardings?
To my colleagues who are joining me, to you I say: OMG, and Solidarity Forever.
In the great Leftie Second Coming, all those who actually did pull their boots on, and their raincoats, and got out there and hauled timber for yet another local government election effort, will be read aloud and praised to the victorious crowds in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
I don’t always agree with Chris Trotter, but this quote from a Daily Blog posting is, I think, quite pertinent:
“Practical progressive organisations like the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) are few and far between. Vastly outnumbering them are the tens-of-thousands of self-defined progressives who confuse posting comments on Facebook or The Daily Blog with effective political action.”
Chris Trotter: The Daily Blog.
I’m off this morning to help in the John Minto campaign to become mayor of Christchurch!
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 3.1
If you are anywhere near Moorhouse Ave at 11, Tony, there’s a protest outside Pak n Slave. These corporate shits pay their South Island workers $2 an hour less than their Nth Island counterparts.
This morning on the Al Jazeera news they did a story on homelessness in NZ, it wasn’t a short piece, Bernard Hickey was interviewed, and at the end of the story the news presenter said that they had asked the Minister of Social Housing for an interview a number of times but they declined. Tried to find a link on line for it, but couldnt. Disappointing that government could not even take a few moments to comment on a story about a situation they have created which has lead to one of the worlds largest news networks doing a report on it.
Enough suffering, time for change, thanks Al Jazeera for your coverage on one of the most desperate situations our people have ever faced.
yes certainly shows up our hopeless jonkey nact agenda bought tv journalism Hoskings and Henry style …and corporate bought foreign ownership mainstream media newspapers…only John Campbell and RNZ escapes imo
Chooky- I inadvertently caught two of Hosking’s smirk sentences the other night- Mea culpa.
It said, complete with trademark smirk,”You know what the trouble is with Education today ? The unions….” At which point my usual frantic Henry/Hosking search for the remote was successful.
And yes, I have listened in the past which is why I don’t listen now.
Chooky
‘Only JC and RNZ escapes imo’. If only I could agree. JC has been taught a lesson about challenging your employers view. RNZ is struggling to maintain funding and quality journalism. There are a few glimmers of hope @ RNZ, Media Watch, JC, Phil Pennington, Kim Hill, and then I begin to run out of suggestions. RNZ is sadly deteriorating and slowly drowning. A healthy and broad alternative media is essential. Australian Public Broadcast current affairs is far better than ours.
“Rumors of war – this time in the South China Sea. Washington appears – step by step – to be moving away from a policy of engagement with Beijing to one of confrontation. This is a policy approach counterproductive for all involved. Attempting to contain China militarily is nothing less than dangerous.
CrossTalking with Harry Kazianis, James Bradley and Peter Navarro.”
and
“Japan summons Chinese ambassador over ships
Japan’s foreign ministry Friday summoned China’s ambassador to protest what it said were intrusions into its territorial waters by Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels. The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over uninhabited islets in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Japanese vice foreign minister Shinsuke Sugiyama called in Cheng Yonghua, Beijing’s ambassador to Tokyo, the foreign ministry said. Sugiyama “strongly protested” to Cheng that the incursions were a “violation of Japan’s sovereignty.” The Japan Coast Guard said that two coast guard vessels from China’s State Oceanic Administration entered territorial waters near the Senkaku islands during the afternoon before eventually departing. (AFP)”
This is totally predictable. The USA is a war machine. I will say it again for all you duped fans of the yanks–The USA is a war machine.
If you don’t believe me just ask yourself why it has more military might than the rest of the world combined and why it has 1,000 military bases around the world.
“China has hit out at Japan, which has urged it to abide by the terms of a recent international ruling that challenges Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea. Meanwhile, South Asian countries have also failed to display a united position on the ruling.
‘ ‘Ill-founded, farcical’: Beijing blasts South China Sea ruling, vows to defend its interests’
“We at The Peace Place are very excited that Auckland Peace Action will be launching their campaign and national petition against the up-coming Weapons Expo and US Warship Visit here at The Peace Place this coming Saturday 6th August at 4pm.”
Outgoing Tory’ leader Cameron’s granting of knighthoods and peerages to his millionaire money donors is corrupt, blatant and understandable but the OBE , whatever that is, awarded to his wife’s stylist, for ‘political and public service’ was ludicrous.
What next? A knighthood for Bill English’s hairdresser? Certainly not Stephen Joyce’s.
Good on the Aussies for dismissing this medieval/feudal anachronism. When, oh when will New Zealand grow up?
This is grimly amusing, especially with the timing that coincides (not coincidentally?) with the start of the Brazil Olympics.
The committee set up to investigate the lack of transparency in Panama’s financial system itself lacks transparency, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said after resigning from the Panama Papers commission…
Stiglitz and Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth joined a seven-member commission to investigate Panama’s notoriously opaque financial system, but both quit the group on Friday, saying Panama refused to guarantee the committee’s report would be made public… last week they received a government letter that drew back from its commitment to making the findings public…
“I have had a close look at the so called Panama Papers and I must admit that, even as an expert on economic and organised crime, I was amazed to see so much of what we talk about in theory was confirmed in practice,” Pieth said…
“We’re being asked to do this as a courtesy for them and we’re paraded in front of the world media first,” said Pieth, a criminal law professor at Basel University. “Then we’re told to shut up when they don’t like it.”
They always release their polls on a Sunday. Over the last 18 months, the gap between each CB has varied between 6 and 8 weeks. Tomorrow, It’ll be an outrageous 9 weeks since their last release. Can we expect it to lead One News 6pm tomorrow night or has the Pollster just thrown in the towel along with Herald-Digi ?
“you must be the only lefties who actually looks forward to the polls”
Dunno about that. The polls through March-June were by no means all bad news for the Opposition* – Roy Morgan, UMR and Curia all had the Nats sliding during all or part of that period. The current interest is in finding out how reliable the last (Nat-friendly) Roy Morgan was.
* Oppo Bloc = Yes, I know, Winnie could swing either way (politically-speaking, you understand).
Perhaps they are waiting on one that favours Key maybe ??? I don’t know how they set their polling periods. SF can you enlighten or will we see one 2 nite.
“I don’t know how they set their polling periods. SF can you enlighten or will we see one 2 nite.”
Not sure. The gap usually varies from 6 to 8 weeks. Fieldwork generally takes place over 5-6 days (always starts on a Saturday and is completed by Wednesday or Thursday). Then roughly 6-8 weeks until the next one. Probably depends on how busy they are with their more commercial work. Or maybe the timing’s entirely dictated by One News.
But now 9 weeks and counting, so I’m assuming there’ll be one tomorrow on One News 6pm. (Colmar Brunton always release on a Sunday). Then again, maybe like Roy Morgan they’ve decided to make it less regular ? *
* Their director, Andrew Robertson (who blogs as Grumpollie) has recently left for a new position in the Public Service, so that upheaval might have delayed things.
I was polled by Reid Research about a week ago. The do the ones for TV3 don’t they?
