Could someone please explain to me why Labour is suddenly required (with just a week of sitting days in the house) to implement policies it promised it wouldn't, or it didn't campaign on or are nowhere to be found in it's manifesto?
As far as I can tell, the demands are coming from Greens (total votes – 162,000) who DEMAND Labour (total votes 1,443,000) do it's bidding on tax and climate and from sundry flotsam and jetsam of the left who could barely manage to get their deposit back amongst them if they actually ran for office demanding Labour use it's absolute majority to act in an imperial way that, if the boot were on the other foot and there were 77 National, ACT and Maori party MPs, would have then predicting the imminent stamping of the jackboot of fascism on the throat of democracy?
I just don't get it. Labour won an absolute majority because of Jacinda's brilliant handling of COVID. They didn't win because they promised radical tax reform or drastic climate change action, so why would anyone expect them to and have an utter snowflake meltdown when they don't?
The oddest thing is that no one on the left has yet worked out Ardern’s leadership style. Jacinda likes to be dragged “reluctantly” to the consensus – no, we don’t need masks. Until the public screams for them, then she implements them, but only on PT which is enough for now. No, we don’t need to use the military on the border – until the public is screaming for it then, OK. Expect her to wait until the public is completely wanting a wealth tax or climate change action before she will “reluctantly” move to break a promise.
They were elected to govern, in response to a term where they governed the Covid response.
Sitting on their hands through a housing crisis and whining "It's market forces, what can I do?" is a failure that will lose them a healthy chunk of that unprecedented support.
Folk hollering for action on housing affordability and alleviating poverty (call it inequality or child poverty), are the ones you refer to with "Until the public screams for them…"
as a paid -up member of that 'flotsam and jetsam' you refer to..
I would like to point that your claim that ardern/labour offered s.f.a…is correct ..
and if you took the short-view..ok..
now..I dunno about the rest of the 'flotsam and jetsam' ..but this f&j looks a bit further back…
..to 2016 ..where I believed the (seemingly) heartfelt pledges from j.ardern to 'transform' the lives of the poverty-stricken….(and do a bunch of other 'transformational' stuff…but we'll stick with the poverty one for simplicities sake)
now..along with many others I believed j.ardern…back in 2016..
and to now finding that in her 4th year of power…j.ardrn is pointing back to the paltry $25 increase from last year..as the example of her ‘transforming’..is dismaying..to say the least..
and need I remind you that not one of the 42 recommendations of the welfare reform group..(set up by ardern)..has been fully implemented…a couple of examples of incrementalisation on part of a couple..
so I hope this helps to explain why this f&j is somewhat pissed..
I am looking back at a litany of broken promises from j.ardern..
and meanwhile…in the 4th year of her turn at the helm..
those suffering in 2016…still are .
the country/system is fucked/broken on so many levels…and needing wholesale reform..
and we are just getting more of the same…more neoliberal-incrementalism ..same as clark..same as key…
with j.ardern just the latest of these 'leaders' to just not care enough…to do anything meaningful about what blights us..
and your use of just that recent manifesto…as the whole basis of yr argument/refuting the plaints of the f&j's..and just ignoring all those previous 'heartfelt' pledges from j.ardern..
really is sophistry/spin of the highest order…eh..?
Passivity and alienation reigns for much of the underclass and precarious/low wage employed; 35 plus years after the mass Rogernomics layoffs, and 30 years after the Ruthanasia MOAB–cuts to the working class never made up, let alone increased. Organised workers power, private sector in particular, gutted by Bill Birch and the 1991 ECA.
Ignoring that sector drags the rest of the country down. 28 $bill for the Reserve Bank to do with what it will, massive COVID bailouts to profitable companies that did not even need the money!–and which in many cases never reached the workers who had their leave confiscated to boot.
Not even a few hundred lousy bucks Xmas Bonus for beneficiaries. There will be reaction into next year–as signalled by the 70 NGOs pushing for benefit rises and the 42 Working Group recommendations to be implemented.
Ardern's Facebook and Twitter accounts are so huge she could probably crowdsource new policy anyway.
It's also really easy to forget how bold Labour have been in other areas. No other New Zealand government has dropped over $30 billion in 6 months just to keep business and jobs sustained.
Not making tax changes (other than to the top rate) is a signal that the government understands how brittle the entire society is let alone the economy. They much prefer printing money and throwing it out the window than tax changes to property. Keep protecting the propertied class and they will keep voting you back in. Roll on 2026.
