“The murder of #RazzanNajjar was not a “tragedy”. This is doublespeak. It was a deliberately executed War Crime like the 112 other murders in the trail of tears of the #GreatReturnMarch and the 13,000 wounded.”
Good to see Argentina pulling out of a football game with the apartheid state of Israel.
I think it’s next to nothing although I do know that the pharmaceuticals supplied by Israels only Pharma company have increased, although i suspect none of these are actually manufactured in israel.
That’s not nothing: promoting Galloway and his self-aggrandising gobshite undermines credible commentary and makes it easier for the Israelis to dismiss their critics as misled.
Galloway has been attacked and assaulted by Zionists for his truth telling about them ….making it easier for critics of israel to show them as violent thugs ….
Aside from that ….What gobshite are you gobshitting about ?? ….
Perhaps wayne mapp ….. a racist warmonger who also dislikes him could help you with an example of how ‘wrong’ he is. ….
or three face James …. brimming with crackpot examples no doubt [sarc].
But I’m sure you’ve got heaps of examples and need no help backing up what you’ve written ….
If it’s gobshite then surely people will work that out eventually. Galloway can then be resigned to the status of a propaganda factory like the rest of the lamestream. But for now I only see a rising tide for George.
Hewlett Packard computrers and all the other tech companies who prop up their apartheid war state are fair game for boycotts …. Rupert Murdoch media would be another.
But otherwise supporting New Zealanders who have been smeared by zionists is a good activity … like Lorde was …. usually with false anti-semite accusations.
Ed is very good at bearing witness and posting up a record of peoples deeds …. despite the bleats and moans from the stunned James and other right wing precious malcontents of this world.
Spreading the truth and debunking zionist lies is a worthwhile activity IMO
Stunned mullet. A big range of make up and fragrance is owned by Israeli companies. I used to be a fan of Estée Lauder, but has been years since I bought this brand.
Main point about BDS is the raising of awareness about Israeli genocide in Gaza & West Bank, especially among Israeli population many if whom do not know what is going on. So BDS aims at corporates, businesses as well as sports teams, pop/ rock stars, & musicians with high international profiles to say no and why.
Someone told me that the My Food Bag, uses Israeli produce, not sure if that is true, maybe somebody knows? Would put me off for many reasons, if true.
” A big range of make up and fragrance is owned by Israeli companies. I used to be a fan of Estée Lauder, but has been years since I bought this brand.”.
That reads as if you believe that Estee Lauder is a company that is owned in Israel. That is rubbish.
The only possible way you can make any connection at all is that one of the sons of the people who founded the company is involved in Jewish Groups who do support Israel. He is a director of the company but he is a US, not an Israeli citizen and he appears to have nothing to do with the day to day operations.
The only possible way you can make any connection at all is that one of the sons of the people who founded the company is involved in Jewish Groups who do support Israel.
The Israelis did not commit the Sabra and Shatila massacres. That was done by a Lebanese militia. They may well have been complicit in the attacks but that is not the same thing as stating they ordered it or were behind it.
Also these attacks you have linked to did not involve the US. I thought there was meant to be more attacks by Israel on US interests.
Done by a Lebanese militia supplied , financed and directed by Israel. – oh the Israeli guards on the outskirts of the camps not only prevented civilians from escaping the massacre they very kindly kept up a continuous stream off starburst shells at night so their proxies could more effectively murder their victims
Well, if you’re going to boycott anything Israel, I guess we won’t be seeing you here much?
Intel to invest $4.5 billion in Israel in 2018
Kiryat Gat is already one of the world’s most advanced chip fabs after Intel invested $6 billion in expanding and upgrading it during 2016 and 2017.
What? You mean like a TINA sort of thing? There is no alternative to Intel?
And as if the Chinese haven’t already co-opted (to put it politely) the intellectual property that comes from that research and development.
That kind of TINA?
Please! Keep it up – you’re going to be one really disappointed fella.
“Addendum: don’t touch the staff
In 2018, you might assume it is a given that customers must not pet, grope or manhandle waiters. But having browsed Twitter and seen chefs such as Stevie Parle reminding diners to “Keep your hands to yourself” – and Guinea Grill landlord Oisin Rogers proudly relaying his team’s zero tolerance approach: “She told him she would cut his arm off if he touched her again” – it needs reiterating: DO NOT TOUCH THE STAFF.”
I’d be interested in seeing a comparison of the pay and conditions that seasonal workers get now. I picked apples Motueka way in the ’80s and there was no shortage of workers, mainly because the pay was pretty good and the welfare system was sympathetic….
$20 per bin, we’d pick 4-6 bins per day
Free (basic) onsite accommodation included in the bin rate
No stand-down period, the unemployed could go straight back on the dole
Back then the dole was around $100 per week from memory and a reasonably motivated & fit worker could easily pull $600 per week picking aples. I’d expect it to be well over $1000 per week now if it followed inflation…..
You have hit the nail on the head, DH! There are plenty of workers but it has to be worthwhile to work, aka free basic accomodation, much higher pay rate than dole aka 600x and you can go back onto the dole without a stand down period.
If the casual industry bothered to do all these then they would have plenty of workers and NZ less un or under employed in this country.
I’d say not providing decent work opportunities that we previously enjoyed, is also leading to a rise in the ‘hopeless drugged youth’ that Bill English seems to think has become the NZ worker who only a few decades ago used to be held in high esteem worldwide for their work ethic and practical approach!
Yeah, there’s nothing mysterious about it. The unemployed went fruit picking because they were mad not to.
I didn’t do packhouse work so I don’t know what that was like but don’t recall people moaning about the pay there either. Kiwifruit picking paid similar to apples, I did that too, the season was just shorter.
“The apple production in New Zealand is a huge sector for such a small country. The estimated crop for 2014 was close to 500 000 tonnes, which represents around 1 400 000 bins. If you consider that an average picker will pick about 200 bins over his season, it represents at least 7000 apple picking jobs.”
Pay rates ?
Its complicated with a sliding scale
“Generally speaking, the bin rates for apple picking in New Zealand are lower than the ones in Australia. Also, I’ve never seen any farm in New Zealand having a fixed rate per bin. Indeed, it will rather fluctuate depending on each variety, on each pick (1st, 2nd, 3rd color pick), and sometimes on each block. It’s called a sliding rate. As a result it’s not rare to see up to 5-6 different bin rates appearing on your weekly payslip, related to the different kind of picking you’ve done over the week.
Common prices are between 24,5$ and 32$ per bin. However, I’ve seen it as low as 22,5$ in some farms, and as high as 36-37$ in others.
Hard to make a comparison from that data but it does look to be paying less today. Minimum wage in 1988 was $5.62 hr, bin rate then was nearly four times that and todays rate looks a lot less.
The varying rates should still end up with the same earnings. We had a few differing bin rates which were down to the difficult in picking. Golden delicious paid $25 per bin because they bruised easier and we had to be more careful with them. They paid more but we picked less and ended up making much the same $$ over a day.
Definately less than what it used to be.
Last season, I picked up some Fijian guys trying to get to the packhouse. The bus had bypassed them because it was full – leaving them stranded, next to a TePuke Z, shivering with cold with what would normally be black thumbs held out and the tips looking very red.
What I learned was that for the priviledge of coming to Godzone for some lowly work, they’d become a fucking sight worse off than if they’d stayed at home.
By the time consultants used for various stages in the process to come here, (immigration consultants, travel agents, work consultants et al) had clipped their tickets, they were up for less than 50% of the earnings promised.
They were holding out hope that in following years, they’d be experienced enough to circumvent some of the rorts in play, and rorts that were part of ‘the system and structure’ .
(By the way, I note the new CEO of MoBIE now has some serious concerns. I suggest she only need review some of the cases on record – unless of course ‘officials’ have managed to disguise their part in it all).
The right to be profitable is inalienable and it must be supported by taxpayer subsidies, externalising costs and by employees enduring miserable, crappy lives.
Seriously though, how can you make such an operation profitable without doing those things?
Would taking Mr Van Vliet out of the equation entirely and have the workers own and run it cooperatively make a difference?
FFRobotics is developing a machine that has three-fingered grips to grab fruit and twist or clip it from a branch. The machine would have between four and 12 robotic arms, and can pick up to 10,000 apples an hour, Kober said.
One machine would be able to harvest a variety of crops, taking 85 to 90 per cent of the crop off the trees, Kober said. Humans could pick the rest.
Abundant Robotics is working on a picker that uses suction to vacuum apples off trees.
Plans for the robotic harvesters – including a goal of getting them to market before 2019 – were discussed in February at an international convention of fruit growers in Wenatchee, Washington.
The two robot makers are likely to hit their production goals, said Karen Lewis, a Washington State University cooperative extension agent who has studied the issue.
Deal highlights demand for agricultural automation technology; follows recent investment from Yamaha Motor Co. to accelerate company’s growth
Robotics Plus, a New Zealand agricultural robotics and automation company, today announced it has signed an agency and distribution agreement with Global Pac Technologies which will see the company’s revolutionary robotic apple packers go global. The deal, which will initially target the US, Australian and New Zealand markets, is fuelling a period of accelerated growth for Robotics Plus as industry demand for its innovation grows.
Something tells me that even the imported workers won’t have a job for much longer.
More people joining the NZ job queue then… what gets me is that they know that these jobs are going to be replaced and the government is bringing migrants under phony work to residency schemes and underpaying NZ workers who could be having a job and then they wonder why there’s a growing social welfare bill and we are less skilled than we used to be. Doh!
There have been scandals when migrants are working in petrol stations and getting residency, FFS the automated petrol pump is already here! Oh course we often know this when they reveal they were paid $2 p/h by their employer hence the scandal, who is often a recent resident themselves!
One of the ways Fonterra become so efficient is that they could not get staff, then they invented the automated milking systems…. in NZ we have got further behind the world in many areas, due to not using technology and then relying on slave and unskilled labour for industry, which funny enough lowers our productivity and wages… go figure.
Not an insignificant sum id suggest….is almost getting to the point where they are paying to be employed…edit, it could be argued they indeed already are.
Now during my problems with MSD (fraud) the central questioned was “what is a relationship” you will probably not be surprised to know that there is no definition its based on case law, now this case has created another pieces of case law that is very dangerous in this case that person who was not living with another person but was taking care of them is considered a “de-facto partner”
This means now MSD can prosecute people for being in a relationship in the nature of a marries” (de-facto) when they do not live together.
