In the world of Twitter/social media sound-bite commentary …
A person says they liked being one of the boys in their youth at age 12, but was glad she was not influenced to consider being a transgender male because of this. Those who support her get called transphobic.
Another person says she was a tomboy who became a butch lesbian. Those who support her (might still) get called feminists who are challenging the religious heritage and or natural order of civilisation …
In the real world males and females have a diversity, the more literary/artistically inclined male and activity inclined female are operating within human norms, just not median part of the herd.
There is a risk of imposing a stereotype/norm on individuals – whether a conservative one or a pseudo-progressive PC one. The imposition of a expected conformity/norm is not progressive.
Support for a person who says they liked being one of the boys in their youth, but was glad she was not influenced to consider being a transgender male is fine. Support for a person once a "tomboy", now butch lesbian, is also OK.
That should be the easy part.
The next easy part should be limiting access to self ID as "transgender women" to those who have not committed violence against women.
And the other easy part is to note the evidence as to early medical intervention causing problems.
Both the safety of women and the principle of not doing harm with medical treatments being of some importance.
I don't see on what basis any part of womanhood should be open to any man who opens his mouth and utters the magical incantation "I identify as".
I can understand why – 50 odd years ago when sex between men was unlawful, some gay men internalised their homophobia and risked their lives to have surgery to mimic the sex characteristics of women, and lived as women from then on. I can understand why – in those more intolerant times, some butch lesbians disguised themselves as men in order to live safer lives.
However, none of that is necessary in Aotearoa today.
Bodily dysphorias of various kinds are a psychological problem and they should have psychological solutions and treatment. Instead – fueled by the demands of autogynephiliac men with deep pockets, society is being required to participate in the full time exercise of their paraphilia, and to normalise that behaviour a whole ideology of bodily disassociation has been created.
I presume you reject Camile Paglia having the right of declare as a transgender man "because of her internalised homophobia" (she was the only out "lesbian in “her” graduate school).
Did men really have "bottom half" surgery 50 years ago? Carmen Rupe never did and nor was there any reference to being a closet homophobe
Calling transgender people as those with mental problems (to be managed as per aversion therapy for homosexuality I presume) or internalised homophobia/guilt over their sexuality, is just a repeat of the 1952 DSM approach.
And it in no way explains the non binary etc. Or is that closet "bi-sexuality"?
Trying to write a narrative which other humans have to conform to is like ordering children from a lab with the desired DNA programming and all. And then making a return (or placing into a treatment centre) when that does not work well enough.
I don't believe that being gender non-conforming is a mental health issue. But equally, I don't believe that people who identify as trans who have gender dysphoria, ie people who hate their bodies and can't resolve that, should be in charge of major societal and policy changes without taking into account all of society.
The problem we have now is that AGP males have pushed this so far, along with liberals, that women are fighting back hard. Ten years ago, maybe even five years ago, if No Debate and self-ID hadn't happened, there would have been some accommodation, because most women care about others and seek a functional society for all. This is why we see large support for TW in women's spaces until it's clarified that this means any man who says they are a woman. But those days are gone. The sheer level of abuse directed at GC women demolished any chance.
What we can hope for now is that the shit fight ends, women re-establish the right to women's space, and trans people set up their own spaces with support from liberal society. This would be a good outcome, one that many women would get behind. But the longer the war goes on, the less sympathy there will be. In places like the UK and the US there is a very real risk of a huge backlash against trans people, and that is on the gender activists and the liberals who were illiberal towards women.
As gender is a collection of sexist stereotypes – being non conforming to that is a sign of mental health!. The bodily dysphorias that demand the removal of healthy body parts, or chemical reversal of natural bodily processes do certainly require psychological treatment. It is a softwear problem – not a hardware problem.
They certainly did have "bottom surgery" back then. Carmen did not and the explanation was that the clients liked that. Most of the others did. I knew a number of them in Wellington in the 1970's and am Facebook friends with others today. They see themselves as "transheterosexual" but are still part of the Gay community because they are sexually attracted to men. The AGP men are the ones that hang around lesbian dating groups.