How about printing money and giving some out to people around Christmas and the holidays. Good for business and will bring some families together resulting in some connectedness and a little happiness. That would be a nice change in NZ for the strugglers. It would be appreciated and be more respectful to the poor than randomly firing notes at crowds who have to compete and fight for the folding stuff like children at a lolly scramble.
There is an upside from the poor receiving assistance at Christmas which can be linked to helping those suffering from Covid lockdowns and restrictions who haven't had help in other ways.
You lack imagination Ad in your political judgments.
They might surprise us, but there hasn't been much surprise so far. The big job subsidy scheme has ended. If the economy was tanking you might have seen another one of those packages like they announced in December 2017.
It's the Green Party's job to pull Labour leftward and greenward so I can't see reasonable criticism there. But I have also found it odd how many of the general public are talking about the mandate thing. Surely the mandate is to do what they said they would do (which isn't much)? Otoh, obviously some Labour voters at least assumed Labour would do more, I'd like to know why.
For people who require counselling due to Whakaari a group of psychologists and counsellors in the Bay of Plenty are providing the sevice for free. ACC only funds counselling for a work related injury or injury relating to force.
It is not good enough when an incident like Whakaari occurs and ACC are not providing counselling. This should not be left to the health system.
Support people of those injured and emergency workers who attend incidents when counselling is required it needs to be funded.
I expect that there are gaps in counselling for the terror attacks which occurred on March 15 2019.
Amazing how like a solvent compassion and real service are displayed in government agency circles. They just disappear into the air a bit like methylated spirits; in this Whakaari case, the spirits of tragedy remain.
It appears as though no one was aware of the danger of being on Whakaari or if they were they failed to speak out.
It is about picking up the pieces when it comes to exceptional incidents when government agencies played a part in a traumatic incident. Woodhouse who had a lot to do with designing ACC did not forsee a Erebus, terrorist attack, Pike River, Cave Creek, Whakaari, Royal Commission into Abuse in Care.
ACC legislation has not caught up with the psychology of today when it comes to the impact which an exceptional incident can have on people who are not currently covered.
First responders are not covered for accumulated mental injury. It is my understanding that it needs to be a specific incident.
ACC needs major change when it comes to mental injury caused by organisational failure. Someone needs to take responsibility when people have been irresponsible.
Certainly the ACC rules need to take in the mental stresses. We are all under constant mental stress these days, trying to work out a life pattern from what is offered, and come to terms with it never being what it is said to be. As Manuel would say Que'?
My idea about it all. Any added trauma can break the synthesis of an individual set up between brain and mind, whereby the brain registers reality and the mind processes it for a memory of something understandable and acceptable.
We have to be like the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland and here are some good quotes – I think only humour will see us through:
#1 “Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said: ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’
‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.‘”
2 ″‘You couldn’t have it if you did want it,’ the Queen said. ‘The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day.’
‘It must come sometimes to ‘jam to-day,″ Alice objected.
‘No, it can’t,’ said the Queen. ‘It’s jam every other day: to-day isn’t any other day, you know.‘”
Until real change occurs with broken down systems those caught up in the broken system are being harmed by it.
We all have daily stress in our lives. The area I am interested in is stress which warrants an inquiry and emergency/first responders being impacted in their work and a schedule 3 claim under ACC. I want to see all in the above being covered for a mental injury with or without physical force.
Another area which requires change is what is accepted and not accepted when a ACC whole person impairment is done.
Since the inception of ACC I have seen the legislation for a mental injury be watered down. ACC is hard to navigate and a lawyer is required for an historic or a complex case.
some excellent research on partner violence in NZ.
I am concerned that an unhelpful ideological framework for understanding domestic violence may capture the decision makers and muddy the waters. I raise this having read an article by Dr Debbie Hager, newsroom this morning. I don’t disagree with all of it. Will try and post the article soon
A lot of what Dr Hager reckons, is contradicted by the evidence in the Dunedin Study, eg. from the Newsroom article –
" There are men who are harmed, and women who abuse, but primarily it is men’s violence against women and other men."
contrasted with
"About 27 percent of women and 34 percent of men among the Dunedin study members reported they had been physically abused by their partner. About 37 percent of women and 22 percent of men said they had perpetrated the violence." from the study.
Dr Hager is of the understanding that it is male power at the root of this family harm. I suppose if you are inclined to "study hegemonic masculinity" you are bound to come to the conclusions she comes to. Again this is at odds with the Dunedin study. It cites mental ill-health as part of the problem –
"Abused Dunedin women were three times more likely to suffer a mental illness than nonabused women. The male perpetrators were 13 times more likely to be mentally ill than nonperpetrators. The types of mental illnesses among perpetrators varied; they included anxiety disorders, depression, alcohol and drug dependence, antisocial personality disorder, and schizophrenia."
