Watched a bit of the coronation last night. Here is the thing – English choral music from the late rennaissance is widely acknowedged as the top of the game, and "Zadok the Priest" is a total banger. You would go a long way to hear better arrangements and of course to see and hear it done in context for probably the last time in history was lovely. Of course, you could fund a lot of cultural stuff like early English and orchestral music for a long time with 250 million pounds…
I remember reading – it may have been in John Julius Norwich's three volume history -about the Byzantine empires final days. Reduced to the city of Constantinople and it's immediate surrounds plus a few scraps of land here and there nonetheless imperial ceremony continued as if nothing had changed. The Hagia Sophia gleamed, the diadems and sceptres shone, the voices raised in tedious and interminable religious cant rang as beautifully as ever. Except on closer inspection, the jewels were glass and precioud metals just paint and tinsel. In the corners the paint was peeling and streets beyond the imperial quarters were unkempt and run down. I got strong Byzantium vibes from Westminster abbey.
The whole exercise to me was a ghastly, self-important exercise in hypernormality for the British ruling elite. You know the whole thing was cos-playing fantasy. They know the whole thing was a cos playing fantasy. You could see on everyone faces they knew it was a cos playing fantasy. Charles clearly really, really wanted it. He's waited his enite life for the moment I guess. But no one knows what to do instead, so they pretend it was all perfectly normal.
The whole thing – the imperial regalia, the swearing to uphold the Protestant settlement, the sumptuous yet ridiculous clothing – was an expedition into never-never land, larping for a long dead empire. It was ymbolic of the UKs wider struggle with reality in an era of seemingly irreversible national decline.
We do need mass events to connect to our collective assent better than tawdry party woopdiewoop, but I'm not sure English coronation tat is any worse than the serried ranks of calisthenic inflatable pandas from any Beijing Olympics.
Yes. For me Byrd especially has a sort of supernatural quality that fades into something more formulaic by the time you get to Handel. The Roman Catholic Byrd was played straight after Charles swore to uphold the Protestant faith – obviously intended as a nod to modern notions of religious tolerance.
But it was all very strange – as though the legitimacy of the monarchy is so weak in rational terms, that it now consists only of spectacle and its extraordinary. magical difference from everyday life.
Would you say the same about the coronation of the King of Bhutan, Thailand, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Spain, the swearing in of a new Pope, the marching down the the Mall of a new President in the US etc?
Zadoc the Priest is from George Frideric Handel who wrote the music for the Coronation of George II in 1727 and Handel was renown for his 'celestial' composition, and German. A quintessential understanding and imagining of the heavens in music. You know Christian understanding of the glory of the Father, the son and the holy ghost. (yes, mothers and daughters need not apply, but that is a world wide thing when it comes to religions be the old or new wave).
This is a tradition that is hundreds of years old, happens every now and then, and as Mr. Cave said so well,
This is British culture, you know the culture of the indigenous people of Britain. Would you be so happy to poopoo the tradition of other countries indigenous people?
And fwiw, i rather have this exhibit of tradition that comes every other few decades – and even Charles has a good chance to get very old, then the the shit Ad posted below, coming from a country that had its culture stripped via Dunce hat, beatings, death and ridicule by its young during Mao Tse Dong reign and his cultural revolution, and who replaced it with plastic shit.
And don't come with the cost of this, cause our Prime Minster Person was there and really they had no reason what so ever to be there other then a nice tax payer funded junket, and i don't hear anyone complaining about that waste of money. But i guess so as long as New Zealand is a jewel in the crown that is the commonwealth, no one would refuse such and awesome experience and tax payer funded trip.
The indigenous people of Europe have their own tradition, rites and pomp, as is their right. And if we are to accept the traditions of indigenous people, and their right to express their traditions, you might as well understand that that includes people whom you might not approve.
My point is literally pointing out that we are doing our best here in NZ/Aotearoa to pretend that everything that comes/came from the crown is colonial bullshit and needs to be burned and buried, yet here the PM Person is eating sausage rolls standing in line ready to bow their head and shake hands with the great coloniser.
If one wants to bury tradition cause 'colonialism' cause 'white', then one should have the conviction of thought and simply state that they can not attend, find an excuse and send that ex speaker of the house who lives in Ireland now and send them as a representative of NZ or Aotearoa. Which btw, would have been a cheap solution too, the ex speaker of the house could have travelled on Easy Jet to the coronation for 50 quid and stay in NZ house in London.
I am getting very tired of the poopooing of European culture, the pretense that every person born of white color is responsible for the sins of their forefathers, worse are active colonisers, thiefs of land, killers of people – all of those that were born since 1930 of the last century up until today, yet, at the same time these same people can't go over there fast enough to rub shoulders with people whom otherwise they would call colonisers, thiefs, and killers of people.
Either you are ok with this type of tradition for all and that then includes white people and their traditions, either we start accepting the idea that all people are indeginous somewhere, or we should opt out of this pomp and ceremony and stay at home and attend to important business there.
Case in point, Biden send the wife and no one is unhappy about that. And Biden is the head of the USofA a much larger and more important country in terms of geo – political interests and doings.
And last, i don’t think many here would complain about a crowning ceremony if it were by non white, non european people, cause ‘interesting culture and tradition’, yet they will not give the same grace to their own culture and ‘race’.
and yes, if we start applying that 5000 strong Kapa Haka group, in a thousand years it might be just as spectacular.
And would you invite Tamaki, cause he has form when it comes to Kapa Haka in front of parliament?
This is British culture, you know the culture of the indigenous people of Britain. Would you be so happy to poopoo the tradition of other countries indigenous people?
Charles is about as British as I am, he's a sausage sucking German from way back. His old man was from Glucksburg by way of the parlour floor of some place in Greece.
Matariki + Anzac + Commonwealth Games opening is meaningless and renders all three into a mush of nothingness.
They are three distinct things.
Matariki – raise of the Pleiades, the celebration of the Maori new year.
Anzac – Australian New Zealand forces that got left behind in the ditches of Europe and Turkey and North Africa and that are still mourned today by those left to live without them and their potential offspring, and those that came home to deal with their survival on their own.
Commonwealth Games – a sporting event – may the 'best' win. (males in female sport are totes the best)
I really hope that we have enough good sense in this country to never marry these three things up in a gray mush of plastic bullshit and rather celebrate them as the three distinct occasions for festivities that they are.
Would you say the same about the coronation of the King of Bhutan, Thailand…
I'm sure that Sanctuary would do exactly the same – provided he knew about those cultures to relate those coronation events to the political and economic structures of those societies and any systems of hierarchy or oppression they enabled. He was absolutely not being critical of the actual material details of the ceremony – he (rightly) praised English Renaissance to baroque composers (even the German import Georg Friedrich Händel).
This is British culture, you know the culture of the indigenous people of Britain. Would you be so happy to poopoo the tradition of other countries indigenous people?
As above, he was not poopooing the actual aretfacts of the culture – only what it means for the social, economic and political realm. And it is not only Mr Sanctuary who does this, British people do it themselves in growing numbers.
It seems to me that your comments amount to a strawman hit job and contain a fallacy. The fallacy being – that if anyone insists that all cultures are worthy of equal respect, that means they are not permitted to criticise any culture.
Well for many people this crowning actually means a good social act of coming together in country and re-affirm ones idendity in this case being a 'brit', it certainly will do good for the economy of London and probably spill over elsewhere considering that people will spend, eat out, party , people will travel there to be part of this event and so on, and it is a good excellent demonstration in soft political power, hence why our PM travelled there – well at least that is why i hope they travelled there.
Anyways, Britain now has a new King, may he be a good one, and hopefully it made Brits feel good about being part of a culture that is over a thousand years old, and that is still part of life today.
Agree Sanc and lovely post….I would add to this the brutal police suppression of anti-royal demonstrators (52 arrested) that took place yesterday….also a symbol of Britain's national decline that has been exacerbated by the small-minded right-wing clique (Brexit proponents, still fantasising about an empire) that seem to have taken control of the country.
If you drive around Owairaka you might see the answer to some of that question. Whole swathes of former State housing has been removed for the development of new houses suitable for 21stC living, There are vacant sites and construction sites everywhere. As Kainga Ora is building on its own land there, the previous houses (most of which were constructed of 6 kinds of tacky boarding and only held together with 50 years of bad paint jobs) have been pushed over.
I suspect that that is indeed part of the explanation….however it dosnt explain why HUD ( and the Gov) are claiming a current KO stock level that is at odds with KOs own data.
The spin doctors appear to have been given a free hand
I don't see why interest should be deductible just because a property is administered by Kianga Ora. The capital ownership remains with the landlord/investor. Non deductibility is logical because ownership of the capital lies outside the business itself.
It is because no private landlord wants to rent to 'Kainga Ora' and its unruly tenants that can not be moved on – cause no evictions ever – in the case of a anti-social, community terrorizing tenant.
So here is a financial incentive – write of your interest payments if you rent to Kainga Ora, however i can't see that as enough of a treat for a landlord who really don't want his property trashed, meth cooked, wife/children beaten and/or the property being turned into a gang patch.
It really has got nothing to do with ownership, business setup/interests or anything. KO/the Government can't and wont build the houses that the country needs, the country simply does not have the money to do so – or so at least we are to believe, nor the skills – and that is something i can believe, so the private landlord must be roped in, here have a sweetener. Having read many accounts of unruly social welfare tenants, hearing the sirens every night that go to certain KO addresses daily, why would any investor bother. They may as well keep the property empty and rent it privately to someone who is happy being responsible for their own life, rather then depend on the welfare agencies to finance theirs.
And yes, there are decent KO tenants who are the majority, but sadly as always its the minority of fuckwits that ruin it for all. And KO refusing to deal with the minority of fuckwits that ruin it for all, really does ruin it for all.
If you change the end date to December 2022 you’ll get the exact same number of Kāinga Ora Public Homes (65,654) reported by HUD as reported in the KO PDF that you linked to with the same end date.
On the HUD page I linked to (and changed the end date to December 2022 for comparison with your KO link) it states Public Home – Total 77,707; Kāinga Ora Public Homes 65,654; Community Housing Provider Public Homes 12,053 and 65,654 + 12,053 = 77,707.
Obviously, the only figure that is identical to that in the KO PDF that you linked to is State Rentals 65,654. If you read the note and footnotes you’ll understand why figures in the other categories are different from those reported by HUD. Hence, the totals are different.
“Kāinga Ora Public Homes includes public homes managed by Kāinga Ora that are occupied by tenants and those that are vacant. Homes may be vacant for a variety of reasons:
Short Term Vacant are properties that are (or are soon to be) available for new tenants.