Most of the others? Really? G Beyer did, but she was of a later period (and she did so after discrimination against homosexuals – 1986 – was already over). Because she was as you put “transheterosexual”. Which sort of negates the line you used about these people being guilt ridden homosexuals.
And it's "bottom half" surgery.
There is the case of Mr Jenner a once heterosexual man who now identifies as “transheterosexual” (but without bottom half surgery).
I suppose he might be called non binary and whose sexuality has become fluid (reminds me of one of those Sex in the City actors – many years married to a man and then partnering up with a lesbian).
The next easy part should be limiting access to self ID as "transgender women" to those who have not committed violence against women.
The problem with this is that if TWAW, but suddenly only some TW are women, self-ID becomes meaningless. I'm good with that, but I think you will find that the gender activists aren't there yet.
And beyond that, there's no way to predict which males will be violent towards women. This is part of why we have female only spaces to begin with. Denying access to women's spaces after women have been assaulted is abhorrent.
It's not about convincing activists, but asking government to make "considered" decisions
For now there is this
Nicola Sturgeon refused to say whether Bryson was a man or a woman.
She said she did not have “enough information” to say either way, though she accepted it was “almost certainly the case” that Bryson was pretending to be trans.
and
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said it is “biological sex” which matters when it comes to protecting women-only spaces, including female prisons.
The principle of women's safety (a governments roles includes security/public safety as well as the rights of its citizens) being recognised is now in play.
As Laila Harre once said when asked (replying to a letter) why she was focused on parental leave (support for women with jobs when they had children over those who did not), one good thing leads to other good things.
Its not Sturgeons role to decide someones elses gender , nor yours
Do you really want to be the 'pants police' checking them out after all you have joined the culture war, maybe a new badge and can model yourself on the Islamic religious police who enforce 'standards'
We have seen all this before , is some Maori enough or black enough.
It was also the catchcry of ‘safety’ which was used for segregation of schools , cinemas, housing etc in the US.
the online pitchforks are very evident in comments on this situation
I guess we can place you in the absolutist self ID camp then …
PS … the Scottish parliament has passed self ID legislation but it has been vetoed by the UK government led by Sunak. The Scottish government has decided to block the placement of those who have raped women from womens prisons.
The case Sturgeon was questioned involved a man who raped a woman and then later chose self ID as a transgender woman.
However, enjoy the cheap shot social media posturing as holier than thou on the issue (gaslighting).
A 7.30 investigation can reveal three former female staff at Reiby have been convicted of sexual offences against detainees
What say you to sexual abuse by women against boys in detention ? Surely its the person rather than the gender that is the issue
Prisons unfortunately are rife for violence as many inmates have never known love and safety growing up , like you would have had.
Its a breakdown in security that a violent woman could harm other women in jail. Thats all .
Just like the above historical situation in Australia
Im sure other violence by women against women happens often enough without gender being an issue for the cultural warriors to carry their digital pitchforks.
Same happens in women only bars, which I have witnessed from a few doors away.
That's downright weird coming from Granny. The article is a teaser for a podcast (will listen t it when I've got time) that has this,
Despite this opposition, a recent poll conducted by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand suggested that 72 per cent of accountants supported having a comprehensive capital gains tax as opposed to the evolving status quo.
“I was at that conference when the vote was taken and I was surprised by the result,” says Nightingale.
“What you had at that conference was a bunch of technical experts. And if you analyse this objectively and technically, the case for capital gains taxes is reasonably strong. It’s not perfect, but it’s reasonably strong. But I don’t think the experts will carry the day. We, experts, don’t have to get voted in by anybody. Politicians have to get voted in, so they have to judge the mood of the public.”
Now, do accountants support a CGT because it's good for the collective economy, or because it'll be good for their personal economies?
The wild weather lately has had a calamitous effect on the vege garden the garlic simply withered and gave up the ghost, tomatoes came down with every blight and fungal disease known to man and in the orchard plums are non existent and the peachcrop harvest this year is gonna be four small jars preserved .A disastrous attack of some sort of mite or thrip has attacked the new growth on the citrus so no blossom and no mandarins or grapefruit next season alas .
