Despite the team of experts putting it straight that Joyce n Billshit have told utter falsehoods re- fiscal hole. The RNZ webpage continues to use a title which still gives the lie oxygen
And in my opinion she’s very soft on Joyce in just calling him intemperate, rather than a liar intent on misleading the public. Going on about the “Havoc Claim” as it’s called in political science…… bullshit! even the political scientist call shit like this what it is – Dirty Politics!!
Oh. Snap. There were no comments on open mike when I started on my comment below on the same OP.
I don’t think she needs to be tougher on Joyce, he is already looking like damaged goods, and Hawyward’s explanation comes across as calm and rational, rather than adding to the Joyce-style hysteria.
Apologies I was of course speaking metaphorically, as it seems he keeps on banging on with his lies. Bit like a child with chocolate covered face adamantly telling mummy he didn’t eat the cake, HONEST!!
Besides, if someone with a penchant for violence were to kick Dildo Joyce in the head, his demonstration of his thickness would mean the kicker more likely to end up with a damaged foot.
Controlling the message via their control over RNZ, wouldn’t hurt labour to attack IMO Joyce and Blinglish have burnt a lot of capital over this.
Frame it as general dishonesty with other examples to depower the numbers meme into more general lying behaviour to get people realising this is what they are, lying deceptive wreckers.
That’s all they know at this stage, it’s called fear mongering, creating doubt in the voters mind.
They really are desperate !! But the sheep will follow sadly
I know in democratic countries you are not supposed to put ex politicians on trial, but I’d happily make an exception for Richard Prebble. What a traitor to the left.
This is a claim that is designed to be so outrageous that it grabs media headlines and temporarily derails opponents, attracting startled media attention in a 24/7 news cycle and confusing voters.
By the time the dust has settled and everyone has read the fine print, it doesn’t matter that the claim didn’t stack up, because from a political strategist’s point of view, the issue was never really about the facts.
The aim was to take the air space from a leading opponent and to sow a seed of doubt in the minds of voters, and hopefully do just enough damage to your opponent that you can sway small but significant margins of voters choosing between parties.
Hayward says this gambit can undermine democracy and turn off potential voters. However, it can, as in the Joyce instance, blow back on the user of the havoc claim, and damage their vote. This happened because Ardern called it out pretty quickly in the leaders debate, and because many economists and mainstream media journalists critiqued the false claim strongly.
Furthermore, Hayward estimates that NZers have become more savvy about political false claims having watched overseas elections, such as in the US.
Well said – my guess is that the Nats want a term in Opposition, hoping that the next Govt will force the Greens and NZF to work together – could be fun
Oh, I expect Joyce will be correct in hind-sight, as the Banking Cartel and International Rating Agencies smash the NZD (floating international lending rate) under a Labour lead Govt.
the dollar will likely fall (but not necessarily crash as it is likely to do under a continuation of the current settings) mainly due to a reigning in of immigration and investment restrictions as stated by Labour….and that will be great for our exporters. The RBNZ has been bemoaning the dollars strength for years and even told Key to put the brakes on immigration to stop the upward pressure…Key of course knew better.
“Prices for flights out of South Florida have skyrocketed as high as more than US$3000 (NZ$4166) per person for domestic flights, which would otherwise cost a fraction of the price during what’s typically one of the slowest times of the year for air travel.”
We see the same response to housing, Christchurch’s earthquake, and so on.
Carolyn_nth
Both those links take me to the same Newsroom post (which I hadn’t seen – so thanks for that). Was there a second piece to which you were trying to link as well?
“Robertson was less clear than Mathers in his initial answer on whether Labour would increase the rate of supported living payments, but when pressed for a ‘yes or no’ answer by moderator Susie Ferguson, said: ‘Yes.'”
Disappointing (and far less convincing) that he had to be “pressed” for an answer.
Moreover, unlike the Greens, Labour didn’t commit to an amount.
We have a chance to choose better, and clearly the Greens are the better choice.
