“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.
“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.
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
On International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi and the wider union movement are celebrating the proud history of the labour movement during a tough time for working people. ...
From bills to beards, a walk through the former Green co-leader’s time in politics. After close to a decade in politics, James Shaw is preparing to bid farewell to parliament. Tonight will see the former minister deliver his valedictory address, certain to be a speech filled with Shaw’s trademark wit ...
Two months ago, MPs unanimously voted to give themselves a week off in Efeso Collins’ honour. On Tuesday, most were too busy to give even an hour of their time. The day Fa’anānā Efeso Collins died, parliament felt different. In a building that operates at a breakneck pace, everyone stopped ...
India’s election involves hundreds of millions of people and is a months-long affair. Here’s how voting works and what’s at stake.The biggest-ever election in world history started on April 19, with more than 10% of the world’s population eligible to vote. Elections in India, the world’s most populous country ...
Opinion: A young Māori woman and her Pacific partner arrive at their local hospital by ambulance. She has gone into labour at just under 24 weeks, but the couple haven’t recognised the symptoms – and don’t know the risks of premature birth for their baby. By the time they arrive, ...
Behind closed doors, NZ First will be arguing fiercely against any watering down of the ministerial decision-making powers in the Bill The post Bishop backtracks after fast-track backlash appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Emotional scenes played out in the Invercargill courthouse on the first two days of the coronial inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones, in which the boy’s mother was accused of disposing of her son’s body. The second season of Newsroom’s award-nominated podcast The Boy in the Water ...
Opinion: The impression from the carpark is very inviting. The area is well fenced but barred so there is easy visibility of loved ones. Inside, the spaces are welcoming and clean and staff are friendly and clearly comfortable. I am greeted by ‘Kim’. She has worked here for three years, ...
After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 1 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
Koi Tū New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today. The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option ...
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
https://twitter.com/alexandraerin/status/1004400861865488384
“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.