Still its an ill wind that blows nobody no good as they say and as far as other members of the plant family go trees , ferns ,shrubs ,native flora in general ive never seen this part of northland looking so verdant and lush .The tui round here are singing their heads off in appreciation !!
Hi Weston – we are fortunate indeed, it's been a boomer of a plum season (all of the fruits, in fact). This photo shows about a 5th of the total plum harvest; there are still a number of trees/varieties to pick; greengages, Victoria etc. The smaller plums in the photo (they aren't small in reality) are an unnamed/unknown "Southland" plum we "found" in an old farm orchard – never seen anything like them before and can't track down the name. We are selling them, gifting them, eating them and turning them into plum sauce. The big plums, bottom right, are not quite ripe yet; picking that tree (2 trees) will be fun! The first tree we harvested from, George Wilson Early, was loaded to groaning and necessitated multiple visits by grandchildren to clear 🙂 Happy days!
Our George Wilson Early – a very old tree left over from a Plum orchard planted years before – blew over in a recent storm 🙁 It was my go to for plum jam. The other plums here have suffered the same fate Weston describes above but here in the Coromandel. Just far too much rain (6 months in 30 days), and humidity. So fungal, insects, and birds have got the lot. Just nothing worth picking except the odd Omega which survived.
Yeah, George Wilson make great jam and sauce! Sorry yours blew over. If the humidity ruined your plum crops, I guess you aren't celebrating a great peach season either!
We've had the same bad luck in Northland. The only fruit that survived the wet – no plums, no peaches- were the grapes. Alas the wild turkeys found them.
I harvested about 5kg of grapes today. About 50% of the crop was pillaged by sparrows, silvereyes, a thrush, wasps, bees, ants, even a bumblebee was getting into the action.
There are about 1000 rotting grapes left on the vine and another 1000 squished all over the ground.
A few days ago, its was still gloomy and wet and the grapes were still not ripe. But a couple of days sunshine and they sweeten up. You know they are ready when you hear a gang of 16 sparrows going mental on sugar outside my bedroom window
We've had (Auckland) guava moth infesting all of the plums and ruining the crop (all the wet, didn't help either, with fruit splitting).
Seems to be a widespread issue in Auckland, with some saying that virtually every fruit and nut tree (that isn't citrus) is affected.
The only effective treatment is pheromone traps – catch the males before breeding – but that, of course, doesn't stop the fertilized females from next door arriving to lay eggs on your unripe fruit.
I've heard that too, Belladonna, from visitors from the North; very sobering for a fruit grower. I hope our sou'westers keep the guava moth at bay. Not very keen to have brown rot arrive either; "Brown rot", now there's something we really don't want down here. I met him once. We didn't click 🙂
“With more than half of the vital infrastructure either completely destroyed or severely damaged, the imposition of unilateral sanctions on key economic sectors, including oil, gas, electricity, trade, construction and engineering have quashed national income, and undermine efforts towards economic recovery and reconstruction”, said Ms. Douhan.
In light of this latest earthquake, I wonder if America will lead the way in reversing their sanctions, you would think so, you know, given what a benign and reasonable Imperial power people seem to see them as..at the very least lift the sanctions to allow direct aid..the fact that they can't (European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, Switzerland), just goes to show who the real victims of sanctions are..
Law needs to change if security guards aren't allowed to touch these people as police can't be expected to always get there in time. Good on the lady for filming and speaking out about the thieves sense of entitlement.
Would be interesting to see the items loaded in to the trolley as often that is not the case due to what they steal. As the Countdown manager advised me when I witnessed a robbery, they usually steal the small expensive items from the pharmacy aisle or either alcohol. So I guess more likely their 'sense of entitlement' is ageing concerns or they are thirsty!
Jimmy, Who cares about your "reckons" about what or why people steal. They need to face the Law plus get help rather than Judgemental Arseholes circle jerking about their circumstances.
You are "preaching to the converted". I agree that they need to face the law. Everyone in NZ is entitled to some sort of benefit / help. I was simply answering Weka's comment that they are simply hungry. Usually these people are not satisfied with the help/benefits they are receiving and feel entitled to steal.