So then the next things it would be nice to know are:
– who would be the Minister for Social Development in a Labour-led government?
– how would they fix the culture at WINZ?
– what relevant experience have they got in effecting cultural change?
– is there budget for it?
> The culture change wouldn’t necessarily need a budget
I don’t want to make this all about money, but I think it is going to cost more, if only because more beneficiaries will get their proper entitlements. But also I think some turnover of personnel will be needed and that is going to come at a cost (golden handshakes, recruitment costs, etc).
> – issue the directives and the staff must follow.
That’s not how life works, you can’t change workplace culture by saying ‘I now direct that everyone behave differently’.
I don’t know what the Nats (and previous Govts did) to stuff up the culture at WINZ so comprehensively but I think it’s going to take a lot of work and time to reverse that. Inspirational leadership will be necessary but not sufficient.
> Carmel Sepuloni is the Social Development go-to for Labour. Seems to be pretty good.
Never been a Minister let alone a Cabinet Minister, never been a senior manager in any form of organisation, never led a culture change project as far as I can see, I have no confidence that she can do the business.
“….never been a senior manager in any form of organisation, never led a culture change project as far as I can see, I have no confidence that she can do the business.”
Anne Tolley, Paula Bennet, Gerry Brownlee…shall I continue?
Right, they lacked management experience when they entered Parliament, they couldn’t fix the culture at WINZ even if they wanted to which they don’t, nor (I fear) can Sepuloni.
Turnover would only be needed in the case of misconduct. And if people end up getting more money, this isn’t a bad thing. If there’s a blowout, it can be handled.
And actually, you can change workplace culture by making reasonable changes to workplace expectations. And if a few folks don’t play along, give them fair opportunity to do their jobs, then go through the disciplinary process.
As for Sepuloni, does CEO of Vaka Tautua count? Google it.
edit: I did it for you
Turnover may only be at the very top. The workers want to be compassionate, most people go into those jobs because of that, not the pay scale. Currently KPI’s encourage meaness. That change will cost nothing.
Everyone currently in a cabinet position had never done it before 2008 and many had not done anything meaningful in this line in their businesses.
Ministers are more akin to a Director than a CEO. And even CEO’s are not in charge of operations as a rule. You are talking about operations. They hire people for this, they do not do it themselves. .
I was subjected to the change from Labour to National management as a ‘Client’. The WINZ staff certainly changed their attitude.
“Bully from the top on down the line” is how the change was applied. That and negative PR about bennies. Some of the better staff left. The new style upset them. Others stayed and thrived with the bullying style.
I was going to have breakfast but getting out of bed seems an insurmountable hurdle. Then I needed to go to the toilet but it’s such a long walk.
So I lay there thinking and then I realised that thinking might mean I have to make an effort to do something.
And then I shat myself, and lay there in my own mess for a while because taking personal responsibility was just too much effort. Then I realised the world is full of people making a difference. Don’t they realise how pointless it is?
Now I need to go to the toilet again. What am I going to do?
[…]
It’s not even as if there’s a clear plan for breakfast, anyway. I mean, I know that there are some eggs, some bacon, some baked beans, and so on in the kitchen. But what about a frying pan?
What if the frying pan needs to be scrubbed? Do people know how much work that will be? Other people think that frying pans should never be clean, but have a patina of cholesterol built up over years. Do we have a clear strategy on this? Why hasn’t frying pan patina been discussed?
Thank you Carolyn,
As a polio victim 1947, I am now needing all the aids. So a fairer way of accessing needs would be great. Some products I need are a heavy burden on the purse.
When I enquired, my Dr”s Nurse offered me a mobility card.
None of my other needs seemed to feature. So clear guidelines? Great
Tolley wants to punish the youth for not having a job. Would it not make better sense to give them free education/training instead. Maybe they haven’t got a job because they have no skills. Without an education or skills they probably have naught to feel good about themselves.
