Could this comment be equally descriptive of NZ Labour?… “….they became trapped in a technocratic, desiccated, uninspirational account of social democracy that is hopeless at making emotional connections with people.”
“Key’s close personal friend McCaw has recently committed a foul by entering into the flag debate, speaking of his preference for a flag that bore the silver fern as worn on rugby jumpers, the sacred frond also the personal favourite of the Prime Minister.
The tweets by certain All Blacks during the last election day suggested that the players had voted National.
And Key reading out McCaw’s ‘Yes we can’ tweet to him during the campaign were totally off-side – but the ‘Key’ players involved weren’t properly carded or even relegated to the bench.
What I want to know is where is the rugby union and the All Black coach in all of this? It goes against the grain – and the discipline – of the sport for individual players and a team to effectively be hijacked and used as the personal super hero army of a prime minister.
To look back into the annals of National Party history, it also flies in the face of the late Sir Robert Muldoon, that sporting-mad prime minister who so bitterly divided the country by allowing the 1981 Springbok tour to proceed on the notion that politics should never enter sport.
Now politics is so far up the backside of sport and our national game you can see the flag bearing the wretched silver fern waving from the back of the tonsil tunnel.
Giving us only four flags to peruse – and three of those bearing the silver fern – is not a real choice.
Sometimes you can lead the horse to water but it won’t take the pre-ordered drink. Even though I don’t like the old flag, I too like many others will vote to keep it, purely out of protest.”
“Now politics is so far up the backside of sport and our national game ”
Must be getting a bit crowded at the right wing National Party parties ….. what with McCaw having Key’s nose up his arsehole, and with Hosking jowls well entrenched up the cheeks of Key …. it is becoming something of a conga-line
“The poll, taken before the final four potential flag designs were announced, shows 66 per cent want to keep the current flag, up 2 per cent from 18 months ago….
( a waste of the $26 million …jonkey’s vanity project…could have gone to helping refugees from the MIddle East)
Personally I think we could have helped thousands more people by helping build and resource refugee camps in Europe as opposed to bringing in a couple of hundred people into NZ
Also the UN should be applying pressure to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to be taking in more of these people as they certainly have enough money to be doing More
Funding more refugee camps is a stupid idea. Refugees need somewhere that that can create a new life, where they can work and where their children can get an education. Refugee camps are just holding pens.
I just think that for the amount of money it will cost to bring over a couple of hundred refugees we could help thousands more even if it meant sending the money directly to the european countries itself
Although it really should be the oil-rich middle eastern islamic countries picking up the slack on this
I guess the issue i have is that we have a housing shortage, unemployment is rising, i’m note sure how many translators we have but im guessing that again its not many so I don’t know that we have the infrastructure to deal with hundreds (possibly thousands) more
I’m sorry but the article almost sounds like a cop-out for the middle eastern states that don’t do anything yet could easily afford to pay for these people
NZ doesn’t have a housing shortage. Auckland has one, and some other parts of the country, but as a whole we don’t. There are plenty of houses in NZ and refugees don’t have to live in Auckland.
no they don’t but you also wouldn’t want to farm refugees out to the provinces where there less work and infrastructure for them so that only leaves a few cities for them to live in
I think the provinces would be good places for refugees and it would probably be good for the provinces as well. There are plenty of cities in NZ without a housing crisis. Auckland and Chch are out obviously, but there are many other places.
“Personally I think we could have helped thousands more people by helping build and resource refugee camps in Europe as opposed to bringing in a couple of hundred people into NZ”
No reason we can’t do both (assuming that our input in that is useful). Refugee camps should be interim measures. Utlimately the people in them are still going to need somewhere safe to live.
Not really. Just having a quick look at that link, there are 2.3M refugees and Germany is taking 10,000. The total places offered by all countries is 18,000. So when you talking about building camps, you are referring to permanent sites. We should be honest about that.
The numbers are enormous. And reading the background to why they have chosen to flee, many have nothing left in Syria – bombed out, no job. No hope.
Why would they leave in these huge numbers? The equation is simple – when you have nothing where you are and likely soon to have less, running away while you have strength is the best idea.
What about the refugees on our own doorstep? Those fcking ‘camps’ in Nauru and Manis Island need to go! We’re talking a handful of thousand at most. Split proportionately with Australia, NZ would likely be looking at less than 1000 people. But then, Syrians are de rigueur, yes?
As for refugees from Syria and elsewhere in Europe and the USA apparently not stepping up after they’ve, in some cases, bombed their countries back to the stone age, well…
Yeh, it was quite alright for many European countries to give the go ahead to America’s foreign policy in the middle east for years, now the chickens are coming home to roost.
Great to see the hard hitting journalism from our media on what the real cause of this crisis is… If the States/UK put as much money into humanitarian aid now as they did into bombs, problem solved.
So your strategy is an entirely short-term one, then.
Just help these 1,000 refugees (or however many there are), and when they get replaced by 10 times as many, what then?
I heard a snippet on the radio a week or two ago about Labor in Australia having to grit their teeth and agree with the government’s policy on boat people, because although they found the human rights angle of it abhorrent, it had actually stopped the boats from coming.
Not sure what the homophobia has to do with it. Yes, yes, I know you don’t hate gay people, but the use of the word ponce to describe Key merely adds to the idea that there is something wrong with being gay instead of a good bloke.
Both meanings here, although it’s saying a ponce is not a pimp in that they’re employed by the prostitute. Ponce meaning effeminate is classed as derogatory usage.
You’re welcome to ‘your’ implication Weka……if you care to pick up your dictionary you’ll find mine…..read “ponce”, then read “pimp”, then see how easily those terms extrapolate to “TPPA”.
In my view the Ponce Key is poncing and pimping New Zealand off to his foreign masters, oh…..and selected members of the Cabinet Club.
In any event, how possibly could a man who’s ‘besties’ with Richie suffer ‘your’ implication ?
The MV Rena caused our worst maritime environmental disaster when it ploughed into the Bay of Plenty’s Astrolabe Reef. Nearly four years later, a round of hearings – starting today – will determine whether it stays there.
Four years on, he believed it was essential that authorities and the shipping industry learn from an incident that cost the lives of at least 2400 birds and an estimated $1.2 million each day in local business losses over what was a ruined summer.
The penalty
Rena captain Mauro Balomaga and navigator Leonil Relon are jailed for seven months for offences including altering the ship’s documents.
Rena owners Daina Shipping are fined $300,000 in the Tauranga District Court for discharging harmful substances.
The Rena’s owners lodge a resource consent application to leave much of the ship.
Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country. There does not seem to be any audit on how much it cost the taxpayers to clean up the spill, all the reports, the council and legal cost, insurance costs, etc and the long term effects on the community as well as the costs to residents, (were they even compensated) and there is no remedy for the harm and death of the animals and environment at that time.
Meanwhile exploitation of oil into extreme situations in this country is still going on and if they spill or cause damage, clearly they do not have to worry about being held to account for the ‘$300k fine and jail for a few people (paid for by NZ taxpayer) for falsifying records.
Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country.
I guess a reader could come to that conclusion if they don’t realise you’ve left out the costs of the cleanup and the effect on the company’s insurance premiums.
I’m more worried about the victims – mums and Dads and the kids and the ocean and the wildlife in the community than a liberian flagged oil tankers increases in insurance.
By the sound of it the NZ army and community did most of the clean up. Why because they had too!
Also what about the effect on the NZ business premiums when all the Kiwi businesses were collectively losing 1.2million dollars a day?
Somehow all this corporate welfare does not seem to pay. The total cost will be massive to this country and the community but it is all swept under the table and the focus in environment court is, should the poor oil company be made to do a clean up or is it impossible?
If it is impossible to clean up then it speaks for itself, they and others are not held to account and also it occurred in 2011 so 4 years later the wreck is not gone from the ocean and Kiwis are having to fight to be rid of it.
…the focus in environment court is, should the poor oil company be made to do a clean up or is it impossible?