There may be one on TV3 tomorrow night or the following Sunday depending upon where they were in the poll when they rang me.
3 News/Newshub usually release their Reid Research polls between 3-5 days after the final day of polling. Their fieldwork generally takes place over 6-8 days.
So your one should be released at some point over the next week (unlike Colmar Brunton, they don’t restrict their release to a particular day of the week – in CB’s case: Sunday).
Have a look at 3 News tonight – Can’t rule out a release today – if so, maybe upstaging a Colmar Brunton tomorrow ?
If one emerges in the next few days, then I will be sorely tempted to accuse them of… waiting until nearly the end of a month-plus long parliamentary recess before conducting the poll. Such polls always favour the governing party because they are the only ones afforded any publicity. Example… post Xmas holiday recess. There is invariably a poll released around the beginning of February.
Cynical I know, but having been a keen observer of politics and the media for several decades it’s an understandable conclusion to come to.
The few laws that govern and restrain the actions of NZ Judges, have been eroded.
in 2010 the Supreme Court of NZ ruled by a 3-2 margin in Attorney General v Chapman that rights guaranteed by the NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990 were no longer enforceable against judges.
Then there was the Public Records Act 2005 which required all branches of government to create and maintain accurate public records of their affairs. In March 2009, Ministry of Justice Counsel Jeff Orr asserted that judges were exempt – stating judges are governed by their own customs and “not by the requirements of any enactment (eg the Public Records Act, the Crimes Act 1961)”.
In Greer v Smith [2015] all five judges of the Supreme Court of NZ convened privately, without submissions from government or public, to rule a single judge in their court can issue private judgments refusing access to public records at our highest court – and that such a private order was also unappealable.
Last month, the Official Information Act 1982 became the object of judicial exemption when the Ombudsman rejected an appeal against the Judicial Office for Higher Courts’ refusal to provide an “official agenda” for a taxpayer-paid judge retreat earlier this year on the ground, “The judicial conference agenda does not constitute ‘official information’ because it is held by the judiciary which is not subject to the OIA.”
But the judiciary are only exempt from such transparency in their judicial function. Taxpayer funded official agendas and judicial cocktail parties are not exempt.
The exemption from law extends beyond our 61 High Court judges and 144 lower court judges. The Judicial Office for Higher Courts has 115 staff employees – all of whom are exempt from the Official Information Act
Then there is the Supreme Court Act 2003 which requires under section 16 that Supreme Court judges give reasons for refusals. The dirty secret that is uniquely NZ is many Supreme Court decisions are kept off the record, which is helpful in evading this law which pertains entirely to judges.
And those who challenge the off-record secrecy are shut out of the courts altogether.
No links and the structure that is very much what you’d see on conspiracy websites that are all about telling you how bad government is. I suspect that if we could properly investigate the allegations and get the correct context it would be nothing like what he said.
If you keep an eye on HRC’s campaign schedule compared to Trump’s, you’ll see that she conducts way fewer public engagements than he does. Whereas he might do 2 engagements in a day, HRC might do one every 2 or 3 days.
Saw that ugly alright say anything against the big owners and bang your dead youd have to be brave to take them on .By the sound of it the american fruit co stacked up a few bodies too putting it mildly was that in nicuagrua or the hondures? sorry not much good at spelling or geography !.Incidentely bananas grow just fine in northland .I eat my own most days and for weeks at a time depending on how theyre producing .Ive usually got enough to dry some also .
what a great woman!…and it is wonderful her story turned out well!
…other women were destroyed by the baby snatchers and their snatched babies also were destroyed …i read of one woman who searched the rest of her life for her daughter and her daughter searched for her mother…they were very close to finding each other but both committed suicide before they could meet…a tragedy!
this is a story of crimes against women and their children
That was the normal situation when I was a young woman.
In fact I know some very prominent New Zealand women of that day who still have not talked publically about the secret babies they bore, who were adopted.
One was a married woman who unexpectedly found herself pregnant when she separated from her abusive husband – she already had a toddler and arranging a job that would allow for her to care for them both was impossible. There was no benefit available, and her husband vanished. In effect, giving the child away was her only option apart from murder/suicide, so she had her little girl adopted and grieved for ever after.
Thank god, and Second Wave feminists, that the DPB was introduced in the 1970s, though it was over the dead body of some MPs. I recall one who said “If you play, you pay”, and that was the attitude of men in power in those days.
See the other post here today reminding us of the Prime Minister’s and the Speaker’s abominable treatment of female MPs last year, and I think those attitudes are still there, just hidden under a thin veneer of pretend tolerance.
yes sexism is entrenched alright…(my daughter working independently in the workforce is now recognising it in some patronising older men, after pooh poohing feminism in her teens…)
I have nothing but absolute admiration for the women that came before me and their struggles and tragedies …these women were the shock troops for women’s rights and feminism…
birth control contraception and abortion were absolute rights fought for and won by New Zealand women! (despite the misogynist Catholic Church)…also the DPB to enable women to keep and look after their babies and children
…and equal education opportunities and equal pay for equal work recognised in principle but not in actuality…also legislation against sexual harassment and assault
…and these fundamental rights are still NOT for many women around the world!
The Guardian draws opinion from all over the globe and this article is by Dunedin based writer, Eleanor Roy. In it, in part, she describes John Key’s brighter future…
”we have the second highest rate of youth suicide in the OECD. That a third of our children live below the poverty line and 10% of our working-age population is on social welfare.”
What you dont know about NZ is: its really expensive to live there, when you are someone who has to work for a living. Salaries are comparatively low (I am an engineer) and a normal job has normal 40h+/week working hours. House prices are sky rocking in Auckland. Renting is no real option and again expensive. The 4 season a day weather results in one of the highest global asthma rates and damp houses with very low ceilings (the newly built ones). Life in NZ is: lawn mawing, barbecue, rugby, talking about the All Blacks and mortgages, sailing if you can afford it. Everything closes by 6pm, streets are empty at the latest by 10pm. Kiwis are usually friendly people, but I felt that life down there was very narrow. Kiwis usually live a close knit family life that includes childhood friends. Activities are lived in their back yard. For overseas newcomers its relatively difficult to get access. In work life, things are done the Kiwi way, sometimes the laws of physics, chemistry etc. are ignored to “save” costs thereby resulting in even damper houses. Business partners conduct meetings a little like village talk as everyone somewhat knows everyone else and is somehow related, part of family etc. which has an effect on how decisions are made > resulting in a lack of quality > the job does not always go to the best, but the best related person group etc. Life down there felt like living in a transit and I am very glad to be back in Europe again.
The bolded bit among others, brutally true of New Zealand decision makers short-sightedness on so many crucially important projects and policy for future generations.
Not at all. People don’t know each other as another comment on the blog where I sourced this from attests to.
Having lived a lot in London and auckland I must say that socially London is a lot better. I know most of the people who live in my street, which was never true in auckland. Benefit of terraced housing and walking to school maybe?