Also – "The rate for female perpetrators was virtually identical to the rate for female victims, and the rate for male victims was nearly identical to the rate for male perpetrators."
What about death duty, stamp duty and such so we can regain some of the unearned income tax we didn't get before from a very profitable commercial transaction?
Uh-oh. It's 2020, so of course the undead can get covid too. Yes, Oozy Ghouliani has it. As if judges weren't sufficiently unimpressed just talking evidence-free shit in their courtrooms, now they'll be wondering if he's been superspreading in them as well.
I've been using firefox 83.0 on ubuntu 20.04 for the last few days. It is really pretty damn good by my usual criteria – as it doesn't get in my way when I'm working.
It is way better than when I last tried for longer than just page testing – which would be a year or possibly two ago.
Yesterday and today it is usually snappier than Chrome reloads on this sites pages and a couple of others that I commonly use – like recently Stack Overflow, wikipedia, ars technicia, and businessdesk.
I found it sluggish and annoying a few years ago. Have they done some serious work on it since then?
I don't use many plugins or anything else on browsers. So these will be current distro versions. The machine that I'm on is a 2017 Ryzen 1700 with 48Gb RAM and NVMe drive. So nothing too fancy.
Firefox keeps getting faster as a result of significant updates to SpiderMonkey, our JavaScript engine, you will now experience improved page load performance by up to 15%, page responsiveness by up to 12%, and reduced memory usage by up to 8%. We have replaced part of the JavaScript engine that helps to compile and display websites for you, improving security and maintainability of the engine at the same time.
Had a look at the memory – much much leaner than chrome now.
I heard some of this earlier. They are being advised by a US 'expert' have Australian input etc. Can we get some NZ Investment Trust? or some viable government business share in this new area of business. So that we have real control and benefit from medicinal cannabis, not just be an outpost for some financiers gaining dominance over everything good and needed in the world, cf houses, water? Can we be really smart and protect our interests, instead of giving them away for nearly free for others to profit from? That's so old colonial-style. Have we advanced mentally to a state of sharp mental acuity?
Perhaps there was no need-o for this company's products as we have plenty of other companies soaking up every available dollar here like it's blotting paper. It just took Covid to show this in quick and unmistakeable reality. We are a country with population less than a city in more populous countries – just 5 million. Not the whole of the UK or some European country. Let's fucking get real and get down to running the country ourselves benefitting ourselves, instead of letting these elevating wealth gods spend their tainted credit here and siphon everything away. As someone said here, they want to pay workers here in NZ third world money in a first world economy and enjoy that first world lifestyle for themselves.
The shop operated from a 27,000 square metre development, dubbed the country's biggest single retail store, and has about 100 staff.
Five months since huge amounts of capital were poured into starting this, based on consumerism in a country that teeters on the edge of austerity, always managing to stay upright like a toddler just keeping going on its own momentum. How come capitalists say they have the answers to everything? How wasteful, destructive and short-term thinking they show themselves to be.
Can everyone, many, a few, see this? Are we blind and stupid, dazzled by the propaganda and false images and air of success and respectability created by the public relations of the upper class? Getting us wanting, wanting, addicted to machinery, novelty and systems of sham opulence, but eventually empty and inhuman.
edit
Back in 1984 if Nostrodamus or a modern believed version had foreseen that Auckland the go-ahead city would have local boards mulling over how to keep public facilities going, the pollies just might have paused for thought.
Auckland local boards hope to avoid closures to public facilities like toilets and playgrounds, as they help Auckland Council to slash its expenses.
The council is forecasting a $1 billion deficit by 2024 due to Covid-19, and has recently released a draft 10-year budget that includes a range of cost-curbing measures.
How convenient, it is all Covid-19s fault. Not the fact that they are constantly and excessively overstretched for all facilities and services through their profligate encouragement of the freemarket and neolib disdain of government and taxes and instead to have business define the pattern of life. Well the pattern is faded, and the fashionable buy jeans that have professionally cut holes in them. That is how demented these people putting themselves forward as role models are.
An interesting quote. Coud this happen to us under the clever and crazed who have much education and little knowledge?
Glasgow went through a tough time in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher’s government and unemployment rose to about 26 percent in the city, he said…
All I can say is wow… I never realized how much went towards film subsidies. Yet be have a massive housing and homelessness problem child poverty etc… 5% of all new spending in the last budget… more than the benifit increase combined… its just insane.