The shipping company has been made to do a clean-up, one that’s run to hundreds of millions of dollars. You may have noticed the news footage of floating cranes hauling up huge pieces of the wreck so they can be brought ashore. The focus in the Environment Court is on whether there’s any point in trying to recover the remaining parts of the ship that haven’t been removed because they’re stuck in the reef, given the risk to the lives of the divers involved, the technical difficulty of achieving success, the enormous cost involved and the mimimal benefit gained from the exercise.
But yeah, if the shipping company ignores the fact that it lost an expensive ship and a full load of cargo, then had to spend hundreds of millions removing the wreck, it could possibly come to the conclusion that “pollution pays.”
Yes but nothing for the community but $300,000 fine. What about all those businesses losing 1.2m a day and the loss of natural environment.
The fact is cost the business to pollute to clean up is not the point.
No real compensation has been made to the community when the oil spills.
Perhaps the company should have better ship and captain next time and not be complaining what it cost them when it is nothing compared to a minimum wage family who actually live there and have to bear the true cost of the negligence.
“This is the problem with the Red Peak or anything else, there will always be a range of views about whether to change and a range of views on what to go to, and that’s what makes the process immensely difficult,” John Key told TV3’s Paul Henry this morning.
After reading that, I have to admit to wrong thinking. I have always thought that Key used the “I can get you another opinion on that” as a way of not answering a question.
Now it is revealed. He has trouble dealing with more than one opinion at a time. This is why he needs a “focus group”- these groups help him to intellectually grasp the issues and enable him to focus enough to decide.
John Key has UFO, or Un-Focussed Opinions, a disorder which means that he exhibits the mental equivalent of verbalising “Woo Woo! Woo Woo!” until he gets a metaphorical cheek-slapping to help him choose.
This means that the country is eksshully run by people with enough reach to slap the PM’s face.
“Treasury has warned dairy prices may not rebound by as much as first thought, which could mean the Government’s books remain in deficit for three more years.
…
Some economists argue the Government should have a back-up plan if the economy stalls, which the Prime Minister has ruled out.”
Weaker dairy products in the first-half of August led the decline, with prices falling to their lowest level since mid-2004.”
Draco that was early August its now September, there have been two more auctions and as I correctly pointed out milk powder prices have increased around 30%. 19% in the first auction and 11% in the last auction. Do try and keep up old boy.
“My feeling is that we need to see less milk production to provide enough support for the market,” he said. “We have not got to a point of supply-demand balance yet,” he said. “This market has not turned around – it is still a bear market.”
“For now, the income they’re getting from Fonterra via the $3.85 milk price is still not a lot and it’s not going very far. Their cash flows are very tight and that will continue for most of the season,” Penny said.
He said there was some prospect of the price being lifted closer to $4.50 later on but that still meant farmers would be losing money.
“From here to get further gains we need to see a material slowing in New Zealand production and later on a material slowing in global production,” he said.
Yeah, I’d say that you’re still talking out your arse.
Sure, there’s been an increase in prices but it’s still below production costs and further increases are based upon global production decline. Personally, I expect the only real decline to come from NZ as the cheaper producers, i.e, everybody else, keep producing.
NZ’s dream of dairy heaven has come to an end but our farmers don’t want to hear that as it means that they’ve wasted billions building plant that is now worthless.
You can try to spin it any way you like Draco
All I said was prices have increased 30% from the low
I know farmers will be making a loss until global production falls
but that’s already happening.
Great Moments in Broadcasting No.1
Vileness live on air: Linda Clark and John Tamihere, 2005
This excruciating encounter happened on Radio NZ National back on Friday 16 September 2005, 9:20 a.m.
Looks like JOHN TAMIHERE is gonna be tipped out of his Tamaki Makaurau seat in favour of the Māori Party’s Pita Sharples. He discusses the situation with SEAN PLUNKET and LINDA CLARK….
JOHN TAMIHERE: It’s a tribute to the way the Maori Party has politicised our Maori education system.
SEAN PLUNKET: Are you conceding, John?
TAMIHERE: Oh, hey, it’s not over till the fat lady sings!
LINDA CLARK: Well that’s not me!
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha!
PLUNKET: It’s not Linda, John! She’s not fat!
CLARK: If you hear me singing, you’re still okay!
PLUNKET: Well, whatever happens, John, you’ve got a GREAT career in broadcasting just waiting for you!
TAMIHERE: Yeah, if Willie Jackson can do it, anyone can.
CLARK: I’ve always got a slot here just waiting for you.
……[Protracted, stunned silence]…..
PLUNKET: Moving right along….
Transcribed by MORRISSEY BREEN for Radio Transcripts Ltd, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
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Subsidise their tobacco intake while they are on an effective (free) plan to quit. No reason this couldn’t come out of the health budget considering what smoking costs us all
“It is addictive but that doesn’t stop people from quitting.”
But the reasons why people smoke (or take any drug) might stop them from quitting. This isn’t just a question of will power or intention.
Most people working in the field accept that addiction has a physiological component, but also social and mental health components. We’re not just our nicotine receptors.
Not everyone has that degree of agency. What you are suggesting is akin to saying that poor people can really afford to feed their kids they’re just not looking at their life right. Or everyone can get a job if they try hard enough.
For some people, making the changes that would mean they didn’t need the support of a drug is beyond their capacity.
As far as smoking goes they do. It’s their decision to smoke.
What you are suggesting is akin to saying that poor people can really afford to feed their kids they’re just not looking at their life right. Or everyone can get a job if they try hard enough.
Not even close. The situations you mention there and smoking aren’t in any way comparable.
Tobacco is not that different from other drugs that are physically and psychologically different. Do you think that herion uses just decide to use and could just as easily decide to stop?
“The situations you mention there and smoking aren’t in any way comparable.”
They are in the way I compared them, whereby some of the people in all those situations don’t have the agency that you are claiming they do. For many people stopping smoking is a matter of will power (it was for me). For others it’s not that straightforward. You can’t take the addicted person out of their lives and it’s the lives that are going to largely determine if someone can stop or not. Even something simple as access to a stop smoking programme can make the difference. Not everyone has that.
But there are those that do and who are just too overloaded and stressed in their lives to successfully manage the intense process of getting off a drug and staying off (the second but is often the more difficult). It takes many factors lining up for that to work, and that’s not in the reach of some people. Which is why I relate it to other situations where people have things outside of their control that impact on them negatively.
but if those reasons exist because of things outside of their control, how can they remove them any easier than finding a non-existent job or not having enough money to feed their kids? Can’t say that too many other ways than I already have, so let’s try this. Evidence suggests that for some people addiction is not an issue of choice and that they need more than will power in order to stop using. That’s a pretty standard understanding within addiction support services, including smoking cessation.
Lebanese Communist Party members are taking up the fight against Islamic State and al-Nusra Front in the regions of the country affected by unrest in Syria by forming an ad hoc guerrilla group.
Fighters of the Lebanese Communist Party formed a guerrilla group to patrol the Beqaa Valley in the east of the country, RT’s Paula Slier reports.
Unfortunately, these people probably will be on the receiving end of Western bombs rather than getting help they need because they happen to be communists.
And people like you sitting there in your comfort telling them that they don’t and that they should all just run away aren’t helping them realise that agency.
I’m not telling them anything, you are the one doing that.
Re cigarettes, you can keep asserting personal choice all you like. You can also ignore the real life things that affect people’s addiction (eg poverty), but your ideas are in direct contradiction of the people who work with addiction recovery and the people who struggle with addiction they can’t overcome. You are making value judgements about people you don’t know and don’t appear to understand and from what I can tell those judgements are based on your personal experience of being able to quit smoking.
@MM
No, the point is that if they banded together and stood up for themselves they’d find that they could bring the conflict to an end and wouldn’t have to run away or get killed.
@ Draco:
“No, the point is that if they banded together and stood up for themselves they’d find that they could bring the conflict to an end and wouldn’t have to run away or get killed.”
But, in doing that, it is very likely that at least some of them will be killed.