Long Term Vacant are properties that are undergoing significant work such as retrofitting or that are unavailable while a decision is made regarding their future use.
SLED are pending removal due to Sales, Lease Expiry and Demolitions.
As said tjhe spin doctors appear to have been given free licence…counting (and promoting) 7,000 unavailable homes is 'disingenuous'…to put it politely.
I cannot help you with reading comprehension – you seem to be conflating properties managed through KO and properties existing/available as reported by HUD.
I’m puzzled why you think this may be my baby and it sounds like a failed ad hom, which is disappointing because I thought we were past this.
When you refuse to acknowledge that HUD (and the Gov) are claiming a level of public housing that dosnt exist (isnt available for whatever reason) as demonstrated by KOs own managed stock figures which clearly show those claims to be false then one has to consider why?
I read the notes and concluded that most figures reported by KO and HUD are different, as explained, i.e., apples and oranges. In addition, this is more plausible than to invoke wild conspiracy theories involving Government-aligned (and paid?) evil spin doctors spreading BS false claims and lying to us. It is ok to disagree, reach a different opinion, and then agree to disagree instead of going on a personal attack alleging conflict of interest of those who dare to see things differently.
31 December 2022 KO figure: 65,654 and HUD figure: 65,654
30 September 2022 KO figure: 65,121 and HUD figure: 65,121
30 June 2022 KO figure: 64,870 and HUD figure: 64,870
31 March 2022 KO figure: 64,312 and HUD figure: 64,312
And so on, and so forth.
KO goes back to December 2015 and HUD to June 2017, but I hope you’ll get the gist based on just one year (2022).
In other words, KO and HUD are using the same stats for the same things and different stats for different but related things.
HUD (and the Gov) are claiming public housing increases that DO NOT EXIST.
HUD 'public housing' figures include Kiwibuild houses (sold or available to owner occupiers but not renters) and public housing consented (but not yet completed, irrespective of anticipated completion date).
And yet still they state…"As at December 2022 there was a total of 77,707 properties managed by Kāinga Ora and Community Housing Providers for use as public housing."…when there are in fact fully SEVEN THOUSAND LESS properties managed by KO and available to their clients…..and you defend such dishonesty.
Any time this government wants to do what it said it would do and shut Greyhound racing down when it had to kill 27 dogs last season, would be great. Chloe is dead right on this.
sad, because it could have been shut down so many times, i mean full majority and all that, plus never ending support from the Greens…..ladida.
But it gets Chloe in the news, i guess that is a plus?
Has Chloe had any comments on males competing in female sports? I think Grant said something like, 'should not be petty and mean' and exlude them? NO? Oh well……
In a June 2022 reshuffle, McAnulty was appointed as Minister for Racing, Minister for Emergency Management and associate Minister of Local Government and of Transport by Ardern.[15] McAnulty's role as Minister for Racing gives him responsibility for the running of the Totalisator Agency Board, which he worked for before entering politics.
Yes. The moment greyhound racing is made illegal in NZ, all of the reputable owners and breeders will euthanase all of their dogs.
Of course, there will still be illicit racing (just as there is illicit dog fighting) – but the SPCA and industry bodies will have zero oversight and control.
The dogs which survive will be much worse off.
I'm using greyhound racing as an example, since it seems to have fewer rich people investing than horse racing, and therefore less political influence (anyone remember one W. Peters, the minister for racing, and his tax credit for 'pretty horses'). So is likely to be first off the cancellation chopping block.
I can't see any way that the current numbers of dogs could be maintained. Yes, there might be a few kept as pets. The vast majority would be immediately culled (or disappear into the black market). Racing is a business.
Can you give an example where this has not happened, once racing became illegal?
all of the reputable owners and breeders will euthanase all of their dogs.
There's nothing reputable about greyhound racing. It's a gambling industry masquerading as sport where a third of whelped animals never make it to the track and nearly half of euthanised dogs are under three years old.
A watch out notice about signs of a potential abuser, and with details of the long running gangs are watching claptrap, and a news report of a dog snatching?
But hey, absolute chaos if legit trainers are forced out of a regulated industry.
/
I think you're rather over-egging the pudding here. I've suggested nothing like absolute chaos.
My statement was that if dog racing was banned, the *majority* of dogs would be put down immediately, but that there would be some which would go into illegal racing (as there is already illegal dog fighting)
You asked for evidence of the latter, and I gave you some (sorry if you don't like it – but people don't exactly line up to tell journalists about their illegal activity). Given that the SPCA and the police both think it's an issue, you might just accept that it goes on.
If you believe that current trainers/breeders exhibit lack of care for their dogs – then the outcome that I've suggested is even more likely – most dogs put down, some in illegal racing (and treated even worse than they are now).
If you think this is an acceptable short-term cost – then just state your position. But don't try to sell a proposal that all the dogs currently racing will be adopted by loving families (or some other rose-coloured glasses scenario).
New Zealand culls thousands of calves and cows every day, the consequences of mechanised death industries we call meat. We calculate an entire economy on it. Doesn't make it something that's good. And of course it is reversible.
Hmm, the problem is that while we can make individual choices, others in the country are equally free to do so.
You can choose to become vegetarian (or even vegan), but if your neighbour down the road (or overseas) still wants to eat meat and cheese, then the slaughter-houses remain.
You either have to accept that one person's veto over-rides another's choices; or be prepared to accept that other people's choices impact on your peace of mind.
You can, of course, try to influence the rest of the country to agree with your opinion. And … that's exactly what the anti-racing brigade are doing.
Part of that PR exercise, is an unwillingness to admit the immediate consequences of their proposed ban on racing.
It would be more honest to admit that the vast majority of dogs (and potentially horses) would be put down. And find a way to make that an acceptable cost of making the change.
– Unemployment. Maori unemployment. The underemployed. Youth unemployed.
– Wage rises.
– Building consents
– Productivity
– International benchmarks of net debt
All of them really good. What we lack to sell the message is either a decent Minister of Economic Development (having fired Nash it's now Barbara Edmonds (who?)), or a Minister of Finance who actually wants the job (Grant Robertson with no current successor anywhere).
Labour don't even look like they have a message beyond "sausage rolls and bread and butter", let alone anyone trying to sell it.
If the stenographer from the Herald were to study the stats in detail they would have discovered a line called " Underemployment/Underutilisation " and that may help in their understanding of the employment market.
End March 2023:
9.0% average under employment/underutilisation
Male 7.3%
"Female" 10.9%
(female in brackets as chances are it includes unemployed males self identifying as 'women' and thus increase the stats for females and decrease them for males) I expect this to change a bit in the future once enough Transmen come of age and will start skewering the stats with their inclusion. As in the next generation of trans, the children that are now coming of age and start going to uni and work, and that cohort is greater female to male then male to female.
If the Herald stenographer were to dig deeper in the government provided details they would have learned that there are 2000 more unemployed people. Can't see them being able to keep up with bill payments whilst on the dole.
Rf that person were to scroll a bit lower then they would see again the divide by sex (i am assuming here that they use sex based criteria, it might be by gender cause who knows, as it is all the same to government)
For men, the unemployment rate was 3.2 percent, compared with 3.3 percent last quarter. so down.
For women, the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent, compared with 3.5 percent last quarter. up.
The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people reached 102,000 (up 2,000).
1,000 fewer men were unemployed. again, down.
3,000 more women were unemployed. again up.
most households in NZ need that second income to pay for bills.
to end this is also from the stats
In the March 2023 quarter, 22,000 more people were employed, taking the total number of employed people up to 2,886,000.
8,000 more men were employed.
15,000 more women were employed.
so despite more 'women' then men being employed 'female' underutilistion is up, and more 'women' were unemployed.
We can thus fairly safely stipulated that the employment for 'women' is part time, casual, seasonal, and thus increasing underutiliastion. Wants to work more hours then they have.
And again, we have no idea who many males self identifying as 'women' are in the stats for 'females' or 'women'. In essence, its made up shit, and actually unemployment – if we still count employed anyone who has a job for an hour a week, and thus are no more believable then they were under John Key.
Personally i think the underutilisation rate is a better measure to look at as to why the economy is in free fall, and inflation will continue to go up and bills will not get paid. And this would then also explain the increase in emergency benefits, and other 'side benefits' that are given to people who are in gainful employment but can't make ends meet.
But don't tell the stenographer from the Herald that, it might confuse them even further.
The method of measuring unemployment has been the same for a decade or so. To go for under-employment as proof of something Sabine, surely you would have to compare with underemployment in the previous 10 years or so.
Tthat is true, hence why i put in there that we have been doing unemployement stats like this since the changes were introduced and implemented under the reign of John Key. I.e. one hour per week paid/volunteer with benefits counts as 'employed', that 0 hour contracts still count somewhere in the stats as 'employed', hence why benefits seem to go up while unemployment goes down.
So yes, we could and maybe we should compare. And we could compare say the financial crisis, with todays financial crisis – Banks are failing in the US, quite a few actually, and eventually that too will travel around the planet as it always does.
But to the question raised by the person writing for the Herald 'as to why ' no one seems to be doing 'well' in a 'good' economy, i point to the other stats that point to a malaise generally, that while unemployment is 'low', is that 'under employment is not, and that some groups of people are more affected by that then others, and that that might add to that malaise of not being able to pay mortgages and bills.
It would equally interesting to know how many households are behind their mortgages – since when- how long – how much, and how many households are behind bills such as utilities, rates, – since when – how long – how much.
All really good interesting questions that an enterprising 'journalist' working for a national fishwrap could ask and investigate.
Ha! I was told, very firmly, by my teen that I know nothing about maths, when I tried to help him with his trig homework (not do it for him, but help him work out where he'd got stuck). Am pretty sure that the interior angles of a triangle still add up to 180 degrees, just as they did when I was at school (and indeed since Thales, Pythagoras and Euclid codified the rules)
By letting kids solve their own problems means as adults they have learnt to survive with confidence. To jump in with answers to questions, or the tell them solutions to their problems is most unhelpful.
I agree. IMO, the emphasis should be on learning strategies to problem-solve rather than on finding the (only!) right/correct answer. The former teaches creativity and resilience, and sometimes teamwork, and the latter teaches binary outcomes such as correct-false (and fail-pass). Problem-solving is fun and the (correct) answer is just a bonus and icing on the cake, from a pedagogical perspective, IMHO.
Indeed, you would think that the Green Party would have figured out by now who they are and what they stand for. I recommend a short-course: Realpolitik-101.