I can imagine a scenario, a sick person with a friend who comes out often to assist that person with household tasks, the unwell person is on welfare, the friend was an OK job, this sick person would need to declare that the the friend is their de-facto partner or MSD has the ability to prosecute them for fraud, even though they share nothing assets, liabilities etc, etc.
Very dangerous ground, remember this is the Org that decided tinder date were relationships and loans are income.
Is anyone reading this blog really surprised that the Pike River “re-entry” is slipping back into the never-never. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/104507208/pike-river-mine-reentry-to-take-longer-than-expected
Prior to the election it was going to be by Christmas.
Then when they won Christmas was only for setting up a group to make a plan.
Then re-entry was going to be by March 2019.
Now it is going to be later.
I remain convinced it will never happen and there will never be a return down to where they were working. How many people really retain their faith in our Little, Andrew?
Don’t mistake extremism for religion, for the majority of islamic followers (1.8 billion) they do not follow sharia law and treat their religion in the same way as the majority of christianity (2.18 billion) dose , as a code to respect, enjoy and honor life.
I an give you examples of extremism for almost every religion (buddhism and Taoism seem to have been pretty good) but all the others have some very nasty history that is not followed by their members anymore.
If you truly think islam is violent, I suggest to your local mosque and have a chat with an imam (btw I am not religious in any way and would write the same for anyone who said what you did about christianity)
Worthwhile read on TDB blowing Mike Sabin out of the water…
“What I find really puzzling is the fact Northland has the greatest number of users of P in the whole country. And Northland was Mike Sabin’s the former MP for National seat. And yet Northland also has had the largest P seizures made by the police. One bust was half a ton 500kg of high quality imported Methamphetamine. All this would suggest P use has grown like an algal bloom in Northland. Strange that this should be the result from ten years of Mike Sabin’s vigilance?
The headline P found in High levels in Whangarei wastewater since police and health officials gained data . NZ Herald 28 November 2017
So just was Mike Sabin doing? I suggest he started the biggest lie and misinformation campaign in New Zealand’s history, and had the financial backing and full support of the National Government.
I’ve long taken issue with Mike Sabin as I am qualified as Drug and Alcohol Clinician and put Patient or client needs first when discussing treatment. I haven’t found any education or qualification to suggest Mike has a degree or any tertiary education.”
Northland has always had an unhealthy gang & drug culture and there is suggestions there may have been some close relationships between these people and some people within the law enforcement agencies ?
I do remember a Senior person in one of these agencies was imprisoned, however old news, most gangs world wide manage to infiltrate law enforcement agencies and have insiders working for them.
Stats are at least being more honest with their phrasing than Linz but it’s still being misrepresented by the media. Stats make this note;
“Home transfers aren’t just the sale and purchase of houses, although for simplicity we refer to the people involved in transfers as buyers and sellers. They also include the transfer of a deceased family member’s home, a marriage settlement, and administrative changes,”
The numbers are useless, completely meaningless, until non-sales are separated from sales.
Now it’s not hard to reconcile the transfer data with REINZ sales figures to get the true level of sales and one wonders why there’s a persistent refusal to do it.
Also recent migrants are not included. So probably more illuminating in explaining what is going on, if people moving to NZ in last decade via Key immigration relaxed immigration policy, aka one of the highest in the world, is included, because it will be more like 50% of house sales in Auckland will be to ‘new’ residents.
The rentiers like it that way. In fact, they demand that it be that way.
But while unearned income based on control of assets has always been a problem, it’s grown steadily over the last 40 years. Financialisation represents ‘the revenge of the rentier’ after being side-lined during the mid-20th century. They’re active rather than passive rentiers – part of the so-called working rich – ever seeking out new ways of extracting wealth from the economic system through rent-seeking. Financialisation has been both cause and consequence of a shift from wealth creation to wealth extraction and, with that, a shift of wealth to the rich.
Though it never admits it, neoliberalism is a political-economic movement that seeks to legitimise widening economic inequalities and defend rentier interests above all others. Rentiers can live off others regardless of their gender, race, sexuality and so on.
Quote from Why we can’t afford the rich” by Andrew Sayer, Richard Wilkinson
Feel for the poor home owners of the Bella Vista debacle.
This is the tip of the ice burg. When the council/RMA ‘relaxed’ resource consents and in many cases do not require enough geotech advice and conditions before the building consent goes in, they have cleared the way for more ‘leaky buildings’ type housing failures but this time on the land.
In the Bella Vista case no resource requirement for retaining to be done before the builds started and not enough geotech involved in the water issues, even before all the signed off building work by council that was found to be faulty.
Same thing happened in the red zone of CHCH when land should not have been developed on was developed on without the right conditions. In the CHCH case, the council apparently did the right thing and refused the consent only to be sued by the developers and the environment court then overturned the council and let them develop there. The earthquakes happened and the houses and land were deemed unusable.
Great for the developer though, who profited from it. As usual the people who suffer are the poor and middle class and the rate payers who have to pay for it. The developer, builders, council, council CEO and resource consenting and geo tech people on the original consent will get away scott free and just go on to do it again. That is what the system creates with zero consequences.
Much tighter conditions are also needed at environment court and less tame RMA judges (99% of all RMA consents go through, whole system is rigged to push environmental and social disasters through) to prevent land from being developed for profit that will later be deemed uninhabitable and bankrupt/seriously disrupt people who saved hard for a home for their families and of course the compensation will not be from the person responsible but from the Tauranga ratepayers or maybe the building insurance if there was any?
It is about time that when a building consent is put in by a developer then a portion of that money goes into a fund/insurance policy paid by the developer to bail out the homeowner if any serious problems develop. Not this wink wink, industry ‘insurance’ that does not seem to be paying out for leaky buildings or Bella Visa by the look of it.
Nah nah @savenz. The market the market. Not only is TINA, but who gives a fuck?
/sarc
And then of course you get this ‘broad church’ of what is now a really quaint concept of ‘the Left’ trying to excercise their egos and display their commitment.
All, after 30 years or more of a globalisation project designed to encourage the periphery to the core – in terms of economy and culcha (and language), and then to justify their prejudices BECAUSE of it.
But….you know, the market the market! But for age, I’d be quite happy to stick around to see who the survivors are in all this madnesss. There are a few from yesterday and before on https://thestandard.org.nz/were-etu-union-delegates-threatened-at-a-select-committee/ and on
Open Mikes who when push and shit comes to shove, really aren’t going to make it.
And here’s me, not the slightest interested in kinspirisy theories or all the crap that comes with MSM bias (probably as much to do with the change they’d normally be advocating for) as are other professing various political leanings.
One fucked up Whurl, and just as people like the Muppet Fuddy Duddy @Wayne are part of it, ……………… heads of our post-colonial PS still in charge of their prejudices and surreptitiously directing others to do otherwise, …. etc., etc….
the left have their equivalents (all Indians are the same apparently, despite their having suffered A FUCKING SIGHT more than me).
But then…. you know…. TORY BOY and JUDE and Pulla can set themselves at ease, (and Parmjeet Kaur and Fukwit Bakshi for the matter) are Considerably CONSIDERABLY C O N S I D E R A B LY ) richer than me (if only in terms of the Rajistan Marble and frail cement and brick constructs they’re parked their boltholes and investments in
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOlbOZ9w84I and many others)
You could actually start a sewage recycling factory with a reasaonable earn using their SHITE).
Sincerely, I wish them luck.
So I just saw someone wondering how liberals can cut ties with conservative friends and family members over immigration policies when most Americans (including most conservatives) support immigration reform.
I'm going to talk about what I call the Shirley Exception.
“The Shirley Exception is a bit of mental sleight of hand that allows people to support a policy they profess to disagree with. It’s called the Shirley Exception because… well, I mean, *surely* there must be exceptions, right?”
“Throw your computer away.” …. nah just don’t upgrade …. or don’t upgrade to new Intel.
Send them a message telling them you are doing this and why if you like ….
As an aside …. A “don’t upgrade” consumers campaign could be a very effective people power tool against image conscious corporations like apple … regarding the legal robbery /’creative accounting’, as they freeload and skip out of paying their fair share of tax on their enormous profits in every society / country they sell their sweatshop goods.
*1hr 13 mins ….. Political partys like the Nacts who are working for the rich cheats need their hands forced .
**Mapp should pay attention 53min .30sec mark
56 mins on should have Nz asking questions of Mark mitchell and his war profiteering wealth.
Hoskings commenting again today about the nurses wage claims is simply the overpaid telling the underpaid to suck it up and don’t disturb his natural order.
I get the feeling that the DHB’s and Education Dept are offering derisory wage increases as they are right wingers trying to provoke industrial action.
All true. Hosking also made a derisorily stupid argument that Nurses should not bother trying to point out and catch up on past injustices. I suspect that he has a fairly short attention span.
Good morning The AM Show Carbon neutral is only going to be good for Aotearoa our import bill will go down with low oil import our health bill will go down.
The oil industry is better to look at reality like ECO MAORI and look for the positive thing they can get out of the carbon neutral economy like investing in the industry engineering retooling to make wind Mills ect.
What I get about extra trestral alien life is if we look at stars with the best telescopes millions of light years a way if we see life on planet at that minute the life could be extinct because it takes millions of light years for the image to get to Papatuanukue so we are looking into there past.
As with Alien life it has most probably been and gone on some planets. It’s not a if on alien life its a question of when as we have existed for a fraction of time on Papatuanukue and life could have been and gone on planets close to us because the habitance were to short sighted and they could not think of 200 years into the Mokopunas future enough said. Duncan and Mark looking forward to the weekend a have a good time at the rugby. Ka kite ano P.S remember that old saying if one is caught in a rip tide while swimming one does not swim against it as one will drown its best to swim with the rip tide as it will bring you to safey Know
The AM Show we don’t want the wealthy foreigners to OWN All Of Atoearoa.
We will all be renting in OUR own country and that’s is what will happen if national have there way in ECO MAORI view on Reality. Ka kite ano P.S the real truth is hard to find one has to decipher it from many sources Duncan
I found this article on the Guardian
Its head lined Sausage deplomacy I say there is another way to look at that state meant as Men think with their sausage to much and that is one of the reasons I push for Lady’s equality.
Link is Below
ECO MAORI IS Like a Red Flag to a bull to Te sandflys a challenge I don’t even have to mention them just let them know that my IQ is above average and that Alot of men think with there sausage and it pisses them off they have stop the marked cars pulling people over just as I’m cruising what a coincidence Well I will have to take that last line back because they coincidencely pulled some actor up just past my daughter house just as we got home they had the chopper flying by work for a hour – – – – -. So no truce I’m going to go hard on imforming te tangata excalacly how divious they are and if anyone is affected negatively it’s all on them they don’t Own Atoearoa. I have left a few links out trying to take the humane route but there EGO does not let this type of thinking enter there heads O I forgot sausage.