There truly aren’t a huge number of people who are willing to put themselves in mortal danger in an attempt to change their government, without any real assurance that the new government or regime will be better than the one they’re wanting to change. That’s why dictators stay in power – theoretically you can’t stop a riot of 4M+ people (at least not forever), so the trick is to ensure one never starts.
Christ Draco, think about this a little, will you? If it was merely a case of will-power and decision making, then there would be no such thing as addiction!
Some people can smoke for 20 or 30 years and then just drop it. Same with drinking alcohol, sugar, heroin or whatever. Meanwhile, other struggle and some just can’t.
I don’t know all the factors that contribute to something being addictive, but it’s far more complex than everyone overcoming it with a simple “I’m not going to do this any more.”
Here’s a thought for you. I smoked for years. Tried will power and all the patches or what not. Couldn’t give up for any length of time. Always craving.
Sugar is addictive. I was brought up on a fairly sugary diet. Don’t touch the stuff.
So maybe addiction is a complex relationship between a given substance and a particular individual that follows no universal set of rules?
I don’t know all the factors that contribute to something being addictive, but it’s far more complex than everyone overcoming it with a simple “I’m not going to do this any more.”
No, actually, it’s not.
I tried to give up for years before I decided to just stop. Took me about 6 months to get over the craving for them but I didn’t have a smoke in that time and did get over it.
I found the difference was in mindset. Previously I had been trying to give up and failed at it whereas I when I quit I simply said no more.
So, you weren’t one of the people who could give it up at the drop of a hat. Some can. I think you’ve just reinforced my point that addiction is comprised from a broad spectrum of various interactions, and that we just don’t know what it comprises of or, obviously, all the things that can contribute to it.
So, you weren’t one of the people who could give it up at the drop of a hat.
No, I was – once I decided to actually stop.
I think you’ve just reinforced my point that addiction is comprised from a broad spectrum of various interactions, and that we just don’t know what it comprises of or, obviously, all the things that can contribute to it.
Nope, you’ve just proven that all you can do is make excuses rather than making up your mind.
Erm…not sure what you think I’m making excuses about. This is a conversation about the nature of addiction, yes? And whereas you say it’s a ‘one size fits all’ type of a thing, I’m saying it’s far more varied and nuanced than that.
Take nicotine – widely regarded as the most addictive substance out there.
Some people just stop, even after years of smoking, with no craving or withdrawal – nothing.
Some people smoke only when they’re having a social drink and don’t think twice about it otherwise.
Others smoke once or twice and are viciously hooked.
As far as I can see, you’re suggesting a world of humans as automata, where a simple ‘correct’ thought, thought with sufficient force, belief or conviction will produce a tidy, standard result.
But life – the hugely complex array of dynamic environmental interactions, of which our thoughts or emotions constitute only a small part, would suggest otherwise.
As far as I can see, you’re suggesting a world of humans as automata, where a simple ‘correct’ thought, thought with sufficient force, belief or conviction will produce a tidy, standard result.
Not a correct thought, no need for force or belief – just a decision to be made.
And of course the result will be standard. We’re talking about giving up smoking with the only two possible results being either that a person continues smoking or that they don’t.
But life – the hugely complex array of dynamic environmental interactions, of which our thoughts or emotions constitute only a small part, would suggest otherwise.
And you can either wait around till all those complexities are resolved (ie, never) or make the decision to stop smoking now thus resolving one of those complexities. Your like a RWNJ demanding that everything be proven to work perfectly before it be put in place.
There’s absolutely nothing in anything I’ve said that could reasonably be taken as a flat out rejection of some-one ‘making a decision’ being a possible way out of addiction. (The ‘at the drop of a hat’ quitters being the most obvious opposite to what you’d like to claim I’ve said.)
A mere ‘decision’ doesn’t work for everyone though.
I just can’t see what’s either right wing or nutty about that observation.
But since you want to insist that there’s ‘only one way’ and anyone failing is, presumably, just not making the decision in ‘the proper manner’ ie, so as to make it conducive to the ‘only one way’, then…well, bang away on your drum, eh?
True, and I would add that the people who actually work in the field, including addicts themselves, do have a pretty good idea of the range of things that work and don’t work. I agree that’s not complete knowledge, but it’s clear that for some people will power is not enough, they need other things to be in place and not all of those things are within their control. When those things are in place, some of those people are able to stop.
Draco is essentially correct in that the reason for the increasing pricing/taxation on tobacco is that this has been the easiest and most effective way that the health authorities and government have found to discourage smoking.
I don’t doubt that this is one of the reasons for it these days.
However, I also recall that the cost of NZ1’s free healthcare for preschoolers after the 1996 election was also astonishing similar to the extra revenue gathered by the excise increase in the next budget. And it was several years before the government offered even token quit support for free.
There were a few years where excise increases were basically the government shaking down addicts for cash without helping them quit.
but tobacco is one of the topics that makes me a tad… irritated and ranty 🙂
I think i remember some data to suggest the government takes in considerably more revenue from tobacco they they spend on its downstream health effects.
i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.
On another note did you see this story (the comments read like some of the threads on here)
It’s a natural consequence of the increasingly authoritarian approach that governments and health authorities are taking in regards to vaccination. There are other ways this could be managed.
“i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.”
I started smoking at 15 by stealing smokes from my parents 😉 I guess once the buying age was inline with alcohol it would be easier to control because there’s already an ID/age system in place. Still, we’re never going to get around teens having older friends/siblings who supply.
Lolz, I stole cigarettes from parents. Having the buying age at 45 will just encourage teens to be more creative in accessing their supply.
I think raising the age to 20 is a good idea (and alcohol should have been left there), but I suspect that beyond that there will be resistance from the public who generally believe that all adults are allowed to make the same kinds of decisions.
I don’t know if nsd was suggesting raising the age to 75.
He said:
“i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.”
To me, that means raise the age of buying them by 1 year every year. Or at least a large amount, and keep it going up-up-up and not stop at some arbitrary and ineffective age like 20 or 21.
Yes, you stole cigarettes from parents. But eventually, with such strict controls on availability, kids just won’t be interested in smoking, especially when it’s something “only people over the age of 40” do…
I didn’t read it that way. I took it to mean we really want to stop young adults from starting, because that’s the most at risk group in terms of uptake.
I’d love to see the govt that would try and tell a 45 yr old or a 60 yr old that they’re not allowed to buy cigarettes 😉
@weka: well the idea is to raise the age 1 year for every year.
So there will never be a case of someone who used to be able to buy cigarettes, losing the right.
Instead, people who havn’t ever been legally allowed to buy them because they were too young, would never be legally allowed to buy them because the age of purchase would rise by 1 year each year.
Actually the way this would be implemented, would just be to say “no one born after the year 2000 is legally allowed to buy cigarettes”.
since they cut my hours at the same time the revenue went up – either begining of the year or last year sometime. It wasn’t a big milestone, just the frequency got less and less until it’s practically nil. Maybe had a cigar on my birthday.
Funnily enough, I expected at least some general improvement in lifestyle, but allergies mean my sense of taste is dulled anyway, and even the coughing after a night on the piss seems to be caused by alcohol because it still happens. I always figured it was smoking too much, but nope, it’s something else I do at parties. The only thing now is that my mouth doesn’t taste like an ashtray so much the next morning – but I seem to be more aware of the beer/whiskey coming out of my pores.
All a bit meh, really. I feel like I bought one of those amazing mattresses from the ads where everyone snaps awake to jump up and smile like maniacs, whereas I still wake up as grumpy as ever, lol
My personal experience is that if you are 40+ and feeling less than sparkling, nothing even comes close to the positive change that locking in 30 min’s of sweat 6 days a week makes…
I think I’ve mentioned just today that I like to smoke, drink, and eat.
Those are the choices I make. My body is a temple, but I worship Dionysis.
As for exercise, it’s a bit like masturbation: most people do it to some degree but good taste suggests that it should not really be discussed, let alone performed, in public.
Although if people want to go to private clubs and exercise with each other, that’s their business.
Putting up taxes punished people with addiction and has only led to a burgeoning market for home grown and cured tobacco. Subsidised pharmaceutical products simply do not work for many, many smokers.