I’d agree with this in that that New Zealand fails badly on security of community. The amateur landlord class flipping properties for capital gain has rendered low income renting communities powerless and transient.
Low income New Zealand renters just want to be stable and have security of tenancy. They want their kids to be able to attend the same school without fear of disruption through no fault of their own. They want their kids to know the neighbours kids without being moved on by some property flipping investor. However, the fuelling of the investment property market both internally and through the advertising of the same to offshore buyers with cheap money is destroying that community spirit.
The truth is that lower wages and poverty can account for so many of the things that older generations find so mystifying about millennials.
For example, millennials drive less than their parent’s generation—and until recently, at least—were relatively uninterested in buying cars. As The Atlantic reported in 2012, this crisis prompted automakers to appoint “youth emissaries” and come up with new car colors like “techno pink” and “denim.”
But trying to make cars cooler doesn’t change the fact that, as CityLab found, there’s a significant gap in vehicle miles traveled between millenials who make over $30,000 a year and those who make less. Simply put: Cars cost money and millennials have less of it.
Dude goes to town on Trump’s “economic” advisers –
I get preferring businessmen over "economists", but Trump's team is dominated by vulture sectors of the economy. None of 'em make stuff.— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) August 5, 2016
"Hope, get me the former chief economist at Bear Stearns. Must be a smart guy. Maybe he'll advise me on economics." https://t.co/yHLsEsHphI— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) August 5, 2016
Offering a rare insider analysis of the climate assessment process, Carnegie’s Katharine Mach and colleagues at the Department of Global Ecology examined the writing and editing procedures by which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change creates summaries of their findings for policymakers. Despite recent critiques that these summaries are too difficult for non-experts, Mach and colleagues found them comparable to reference texts in terms of reading comprehension level. Their results are published by Science Advances.
“Using multiple tools for measuring reading ease, we found that IPCC reports are designed for grownups, but they are not harder to read than other science documents, including those written for the public by professional writers,” said co-author Chris Field, who served as the co-chair of the second IPCC Working Group.
Nevertheless, Mach and colleagues also suggest ways that the summary reports could be improved by using less jargon and more cohesive language to link the ideas they contain. The summaries could also be enhanced by graphics, videos, animations, and online multimedia, in addition to extensive media availability by panel leadership.
Well after this horror week for rugby, I think I just witnessed a player do a ‘mince’ walk to accept his award for winning the competition. Then the whole team received tankards as individual prizes. Maybe players and the whole rugby culture are a bit slow in learning, or maybe it’s best to leave it out there for all to see.
Everyone at the awards ceremony pretty cool about it all, though? If so, it just goes to show that the $$$$$/sporting section of the community they are most in touch with and that they care most about don’t give a ****.
Yeah pretty much, the guy is being congratulated for his walk on twitter.
I wonder if a few supporters are questioning their membership for next year though. Be interesting to look at a certain franchise’s balance sheet for 2017.
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
With criticism from National piling on over the property market, the prime minister has detailed when the government will make housing announcements. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco Rizzi, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Western Australia Some Australians could be receiving a COVID-19 vaccine within weeks. Amid the continued spread of the virus and emergence of highly contagious variants, the federal government has accelerated the start of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Australia’s Threatened Species Strategy — a five-year plan for protecting our imperilled species and ecosystems — fizzled to an end last year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Lecturer, General Dentist & PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Baby teeth, or milk teeth, act like lighthouses to guide the adult ones to their correct destination. A baby tooth will become wobbly and fall out because the adult tooth ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Simon Coley, co-founder of All Good and Karma Drinks.Bananas are one of the ...
Tackling topics such as rugby and body image, Stuff’s latest podcast shines a much-needed light on Aotearoa’s complex relationship with masculinity, writes Trevor McKewen, author of the book Real Men Wear Black.I wasn’t sure what to think when two episodes of the new local podcast He’ll Be Right landed in ...
The Rainforest Alliance reveals that 68%* of Kiwis say the COVID-19 pandemic has made them more conscious about environmental and social sustainability issues. Seventy two percent* state that they have been trying to make more sustainable purchasing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tama Leaver, Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin University The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has raised concerns that Australia’s proposed News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code could fundamentally break the internet as we know it. His concerns ...
ANALYSIS:By Scott Lucas, University of Birmingham Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path Two weeks after the storming of the US Capitol by the followers of his predecessor, in the middle of an out-of-control pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Lecturer, Creative Writing & English Literature, University of Southern Queensland Described as “the world’s greatest storyteller”, Roald Dahl is frequently ranked as the best children’s author of all time by teachers, authors and librarians. However, the new film adaptation of ...
Peak housing body, Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) welcomes the updated Public Housing Plan announced today by Minister Woods, and the commitment by this Government to fix New Zealand’s housing crisis. The 8,000 additional homes are a significant ...
Having recently walked much of the South Island stretch of Te Araroa, Kirsten O’Regan reflects on the magnificent landscapes and interesting characters she encountered along the way.On our 36th day of walking, we climb through the fire-blackened hills above Ohau, stopping to examine heat-disfigured trail markers. Fresh green shoots have ...
Miss Torta in central Auckland is putting the spotlight on a snack that’s commonplace in Mexico, but until now relatively unknown in New Zealand.You’ve heard of a torta, but what is it, exactly? Well, depending on the cuisine it can mean a flatbread, cake, tart, sweet pie, savoury pie or ...
Two of three ministerial statements from the Beehive have been released in the name of the PM over the past two days. The more important, insofar as it involves political action that will affect the wellbeing of significant numbers of Kiwis, was the release of the government’s Public Housing Plan ...
Jacinda Ardern has reminded Labour MPs "ongoing vigilance" will be required in 2021 to avoid another Covid outbreak, admitting she held her breath over the summer break. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Despite many young Australians having a deep interest in political issues, most teenagers have a limited understanding about their nation’s democratic system. Results from the 2019 National Assessment Program – Civics and ...
Pinged $65 for overstaying 10 minutes in a parking block? Put away your hard-earned cash and read this first.Hopefully, by now, I’ve already established myself at The Spinoff as the resident tightarse, determined to avoid all unfair and unnecessary punishments (see: oversize baggage charges). Today, I’m focusing my attention on ...
Nuclear weapons states and their allies risk reputational ruin if they flout a new UN Treaty, Carolina Panico argues The United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will come into force this month, on January 22, 2021, turning nuclear weapons into illegal objects. It is an achievement that ...
How does one turn into a rabid extremist over the description of a children’s bike? Emily Writes looks at Facebook comments so you don’t have to.You’ve been there, I know it. You’re scrolling along, trying to avoid QAnon conspiracy theories and Trump apocalypse memes when a story catches your eye. ...
Joe Biden is now the President of the United States and many people across America and throughout the world will consequently be breathing more easily. But while the erratic, unpredictable and irresponsible years of the Trump Presidency may be over, ...
Tough border testing for New Zealand honey imports to Japan is re-igniting the conversation about the use of the weed killer glypohsate in New Zealand. ...