I now understand why the Nats are so anti any kind of free tertiary education, it’s because Joyce pissed around at varsity when it was free for him and he thinks everyone else will do the same.
Cheers for the link Trace about the UK, that was interesting, so Tolleys idea has been tried and failed overseas, a bit like national standards etc, failed borrowed policy
went on about how only 430 people have failed under the new testing scheme they do have less than 1% of course tolley made some shit up on the fly to counter it , also a laywer pointed out that these are the very people that will be pushed into a life of crime if the dole is cut ,
Thanks. Given the low numbers revealled when Key tried this on, you wonder where (or to whom) the $72m would go. My guess is nowhere, just like the incentive to teachers to go to lower deciles was kept quiet but was included in bragging about spending on education.
they just had a couple more fallas on ( some guy from Vend? and a newshub producer ) they demolished it as well , line of the day, ”there’s more drug use in the young nats”
+1 BWaghorn, if the interview comes up online will try and remember to post it laters.
I know of a couple of teenagers with a deadbeat dad and an absent mother, they aren’t working, or training etc. They never had a chance to start with. Their parents are uneducated and due to poverty they don’t see any hope for themselves. They can’t afford further education, and they have no dreams because they feel they have no future. And it’s reasons like that why I’m a massive supporter for free tertiary education. To give EVERYONE a chance no matter their past, background or upbringing.
jobs with good wages is what they need , the government needs to be a job creator, we aren’t all equal in our in how we cope with life . if it takes having 10 guys leaning on shovels to get them out of the house and feel some pride so be it.
couldn’t agree more about the government being a job creator/supplier.
the ripple out benefits are positive from seeing adults in the house, leave every day, to go to work.
i maintain that kiwirail should have (be forced to?) award its recent loco contracts within aotearoa. only 25% more expensive.
unfortunately the benefits would not appear on kiwirails balance sheet, but would be real none the less.
My concern is that there is not the well paid jobs even if the worker has the training and the skills. The world is changing from people being employed to people being self employed, contract workers. I don’t know if that is a good thing, but it’s increasingly difficult to get and keep a job these days.
Part of it, is that now everyone wants experience from young people and are unwilling to train them, NZ employers don’t want to pay for top skills from Kiwis when they are trained, it’s cheap and easy to get rid of people as it’s just a process with little costs involved, so a change in management often means that for no apparent reason (or in the case of Ms Harrison, fraud) they go around culling out their rivals to be seen to be doing something.
One of the many reasons for NZ’s low productivity is that there is an adversarial relationship between employee’s and employee’s that stems from the Rogernomics era. There needs to be a rethink on that as well as a way to create new high paid jobs in sustainable areas not just cars, cows, coal and construction with migrant labour being used to mask our appalling wages and labour laws and a system that is producing unequally educated people (illiterate or over qualified) who can’t find jobs, because many of our industries are based on low or very specific skills, with employers who just can’t be bothered training anyone when has become so easy to replace or look over a local worker for an overseas one in an overseas worker pool of billions. with the NZ taxpayer helpfully subsidising their income with working for families, accomodation benefit, free health and schooling, ACC is it all goes wrong and free super after 10 years. What overseas worker is not going to go for that!
Remember that economically NZ made a decision a few decades ago to have low inflation or no unemployment. It chose low inflation. Accordingly there will always be unemployed under this economy. To bash people you need to be unemployed to meet your low inflation target is beyond cruel.
Sue Bradford is right we need to nurture our youth not herd them around like sheep and penalize them If they get a universal wage and offer them starts in a trade that is way better than bills policy we need to nurture there wairua self worth ect teach them the work culture and let them no and give them a bright future.
TOPS should be in that debate as he deserves it Its Just Bill trying to eliminate competition.
Any employers ripping off there workers should be treated the same as a shop lifter as it is still theft and we need to let these people no that it is theft we should name and shame these employers they are a small % of employers but they are getting away with THEFT. Bryce is a good reporter good to see the likes of him back on our TVs more.