Meanwhile, I’ve yet to meet a smoker who took up vaping who hasn’t cut their tobacco intake substantially or completely.
Vapourising nicotine laced vegetable glycerine at around 30 or 40 degrees might not be entirely safe, but is certainly safer than tobacco, only costs a couple of dollars a week and, unlike patches, gum or pills, actually works in either cutting back nicotine intake or eliminating it altogether.
But then, the pharmaceutical companies don’t get all those public subsidies for their less than effective products. And that’s a bad thing.
Maybe ‘someone’ should fund studies that routinely or recklessly ‘dry burn’ vaporisers and then measure the toxins that come from scorched wicks and burned coils as a way to claim that vaping exposes users to all types of shit like formaldehyde and what have you? Oh, hang on. Already doing that! 😉
Of course it’s the objective. A fiscal incentive to quit.
The point is, the hardcore addict has no intention to quit, regardless the cost.
For example, my uncle had emphysema, yet was still smoking on his deathbed.
Ones I’ve spoken too merely redirect their expenditure, cutting out other consumer goods and services, negatively impacting on the return of other businesses and service providers.
The real concern is, how is it impacting on the hardcore smoking poor?
I get pissed off every doctor’s visit when he has to rehash the lifestyle questions for the DHB, and is always pleased to find I no longer smoke. Sadly it’s moved out of my fiscal reach, and sanctimonious pricks think this is a good thing.
I liked it. I liked the variety, I liked the rituals, and I liked the excuse to just sit in the garden for an hour. And I liked the fact that I was saving the country money.
Nope its not time to change it , unless you can prove that the expense has had no effect on young people taking up smoking. We have to break the cycle somehow . BTW I smoked for 17 years
However, the board has now placed an outright interim ban on the book after Family First asked for a review, objecting to the book’s sex scenes, offensive language and references to drug-taking.
Mr Dawe said he was very bitter about the latest turn of events.
“The idea that some Christian group can bring about the banning of a book seems to me a hideously unfair situation and something of a miscarriage of justice.”
The book was trying to reach out to teenagers and young people who would not normally read, he said.
This obviously falls into the teaching children anything other than Christianity and is thus evil category.
Personally, I’d call Family First an Anti-Christian group. I certainly haven’t seen them act in any way that could be considered Christian.
Bob McKroskie has managed to get an interim ban for a teenage novel “Into the River”.
According to stuff.co.nz:
“…Conservative lobbying group Family First, who pushed for the review and an R18 restriction, applauded the decision.
“We’ve empowered parents to start expressing their concerns about books more,” leader Bob McCoskrie said. “We believe the censor is out of touch with material parents don’t want their kids to be reading.”
McCoskrie supported a wider move to a film-like sticker rating system for books.
“We do it for movies so why not books? I think to be honest parents expect this to be happening.”
“These books can exert a significant influence. We just think its about age appropriateness.”
Family First claim the censor has received over 400 letters from concerned parents….”
I’m assuming the majority of those letters were the result of a campaign by Family First, and will either be from members or sympathisers, rather than genuine self-initiated complaints.
Books have the rare ability to enable you to process on an intimate level, the lives and experiences of someone else (fictional character or real person).
As an avid reader throughout my childhood and teenage years, my exposure to dark themes and violence was tempered by my lack of taste for such stories, but also by my ability to pace them at a speed that I could absorb, and to also skip passages that were too emotionally fraught. (Didn’t do that very often that I could recall, but I always had that option).
I’ve unfortunately met adults who can’t even discuss the straightforward and trite themes of Harry Potter, let alone countenance the Hunger Games. But stories are a great way of introducing people to diversity of thought, action and opinion.
And our reading public is one shade paler today by the loss of this NZ Post Children’s Book Award’s 2013 winner.
(I’m going have to consider buying one on Kindle now, just in protest even though it is not on my list of books to buy.)
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
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Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
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RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
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Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
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The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
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Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
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Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
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I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
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Trev’ in the Herald……
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11508899
Wow ! Crosby Textor must be only a few stitches away from completing the Ponce Key’s new crimplene ‘strutting’ suit, his ‘preening’ suit.
Rejoice Rejoice !……All Praise to the Ponce Key !……World-Famous-In-Parnell-Friend-Of-Humanity !
Truly……this is Nobel stuff.
Says it all…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news-cartoons/news/article.cfm?c_id=500814&objectid=11508840
As does this…..
https://mobile.twitter.com/domesticanimal/status/640266917215731712/photo/1
Both cartoons point out the utter lack of morals that this current government has.
It see morality as one more tool in it’s box of dirty tricks, with which to hold onto power.
Nor as a guiding principles, or values – but simple one more thing, to be manipulated for the sake of power.
The Guardian on the UK Labour Party….
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/06/labour-moderates-leadership-jeremy-corbyn-tony-blair
Could this comment be equally descriptive of NZ Labour?…
“….they became trapped in a technocratic, desiccated, uninspirational account of social democracy that is hopeless at making emotional connections with people.”
Clayton’s flag choice and the All Blacks fouls:
“Key’s close personal friend McCaw has recently committed a foul by entering into the flag debate, speaking of his preference for a flag that bore the silver fern as worn on rugby jumpers, the sacred frond also the personal favourite of the Prime Minister.
The tweets by certain All Blacks during the last election day suggested that the players had voted National.
And Key reading out McCaw’s ‘Yes we can’ tweet to him during the campaign were totally off-side – but the ‘Key’ players involved weren’t properly carded or even relegated to the bench.
What I want to know is where is the rugby union and the All Black coach in all of this? It goes against the grain – and the discipline – of the sport for individual players and a team to effectively be hijacked and used as the personal super hero army of a prime minister.
To look back into the annals of National Party history, it also flies in the face of the late Sir Robert Muldoon, that sporting-mad prime minister who so bitterly divided the country by allowing the 1981 Springbok tour to proceed on the notion that politics should never enter sport.
Now politics is so far up the backside of sport and our national game you can see the flag bearing the wretched silver fern waving from the back of the tonsil tunnel.
Giving us only four flags to peruse – and three of those bearing the silver fern – is not a real choice.
Sometimes you can lead the horse to water but it won’t take the pre-ordered drink. Even though I don’t like the old flag, I too like many others will vote to keep it, purely out of protest.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/71783746/a-purrfect-example-of-why-politics-and-sport-dont-mix
“Now politics is so far up the backside of sport and our national game ”
Must be getting a bit crowded at the right wing National Party parties ….. what with McCaw having Key’s nose up his arsehole, and with Hosking jowls well entrenched up the cheeks of Key …. it is becoming something of a conga-line
continue to dwell on at your peril …
‘Flag change opposed by two-thirds – poll’
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/flag-change-opposed-by-two-thirds-poll-q09308.html
“The poll, taken before the final four potential flag designs were announced, shows 66 per cent want to keep the current flag, up 2 per cent from 18 months ago….
( a waste of the $26 million …jonkey’s vanity project…could have gone to helping refugees from the MIddle East)
Personally I think we could have helped thousands more people by helping build and resource refugee camps in Europe as opposed to bringing in a couple of hundred people into NZ
Also the UN should be applying pressure to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to be taking in more of these people as they certainly have enough money to be doing More
Sorry but heres the link I should have added:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/04/the-arab-worlds-wealthiest-nations-are-doing-next-to-nothing-for-syrias-refugees/
How about reading this one instead:
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-04/why-don-t-gulf-
Funding more refugee camps is a stupid idea. Refugees need somewhere that that can create a new life, where they can work and where their children can get an education. Refugee camps are just holding pens.
Sorry but the link didn’t work
I just think that for the amount of money it will cost to bring over a couple of hundred refugees we could help thousands more even if it meant sending the money directly to the european countries itself
Although it really should be the oil-rich middle eastern islamic countries picking up the slack on this
Link here.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-04/why-don-t-gulf-states-accept-more-refugees-
Germany takes 800,000 refugees a year already. They need other countries to do their share.