They have been throwing actors every day at ECO MAORI muppets Ana to kai well their is some positive for te tangata if they are busy with ECO MAORI they haven’t got time to intimidat te Mokopunas. Ka kite ano
pissed off biggly with the GWC the MDC theCDC the LWRWRDC and “business interests who want to spend money in the worst possible way.
mainly because in the short term their properties will gain value and and because the promoters have told certain people they can invest for a long term gain and feel like rich people blah blah as they plan for their retirement as general flunkies.
the dairy boom is over.
new plans have to be made to keep the best farms going and plan for alternative produce to obtain a comparative advantage.
the bozos doing the so called planning now dont have a clue besides an accountants metric and that is not good enough now.
one dimensional maroons.
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A guest post by Hamish Price.“A leader is a dealer in hope.”— Napoléon BonaparteCatholics have a name for potential successors to a dead pope. Papabile. The small coterie of distinguished cardinals who have what it takes to step up. Todd Muller has always been one.I first met Muller at a National ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 17 through Sat, May 23, 2020Editor's ChoiceMore than 80 killed in India and Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan heaps misery on coronavirus-hit areasA man salvages items from ...
Two poor political polls within the same week had seen National for the first time in over a decade dropping major support in the face of a competent and assured COVID-19 health response from the Coalition government. Step forward the relatively unknown Todd Muller, who by Friday afternoon had secured ...
SUNDAY MAY 24The Luminaries (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There are an awful lot of indeterminate accents in The Luminaries; even lead Eve Hewson seems undecided about being Irish, and she is Irish. Fair play, accents can go badly wrong, so perhaps not over-egging was a consideration. Marton Csokas, always impeccable, and Himesh Patel ...
Let’s be honest; Simon Bridges was a disaster of a political leader. If he wasn’t attempting to criticise the Government’s perfectly good policy initiatives that the public generally supported, he was fudging his lines after getting caught out in yet another lie. When Jami-Lee Ross said Bridges “is a flawed individual ...
The media treat budgets as bit of a circus: lots of theatre and soon forgotten. For a serious economist they show how a team of economists is thinking about the wider economy. The 2020 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) was the most difficult forecasting exercise in the history of ...
Air NZ shed 1,300 workers, Fletchers about to sack 1000. Economists Strateg.Ease predict over 12,400 jobs gone by March next year in central Auckland alone. Here’s Don Franks during the 2008 election campaign when he stood for the Workers Party. He’s talking about fightback strategies, ideas that he believes are ...
One of these MPs is the new leader of the National party. Can you pick which? (Source: Office of the Clerk/Parliamentary Service) National has chosen its new leader, and as expected, it is an old bald white man. Totally representative of modern New Zealand, then. But its not ...
Five years ago, Know Your Stuff didn't have a name. They were just a group of people from the festival community who began testing party drugs onsite because they'd seen the consequences of people taking substances they couldn't identify or didn't understand. They didn't want to see people in their ...
Last week, an article on Newsroom made it clear how the funder / provider split - a core part of our public service - was used to enable underfunding. The government holds the purse strings, but dumps responsibility for its decisions on providers, so they get the blame for poor ...
Dr Jaijus Pallippadan-Johny1, Dr John McDermott2, Rodney Jones1 and Michael Duddin1 (1 Wigram Capital Advisors, Auckland; 2Motu Economic and Policy Research, Wellington)In this blog, we introduce our modelling approach to estimating the transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrate the usefulness of ...
The Illusions Of Power: Does Jacinda Ardern, like Abraham Lincoln, wake in the dark watches of the night still enveloped in the terrors of life-and-death decision-making? Maybe – maybe not. She’s a twenty-first century prime minister, not so susceptible, perhaps, to the deep religious feeling and romanticism that was such ...
Well, that seals it. The supposedly more National sympathetic One News-Colmar Brunton poll has tonight delivered Simon Bridges’ National Party a worst result than the Newshub-Reid Research three days agoi.On tonight’s numbers Labour sits at an “unprecedented” 59 percent, while National has slumped 17 percent to 29 percent. Anything in ...
The National Party are quite simply a party out of time…Literally, insofar as the 2020 Election is concerned, and certainly in terms of their ideological positioning which has grown far more trenchantly extreme in the last few years in particular, under the leadership of both Simon Bridges, and Paula ...
If tonight’s 1News-Colmar Brunton poll result is anywhere near the 31% recorded in Monday’s Newshub-Reid Research poll, Simon Bridges will surely be dog tucker when his caucus colleagues meet tomorrow to vote on the National Party leadership. The momentum is with newcomer Todd Muller, who seems likely to be installed ...
At last year's Splore festival Listening Lounge sessions, one of the most popular discussions was the one on psychedelic therapy. So for this year's festival, I brought back two of the participants from that panel – Dr Will Evans and Amadeus Diamond – and was delighted to be able to ...
The government is reportedly looking at "helicopter money" - giving cash directly to people to spend - as a way of stimulating the economy in the wake of the pandemic. But its not just central government: Palmerston North City Council is looking at the same thing, though on a much ...
Mahmoud Elkhodr, CQUniversity AustraliaNew Zealanders finally have access to the government’s new tracing app to help people monitor their movements as lockdown continues to ease. As businesses can now open, the NZ COVID Tracer app allows people to keep a register of the places they visit. This “digital diary” ...
Eyes Left! On the face of it, the election of Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye is a no-brainer. New Zealanders are clearly in no mood for a “dirty little street-fighter” and, if the polls are any indication, resent strongly Bridges’ implication that they are. To be at all competitive with ...
Tahu Kukutai, University of Waikato; Helen Moewaka Barnes, Massey University; Tim McCreanor, Massey University, and Tracey McintoshAs schools and businesses reopen and attention shifts to the longer-term repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that Māori be involved in decision making more equitably than has so far happened. ...
Dane Giraud from The Free Speech Coalition talks with Redline writer and editor Daphna Whitmore on cancel culture, gender ideology, postmodernism and irrationalism. They look at the free speech implications of issues like the Twitter mob, the Government’s proposed emergency police powers, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Free Speech interview ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzAlmost every threat to modern humanity can be traced simply ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee is holding an inquiry into the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 which was rushed through Parliament last week, and has called for submissions. Submissions are due by Sunday, 28 June 2020. You can either submit online through the form above, or by posting dead ...
While the world is currently struggling with the pandemic, we have another crisis to deal with as well: climate change. Fortunately, not everyone has forgotten about it, with Spain announcing ambitious plans to go net-zero by 2050: Under the law, which still needs to be approved by Parliament, the government ...
Children used in this study were from Lintingkou town (a normal-fluoride/control area) and Dakoutun town (a high-fluoride area) in Baodi district of Tianjin, China. The towns are 25 km apart. Anti-fluoridation activists on ...
When we see how the pandemic is being handled in the rest of the world, we can thank our lucky stars that we live here, in New Zealand, and under our current government, led by Jacinda Ardern. The latest polls suggest that this is exactly how Kiwis feel. But the ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Sophie Febery, Dr Ling Chan, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael BakerThe concepts of an Alert Level system, household “bubbles”, and social event size limits are all valuable pandemic control measures. Nevertheless, better “source control” of COVID-19 at various Alert Levels by requiring masks in ...
This is a repost from the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund blog, by CSLDF Executive Director Lauren Kurtz The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates the crucial role scientists at university, state, and local laboratories in the United States and abroad play in protecting public health and safety—and shows that global research must be done ...
Arguments by religious folk that they are being discriminated against under the Level 2 pandemic restrictions in NZ, which limit church services to ten people or less when schools, restaurants, malls and other service outlets are allowed to host many more people under voluntary self-distancing protocols, got me to think ...
Now that the initial wave has passed, and we are (hopefully) safe in our national bubble, the government is thinking about how to keep the economy ticking over, and how to salvage the bits (like tourism) that are now useless. And for that particular industry, she has mentioned a great ...
There’s been a lot of conjecture concerning the reasons behind the National Party’s fall to 30% in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll. Some commentators have correctly ascertained that the current leader, Simon Bridges, has been consistently getting his tone wrong! Others believe that the shift in support is all about ...
It probably was too good to last. The blessed peace on the roads that I wrote about here began eroding even before we left Level 4 of the Covid-19 restrictions – and on day one of Level 3, with the tradies rushing to catch upon their work, the double-cab utes ...
Missing From The Electoral Action: The radical Left's last forlorn hope, the "Missing Million", is generally despised by mainstream New Zealand and mistrusted by the respectable members of their own communities. They have moved well beyond the reach of conventional electoral politics.TO SAY the Left’s reaction to Grant Robertson’s “Recovery ...
by Don Franks As we face new unknowns against Covid 19, there’s something reassuring about level 2’s basic rules. “Physical distancing- keep your distance when out and about. Two metres in public and in retail stores, like supermarkets. One metre in most other environments like workplaces, cafes, restaurants, and gyms.” ...
Richard Shaw, Massey UniversityOnce upon a very different time, British cabinet minister Michael Gove sneered that “people have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.” But that was then and this is now. One or two ...
From its name, you would think the Environmental protection Authority was there to protect the environment. But we've had another reminder that nothing could be further from the truth, with its decision to allow a toxic, burned-out Korean fishing boat to be dumped at sea: The ship's owner, Dong Won ...
Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Graphic of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... The Largest Arctic Science Expedition in History Finds Itself on Increasingly ...
It was just a month ago that the chief executive of Rotorua Lakes Council, Geoff Williams, described suggestions his executive team should consider taking pay cuts as “immoral”. Williams told the NZ Herald: “I am very fortunate to have around me an extremely committed, dedicated and hardworking executive team who ...
“Every day, we see the powers that promulgate laws that oblige one to take certain routes and [those] that do not follow these indications or do not want them to be part of their legislation, are accused and politely persecuted” – Pope Francis What does the Government’s decision to limit ...
In a previous post I noted that futures thinking usually tries to identify what people think will change and what they think needs to change. As lockdown constraints ease, we are seeing a lot of opinions about both. There is no shortage of shovel ready points of view ...
And so it came pass that a great plague swept the face of all the Earth. Some say it came from the East, others say it came from gloomy caverns of the bat or jungles of the civet. From whence it came, who can say? But come it did.In the ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 10 through Sat, May 16, 2020Editor's ChoiceThese 6 books explore climate change science and solutionsRecent books about climate change tackle science and offer visions of the ...