It's a little too easy to blame EK for everything – she is an unsympathetic figure at the best of times – the perfect fall-person.
When you have Jeanette Fitzsimons expressing uncharacteristic overwhelming anger and disappointment it is fair to say Shaw had gone completely off the reservation. And he hasn't come back.
read the article. He's saying increase GST, increase benefits, decrease tax on lower income earners. Basically low income people end up with net zero increase, but wealthy people pay more.
But if nothing else changed, a rise in GST would punish the poor, beneficiaries and those on New Zealand Super. That is clearly not what we want.
For example, a GST increase from 15% to 20% would mean another $12.3 billion in taxes, which could be entirely offset by lifting the tax bands for everyone, and benefit/NZ Super payments. The effect could be net-zero for everyone except the rich, who would pay more in GST.
And the rich don't pay GST unless they have a really really shitty accountant. Hence why the rich currently actually are not that big a payer compared to others who can not write of costs of doing business, and who are not 'beneficiaries' trusts, businesses and .orgs.
I still think a 0 income tax rate for low incomes to be offset with a high income tax for incomes above a certain limit – i.e. as taxation in OZ is actually better, and then a low 'sales' tax as that is all GST is. It is a cut for the middle man called Government who actually is the biggest beneficiary of creeping price costs and inflation as their GST intake is increasing without ever having to announce a tax raise. Ka-ching.
But to believe that anyone else but the end consumer actually pays GST has not ever done a GST return.
This is stupid and wrong, and it seems the author has not actually read the IRD report.
One of the points in the original report, is that the wealthier you are, you pay proportionally less GST than poorer people (because poor people spend more of their money on goods subject to GST).
The problem is, the article doesn't even include the relevant figures. The idea suggested in the article is to increase tax on the rich by raising GST. Very strange starting point to choose a tax that is famously regressive (poor people pay more). They then consider raising GST from 15% to 20%, increasing tax revenue by $12.3b. The missing figure is how much of that 12.3b would be paid by the rich?
The article implies that the rich pay lots of GST ("Why GST? Because the one thing that unites the wealthy is that they love buying things…And GST taxes all of it. "). But the reality (confirmed by the IRD report) is that the rich pay very little GST. So the impact on the rich of increasing GST will be an increase in what is only a miniscule part of their total tax payments.
The article suggests trying to reduce the impact on ordinary people of the GST increase by applying other redistributive measures. Why not directly apply a redistributive measure to the problem instead – for example, a wealth tax?
That's pretty much were we were with our sales tax and import duty regime before the Rogernomes came along with GST and open borders.
Not entirely sure I want to go back there, but it did make for a very different society to what we have now. There's a lot of aspects of that society that weren't that flash, but would be nice to get to something that had the good bits of then and now.
Given how much GST can get written off as spurious "business" expenses now, wouldn't any increase just go unpaid as well? I asked Stubbs the same at his Simplicity road show a while back, and he agreed that the would have to be better regulation as well as.
Given that the IRD can't even manage to identify for tax purposes people who are clearly making a business out of house-flipping – it seems profoundly unlikely that they will do so for GST.
While the unregistered focus on the ability to claim back 15% of your expenses, you've also got to pay GST on your earnings. So effectively you pay 15% of your profit / drawings as GST, and that's before any Income Tax on the same profit. Even for small businesses that aren't making a huge profits, GST is brutal, your end of year tax might be quite modest and you're only paying 9%, but you've already paid 15% GST on those earnings.
And cunning plans to structure so you can claim the GST on your living expenses very quickly get IRD's interest, particularly if the amounts getting up there. Have a ex neighbour who just come a gutsa over a flash home stay / airbnb that was always booked out.
It is hardly brutal as the cost is borne not by the seller but by the buyer.
What you are suggesting is that the seller meets this cost – fuck off no they don't I do as the customer. In my view all GST should be automatically sent to IRD at the point of sale.
The same for PAYE and student loan repayments – that is my money, for my tax, not the business owners.
I'm sure with modern sophisticated systems GST being claimed by businesses could be automated at POS as well.
In the temporarily occupied Melitopol of the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian invaders are burning documents in sacks in the premises of the so-called police and taking away equipment from the occupation passport office. This was announced by the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov.
“In Melitopol, the computers and servers of the occupation passport office took an indefinite leave,” the mayor wrote in his Telegram.
According to him, the occupiers are hastily packing the equipment and taking it in an unknown direction towards Russia. Some documents are burned to the ground.
“There is no less commotion in the building of the occupation military police – documents are burned in sacks all day,” Fedorov said.
I've just spent most of the day on my laptop and phone in contact with my business accountant, sorting year end stuff. No he's not charging extra.
Reason. He is taking his 12 staff and partners, minus children, to Fiji for 10 days on Wednesday. His staff had a confab and said to Lindsay how about we work the weekend and some late nights at no cost. So when we get back we won't have a deadline backup to work to.
What a stunning atmosphere that must be.
I've always mainly dealt with Lindsay as almost 30 years ago he hung out his shingle and I saw that, as a newly minted contractor and thought, I need one of those so I went and saw him. I was his first customer. Bloody cracking guy.
While drinking, a Pilot bet he could land outside the bar, 2 hours later he touched down in central New York in a stolen aircraft. Years later he repeated the stunt because someone wouldn't believe him.
The maddest pilot I ever heard of was the one who, in 1919, landed his plane on the roof of the 6 story Galerie Lafayette department store in Paris. The area he landed in was about 28m by 12m. Here is a film of the event.
The building is next to the Opera House. You can go up to the roof where there is a plaque celebrating the event.
Rural legend around these parts has an ex WW2 pilot dodging being caught yet again pissed in charge by winging it from his 40 acre town supply rehab dairy unit to the local airport in a Piper Cub, cabbing it to the pub and back, and then flying home, pissed, before dark.
The legend has it that the only time mum ever truly worried was when he'd been shifting electric fences.
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When the National Party hastily announced its “Local Water Done Well” policy, they touted it as the great saviour of New Zealand’s crumbling water infrastructure. But as time goes by it's looking more and more like a planning and fiscal lame duck...and one that’s going to cost ratepayers far more ...
Donald Trump, the orange-hued oligarch, is back at it again, wielding tariffs like a mob boss swinging a lead pipe. His latest economic edict; slapping hefty tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada, has the stench of a protectionist shakedown, cooked up in the fevered minds of his sycophantic ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
One pill makes you largerAnd one pill makes you smallAnd the ones that mother gives youDon't do anything at allGo ask AliceWhen she's ten feet tallSongwriter: Grace Wing Slick.Morena, all, and a happy Bicycle Day to you.Today is an unofficial celebration of the dawning of the psychedelic era, commemorating the ...
It’s only been a few months since the Hollywood fires tore through Los Angeles, leaving a trail of devastation, numerous deaths, over 10,000 homes reduced to rubble, and a once glorious film industry on its knees. The Palisades and Eaton fires, fueled by climate-driven dry winds, didn’t just burn houses; ...
Four eighty-year-old books which are still vitally relevant today. Between 1942 and 1945, four refugees from Vienna each published a ground-breaking – seminal – book.* They left their country after Austria was taken over by fascists in 1934 and by Nazi Germany in 1938. Previously they had lived in ‘Red ...
Good Friday, 18th April, 2025: I can at last unveil the Secret Non-Fiction Project. The first complete Latin-to-English translation of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s twelve-book Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (Disputations Against Divinatory Astrology). Amounting to some 174,000 words, total. Some context is probably in order. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) ...
National MP Hamish Campbell's pathetic attempt to downplay his deep ties to and involvement in the Two by Twos...a secretive religious sect under FBI and NZ Police investigation for child sexual abuse...isn’t just a misstep; it’s a calculated lie that insults the intelligence of every Kiwi voter.Campbell’s claim of being ...
New Zealand First’s Shane Jones has long styled himself as the “Prince of the Provinces,” a champion of regional development and economic growth. But beneath the bluster lies a troubling pattern of behaviour that reeks of cronyism and corruption, undermining the very democracy he claims to serve. Recent revelations and ...
Give me one reason to stay hereAnd I'll turn right back aroundGive me one reason to stay hereAnd I'll turn right back aroundSaid I don't want to leave you lonelyYou got to make me change my mindSongwriters: Tracy Chapman.Morena, and Happy Easter, whether that means to you. Hot cross buns, ...
New Zealand’s housing crisis is a sad indictment on the failures of right wing neoliberalism, and the National Party, under Chris Luxon’s shaky leadership, is trying to simply ignore it. The numbers don’t lie: Census data from 2023 revealed 112,496 Kiwis were severely housing deprived...couch-surfing, car-sleeping, or roughing it on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on a global survey of over 3,000 economists and scientists showing a significant divide in views on green growth; and ...
Simeon Brown, the National Party’s poster child for hubris, consistently over-promises and under-delivers. His track record...marked by policy flip-flops and a dismissive attitude toward expert advice, reveals a politician driven by personal ambition rather than evidence. From transport to health, Brown’s focus seems fixed on protecting National's image, not addressing ...
Open access notables Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region, Mu et al., Nature Communications:Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO2 release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO2 emissions remain unclear, limiting the ...
Once a venomous thorn in New Zealand’s blogosphere, Cathy Odgers, aka Cactus Kate, has slunk into the shadows, her once-sharp quills dulled by the fallout of Dirty Politics.The dishonest attack-blogger, alongside her vile accomplices such as Cameron Slater, were key players in the National Party’s sordid smear campaigns, exposed by Nicky ...
Once upon a time, not so long ago, those who talked of Australian sovereign capability, especially in the technology sector, were generally considered an amusing group of eccentrics. After all, technology ecosystems are global and ...
The ACT Party leader’s latest pet project is bleeding taxpayers dry, with $10 million funneled into seven charter schools for just 215 students. That’s a jaw-dropping $46,500 per student, compared to roughly $9,000 per head in state schools.You’d think Seymour would’ve learned from the last charter school fiasco, but apparently, ...
India navigated relations with the United States quite skilfully during the first Trump administration, better than many other US allies did. Doing so a second time will be more difficult, but India’s strategic awareness and ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi is concerned for low-income workers given new data released by Stats NZ that shows inflation was 2.5% for the year to March 2025, rising from 2.2% in December last year. “The prices of things that people can’t avoid are rising – meaning inflation is rising ...
Last week, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment recommended that forestry be removed from the Emissions Trading Scheme. Its an unfortunate but necessary move, required to prevent the ETS's total collapse in a decade or so. So naturally, National has told him to fuck off, and that they won't be ...
