I am picking the the turn out this election will collapse, I think we'll be lucky to get two thirds of voters to the polls on election day. I am worried the 20% undecided vote will simply not bother.
Certainly the obvious impact of violent burglary (ram raids etc) in local communities is very evident – and has a huge impact on the public perception of the crime rate.
The new Labour policies to address this, are seen as 'too little, too late' (as in, why didn't you introduce them 2 years ago).
I just got very meh, about hipkins when he went and dud the stupid gst off food policy, no one rates it it made me wonder if he's bright enough for the job tbh
No that GST policy is in Aus and does make a difference.
Chris Hipkins is clever and practical. He has degrees in politics and criminology, and has worked in the private and public spheres. He believes in social justice.
His 5 point plan for NZ is far more cohesive than anything offered by National Act so far.
20% say they have not decided. We are still in this fight in spite of their money
In 2017 I said "It is not over 'till the fat lady sings" That is still true.
Agreed- not only is the GST off F&V not targetted it will overwhelmingly accrue to the rich at the expense of the poor. Rich buy a lot of fruit and veges, poor do not. Worst panic policy ever.
If he slips to 4.9 (which is roughly his average anyway) and let's face it anybody from the Left shouldn't be going near NZF given they have refused to work with Labour, then it is still all to play for.
it's not like the Greens would be running the show either. Time to give them some more power and see what they do. Labour will still have the PM*, appoint ministers, and run caucus.
*although why not do a Winston and have Shaw as PM 😁
I like what he does a lot, and this year I'm really starting to see him as PM material. Pity we have the kind of system that we do that means this is unlikely. Maybe we're better off with him as Climate Minister.
Given the lack of people engaging on the Standard . Labour supporters have given up.usually around election time the posts are in the hundreds now in the 10's. Is their another forum ?
Usually around election time, posts will still just have 10s of comments per post. However this year we are short of people writing posts. There are only one every day at best outside of OpenMike/Daily Review.
This is pretty obvious when you look at the archives around previous election times. If you have 10 Posts in a day, then you’ll get a one that heads to or over 100 comments. Most get less than 20-30 comments.
Don’t know about anyone else, but I’m far too busy working on projects I’m employed to produce on. Plus I kind of ran out of new things to say on politics over the last 15 years on the site, and I hate repeating myself.
Bear in mind trickledown a lot of those comments in the past came from right wing trolls who used to disrupt the discourse until the mods decided to do something about it. They have all disappeared now. Ten years ago the blogosphere was still a novelty. I think it has worn off since then.
I’m fully retired and am physically limited due to osteo-arthritis so have the time to dilly dally around The Standard. 😉
Some one is doing OK – I just caught up with the news that Indian airlines have announced orders for a record 500(!) airliners at the June Paris Airshow.
I am puzzled about all this fits into any sort of climate change plan, but then everyone I know seems to have gone overseas this year so I guess no one is really that worried.
Talk about hydrogen Air NZ planes and being a provider on the Radio. I missed the rest as the lawn man arrived. lol I rushed round to shut out the fumes and missed the actual item.
Might be the last mass exit for a while, we went this year and shit Europe is expensive. Which tallies with Womens Footy WC visitors here who said they loved how much cheaper it was than where they came from. Dont believe the bullshit, yes things are dearer here than they were 4 years ago but nowhere near over there.
An addendum to above, we visited Europe in 2018, to visit children and older rellies about to slip off the perch, so we have a good comparison, and a rough guess would be almost twice the price as 5 years ago.
I was recently in France and England and agree it's very expensive, way more than NZ. The National art gallery and British Museum are both excellent and free. Also the flying is an emissions nightmare.
Central Asia (Uzbekistan and the other stans) were great , closer and more affordable.
Last time I went I heeded the advice of my Dr who said when you are in the UK just think of the GBP as NZ$ and don't do any conversions and so you don't get taken aback by the prices.
I have spent some time in Europe I have family there .It can be dear especially in tourist hotshots but else where very cheap clothing shoes and food except in winter.
Humans are exceptional – we can cook an entire planet! BAU (growth) simply must continue, including travel around spaceship Earth – how else to pump up profits?
So far there have been 1,264 order and options commitents announced during the show, more than a 1,000 of which are from two airlines; Air India and IndiGo Airlines.
IndiGo opened the show with a deal for 500 Airbus A320neo family jets, all firm aircraft. The following day Air India firmed its February commitment for 470 aircraft – a mix of narrowbodies and widebodies from Airbus and Boeing — together with options on 70 more units.
I'd attribute this to the increasing size of the middle class in India – with the consequent demand for overseas tourism.