The Taxpayers Union should be aware of the law and of the history of ACC. The ACC is a legal system introduced in 1974 to replace the common law right of accident victims to sue for damages for personal injury sustained as a result of negligence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne Terrorism, political extremism, Donald Trump, social media and the phenomenon of “cancel culture” are confronting journalists with a range of agonising free-speech dilemmas to which there are no easy answers. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Associate Professor of the Sydney Pharmacy School, University of Sydney You’ve just come from your monthly GP appointment with a new script for your ongoing medical condition. But your local pharmacy is out of stock of your usual medicine. Your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna D’Alessandro, Professor & ARC Future Fellow, University of Sydney On Wednesday this week, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was measured at at 415 parts per million (ppm). The level is the highest in human history, and is growing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (climate science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington It might be summer in New Zealand but we’re in for some wild weather this week with forecasts of heavy wind and rain, and a plunge in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Despite many young Australians having a deep interest in political issues, most teenagers have a limited understanding about their nation’s democratic system. Results from the 2019 National Assessment Program – Civics and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney University Last week, the McIver’s Ladies Baths in Sydney came under fire for their (since removed) policy stating “only transgender women who’ve undergone a gender reassignment surgery are allowed entry”. The policy was ...
There are good grounds for optimism after the guardrails of American democracy held firm through to Joe Biden's inauguration today as President, writes Stephen Hoadley Pessimism abounds about the perilous condition of American democracy. Commentators and headline writers proffer memes such as ‘broken and divided nation’, ‘the threat from within’. ...
*This article was originally appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Donald Trump will forever be remembered as the president who was impeached twice - and for his rhetoric that struck a chord so deep in America that it will take years to dissipate. Donald Trump leaves Washington with the lowest approval ...
A new plan shows how and where the Government will build 8,000 new state housing places it funded in Budget 2020, Marc Daalder reports Jacinda Ardern has kicked off the political year with a major announcement, promising hundreds of new state housing places in regional centres across the country. With ...
This is the full transcript of President Joe Biden's speech after being sworn in at his inauguration this morning in Washington DC Chief Justice Roberts, Vice President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice President Pence, and my distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, this is America's day. This ...
Analysis: President Donald Trump has left the White House, and his deputy chief of staff confirms he is withdrawing his candidacy to lead the OECD. New Zealander Christopher Liddell withdrew his nomination to be Secretary-General of the powerful 37-member OECD and was one of the last members of the Trump Administration to depart ...
Kate Wills is facing stage four cancer with the same fierce approach she takes into her ocean swimming - never say can't. Even on the mornings Kate Wills feels wretched from her fortnightly chemotherapy treatment, she drags herself up at 5am and goes swimming. “I have to. It’s my job – to ...
Some costs associated with meetings speak for themselves, others are less conspicuous. Victoria University of Wellington's Val Hooper lays those costs out, making suggestions on where we can rein them in. Meetings – when last did we count the costs? And so it’s back to work and one of the ...
Andrew Paul Wood assesses the best-selling picture book by Grahame Sydney It's no great secret the commercially very successful Grahame Sydney has a long-standing beef that his work doesn’t receive more critical and institutional approval. I sympathise about the lack of critical attention, but I can understand why. The Discourse™ ...
This story was produced in collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity and Columbia Journalism Investigations. It was originally published by Public Integrity, Mother Jones, The Arizona Republic and Orlando Sentinel. It is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the ...
Analysis: It has been easy to ignore anyone daring to criticise or even question any aspect of the government’s Covid-19 response. Their voices have rarely been heard, and when they have been raised they have been quickly and decisively howled down by the favoured coterie of academics. ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s US presidential inauguration live blog: inauguration news, analysis and reaction, updated through Wednesday and Thursday. The inauguration ceremony begins at 5.15am Thursday, NZ time, and Joe Biden takes the oath of office around 6am. 7.25am: And what about Trump?In the early hours of this morning, NZ ...
In 10 x 100, we survey a group of 100 people via Stickybeak and ask them 10 questions. Last month we quizzed Wellingtonians. Today, we ask NZ drivers how they’ve found a holiday period without international tourists, and what they get up to while they’re on the road.Across Aotearoa roads ...
Emmanuel Macron's anti-separatist policies have garnered backlash from the international Muslim community. Now, a global coalition has complained to the UN. ...
Summer reissue: Join Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden as they go on an odyssey of women’s rage, and find out how we can channel our anger into good. First published September 15, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by ...
By Lorraine Ecarma in Cebu City The University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) will continue to stand against any threats to human rights, chancellor Clement Camposano has declared in response to the termination of a long-standing accord preventing military incursion on campus. In a Facebook post, Camposano said the academic ...
ANALYSIS:By Jennifer S. Hunt, Australian National University Every four years on January 20, the US exercises a key tenant of democratic government: the peaceful transfer of power. This year, the scene looks a bit different. If the last US presidential inauguration in 2017 debuted the phrase “alternative facts”, the ...
By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby In spite of Papua New Guinea’s mandatory mask-wearing requirement under the National Pandemic Act 2020, many public servants attending a dedication service in Port Moresby have failed to wear one. They were issued masks before entering the Sir John Guise Indoor Complex but took ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Moro, Associate Professor of Science & Medicine, Bond University How do scabs form? — Talila, aged 8 Great question, Talila! Our skin has many different jobs. One is to act as a barrier, protecting us from harmful things in the ...
US President Donald Trump is pardoning former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who is accused of fraud in a case involving funds for the border wall. ...
Joel Little with Lorde, Dera Meelan with Church & AP, Josh Fountain with Maala and Randa and Benee – producers make good songs great. Now a new fund from NZ on Air is putting the focus on them.Six months ago it looked like the music industry was on the brink ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denise Buiten, Senior Lecturer in Social Justice and Sociology, University of Notre Dame Australia On average, one child is killed by a parent almost every fortnight in Australia. Last week, three children — Claire, 7, Anna, 5, and Matthew, 3 — were ...
This commendable and realistic decision again underlines that it is the police, not government, who are largely responsible for the reduction in cannabis prosecutions over the past 15 years, writes Russell Brown.The news that New Zealand police have discontinued the annual Helicopter Recovery Operation, which has, each summer for more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ilan Noy, Professor and Chair in the Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington We will not be able to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind us until the world’s population is mostly immune through vaccination ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s US inauguration live blog: inauguration news, analysis and reaction, updated throughout Wednesday and Thursday, NZ time. Reach me at catherine@thespinoff.co.nz.4.00pm: What will Trump be doing tomorrow?It’s pretty well known by now that outgoing president Donald Trump intends to throw out the rulebook when it comes to ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is calling out Mayor Phil Goff for his undignified comment that the claim made by Councillor Greg Sayers asking why Auckland Council is funding yoga classes is “bullshit.” Yesterday, Councillor Greg Sayers penned ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne At 4am Thursday AEDT, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be inaugurated as president and vice president of the United States, replacing Donald Trump and Mike Pence. What follows is ...