China’s recent naval circumnavigation of Australia has highlighted a pressing need to defend Australia’s air and sea approaches more effectively. Potent as nuclear submarines are, the first Australian boats under AUKUS are at least seven ...
In yesterday’s post I tried to present the Reserve Bank Funding Agreement for 2025-30, as approved by the Minister of Finance and the Bank’s Board, in the context of the previous agreement, and the variation to that agreement signed up to by Grant Robertson a few weeks before the last ...
Australia’s bid to co-host the 31st international climate negotiations (COP31) with Pacific island countries in late 2026 is directly in our national interest. But success will require consultation with the Pacific. For that reason, no ...
Old and outdated buildings being demolished at Wellington Hospital in 2018. The new infrastructure being funded today will not be sufficient for future population size and some will not be built by 2035. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Thursday, April 17:Simeon Brown has unveiled ...
The introduction of AI in workplaces can create significant health and safety risks for workers (such as intensification of work, and extreme surveillance) which can significantly impact workers’ mental and physical wellbeing. It is critical that unions and workers are involved in any decision to introduce AI so that ...
Donald Trump’s return to the White House and aggressive posturing is undermining global diplomacy, and New Zealand must stand firm in rejecting his reckless, fascist-driven policies that are dragging the world toward chaos.As a nation with a proud history of peacekeeping and principled foreign policy, we should limit our role ...
Sunday marks three months since Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president. What a ride: the style rude, language raucous, and the results rogue. Beyond manners, rudeness matters because tone signals intent as well as personality. ...
There are any number of reasons why anyone thinking of heading to the United States for a holiday should think twice. They would be giving their money to a totalitarian state where political dissenters are being rounded up and imprisoned here and here, where universities are having their funds for ...
Taiwan has an inadvertent, rarely acknowledged role in global affairs: it’s a kind of sponge, soaking up much of China’s political, military and diplomatic efforts. Taiwan soaks up Chinese power of persuasion and coercion that ...
The Ukraine war has been called the bloodiest conflict since World War II. As of July 2024, 10,000 women were serving in frontline combat roles. Try telling them—from the safety of an Australian lounge room—they ...
Following Canadian authorities’ discovery of a Chinese information operation targeting their country’s election, Australians, too, should beware such risks. In fact, there are already signs that Beijing is interfering in campaigning for the Australian election ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). From "founder" of Tesla and the OG rocket man with SpaceX, and rebranding twitter as X, Musk has ...
Back in February 2024, a rat infestation attracted a fair few headlines in the South Dunedin Countdown supermarket. Today, the rats struck again. They took out the Otago-Southland region’s internet connection. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360656230/internet-outage-hits-otago-and-southland Strictly, it was just a coincidence – rats decided to gnaw through one fibre cable, while some hapless ...
I came in this morning after doing some chores and looked quickly at Twitter before unpacking the groceries. Someone was retweeting a Radio NZ story with the headline “Reserve Bank’s budget to be slashed by 25%”. Wow, I thought, the Minister of Finance has really delivered this time. And then ...
So, having teased it last week, Andrew Little has announced he will run for mayor of Wellington. On RNZ, he's saying its all about services - "fixing the pipes, making public transport cheaper, investing in parks, swimming pools and libraries, and developing more housing". Meanwhile, to the readers of the ...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming, 1921ALL OVER THE WORLD, devout Christians will be reaching for their bibles, reading and re-reading Revelation 13:16-17. For the benefit of all you non-Christians out there, these are the verses describing ...
Give me what I want, what I really, really want: And what India really wants from New Zealand isn’t butter or cheese, but a radical relaxation of the rules controlling Indian immigration.WHAT DOES INDIA WANT from New Zealand? Not our dairy products, that’s for sure, it’s got plenty of those. ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
Yesterday, 5,500 senior doctors across Aotearoa New Zealand voted overwhelmingly to strike for a day.This is the first time in New Zealand ASMS members have taken strike action for 24 hours.They are asking the government tofund them and account for resource shortfalls.Vacancies are critical - 45-50% in some regions.The ...
For years and years and years, David Seymour and his posse of deluded neoliberals have been preaching their “tough on crime” gospel to voters. Harsher sentences! More police! Lock ‘em up! Throw away the key. But when it comes to their own, namely former Act Party president Tim Jago, a ...
Judith Collins is a seasoned master at political hypocrisy. As New Zealand’s Defence Minister, she's recently been banging the war drum, announcing a jaw-dropping $12 billion boost to the defence budget over the next four years, all while the coalition of chaos cries poor over housing, health, and education.Apparently, there’s ...
I’m on the London Overground watching what the phones people are holding are doing to their faces: The man-bun guy who could not be less impressed by what he's seeing but cannot stop reading; the woman who's impatient for a response; the one who’s frowning; the one who’s puzzled; the ...
You don't have no prescriptionYou don't have to take no pillsYou don't have no prescriptionAnd baby don't have to take no pillsIf you come to see meDoctor Brown will cure your ills.Songwriters: Waymon Glasco.Dr Luxon. Image: David and Grok.First, they came for the Bottom FeedersAnd I did not speak outBecause ...
The Health Minister says the striking doctors already “well remunerated,” and are “walking away from” and “hurting” their patients. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Wednesday, April 16:Simeon Brown has attacked1 doctors striking for more than a 1.5% pay rise as already “well remunerated,” even ...
The time is ripe for Australia and South Korea to strengthen cooperation in space, through embarking on joint projects and initiatives that offer practical outcomes for both countries. This is the finding of a new ...
Hi,When Trump raised tariffs against China to 145%, he destined many small businesses to annihilation. The Daily podcast captured the mass chaos by zooming in and talking to one person, Beth Benike, a small-business owner who will likely lose her home very soon.She pointed out that no, she wasn’t surprised ...
National’s handling of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis is an utter shambles and a gutless betrayal of every Kiwi scraping by. The Coalition of Chaos Ministers strut around preaching about how effective their policies are, but really all they're doing is perpetuating a cruel and sick joke of undelivered promises, ...
Most people wouldn't have heard of a little worm like Rhys Williams, a so-called businessman and former NZ First member, who has recently been unmasked as the venomous troll behind a relentless online campaign targeting Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.According to reports, Williams has been slinging mud at Doyle under ...
Illustration credit: Jonathan McHugh (New Statesman)The other day, a subscriber said they were unsubscribing because they needed “some good news”.I empathised. Don’t we all.I skimmed a NZME article about the impacts of tariffs this morning with analysis from Kiwibank’s Jarrod Kerr. Kerr, their Chief Economist, suggested another recession is the ...
Let’s assume, as prudence demands we assume, that the United States will not at any predictable time go back to being its old, reliable self. This means its allies must be prepared indefinitely to lean ...
Over the last three rather tumultuous US trade policy weeks, I’ve read these four books. I started with Irwin (whose book had sat on my pile for years, consulted from time to time but not read) in a week of lots of flights and hanging around airports/hotels, and then one ...
Indonesia could do without an increase in military spending that the Ministry of Defence is proposing. The country has more pressing issues, including public welfare and human rights. Moreover, the transparency and accountability to justify ...
Former Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has slithered back into the spotlight, not as a principled dissenter, but as a vindictive puppeteer of digital venom. The revelations from a recent court case paint a damning portrait of a man whose departure from Hutt City Council in 2022 was merely the ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
The economy is not doing what it was supposed to when PM Christopher Luxon said in January it was ‘going for growth.’ Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short from our political economy on Tuesday, April 15:New Zealand’s economic recovery is stalling, according to business surveys, retail spending and ...
This is a guest post by Lewis Creed, managing editor of the University of Auckland student publication Craccum, which is currently running a campaign for a safer Symonds Street in the wake of a horrific recent crash.The post has two parts: 1) Craccum’s original call for safety (6 ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff has published an opinion piece which makes the case for a different approach to economic development, as proposed in the CTU’s Aotearoa Reimagined programme. The number of people studying to become teachers has jumped after several years of low enrolment. The coalition has directed Health New ...
The growth of China’s AI industry gives it great influence over emerging technologies. That creates security risks for countries using those technologies. So, Australia must foster its own domestic AI industry to protect its interests. ...
Unfortunately we have another National Party government in power at the moment, and as a consequence, another economic dumpster fire taking hold. Inflation’s hurting Kiwis, and instead of providing relief, National is fiddling while wallets burn.Prime Minister Chris Luxon's response is a tired remix of tax cuts for the rich ...
Girls who are boys who like boys to be girlsWho do boys like they're girls, who do girls like they're boysAlways should be someone you really loveSongwriters: Damon Albarn / Graham Leslie Coxon / Alexander Rowntree David / Alexander James Steven.Last month, I wrote about the Birds and Bees being ...
Australia needs to reevaluate its security priorities and establish a more dynamic regulatory framework for cybersecurity. To advance in this area, it can learn from Britain’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which presents a compelling ...
Deputy PM Winston Peters likes nothing more than to portray himself as the only wise old head while everyone else is losing theirs. Yet this time, his “old master” routine isn’t working. What global trade is experiencing is more than the usual swings and roundabouts of market sentiment. President Donald ...
President Trump’s hopes of ending the war in Ukraine seemed more driven by ego than realistic analysis. Professor Vladimir Brovkin’s latest video above highlights the internal conflicts within the USA, Russia, Europe, and Ukraine, which are currently hindering peace talks and clarity. Brovkin pointed out major contradictions within ...
In the cesspool that is often New Zealand’s online political discourse, few figures wield their influence as destructively as Ani O’Brien. Masquerading as a champion of free speech and women’s rights, O’Brien’s campaigns are a masterclass in bad faith, built on a foundation of lies, selective outrage, and a knack ...
The international challenge confronting Australia today is unparalleled, at least since the 1940s. It requires what the late Brendan Sargeant, a defence analyst, called strategic imagination. We need more than shrewd economic manoeuvring and a ...
This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will take place as a fully hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from April 27 to May 2. This year, I'll join the event on site in Vienna for the full week and I've already picked several sessions I plan ...
Here’s a book that looks not in at China but out from China. David Daokui Li’s China’s World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict is a refreshing offering in that Li is very much ...
The New Zealand National Party has long mastered the art of crafting messaging that resonates with a large number of desperate, often white middle-class, voters. From their 2023 campaign mantra of “getting our country back on track” to promises of economic revival, safer streets, and better education, their rhetoric paints ...
A global contest of ideas is underway, and democracy as an ideal is at stake. Democracies must respond by lifting support for public service media with an international footprint. With the recent decision by the ...