I think you are right Belladonna, Just got back from Vietnam and Thailand, and lots of Russian tourists, but especially noticeable was the large numbers of Indian visitors and Indigo planes.
I am puzzled about all this fits into any sort of climate change plan, but then everyone I know seems to have gone overseas this year so I guess no one is really that worried.
Na it's the cows, it certainly isn't pointless tourism causing problems
The most 'Greenie' family I know (daily cycle commuters, don't own a car, compost and vege garden, keep chickens, flexitarian, staunch GP voters) – have just come back from an extended-family (3 generations) – round-the-world trip to see family and friends in multiple countries.
And are planning for overseas family to visit them this summer.
Yep. Personal air travel will be just as resistant as farming to any move that tries to limit it. Perhaps more so. Just got my passport (that expired 7 years ago) renewed. Not being able to afford something (or only rarely afford it) is a good deterrent – but the deterrence is not equally distributed.
I've noticed the same trend; most of our English friends have flown back to the UK to see relatives (perfectly understandable, in view of their parents being elderly) but it doesn't do much for the climate.
Then there are the two others who are on a jaunt to Spain and Portugal to see the sights.
They'll be in for an interesting time as Spain's water reservoirs are said to be running dry, and much of Europe has been under drought for months. To add to the fun, Greece and Turkey have recently copped massive floods.
I won’t be booking a riverboat cruise on the Danube for the foreseeable future.
I've been thinking and thinking about this over the last few days.
Posie Parker/KJK Minshull comes to NZ to attend/participate in the trial of the tomato sauce thrower.
As we know the last time she came here the response from the Labour politicans was less than stellar with several, Woods/Hipkins, seemingly making comments off the cuff or without the benefit of a briefing that set out the issues (as opposed to a partisan view of the issues)
This was followed up by Hipkins stumbling and bumbling when asked the question 'What is a woman?' by Sean Plunket. He was not aware of the issues and even had to be prompted about what was happening in the UK and Keir Starmer's inane response.
Some women I know are tentatively making their way to Labour.
This is not about the issues.
My worry is that Hipkins will be as poorly briefed as he was last time, make himself and the party look silly and in doing so make light of the women's rights issues around participation in sport etc etc.
Without a grip on the issues including that it cannot/should not be mocked by referring to toilets when you are talking about the votes of women, I fear he may turn around the tentative steps by many women back to the left. Many would not vote for The Greens because of their stance on Gender politics/issue and what may happen is that they may not vote at all.
…..And then the ideas in this column by Verity Johnson come true and the pleas are ignored.
Now is not the time to cut off democracy’s nose to spite Labour’s face.
My view is that if PM Hipkins gives a fair go to the concerns of women, if asked, is briefed on the entirety of the issues, then the tentative steps of many women back to Labour may mean they find themselves in the polling booths on Election day voting Labour or a party from the left, rather than abstaining.
As I said my biggest fear, and this is really so, is that Hipkins makes a hash of this, is not properly briefed and denies women the verity, to coin a phrase, of their concerns. This then turns off many, who then don't vote at all.
I don't want to debate the issues, this plea is solely about being on top of the issues ie properly briefed and doing justice to the valid concerns that exist.
Labour cannot afford to lose one single vote this election especially if this was a vote within its grasp.
My immediate response to Hipkins in reply to Plinkett was that he had been over briefed. Only from one side of the issues.
So fully aware of the metaphorical political land mine in answering that question. If only he had the courage to give an authentic answer, even with a caveat including those who weren't born female.
Authenticity shines when we come across it nowadays. From art, music (witness Anthony Oliver's Rich men north of Richmond and the reactions to it) through to politics. My reckons have it that the instagramm/tik tok influence of posting the highlights or best bits of life reeks of insincerity.
I'm not seeing anything that suggests to me Labour are prepared for this. Given that, what else can we do? I think talking, a lot, about the damage that a Nact or Nact/NZF would do to women compared to a L/G/TPM government, is important.
Yes, there are serious issues around women's sexed based rights. Those will be easier to solve under a centre left government, because activism is easier then. We also need to convince the liberals making policy to adopt progressive approaches. Nact/NZF will bring in regressive, reactionary ones, that won't be good for women.
Do we want gender conformity enforced? Because that's what the right will do. Also, punitive welfare will hit low income women hard as will the increased housing crisis. Expect cuts to lots of services that women rely on, and I would guess cuts to funding too.
I'm not seeing anything that suggests to me Labour are prepared for this. Given that, what else can we do? I think talking, a lot, about the damage that a Nact or Nact/NZF would do to women compared to a L/G/TPM government, is important.
Yes I am talking and raising the spectre of the right but it will be made much more difficult if we have Hipkins, overly or inadequately briefed, giving a poor answer or a 'toilet' answer. If so all the nose holding, tentative steps back and possible voting for the Left won't work if once again he misses the point.