Uncapped. Some contraceptives needed here to stop this growth in our dependent subsidised films from overseas. It was okay as a starter but should be set to get lower quickly and then held there for a while.
Unfortunately, rather than explaining to the government that uncapped subsidies may cause an uncapped budget blowout (which is of little concern) though it may lead to a lot of films being produced in NZ. Treasury appears to be arguing there should be consequences, with suggestions about other cuts that the govt could implement in an attempt to maintain the existing deficit.
I'm just a pawn on the War Table to be pushed around by a long stick or the tech equivalent. NZ Treasury isn't really interested in people it's the pure economic model that is so inviting. This is an example of a contract lecturer demonstrating with a pigeon how people can be incentivised to behave to ensure the model operates to maximum.
Hopefully treasury are not using operative conditioning on the government. The behaviorist model of phychology has been shown to be pretty simplistic, unable to account for learning by observation and therefore unlikely to work on more complex organisms than a finance minister.
TV1 Colmar Brunton poll out at 6 pm, for no obvious reason. Will Jacinda resign if she doesn't have the numbers? (spoiler: No).
It would be funny if National and/or Collins go up in this pointless poll … "The people have spoken, I'm staying on!".
Also, if the Greens are at 4.9% will the networks just decide to "give" them Auckland Central, as they have done for ACT in Epsom over many years? They should.
Straightforward, really. It is not the responsibility of the NZ government to save the USA and UK from the consequences of their leaders' decisions. Even Brazil elected its leader.
That's if we're talking about "the hardest hit". Not synonymous with "poorest".
I was thinking more of India and other countries where the health systems will struggle. But I'm still not sure why a country that has eliminated covid should be pushing for vaccines when other countries are still inundated with deaths. Don't even need to parse the political cluster fuck that is the US and the UK, although we might want to consider the large numbers of people that normally travel back and forth and how that will impact us if we end up with an imperfect vaccine.
Getting frontline staff in NZ vaccinated makes sense. I don't know what the government plan is beyond that.
It's reward for a centralized public health system including Pharmac and ACC and MoH, putting orders in early, rewarding a strong government with a compliant population … all brought to you by Labour.
Ardern demands that The Warehouse make a public apology for chucking 'free money' last weekend, but won't apologize for throwing an untagged $40 billion of our money at employers and then wondering why house prices went through the roof.
Yet another article with employers complaining about the lack of low-paid RSE workers and saying they can't get NZ workers.
At no point is the pay on offer mentioned or discussed, including under the subheading "What More Can Be Done?"
One advert I found for orchard work in Hawkes Bay (the subject of the article) indicates wages at or only slightly above minimum wage, and no guaranteed hours of work. You also need to bring your own "reliable transport" – and no accommodation is on offer, so pay for that too (all on zero-hours minimum wage!).
Perhaps we just need to go to the Supermarket/Fruit shop/Alternative vegan Stores and voluntarily pay TWICE as much to encourage the primary providers to pay more wages?
Paying more for goods is one of the things we need to do to pay people properly. The prices won't need to be double in many cases (for example going to $35/h from $20 is a 75% increase, and labour is only a proportion of the total production cost)
Of course a lot of the potential customers will have more money in their pockets from higher wages.
And 'suitable' may have more to do with the worker's ability to earn a profit for the labour hire company than their ability to pick fruit. Hence the preference for RSE workers, they fit the labour hire business model better.
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Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
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 ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
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 ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
Could someone please explain to me why Labour is suddenly required (with just a week of sitting days in the house) to implement policies it promised it wouldn't, or it didn't campaign on or are nowhere to be found in it's manifesto?
As far as I can tell, the demands are coming from Greens (total votes – 162,000) who DEMAND Labour (total votes 1,443,000) do it's bidding on tax and climate and from sundry flotsam and jetsam of the left who could barely manage to get their deposit back amongst them if they actually ran for office demanding Labour use it's absolute majority to act in an imperial way that, if the boot were on the other foot and there were 77 National, ACT and Maori party MPs, would have then predicting the imminent stamping of the jackboot of fascism on the throat of democracy?
I just don't get it. Labour won an absolute majority because of Jacinda's brilliant handling of COVID. They didn't win because they promised radical tax reform or drastic climate change action, so why would anyone expect them to and have an utter snowflake meltdown when they don't?
The oddest thing is that no one on the left has yet worked out Ardern’s leadership style. Jacinda likes to be dragged “reluctantly” to the consensus – no, we don’t need masks. Until the public screams for them, then she implements them, but only on PT which is enough for now. No, we don’t need to use the military on the border – until the public is screaming for it then, OK. Expect her to wait until the public is completely wanting a wealth tax or climate change action before she will “reluctantly” move to break a promise.