It is almost six weeks since the shock announcement early on the afternoon of Wednesday 5 March that the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr, was resigning effective 31 March, and that in fact he had already left and an acting Governor was already in place. Orr had been ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
The Privileges Committee has denied fundamental rights to Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, breaching their own standing orders, breaching principles of natural justice, and highlighting systemic prejudice and discrimination within our parliamentary processes. The three MPs were summoned to the privileges committee following their performance of a haka ...
April 1 used to be a day when workers could count on a pay rise with stronger support for those doing it tough, but that’s not the case under this Government. ...
Winston Peters is shopping for smaller ferries after Nicola Willis torpedoed the original deal, which would have delivered new rail enabled ferries next year. ...
The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...
In an art world context, photography has evolved significantly over the years pushing boundaries in both technique and concept. No longer the poor cousin of painting, but still much more affordable thanks to photographs being sold in numbered editions, an art photograph doesn’t merely capture a moment—artists use the medium ...
Last year, 20,000 observations of Christchurch species were made during the annual City Nature Challenge, a way for anyone to get involved in biodiversity. It’s back again this month. Even in suburbia, even on grey autumn weekends, there is biodiversity. You just need the time to look for it: to ...
Asia Pacific Report Peaceful protesters in Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest city Auckland held an Easter prayer vigil honouring Palestinian political prisoners and the sacrifice of thousands of innocent lives as relentless Israeli bombing of displaced Gazans in tents killed at least 92 people in two days. Organisers of the rally ...
ANALYSIS:By Ben Bohane This week Cambodia marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh to the murderous Khmer Rouge, and Vietnam celebrates the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces in April 1975. They are being commemorated very differently; after all, there’s nothing to celebrate in Cambodia. ...
By Gujari Singh in Washington The Trump administration has issued a new executive order opening up vast swathes of protected ocean to commercial exploitation, including areas within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. It allows commercial fishing in areas long considered off-limits due to their ecological significance — despite ...
New Zealand commemoration lead John McLeod said a small team, including members of the NZDF and the NZ Embassy, assisted in the covering up of remains that were exposed. ...
This Bill is a great opportunity to improve our system of government across all levels. Let’s make sure we get it right and give the public a say on a simple and enduring solution. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Senior Research Associate in Media and Communications, University of Sydney Tech giant Google has just suffered another legal blow in the United States, losing a landmark antitrust case. This follows on from the company’s loss in a similar case last ...
Paddy GowerAmanda Luxon. I mean what can you say. Easter is a good time to publish my latest reckons at Stuff because without exaggeration or making too much of things, Amanda Luxon walks among us like Jesus but probably with better shoes.Jesus healed. How good is that? It’s really good, ...
How can an afternoon be long when it starts at one o’clock and finishes at half past three? Beauden thought about that as he stood at the back of the classroom and looked through the large window to the upper grounds where his colleague Monty Spiers was taking a phys ed ...
Alex Casey delves into the enduring success of The Artist’s Way, a self-help book beloved by everyone from retirees to famous rappers. On the video call, my mum is gesticulating so wildly while recounting all her recent creative endeavours that she knocks her cup of tea over a work-in-progress jigsaw ...
Feijoa scholar Kate Evans reviews the dish everybody raves about at Metro’s 2024 restaurant of the year, Forest. People have been telling me I need to try the deep-fried feijoa dessert at Forest for about three years now. I’m embarrassed it took me this long, but it takes a lot ...
Chef, author and reality television judge Colin Fassnidge takes us through his life in television. Colin Fassnidge is a huge television fan. He watches every blockbuster TV series the moment it drops and scores every single show on his Instagram account. It’s a habit that recently caught the attention of ...
Why are shops on Parnell Road allowed to open on Easter Sunday? It’s all thanks to an obsolete rule from the 1970s that’s been ‘frozen in time’.Originally published in 2023.Under our current trading laws, most stores are required to stay closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday (along ...
Yael Shochat, chef-owner of Auckland restaurant Ima Cuisine, shares the recipe for her hot cross buns – regularly voted among the best in the city.Originally published in 2019.HOT CROSS BUNSMakes 12You may use equal weights of pre-ground spices, but you’ll get a much better flavour if ...
Gràinne Moss knows she can’t tackle the final leg of one of the world’s toughest swimming challenges alone.In her quest to complete the Oceans Seven marathon challenge, 38 years after she began, she’s enlisted the help of two remarkable women – one barely out of her teens, and the other ...
By Susana Leiataua, RNZ National presenter There are calls for greater transparency about what the HMNZS Manawanui was doing before it sank in Samoa last October — including whether the New Zealand warship was performing specific security for King Charles and Queen Camilla. The Manawanui grounded on the reef off ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased its lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put the party ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers ...
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 18, 2025. Labor’s poll surge continues in YouGov, but they’re barely ahead in FreshwaterSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and ...
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 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30) Haymitch’s Hunger Games. 2 Careless People: A ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased their lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put them ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers the ...
A new poem by Tusiata Avia. How to make a terrorist First make a whistling sound which is the sound of a bomb just before it lands on a house. Then make an exploding sound which is the sound of the bomb which kills a father, decapitates a mother, roasts ...
The top-rated Scrabble players in the country go head-to-head this Easter weekend. Watch games live from 9.30am on the stream below.How does it all work?The Masters is different to most Scrabble tournaments in that it’s invitational, open only to the top-rated players in the country. The ...
Books editor Claire Mabey appraises all the Austen-adapted films from 1990 onwards to separate the delightful from the duds.For the purists, read our ranking of Jane Austen’s novels here.It is a truth universally acknowledged that not everything is created equal. Since 1990 there have been 12 attempts to ...
To arrive through the heavy red door of Margot in Newtown is to be invited to the best dinner party in town, hosted by the best friends you haven’t yet made. Table Service is a column about food and hospitality in Wellington, written by Nick Iles.Hospitality is a term ...
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NONFICTION1 No Words for This by Ali Mau (HarperCollins, $39.99)A free copy of the author’s new memoir was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to share their feelings about Mau, a former broadcaster and one of the most powerful figures in the New Zealand #metoo ...
Analysis: The announcement last week that Colossal Biosciences in the USA had “de-extincted” the dire wolf, which was last seen 13,000 years ago, was reported worldwide.The three wolf pups generated equal parts fascination and widespread scientific criticism. But is this actually de-extinction, and what are the implications for the potential ...
We recommend the best – and longest – television series to watch this holiday weekend. As the Easter holiday weekend descends and the weather turns a little grim, many of us will turn to the trusty old television for comfort and entertainment. If you’re lucky, you’ll have some time over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gode Bola, Lecturer in Hydrology, University of Kinshasa The April 2025 flooding disaster in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, wasn’t just about intense rainfall. It was a symptom of recent land use change which has occurred rapidly in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton, now seriously on the back foot, has made an extraordinarily big “aspirational” commitment at the back end of this campaign. He says he wants to see a move to indexing personal income ...
Essay by Keith Rankin. Operation Gomorrah may have been the most cynical event of World War Two (WW2). Not only did the name fully convey the intent of the war crimes about to be committed, it, also represented the single biggest 24-hour murder toll for the European war that I ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Tietz, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW Sydney A New South Wales Senate inquiry into public toilets is underway, looking into the provision, design and maintenance of public toilets across the state. Whenever I mention this inquiry, however, everyone nervously ...
Shrinking budgets and job insecurity means there are fewer opportunities for young journalists, and that’s bad news, especially in regional Australia, reports 360infoANALYSIS:By Jee Young Lee of the University of Canberra Australia risks losing a generation of young journalists, particularly in the regions where they face the closure ...
Like maggots in a rotten block of cheese the CIA works to interfere in elections both foreign and domestic .
Arron mate explains what Mike Morell has been up to in 2016 and 2020 for the dems
Its not a 'swamp ' its a sewer !!!
Watched a bit of the coronation last night. Here is the thing – English choral music from the late rennaissance is widely acknowedged as the top of the game, and "Zadok the Priest" is a total banger. You would go a long way to hear better arrangements and of course to see and hear it done in context for probably the last time in history was lovely. Of course, you could fund a lot of cultural stuff like early English and orchestral music for a long time with 250 million pounds…
I remember reading – it may have been in John Julius Norwich's three volume history -about the Byzantine empires final days. Reduced to the city of Constantinople and it's immediate surrounds plus a few scraps of land here and there nonetheless imperial ceremony continued as if nothing had changed. The Hagia Sophia gleamed, the diadems and sceptres shone, the voices raised in tedious and interminable religious cant rang as beautifully as ever. Except on closer inspection, the jewels were glass and precioud metals just paint and tinsel. In the corners the paint was peeling and streets beyond the imperial quarters were unkempt and run down. I got strong Byzantium vibes from Westminster abbey.
The whole exercise to me was a ghastly, self-important exercise in hypernormality for the British ruling elite. You know the whole thing was cos-playing fantasy. They know the whole thing was a cos playing fantasy. You could see on everyone faces they knew it was a cos playing fantasy. Charles clearly really, really wanted it. He's waited his enite life for the moment I guess. But no one knows what to do instead, so they pretend it was all perfectly normal.
The whole thing – the imperial regalia, the swearing to uphold the Protestant settlement, the sumptuous yet ridiculous clothing – was an expedition into never-never land, larping for a long dead empire. It was ymbolic of the UKs wider struggle with reality in an era of seemingly irreversible national decline.
Yes I loved the 3-volume John Norich as well.
We do need mass events to connect to our collective assent better than tawdry party woopdiewoop, but I'm not sure English coronation tat is any worse than the serried ranks of calisthenic inflatable pandas from any Beijing Olympics.
Cathedral of Light anyone?
Yes. For me Byrd especially has a sort of supernatural quality that fades into something more formulaic by the time you get to Handel. The Roman Catholic Byrd was played straight after Charles swore to uphold the Protestant faith – obviously intended as a nod to modern notions of religious tolerance.
But it was all very strange – as though the legitimacy of the monarchy is so weak in rational terms, that it now consists only of spectacle and its extraordinary. magical difference from everyday life.
Where else do the great Hollywood directors get their inspiration from for their megalomaniac blockbuster projects? Oh wait, AI!
Would you say the same about the coronation of the King of Bhutan, Thailand, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Spain, the swearing in of a new Pope, the marching down the the Mall of a new President in the US etc?