I now have no links to Labour and I guess my hope is that someone on here with links can get the message through to be careful, be properly briefed when/if asked for comment when Posie Parker/KJ Minshull arrives for the court case.
I think you're repeating yourself there. My point was that at this stage of the electoral cycle, the kind of philosophical and real politik shift we would prefer is unlikely to happen. I agree it would be great if Labour insiders worked on this, and I assume they in fact are but are met with too much resistance.
That change will happen over time, just like it did in the UK. From persistence and progressive framing. The big risk right now is that KJK's visit will be used by the likes of Peters, ACT, and the fringe parties to nobble the election. Peters and KJK are two peas from the same pod, both opportunistic populists who are playing dangerous power games. Irrespective of the useful things that both do, they are hugely problematic at this point because populist, reactionary politics undermines democracy.
NZF don't even have any policies. Just a list of talking points. If they get in again, expect the damage to NZ to be significant. It will be the worst of NACT plus Peters' active fomenting of Trumpian pol in NZ.
The only solution to that that I can see in the next five weeks is to 1) campaign hard in whatever way we can for a L/G/TPM government and 2) be prepared for the shit that might eventuate with KJK's visit (we might get really lucky and it's a damp squib).
Yep. The question is designed to be problematic. But all "what is a …" questions are inherently problematic. How do you decide what the essential versus the accidental characteristics of a thing actually are? What rules should govern the making of this distinction? And why?
Wearing a dress is pretty clearly an accidental property of being a woman – and so on. It gets trickier as you keep going. If you can't decide what is essential and what is accidental, is the thing really a 'thing', or just a notional thing, a convenient name for an abstract idea? But that doesn't feel right either – our day to day understanding dislikes such a dissolving of things into just names. It's a murky area best left to incomprehensibly clever people working in philosophy departments. I have no clue.
I think your answer is an excellent one if the questioner is a young, male, right-wing culture warrior.
What is a woman? is a very easy question to answer. Adult human female.
Hipkins' problem is that he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. The hard place is the gender identity ideologists who actively harm people and politics who don't adhere to their world view absolutely. The rock is the fact that most people don't believe that humans can change sex, and they think males in women's sports is unfair and males in women's spaces is unsafe.
Fortunately most people also want trans people to be ok. Which means there is an open door to talking both/and in terms of trans people and women's sex based rights. Labour will get there, but this election is so close that Labour not being prepared for the question puts the left winning the election at risk.
I think Labour lost their chance of re-election with the last half-arsed budget. They have lost control of the narrative. The average voter is hurting and all Labour is offering is band-aid fixes. Hipkins either doesn't have the balls to rein in the price gouging monopolists and tax dodgers, or he is just a useless neoliberal who doesn't wanna do shit.
Labour needed to demonstrate to the public that they were serious about the cost of living, housing, and crime. And somehow turn the page from the painful Covid lockdowns. But they haven't had a real circuit breaker and the people want change.
I don't particularly disagree with what you are saying about Hipkins' Labour, but it's an own goal to give up at this point.
Talbot Mills has NZF at 5.4%, that's close the threshold. We should be fighting with everything we've got, because that's not that many votes to swing back to Labour to put the left back in the game.
The Greens have been known to pick up an extra seat on the Specials, it's why they have campaigned overseas (don't know what they're doing this year, but I'm sure they've love some help in Aus). 😛
I don't have a good 'feel' for whether NZF will get over the threshold or not. (I'd prefer 'not', I don't have a lot of time for Winston First). Historically, NZF have been more likely to under-poll and deliver a slightly higher result on election day.
But, I seriously doubt whether there are many, if any, 'soft' votes there that Labour can claw back. He's been deliberately targeting the anti-mandate-mob, cleverly tapping into the pain that many people experienced during the lockdowns. To those people, Labour is the demonic party which caused the pain – they may sit the election out, but it will be a cold day in hell before they vote Labour in 2023.
Labour has a better chance of targeting soft-National votes (the maligned 'centre' voter).
It looks like he is just in a down market, rat infested ( but trendy ) fleapit of an Auckland cafe. Getting down with the street, yoh.
PS. Want to solve the productivity problem in NZ ? Close down 2/3rds of the cafes like they intend to do with toxic vape shops and send everybody in them, bored arsesitters and so called cafe "professionals, give me a fucking break !, out into the real world to do some proper work producing something or curing and caring for those who need it. Hell we could turn the balance of payments around just with the lack of coffee imported.
"In 2021, New Zealand imported $84.8M in Coffee, mainly from Switzerland ($15.6M), Brazil ($10.6M), Colombia ($8.16M), Australia ($6.86M), and Papua New Guinea ($5.49M)."