They were elected to govern, in response to a term where they governed the Covid response.
Sitting on their hands through a housing crisis and whining "It's market forces, what can I do?" is a failure that will lose them a healthy chunk of that unprecedented support.
You answer your own question.
Folk hollering for action on housing affordability and alleviating poverty (call it inequality or child poverty), are the ones you refer to with "Until the public screams for them…"
y'see sanctuary ..
as a paid -up member of that 'flotsam and jetsam' you refer to..
I would like to point that your claim that ardern/labour offered s.f.a…is correct ..
and if you took the short-view..ok..
now..I dunno about the rest of the 'flotsam and jetsam' ..but this f&j looks a bit further back…
..to 2016 ..where I believed the (seemingly) heartfelt pledges from j.ardern to 'transform' the lives of the poverty-stricken….(and do a bunch of other 'transformational' stuff…but we'll stick with the poverty one for simplicities sake)
now..along with many others I believed j.ardern…back in 2016..
and to now finding that in her 4th year of power…j.ardrn is pointing back to the paltry $25 increase from last year..as the example of her ‘transforming’..is dismaying..to say the least..
and need I remind you that not one of the 42 recommendations of the welfare reform group..(set up by ardern)..has been fully implemented…a couple of examples of incrementalisation on part of a couple..
so I hope this helps to explain why this f&j is somewhat pissed..
I am looking back at a litany of broken promises from j.ardern..
and meanwhile…in the 4th year of her turn at the helm..
those suffering in 2016…still are .
the country/system is fucked/broken on so many levels…and needing wholesale reform..
and we are just getting more of the same…more neoliberal-incrementalism ..same as clark..same as key…
with j.ardern just the latest of these 'leaders' to just not care enough…to do anything meaningful about what blights us..
and your use of just that recent manifesto…as the whole basis of yr argument/refuting the plaints of the f&j's..and just ignoring all those previous 'heartfelt' pledges from j.ardern..
really is sophistry/spin of the highest order…eh..?
Yes, but I guess I am applying the Fermi paradox to voting – if there is so much demand for action, where are all the voters?
perhaps..like me.. remembering those promises..
and still waiting..
and you point the finger at the people/voters..?
I am talking about the words/promises of j.ardern…
are you saying they are/were said just to get elected ..?
and that those waiting need to take to the streets..?
Passivity and alienation reigns for much of the underclass and precarious/low wage employed; 35 plus years after the mass Rogernomics layoffs, and 30 years after the Ruthanasia MOAB–cuts to the working class never made up, let alone increased. Organised workers power, private sector in particular, gutted by Bill Birch and the 1991 ECA.
Ignoring that sector drags the rest of the country down. 28 $bill for the Reserve Bank to do with what it will, massive COVID bailouts to profitable companies that did not even need the money!–and which in many cases never reached the workers who had their leave confiscated to boot.
Not even a few hundred lousy bucks Xmas Bonus for beneficiaries. There will be reaction into next year–as signalled by the 70 NGOs pushing for benefit rises and the 42 Working Group recommendations to be implemented.
Good description of her style.
Ardern's Facebook and Twitter accounts are so huge she could probably crowdsource new policy anyway.
It's also really easy to forget how bold Labour have been in other areas. No other New Zealand government has dropped over $30 billion in 6 months just to keep business and jobs sustained.
Not making tax changes (other than to the top rate) is a signal that the government understands how brittle the entire society is let alone the economy. They much prefer printing money and throwing it out the window than tax changes to property. Keep protecting the propertied class and they will keep voting you back in. Roll on 2026.
How about printing money and giving some out to people around Christmas and the holidays. Good for business and will bring some families together resulting in some connectedness and a little happiness. That would be a nice change in NZ for the strugglers. It would be appreciated and be more respectful to the poor than randomly firing notes at crowds who have to compete and fight for the folding stuff like children at a lolly scramble.
But that's exactly how it would be reported. There's no political upside to helicopter cash like that – especially not after the Warehouse debacle.
There is an upside from the poor receiving assistance at Christmas which can be linked to helping those suffering from Covid lockdowns and restrictions who haven't had help in other ways.
You lack imagination Ad in your political judgments.
They might surprise us, but there hasn't been much surprise so far. The big job subsidy scheme has ended. If the economy was tanking you might have seen another one of those packages like they announced in December 2017.
It hasn't.
They will leave their surprises for Budget 2021.
@ ad..
but the corporate welfare is ok..?
We're still only just over 5% headline unemployed.