Zadoc the Priest is from George Frideric Handel who wrote the music for the Coronation of George II in 1727 and Handel was renown for his 'celestial' composition, and German. A quintessential understanding and imagining of the heavens in music. You know Christian understanding of the glory of the Father, the son and the holy ghost. (yes, mothers and daughters need not apply, but that is a world wide thing when it comes to religions be the old or new wave).
This is a tradition that is hundreds of years old, happens every now and then, and as Mr. Cave said so well,
"I am not a monarchist, nor am I a royalist, nor am I an ardent republican for that matter; what I am also not is so spectacularly incurious about the world and the way it works, so ideologically captured, so damn grouchy, as to refuse an invitation to what will more than likely be the most important historical event in the UK of our age."
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23502890.nick-cave-defends-attendance-coronation/#:~:text=He%20said%3A%20%22I%20am%20not,likely%20be%20the%20most%20important
This is British culture, you know the culture of the indigenous people of Britain. Would you be so happy to poopoo the tradition of other countries indigenous people?
And fwiw, i rather have this exhibit of tradition that comes every other few decades – and even Charles has a good chance to get very old, then the the shit Ad posted below, coming from a country that had its culture stripped via Dunce hat, beatings, death and ridicule by its young during Mao Tse Dong reign and his cultural revolution, and who replaced it with plastic shit.
And don't come with the cost of this, cause our Prime Minster Person was there and really they had no reason what so ever to be there other then a nice tax payer funded junket, and i don't hear anyone complaining about that waste of money. But i guess so as long as New Zealand is a jewel in the crown that is the commonwealth, no one would refuse such and awesome experience and tax payer funded trip.
The indigenous people of Europe have their own tradition, rites and pomp, as is their right. And if we are to accept the traditions of indigenous people, and their right to express their traditions, you might as well understand that that includes people whom you might not approve.
First bit was a lovely response.
Our PM has to be there because this is his head of state.
All we have to do is apply a 5,000-strong Kapa Haka team to our own opening of Parliament and we would be on the way.
Matariki+ANZAC+Commonwealth Games opening as a hybrid to get the juices going.
My point is literally pointing out that we are doing our best here in NZ/Aotearoa to pretend that everything that comes/came from the crown is colonial bullshit and needs to be burned and buried, yet here the PM Person is eating sausage rolls standing in line ready to bow their head and shake hands with the great coloniser.
If one wants to bury tradition cause 'colonialism' cause 'white', then one should have the conviction of thought and simply state that they can not attend, find an excuse and send that ex speaker of the house who lives in Ireland now and send them as a representative of NZ or Aotearoa. Which btw, would have been a cheap solution too, the ex speaker of the house could have travelled on Easy Jet to the coronation for 50 quid and stay in NZ house in London.
I am getting very tired of the poopooing of European culture, the pretense that every person born of white color is responsible for the sins of their forefathers, worse are active colonisers, thiefs of land, killers of people – all of those that were born since 1930 of the last century up until today, yet, at the same time these same people can't go over there fast enough to rub shoulders with people whom otherwise they would call colonisers, thiefs, and killers of people.
Either you are ok with this type of tradition for all and that then includes white people and their traditions, either we start accepting the idea that all people are indeginous somewhere, or we should opt out of this pomp and ceremony and stay at home and attend to important business there.
Case in point, Biden send the wife and no one is unhappy about that. And Biden is the head of the USofA a much larger and more important country in terms of geo – political interests and doings.
And last, i don’t think many here would complain about a crowning ceremony if it were by non white, non european people, cause ‘interesting culture and tradition’, yet they will not give the same grace to their own culture and ‘race’.
and yes, if we start applying that 5000 strong Kapa Haka group, in a thousand years it might be just as spectacular.
And would you invite Tamaki, cause he has form when it comes to Kapa Haka in front of parliament?
This is British culture, you know the culture of the indigenous people of Britain. Would you be so happy to poopoo the tradition of other countries indigenous people?
Charles is about as British as I am, he's a sausage sucking German from way back. His old man was from Glucksburg by way of the parlour floor of some place in Greece.
Matariki + Anzac + Commonwealth Games opening is meaningless and renders all three into a mush of nothingness.
They are three distinct things.
Matariki – raise of the Pleiades, the celebration of the Maori new year.
Anzac – Australian New Zealand forces that got left behind in the ditches of Europe and Turkey and North Africa and that are still mourned today by those left to live without them and their potential offspring, and those that came home to deal with their survival on their own.
Commonwealth Games – a sporting event – may the 'best' win. (males in female sport are totes the best)
I really hope that we have enough good sense in this country to never marry these three things up in a gray mush of plastic bullshit and rather celebrate them as the three distinct occasions for festivities that they are.
I'm sure that Sanctuary would do exactly the same – provided he knew about those cultures to relate those coronation events to the political and economic structures of those societies and any systems of hierarchy or oppression they enabled. He was absolutely not being critical of the actual material details of the ceremony – he (rightly) praised English Renaissance to baroque composers (even the German import Georg Friedrich Händel).
As above, he was not poopooing the actual aretfacts of the culture – only what it means for the social, economic and political realm. And it is not only Mr Sanctuary who does this, British people do it themselves in growing numbers.
It seems to me that your comments amount to a strawman hit job and contain a fallacy. The fallacy being – that if anyone insists that all cultures are worthy of equal respect, that means they are not permitted to criticise any culture.
Well for many people this crowning actually means a good social act of coming together in country and re-affirm ones idendity in this case being a 'brit', it certainly will do good for the economy of London and probably spill over elsewhere considering that people will spend, eat out, party , people will travel there to be part of this event and so on, and it is a good excellent demonstration in soft political power, hence why our PM travelled there – well at least that is why i hope they travelled there.
Anyways, Britain now has a new King, may he be a good one, and hopefully it made Brits feel good about being part of a culture that is over a thousand years old, and that is still part of life today.
re-affirm ones idendity in this case being a ‘brit’,..”
A “brit” being suitably uncapitalised in this case.
Agree Sanc and lovely post….I would add to this the brutal police suppression of anti-royal demonstrators (52 arrested) that took place yesterday….also a symbol of Britain's national decline that has been exacerbated by the small-minded right-wing clique (Brexit proponents, still fantasising about an empire) that seem to have taken control of the country.
I'm not sure Starmer is going to be much better.
It's probably just as well they were arrested – for their own safety. Imagine what the crowd would have done to them.
Somebody had better help Kainga Ora find the 6000 rentals they appear to have misplaced
"At the end of June the number of public houses was 76,271. Of those 64,870 were Kāinga Ora properties while 11,401 were CHP properties, according to HUD’s figures."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/131960672/property-investors-losing-one-of-last-ways-to-keep-interest-deductibility
State Rentals 65,654
Community Group Housing¹ 1,508
CHP Lease Portfolio 4 964
Transitional Housing 2,271
Total 70,397
https://kaingaora.govt.nz/assets/Publications/Managed-stock/Managed-Stock-National-Summary-December-2022.pdf
If you drive around Owairaka you might see the answer to some of that question. Whole swathes of former State housing has been removed for the development of new houses suitable for 21stC living, There are vacant sites and construction sites everywhere. As Kainga Ora is building on its own land there, the previous houses (most of which were constructed of 6 kinds of tacky boarding and only held together with 50 years of bad paint jobs) have been pushed over.
I suspect that that is indeed part of the explanation….however it dosnt explain why HUD ( and the Gov) are claiming a current KO stock level that is at odds with KOs own data.
The spin doctors appear to have been given a free hand
Then they should be listed as 'currently' being rebuild, refurbished, not in the state of being tenanted, rather then just being omitted.
I don't see why interest should be deductible just because a property is administered by Kianga Ora. The capital ownership remains with the landlord/investor. Non deductibility is logical because ownership of the capital lies outside the business itself.
It is because no private landlord wants to rent to 'Kainga Ora' and its unruly tenants that can not be moved on – cause no evictions ever – in the case of a anti-social, community terrorizing tenant.
So here is a financial incentive – write of your interest payments if you rent to Kainga Ora, however i can't see that as enough of a treat for a landlord who really don't want his property trashed, meth cooked, wife/children beaten and/or the property being turned into a gang patch.
It really has got nothing to do with ownership, business setup/interests or anything. KO/the Government can't and wont build the houses that the country needs, the country simply does not have the money to do so – or so at least we are to believe, nor the skills – and that is something i can believe, so the private landlord must be roped in, here have a sweetener. Having read many accounts of unruly social welfare tenants, hearing the sirens every night that go to certain KO addresses daily, why would any investor bother. They may as well keep the property empty and rent it privately to someone who is happy being responsible for their own life, rather then depend on the welfare agencies to finance theirs.
And yes, there are decent KO tenants who are the majority, but sadly as always its the minority of fuckwits that ruin it for all. And KO refusing to deal with the minority of fuckwits that ruin it for all, really does ruin it for all.
If you change the end date to December 2022 you’ll get the exact same number of Kāinga Ora Public Homes (65,654) reported by HUD as reported in the KO PDF that you linked to with the same end date.
https://www.hud.govt.nz/stats-and-insights/the-government-housing-dashboard/public-homes/#tabset
What exactly is the issue here?
I think you may wish to revisit that statement…
Total public houses as at Dec 2022 according to HUD is 77,707
KO state they have a managed stock of 70,397
Both sets of figures include CHP stock.
On the HUD page I linked to (and changed the end date to December 2022 for comparison with your KO link) it states Public Home – Total 77,707; Kāinga Ora Public Homes 65,654; Community Housing Provider Public Homes 12,053 and 65,654 + 12,053 = 77,707.
Obviously, the only figure that is identical to that in the KO PDF that you linked to is State Rentals 65,654. If you read the note and footnotes you’ll understand why figures in the other categories are different from those reported by HUD. Hence, the totals are different.
Further guidance can be found here: https://www.hud.govt.nz/stats-and-insights/the-government-housing-dashboard/definitions/#tabset.
Im beginning to think this may be your baby…
“Kāinga Ora Public Homes includes public homes managed by Kāinga Ora that are occupied by tenants and those that are vacant. Homes may be vacant for a variety of reasons:
Community Housing Provider Public Homes includes public homes managed by Community Housing Providers. It does not include vacant homes.”
https://www.hud.govt.nz/stats-and-insights/the-government-housing-dashboard/definitions/#tabset
As said tjhe spin doctors appear to have been given free licence…counting (and promoting) 7,000 unavailable homes is 'disingenuous'…to put it politely.
Personally I prefer the vernacular….its bullshit
I cannot help you with reading comprehension – you seem to be conflating properties managed through KO and properties existing/available as reported by HUD.