That's at about $8 a kg. So, say 10 million kg. at 120-140 cups per kg. That's 1,300,000,000 cups. NZ has 3 million coffee drinkers? They would drink 433 cups each. At $5 a cup, that's $2165 each coffee drinker on average. Gross expenditure on coffee in a cup- up to $6,500,000,000.
Adrian, you have grounds for #5. You deserve a coffee break.
'He also talked about fixing the rental market, getting capital to good community housing providers, and looking at a different way of managing infrastructure development.
"In a country the size of New Zealand, to have a housing crisis like we have is really not acceptable," Luxon said.-Stuff.
As if his roll backs of Lab policy that have dampened the ludicrous flipping market,and given FHB better opportunities and his other announced policies are in anyway going to alleviate this…crisis.
But, but, but when you speak with forked tongue you can say different and contradictory things – first to wave a snow job over the concept of housing so it sounds real, while the other fork speaks meaningfully to the 'entrepreneurs' and speculators.
The Act Party says it saw no need to disclose that one of its candidates was censured by the Real Estate Authority. When I called him, he acknowledged he'd been the subject of four formal complaints, one resulting in a censure. My article at @NewsroomNZ($)
Act MP-in-waiting did not publicly disclose censure over real estate deal: ‘As a real estate agent, Zane Cozens faced complaints of pressuring elderly home-owners to sell their homes for less than they wanted to.’
Why doesn't Fisiani have the brain cells to realise that a link to their Stats showing the volume of volunteers is needed to back up their claim. Could it be they're just trolling and begging for a ban. Just asking questions?
Fishiani/Fizziani is back, what may I ask old chap is your basis for saying “Why is is it that there are are so few Labour volunteers this time?” it may be illuminating for other readers…
don't do polling. I just spoke to them and confirmed they have nothing to do with it. Work on our bullshit nerves people, when they go off, believe them
The development of the code is in recognition of the fact that reporting of polls can have an impact on how people vote.
Inaccurate polls or polls that are reported inaccurately can impact on voting attitudes and behaviours and thus influence the democratic process.
All members of the polling and media communities must treat polling responsibly. Reliable polls, rather than informal surveys, require a high degree of rigour. These guidelines are designed to ensure that rigour is understood and applied.
Here's their membership directory but honestly these people could be anyone and we have zero idea what tests RANZ do to ensure their members comply with their guideline code. If indeed any test exists at all.
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Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
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 from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Troy Rawhiti-Connell reviews Kia Tupu Te Ara, a documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of Aotearoa’s groundbreaking metal band. “Two brothers attempt to storm the world of thrash metal with the Māori language, despite the fact they’re both still teenagers,” reads the synopsis of Kent Belcher’s documentary, Kia Tupu Te Ara. ...
Three freelance writers have been awarded grants to work on their ambitious journalism projects. In January, The Spinoff announced the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund, supported by the Auckland Radio Trust (ART). The fund was established to provide much-needed financial and editorial support to talented freelance journalists, empowering them to ...
A grim poll for Labour but "It shows the results aren’t yet baked in: around one-in-five voters are undecided or ‘’soft’’ in their voting intention."
National 36%
Labour 26%
Green 12%
ACT 11%
NZ First 6%
Te Pāti Māori 3%
https://www.thepost.co.nz/a/politics/350068072/labour-slumps-new-poll-low-numbers-offer-some-comfort
I am picking the the turn out this election will collapse, I think we'll be lucky to get two thirds of voters to the polls on election day. I am worried the 20% undecided vote will simply not bother.
A low turnout typically favours the Right. The shift in 50+ voters from L/G to NACT should give some concern (https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-05-09-2023/#comment-1967058).
I think the perception that Labour is soft on crime is a big factor.
Certainly the obvious impact of violent burglary (ram raids etc) in local communities is very evident – and has a huge impact on the public perception of the crime rate.
The new Labour policies to address this, are seen as 'too little, too late' (as in, why didn't you introduce them 2 years ago).
I just got very meh, about hipkins when he went and dud the stupid gst off food policy, no one rates it it made me wonder if he's bright enough for the job tbh
No that GST policy is in Aus and does make a difference.
Chris Hipkins is clever and practical. He has degrees in politics and criminology, and has worked in the private and public spheres. He believes in social justice.
His 5 point plan for NZ is far more cohesive than anything offered by National Act so far.
20% say they have not decided. We are still in this fight in spite of their money
In 2017 I said "It is not over 'till the fat lady sings" That is still true.
So you believe the NZ supermart duopoly will pass the gst reduction on to consumers for longer than 2 weeks?