Refugees need to build a new life and NZ can well afford to double the quota immediately then gradually increase it over the next 10 years.
I guess the issue i have is that we have a housing shortage, unemployment is rising, i’m note sure how many translators we have but im guessing that again its not many so I don’t know that we have the infrastructure to deal with hundreds (possibly thousands) more
I’m sorry but the article almost sounds like a cop-out for the middle eastern states that don’t do anything yet could easily afford to pay for these people
NZ doesn’t have a housing shortage. Auckland has one, and some other parts of the country, but as a whole we don’t. There are plenty of houses in NZ and refugees don’t have to live in Auckland.
no they don’t but you also wouldn’t want to farm refugees out to the provinces where there less work and infrastructure for them so that only leaves a few cities for them to live in
I think the provinces would be good places for refugees and it would probably be good for the provinces as well. There are plenty of cities in NZ without a housing crisis. Auckland and Chch are out obviously, but there are many other places.
Yeah, and watch Germany hit the shitter because of it. Ask any German what they think of it.
Bullsh**t. There are plenty of Germans who are more than happy to welcome refugees to their country. Just because you are a selfish prick doesn’t mean everyone else is.
+ 1 Well spotted – little innys bullshit shows a sad selfish prick who would be first in line if the tables were turned
Karen
I should have said that 800,000 is Germany’s projected intake this year.
“Personally I think we could have helped thousands more people by helping build and resource refugee camps in Europe as opposed to bringing in a couple of hundred people into NZ”
No reason we can’t do both (assuming that our input in that is useful). Refugee camps should be interim measures. Utlimately the people in them are still going to need somewhere safe to live.
I’m just thinking of the most efficent use of our limited resources, help hundreds or help thousands…
What do you think happens to the people once they get to the camps in Europe?
Seems like they make a bee-line for Germany
All of them?
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jan/29/where-are-the-syrian-refugees-going
A fair amount you’d have to say
Not really. Just having a quick look at that link, there are 2.3M refugees and Germany is taking 10,000. The total places offered by all countries is 18,000. So when you talking about building camps, you are referring to permanent sites. We should be honest about that.
10000 out of 18000 places is not bad going for one country
I agree, but that’s not what we are talking about.
The numbers are enormous. And reading the background to why they have chosen to flee, many have nothing left in Syria – bombed out, no job. No hope.
Why would they leave in these huge numbers? The equation is simple – when you have nothing where you are and likely soon to have less, running away while you have strength is the best idea.
Syria – good coverage
http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/mar/12/syria-crisis-four-years-on-a-day-of-in-depth-reports-and-analysis
What about the refugees on our own doorstep? Those fcking ‘camps’ in Nauru and Manis Island need to go! We’re talking a handful of thousand at most. Split proportionately with Australia, NZ would likely be looking at less than 1000 people. But then, Syrians are de rigueur, yes?
As for refugees from Syria and elsewhere in Europe and the USA apparently not stepping up after they’ve, in some cases, bombed their countries back to the stone age, well…
Yeh, it was quite alright for many European countries to give the go ahead to America’s foreign policy in the middle east for years, now the chickens are coming home to roost.
Great to see the hard hitting journalism from our media on what the real cause of this crisis is… If the States/UK put as much money into humanitarian aid now as they did into bombs, problem solved.
“Split proportionately with Australia, NZ would likely be looking at less than 1000 people.”
Yeah, that’s a really good disincentive to stop people getting in boats and crossing to Australia – resettling all of them.
Lacking as I do any ‘fuck off and die’ mentality for people in desperate straits, yes, it’s the perfect disincentive.
So your strategy is an entirely short-term one, then.
Just help these 1,000 refugees (or however many there are), and when they get replaced by 10 times as many, what then?
I heard a snippet on the radio a week or two ago about Labor in Australia having to grit their teeth and agree with the government’s policy on boat people, because although they found the human rights angle of it abhorrent, it had actually stopped the boats from coming.
The gulf states do take them, it’s just not counted under the UN.
Ha ! The Ponce Key such a strong and resolute leader when it comes to maintaining his personal vanity project……
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11508844
“We would have to go back to Parliament and we’re not doing that……”
Oh really ?…… so Parliament’s just another piece of furniture in the castle of his personal feifdom is it ?
I think the insufferable child/bankster is losing it……’hubris for breakfast’ ? Probably. Look whom he took breakfast with.
Catch Seven PM Sharp tonight for more of the same. Appallingly they’re now quite unashamed at the shonkery, the pathology of it.
YES but We need urgency to pass a booze law for the RWC!!!
Not sure what the homophobia has to do with it. Yes, yes, I know you don’t hate gay people, but the use of the word ponce to describe Key merely adds to the idea that there is something wrong with being gay instead of a good bloke.
??
edit: since you’ve edited your post, in my world a ponce has always been either a strutting rich boy or a pimp.
in mine, ponce was a name for an effeminate man, implication is gay.
Both meanings here, although it’s saying a ponce is not a pimp in that they’re employed by the prostitute. Ponce meaning effeminate is classed as derogatory usage.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ponce
I wasn’t suggesting that Key was acting in a homophobic manner.
You’re welcome to ‘your’ implication Weka……if you care to pick up your dictionary you’ll find mine…..read “ponce”, then read “pimp”, then see how easily those terms extrapolate to “TPPA”.
In my view the Ponce Key is poncing and pimping New Zealand off to his foreign masters, oh…..and selected members of the Cabinet Club.
In any event, how possibly could a man who’s ‘besties’ with Richie suffer ‘your’ implication ?
I’ve already looked up a dictionary,
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07092015/#comment-1067785
It’s meant effeminate or homosexual in every context I’ve ever heard it in.
was often used to describe what the Americans term a pimp in older UK tv/film…..we however take our cues from the US these days , mores the pity
“The Press Council doubts many New Zealand readers would associate the word “ponce” with living on a prostitute’s earnings…… Rather the connection would most likely be with precious, effete or show-off behaviour.”
http://www.presscouncil.org.nz/rulings/g-f-sharp-against-southland-times
And none of the dictionaries I looked at link ‘Effete’ with an implication of ‘gay’…..so think your homophobia meter can be turned down a notch Weka?
The MV Rena caused our worst maritime environmental disaster when it ploughed into the Bay of Plenty’s Astrolabe Reef. Nearly four years later, a round of hearings – starting today – will determine whether it stays there.
Four years on, he believed it was essential that authorities and the shipping industry learn from an incident that cost the lives of at least 2400 birds and an estimated $1.2 million each day in local business losses over what was a ruined summer.
The penalty
Rena captain Mauro Balomaga and navigator Leonil Relon are jailed for seven months for offences including altering the ship’s documents.
Rena owners Daina Shipping are fined $300,000 in the Tauranga District Court for discharging harmful substances.
The Rena’s owners lodge a resource consent application to leave much of the ship.
Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country. There does not seem to be any audit on how much it cost the taxpayers to clean up the spill, all the reports, the council and legal cost, insurance costs, etc and the long term effects on the community as well as the costs to residents, (were they even compensated) and there is no remedy for the harm and death of the animals and environment at that time.
Meanwhile exploitation of oil into extreme situations in this country is still going on and if they spill or cause damage, clearly they do not have to worry about being held to account for the ‘$300k fine and jail for a few people (paid for by NZ taxpayer) for falsifying records.
Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country.
I guess a reader could come to that conclusion if they don’t realise you’ve left out the costs of the cleanup and the effect on the company’s insurance premiums.
I’m more worried about the victims – mums and Dads and the kids and the ocean and the wildlife in the community than a liberian flagged oil tankers increases in insurance.
By the sound of it the NZ army and community did most of the clean up. Why because they had too!
Also what about the effect on the NZ business premiums when all the Kiwi businesses were collectively losing 1.2million dollars a day?
Somehow all this corporate welfare does not seem to pay. The total cost will be massive to this country and the community but it is all swept under the table and the focus in environment court is, should the poor oil company be made to do a clean up or is it impossible?