Yes, time to stop fines and start imprisoning bosses who do not have contracts and/or pay less than minimum wage. EG kiwifruit growers recently found over 50% jn that position. No howls from the public or media for personal responsibility and consequences…
Agree eco Maori/kiwi (9). Theft of labour is a serious crime in my book as well and should be treated as such, with harsh penalties dished out to unscrupulous employers!
We know what the Natz’s attitude to it is … ignore the issue completely! Be interesting to find out Labour/Greens/NZF perspective on it is and how they would address labour theft.
I like seeing all the positive news about our culture Maori culture. In my view Maori culture Is all of the people of NZ culture Its is part of what makes NZ culture unique its part of what makes us Kiwis.
Lett’s celebrate our unique Maori culture it makes us unique in our world. All cultures in NZ can be celebrated to.
It could also push young addicts to cold turkey and possibly suicide. I doubt their plan is to provide Oasis type help immediately to anyone taking it up.
Push an addict further into poverty… but then Tolley says MSD do not collect the stats on how many on beneficiaries. A dead beneficiary = efficient economy under Nats?
Joyce on RNZ head-to-head debate, when asked directly could not name an economist or indeed anyone,to support his assertion of the $11billion hole in Labour’s proposed budget.
For the dominant RNZ audience, that will be useful.
He could have named English or Bennett as both have supported him.
I intend asking our local MP at a meet the candidate meeting today, if he supports the Joyce outrageous claim.
So ask yourself, how many people in Auckland, and it has 7 places. They stopped the walk in service, because people were getting into fights. Now they just lock you out via the phone.
i read somewhere the other day that total stock numbers have fallen well below the 1991 level s and the stats above seem to back it.
sheep numbers have plummeted while total cattle has stayed static .
this would say that farming is already below it.s 1991 levels .
”Methane is produced in the guts of ruminant livestock as a result of methanogenic microorganisms (belonging to the Archaea). The composition of the animal feed is a crucial factor in controlling the amounts of methane produced, but a sheep can produce about 30 litres of methane each day and a dairy cow up to about 200.”
lifted from google
we have dropped 20 million sheep in that time which release approx 3.3 million cows worth of gas
interesting…the almost static cattle number is a surprise, though the distribution is still an issue (canty dairy herd e.g.) ….take it those methane numbers quoted are robust?
might be a little on the light side due to the cattle herd changing from beef to dairy
i will stand by the fact that nz has reduced its cattle emissions since 1990 till proved otherwise
since 1990 nz population has increased from 3.3-4.7 million
Allometrics suggest that human respiration is around 251g co2 per day.metabolic respiration from decomposers of human excreta is around 50% of respiration emissions it would be statistically significant.
I’m not so sure about that. Not a farming quibble, more a stats quibble. I wouldn’t call it “static”, even if the line’s nearly horizontal.
Look at the scale of the chart.
The numbers in the actual data tables show about 8.8million cows in 1994, 9.6M in 2002, and 10.3Mil in 2014 (an increase of 7% on 2002).
You’re right about the decline of 20mil-odd sheep, though.
Bob McCoskie is simply lying. Hardly surprising, I have noticed that the fuckwits from the Family Fist are chronic liars – I guess that deliberately lying is just part of their moral code.
Bob McCroskie a fundamentalist Mormon when you look into their church and Women’s Rights.
Sexual abuse .
A horid bunch of Misogynists.
McCrosky clean up your own back yard before you start telling everyone else how to live.
And frankly, she’s right. A woman shouldn’t have to pretend that she’s mentally fragile so that she can get an abortion of the basis of a threat to her mental health. It’s degrading and demeaning of women. I doubt that moving it out of the Crimes Act and into the Health arena would have any effect on the numbers of abortions being performed, but it would be more respectful of the women who require an abortion.