Yes otherwise they will be in the shit big time ~
Agreed- not only is the GST off F&V not targetted it will overwhelmingly accrue to the rich at the expense of the poor. Rich buy a lot of fruit and veges, poor do not. Worst panic policy ever.
Like us the poor will benefit from the GST off frozen/fresh veg as well as having a Grocery Commissioner.
I think it will be a long time before we benefit from extra EV stations or 13roads or a great walk or an Ombudsman for disasters and floods.
There is a difference between wishes and needs.
Mmmm it's 47-41 without Winston.
If he slips to 4.9 (which is roughly his average anyway) and let's face it anybody from the Left shouldn't be going near NZF given they have refused to work with Labour, then it is still all to play for.
I like it ! Keep up the Positive. and the Fight.
Yes Darien Fenton's list of worker protections implemented under this government is reason enough to protect what we have.
Winston First will be 8-9%
Weirdly the more Labour goes down the more loyal my vote is towards them.
I tend to vote labour when they're weak, the greens when labour is strong.
But most likely it's greens this time, sick of the same, bit scared of the greens but fuckit things gotta change
it's not like the Greens would be running the show either. Time to give them some more power and see what they do. Labour will still have the PM*, appoint ministers, and run caucus.
*although why not do a Winston and have Shaw as PM 😁
Shaw impresses me everytime I see him ,
I like what he does a lot, and this year I'm really starting to see him as PM material. Pity we have the kind of system that we do that means this is unlikely. Maybe we're better off with him as Climate Minister.
That is more like it Ad….keep it up.
Given the lack of people engaging on the Standard . Labour supporters have given up.usually around election time the posts are in the hundreds now in the 10's. Is their another forum ?
Usually around election time, posts will still just have 10s of comments per post. However this year we are short of people writing posts. There are only one every day at best outside of OpenMike/Daily Review.
This is pretty obvious when you look at the archives around previous election times. If you have 10 Posts in a day, then you’ll get a one that heads to or over 100 comments. Most get less than 20-30 comments.
Don’t know about anyone else, but I’m far too busy working on projects I’m employed to produce on. Plus I kind of ran out of new things to say on politics over the last 15 years on the site, and I hate repeating myself.
Lprent Robert Reich has some new post's on how the oligarchs maintan power.
My lack of engagement these days has more to do with tiring of a certain moderator than anything else.
It's like trying to negotiate with a Pyongyang tram conductor.
Lol
Bear in mind trickledown a lot of those comments in the past came from right wing trolls who used to disrupt the discourse until the mods decided to do something about it. They have all disappeared now. Ten years ago the blogosphere was still a novelty. I think it has worn off since then.
I’m fully retired and am physically limited due to osteo-arthritis so have the time to dilly dally around The Standard. 😉
Sorry to hear that and we'll done for posting.
Some one is doing OK – I just caught up with the news that Indian airlines have announced orders for a record 500(!) airliners at the June Paris Airshow.
https://www.flightglobal.com/orders-and-deliveries/paris-air-show-order-tracker-indigo-deal-and-air-india-confirmation-lead-show-business/153806.article
I am puzzled about all this fits into any sort of climate change plan, but then everyone I know seems to have gone overseas this year so I guess no one is really that worried.
I'm waiting for some kind of time travel or sustainable magic carpet, plus some money of course, before I venture abroad again.
I don't know which of these is going to be more unobtainable.
Talk about hydrogen Air NZ planes and being a provider on the Radio. I missed the rest as the lawn man arrived. lol I rushed round to shut out the fumes and missed the actual item.
Green hydrogen is a joke it's green wash the amount of energy to break the H20 is humongous.
Might be the last mass exit for a while, we went this year and shit Europe is expensive. Which tallies with Womens Footy WC visitors here who said they loved how much cheaper it was than where they came from. Dont believe the bullshit, yes things are dearer here than they were 4 years ago but nowhere near over there.
An addendum to above, we visited Europe in 2018, to visit children and older rellies about to slip off the perch, so we have a good comparison, and a rough guess would be almost twice the price as 5 years ago.
I was recently in France and England and agree it's very expensive, way more than NZ. The National art gallery and British Museum are both excellent and free. Also the flying is an emissions nightmare.
Central Asia (Uzbekistan and the other stans) were great , closer and more affordable.
Yes, Adrian I agree.
Last time I went I heeded the advice of my Dr who said when you are in the UK just think of the GBP as NZ$ and don't do any conversions and so you don't get taken aback by the prices.
Cauliflower @ $13 on the Gold Coast.
I have spent some time in Europe I have family there .It can be dear especially in tourist hotshots but else where very cheap clothing shoes and food except in winter.