I don't know if they're hungry. Maybe they're stealing to sell for profit. I was simply responding to your reckons with a counter proposal – they might be stealing because they have no food.
WINZ isn't easy to access, so while people might be technically entitled whether they will get the assistance they need is a different story. The government could fix this and then maybe we'd have less supermarket theft.
Usually these people are not satisfied with the help/benefits they are receiving and feel entitled to steal.
Hunger isn't an excuse for theft. The theft part could be seen as a sense of entitlement. Those in poverty need help, not a free reign to break the law.
can't see how they've got free rein to break the law, given what's in the video.
if this is an ongoing problem, rather than a one off, the solution is to make sure people have enough to live on. Stigmatising desperate people will make the situation worse.
Supermarkets have people on camera from the second they step into the store. Every one of us can be tracked through the store and constantly observed. Security guards have no need to stop anybody – a number plate would be useful, or a direction of travel.
However, most of the frequent shop thieves are known to the Police already and all that is needed is for the relevant footage to be compiled and sent off to the Police.
yeah, I was kind of surprised at the staff getting so physical. Get good photos, follow them out and get their number plate, rather than risking injury.
"a number plate would be useful, or a direction of travel."
Often they wont be in their own vehicle, and as for direction of travel "they went that way,", yeah I can see the police writing down "we are looking for someone heading in the direction of Manukau"…that will be a great help!//
If you are pushing a trolley – and the losers up the road from us have a collection outside their "affordable" accommodation – it is useful to know where they went.
Yeah. Police basically don't do anything with all of the security camera footage provided. They are so overwhelmed with dealing with violent crime, that theft is a long way back in their priorities. The standard response is "lack of police resources".
This is an example of a case being re-opened – because of the persistence of the victim (actually going to the police complaints authority).
We've seen others being actioned, because of media publicity.
But the vast majority just get filed. If the criminal is caught for some other reason, the case might be added to their total – but probably not.
In the meantime – the chances of the victim getting the property back (unless they take independent action) are pretty close to zero. And the shops have to wear the cost (which means increased prices for everyone else).
"They are so overwhelmed with dealing with violent crime, that theft is a long way back in their priorities."
What is it that qualifies as violent crime? From the look of this story you have to carry out at least a couple of violent assaults before they will do anything about it.
Here is someone who, on the 26th August stabbed a neighbour in the stomach with a knife because the person attacked wouldn't give him a cigarette. They lived on the same street and were known to each other. Then on the evening of the 28th August he stabbed another neighbour, this time with a screwdriver.
Why on earth hadn't the police picked him up in the interval? I can't believe they hadn't heard about it, either from the first victim or the hospital?
the biggest type of theft, one that doesn’t make front page news in the way ram raids do. The police aren’t sending teams of cops to raid the perpetrators. Not a single person is going to jail. For these crimes to be resolved, the victim has to make a claim themselves, and there’s no guarantee it’ll be successful. Even if it is, there might not be a fine for the perpetrator. And everyone more or less knows it’s happening. It’s not physical theft: it’s wage theft.
…
We’re so used to minor wage theft like this that we don’t even think about it as a crime – and it’s not. While wage theft involves breaking the law, and there are processes to enforce that law, it is not considered a criminal offence.
The way our legal system is designed means that the most widespread theft under the law isn’t treated as a crime.
…
We need to rethink what we consider crimes, and our priorities for how we go about dealing with people that commit these crimes. It’s worth asking ourselves what the goal of our criminal justice system is. Is punishment really the point? And is that what is best for everyone?
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What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
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In the world of Twitter/social media sound-bite commentary …
A person says they liked being one of the boys in their youth at age 12, but was glad she was not influenced to consider being a transgender male because of this. Those who support her get called transphobic.
Another person says she was a tomboy who became a butch lesbian. Those who support her (might still) get called feminists who are challenging the religious heritage and or natural order of civilisation …
In the real world males and females have a diversity, the more literary/artistically inclined male and activity inclined female are operating within human norms, just not median part of the herd.