McCoskrie has a masters in economics. As far as I know has done little theological training but sees fit to take an ancient book literally. Ridiculous as you actually can’t take it literally it needs to be interpreted. It says little about abortion except making it clear that a fetus is not the same status as a human being. For instance it recommends the death penalty for murder but not for causing a miscarriage. Exodus 21 22-25. What the Bible is very clear and consistent on is that I we should feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Jesus goes so far as to say that people who don’t do this are going to hell. So I guess that since McCoskrie tends to support right wing parties he is going to he’ll.
“We are now seeing signs of bubbles in more and more parts of the capital market where we wouldn’t have expected them,” he said in Frankfurt, noting property prices in advanced economies had hit record levels.
Making a case for tighter monetary policy a day before ECB governors are expected to unveil plans to reduce money printing due to the stronger economy, he welcomed gradually ending loose monetary policy.
“The central banks must, however, plot a middle way that averts massive losses on the markets,” he cautioned.”
something I hope GR is highly conscious of, especially as we reduce the main driver to our economic growth, immigration at the same time….its going to require one hell of a juggling act.
I think I would need to have a serious disconnect with the reality of life in NZ if I was to believe that less than 1 in every 200 beneficiaries smokes a bit of weed.
Beating people with a bigger stick never improves conditions for anyone. We can’t force people to be the best they can be, it needs to come from within us. We have to want it.
The worst thing we can do is push the disenfranchised further away with Jackboot policies, we’ve watched this approach fail for centuries. The best thing we can do is to get about creating signposted, alluring, climbable pathways to satisfaction and pride….and yep, if the guy is a stoner, forestry or long-haul truck driving is probably not the best path. It appears people are pretty good at working this out for themselves, I think this is what gets us to that suspect less than 1 in 200 has a puff figure.
A long term, sustainable and successful solution to any social problem will invariably have it’s feet planted in love.
Ruth Richardson in 1991 slashed benefits. That was designed to incentivise job seeking ( based on a right wing lie that unemployed do not want to work). Since that time benefits have never recovered. Can we agree it is a failed policy and it is time to try something evidence based?
Secondly, why is ok for white employed people to do drugs? And they do, in great numbers. In my circle it is almost all who vote Nats or Act. The lefties stick with alcohol. That “evidence” is as goid as Tolley’s and Richardson before her and all those in between who did not rectify it.
In addition it waa decided we could have full employment or low inflation. We chose low inflation and now pillory those victims we know cannot get work because of it
In addition it waa decided we could have full employment or low inflation. We chose low inflation and now pillory those victims we know cannot get work because of it
@ tracey (18.2) … no doubt creepy junior is still living off the fat of the land and driving about in his state of the art vehicle, boasting about all his (non) achievements in life, while looking for a photo op, just like Saint Dr Sir daddy!
Are the offspring of former PMs, included in the life time travel perks, or does that only apply to the retired PM and his/her spouse?
I think I would need to have a serious disconnect with the reality of life in NZ if I was to believe that less than 1 in every 200 beneficiaries smokes a bit of weed.
So, I take it that some research into it has come out that you disagree with and you’re falling back on you beliefs that have just been proved wrong?
I don’t need to refer to research Draco, I just go about my day with my eyes and nostrils open. Do you honestly believe that less than 1 in every 200 beneficiaries smokes dope? National average, about 1 in every 12 adults smokes occasionally or more frequently, beneficiary average, 1 in every 225?….I don’t believe it and I think we’re fooling ourselves if we do.
I don’t think it matters beyond determining how best to address the situation and stopping benefit payments or forced rehab will create more problems than are solved.
No, you can assume I don’t accept all research as bona fide. I’m sure you’ve seen research that denies human induced climate change.
Not testing those people that chose not to attend a job interview because drug testing was part of the potential employer’s induction process will of course provide false numbers. I think we’re foolish to accept them as accurate.
I can introduce you to 5 beneficiaries that smoke dope Draco. I don’t know 1200 beneficiaries, I don’t know 100. I suspect most of us could tell a similar story. Cherry picking skewed research does us no favours.