The corporate welfare is OK.
Certainly landlord welfare is trucking along nicely in the form of Accomodation Supplement.
Say what you will about the Joker, at least he used real money.
Just before one of the lockdowns the only candidate who got his opportunity at our community get together was the Labour Coromandel candidate.
At the time Free Range Stats had Labour to been able to govern alone.
I asked would Labour bow to other parties if they could govern alone.
He said he didn't know. I suggested he have a word with Jacinda that if I voted for him I would expect that they don't.
It's the Green Party's job to pull Labour leftward and greenward so I can't see reasonable criticism there. But I have also found it odd how many of the general public are talking about the mandate thing. Surely the mandate is to do what they said they would do (which isn't much)? Otoh, obviously some Labour voters at least assumed Labour would do more, I'd like to know why.
For people who require counselling due to Whakaari a group of psychologists and counsellors in the Bay of Plenty are providing the sevice for free. ACC only funds counselling for a work related injury or injury relating to force.
It is not good enough when an incident like Whakaari occurs and ACC are not providing counselling. This should not be left to the health system.
Support people of those injured and emergency workers who attend incidents when counselling is required it needs to be funded.
I expect that there are gaps in counselling for the terror attacks which occurred on March 15 2019.
ACC covers a work related mental injury and mental injury that was a result of a physical injury.
Amazing how like a solvent compassion and real service are displayed in government agency circles. They just disappear into the air a bit like methylated spirits; in this Whakaari case, the spirits of tragedy remain.
Further on Whakaari.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/432278/future-of-whakaari-white-island-tourism-debated
It appears as though no one was aware of the danger of being on Whakaari or if they were they failed to speak out.
It is about picking up the pieces when it comes to exceptional incidents when government agencies played a part in a traumatic incident. Woodhouse who had a lot to do with designing ACC did not forsee a Erebus, terrorist attack, Pike River, Cave Creek, Whakaari, Royal Commission into Abuse in Care.
ACC legislation has not caught up with the psychology of today when it comes to the impact which an exceptional incident can have on people who are not currently covered.
First responders are not covered for accumulated mental injury. It is my understanding that it needs to be a specific incident.
ACC needs major change when it comes to mental injury caused by organisational failure. Someone needs to take responsibility when people have been irresponsible.
Certainly the ACC rules need to take in the mental stresses. We are all under constant mental stress these days, trying to work out a life pattern from what is offered, and come to terms with it never being what it is said to be. As Manuel would say Que'?
My idea about it all. Any added trauma can break the synthesis of an individual set up between brain and mind, whereby the brain registers reality and the mind processes it for a memory of something understandable and acceptable.
We have to be like the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland and here are some good quotes – I think only humour will see us through:
Until real change occurs with broken down systems those caught up in the broken system are being harmed by it.
We all have daily stress in our lives. The area I am interested in is stress which warrants an inquiry and emergency/first responders being impacted in their work and a schedule 3 claim under ACC. I want to see all in the above being covered for a mental injury with or without physical force.
Another area which requires change is what is accepted and not accepted when a ACC whole person impairment is done.
Since the inception of ACC I have seen the legislation for a mental injury be watered down. ACC is hard to navigate and a lawyer is required for an historic or a complex case.
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/170018.pdf
some excellent research on partner violence in NZ.
I am concerned that an unhelpful ideological framework for understanding domestic violence may capture the decision makers and muddy the waters. I raise this having read an article by Dr Debbie Hager, newsroom this morning. I don’t disagree with all of it. Will try and post the article soon
Thanks Anker for the link, interesting reading.
Here is the link to Dr Hager's Newsroom article.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/the-hierarchies-in-nzs-domestic-violence-problem
A lot of what Dr Hager reckons, is contradicted by the evidence in the Dunedin Study, eg. from the Newsroom article –
" There are men who are harmed, and women who abuse, but primarily it is men’s violence against women and other men."
contrasted with
"About 27 percent of women and 34 percent of men among the Dunedin study members reported they had been physically abused by their partner. About 37 percent of women and 22 percent of men said they had perpetrated the violence." from the study.
Dr Hager is of the understanding that it is male power at the root of this family harm. I suppose if you are inclined to "study hegemonic masculinity" you are bound to come to the conclusions she comes to. Again this is at odds with the Dunedin study. It cites mental ill-health as part of the problem –
"Abused Dunedin women were three times more likely to suffer a mental illness than nonabused women. The male perpetrators were 13 times more likely to be mentally ill than nonperpetrators. The types of mental illnesses among perpetrators varied; they included anxiety disorders, depression, alcohol and drug dependence, antisocial personality disorder, and schizophrenia."