*This article was originally published on RNZ and is republished with permission. New Zealanders flocked to beaches and lakes this summer, but it wasn't enough to fill the gap left by international tourists in other regions. The tourism industry is struggling to fill a $6 billion hole left by international tourists ...
Summer reissue: Chef Monique Fiso joins us for a chat about Hiakai – her acclaimed Wellington restaurant, and the title of her stunning new book.First published November 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its members – click here to learn ...
A new trough was brought to our attention this morning, although ethnicity will limit the numbers of eligible applicants. If you are non-Maori, it looks like you shouldn’t bother getting into the queue – but who knows?We learned of the trough from the Scoop website, where the Kapiti ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Britta Denise Hardesty, Principal Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, CSIRO Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs economies up to US$50 billion globally each year, and makes up to one-fifth of the global catch. It’s a huge problem not only for the ...
Police stopping major cannabis eradication operations has given the green light to drug dealers and gangs to expand operations, make more profit, and continue to wreak havoc on the most vulnerable in our society, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. ...
Varieties of merino wool footwear are emerging faster than Netflix series about British aristocracy. Michael Andrew takes a look at the rise of the shoe that almost everyone – including his 95-year-old grandma – is wearing.Some might say it all started with Allbirds. After all, to the average consumer, it ...
A new report from New Zealand’s Independent Monitoring Mechanism (IMM) highlights the realities and challenges disabled people faced during the COVID-19 emergency. The report, Making Disability Rights Real in a Pandemic, Te Whakatinana i ngā Tika ...
The Maritime Union is questioning the reasons provided for ongoing delays at the Ports of Auckland. Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Craig Harrison says there is a need for an honest conversation about what has gone wrong at the ...
As New Zealand faces a dire shortage of veterinarians, a petition has been launched urging the Government to reclassify veterinarians as critical workers so we can Get Vets into NZ. “New Zealand desperately needs veterinarians from overseas to counter ...
New Zealand is fast developing a reputation as a South Pacific vandal, says Greenpeace, as the government continues to fight against increased ocean protection. At the upcoming meeting of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO), ...
The Department of Internal Affairs and Netsafe are urging parents and caregivers to be mindful of the online content their tamariki may be consuming in the lead up to the inauguration of president-elect of the United States of America Joe Biden ...
Care is at the centre of Auckland Zoo’s mandate, and it’s clear to see when you witness the staff doing their day-to-day jobs up close. Leonie Hayden went behind the scenes to talk to two people who would do anything for the animals they look after. “We were having this ...
The Game Animal Council (GAC) is applying its expertise in the use of firearms for hunting to work alongside Police, other agencies and stakeholder groups to improve the compliance provisions for hunters and other firearms users. The GAC has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Verica Rupar, Professor, Auckland University of Technology “The lie outlasts the liar,” writes historian Timothy Snyder, referring to outgoing president Donald Trump and his contribution to the “post-truth” era in the US. Indeed, the mass rejection of reason that erupted in a ...
The internet ain’t what it used to be, thanks to privacy issues, data leaks, censorship and hate speech. But a group of New Zealanders are working on a way to give power back to the people. A flood of headlines over the last week made it clear: the internet has become ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Brooks, Scientia Professor of Evolutionary Ecology; Academic Lead of UNSW’s Grand Challenges Program, UNSW The views of women and men can differ on important gendered issues such as abortion, gender equity and government spending priorities. Surprisingly, however, average differences in sex ...
I’ve just been watching Max Keiser Report number 947, and it gave me food for thought.
Inequality has become quite grotesque in the USA and in New Zealand, with the richest people in this country increasing their wealth by obscene amounts while the rest of the country struggle to make ends meet. (Slight exaggeration)
It seems to me that, unless we elect a government determined to reverse this trend, we really will end up as serfs. Automation will destroy jobs in the future, so more and more people will join the precariate, while the profits from employing less humans will go straight to the top ten per-cent.
So, as I would suggest, we stand at a crossroads in the history of our country. If we continue on as we are, then we will cement in a new aristocracy, the money-owners, and a new peasantry, the working class who exist on minimum wages and zero hours, or reluctant government handouts.
Or we can take a really radical direction and aim to share the benefits of the economy equally among all the people who live in this country. Radical reform may include a UBI. It must include tax redistribution, shifting the burden of tax from the poor, who can’t escape paying, to the rich, who now avoid paying.
What is absolutely certain is that we cannot do nothing.
Just as an aside, this is why I would support a Trump presidency. Will Clinton nothing meaningful will change. She has been bought and paid for by the very people who don’t want to see economic equality, and she’ll do their bidding.
With the Donald, hell, we don’t know what we’re getting, but it sure isn’t
e*t*b*i*h*e*t. (I bet that will get past moderation!) Yes, I think the man is a shallow showman, and there’s more than a suggestion he might be deliberately throwing his chances of being elected, but if he does get the nod, he won’t tug his forelock to the – to that word again.
But I look in vain in New Zealand for a political party with the gumption to propose a legislative revolution. I fear we shall have to take to the streets in the end, to force political change and to unseat the (God, there’s that word again – can I never get away from it?)
Got any links to those policies you want on the Trump website?
“It seems to me that, unless we elect a government determined to reverse this trend, we really will end up as serfs.”
Unless we also look at improving our political structure, the elite (through political donations or corporate lobbying) can end up commanding the Government we elect.
+1
The rich already command our government. Hell, they actually make up the present government.
Tony, there are historical parallels for your Trump leaning. And history tells us that they always work out badly for working people. Reagan, Thatcher, the Austrian bloke who ran Germany in the thirties … all elected on the promise to end the establishment. All cemented the establishment in place.
It’s an infantile pretension, similar to the extreme left concept that we need concentration camps before the lumpen proles will rise up.
On the up side, Trump, who had to admit lying this morning, has surged to a massive 8% chance of winning, according to 538. Hillary Clinton has a mere 91% chance of becoming president.
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/05/donald-trump-admits-doesnt-understand-sees-television/
TRP – I do really agree with what you’re saying. If I were an American voter I would cast my ballot for Jill Stein, and to hell with the consequences. But don’t look to HRC for any meaningful change in the USA.
And perhaps it is unhealthy to oppose the Clintons?
http://forum.clonehost.net/topic/30/hillary-clinton/7
It’s going to be an easy Trump win. Bring on the TV debates – the ones that Hillary are scared to death of.
Trump’s Democratic opponents and a growing number of republicans say Trump is temperamentally unsuitable for the presidency. They need to delete the ‘tempera’ part of the adverb. He is mentally ‘unsuitable’..
Honestly, if he were an ordinary person ranting on the street without his money or power, the people in white coats would pick him up, give him a nice room and some medication.
te reo putake I don’t think there is any chance of a goodwin when we talk about what a fascist state has done to working people.