There is a risk of imposing a stereotype/norm on individuals – whether a conservative one or a pseudo-progressive PC one. The imposition of a expected conformity/norm is not progressive.
Support for a person who says they liked being one of the boys in their youth, but was glad she was not influenced to consider being a transgender male is fine. Support for a person once a "tomboy", now butch lesbian, is also OK.
That should be the easy part.
The next easy part should be limiting access to self ID as "transgender women" to those who have not committed violence against women.
And the other easy part is to note the evidence as to early medical intervention causing problems.
Both the safety of women and the principle of not doing harm with medical treatments being of some importance.
I don't see on what basis any part of womanhood should be open to any man who opens his mouth and utters the magical incantation "I identify as".
I can understand why – 50 odd years ago when sex between men was unlawful, some gay men internalised their homophobia and risked their lives to have surgery to mimic the sex characteristics of women, and lived as women from then on. I can understand why – in those more intolerant times, some butch lesbians disguised themselves as men in order to live safer lives.
However, none of that is necessary in Aotearoa today.
Bodily dysphorias of various kinds are a psychological problem and they should have psychological solutions and treatment. Instead – fueled by the demands of autogynephiliac men with deep pockets, society is being required to participate in the full time exercise of their paraphilia, and to normalise that behaviour a whole ideology of bodily disassociation has been created.
I presume you reject Camile Paglia having the right of declare as a transgender man "because of her internalised homophobia" (she was the only out "lesbian in “her” graduate school).
Did men really have "bottom half" surgery 50 years ago? Carmen Rupe never did and nor was there any reference to being a closet homophobe
Calling transgender people as those with mental problems (to be managed as per aversion therapy for homosexuality I presume) or internalised homophobia/guilt over their sexuality, is just a repeat of the 1952 DSM approach.
And it in no way explains the non binary etc. Or is that closet "bi-sexuality"?
Trying to write a narrative which other humans have to conform to is like ordering children from a lab with the desired DNA programming and all. And then making a return (or placing into a treatment centre) when that does not work well enough.
I don't believe that being gender non-conforming is a mental health issue. But equally, I don't believe that people who identify as trans who have gender dysphoria, ie people who hate their bodies and can't resolve that, should be in charge of major societal and policy changes without taking into account all of society.
The problem we have now is that AGP males have pushed this so far, along with liberals, that women are fighting back hard. Ten years ago, maybe even five years ago, if No Debate and self-ID hadn't happened, there would have been some accommodation, because most women care about others and seek a functional society for all. This is why we see large support for TW in women's spaces until it's clarified that this means any man who says they are a woman. But those days are gone. The sheer level of abuse directed at GC women demolished any chance.
What we can hope for now is that the shit fight ends, women re-establish the right to women's space, and trans people set up their own spaces with support from liberal society. This would be a good outcome, one that many women would get behind. But the longer the war goes on, the less sympathy there will be. In places like the UK and the US there is a very real risk of a huge backlash against trans people, and that is on the gender activists and the liberals who were illiberal towards women.
As gender is a collection of sexist stereotypes – being non conforming to that is a sign of mental health!. The bodily dysphorias that demand the removal of healthy body parts, or chemical reversal of natural bodily processes do certainly require psychological treatment. It is a softwear problem – not a hardware problem.
They certainly did have "bottom surgery" back then. Carmen did not and the explanation was that the clients liked that. Most of the others did. I knew a number of them in Wellington in the 1970's and am Facebook friends with others today. They see themselves as "transheterosexual" but are still part of the Gay community because they are sexually attracted to men. The AGP men are the ones that hang around lesbian dating groups.
Most of the others? Really? G Beyer did, but she was of a later period (and she did so after discrimination against homosexuals – 1986 – was already over). Because she was as you put “transheterosexual”. Which sort of negates the line you used about these people being guilt ridden homosexuals.
And it's "bottom half" surgery.
There is the case of Mr Jenner a once heterosexual man who now identifies as “transheterosexual” (but without bottom half surgery).