Also – "The rate for female perpetrators was virtually identical to the rate for female victims, and the rate for male victims was nearly identical to the rate for male perpetrators."
A CGT is really off the table now because (IMHO) most of the CG's have already been made and CGT will never be imposed retrospectively.
It follows that a Wealth Tax or a Land Tax is what is needed….though a first good step would be a 10 year "bright line" test.
What about death duty, stamp duty and such so we can regain some of the unearned income tax we didn't get before from a very profitable commercial transaction?
Uh-oh. It's 2020, so of course the undead can get covid too. Yes, Oozy Ghouliani has it. As if judges weren't sufficiently unimpressed just talking evidence-free shit in their courtrooms, now they'll be wondering if he's been superspreading in them as well.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rudy-giuliani-tests-positive-for-covid-19_n_5fcd3c8ac5b619bc4c3402e3
I've been using firefox 83.0 on ubuntu 20.04 for the last few days. It is really pretty damn good by my usual criteria – as it doesn't get in my way when I'm working.
It is way better than when I last tried for longer than just page testing – which would be a year or possibly two ago.
Yesterday and today it is usually snappier than Chrome reloads on this sites pages and a couple of others that I commonly use – like recently Stack Overflow, wikipedia, ars technicia, and businessdesk.
I found it sluggish and annoying a few years ago. Have they done some serious work on it since then?
I don't use many plugins or anything else on browsers. So these will be current distro versions. The machine that I'm on is a 2017 Ryzen 1700 with 48Gb RAM and NVMe drive. So nothing too fancy.
Looked the the upgrade list for 83
Had a look at the memory – much much leaner than chrome now.
Ummm 82
Interesting.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/432268/new-zealand-farmers-prepare-to-export-best-cannabis-in-the-world
I heard some of this earlier. They are being advised by a US 'expert' have Australian input etc. Can we get some NZ Investment Trust? or some viable government business share in this new area of business. So that we have real control and benefit from medicinal cannabis, not just be an outpost for some financiers gaining dominance over everything good and needed in the world, cf houses, water? Can we be really smart and protect our interests, instead of giving them away for nearly free for others to profit from? That's so old colonial-style. Have we advanced mentally to a state of sharp mental acuity?
Perhaps there was no need-o for this company's products as we have plenty of other companies soaking up every available dollar here like it's blotting paper. It just took Covid to show this in quick and unmistakeable reality. We are a country with population less than a city in more populous countries – just 5 million. Not the whole of the UK or some European country. Let's fucking get real and get down to running the country ourselves benefitting ourselves, instead of letting these elevating wealth gods spend their tainted credit here and siphon everything away. As someone said here, they want to pay workers here in NZ third world money in a first world economy and enjoy that first world lifestyle for themselves.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/432146/covid-blamed-for-mega-retailer-nido-s-slide-into-receivership
Five months since huge amounts of capital were poured into starting this, based on consumerism in a country that teeters on the edge of austerity, always managing to stay upright like a toddler just keeping going on its own momentum. How come capitalists say they have the answers to everything? How wasteful, destructive and short-term thinking they show themselves to be.
Can everyone, many, a few, see this? Are we blind and stupid, dazzled by the propaganda and false images and air of success and respectability created by the public relations of the upper class? Getting us wanting, wanting, addicted to machinery, novelty and systems of sham opulence, but eventually empty and inhuman.
edit
Back in 1984 if Nostrodamus or a modern believed version had foreseen that Auckland the go-ahead city would have local boards mulling over how to keep public facilities going, the pollies just might have paused for thought.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/432300/auckland-local-boards-to-decide-fate-of-assets-these-are-tough-times
Auckland local boards hope to avoid closures to public facilities like toilets and playgrounds, as they help Auckland Council to slash its expenses.
The council is forecasting a $1 billion deficit by 2024 due to Covid-19, and has recently released a draft 10-year budget that includes a range of cost-curbing measures.
How convenient, it is all Covid-19s fault. Not the fact that they are constantly and excessively overstretched for all facilities and services through their profligate encouragement of the freemarket and neolib disdain of government and taxes and instead to have business define the pattern of life. Well the pattern is faded, and the fashionable buy jeans that have professionally cut holes in them. That is how demented these people putting themselves forward as role models are.
An interesting quote. Coud this happen to us under the clever and crazed who have much education and little knowledge?