How radical or transformative is Grant Robertson’s 2020 Budget? Opinions are divided over this week’s landmark economic package. Some are viewing the big spend as a return to traditional Labour – or even socialist – politics, while others see it as “business as usual”, albeit on a grander scale. Seeing ...
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party has begun the process for a Select Committee inquiry into student accommodation, which has been exposed during COVID-19 as an under-regulated sector that straddles students with unfair debt. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again.Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...
The Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones has introduced a Bill to Parliament that he says will "force more transparency, integrity and respect" for the domestic wood-processing sector through the registration of log traders and practice standards. The Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill had its first reading in ...
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is joining over 300 lawmakers from around the world in calling on the big banks and the IMF to forgive the debt of developing countries, in the wake of the COVID crisis. ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones says concerns that carbon foresters are planting pine trees that will never be harvested are the result of "misinformation". "The billion tree strategy is an excellent idea, unfortunately from time to time it's tainted by misinformation spread by the National Party or their grandees, hiding in scattered ...
The Green Party welcomes funding in the budget to reunite more refugees with their families, ensuring they have the best chance at a new life in Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
This year’s Budget is about rebuilding New Zealand together in the face of COVID-19. Jobs are central to how we’re going to do that.There’s a lot of targeted investment for employment in this year’s Budget, with announcements on creating new jobs, training people for the jobs we have, and supporting ...
Speaking to Stuff's Coronavirus NZ podcast, Foreign Minister Winston Peters revealed China tried to dissuade New Zealand from going into lockdown.“Without speaking out of turn, they wanted a discussion as to why we were doing it, because they thought it was an overreaction,” Mr Peters told Stuff’s Coronavirus NZ podcast.He also ...
The Coalition Government is making changes to the Overseas Investment Act to ensure New Zealand assets don't fall into the hands of foreign ownership in the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Associate Minister of Finance David Parker announced the Act will be amended to bring forward a national interest ...
A quick start to a trans-Tasman bubble could see the tourism industry make a swift recovery, according to Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. "I believe tourism will turn around dramatically faster than people think," Mr Peters told reporters after Thursday's Budget. "Why? Because I think the Tasman bubble is [going ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Please check against deliveryhttps://vimeo.com/418303651 Budget 2020: Jobs, Business and Balance Introduction Acknowledgements to all Cabinet colleagues, and party ministers Tracey Martin, Shane Jones and Ron Mark, Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau and to caucus colleagues. Thank you for your support, your ...
The 2020 Budget includes significant support to stabilise New Zealand’s family violence services, whose work has been shown to be so essential throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. ...
The Green Party says huge new investment in public and transitional housing will get thousands more families into the warm, safe homes they deserve. ...
The Green Party says the $1.1 billion environmental investment in this year’s budget to create thousands of green jobs will help jump start a sustainable recovery from the COVID crisis. ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today the Coalition Government told foreigners at the start of the Covid-19 crisis that if their circumstances had changed dramatically, they should go home. "And 50,000 did," Mr Peters said. Official advice to Cabinet revealed there is potentially 380,000 foreigners and migrant workers in ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the decision today to go to Alert Level 2 from midnight Wednesday, says Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters. Alert Level 2 will mean a return to work for the vast majority of New Zealand’s businesses. A return ...
Nurses now look set to get more protection from violence at work, under a proposed new law.This after NZ First MP Darroch Ball's "Protection for First Responders Bill", which introduces a six-month minimum sentence for assaults on first responders, will now also cover emergency department healthcare workers. The ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Law and Order Spokesperson An amendment to the ‘Protection of First Responders Bill’ is being tabled which will see emergency department healthcare workers included in the legislation. “During this COVID-19 crisis we have seen reports of violence and specifically increased incidents of spitting towards ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is breathing new life into the proposal to move Auckland's port to Whangārei to help in the economic recovery post Covid-19 pandemic.If New ZealandFirst was returned in the September general election, Minister Jones said a priority would be development of an "economic haven" at Northport, ...
The plan to build a memorial to the SS Ventnor, and those who were lost when it sank off the Hokianga coast in 1902, has been granted $100,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund.Originally planned for a site near Rāwene cemetery, the memorial will now be built at the new Manea ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First LeaderLeader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters said: “Today is the 75th anniversary of VE Day – marking the end of World War II in Europe."Millions died in the six years of war, and families were torn apart. 75 years ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has committed to providing calm, clear, and consistent communication, including regular press conference updates from the Prime Minister. While New Zealand is at Alert Level 3, we're making sure that New Zealanders are kept informed and up-to-date with all the latest ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters spoke to The Country's Jamie Mackay. A day earlier, National Party leader Simon Bridges was on the radio show and referred to the Deputy Prime Minister as, "my sweetheart Winston". Mr Peters swiftly dismissed the question of whether Bridges had changed his mind about ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister and Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, has today announced the appointment of Tristan Gilbertson as the new Telecommunications Commissioner and member of the Commerce Commission. “Mr Gilbertson has considerable experience in the telecommunications industry and a strong reputation amongst his peers,” ...
The Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa have agreed to settle the pay equity claim for teacher aides, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This will see more than 22,000 teacher aides, mostly women, being valued and paid fairly for the work they do. “Teacher aides are frontline ...
Subcontractors will have greater certainty, more cashflow support and job security with new changes to retention payments under the Construction Contracts Act says Minister for Building and Construction, Jenny Salesa. A recent review of the retentions money regime showed that most of the building and construction sector is complying with ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have marked the first anniversary of the New Zealand-Singapore Enhanced Partnership with a virtual Leaders’ Meeting today. The Enhanced Partnership, signed on 17 May 2019, provides the framework for cooperation across the four main areas of trade, defence and ...
On 17 May 2019, New Zealand and Singapore established an Enhanced Partnership to elevate our relations. The Enhanced Partnership – based on the four pillars of trade and economics, security and defence, science, technology and innovation, and people-to-people links – has seen the long-standing relationship between our countries strengthen over the ...
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters has welcomed KiwiRail’s announcement that it is seeking a preferred shipyard to build two new rail-enabled ferries for the Cook Strait crossing. “This Government is committed to restoring rail to its rightful place in New Zealand. Bigger, better ships, with new technology are yet another ...
Better protection for seabirds is being put in place with a new National Plan of Action to reduce fishing-related captures, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The National Plan of Action for Seabirds 2020 outlines our commitment to reduce fishing-related captures and associated seabird ...
Almost $1 billion in interest-free loans for small businesses More than 55,000 businesses have applied; 95% approved Average loan approx. $17,300 90% of applications from firms with ten or fewer staff A wide cross-section of businesses have applied, the most common are the construction industry, accommodation providers, professional firms, and ...
Thousands of children will have healthier lungs after the Government’s ban on smoking in cars with kids becomes law, says Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa. This comes after the third reading of Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Bill earlier today. “This law makes it ...
The special Epidemic Response Committee (ERC) has successfully concluded its role, Leader of the House Chris Hipkins said today. The committee was set up on 25 March by the agreement of Parliament to scrutinise the Government and its actions while keeping people safe during levels 4 and 3 of lockdown. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced four diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s Ambassador to Belgium, High Commissioners to Nauru and Niue, and Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism. “As the world seeks to manage and then recover from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever,” Mr Peters said. “The ...
New Zealanders will be better protected from online harm through a Bill introduced to Parliament today, says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “The internet brings many benefits to society but can also be used as a weapon to spread harmful and illegal content and that is what this legislation targets,” ...
New Zealand’s world-first plan to eradicate the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis is on track the latest technical data shows, says Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor. “Two years ago the Government, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand and industry partners made a bold decision to go hard and commit ...
Further support for New Zealanders affected by 1-in-100 year global economic shock 12-week payment will support people searching for new work or retraining Work programme on employment insurance to support workers and businesses The Government today announced a new temporary payment to support New Zealanders who lose their jobs due ...
The Provincial Growth Fund will play a vital role in New Zealand’s post-COVID-19 recovery by creating jobs in shorter timeframes through at least $600 million being refocused on projects with more immediate economic benefits, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The funding is comprised of repurposed Provincial Growth ...
Government exempts some home improvements from costly consents Homeowners, builders and DIYers will soon have an easier time making basic home improvements as the Government scraps the need for consents for low-risk building work such as sleep-outs, sheds and carports – allowing the construction sector to fire back up quicker ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says the New Zealand Government has reacted with concern at the introduction of legislation in China’s National People’s Congress relating to national security in Hong Kong. “We have a strong interest in seeing confidence maintained in the ‘one country, two systems’ principle under which Hong ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, says the theme for the 2020 Samoa Language Week is a perfect fit for helping our Pacific communities cope with the unfolding COVID-19 crisis, and to prepare now for the journey ahead as New Zealand focuses on recovery plans and rebuilding New ...
A nearly 40-year programme to protect one of New Zealand’s most critically endangered birds is paying off, with a record number of adult kakī/black stilt recently recorded living in the wild, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. “Thanks to the team effort involved in the Department of Conservation’s ...
The story of the Waikato-Tainui Treaty process and its enduring impact on the community is being told with a five-part web story launched today on the 25th anniversary of settlement, announced Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “I am grateful to Waikato-Tainui for allowing us to help capture ...
Taita College in the Hutt Valley will be redeveloped to upgrade its ageing classrooms and leaky roofs, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “The work is long overdue and will make a lasting difference to the school for generations to come,” Chris Hipkins said. “Too many of our schools are ...
The Government is allocating $36.72 million to projects in regions hard hit economically by COVID-19 to keep people working, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Projects in Hawke’s Bay, Northland, Rotorua and Queenstown will be funded from the Government’s $100 million worker ...
A $35m boost to financial capability service providers funded by MSD will help New Zealanders manage their money better both day to day and through periods of financial difficulty, announced Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “It’s always been our position to increase support to key groups experiencing or at risk ...
Dunedin barrister Melinda Broek has been appointed as a District Court Judge with Family Court jurisdiction to be based in Rotorua, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Broek has iwi affiliations to Ngai Tai. She commenced her employment in 1996 with Scholefield Cockroft Lloyd in Invercargill specialising in family and ...
The Coalition Government has approved a business case for $206 million in upgrades to critical infrastructure at Royal New Zealand Air Force Base Ohakea, with the first phase starting later this year, Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. The investment will be made in three phases over five years, and ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today released the Ministry of Transport’s review of the organisational culture at the Civil Aviation Authority. Phil Twyford says all employees are entitled to a safe work environment. “I commissioned this independent review due to the concerns I had about the culture within the CAA, and ...