Humans are exceptional – we can cook an entire planet! BAU (growth) simply must continue, including travel around spaceship Earth – how else to pump up profits?
Constrained growth? No no NO! Growth is the goose that lays golden eggs, and you can never have too much gold – gold is good, and our goose is cooked.
Double that when you add IndiGo.
I'd attribute this to the increasing size of the middle class in India – with the consequent demand for overseas tourism.
I think you are right Belladonna, Just got back from Vietnam and Thailand, and lots of Russian tourists, but especially noticeable was the large numbers of Indian visitors and Indigo planes.
Na it's the cows, it certainly isn't pointless tourism causing problems
The most 'Greenie' family I know (daily cycle commuters, don't own a car, compost and vege garden, keep chickens, flexitarian, staunch GP voters) – have just come back from an extended-family (3 generations) – round-the-world trip to see family and friends in multiple countries.
And are planning for overseas family to visit them this summer.
What climate crisis…..
Oh I'm sure the offset it by destroying a farming community, so it's all gooood
Yep. Personal air travel will be just as resistant as farming to any move that tries to limit it. Perhaps more so. Just got my passport (that expired 7 years ago) renewed. Not being able to afford something (or only rarely afford it) is a good deterrent – but the deterrence is not equally distributed.
One produces nothing useful, one feeds us .
I've noticed the same trend; most of our English friends have flown back to the UK to see relatives (perfectly understandable, in view of their parents being elderly) but it doesn't do much for the climate.
Then there are the two others who are on a jaunt to Spain and Portugal to see the sights.
They'll be in for an interesting time as Spain's water reservoirs are said to be running dry, and much of Europe has been under drought for months. To add to the fun, Greece and Turkey have recently copped massive floods.
I won’t be booking a riverboat cruise on the Danube for the foreseeable future.
I've been thinking and thinking about this over the last few days.
Posie Parker/KJK Minshull comes to NZ to attend/participate in the trial of the tomato sauce thrower.
As we know the last time she came here the response from the Labour politicans was less than stellar with several, Woods/Hipkins, seemingly making comments off the cuff or without the benefit of a briefing that set out the issues (as opposed to a partisan view of the issues)
This was followed up by Hipkins stumbling and bumbling when asked the question 'What is a woman?' by Sean Plunket. He was not aware of the issues and even had to be prompted about what was happening in the UK and Keir Starmer's inane response.
Some women I know are tentatively making their way to Labour.
This is not about the issues.
My worry is that Hipkins will be as poorly briefed as he was last time, make himself and the party look silly and in doing so make light of the women's rights issues around participation in sport etc etc.
Without a grip on the issues including that it cannot/should not be mocked by referring to toilets when you are talking about the votes of women, I fear he may turn around the tentative steps by many women back to the left. Many would not vote for The Greens because of their stance on Gender politics/issue and what may happen is that they may not vote at all.
…..And then the ideas in this column by Verity Johnson come true and the pleas are ignored.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/300963898/please-you-still-have-to-vote
My view is that if PM Hipkins gives a fair go to the concerns of women, if asked, is briefed on the entirety of the issues, then the tentative steps of many women back to Labour may mean they find themselves in the polling booths on Election day voting Labour or a party from the left, rather than abstaining.
As I said my biggest fear, and this is really so, is that Hipkins makes a hash of this, is not properly briefed and denies women the verity, to coin a phrase, of their concerns. This then turns off many, who then don't vote at all.
I don't want to debate the issues, this plea is solely about being on top of the issues ie properly briefed and doing justice to the valid concerns that exist.
Labour cannot afford to lose one single vote this election especially if this was a vote within its grasp.
My immediate response to Hipkins in reply to Plinkett was that he had been over briefed. Only from one side of the issues.
So fully aware of the metaphorical political land mine in answering that question. If only he had the courage to give an authentic answer, even with a caveat including those who weren't born female.
Authenticity shines when we come across it nowadays. From art, music (witness Anthony Oliver's Rich men north of Richmond and the reactions to it) through to politics. My reckons have it that the instagramm/tik tok influence of posting the highlights or best bits of life reeks of insincerity.
I think he was underprepared (not sure about how he was briefed). We all knew the question was coming, so why didn't they?
I'm not seeing anything that suggests to me Labour are prepared for this. Given that, what else can we do? I think talking, a lot, about the damage that a Nact or Nact/NZF would do to women compared to a L/G/TPM government, is important.
Yes, there are serious issues around women's sexed based rights. Those will be easier to solve under a centre left government, because activism is easier then. We also need to convince the liberals making policy to adopt progressive approaches. Nact/NZF will bring in regressive, reactionary ones, that won't be good for women.