If it is impossible to clean up then it speaks for itself, they and others are not held to account and also it occurred in 2011 so 4 years later the wreck is not gone from the ocean and Kiwis are having to fight to be rid of it.
…the focus in environment court is, should the poor oil company be made to do a clean up or is it impossible?
The shipping company has been made to do a clean-up, one that’s run to hundreds of millions of dollars. You may have noticed the news footage of floating cranes hauling up huge pieces of the wreck so they can be brought ashore. The focus in the Environment Court is on whether there’s any point in trying to recover the remaining parts of the ship that haven’t been removed because they’re stuck in the reef, given the risk to the lives of the divers involved, the technical difficulty of achieving success, the enormous cost involved and the mimimal benefit gained from the exercise.
But yeah, if the shipping company ignores the fact that it lost an expensive ship and a full load of cargo, then had to spend hundreds of millions removing the wreck, it could possibly come to the conclusion that “pollution pays.”
“Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country”
What a load of bollocks, the clean up has cost $300 mill US so far
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/national/71503076/Rena-disaster-huge-but-environmental-effects-not-long-lasting
Yes but nothing for the community but $300,000 fine. What about all those businesses losing 1.2m a day and the loss of natural environment.
The fact is cost the business to pollute to clean up is not the point.
No real compensation has been made to the community when the oil spills.
Perhaps the company should have better ship and captain next time and not be complaining what it cost them when it is nothing compared to a minimum wage family who actually live there and have to bear the true cost of the negligence.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/71771196/late-inadequate-and-frequently-defective
“This is the problem with the Red Peak or anything else, there will always be a range of views about whether to change and a range of views on what to go to, and that’s what makes the process immensely difficult,” John Key told TV3’s Paul Henry this morning.
After reading that, I have to admit to wrong thinking. I have always thought that Key used the “I can get you another opinion on that” as a way of not answering a question.
Now it is revealed. He has trouble dealing with more than one opinion at a time. This is why he needs a “focus group”- these groups help him to intellectually grasp the issues and enable him to focus enough to decide.
John Key has UFO, or Un-Focussed Opinions, a disorder which means that he exhibits the mental equivalent of verbalising “Woo Woo! Woo Woo!” until he gets a metaphorical cheek-slapping to help him choose.
This means that the country is eksshully run by people with enough reach to slap the PM’s face.
UFO is very common on Planet Key.
UFO , that’s very cool
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/283436/treasury-warning-over-dairy-price-recovery
“Treasury has warned dairy prices may not rebound by as much as first thought, which could mean the Government’s books remain in deficit for three more years.
…
Some economists argue the Government should have a back-up plan if the economy stalls, which the Prime Minister has ruled out.”
No back-up plan for us! Headlong into the breach…
Sooner or later Treasury may get round to joining the rest of us in the real world.
Chances are that dairy prices won’t recover at all.
“Sooner or later Treasury may get round to joining the rest of us in the real world.
Chances are that dairy prices won’t recover at all.”
Not sure which world you live in Draco but dairy prices have recovered 30% since their low.
Seems that you’re talking out your arse again:
And that was all of four days ago.
“Seems that you’re talking out your arse again:
Weaker dairy products in the first-half of August led the decline, with prices falling to their lowest level since mid-2004.”
Draco that was early August its now September, there have been two more auctions and as I correctly pointed out milk powder prices have increased around 30%. 19% in the first auction and 11% in the last auction. Do try and keep up old boy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11499112
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/71641902/dairy-prices-up-109-per-cent-in-fonterra-globaldairytrade-auction
Yeah, I’d say that you’re still talking out your arse.
Sure, there’s been an increase in prices but it’s still below production costs and further increases are based upon global production decline. Personally, I expect the only real decline to come from NZ as the cheaper producers, i.e, everybody else, keep producing.
NZ’s dream of dairy heaven has come to an end but our farmers don’t want to hear that as it means that they’ve wasted billions building plant that is now worthless.
You can try to spin it any way you like Draco
All I said was prices have increased 30% from the low
I know farmers will be making a loss until global production falls
but that’s already happening.
Great Moments in Broadcasting No.1
Vileness live on air: Linda Clark and John Tamihere, 2005
This excruciating encounter happened on Radio NZ National back on Friday 16 September 2005, 9:20 a.m.
Looks like JOHN TAMIHERE is gonna be tipped out of his Tamaki Makaurau seat in favour of the Māori Party’s Pita Sharples. He discusses the situation with SEAN PLUNKET and LINDA CLARK….
JOHN TAMIHERE: It’s a tribute to the way the Maori Party has politicised our Maori education system.
SEAN PLUNKET: Are you conceding, John?
TAMIHERE: Oh, hey, it’s not over till the fat lady sings!
LINDA CLARK: Well that’s not me!
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha!
PLUNKET: It’s not Linda, John! She’s not fat!
CLARK: If you hear me singing, you’re still okay!
PLUNKET: Well, whatever happens, John, you’ve got a GREAT career in broadcasting just waiting for you!
TAMIHERE: Yeah, if Willie Jackson can do it, anyone can.
CLARK: I’ve always got a slot here just waiting for you.
……[Protracted, stunned silence]…..
PLUNKET: Moving right along….
Transcribed by MORRISSEY BREEN for Radio Transcripts Ltd, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/nz.politics/%22radio$20transcripts$20ltd%22/nz.politics/Eg7-wOFG2-0/6aKZNDluPAwJ
Radionz is redesigning its web site. We are invited along.
We are about to start re-designing radionz.co.nz and we want you to help us.
Most websites re-design every few years. It’s a process that rarely involves the public at large, or if it does the input you can have is minimal.
We aren’t like that. We’d like you to be involved. The process will take months, and before we get started we’d like to hear from you (see at the foot of this article).
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/283197/stick-your-beak-in
Radionz is a taonga. We must take care of it, support it.
The unintended consequences of taxing tobacco
The ever escalating price of tobacco is adding to the financial stress of individuals (and their families) that are strongly addicted.
Smoking is strongly addictive and I personally know of a number of individuals that have no intention to quit, thus are literally paying the price.
Is it time for a rethink of this heavy taxing approach of pricing people out of the market?
Thoughts?
Subsidise their tobacco intake while they are on an effective (free) plan to quit. No reason this couldn’t come out of the health budget considering what smoking costs us all
The government takes more in via tobacco taxes then it costs in healthcare
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10809145
Its a couple of years old but I’m still guessing its similar today
It is addictive but that doesn’t stop people from quitting. The people who choose to continue to smoke are choosing the costs themselves.
Have you ever considered that that is the reason for pricing?
“It is addictive but that doesn’t stop people from quitting.”
But the reasons why people smoke (or take any drug) might stop them from quitting. This isn’t just a question of will power or intention.
Most people working in the field accept that addiction has a physiological component, but also social and mental health components. We’re not just our nicotine receptors.
Yes it is and that includes looking at your life and changing it so as to remove the other issues.
Not everyone has that degree of agency. What you are suggesting is akin to saying that poor people can really afford to feed their kids they’re just not looking at their life right. Or everyone can get a job if they try hard enough.
For some people, making the changes that would mean they didn’t need the support of a drug is beyond their capacity.
As far as smoking goes they do. It’s their decision to smoke.
Not even close. The situations you mention there and smoking aren’t in any way comparable.
Tobacco is not that different from other drugs that are physically and psychologically different. Do you think that herion uses just decide to use and could just as easily decide to stop?
“The situations you mention there and smoking aren’t in any way comparable.”
They are in the way I compared them, whereby some of the people in all those situations don’t have the agency that you are claiming they do. For many people stopping smoking is a matter of will power (it was for me). For others it’s not that straightforward. You can’t take the addicted person out of their lives and it’s the lives that are going to largely determine if someone can stop or not. Even something simple as access to a stop smoking programme can make the difference. Not everyone has that.
But there are those that do and who are just too overloaded and stressed in their lives to successfully manage the intense process of getting off a drug and staying off (the second but is often the more difficult). It takes many factors lining up for that to work, and that’s not in the reach of some people. Which is why I relate it to other situations where people have things outside of their control that impact on them negatively.