Ensuring that Stats NZ’s direction and strategy best supports government policy decisions will be a key focus for a new Governance Advisory Board announced today by the Minister for Statistics, James Shaw. The new Governance Advisory Board will provide strategic advice to Stats NZ to ensure it is meeting New ...
Environment Judge David Kirkpatrick of Auckland has been appointed as the Principal Environment Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Judge Kirkpatrick was appointed an Environment Judge in February 2014. From December 2013 to July 2016 he was Chair of the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel. Prior to appointment he ...
A programme to connect marae around the country to the internet has received $1.4 million to expand to include urban marae in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister Kris Faafoi and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The funding for the Marae Connectivity Programme ...
The Government will provide $500,000 to the Hawke’s Bay Mayoral Drought Relief Fund to help farmers facing one of the worst droughts in living memory, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from Hawke's Bay's five local Government leaders asking me to contribute to the Fund. ...
Budget 2020 provides a major investment in New Zealand’s documentary heritage sector, with a commitment to leasing a new Archives Wellington facility and an increase in funding for Archives and National Library work. “Last year I released plans for a new Archives Wellington building – a purpose-built facility physically connected ...
Government Ministers are asking significant private enterprises to adopt prompt payment practices in line with the state sector, as a way to improve cashflow for small businesses. The Ministers of Finance, Small Business, Commerce and Consumer Affairs have written to more than 40 significant enterprises and banking industry representatives to ...
Maori Arts and Crafts will continue to underpin the heart of the tourism sector says Minister for Maori Development Nanaia Mahuta. “That’s why we are making a core investment of $7.6 million to Te Puia New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, over two years, as part of the Government’s ...
The Government is funding more pathways to jobs through training and education programmes in regional New Zealand to support the provinces’ recovery from the economic impacts of COVID-19, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson have announced. “New Zealand’s economic recovery will be largely driven by ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has announced the launch of a national conversation that aims to find out whether New Zealanders think there should be a formal agreement between service people, the Government, and the people of New Zealand. “This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World ...
The Government’s drive to improve the quality of early childhood education (ECE) is taking another step forward with the reintroduction of a higher funding rate for services that employ fully qualified and registered teachers, Education Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “Research shows that high-quality ECE can improve young people’s learning ...
The Sport and Recreation sector will receive a multi-million dollar boost as part of the COVID-19 response funded at Budget 2020. Grant Robertson says the Sport and Recreation Sector contributes about $5 billion a year to New Zealand’s GDP and employs more than 53,000 people. “Sport plays a significant role ...
A major increase in funding and availability of support will improve the incomes and reduce the pressure on 14,000 caregivers looking after more than 22,000 children. Children’s Minister Tracey Martin says that caregivers – all those looking after someone else’s children both in and outside the state care system – ...
Vital conservation and visitor infrastructure destroyed by a severe flood event in Fiordland earlier this year is being rebuilt through a $13.7 million Budget 2020 investment, announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “This investment will mean iconic Great Walks such as the Routeburn track and the full length of ...
New Zealand Defence Force bases in Auckland are attacking their water use as the region battles one of the worst droughts in recent history. The taps are being turned off at Devonport Naval Base, RNZAF Base Auckland at Whenuapai, Papakura Military ...
The Kahui Wai Maori Advisory group welcomed the announcement made by the Hon David Parker, Minister for the Environment today of the new rules designed to clean up our waterways. At the heart of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management ...
Water New Zealand says the Government’s Action for Healthy Waterways package provides a sensible and realistic way forward and will result in much-needed improvements in freshwater quality. Acting CEO John Mackie says it’s vital that there is no ...
When Claire Freeman became a wheelchair user at age 17, the questions she had about how she might enjoy sex were dismissed and she was made to feel like that part of her life was over. Here she flips the script with some advice on how to find pleasure on ...
As companies in New Zealand’s property development and building sectors digest opportunities presented by the Budget, what they need most urgently to move forwards is Resource Management Act and policy reform in order to rebuild together, says the ...
“We are pleased to see that the Government’s freshwater reforms announced today respond to some of the issues raised, and recommendations made, by the irrigation sector,” says Elizabeth Soal, Chief Executive of IrrigationNZ. “But there is ...
The government is imposing tough rules on water quality despite over 17,000 submissions, many of them complaining the move would impose a huge financial burden. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW COVID-19 has had a significant impact on all Australians, but there are very good reasons why the impact might be more keenly felt by people with disability and their carers. Our new research on behalf ...
Freshwater campaigners are frustrated the Government has delayed a crucial decision on nitrogen pollution for a further 12 months until after the election. “We have urged the Government many times to put in place clear and unequivocal limits for ...
The government has just announced a whole lot of new rules and policies for freshwater with the aim of urgently stopping degradation and cleaning up rivers over the long term.What’s all this then? A massive package of work on freshwater quality has just been announced in an attempt to halt further ...
The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) has welcomed the announcement by Ministers David Parker, Damien O’Connor and James Shaw this morning of the much-awaited freshwater reforms. “This package of changes to the present regulatory settings largely delivers ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) has welcomed the Government’s announcement of a set of targeted tools to improve the quality of freshwater. LGNZ is the peak body representing New Zealand’s 78 local councils, providing a unified voice for ...
Many families facing newfound financial hardship due to COVID-19 may not be seeking help – believing they should be able to manage on their own or unaware they qualify for support, according to Good Shepherd NZ. The charitable organisation provides ...
Changes to central government Essential Freshwater regulations reflect farmer feedback, Federated Farmers says. "While we’re still working through the detail, the high level policy decisions indicate the government has heeded some of the rural ...
The Council of Trade Unions is congratulating teacher aides in achieving an historic pay equity offer from the government to settle their long standing concerns. "What this offer from the government does is acknowledge the historic under valuation of ...
Freshwater reforms a significant step forward The Government's policy announced today is a significant step forward in reducing pollution in our rural and our urban waterways caused by intensive farming and through council's neglect. However, there ...
Thursday, 28th May: Greenpeace is today welcoming the Government’s move to place a cap on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, but says more controls are needed to protect freshwater. The fertiliser cap was announced today as part of the Government’s ...
Following today’s announcements on the government’s response to the future of freshwater, it appears that despite the chorus of calls for a change in how the post-COVID future of Aotearoa is shaped - and following many months of engagement, consultation ...
Horticulture New Zealand says the Government’s decisions around freshwater recognise the importance of growing fresh fruit and vegetables in this country. ‘We applaud the Government for the pragmatic approach it is taking to meeting the long-term freshwater ...
NZ’s primary exports held up well in April, again proving the country’s farming industries are sustaining the economy despite many sectors being stricken by the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost coincidentally, a UMR probe of public opinion about farming revealed a sharp swing in perception. Instead of the negativity that had been ...
In a world where players have unfettered access to fans through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it raises the question of whether traditional media still has a role to play. But as Scotty Stevenson explains, a player-driven model powered by social media can only go so far. Among the many weird and ...
Two statements from the Beehive yesterday were enlightening for taxpayers trying to keep tabs on the burgeoning billions being spent on facilitating the economic recovery. One statement told us how much is being handed out to small businesses. Correction. One statement told us how much is being loaned to small ...
Emily Writes celebrates wholesome shows and the rise of cosy television.The world is frightening right now. From Covid-19 to climate change, just watching the news can be overwhelming let alone going outside. This horror is the perfect environment for what I call Soft TV to flourish. Wholesome reality TV isn’t ...
While many areas of the workforce have been shaken by the effects of Covid-19, a Ngāi Tahu futures lab has been working to give rangatahi Māori the opportunity to decide their own futures.Futurists have thought up myriad strategies for how the world should look post-Covid. For all its hurt, the ...
Pacific Media Centre The dramatic daily increase of covid-19 coronavirus cases in West Papua poses a “great threat” to Papua New Guinea, says the country’s deputy emergency chief. State of Emergency Deputy Controller and Acting Secretary for Health Dr Paison Dakulala said the Indonesian-ruled Papua region had seen an increase ...
Recent public opinion polls are revealing some very interesting, if somewhat contradictory, insights into New Zealanders’ current thinking about the Covid19 crisis and the national response. The most recent 1News Colmar Brunton poll reported that 92% of ...
Trucking companies have missed out on the Government’s Covid-19 money lolly scramble and this will mean increased costs across the already damaged economy, Road Transport Forum (RTF) chief executive Nick Leggett says. "Despite working through the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Since last summer’s bushfire crisis, there’s been a quantum shift in public awareness of Aboriginal fire management. It’s now more widely understood that Aboriginal people used landscape burning to sustain biodiversity ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide A return to face to face teaching at universities and technical colleges “where possible” is one of the goals of the Morrison government’s three step framework for a COVIDsafe Australia. A look at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hazel Easthope, Scientia Associate Professor, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW We’re building a lot of apartments in Australia. High-density precincts are being developed across our major cities. But these buildings and neighbourhoods are often not designed and managed in ways that meet ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Kaine, Associate Professor UTS Centre for Business and Social Innovation, University of Technology Sydney Workers everywhere are feeling the impact of COVID-19 and the restrictions necessitated by COVID-19. In Australia, retail and hospitality workers have been particularly hard hit. In other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Forsyth, Professor of Workplace Law, RMIT University Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week proposed a new deal in industrial relations, bringing together the government, employers and unions to agree on reforms to create jobs and lift the economy in the post-CIVD-19 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ray Markey, Emeritus Professor, Macquarie University In a bid to repair the economy, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced an industrial relations overhaul. Business groups and unions will be brought together to try to change a system that Morrison says is “not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathon Hutchinson, Senior Lecturer Online Communication and Media, University of Sydney The constraints of coronavirus isolation have closed down most recreational activities, but some creative industries are responding in innovative ways. I have been researching “digital first personalities” – content producers who ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Mainfreight's revenues have risen since April 1 despite Covid-19 as it reports higher annual profit and stable dividend, and repays $10.6m wage subsidy. NZX 50 back to March 9 level ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Lamb, Associate Professor in Geophysics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Back in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Kiwibuild buyers left facing years of delays, calls for relaxation of alert levels and travel, and new details emerge in NZ First Foundation saga.Despite a reset of the policy last year, Kiwibuild is still proving to be problematic. A disastrous new ...
Dr Emily Henderson Last night, the Labour Party named Whangarei Family Court lawyer, Dr Emily Henderson, as its candidate to contest the Whangarei seat in the September general election. Emily has lived in Whangarei since she was seven years old, attending ...
Lockdown shut down an overseas couple's bid to walk the length of the country. When freed again, they returned from Auckland to the deep south to complete the task. Dressed in handmade ninja turtle costumes, hikers Becca Rolon and Diarmuid McInerney finally reached Bluff - finishing a 3000km walk the length ...