I suppose he might be called non binary and whose sexuality has become fluid (reminds me of one of those Sex in the City actors – many years married to a man and then partnering up with a lesbian).
The problem with this is that if TWAW, but suddenly only some TW are women, self-ID becomes meaningless. I'm good with that, but I think you will find that the gender activists aren't there yet.
And beyond that, there's no way to predict which males will be violent towards women. This is part of why we have female only spaces to begin with. Denying access to women's spaces after women have been assaulted is abhorrent.
It's not about convincing activists, but asking government to make "considered" decisions
For now there is this
and
https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,rishi-sunak-biological-sex-key-in-protecting-womenonly-spaces
The principle of women's safety (a governments roles includes security/public safety as well as the rights of its citizens) being recognised is now in play.
As Laila Harre once said when asked (replying to a letter) why she was focused on parental leave (support for women with jobs when they had children over those who did not), one good thing leads to other good things.
Its not Sturgeons role to decide someones elses gender , nor yours
Do you really want to be the 'pants police' checking them out after all you have joined the culture war, maybe a new badge and can model yourself on the Islamic religious police who enforce 'standards'
We have seen all this before , is some Maori enough or black enough.
It was also the catchcry of ‘safety’ which was used for segregation of schools , cinemas, housing etc in the US.
the online pitchforks are very evident in comments on this situation
I guess we can place you in the absolutist self ID camp then …
PS … the Scottish parliament has passed self ID legislation but it has been vetoed by the UK government led by Sunak. The Scottish government has decided to block the placement of those who have raped women from womens prisons.
The case Sturgeon was questioned involved a man who raped a woman and then later chose self ID as a transgender woman.
However, enjoy the cheap shot social media posturing as holier than thou on the issue (gaslighting).
Do you dance?
https://twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1622293940002066432?ref_src
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-08/reiby-detention-centre-sexual-abuse-730/101913320
A 7.30 investigation can reveal three former female staff at Reiby have been convicted of sexual offences against detainees
What say you to sexual abuse by women against boys in detention ? Surely its the person rather than the gender that is the issue
Prisons unfortunately are rife for violence as many inmates have never known love and safety growing up , like you would have had.
Its a breakdown in security that a violent woman could harm other women in jail. Thats all .
Just like the above historical situation in Australia
Im sure other violence by women against women happens often enough without gender being an issue for the cultural warriors to carry their digital pitchforks.
Same happens in women only bars, which I have witnessed from a few doors away.
I see granny's clickbaiting a CGT piece 'why it failed'.
Didnt realise we had one to fail.
??
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/the-front-page-capital-gains-tax-experts-still-want-it-so-could-this-issue-rise-from-the-dead/H66T3JMYARA5XFGY2NNZBMIIAM/
That's downright weird coming from Granny. The article is a teaser for a podcast (will listen t it when I've got time) that has this,
Now, do accountants support a CGT because it's good for the collective economy, or because it'll be good for their personal economies?
The wild weather lately has had a calamitous effect on the vege garden the garlic simply withered and gave up the ghost, tomatoes came down with every blight and fungal disease known to man and in the orchard plums are non existent and the peachcrop harvest this year is gonna be four small jars preserved .A disastrous attack of some sort of mite or thrip has attacked the new growth on the citrus so no blossom and no mandarins or grapefruit next season alas .
Still its an ill wind that blows nobody no good as they say and as far as other members of the plant family go trees , ferns ,shrubs ,native flora in general ive never seen this part of northland looking so verdant and lush .The tui round here are singing their heads off in appreciation !!
Hope this cheers you up 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/robert.guyton.77582/posts/pfbid02rUNZyLYuh7ridzXKsCHBBmswW12dFjZBZYKEHu3w8YjJWsUmNTqJqHoUqJZkWP2Sl
Ya lucky bugga Robert ! what sort of plums are those little ones an what will you do with them ?