Do we want gender conformity enforced? Because that's what the right will do. Also, punitive welfare will hit low income women hard as will the increased housing crisis. Expect cuts to lots of services that women rely on, and I would guess cuts to funding too.
Yes I am talking and raising the spectre of the right but it will be made much more difficult if we have Hipkins, overly or inadequately briefed, giving a poor answer or a 'toilet' answer. If so all the nose holding, tentative steps back and possible voting for the Left won't work if once again he misses the point.
I now have no links to Labour and I guess my hope is that someone on here with links can get the message through to be careful, be properly briefed when/if asked for comment when Posie Parker/KJ Minshull arrives for the court case.
I think you're repeating yourself there. My point was that at this stage of the electoral cycle, the kind of philosophical and real politik shift we would prefer is unlikely to happen. I agree it would be great if Labour insiders worked on this, and I assume they in fact are but are met with too much resistance.
That change will happen over time, just like it did in the UK. From persistence and progressive framing. The big risk right now is that KJK's visit will be used by the likes of Peters, ACT, and the fringe parties to nobble the election. Peters and KJK are two peas from the same pod, both opportunistic populists who are playing dangerous power games. Irrespective of the useful things that both do, they are hugely problematic at this point because populist, reactionary politics undermines democracy.
NZF don't even have any policies. Just a list of talking points. If they get in again, expect the damage to NZ to be significant. It will be the worst of NACT plus Peters' active fomenting of Trumpian pol in NZ.
The only solution to that that I can see in the next five weeks is to 1) campaign hard in whatever way we can for a L/G/TPM government and 2) be prepared for the shit that might eventuate with KJK's visit (we might get really lucky and it's a damp squib).
Hipkins stumbling and bumbling when asked the question 'What is a woman?' and that being a seminal moment in anyone's life is bizarre.
Of course there is no 'right' answer.
Maybe before he went out that day Hipkins' advisers should have furnished him a list of possible answers just in case the question came up.
Such as, if asked "What is a woman": "One day you'll find out, good luck with your research."
Yep. The question is designed to be problematic. But all "what is a …" questions are inherently problematic. How do you decide what the essential versus the accidental characteristics of a thing actually are? What rules should govern the making of this distinction? And why?
Wearing a dress is pretty clearly an accidental property of being a woman – and so on. It gets trickier as you keep going. If you can't decide what is essential and what is accidental, is the thing really a 'thing', or just a notional thing, a convenient name for an abstract idea? But that doesn't feel right either – our day to day understanding dislikes such a dissolving of things into just names. It's a murky area best left to incomprehensibly clever people working in philosophy departments. I have no clue.
I think your answer is an excellent one if the questioner is a young, male, right-wing culture warrior.
What is a woman? is a very easy question to answer. Adult human female.
Hipkins' problem is that he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. The hard place is the gender identity ideologists who actively harm people and politics who don't adhere to their world view absolutely. The rock is the fact that most people don't believe that humans can change sex, and they think males in women's sports is unfair and males in women's spaces is unsafe.
Fortunately most people also want trans people to be ok. Which means there is an open door to talking both/and in terms of trans people and women's sex based rights. Labour will get there, but this election is so close that Labour not being prepared for the question puts the left winning the election at risk.
A woman is a female without a penis.
'You're a very naughty boy…' from the Life of Brian.
I think Labour lost their chance of re-election with the last half-arsed budget. They have lost control of the narrative. The average voter is hurting and all Labour is offering is band-aid fixes. Hipkins either doesn't have the balls to rein in the price gouging monopolists and tax dodgers, or he is just a useless neoliberal who doesn't wanna do shit.
Labour needed to demonstrate to the public that they were serious about the cost of living, housing, and crime. And somehow turn the page from the painful Covid lockdowns. But they haven't had a real circuit breaker and the people want change.
The left coalition is a tough sell from now on.
I don't particularly disagree with what you are saying about Hipkins' Labour, but it's an own goal to give up at this point.
Talbot Mills has NZF at 5.4%, that's close the threshold. We should be fighting with everything we've got, because that's not that many votes to swing back to Labour to put the left back in the game.
Numbers here
https://twitter.com/120Aotearoa/status/1699629382699295004
and
I haven't given up, but not much I can do from here in Australia
The Greens have been known to pick up an extra seat on the Specials, it's why they have campaigned overseas (don't know what they're doing this year, but I'm sure they've love some help in Aus). 😛
I don't have a good 'feel' for whether NZF will get over the threshold or not. (I'd prefer 'not', I don't have a lot of time for Winston First). Historically, NZF have been more likely to under-poll and deliver a slightly higher result on election day.