An essay by Martin Edmond in response to the monumental second volume by Peter Simpson on artist Colin McCahon.I. Bro Aspect I first met Peter Simpson at Sally and Alan’s place in Coromandel Street, Newtown, Wellington, 1988. Alan Brunton and Sally Rodwell, the founders of Red Mole. They ...
As we emerge from the last of lockdown and begin to look beyond our borders again, let’s not forget the vital role language skills play in strengthening our economic, political and cultural connections to the rest of the world, writes Sally Hill. This week is Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa ...
Quarantine-free travel between NZ and Pacific Islands should be our priority, ahead of plans to extend our bubble to include Australia, writes the University of Auckland's Dr Collin Tukuitonga Much has been made of the desirability of a ‘trans-Tasman’ bubble with quarantine-free air travel as a priority. There are compelling reasons ...
We can't decouple growth from its adverse effects and it's becoming clear that the same economic thinking that got us here won't get us out. A cultural shift to ‘enoughness’ and non-consumptive means of happiness could be the way forward after Covid-19, argues Lucie Greenwood. Talk of economic transition in a post-Covid-19 world ...
The return of intra-coalition dissent, on the speed of New Zealand’s move out of lockdown and freshwater policy measures, is a useful reminder that National is not the only party with political headaches, Sam Sachdeva writes For a politician who often trumpets the importance of due process when he wants ...
With the Black Ferns Sevens back in camp after lockdown, long-time star Kelly Brazier returns as a new mum, with a new rugby plan. Kelly Brazier is used to having crowds cheer her on in stadiums around the world. But with countries shutting down, sport being cancelled and ...
Diversifying the export economy is a worthy goal – but let’s be realistic about what throwing away a critical relationship with China would mean for New Zealand, writes Stephen Jacobi of the NZ International Business Forum.In a 2018 study of 183 economies’ dependence on China, undertaken by the Australian Department ...
New Zealanders might like to think of our country as relatively equitable in many ways. But in the boardroom, we have a long way to go. As James Brown sings, it’s a man’s world, designed by, and often unconsciously for, men. One recent example – a month ago when ...
By Philip Cass of Kaniva News Recognised seasonal employee workers in New Zealand rarely have a voice in the New Zealand media, new research at Massey University has found. Researcher Dr Angelynne Enoka said coverage of the RSE scheme by regional media tended to focus on official sources and employers’ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University In the expansion of its iron ore mine in Western Pilbara, Rio Tinto blasted the Juukan Gorge 1 and 2 – Aboriginal rock shelters dating ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Climie, Exercise Physiologist and Research Fellow, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute In Australia, more than 1.1 million people currently have type 2 diabetes. A host of potential complications associated with the disease mean a 45-year-old diagnosed with type 2 diabetes will ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Adams, Postdoctoral Biomedical Engineering Researcher, Deakin University During the frenzy of the past few months to secure resources for the fight against COVID-19, the demand for technologies that promise to detect symptomatic individuals has been sky-high. However, not all proposed solutions ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brooke Collins-Gearing, Senior Lecturer, University of Newcastle Review: The Beach, created and directed by Warwick Thornton Watching Warwick Thornton’s The Beach is a journey into place and self. It made me want to breathe deeper and smell the salty air. It made ...
“The Government is undermining democracy by progressing 15 bills in the space of just 17 hours,” according to ACT Leader David Seymour. “The Government has put Parliament into urgency this evening and asked it to consider 15 pieces of legislation ...
By RNZ News New opposition National leader Todd Muller is backing his front bench, saying he chose the shadow cabinet line-up on merit and talent. While three out of National’s top four ranked MPs are women, there are no Māori MPs on the front bench, or of any other ethnicity. ...
Civil society and tech industry stakeholders are split over a provision in new legislation that would grant the Government the ability to filter the internet. ...
National Party leader, Todd Muller. Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Sweden reverting to type. Chart by Keith Rankin. Australia happy to spend foreigners’ savings (someone has to do it!). Chart by Keith Rankin. 1980s: Sweden like New Zealand and Australia Sweden in the 1980s, financially speaking, looked something like New Zealand and Australia. It ...
Tensions flared over race relations again today at Parliament, with National MP Judith Collins saying questions about treaty partnership and government procurement were "stupid". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Quinn, Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University A new trial has begun in Victoria this week to evaluate a potential vaccine against COVID-19. The vaccine is called NVX-CoV2373 and is from a US biotech company, Novavax. ...
Pacific Media Watch Six South Pacific journalists have been awarded grants by the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) to strengthen environmental reporting in the region, reports Internews. The awardees include three Fiji journalists – Mai TV journalist and chief executive Stanley Simpson, who hosts the investigative current affairs programme Simpson@Eight, ...
Immigration regulations newly-introduced by Government that applications from migrants trapped offshore with valid work visas need clearance through a Lead Agency (Government Dept responsible for a specific industry) are nothing but a political whitewash,” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Maguire, Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of Newcastle The Jerusalem District Court has ruled that Malka Leifer is fit to stand trial on charges of child sexual abuse. This is a significant ruling in a very long ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elspeth Tilley, Associate Professor of English (Expressive Arts), Massey University You’re walking on a public footpath when a jogger overtakes you from behind, well inside the recommended two-metre physical distance. What to do? By the time you’ve reacted it’s too late. Just ...
Last night New Zealand witnessed one of the most exhilarating, confronting political stories to air on national television. Hayden Donnell has watched it several hundred times. Newshub at 6 opened last night with a back-and-forth between presenters Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts. After an intro from Hayes, McRoberts set the scene ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorana Bartels, Professor and Program Leader of Criminology, Australian National University Yesterday was National Sorry Day in Australia. It marks the anniversary of the tabling of the Bringing Them Home report, which chronicles decades of removals of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...
Open Mike 07/06/2018 
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George Galloway on Twitter.
“The murder of #RazzanNajjar was not a “tragedy”. This is doublespeak. It was a deliberately executed War Crime like the 112 other murders in the trail of tears of the #GreatReturnMarch and the 13,000 wounded.”
Good to see Argentina pulling out of a football game with the apartheid state of Israel.
Boycott.
Divest.
Sanction.
What Israel sourced products or services will you be boycotting Ed ?
As if you care.
I’m interested in how you propose the average person in NZ boycotts Israel ?
Besides not buying soda stream and refusing certain pharmaceuticals I’m unsure how anyone here can do much.
There must be a govt agency with that information but I think it would be most effective to put pressure on importers.
They deserve a good boycott.
I think it’s next to nothing although I do know that the pharmaceuticals supplied by Israels only Pharma company have increased, although i suspect none of these are actually manufactured in israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–New_Zealand_relations
As I said i don’t believe there’s anything much of any use that the average person can do.
SM – I think you will find Ed is only here for the slogan.
He will do exactly nothing.
Apart from some links to crackpots like Galloway (who likes to play pussycat)
That’s not nothing: promoting Galloway and his self-aggrandising gobshite undermines credible commentary and makes it easier for the Israelis to dismiss their critics as misled.
Galloway has been attacked and assaulted by Zionists for his truth telling about them ….making it easier for critics of israel to show them as violent thugs ….
Aside from that ….What gobshite are you gobshitting about ?? ….
Perhaps wayne mapp ….. a racist warmonger who also dislikes him could help you with an example of how ‘wrong’ he is. ….
or three face James …. brimming with crackpot examples no doubt [sarc].
But I’m sure you’ve got heaps of examples and need no help backing up what you’ve written ….
If it’s gobshite then surely people will work that out eventually. Galloway can then be resigned to the status of a propaganda factory like the rest of the lamestream. But for now I only see a rising tide for George.
He has been consigned to the gutter of youtube. only ed keeps picking the rapist up and regurgitating his pronouncements
Does the gutter of youtube include 1 million view videos talking about boring old politics?
how many views does Alex Jones get?
Popularity doesn’t make him (or anyone for that matter) right.
Well strike me down with a feather, I completely agree with Draco on this point.
views / likes / retweets do not equal being correct on a matter.
Plenty of “alt-right” you tubers with millions of views and nothing of any interest to say, if not down right insulting to intelligence
Hewlett Packard computrers and all the other tech companies who prop up their apartheid war state are fair game for boycotts …. Rupert Murdoch media would be another.
But otherwise supporting New Zealanders who have been smeared by zionists is a good activity … like Lorde was …. usually with false anti-semite accusations.
Ed is very good at bearing witness and posting up a record of peoples deeds …. despite the bleats and moans from the stunned James and other right wing precious malcontents of this world.
Spreading the truth and debunking zionist lies is a worthwhile activity IMO
https://mikopeled.com/
Stunned mullet. A big range of make up and fragrance is owned by Israeli companies. I used to be a fan of Estée Lauder, but has been years since I bought this brand.
Main point about BDS is the raising of awareness about Israeli genocide in Gaza & West Bank, especially among Israeli population many if whom do not know what is going on. So BDS aims at corporates, businesses as well as sports teams, pop/ rock stars, & musicians with high international profiles to say no and why.
Someone told me that the My Food Bag, uses Israeli produce, not sure if that is true, maybe somebody knows? Would put me off for many reasons, if true.
All it’s cous cous is israeli. it’s a winter staple now
” A big range of make up and fragrance is owned by Israeli companies. I used to be a fan of Estée Lauder, but has been years since I bought this brand.”.
That reads as if you believe that Estee Lauder is a company that is owned in Israel. That is rubbish.
The only possible way you can make any connection at all is that one of the sons of the people who founded the company is involved in Jewish Groups who do support Israel. He is a director of the company but he is a US, not an Israeli citizen and he appears to have nothing to do with the day to day operations.
And that’s enough to stop using their products.
There was that Mark Dice Man on the Street piece where he asked people what nation was behind various attacks.
First question was on the USS Liberty in 1967, and other horrific attacks through to the present day.
People blamed Iran, Iraq, Russia, Arabs and occasionally China, but in each case the correct answer was ISRAEL.
Wish I could find it as worth watching.
“…and other horrific attacks through to the present day.”
Such as?
Here a couple of examples to help cure your ignorance Gosman
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-forgotten-massacre-8139930.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/shimon-peres-dies-israel-qana-massacre-never-forget-no-peacemaker-robert-fisk-a7334656.html
The Israelis did not commit the Sabra and Shatila massacres. That was done by a Lebanese militia. They may well have been complicit in the attacks but that is not the same thing as stating they ordered it or were behind it.