I’m puzzled why you think this may be my baby and it sounds like a failed ad hom, which is disappointing because I thought we were past this.
When you refuse to acknowledge that HUD (and the Gov) are claiming a level of public housing that dosnt exist (isnt available for whatever reason) as demonstrated by KOs own managed stock figures which clearly show those claims to be false then one has to consider why?
Perhaps you are more credulous than you present.
I read the notes and concluded that most figures reported by KO and HUD are different, as explained, i.e., apples and oranges. In addition, this is more plausible than to invoke wild conspiracy theories involving Government-aligned (and paid?) evil spin doctors spreading BS false claims and lying to us. It is ok to disagree, reach a different opinion, and then agree to disagree instead of going on a personal attack alleging conflict of interest of those who dare to see things differently.
Apples (?)
"As at December 2022 there was a total of 77,707 properties managed by Kāinga Ora and Community Housing Providers for use as public housing."
https://www.hud.govt.nz/stats-and-insights/the-government-housing-dashboard/public-homes/#tabset
Oranges(?)
"Managed Kainga Ora Properties as at 31st December 2022…Total 70,397"
https://kaingaora.govt.nz/assets/Publications/Managed-stock/Managed-Stock-National-Summary-December-2022.pdf
Bananas!
You nailed it!
I'd say they nailed themselves….to their shame (if they possessed any)
31 December 2022 KO figure: 65,654 and HUD figure: 65,654
30 September 2022 KO figure: 65,121 and HUD figure: 65,121
30 June 2022 KO figure: 64,870 and HUD figure: 64,870
31 March 2022 KO figure: 64,312 and HUD figure: 64,312
And so on, and so forth.
KO goes back to December 2015 and HUD to June 2017, but I hope you’ll get the gist based on just one year (2022).
In other words, KO and HUD are using the same stats for the same things and different stats for different but related things.
You are being as dishonest as the Government,
HUD (and the Gov) are claiming public housing increases that DO NOT EXIST.
HUD 'public housing' figures include Kiwibuild houses (sold or available to owner occupiers but not renters) and public housing consented (but not yet completed, irrespective of anticipated completion date).
And yet still they state…"As at December 2022 there was a total of 77,707 properties managed by Kāinga Ora and Community Housing Providers for use as public housing."…when there are in fact fully SEVEN THOUSAND LESS properties managed by KO and available to their clients…..and you defend such dishonesty.
Shhhh, not so loud, the baby has finely dozed off.
The baby deserves to know why he/she is sleeping in a car
mi casa es tu auto
If 7 people died on the Rotorua Marathon, Worksafe would shut it down permanently.
In Kentucky 7 thoroughbred horses die and it's the game.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kentucky-derby-runs-into-more-obstacles-ahead-of-big-race_n_64569ca7e4b0461603129946
Any time this government wants to do what it said it would do and shut Greyhound racing down when it had to kill 27 dogs last season, would be great. Chloe is dead right on this.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/racing/300484854/a-sport-on-its-last-legs–can-greyhound-racing-in-new-zealand-survive
I think this would fall under Grant Robertson 's protfolio?
Indeed it is; kicked to touch like most policies.
sad, because it could have been shut down so many times, i mean full majority and all that, plus never ending support from the Greens…..ladida.
But it gets Chloe in the news, i guess that is a plus?
Has Chloe had any comments on males competing in female sports? I think Grant said something like, 'should not be petty and mean' and exlude them? NO? Oh well……
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/petty-and-small-minded-sport-minister-grant-robertson-responds-to-critics-of-sport-nz-transgender-guidelines/EHLQL6YAAFHDHI2WKMIREEOMMY/
Keiran McAnulty is the Minister of Racing
ah i see, appointed last year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kieran_McAnulty
Then again if you shut these sports down, none of these animals would ever likely lived anyway.
Yes. The moment greyhound racing is made illegal in NZ, all of the reputable owners and breeders will euthanase all of their dogs.
Of course, there will still be illicit racing (just as there is illicit dog fighting) – but the SPCA and industry bodies will have zero oversight and control.
The dogs which survive will be much worse off.
I'm using greyhound racing as an example, since it seems to have fewer rich people investing than horse racing, and therefore less political influence (anyone remember one W. Peters, the minister for racing, and his tax credit for 'pretty horses'). So is likely to be first off the cancellation chopping block.
No, culling all the non-racing dogs is not inevitable. There are of course alternatives and they are well practised.
That is a really terrible reason not to stop the dog racing industry.
I can't see any way that the current numbers of dogs could be maintained. Yes, there might be a few kept as pets. The vast majority would be immediately culled (or disappear into the black market). Racing is a business.
Can you give an example where this has not happened, once racing became illegal?
There's nothing reputable about greyhound racing. It's a gambling industry masquerading as sport where a third of whelped animals never make it to the track and nearly half of euthanised dogs are under three years old.
https://www.tabnz.org/sites/default/files/documents/Greyhound%20Racing%20Welfare%20Report%202017.pdf
Well, the majority of them maintain the SPCA mandated standards (or they get closed down). It's simple business practice.
If it goes underground (as dog fighting has). What standards will exist?
Yes it's gambling. Does that make it better or worse than the pokies or lotto which suck money out of South Auckland every week?
Cite?
https://pmgt.org.nz/animal-abuse/
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/05/24/dog-fighting-rings-terrify-northland-canine-lovers/
A watch out notice about signs of a potential abuser, and with details of the long running gangs are watching claptrap, and a news report of a dog snatching?
But hey, absolute chaos if legit trainers are forced out of a regulated industry.
/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441048/greyhound-trainer-disqualified-fined-after-dog-tests-positive-for-meth
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/racing/300709615/greyhound-trainer-disqualified-after-dog-tests-positive-for-methamphetamine
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/08/two-trainers-banned-from-greyhound-racing-after-leaving-dogs-in-abhorrent-conditions.html
A regulated industry.
/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/129906186/two-year-ban-for-tokoroa-greyhound-owner-who-used-human-drugs-to-treat-dog
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/488475/greyhound-racing-case-lengthy-ban-imposed-on-mother-and-daughter
I think you're rather over-egging the pudding here. I've suggested nothing like absolute chaos.
My statement was that if dog racing was banned, the *majority* of dogs would be put down immediately, but that there would be some which would go into illegal racing (as there is already illegal dog fighting)
You asked for evidence of the latter, and I gave you some (sorry if you don't like it – but people don't exactly line up to tell journalists about their illegal activity). Given that the SPCA and the police both think it's an issue, you might just accept that it goes on.
If you believe that current trainers/breeders exhibit lack of care for their dogs – then the outcome that I've suggested is even more likely – most dogs put down, some in illegal racing (and treated even worse than they are now).
If you think this is an acceptable short-term cost – then just state your position. But don't try to sell a proposal that all the dogs currently racing will be adopted by loving families (or some other rose-coloured glasses scenario).
That's not a good reason.
New Zealand culls thousands of calves and cows every day, the consequences of mechanised death industries we call meat. We calculate an entire economy on it. Doesn't make it something that's good. And of course it is reversible.
We just have to choose it.
Hmm, the problem is that while we can make individual choices, others in the country are equally free to do so.
You can choose to become vegetarian (or even vegan), but if your neighbour down the road (or overseas) still wants to eat meat and cheese, then the slaughter-houses remain.
You either have to accept that one person's veto over-rides another's choices; or be prepared to accept that other people's choices impact on your peace of mind.
You can, of course, try to influence the rest of the country to agree with your opinion. And … that's exactly what the anti-racing brigade are doing.
Part of that PR exercise, is an unwillingness to admit the immediate consequences of their proposed ban on racing.
It would be more honest to admit that the vast majority of dogs (and potentially horses) would be put down. And find a way to make that an acceptable cost of making the change.
"Liam Dann: With numbers this good, why does the economy feel so bad?" (Watch out Liam! The Herald will smack your hand for this column!)
A good question but the Opposition are feeding the feeling of doom.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/liam-dann-with-numbers-this-good-why-does-the-economy-feel-so-bad/G3N6N6R4U5BZHFNUFCQF3D3IH4/
Check:
– Unemployment. Maori unemployment. The underemployed. Youth unemployed.
– Wage rises.
– Building consents
– Productivity
– International benchmarks of net debt
All of them really good. What we lack to sell the message is either a decent Minister of Economic Development (having fired Nash it's now Barbara Edmonds (who?)), or a Minister of Finance who actually wants the job (Grant Robertson with no current successor anywhere).
Labour don't even look like they have a message beyond "sausage rolls and bread and butter", let alone anyone trying to sell it.
If the stenographer from the Herald were to study the stats in detail they would have discovered a line called " Underemployment/Underutilisation " and that may help in their understanding of the employment market.
End March 2023:
9.0% average under employment/underutilisation
Male 7.3%
"Female" 10.9%
(female in brackets as chances are it includes unemployed males self identifying as 'women' and thus increase the stats for females and decrease them for males) I expect this to change a bit in the future once enough Transmen come of age and will start skewering the stats with their inclusion. As in the next generation of trans, the children that are now coming of age and start going to uni and work, and that cohort is greater female to male then male to female.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/underutilisation-rate/
If the Herald stenographer were to dig deeper in the government provided details they would have learned that there are 2000 more unemployed people. Can't see them being able to keep up with bill payments whilst on the dole.
Rf that person were to scroll a bit lower then they would see again the divide by sex (i am assuming here that they use sex based criteria, it might be by gender cause who knows, as it is all the same to government)
The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people reached 102,000 (up 2,000).
most households in NZ need that second income to pay for bills.
to end this is also from the stats
In the March 2023 quarter, 22,000 more people were employed, taking the total number of employed people up to 2,886,000.
so despite more 'women' then men being employed 'female' underutilistion is up, and more 'women' were unemployed.
We can thus fairly safely stipulated that the employment for 'women' is part time, casual, seasonal, and thus increasing underutiliastion. Wants to work more hours then they have.
And again, we have no idea who many males self identifying as 'women' are in the stats for 'females' or 'women'. In essence, its made up shit, and actually unemployment – if we still count employed anyone who has a job for an hour a week, and thus are no more believable then they were under John Key.
Personally i think the underutilisation rate is a better measure to look at as to why the economy is in free fall, and inflation will continue to go up and bills will not get paid. And this would then also explain the increase in emergency benefits, and other 'side benefits' that are given to people who are in gainful employment but can't make ends meet.
But don't tell the stenographer from the Herald that, it might confuse them even further.
The method of measuring unemployment has been the same for a decade or so. To go for under-employment as proof of something Sabine, surely you would have to compare with underemployment in the previous 10 years or so.