I know Bill and I bring up Franco a lot, there is a reason. Franco’s Spain was a nightmare, the way that economy worked was to brutalise sections of the working class based on ethnicity and/or whether they had fought for republic or not. Even then the so called pro-Franco peasants did not do that well.
trump is a fascist, he may not be a hitler, but his economics and his approach is fascist. This does not bode well for working people, the sick, the disabled, and most of all women. And we should smack him and his ideas down like the destructive force they are.
As it always has done under capitalists type systems. We see the same thing in Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt and we all know what happened to them.
It really is capitalism that doesn’t work. Unfortunately a few get rich until it all falls down and they’re the ones making the rules to suit themselves.
QFT
Of course, the money owners like that idea which is why they always advocate and lobby government for the policies that will bring it about.
It must include a UBI and changing all businesses to cooperatives. The workers need to control the business and have a say in who gets paid how much. Shares will need to be converted to loans so that shareholders no longer have a say in running a business and the business itself cannot be owned by the workers either – it needs to be self-owned.
That’s how capitalism works. The rich get rich by having the poor pay them for everything. And that is why it also fails.
And that is the problem that we have. No political party is willing to throw out the failed system that is capitalism and look for a better system.
Look ahead a bit to the long game with Trump. The likes of Koch brothers haven’t just tamely accepted it but will move onto the next strategy.
Should Trump get in he would be surrounded by the Republican far right who will isolate him as much as possible and do the governing in his name.
And how long is it before Trump is impeached or assassinated ( not that I would wish that on anyone) and then Mike Pence ( a tea party far right) becomes president in a job nobody would ever vote him into. At that point the Tea party has the reigns of power.
Coming down the road behind every Trotsky is a Lenin and a Stalin.
But HRC really needs to up her game to and make concrete moves towards the Bernie position. Other wise there will be an action replay of this in 4 years.
We became serfs in our own country a long time ago its just credit and low interest rates and cheap crappy goods and men like Key smiling and telling us in a soothing voice we all can be rich if we just elect him and his party and BELIEVE in the BRIGHTER FUTURE we can all have our own cardboard box too live in or move up to the family stationwagon or garage.
Exactly why did someone assign today – the coldest and wettest day of the year – to get me up at 6am to put up their electoral hoardings?
To my colleagues who are joining me, to you I say: OMG, and Solidarity Forever.
In the great Leftie Second Coming, all those who actually did pull their boots on, and their raincoats, and got out there and hauled timber for yet another local government election effort, will be read aloud and praised to the victorious crowds in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Amen to that!
I don’t always agree with Chris Trotter, but this quote from a Daily Blog posting is, I think, quite pertinent:
“Practical progressive organisations like the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) are few and far between. Vastly outnumbering them are the tens-of-thousands of self-defined progressives who confuse posting comments on Facebook or The Daily Blog with effective political action.”
Chris Trotter: The Daily Blog.
I’m off this morning to help in the John Minto campaign to become mayor of Christchurch!
Actually a reply to Ad in 2 above.
If you are anywhere near Moorhouse Ave at 11, Tony, there’s a protest outside Pak n Slave. These corporate shits pay their South Island workers $2 an hour less than their Nth Island counterparts.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/82855675/pak-n-save-workers-relying-on-food-banks-says-union
This morning on the Al Jazeera news they did a story on homelessness in NZ, it wasn’t a short piece, Bernard Hickey was interviewed, and at the end of the story the news presenter said that they had asked the Minister of Social Housing for an interview a number of times but they declined. Tried to find a link on line for it, but couldnt. Disappointing that government could not even take a few moments to comment on a story about a situation they have created which has lead to one of the worlds largest news networks doing a report on it.
Enough suffering, time for change, thanks Al Jazeera for your coverage on one of the most desperate situations our people have ever faced.
Gosh the only international photo op that National, turned down!
yes certainly shows up our hopeless jonkey nact agenda bought tv journalism Hoskings and Henry style …and corporate bought foreign ownership mainstream media newspapers…only John Campbell and RNZ escapes imo
Chooky- I inadvertently caught two of Hosking’s smirk sentences the other night- Mea culpa.
It said, complete with trademark smirk,”You know what the trouble is with Education today ? The unions….” At which point my usual frantic Henry/Hosking search for the remote was successful.
And yes, I have listened in the past which is why I don’t listen now.
the quality of Hosking discussion is so infantile, lacking in depth, brainless and jonkey nact fawning and obsequious
…that New Zealanders are in danger of becoming brain dead if they watch that programme.
Chooky
‘Only JC and RNZ escapes imo’. If only I could agree. JC has been taught a lesson about challenging your employers view. RNZ is struggling to maintain funding and quality journalism. There are a few glimmers of hope @ RNZ, Media Watch, JC, Phil Pennington, Kim Hill, and then I begin to run out of suggestions. RNZ is sadly deteriorating and slowly drowning. A healthy and broad alternative media is essential. Australian Public Broadcast current affairs is far better than ours.
Grow an orchard!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/82816934/riverton-the-heritage-fruit-capital-of-new-zealand
great stuff!…this is what really matters
‘South China Sea’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/345282-us-china-dangerous-confrontation/
“Rumors of war – this time in the South China Sea. Washington appears – step by step – to be moving away from a policy of engagement with Beijing to one of confrontation. This is a policy approach counterproductive for all involved. Attempting to contain China militarily is nothing less than dangerous.
CrossTalking with Harry Kazianis, James Bradley and Peter Navarro.”
and
“Japan summons Chinese ambassador over ships
Japan’s foreign ministry Friday summoned China’s ambassador to protest what it said were intrusions into its territorial waters by Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels. The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over uninhabited islets in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Japanese vice foreign minister Shinsuke Sugiyama called in Cheng Yonghua, Beijing’s ambassador to Tokyo, the foreign ministry said. Sugiyama “strongly protested” to Cheng that the incursions were a “violation of Japan’s sovereignty.” The Japan Coast Guard said that two coast guard vessels from China’s State Oceanic Administration entered territorial waters near the Senkaku islands during the afternoon before eventually departing. (AFP)”
This is totally predictable. The USA is a war machine. I will say it again for all you duped fans of the yanks–The USA is a war machine.
If you don’t believe me just ask yourself why it has more military might than the rest of the world combined and why it has 1,000 military bases around the world.
Not just USA involved in this..but surrounding countries Japan and Vietnam …
‘South China Sea: What to look out for in the UN tribunal ruling
Case brought by the Philippines challenges some of Beijing’s maritime claims’
https://next.ft.com/content/3c7d51b0-34e1-11e6-ad39-3fee5ffe5b5b
‘Arbitration on the South China Sea: Rulings from The Hague’
https://amti.csis.org/ArbitrationTL/
China refuses to accept other countries claims and at odds with neighbours:
‘South China Sea row: Hague Tribunal rules in favor of Philippines, China to ignore decision’
https://www.rt.com/news/350756-south-china-sea-hague/
‘Butt out of South Sea dispute, China tells ‘shameful’ Japan’
https://www.rt.com/news/353066-china-asean-sea-japan/
“China has hit out at Japan, which has urged it to abide by the terms of a recent international ruling that challenges Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea. Meanwhile, South Asian countries have also failed to display a united position on the ruling.