No they’re not. People do have agency over their own actions. They do have agency over who they associate with.
So, yeah, people who smoke and want to quit have the agency to do so. Those who don’t want to quit can pay the higher prices.
But the reasons that people smoke are sometimes outside of their control. You appear to think that addiction is a matter of personal choice. It’s not.
Then they need to remove themselves from those reasons. This is still their choice.
but if those reasons exist because of things outside of their control, how can they remove them any easier than finding a non-existent job or not having enough money to feed their kids? Can’t say that too many other ways than I already have, so let’s try this. Evidence suggests that for some people addiction is not an issue of choice and that they need more than will power in order to stop using. That’s a pretty standard understanding within addiction support services, including smoking cessation.
Such as removing themselves from the social environment that encourages them to continue using…
Oh, wait, that would be their choice as well.
Draco,
poverty, for example, is not a personal choice.
yes and I believe draco said it was the refugees own decision not to overthrow their horrible governments didn’t you draco – all their own fault too
But Draco quit smoking, so everyone else can too.
Yeah, I saw that marty.
Poverty isn’t, smoking is.
People have agency:
Unfortunately, these people probably will be on the receiving end of Western bombs rather than getting help they need because they happen to be communists.
And people like you sitting there in your comfort telling them that they don’t and that they should all just run away aren’t helping them realise that agency.
is the point that if they got killed instead of ‘running away’ there’d be no refugee problem?
I’m not telling them anything, you are the one doing that.
Re cigarettes, you can keep asserting personal choice all you like. You can also ignore the real life things that affect people’s addiction (eg poverty), but your ideas are in direct contradiction of the people who work with addiction recovery and the people who struggle with addiction they can’t overcome. You are making value judgements about people you don’t know and don’t appear to understand and from what I can tell those judgements are based on your personal experience of being able to quit smoking.
@MM
No, the point is that if they banded together and stood up for themselves they’d find that they could bring the conflict to an end and wouldn’t have to run away or get killed.
And they’d also stop smoking.
I guess that makes refugees who travel thousands of kilometres weak-willed as well as fiendish job-stealers.
we should send them guns and shit so they can have ‘agency’, plus motivational videos and for those too stubborn a few nicotine patches /SARC
I had a feeling we were at the increasing sarcasm stage of the conversation.
Shall we find something else to talk about? 🙂
@ Draco:
“No, the point is that if they banded together and stood up for themselves they’d find that they could bring the conflict to an end and wouldn’t have to run away or get killed.”
But, in doing that, it is very likely that at least some of them will be killed.
There truly aren’t a huge number of people who are willing to put themselves in mortal danger in an attempt to change their government, without any real assurance that the new government or regime will be better than the one they’re wanting to change. That’s why dictators stay in power – theoretically you can’t stop a riot of 4M+ people (at least not forever), so the trick is to ensure one never starts.
…
Christ Draco, think about this a little, will you? If it was merely a case of will-power and decision making, then there would be no such thing as addiction!
Some people can smoke for 20 or 30 years and then just drop it. Same with drinking alcohol, sugar, heroin or whatever. Meanwhile, other struggle and some just can’t.
I don’t know all the factors that contribute to something being addictive, but it’s far more complex than everyone overcoming it with a simple “I’m not going to do this any more.”
Here’s a thought for you. I smoked for years. Tried will power and all the patches or what not. Couldn’t give up for any length of time. Always craving.
Sugar is addictive. I was brought up on a fairly sugary diet. Don’t touch the stuff.
So maybe addiction is a complex relationship between a given substance and a particular individual that follows no universal set of rules?
No, actually, it’s not.
I tried to give up for years before I decided to just stop. Took me about 6 months to get over the craving for them but I didn’t have a smoke in that time and did get over it.
I found the difference was in mindset. Previously I had been trying to give up and failed at it whereas I when I quit I simply said no more.
Do. Or do not. There is no try
So, you weren’t one of the people who could give it up at the drop of a hat. Some can. I think you’ve just reinforced my point that addiction is comprised from a broad spectrum of various interactions, and that we just don’t know what it comprises of or, obviously, all the things that can contribute to it.
No, I was – once I decided to actually stop.
Nope, you’ve just proven that all you can do is make excuses rather than making up your mind.
Erm…not sure what you think I’m making excuses about. This is a conversation about the nature of addiction, yes? And whereas you say it’s a ‘one size fits all’ type of a thing, I’m saying it’s far more varied and nuanced than that.
Take nicotine – widely regarded as the most addictive substance out there.
Some people just stop, even after years of smoking, with no craving or withdrawal – nothing.
Some people smoke only when they’re having a social drink and don’t think twice about it otherwise.
Others smoke once or twice and are viciously hooked.
As far as I can see, you’re suggesting a world of humans as automata, where a simple ‘correct’ thought, thought with sufficient force, belief or conviction will produce a tidy, standard result.
But life – the hugely complex array of dynamic environmental interactions, of which our thoughts or emotions constitute only a small part, would suggest otherwise.
Not a correct thought, no need for force or belief – just a decision to be made.
And of course the result will be standard. We’re talking about giving up smoking with the only two possible results being either that a person continues smoking or that they don’t.
And you can either wait around till all those complexities are resolved (ie, never) or make the decision to stop smoking now thus resolving one of those complexities. Your like a RWNJ demanding that everything be proven to work perfectly before it be put in place.
There’s absolutely nothing in anything I’ve said that could reasonably be taken as a flat out rejection of some-one ‘making a decision’ being a possible way out of addiction. (The ‘at the drop of a hat’ quitters being the most obvious opposite to what you’d like to claim I’ve said.)
A mere ‘decision’ doesn’t work for everyone though.
I just can’t see what’s either right wing or nutty about that observation.
But since you want to insist that there’s ‘only one way’ and anyone failing is, presumably, just not making the decision in ‘the proper manner’ ie, so as to make it conducive to the ‘only one way’, then…well, bang away on your drum, eh?
Dubai Airport still has great duty-free cigar stores.
And smoking rooms!
True, and I would add that the people who actually work in the field, including addicts themselves, do have a pretty good idea of the range of things that work and don’t work. I agree that’s not complete knowledge, but it’s clear that for some people will power is not enough, they need other things to be in place and not all of those things are within their control. When those things are in place, some of those people are able to stop.
Draco is essentially correct in that the reason for the increasing pricing/taxation on tobacco is that this has been the easiest and most effective way that the health authorities and government have found to discourage smoking.
I don’t doubt that this is one of the reasons for it these days.
However, I also recall that the cost of NZ1’s free healthcare for preschoolers after the 1996 election was also astonishing similar to the extra revenue gathered by the excise increase in the next budget. And it was several years before the government offered even token quit support for free.
There were a few years where excise increases were basically the government shaking down addicts for cash without helping them quit.
but tobacco is one of the topics that makes me a tad… irritated and ranty 🙂
I think i remember some data to suggest the government takes in considerably more revenue from tobacco they they spend on its downstream health effects.
i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.
On another note did you see this story (the comments read like some of the threads on here)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/parenting/71772571/australian-mother-plans-to-open-controversial-no-vax-childcare-centre
It’s a natural consequence of the increasingly authoritarian approach that governments and health authorities are taking in regards to vaccination. There are other ways this could be managed.
“i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.”
I started smoking at 15 by stealing smokes from my parents 😉 I guess once the buying age was inline with alcohol it would be easier to control because there’s already an ID/age system in place. Still, we’re never going to get around teens having older friends/siblings who supply.
“Still, we’re never going to get around teens having older friends/siblings who supply.”
Yes, we are, if we steadily raise the age as Northshoredoc suggests.
If the age to buy cigarettes is 45, then the average 15 year old is not going to have siblings or friends of that age to supply them.
Eventually the age to buy them would be 75+, and again the average 15 year old would not have siblings or friends of that age.
Is it a quick fix? No. Would it be effective? Yes. Would it completely stamp out the problem of underage smoking? No.
Lolz, I stole cigarettes from parents. Having the buying age at 45 will just encourage teens to be more creative in accessing their supply.