Talking out my arse? Do you honestly believe that less than 1 in 225 beneficiaries smokes weed? It’s not me with 2 sets of vocal chords.
umm d-mac you don’t hang around with beneficiaries all day do you being a employer and working stiff and all so where are your nostrils smelling the weed?
Actually there is real evidence that the poor do less drugs and alcohol than everyone else. I went to a presentation about the growing up in New Zealand study. There were lots of negatives for children from the poorest households. The one positive was they were less likely to suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome. There mother’s couldn’t afford alchohol
“If Ohio is anything like Florida, which also has a drug-testing program, Schaffer will find that the large majority of welfare recipients are neither drug users nor drug dealers. From 2011 to 2012, just 108 of the 4,086 people who took a drug test failed—a rate of 2.6 percent, compared to a national drug use rate of over 8 percent. The total cost to Florida taxpayers? $45,780.
The most colossal failure of this policy was in Arizona, which passed a drug-testing law in 2009. In 2012, an evaluation of the program had startling results: After three years and 87,000 screenings, only one person had failed the drug test, with huge costs for the state, which saved a few hundred dollars by denying benefits, compared to the hundreds of thousands spent to conduct the tests.’
Well folks I don’t know if I am seeing things or if this is not a position for a slave I have just been reading in my local rag.
“Seeking a Nanny/Cleaner”
“Nanny Cleaner required for full-time position. Nanny/Cleaner will be taking care of child, ages 10 months, 10 years & my Aged Mom. Your responsibilities with the children include: driving children to and from school, taking children to the park, reading to children, playing with children in home. Other duties include light cleaning, some meals & occasional laundry. Nanny is required to have at least a month of experience, as well as CPR. First Aid and French is an asset. Attributes such as sense of humour, caring & responsible are a plus.
Hours are 9am – 7pm Monday to Friday. The wage is $500pw & vacation pay is included.”
I have worked this out as 50 hours a week at $10 per hour. Firstly are we allowed to pay beneath the minimum wage these days. Secondly is including the holiday pay into that $500 legal – and if so that would bring down the hourly rate even further.
I have omitted the person and their contacts but needless I must add – it is a male who is requiring these services. He obviously has no idea what it is like to look after children, plus an aged Mum whom he obviously wants this “slave ” to toilet and keep an eye on and cleaning and laundry.
Good luck with his job advertisement but if this is the calibre of work that Tolley is hoping our young people will be going into – poor hours, poor pay, no holiday pay or sick pay – then she needs to vacate her cabinet seat and retire.
Also I heard this morning that there have been thousands of complaints about the very subject above to advocates etc – complaints ranged from termination without any required reason, no security of tenure etc etc. Brave old NZ – she is in a sad state these days.
At the petrol station, chatting to strangers… ‘wow fuel is getting expensive’, they reply.. ‘it sure is’… so I say ” did you know national have introduced 18 new taxes, including six fuel taxes since they took office”.. they reply, ” really, I didn’t know that”, I say…’this year I’m voting for change”, they respond… “sounds like we need change”…’ yes we do.. have a great day’… ‘thanks love you too’
At the Dr’s…. crowded waiting room, talking to more strangers… ‘wow we can vote next week’… someone responds ‘they’ve been making all sorts of promises lately’.. I respond… “I know, and how about that steven joyce, turns out he took 8 Economic Papers at varisty and failed the lot of them”… someone else says ‘did he really?’… yes I say, and he is looking after the money’… another person says.. ‘that’s a worry’. “It sure is, and he has the cheek to say all the qualified economists are wrong and he is right”…. someone else says… ‘the only hole he has is one in his head”.. … then I was called for my appointment…. ‘have a great day everyone, nice to talk with you all’… ‘you too and nice to talk with you as well” they reply.
It’s up to us to inform everyone, every moment we can if we want change.
Their website also links to two generalised pro-life groups. It is also notable that this ad smearing Labour just happens to come from a special needs advocacy group in the context of a campaign in which National has been receiving bad press for its attitudes towards related issues.