Also these attacks you have linked to did not involve the US. I thought there was meant to be more attacks by Israel on US interests.
Done by a Lebanese militia supplied , financed and directed by Israel. – oh the Israeli guards on the outskirts of the camps not only prevented civilians from escaping the massacre they very kindly kept up a continuous stream off starburst shells at night so their proxies could more effectively murder their victims
So we should boycott russia over it’s involvement in the air malaysia flight over the ukraine?
Apples no, ordnance yes. Food doesn’t really affect their military capabilities.
Plenty of those Gosman…
Like when they torpedoed that US Navy ship…
Yes, other than the mistaken attack on the USS Liberty during the Six day war what other attacks on US has been committed by the Israelis.
Well, if you’re going to boycott anything Israel, I guess we won’t be seeing you here much?
Intel to invest $4.5 billion in Israel in 2018
Kiryat Gat is already one of the world’s most advanced chip fabs after Intel invested $6 billion in expanding and upgrading it during 2016 and 2017.
https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Business-and-Innovation/Intel-to-invest-45-billion-in-Israel-in-2018-543017
Throw your computer away.
Major player in ‘cyber security’ products…
One of the largest and most advanced, commercially…
Used in many private and public instutions , globally…
What? You mean like a TINA sort of thing? There is no alternative to Intel?
And as if the Chinese haven’t already co-opted (to put it politely) the intellectual property that comes from that research and development.
That kind of TINA?
Please! Keep it up – you’re going to be one really disappointed fella.
Well, that does mean that my next PC will be based upon AMD.
That won’t be enough to escape Intel.
With a heavy heart and much thought Ed will decide that, in this case only, he’ll keep using his computer but only because its for the greater good 🙂
Almost 10 KM into Syria, Turkey flexing the ego of Erdogan. Is this the beginning of the end for the Kurds?
https://apnews.com/99161aac539f4ff3b2f7be86f5d64ef1
Sounds like the US just stabbed them in the back. No longer required since ISIS is on the decline so sacrifice these people to keep Turkey happy.
Saw this and thought of John Key…
“Addendum: don’t touch the staff
In 2018, you might assume it is a given that customers must not pet, grope or manhandle waiters. But having browsed Twitter and seen chefs such as Stevie Parle reminding diners to “Keep your hands to yourself” – and Guinea Grill landlord Oisin Rogers proudly relaying his team’s zero tolerance approach: “She told him she would cut his arm off if he touched her again” – it needs reiterating: DO NOT TOUCH THE STAFF.”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/15/the-new-rules-of-dining-out-resist-table-hogging-tip-in-cash-dont-moan-about-cakeage
Trump doesn’t want talks with NK, wants to quash even the slightest chance of reunification, preparing the way for an attack instead:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/104520135/kim-jongun-got-on-hands-and-knees-and-begged-for-summit-giuliani
Kiwis lazy and drug addled …because they wont work for $75 dollars a week.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018648212/rse-workers-invaluable-to-industry-nz-fruit-grower
Modern day slavery….and the orchardists appear to have no shame.
I’d be interested in seeing a comparison of the pay and conditions that seasonal workers get now. I picked apples Motueka way in the ’80s and there was no shortage of workers, mainly because the pay was pretty good and the welfare system was sympathetic….
$20 per bin, we’d pick 4-6 bins per day
Free (basic) onsite accommodation included in the bin rate
No stand-down period, the unemployed could go straight back on the dole
Back then the dole was around $100 per week from memory and a reasonably motivated & fit worker could easily pull $600 per week picking aples. I’d expect it to be well over $1000 per week now if it followed inflation…..
You have hit the nail on the head, DH! There are plenty of workers but it has to be worthwhile to work, aka free basic accomodation, much higher pay rate than dole aka 600x and you can go back onto the dole without a stand down period.
If the casual industry bothered to do all these then they would have plenty of workers and NZ less un or under employed in this country.
I’d say not providing decent work opportunities that we previously enjoyed, is also leading to a rise in the ‘hopeless drugged youth’ that Bill English seems to think has become the NZ worker who only a few decades ago used to be held in high esteem worldwide for their work ethic and practical approach!
Yeah, there’s nothing mysterious about it. The unemployed went fruit picking because they were mad not to.
I didn’t do packhouse work so I don’t know what that was like but don’t recall people moaning about the pay there either. Kiwifruit picking paid similar to apples, I did that too, the season was just shorter.
“The apple production in New Zealand is a huge sector for such a small country. The estimated crop for 2014 was close to 500 000 tonnes, which represents around 1 400 000 bins. If you consider that an average picker will pick about 200 bins over his season, it represents at least 7000 apple picking jobs.”
Pay rates ?
Its complicated with a sliding scale
“Generally speaking, the bin rates for apple picking in New Zealand are lower than the ones in Australia. Also, I’ve never seen any farm in New Zealand having a fixed rate per bin. Indeed, it will rather fluctuate depending on each variety, on each pick (1st, 2nd, 3rd color pick), and sometimes on each block. It’s called a sliding rate. As a result it’s not rare to see up to 5-6 different bin rates appearing on your weekly payslip, related to the different kind of picking you’ve done over the week.
Common prices are between 24,5$ and 32$ per bin. However, I’ve seen it as low as 22,5$ in some farms, and as high as 36-37$ in others.
Bin sizes can vary a bit, but rate doesnt seen to different from 20 years ago, maybe only 40%-50% higher!
https://www.picktheworld.org/apple-picking-new-zealand/
Hard to make a comparison from that data but it does look to be paying less today. Minimum wage in 1988 was $5.62 hr, bin rate then was nearly four times that and todays rate looks a lot less.
The varying rates should still end up with the same earnings. We had a few differing bin rates which were down to the difficult in picking. Golden delicious paid $25 per bin because they bruised easier and we had to be more careful with them. They paid more but we picked less and ended up making much the same $$ over a day.
Agree with you there.
Bin rates should $50 plus.
Definately less than what it used to be.
Last season, I picked up some Fijian guys trying to get to the packhouse. The bus had bypassed them because it was full – leaving them stranded, next to a TePuke Z, shivering with cold with what would normally be black thumbs held out and the tips looking very red.
What I learned was that for the priviledge of coming to Godzone for some lowly work, they’d become a fucking sight worse off than if they’d stayed at home.
By the time consultants used for various stages in the process to come here, (immigration consultants, travel agents, work consultants et al) had clipped their tickets, they were up for less than 50% of the earnings promised.
They were holding out hope that in following years, they’d be experienced enough to circumvent some of the rorts in play, and rorts that were part of ‘the system and structure’ .
(By the way, I note the new CEO of MoBIE now has some serious concerns. I suggest she only need review some of the cases on record – unless of course ‘officials’ have managed to disguise their part in it all).
We’ll see
The right to be profitable is inalienable and it must be supported by taxpayer subsidies, externalising costs and by employees enduring miserable, crappy lives.
Seriously though, how can you make such an operation profitable without doing those things?
Would taking Mr Van Vliet out of the equation entirely and have the workers own and run it cooperatively make a difference?
How do you make it profitable?….you mechanise, price accordingly and if still not viable you shift to another area of investment.
The same arguments were used to justify slavery in the US south…..we have learned nothing….same old shit justification for greed.
+111
Probably.
Still:
Robotics Plus signs global deal for robotic apple packers
Something tells me that even the imported workers won’t have a job for much longer.
More people joining the NZ job queue then… what gets me is that they know that these jobs are going to be replaced and the government is bringing migrants under phony work to residency schemes and underpaying NZ workers who could be having a job and then they wonder why there’s a growing social welfare bill and we are less skilled than we used to be. Doh!
There have been scandals when migrants are working in petrol stations and getting residency, FFS the automated petrol pump is already here! Oh course we often know this when they reveal they were paid $2 p/h by their employer hence the scandal, who is often a recent resident themselves!
One of the ways Fonterra become so efficient is that they could not get staff, then they invented the automated milking systems…. in NZ we have got further behind the world in many areas, due to not using technology and then relying on slave and unskilled labour for industry, which funny enough lowers our productivity and wages… go figure.
Wonder how much more he makes by deducting all those expenses before hand.
Not an insignificant sum id suggest….is almost getting to the point where they are paying to be employed…edit, it could be argued they indeed already are.
Interesting story went to court about relationships,
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/north-shore-times/104513885/auckland-mans-partner-left-him-only-her-ashes-sparking-legal-battle
Now during my problems with MSD (fraud) the central questioned was “what is a relationship” you will probably not be surprised to know that there is no definition its based on case law, now this case has created another pieces of case law that is very dangerous in this case that person who was not living with another person but was taking care of them is considered a “de-facto partner”
This means now MSD can prosecute people for being in a relationship in the nature of a marries” (de-facto) when they do not live together.
I can imagine a scenario, a sick person with a friend who comes out often to assist that person with household tasks, the unwell person is on welfare, the friend was an OK job, this sick person would need to declare that the the friend is their de-facto partner or MSD has the ability to prosecute them for fraud, even though they share nothing assets, liabilities etc, etc.
Very dangerous ground, remember this is the Org that decided tinder date were relationships and loans are income.
Is anyone reading this blog really surprised that the Pike River “re-entry” is slipping back into the never-never.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/104507208/pike-river-mine-reentry-to-take-longer-than-expected
Prior to the election it was going to be by Christmas.
Then when they won Christmas was only for setting up a group to make a plan.
Then re-entry was going to be by March 2019.
Now it is going to be later.
I remain convinced it will never happen and there will never be a return down to where they were working. How many people really retain their faith in our Little, Andrew?
Dave Gawn is a good man so I’m still holding out hope for something good to come of this
cite who said they’d be in by xmas 2017, pls
Because that seemed to have been a nat plan.
Venzia
I see you are concerned about Israeli self defence , but not the least bit worried about the atrocities committed by Islam in the name of God.
Young Girls and Boys may follow your mistaken bias, but grownups won’t Venezia.
Do think about it.
Don’t mistake extremism for religion, for the majority of islamic followers (1.8 billion) they do not follow sharia law and treat their religion in the same way as the majority of christianity (2.18 billion) dose , as a code to respect, enjoy and honor life.
I an give you examples of extremism for almost every religion (buddhism and Taoism seem to have been pretty good) but all the others have some very nasty history that is not followed by their members anymore.
If you truly think islam is violent, I suggest to your local mosque and have a chat with an imam (btw I am not religious in any way and would write the same for anyone who said what you did about christianity)
Worthwhile read on TDB blowing Mike Sabin out of the water…
“What I find really puzzling is the fact Northland has the greatest number of users of P in the whole country. And Northland was Mike Sabin’s the former MP for National seat. And yet Northland also has had the largest P seizures made by the police. One bust was half a ton 500kg of high quality imported Methamphetamine. All this would suggest P use has grown like an algal bloom in Northland. Strange that this should be the result from ten years of Mike Sabin’s vigilance?