Glasgow went through a tough time in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher’s government and unemployment rose to about 26 percent in the city, he said…
Then Thatcher came along and the jobs went which had knock-on effects, one of which was lowering life expectancy by 14 years, Stuart said.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018775834/booker-prize-winner-douglas-stuart-i-grew-up-poor-and-queer
All I can say is wow… I never realized how much went towards film subsidies. Yet be have a massive housing and homelessness problem child poverty etc… 5% of all new spending in the last budget… more than the benifit increase combined… its just insane.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300176880/taxpayer-grants-to-lord-of-the-rings-represent-significant-fiscal-risk-to-government-finances
Uncapped. Some contraceptives needed here to stop this growth in our dependent subsidised films from overseas. It was okay as a starter but should be set to get lower quickly and then held there for a while.
Unfortunately, rather than explaining to the government that uncapped subsidies may cause an uncapped budget blowout (which is of little concern) though it may lead to a lot of films being produced in NZ. Treasury appears to be arguing there should be consequences, with suggestions about other cuts that the govt could implement in an attempt to maintain the existing deficit.
I'm just a pawn on the War Table to be pushed around by a long stick or the tech equivalent. NZ Treasury isn't really interested in people it's the pure economic model that is so inviting. This is an example of a contract lecturer demonstrating with a pigeon how people can be incentivised to behave to ensure the model operates to maximum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtfQlkGwE2U
Hopefully treasury are not using operative conditioning on the government. The behaviorist model of phychology has been shown to be pretty simplistic, unable to account for learning by observation and therefore unlikely to work on more complex organisms than a finance minister.
TV1 Colmar Brunton poll out at 6 pm, for no obvious reason. Will Jacinda resign if she doesn't have the numbers? (spoiler: No).
It would be funny if National and/or Collins go up in this pointless poll … "The people have spoken, I'm staying on!".
Also, if the Greens are at 4.9% will the networks just decide to "give" them Auckland Central, as they have done for ACT in Epsom over many years? They should.
https://twitter.com/henrycooke/status/1335701401616302080
I'm curious how lefties rationalise this one.
https://twitter.com/wekatweets/status/1335793603768057857
Straightforward, really. It is not the responsibility of the NZ government to save the USA and UK from the consequences of their leaders' decisions. Even Brazil elected its leader.
That's if we're talking about "the hardest hit". Not synonymous with "poorest".
I was thinking more of India and other countries where the health systems will struggle. But I'm still not sure why a country that has eliminated covid should be pushing for vaccines when other countries are still inundated with deaths. Don't even need to parse the political cluster fuck that is the US and the UK, although we might want to consider the large numbers of people that normally travel back and forth and how that will impact us if we end up with an imperfect vaccine.
Getting frontline staff in NZ vaccinated makes sense. I don't know what the government plan is beyond that.
It's reward for a centralized public health system including Pharmac and ACC and MoH, putting orders in early, rewarding a strong government with a compliant population … all brought to you by Labour.
Ardern demands that The Warehouse make a public apology for chucking 'free money' last weekend, but won't apologize for throwing an untagged $40 billion of our money at employers and then wondering why house prices went through the roof.
Fish. Basketball. Tornado.
(is that the game, throwing unrelated things together randomly as if it means something?).
I thought the problem was that they didn't chuck free money. Maybe Ardern should have given out vouchers to employers instead?
Any kind of tag or accountability would have been great. Too late now.
Ad everyone who took the govts $14 billion employer subsidy had to sign a legal document .
Yet another article with employers complaining about the lack of low-paid RSE workers and saying they can't get NZ workers.
At no point is the pay on offer mentioned or discussed, including under the subheading "What More Can Be Done?"
One advert I found for orchard work in Hawkes Bay (the subject of the article) indicates wages at or only slightly above minimum wage, and no guaranteed hours of work. You also need to bring your own "reliable transport" – and no accommodation is on offer, so pay for that too (all on zero-hours minimum wage!).
These industries need to PAY MORE.
"These industries need to PAY MORE"
Perhaps we just need to go to the Supermarket/Fruit shop/Alternative vegan Stores and voluntarily pay TWICE as much to encourage the primary providers to pay more wages?
Paying more for goods is one of the things we need to do to pay people properly. The prices won't need to be double in many cases (for example going to $35/h from $20 is a 75% increase, and labour is only a proportion of the total production cost)
Of course a lot of the potential customers will have more money in their pockets from higher wages.
Seems there's plenty of willing workers, so remuneration may not be the issue, it's finding 'suitable' workers that seems to be the problem.
And 'suitable' may have more to do with the worker's ability to earn a profit for the labour hire company than their ability to pick fruit. Hence the preference for RSE workers, they fit the labour hire business model better.