Tthat is true, hence why i put in there that we have been doing unemployement stats like this since the changes were introduced and implemented under the reign of John Key. I.e. one hour per week paid/volunteer with benefits counts as 'employed', that 0 hour contracts still count somewhere in the stats as 'employed', hence why benefits seem to go up while unemployment goes down.
So yes, we could and maybe we should compare. And we could compare say the financial crisis, with todays financial crisis – Banks are failing in the US, quite a few actually, and eventually that too will travel around the planet as it always does.
But to the question raised by the person writing for the Herald 'as to why ' no one seems to be doing 'well' in a 'good' economy, i point to the other stats that point to a malaise generally, that while unemployment is 'low', is that 'under employment is not, and that some groups of people are more affected by that then others, and that that might add to that malaise of not being able to pay mortgages and bills.
It would equally interesting to know how many households are behind their mortgages – since when- how long – how much, and how many households are behind bills such as utilities, rates, – since when – how long – how much.
All really good interesting questions that an enterprising 'journalist' working for a national fishwrap could ask and investigate.
Dann's article is archived here, for those without Herald subscriptions
https://archive.ph/UApsD
The accompanying photo is an unfortunate stereotype, but I haven’t had my coffee yet, so I’m not 100% awake yet.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018888690/when-does-loving-care-become-overindulgence
I haven't been able to do wag jnrs maths homework since about year 7 so nailing that bit of parenting atleast!!
You're not meant to do your children's homework
Ha! I was told, very firmly, by my teen that I know nothing about maths, when I tried to help him with his trig homework (not do it for him, but help him work out where he'd got stuck). Am pretty sure that the interior angles of a triangle still add up to 180 degrees, just as they did when I was at school (and indeed since Thales, Pythagoras and Euclid codified the rules)
By letting kids solve their own problems means as adults they have learnt to survive with confidence. To jump in with answers to questions, or the tell them solutions to their problems is most unhelpful.
I agree. IMO, the emphasis should be on learning strategies to problem-solve rather than on finding the (only!) right/correct answer. The former teaches creativity and resilience, and sometimes teamwork, and the latter teaches binary outcomes such as correct-false (and fail-pass). Problem-solving is fun and the (correct) answer is just a bonus and icing on the cake, from a pedagogical perspective, IMHO.
Marc Daalder in Newsroom has penned his analysis of the Green Party and its ongoing identity crisis.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/kerekere-gone-from-greens-but-identity-crisis-remains
Indeed, you would think that the Green Party would have figured out by now who they are and what they stand for. I recommend a short-course: Realpolitik-101.
It's a little too easy to blame EK for everything – she is an unsympathetic figure at the best of times – the perfect fall-person.
When you have Jeanette Fitzsimons expressing uncharacteristic overwhelming anger and disappointment it is fair to say Shaw had gone completely off the reservation. And he hasn't come back.
Who's blaming EK for everything? Not MD.
that's a very good read.
Useful to have an explanation of why the investigation was taking so long. And that Kerekere had agreed to the process last year.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/131919854/why-raising-gst-could-be-the-easiest-way-to-make-the-rich-pay-more-tax
Sounds like a plan , although I bet the average income earner that's not claiming any child support, or rent subsidie will cope most the pain
If the rich people are simply beneficiaries of their businesses then they will barely pay any GST as a good accountant will make sure that they don't.
Joe / Jane Six Pack will have no such luck, they buy their groceries and will pay what ever GST is in full with no refunds.
We should have learned that lesson when GST was increased under John Key.
read the article. He's saying increase GST, increase benefits, decrease tax on lower income earners. Basically low income people end up with net zero increase, but wealthy people pay more.
Every time a price goes up, GST goes up. This is saying that the increase in benefit – John Keys first year of reign saw a NZD 25 increase in benefits took care of the increased costs in goods via the GST increase from 12.5 % to 15%.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/274358/welfare-increases-what-$25-buys-you#:~:text=Twenty%2Dfive%20dollars%20may%20seem,depending%20on%20who%20you%20ask.&text=The%20Government's%20Budget%20this%20week,have%20been%20increased%20since%201972.
I don't think that the math mathes well.
And the rich don't pay GST unless they have a really really shitty accountant. Hence why the rich currently actually are not that big a payer compared to others who can not write of costs of doing business, and who are not 'beneficiaries' trusts, businesses and .orgs.
I still think a 0 income tax rate for low incomes to be offset with a high income tax for incomes above a certain limit – i.e. as taxation in OZ is actually better, and then a low 'sales' tax as that is all GST is. It is a cut for the middle man called Government who actually is the biggest beneficiary of creeping price costs and inflation as their GST intake is increasing without ever having to announce a tax raise. Ka-ching.
But to believe that anyone else but the end consumer actually pays GST has not ever done a GST return.
This is stupid and wrong, and it seems the author has not actually read the IRD report.
One of the points in the original report, is that the wealthier you are, you pay proportionally less GST than poorer people (because poor people spend more of their money on goods subject to GST).
The High-Wealth Individuals Research Project report says this about the rich people in their study:
So the author proposes increasing the rate of a tax, which the wealthy pay very, very little of in any case….
do you think the figures in the article are wrong?
The problem is, the article doesn't even include the relevant figures. The idea suggested in the article is to increase tax on the rich by raising GST. Very strange starting point to choose a tax that is famously regressive (poor people pay more). They then consider raising GST from 15% to 20%, increasing tax revenue by $12.3b. The missing figure is how much of that 12.3b would be paid by the rich?
The article implies that the rich pay lots of GST ("Why GST? Because the one thing that unites the wealthy is that they love buying things…And GST taxes all of it. "). But the reality (confirmed by the IRD report) is that the rich pay very little GST. So the impact on the rich of increasing GST will be an increase in what is only a miniscule part of their total tax payments.
The article suggests trying to reduce the impact on ordinary people of the GST increase by applying other redistributive measures. Why not directly apply a redistributive measure to the problem instead – for example, a wealth tax?
thanks. And yes, a wealth tax seems a no brainer.
Maybe bling tax at 50% we could call it a carbon tax on excess behaviors!!
That's pretty much were we were with our sales tax and import duty regime before the Rogernomes came along with GST and open borders.
Not entirely sure I want to go back there, but it did make for a very different society to what we have now. There's a lot of aspects of that society that weren't that flash, but would be nice to get to something that had the good bits of then and now.
The capital controls that existed then would be too problematic for the existing paradigm…especially given our current preferred status within it.
Given how much GST can get written off as spurious "business" expenses now, wouldn't any increase just go unpaid as well? I asked Stubbs the same at his Simplicity road show a while back, and he agreed that the would have to be better regulation as well as.
Given that the IRD can't even manage to identify for tax purposes people who are clearly making a business out of house-flipping – it seems profoundly unlikely that they will do so for GST.
While the unregistered focus on the ability to claim back 15% of your expenses, you've also got to pay GST on your earnings. So effectively you pay 15% of your profit / drawings as GST, and that's before any Income Tax on the same profit. Even for small businesses that aren't making a huge profits, GST is brutal, your end of year tax might be quite modest and you're only paying 9%, but you've already paid 15% GST on those earnings.
And cunning plans to structure so you can claim the GST on your living expenses very quickly get IRD's interest, particularly if the amounts getting up there. Have a ex neighbour who just come a gutsa over a flash home stay / airbnb that was always booked out.
It is hardly brutal as the cost is borne not by the seller but by the buyer.
What you are suggesting is that the seller meets this cost – fuck off no they don't I do as the customer. In my view all GST should be automatically sent to IRD at the point of sale.
The same for PAYE and student loan repayments – that is my money, for my tax, not the business owners.
I'm sure with modern sophisticated systems GST being claimed by businesses could be automated at POS as well.
(Sorry, I couldn't enter text into the field when hitting reply)
I have read the article mentioned and linked to by Sanctuary (https://thestandard.org.nz/the-future-of-the-monarchy/#comment-1948501) and recommended also by SPC (https://thestandard.org.nz/the-future-of-the-monarchy/#comment-1948655). It is long and it is bleak. Personally, I found the last few paragraphs the most insightful.
https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/04/27/britain-is-dead/
The title speaks for itself.
Rats fleeing the sinking ship.
In the temporarily occupied Melitopol of the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian invaders are burning documents in sacks in the premises of the so-called police and taking away equipment from the occupation passport office. This was announced by the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov.
“In Melitopol, the computers and servers of the occupation passport office took an indefinite leave,” the mayor wrote in his Telegram.
According to him, the occupiers are hastily packing the equipment and taking it in an unknown direction towards Russia. Some documents are burned to the ground.
“There is no less commotion in the building of the occupation military police – documents are burned in sacks all day,” Fedorov said.
https://glavcom-ua.translate.goog/country/incidents/u-melitopoli-okupanti-paljat-dokumenti-mishkami-mer-rozpoviv-pro-situatsiju-v-misti-925072.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui
(Fedorov elected mayor of Melitopol in 2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Fedorov_(politician) )
Here is a feel good story for a sunday evening.
I've just spent most of the day on my laptop and phone in contact with my business accountant, sorting year end stuff. No he's not charging extra.
Reason. He is taking his 12 staff and partners, minus children, to Fiji for 10 days on Wednesday. His staff had a confab and said to Lindsay how about we work the weekend and some late nights at no cost. So when we get back we won't have a deadline backup to work to.
What a stunning atmosphere that must be.
I've always mainly dealt with Lindsay as almost 30 years ago he hung out his shingle and I saw that, as a newly minted contractor and thought, I need one of those so I went and saw him. I was his first customer. Bloody cracking guy.
Meet Tommy Fitz.
While drinking, a Pilot bet he could land outside the bar, 2 hours later he touched down in central New York in a stolen aircraft. Years later he repeated the stunt because someone wouldn't believe him.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1654244355673128960
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fitzpatrick_(pilot)
The maddest pilot I ever heard of was the one who, in 1919, landed his plane on the roof of the 6 story Galerie Lafayette department store in Paris. The area he landed in was about 28m by 12m. Here is a film of the event.
The building is next to the Opera House. You can go up to the roof where there is a plaque celebrating the event.
Rural legend around these parts has an ex WW2 pilot dodging being caught yet again pissed in charge by winging it from his 40 acre town supply rehab dairy unit to the local airport in a Piper Cub, cabbing it to the pub and back, and then flying home, pissed, before dark.
The legend has it that the only time mum ever truly worried was when he'd been shifting electric fences.
Souvenir edition.