I think raising the age to 20 is a good idea (and alcohol should have been left there), but I suspect that beyond that there will be resistance from the public who generally believe that all adults are allowed to make the same kinds of decisions.
I don’t know if nsd was suggesting raising the age to 75.
He said:
“i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.”
To me, that means raise the age of buying them by 1 year every year. Or at least a large amount, and keep it going up-up-up and not stop at some arbitrary and ineffective age like 20 or 21.
Yes, you stole cigarettes from parents. But eventually, with such strict controls on availability, kids just won’t be interested in smoking, especially when it’s something “only people over the age of 40” do…
I didn’t read it that way. I took it to mean we really want to stop young adults from starting, because that’s the most at risk group in terms of uptake.
I’d love to see the govt that would try and tell a 45 yr old or a 60 yr old that they’re not allowed to buy cigarettes 😉
Lanthanide has correctly interpreted my intent – I probably should have been more explicit.
@weka: well the idea is to raise the age 1 year for every year.
So there will never be a case of someone who used to be able to buy cigarettes, losing the right.
Instead, people who havn’t ever been legally allowed to buy them because they were too young, would never be legally allowed to buy them because the age of purchase would rise by 1 year each year.
Actually the way this would be implemented, would just be to say “no one born after the year 2000 is legally allowed to buy cigarettes”.
how long since you stopped McFlock?
since they cut my hours at the same time the revenue went up – either begining of the year or last year sometime. It wasn’t a big milestone, just the frequency got less and less until it’s practically nil. Maybe had a cigar on my birthday.
Funnily enough, I expected at least some general improvement in lifestyle, but allergies mean my sense of taste is dulled anyway, and even the coughing after a night on the piss seems to be caused by alcohol because it still happens. I always figured it was smoking too much, but nope, it’s something else I do at parties. The only thing now is that my mouth doesn’t taste like an ashtray so much the next morning – but I seem to be more aware of the beer/whiskey coming out of my pores.
All a bit meh, really. I feel like I bought one of those amazing mattresses from the ads where everyone snaps awake to jump up and smile like maniacs, whereas I still wake up as grumpy as ever, lol
Do you exercise much McFlock?
My personal experience is that if you are 40+ and feeling less than sparkling, nothing even comes close to the positive change that locking in 30 min’s of sweat 6 days a week makes…
I think I’ve mentioned just today that I like to smoke, drink, and eat.
Those are the choices I make. My body is a temple, but I worship Dionysis.
As for exercise, it’s a bit like masturbation: most people do it to some degree but good taste suggests that it should not really be discussed, let alone performed, in public.
Although if people want to go to private clubs and exercise with each other, that’s their business.
+1
I certainly felt better after giving up smoking and then after I took up cycling.
Putting up taxes punished people with addiction and has only led to a burgeoning market for home grown and cured tobacco. Subsidised pharmaceutical products simply do not work for many, many smokers.
Meanwhile, I’ve yet to meet a smoker who took up vaping who hasn’t cut their tobacco intake substantially or completely.
Vapourising nicotine laced vegetable glycerine at around 30 or 40 degrees might not be entirely safe, but is certainly safer than tobacco, only costs a couple of dollars a week and, unlike patches, gum or pills, actually works in either cutting back nicotine intake or eliminating it altogether.
But then, the pharmaceutical companies don’t get all those public subsidies for their less than effective products. And that’s a bad thing.
Maybe ‘someone’ should fund studies that routinely or recklessly ‘dry burn’ vaporisers and then measure the toxins that come from scorched wicks and burned coils as a way to claim that vaping exposes users to all types of shit like formaldehyde and what have you? Oh, hang on. Already doing that! 😉
and conveniently bolster the consolidated fund..I wonder which is the main driver?
Of course it’s the objective. A fiscal incentive to quit.
The point is, the hardcore addict has no intention to quit, regardless the cost.
For example, my uncle had emphysema, yet was still smoking on his deathbed.
Ones I’ve spoken too merely redirect their expenditure, cutting out other consumer goods and services, negatively impacting on the return of other businesses and service providers.
The real concern is, how is it impacting on the hardcore smoking poor?
Is it contributing to crime, child poverty, etc?
I get pissed off every doctor’s visit when he has to rehash the lifestyle questions for the DHB, and is always pleased to find I no longer smoke. Sadly it’s moved out of my fiscal reach, and sanctimonious pricks think this is a good thing.
I liked it. I liked the variety, I liked the rituals, and I liked the excuse to just sit in the garden for an hour. And I liked the fact that I was saving the country money.
It slagged me off too. Pay to go see the doctor, only to be growled at for smoking .
Nope its not time to change it , unless you can prove that the expense has had no effect on young people taking up smoking. We have to break the cycle somehow . BTW I smoked for 17 years
Looks like rower Eric Murray decided against burning the NZ flag on the winner’s podium. A couple of weeks ago he was saying he wanted to take an alternative flag onto the podium to celebrate. The sport and politics meme is running hot at the moment.
http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/486977290-new-zealands-eric-murray-and-hamish-bond-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=X7WJLa88Cweo9HktRLaNXpgCGxl5OM4h1mbm%2BFlyK3H81HWeiZVVt96BICSp2fNGGKIoBuvQvfxnbRmF0uA9RA%3D%3D
For some time my favourite pseudonym on teh standard has been Esoteric Pineapple, but I have to admit now to some admiration for Mrs Brillo.
Book banned after Christian complaint
This obviously falls into the teaching children anything other than Christianity and is thus evil category.
Personally, I’d call Family First an Anti-Christian group. I certainly haven’t seen them act in any way that could be considered Christian.
Trouble is defining christianity. It has many iterations and like an old body changes as it ages with gradual small failures in its replication.
JC’s first day at his new job,
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/283480/john-campbell-starts-at-radio-nz
Bob McKroskie has managed to get an interim ban for a teenage novel “Into the River”.
According to stuff.co.nz:
“…Conservative lobbying group Family First, who pushed for the review and an R18 restriction, applauded the decision.
“We’ve empowered parents to start expressing their concerns about books more,” leader Bob McCoskrie said. “We believe the censor is out of touch with material parents don’t want their kids to be reading.”
McCoskrie supported a wider move to a film-like sticker rating system for books.
“We do it for movies so why not books? I think to be honest parents expect this to be happening.”
“These books can exert a significant influence. We just think its about age appropriateness.”
Family First claim the censor has received over 400 letters from concerned parents….”
I’m assuming the majority of those letters were the result of a campaign by Family First, and will either be from members or sympathisers, rather than genuine self-initiated complaints.
Books have the rare ability to enable you to process on an intimate level, the lives and experiences of someone else (fictional character or real person).
As an avid reader throughout my childhood and teenage years, my exposure to dark themes and violence was tempered by my lack of taste for such stories, but also by my ability to pace them at a speed that I could absorb, and to also skip passages that were too emotionally fraught. (Didn’t do that very often that I could recall, but I always had that option).
I’ve unfortunately met adults who can’t even discuss the straightforward and trite themes of Harry Potter, let alone countenance the Hunger Games. But stories are a great way of introducing people to diversity of thought, action and opinion.
And our reading public is one shade paler today by the loss of this NZ Post Children’s Book Award’s 2013 winner.
(I’m going have to consider buying one on Kindle now, just in protest even though it is not on my list of books to buy.)
I have a feeling this has come up before with this book. Wait until twitter get hold of it 😈
I’m figuring that’s Family Firsts biggest problem with the book – encouraging diversity.
One Shade of Grey paler anyway.
Hardly Farenheit 451 is it.
Republicans like Obama’s polices a LOT more if they’re attributed to Trump:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/09/03/republicans-actually-do-like-obamas-ideas-when-they-think-theyre-trumps-poll-images/
Reminds me of polling here that showed that people actually liked Labour’s more left-wing policies without the Labour branding.
just heard Bob Jones is donating $500,000 to the refugee cause…for the education of 16 women refugees.
Bob Jones grooming his own personal harem shocker.