But, I seriously doubt whether there are many, if any, 'soft' votes there that Labour can claw back. He's been deliberately targeting the anti-mandate-mob, cleverly tapping into the pain that many people experienced during the lockdowns. To those people, Labour is the demonic party which caused the pain – they may sit the election out, but it will be a cold day in hell before they vote Labour in 2023.
Labour has a better chance of targeting soft-National votes (the maligned 'centre' voter).
Pretty good summation there.
Tinkering around with half arsed 'solutions'…written off as election bribes.
Whoever is responsible for Labour's re-election strategy is about as competent as AB coach…'fizzer' Foster.Hopeless!
Baldrick in a hairnet, might baffle even a few Natzo supporters…
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/09/07/political-caption-competition-2064/
It looks like he is just in a down market, rat infested ( but trendy ) fleapit of an Auckland cafe. Getting down with the street, yoh.
PS. Want to solve the productivity problem in NZ ? Close down 2/3rds of the cafes like they intend to do with toxic vape shops and send everybody in them, bored arsesitters and so called cafe "professionals, give me a fucking break !, out into the real world to do some proper work producing something or curing and caring for those who need it. Hell we could turn the balance of payments around just with the lack of coffee imported.
Much better to shut down all the pubs with their associated pokie machines.
That too.
How much coffee does NZ import?
"In 2021, New Zealand imported $84.8M in Coffee, mainly from Switzerland ($15.6M), Brazil ($10.6M), Colombia ($8.16M), Australia ($6.86M), and Papua New Guinea ($5.49M)."
That's at about $8 a kg. So, say 10 million kg. at 120-140 cups per kg. That's 1,300,000,000 cups. NZ has 3 million coffee drinkers? They would drink 433 cups each. At $5 a cup, that's $2165 each coffee drinker on average. Gross expenditure on coffee in a cup- up to $6,500,000,000.
Adrian, you have grounds for #5. You deserve a coffee break.
What makes you think that people would stop drinking (and therefore importing) coffee, just because 2/3 of the cafes were closed by the gautleiter?
Luxon…presumeably with a straight …face..
'He also talked about fixing the rental market, getting capital to good community housing providers, and looking at a different way of managing infrastructure development.
"In a country the size of New Zealand, to have a housing crisis like we have is really not acceptable," Luxon said.-Stuff.
As if his roll backs of Lab policy that have dampened the ludicrous flipping market,and given FHB better opportunities and his other announced policies are in anyway going to alleviate this…crisis.
But, but, but when you speak with forked tongue you can say different and contradictory things – first to wave a snow job over the concept of housing so it sounds real, while the other fork speaks meaningfully to the 'entrepreneurs' and speculators.
National – working in the service of evil since forever
Re Photo of Luxon in the hairnet, him indoors says,
"The things I have to do for Publicity, take the 'photo "
I said "Trying too hard to be what he is not".
Paywalled but the lede says it all about ACT, the characters it attracts, and their shitty selection processes.
.
@JonoMilne
The Act Party says it saw no need to disclose that one of its candidates was censured by the Real Estate Authority. When I called him, he acknowledged he'd been the subject of four formal complaints, one resulting in a censure. My article at
@NewsroomNZ($)
https://twitter.com/JonoMilne/status/1699566785857773596
Act MP-in-waiting did not publicly disclose censure over real estate deal: ‘As a real estate agent, Zane Cozens faced complaints of pressuring elderly home-owners to sell their homes for less than they wanted to.’
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/act-mp-in-waiting-did-not-publicly-disclose-censure-over-real-estate-deal
Why is is it that there are are so few Labour volunteers this time?
Why doesn't Fisiani have the brain cells to realise that a link to their Stats showing the volume of volunteers is needed to back up their claim. Could it be they're just trolling and begging for a ban. Just asking questions?
Fishiani/Fizziani is back, what may I ask old chap is your basis for saying “Why is is it that there are are so few Labour volunteers this time?” it may be illuminating for other readers…
Saw this on Twitter today. As true as the Taxpayer Union?:
CTU Poll:
Labour 36
National 28
Act 11
Greens 18
TMP 4.8
NZF 4.6
Preferred PM
Hipkins 40
Luxon 18
Symour 3
Ardern 12.
[it’s fake. Please don’t post like this here again without linking. Here’s the fact check (text below for those that can’t see twitter). https://twitter.com/patbrittenden/status/1699576960907882731 – weka]
Rose-coloured glasses…..
image in tweet
https://twitter.com/patbrittenden/status/1699576960907882731
It's still a good exercise in showing how polling is overly relied upon for those who wish to push a particular narrative.
From the Research Association's Political Polling Code:
Here's their membership directory but honestly these people could be anyone and we have zero idea what tests RANZ do to ensure their members comply with their guideline code. If indeed any test exists at all.