The headline P found in High levels in Whangarei wastewater since police and health officials gained data . NZ Herald 28 November 2017
So just was Mike Sabin doing? I suggest he started the biggest lie and misinformation campaign in New Zealand’s history, and had the financial backing and full support of the National Government.
I’ve long taken issue with Mike Sabin as I am qualified as Drug and Alcohol Clinician and put Patient or client needs first when discussing treatment. I haven’t found any education or qualification to suggest Mike has a degree or any tertiary education.”
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/06/07/special-investigation-jeanette-saxby-methamphetamine-and-what-a-fool-believes/
Northland has always had an unhealthy gang & drug culture and there is suggestions there may have been some close relationships between these people and some people within the law enforcement agencies ?
I do remember a Senior person in one of these agencies was imprisoned, however old news, most gangs world wide manage to infiltrate law enforcement agencies and have insiders working for them.
I remember John Key supported Mike Sabin’s career and his decision to leave Parliament.
Mike did alot of “hands on” work with troubled adolescents in Northland.
Didnt he leave parliament to spend less time with his family ?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/359069/how-many-nz-homes-are-being-snapped-up-by-overseas-buyers
And then we fund their purchase with AS for their tenants
Stats are at least being more honest with their phrasing than Linz but it’s still being misrepresented by the media. Stats make this note;
“Home transfers aren’t just the sale and purchase of houses, although for simplicity we refer to the people involved in transfers as buyers and sellers. They also include the transfer of a deceased family member’s home, a marriage settlement, and administrative changes,”
The numbers are useless, completely meaningless, until non-sales are separated from sales.
Now it’s not hard to reconcile the transfer data with REINZ sales figures to get the true level of sales and one wonders why there’s a persistent refusal to do it.
Also recent migrants are not included. So probably more illuminating in explaining what is going on, if people moving to NZ in last decade via Key immigration relaxed immigration policy, aka one of the highest in the world, is included, because it will be more like 50% of house sales in Auckland will be to ‘new’ residents.
10% nationally, up to 20% foreign buyers in Central Auckland and Queenstown.
Xenophobia, racism etc etc
Winter is here and we still have kiwis sleeping in cars and garages, and a generation locked into a lifetime of renting
The rentiers like it that way. In fact, they demand that it be that way.
Quote from Why we can’t afford the rich” by Andrew Sayer, Richard Wilkinson
Capitalists are the biggest bludgers.
Your link says
9.7 % for Auckland and 3.3% nationally, so nothing has changed.
Just more Xenophobia.
Feel for the poor home owners of the Bella Vista debacle.
This is the tip of the ice burg. When the council/RMA ‘relaxed’ resource consents and in many cases do not require enough geotech advice and conditions before the building consent goes in, they have cleared the way for more ‘leaky buildings’ type housing failures but this time on the land.
In the Bella Vista case no resource requirement for retaining to be done before the builds started and not enough geotech involved in the water issues, even before all the signed off building work by council that was found to be faulty.
Same thing happened in the red zone of CHCH when land should not have been developed on was developed on without the right conditions. In the CHCH case, the council apparently did the right thing and refused the consent only to be sued by the developers and the environment court then overturned the council and let them develop there. The earthquakes happened and the houses and land were deemed unusable.
Great for the developer though, who profited from it. As usual the people who suffer are the poor and middle class and the rate payers who have to pay for it. The developer, builders, council, council CEO and resource consenting and geo tech people on the original consent will get away scott free and just go on to do it again. That is what the system creates with zero consequences.
Much tighter conditions are also needed at environment court and less tame RMA judges (99% of all RMA consents go through, whole system is rigged to push environmental and social disasters through) to prevent land from being developed for profit that will later be deemed uninhabitable and bankrupt/seriously disrupt people who saved hard for a home for their families and of course the compensation will not be from the person responsible but from the Tauranga ratepayers or maybe the building insurance if there was any?
It is about time that when a building consent is put in by a developer then a portion of that money goes into a fund/insurance policy paid by the developer to bail out the homeowner if any serious problems develop. Not this wink wink, industry ‘insurance’ that does not seem to be paying out for leaky buildings or Bella Visa by the look of it.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12065617
Nah nah @savenz. The market the market. Not only is TINA, but who gives a fuck?
/sarc
And then of course you get this ‘broad church’ of what is now a really quaint concept of ‘the Left’ trying to excercise their egos and display their commitment.
All, after 30 years or more of a globalisation project designed to encourage the periphery to the core – in terms of economy and culcha (and language), and then to justify their prejudices BECAUSE of it.
But….you know, the market the market! But for age, I’d be quite happy to stick around to see who the survivors are in all this madnesss. There are a few from yesterday and before on
https://thestandard.org.nz/were-etu-union-delegates-threatened-at-a-select-committee/ and on
Open Mikes who when push and shit comes to shove, really aren’t going to make it.
And here’s me, not the slightest interested in kinspirisy theories or all the crap that comes with MSM bias (probably as much to do with the change they’d normally be advocating for) as are other professing various political leanings.
One fucked up Whurl, and just as people like the Muppet Fuddy Duddy @Wayne are part of it, ……………… heads of our post-colonial PS still in charge of their prejudices and surreptitiously directing others to do otherwise, …. etc., etc….
the left have their equivalents (all Indians are the same apparently, despite their having suffered A FUCKING SIGHT more than me).
But then…. you know…. TORY BOY and JUDE and Pulla can set themselves at ease, (and Parmjeet Kaur and Fukwit Bakshi for the matter) are Considerably CONSIDERABLY C O N S I D E R A B LY ) richer than me (if only in terms of the Rajistan Marble and frail cement and brick constructs they’re parked their boltholes and investments in
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOlbOZ9w84I and many others)
You could actually start a sewage recycling factory with a reasaonable earn using their SHITE).
Sincerely, I wish them luck.
When will Councils and Central Governments ever learn we just keep repeating the same mistakes ?
Introducing The Shirley Exception
“The Shirley Exception is a bit of mental sleight of hand that allows people to support a policy they profess to disagree with. It’s called the Shirley Exception because… well, I mean, *surely* there must be exceptions, right?”
“Throw your computer away.” …. nah just don’t upgrade …. or don’t upgrade to new Intel.
Send them a message telling them you are doing this and why if you like ….
As an aside …. A “don’t upgrade” consumers campaign could be a very effective people power tool against image conscious corporations like apple … regarding the legal robbery /’creative accounting’, as they freeload and skip out of paying their fair share of tax on their enormous profits in every society / country they sell their sweatshop goods.
*1hr 13 mins ….. Political partys like the Nacts who are working for the rich cheats need their hands forced .
**Mapp should pay attention 53min .30sec mark
56 mins on should have Nz asking questions of Mark mitchell and his war profiteering wealth.
Hoskings commenting again today about the nurses wage claims is simply the overpaid telling the underpaid to suck it up and don’t disturb his natural order.
I get the feeling that the DHB’s and Education Dept are offering derisory wage increases as they are right wingers trying to provoke industrial action.
Yep it’s all a cunning plan
All true. Hosking also made a derisorily stupid argument that Nurses should not bother trying to point out and catch up on past injustices. I suspect that he has a fairly short attention span.
Gotta love seeing the Washington Post using the words ‘Trump’ and ‘fixation’ in the same sentence sans irony.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/104530642/pardons-become-a-trump-fixation-but-his-latest-causes-alarm-in-the-white-house
Good morning The AM Show Carbon neutral is only going to be good for Aotearoa our import bill will go down with low oil import our health bill will go down.
The oil industry is better to look at reality like ECO MAORI and look for the positive thing they can get out of the carbon neutral economy like investing in the industry engineering retooling to make wind Mills ect.
What I get about extra trestral alien life is if we look at stars with the best telescopes millions of light years a way if we see life on planet at that minute the life could be extinct because it takes millions of light years for the image to get to Papatuanukue so we are looking into there past.
As with Alien life it has most probably been and gone on some planets. It’s not a if on alien life its a question of when as we have existed for a fraction of time on Papatuanukue and life could have been and gone on planets close to us because the habitance were to short sighted and they could not think of 200 years into the Mokopunas future enough said. Duncan and Mark looking forward to the weekend a have a good time at the rugby. Ka kite ano P.S remember that old saying if one is caught in a rip tide while swimming one does not swim against it as one will drown its best to swim with the rip tide as it will bring you to safey Know
The AM Show we don’t want the wealthy foreigners to OWN All Of Atoearoa.
We will all be renting in OUR own country and that’s is what will happen if national have there way in ECO MAORI view on Reality. Ka kite ano P.S the real truth is hard to find one has to decipher it from many sources Duncan
I found this article on the Guardian
Its head lined Sausage deplomacy I say there is another way to look at that state meant as Men think with their sausage to much and that is one of the reasons I push for Lady’s equality.
Link is Below
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/07/emmanuel-macron-sausages-diplomacy-donald-trump
Ka kite ano P.S I’m not sure about the other parts of the story’s facts
ECO MAORI IS Like a Red Flag to a bull to Te sandflys a challenge I don’t even have to mention them just let them know that my IQ is above average and that Alot of men think with there sausage and it pisses them off they have stop the marked cars pulling people over just as I’m cruising what a coincidence Well I will have to take that last line back because they coincidencely pulled some actor up just past my daughter house just as we got home they had the chopper flying by work for a hour – – – – -. So no truce I’m going to go hard on imforming te tangata excalacly how divious they are and if anyone is affected negatively it’s all on them they don’t Own Atoearoa. I have left a few links out trying to take the humane route but there EGO does not let this type of thinking enter there heads O I forgot sausage.
They have been throwing actors every day at ECO MAORI muppets Ana to kai well their is some positive for te tangata if they are busy with ECO MAORI they haven’t got time to intimidat te Mokopunas. Ka kite ano
pissed off biggly with the GWC the MDC theCDC the LWRWRDC and “business interests who want to spend money in the worst possible way.
mainly because in the short term their properties will gain value and and because the promoters have told certain people they can invest for a long term gain and feel like rich people blah blah as they plan for their retirement as general flunkies.
the dairy boom is over.
new plans have to be made to keep the best farms going and plan for alternative produce to obtain a comparative advantage.
the bozos doing the so called planning now dont have a clue besides an accountants metric and that is not good enough now.
one dimensional maroons.