‘ ‘Ill-founded, farcical’: Beijing blasts South China Sea ruling, vows to defend its interests’
https://www.rt.com/news/350792-china-south-sea-farce/
http://www.smh.com.au/world/south-china-sea-dispute-chinas-gone-ballistic-since-the-hague-ruling-20160805-gqmffh.html
just as well China can’t manipulate wiki the way they do all their own news outlets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senkaku_Islands_dispute#Japanese_position
Seen this?
“We at The Peace Place are very excited that Auckland Peace Action will be launching their campaign and national petition against the up-coming Weapons Expo and US Warship Visit here at The Peace Place this coming Saturday 6th August at 4pm.”
The Peace Place
22 Emily Place
Auckland City
Two Prominent Anti-Clinton Activists Found Dead in Two Days; Mainstream Media Blackout
http://forum.clonehost.net/post/136
I wonder if Donald Trump knows this?!
….surely if true there must be a very public discussion and inquiry because it would seem to reinforce the very worst accusations leveled against her
and from Zero Hedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-05/lead-attorney-anti-clinton-dnc-fraud-case-mysteriously-found-dead
Clonehost? real objective investigative journalism.Yeah right1sarc.
Outgoing Tory’ leader Cameron’s granting of knighthoods and peerages to his millionaire money donors is corrupt, blatant and understandable but the OBE , whatever that is, awarded to his wife’s stylist, for ‘political and public service’ was ludicrous.
What next? A knighthood for Bill English’s hairdresser? Certainly not Stephen Joyce’s.
Good on the Aussies for dismissing this medieval/feudal anachronism. When, oh when will New Zealand grow up?
This is grimly amusing, especially with the timing that coincides (not coincidentally?) with the start of the Brazil Olympics.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/06/two-resign-from-panama-papers-commission-over-publicity-of-report
Anyone heard from BLiP lately?
NZ’s closest neighbour may be entering another period of revolutionary crisis:
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2016/08/a-quick-note-on-tongas-new-crisis.html
Poll Drought
Surely time for another Colmar Brunton ?
They always release their polls on a Sunday. Over the last 18 months, the gap between each CB has varied between 6 and 8 weeks. Tomorrow, It’ll be an outrageous 9 weeks since their last release. Can we expect it to lead One News 6pm tomorrow night or has the Pollster just thrown in the towel along with Herald-Digi ?
Swordfish – you must be the only lefties who actually looks forward to the polls.
I do enjoy your analysis of them. You must put a lot of time and effort into it and it’s appreciated.
Cheers, James.
“you must be the only lefties who actually looks forward to the polls”
Dunno about that. The polls through March-June were by no means all bad news for the Opposition* – Roy Morgan, UMR and Curia all had the Nats sliding during all or part of that period. The current interest is in finding out how reliable the last (Nat-friendly) Roy Morgan was.
* Oppo Bloc = Yes, I know, Winnie could swing either way (politically-speaking, you understand).
Perhaps they are waiting on one that favours Key maybe ??? I don’t know how they set their polling periods. SF can you enlighten or will we see one 2 nite.
Aunty Helen falls lower in the race for the top UN job.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11688342
Seems that anything John Key touches these days is doomed to failure. Flag change, TPPA, Clark’s UN bid.
“I don’t know how they set their polling periods. SF can you enlighten or will we see one 2 nite.”
Not sure. The gap usually varies from 6 to 8 weeks. Fieldwork generally takes place over 5-6 days (always starts on a Saturday and is completed by Wednesday or Thursday). Then roughly 6-8 weeks until the next one. Probably depends on how busy they are with their more commercial work. Or maybe the timing’s entirely dictated by One News.
But now 9 weeks and counting, so I’m assuming there’ll be one tomorrow on One News 6pm. (Colmar Brunton always release on a Sunday). Then again, maybe like Roy Morgan they’ve decided to make it less regular ? *
* Their director, Andrew Robertson (who blogs as Grumpollie) has recently left for a new position in the Public Service, so that upheaval might have delayed things.
I was polled by Reid Research about a week ago. The do the ones for TV3 don’t they?
There may be one on TV3 tomorrow night or the following Sunday depending upon where they were in the poll when they rang me.
Ahhh that’s interesting.
3 News/Newshub usually release their Reid Research polls between 3-5 days after the final day of polling. Their fieldwork generally takes place over 6-8 days.
So your one should be released at some point over the next week (unlike Colmar Brunton, they don’t restrict their release to a particular day of the week – in CB’s case: Sunday).
Have a look at 3 News tonight – Can’t rule out a release today – if so, maybe upstaging a Colmar Brunton tomorrow ?
Can we assume you chose the Mana Party, alwyn ?
Ta muchly SF. I had visions of them polling every day until they got a Nact result for the right number of days – although I know that is not allowed!
If one emerges in the next few days, then I will be sorely tempted to accuse them of… waiting until nearly the end of a month-plus long parliamentary recess before conducting the poll. Such polls always favour the governing party because they are the only ones afforded any publicity. Example… post Xmas holiday recess. There is invariably a poll released around the beginning of February.
Cynical I know, but having been a keen observer of politics and the media for several decades it’s an understandable conclusion to come to.
The few laws that govern and restrain the actions of NZ Judges, have been eroded.
in 2010 the Supreme Court of NZ ruled by a 3-2 margin in Attorney General v Chapman that rights guaranteed by the NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990 were no longer enforceable against judges.
Then there was the Public Records Act 2005 which required all branches of government to create and maintain accurate public records of their affairs. In March 2009, Ministry of Justice Counsel Jeff Orr asserted that judges were exempt – stating judges are governed by their own customs and “not by the requirements of any enactment (eg the Public Records Act, the Crimes Act 1961)”.
In Greer v Smith [2015] all five judges of the Supreme Court of NZ convened privately, without submissions from government or public, to rule a single judge in their court can issue private judgments refusing access to public records at our highest court – and that such a private order was also unappealable.
Last month, the Official Information Act 1982 became the object of judicial exemption when the Ombudsman rejected an appeal against the Judicial Office for Higher Courts’ refusal to provide an “official agenda” for a taxpayer-paid judge retreat earlier this year on the ground, “The judicial conference agenda does not constitute ‘official information’ because it is held by the judiciary which is not subject to the OIA.”
But the judiciary are only exempt from such transparency in their judicial function. Taxpayer funded official agendas and judicial cocktail parties are not exempt.
The exemption from law extends beyond our 61 High Court judges and 144 lower court judges. The Judicial Office for Higher Courts has 115 staff employees – all of whom are exempt from the Official Information Act
Then there is the Supreme Court Act 2003 which requires under section 16 that Supreme Court judges give reasons for refusals. The dirty secret that is uniquely NZ is many Supreme Court decisions are kept off the record, which is helpful in evading this law which pertains entirely to judges.
And those who challenge the off-record secrecy are shut out of the courts altogether.