Hi Weston – we are fortunate indeed, it's been a boomer of a plum season (all of the fruits, in fact). This photo shows about a 5th of the total plum harvest; there are still a number of trees/varieties to pick; greengages, Victoria etc. The smaller plums in the photo (they aren't small in reality) are an unnamed/unknown "Southland" plum we "found" in an old farm orchard – never seen anything like them before and can't track down the name. We are selling them, gifting them, eating them and turning them into plum sauce. The big plums, bottom right, are not quite ripe yet; picking that tree (2 trees) will be fun! The first tree we harvested from, George Wilson Early, was loaded to groaning and necessitated multiple visits by grandchildren to clear 🙂 Happy days!
Our George Wilson Early – a very old tree left over from a Plum orchard planted years before – blew over in a recent storm 🙁 It was my go to for plum jam. The other plums here have suffered the same fate Weston describes above but here in the Coromandel. Just far too much rain (6 months in 30 days), and humidity. So fungal, insects, and birds have got the lot. Just nothing worth picking except the odd Omega which survived.
Yeah, George Wilson make great jam and sauce! Sorry yours blew over. If the humidity ruined your plum crops, I guess you aren't celebrating a great peach season either!
We've had the same bad luck in Northland. The only fruit that survived the wet – no plums, no peaches- were the grapes. Alas the wild turkeys found them.
And the garden's produced next to nothing.
Cows are fat though.
A Cornucopia Robert.
Enjoy the washing baskets in place of the horn of plenty .
Should've used the wicker laundry baskets, rather than the plastic, for the photo, but needs must; they were already filled with apples 🙂
I harvested about 5kg of grapes today. About 50% of the crop was pillaged by sparrows, silvereyes, a thrush, wasps, bees, ants, even a bumblebee was getting into the action.
There are about 1000 rotting grapes left on the vine and another 1000 squished all over the ground.
A few days ago, its was still gloomy and wet and the grapes were still not ripe. But a couple of days sunshine and they sweeten up. You know they are ready when you hear a gang of 16 sparrows going mental on sugar outside my bedroom window
what will you do with the grapes?
Gang of 16 sparrows, sounds like a poem.
Share them around family & friends. Nobody I know buys the expensive Chilean stuff
We've had (Auckland) guava moth infesting all of the plums and ruining the crop (all the wet, didn't help either, with fruit splitting).
Seems to be a widespread issue in Auckland, with some saying that virtually every fruit and nut tree (that isn't citrus) is affected.
The only effective treatment is pheromone traps – catch the males before breeding – but that, of course, doesn't stop the fertilized females from next door arriving to lay eggs on your unripe fruit.
I've heard that too, Belladonna, from visitors from the North; very sobering for a fruit grower. I hope our sou'westers keep the guava moth at bay. Not very keen to have brown rot arrive either; "Brown rot", now there's something we really don't want down here. I met him once. We didn't click 🙂
The only thing growing at my place is Kikuyu. 🙁
Pre Earthquake Syria story…https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/11/1130427
“With more than half of the vital infrastructure either completely destroyed or severely damaged, the imposition of unilateral sanctions on key economic sectors, including oil, gas, electricity, trade, construction and engineering have quashed national income, and undermine efforts towards economic recovery and reconstruction”, said Ms. Douhan.
In light of this latest earthquake, I wonder if America will lead the way in reversing their sanctions, you would think so, you know, given what a benign and reasonable Imperial power people seem to see them as..at the very least lift the sanctions to allow direct aid..the fact that they can't (European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, Switzerland), just goes to show who the real victims of sanctions are..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions_against_Syria
Law needs to change if security guards aren't allowed to touch these people as police can't be expected to always get there in time. Good on the lady for filming and speaking out about the thieves sense of entitlement.
'It's not right': Households paying more for groceries to subsidise criminal behaviour after thieves' brazen robbery attempt – Retail NZ (msn.com)
"sense of entitlement" aka hunger.
Would be interesting to see the items loaded in to the trolley as often that is not the case due to what they steal. As the Countdown manager advised me when I witnessed a robbery, they usually steal the small expensive items from the pharmacy aisle or either alcohol. So I guess more likely their 'sense of entitlement' is ageing concerns or they are thirsty!
Jimmy, Who cares about your "reckons" about what or why people steal. They need to face the Law plus get help rather than Judgemental Arseholes circle jerking about their circumstances.