…I may have missed something, but shouldn’t this be in Open Mike?
And probably under a ‘fantasy’ tag.
or it could be good info which we would otherwise not know about
Nope, it sounds like BS based around a few well chosen but misrepresented facts spread to scare people. In other words, well crafted lies.
Or your paranoid draco What was it about that persons comment that made it suspect ?
No links and the structure that is very much what you’d see on conspiracy websites that are all about telling you how bad government is. I suspect that if we could properly investigate the allegations and get the correct context it would be nothing like what he said.
Im sure mods are quite capable of picking that up uncooked or are we supposed to be impressed with your detective work ?
This article asks the question, “What happens if the President is mentally impaired?”
(HRC has been seen with a hand tremor among other things)
http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/earth-wrong-hillary-clinton-08042016
If you keep an eye on HRC’s campaign schedule compared to Trump’s, you’ll see that she conducts way fewer public engagements than he does. Whereas he might do 2 engagements in a day, HRC might do one every 2 or 3 days.
I’d hardly call it an article. This one on Reagan and possible methods for early detection of Alzheimer’s is far more interesting, though perhaps less dramatic if that is what you are after – http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/health/parsing-ronald-reagans-words-for-early-signs-of-alzheimers.html?_r=0
The ugly story behind New Zealand’s most popular fruit
Saw that ugly alright say anything against the big owners and bang your dead youd have to be brave to take them on .By the sound of it the american fruit co stacked up a few bodies too putting it mildly was that in nicuagrua or the hondures? sorry not much good at spelling or geography !.Incidentely bananas grow just fine in northland .I eat my own most days and for weeks at a time depending on how theyre producing .Ive usually got enough to dry some also .
NZ’s hidden ‘baby scoop’ shame – unmarried women had their babies taken from them
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/82793165/NZs-hidden-baby-scoop-shame-unmarried-women-had-their-babies-taken-from-them
what a great woman!…and it is wonderful her story turned out well!
…other women were destroyed by the baby snatchers and their snatched babies also were destroyed …i read of one woman who searched the rest of her life for her daughter and her daughter searched for her mother…they were very close to finding each other but both committed suicide before they could meet…a tragedy!
this is a story of crimes against women and their children
That was the normal situation when I was a young woman.
In fact I know some very prominent New Zealand women of that day who still have not talked publically about the secret babies they bore, who were adopted.
One was a married woman who unexpectedly found herself pregnant when she separated from her abusive husband – she already had a toddler and arranging a job that would allow for her to care for them both was impossible. There was no benefit available, and her husband vanished. In effect, giving the child away was her only option apart from murder/suicide, so she had her little girl adopted and grieved for ever after.
Thank god, and Second Wave feminists, that the DPB was introduced in the 1970s, though it was over the dead body of some MPs. I recall one who said “If you play, you pay”, and that was the attitude of men in power in those days.
See the other post here today reminding us of the Prime Minister’s and the Speaker’s abominable treatment of female MPs last year, and I think those attitudes are still there, just hidden under a thin veneer of pretend tolerance.
yes sexism is entrenched alright…(my daughter working independently in the workforce is now recognising it in some patronising older men, after pooh poohing feminism in her teens…)
I have nothing but absolute admiration for the women that came before me and their struggles and tragedies …these women were the shock troops for women’s rights and feminism…
birth control contraception and abortion were absolute rights fought for and won by New Zealand women! (despite the misogynist Catholic Church)…also the DPB to enable women to keep and look after their babies and children
…and equal education opportunities and equal pay for equal work recognised in principle but not in actuality…also legislation against sexual harassment and assault
…and these fundamental rights are still NOT for many women around the world!
The Guardian draws opinion from all over the globe and this article is by Dunedin based writer, Eleanor Roy. In it, in part, she describes John Key’s brighter future…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/05/trump-brexit-is-new-zealand-your-escape-route-too
Some of those comments are pretty revealing.
The bolded bit among others, brutally true of New Zealand decision makers short-sightedness on so many crucially important projects and policy for future generations.
So, NZ is a backward hick country where town closes early, life revolves around enjoying the basics and people actually know each other.
I trust whoever it is finds the new Europe much more to their liking.
Not at all. People don’t know each other as another comment on the blog where I sourced this from attests to.
I’d agree with this in that that New Zealand fails badly on security of community. The amateur landlord class flipping properties for capital gain has rendered low income renting communities powerless and transient.
Low income New Zealand renters just want to be stable and have security of tenancy. They want their kids to be able to attend the same school without fear of disruption through no fault of their own. They want their kids to know the neighbours kids without being moved on by some property flipping investor. However, the fuelling of the investment property market both internally and through the advertising of the same to offshore buyers with cheap money is destroying that community spirit.
Even working class Europe has what we don’t.
Kiwis are welcome to move to London for a better community life. Where the average house price is now £600,000.
Heh. You are like Farrar and Hooten comparing modern day amenities with Victorian times and calling it a win for the National party.
The average wage in London is £50,000. Did you forget that bit?
The Unsexy Truth About Millennials: They’re Poor
Welcome to the wealth siphon that is capitalism that takes wealth from the many and gives it to the rich.
Dude goes to town on Trump’s “economic” advisers –
Tweets by JustinWolfers
tl;dr needs more pictures
Offering a rare insider analysis of the climate assessment process, Carnegie’s Katharine Mach and colleagues at the Department of Global Ecology examined the writing and editing procedures by which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change creates summaries of their findings for policymakers. Despite recent critiques that these summaries are too difficult for non-experts, Mach and colleagues found them comparable to reference texts in terms of reading comprehension level. Their results are published by Science Advances.
“Using multiple tools for measuring reading ease, we found that IPCC reports are designed for grownups, but they are not harder to read than other science documents, including those written for the public by professional writers,” said co-author Chris Field, who served as the co-chair of the second IPCC Working Group.
Nevertheless, Mach and colleagues also suggest ways that the summary reports could be improved by using less jargon and more cohesive language to link the ideas they contain. The summaries could also be enhanced by graphics, videos, animations, and online multimedia, in addition to extensive media availability by panel leadership.
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-climate-summaries-grownups-difficult-policymakers.html
Well after this horror week for rugby, I think I just witnessed a player do a ‘mince’ walk to accept his award for winning the competition. Then the whole team received tankards as individual prizes. Maybe players and the whole rugby culture are a bit slow in learning, or maybe it’s best to leave it out there for all to see.
Everyone at the awards ceremony pretty cool about it all, though? If so, it just goes to show that the $$$$$/sporting section of the community they are most in touch with and that they care most about don’t give a ****.
Yeah pretty much, the guy is being congratulated for his walk on twitter.
I wonder if a few supporters are questioning their membership for next year though. Be interesting to look at a certain franchise’s balance sheet for 2017.
50/50 between whether more people walk away disgusted or join up for more of the same.
Pretty sure the sponsorship dollars are going to go up in either event.
From 1984 – the bloated beast that is America’s Presidential candidate selection process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9UaakNtb80