You are "preaching to the converted". I agree that they need to face the law. Everyone in NZ is entitled to some sort of benefit / help. I was simply answering Weka's comment that they are simply hungry. Usually these people are not satisfied with the help/benefits they are receiving and feel entitled to steal.
I don't know if they're hungry. Maybe they're stealing to sell for profit. I was simply responding to your reckons with a counter proposal – they might be stealing because they have no food.
WINZ isn't easy to access, so while people might be technically entitled whether they will get the assistance they need is a different story. The government could fix this and then maybe we'd have less supermarket theft.
Your reckons.
Reckon hunger isn't Jiminy's problem![wink wink](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png?x42494)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/482553/cost-of-living-pressures-dial-up-demand-for-food-parcels
maybe they can sell the stuff and buy more food than they could steal.
Hunger isn't an excuse for theft. The theft part could be seen as a sense of entitlement. Those in poverty need help, not a free reign to break the law.
can't see how they've got free rein to break the law, given what's in the video.
if this is an ongoing problem, rather than a one off, the solution is to make sure people have enough to live on. Stigmatising desperate people will make the situation worse.
Those poor Englishmen who were sent to the colony prison camps for stealing a loaf of bread might not have agreed with you, RBO.
those entitled bastards.
True that Robert. Life in Australia for a loaf of bread, cruel and unusual punishment for sure.
Ha!
Better to starve.
Italy's highest court thinks otherwise . Novel and obviously not NZ law, but interesting.
Supermarkets have people on camera from the second they step into the store. Every one of us can be tracked through the store and constantly observed. Security guards have no need to stop anybody – a number plate would be useful, or a direction of travel.
However, most of the frequent shop thieves are known to the Police already and all that is needed is for the relevant footage to be compiled and sent off to the Police.
yeah, I was kind of surprised at the staff getting so physical. Get good photos, follow them out and get their number plate, rather than risking injury.
"a number plate would be useful, or a direction of travel."
Often they wont be in their own vehicle, and as for direction of travel "they went that way,", yeah I can see the police writing down "we are looking for someone heading in the direction of Manukau"…that will be a great help!//
If you are pushing a trolley – and the losers up the road from us have a collection outside their "affordable" accommodation – it is useful to know where they went.
Yeah. Police basically don't do anything with all of the security camera footage provided. They are so overwhelmed with dealing with violent crime, that theft is a long way back in their priorities. The standard response is "lack of police resources".
This is an example of a case being re-opened – because of the persistence of the victim (actually going to the police complaints authority).
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/police-reopen-theft-case-after-incorrectly-dismissing-concrete-evidence/VAYHVPJZLVBIPJG5IZQ5GX75TY/
We've seen others being actioned, because of media publicity.
But the vast majority just get filed. If the criminal is caught for some other reason, the case might be added to their total – but probably not.
In the meantime – the chances of the victim getting the property back (unless they take independent action) are pretty close to zero. And the shops have to wear the cost (which means increased prices for everyone else).
"They are so overwhelmed with dealing with violent crime, that theft is a long way back in their priorities."
What is it that qualifies as violent crime? From the look of this story you have to carry out at least a couple of violent assaults before they will do anything about it.
Here is someone who, on the 26th August stabbed a neighbour in the stomach with a knife because the person attacked wouldn't give him a cigarette. They lived on the same street and were known to each other. Then on the evening of the 28th August he stabbed another neighbour, this time with a screwdriver.
Why on earth hadn't the police picked him up in the interval? I can't believe they hadn't heard about it, either from the first victim or the hospital?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/131159250/man-stabbed-woman-23-times-after-she-refused-to-give-him-cigarette
Perhaps we are supposed to accept that he is not to blame for anything except suffering from the results of colonialism?
It's good to put this theft into perspective:
https://www.critic.co.nz/features/article/10405/why-the-cops-arent-chasing-the-biggest-theft-in-th
Or the Green School.
https://twitter.com/DanaSchwartzzz/status/1622454450354008064
more Steiner I think.