“Later tonight will bring a fresh poll, with TVNZ set to release an update from Colmar Brunton that is already being touted as ‘explosive’. The last one certainly was, putting Labour in front of National for the first time in many years.
That poll was taken between Saturday August 26 and Wednesday August 30. The Reid Research poll published on Sunday, which showed Labour at 39.4 percent and National at 43.3 percent, was taken from August 22 to August 30, so is seen as slightly less up-to-date than the Colmar Brunton poll.” https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/07/46589/election-17days
The U.S. military in Afghanistan apologized Wednesday for distributing leaflets featuring an image “highly offensive” to Muslims.
The leaflets dropped Tuesday night over parts of Parwan province showed the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith, printed on the image of a dog, an animal viewed by many Muslims as unclean.
Yep. In a panic the Nats have removed their arrogant ‘keep moving forward’ poster from the Auckland City Mission. The Auckland City Mission of course looks after people who the Nats have clearly sent backward while they were moving forward.
The placement and then removal of the poster is symbolic of their blind indifference.
Of further interest is that the church has an agreement with the billboard company that no advertising shall be placed with might cause offence. Clearly the National Party does cause offence. 🙂
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In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
Dear friends, it’s been a covidious year,A testing time for all of us here—Citizens of an island nationIn a state of managed isolation,A team (someone said) five million strong,Making it up as we went along:Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion,Without any wild excess ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021Editor's Choice7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ...
Scottish doctor Malcolm Kendrick looks at the pandemic and the responses to it 30th December 2020 I have not written much about COVID19 recently. What can be said? In my opinion the world has simply gone bonkers. The best description can be found in Dante’s Inferno, written many hundreds of ...
I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL for your ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Covid-19 fears accelerated banks’ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...
Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and today’s anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a “torch being passed to a new generation”. Two years later and one day apart, ...
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...
As CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures.As we enter the New Year I ...
The Prada Cup challenger series starts today. Suzanne McFadden goes behind the scenes of the world's only live yachting regatta to see what's in store for the next five weeks. At 6am on race days, Iain Murray wakes up and immediately checks the weather outside his Auckland window. “It’s all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Raquel Peel, Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland This story contains spoilers for Bridgerton The first season of Bridgerton, Netflix’s new hit show based on Julia Quinn’s novels, premiered on December 25 last year. The show is set in London, during the ...
The New Zealand government believes its own negotiations with Rio Tinto will be resolved "fairly quickly" now there is certainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter. ...
Amanda Thompson and her family are attempting to cut back on the meat, so they gave all the vego sausies the local supermarket had to offer a hoon on the barbie. Here are the results.I was a vegetarian once. Even the best of us take a well-meaning wrong turn on ...
The Taxpayers’ Union welcomes the call by Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons for a shift to land value based rates charges. Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "Local government leaders across the country should join in Fitzsimons’s call ...
It’s been described as ‘pointless revenge’, but impeaching the president has a firm moral purpose, argues Michael Blake – setting a limit to what sorts of action a society will accept.A House majority, including 10 Republicans, voted today to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection”. The vote will initiate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Lead Academic Teacher – Politics & Social Science (Swinburne Online), Swinburne University of Technology In a historic vote today, Donald Trump became the only US president to be impeached twice. By a margin of 232–197, the Democrat-controlled US House of ...
Hurrah. The PM is back to posting her announcements on the government’s official website, her deputy is back in the business of self-congratulation, Rio Tinto is back in the business of sucking up cheap electricity to produce aluminium at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. And overseas students (some, anyway) can come ...
The electricity sector, Government and people of Southland are rejoicing after Tiwai Point aluminium smelter owner Rio Tinto announced the major industrial would be open until the end of 2024, Marc Daalder reports Stakeholders in the electricity sector and across Southland are celebrating the extension of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter's ...
If you’ve been on social media this week, you may well have come across a surge in interest in sea shanties. We asked a veteran of the style why. In case you missed it, soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum. If that sentence is even ...
“It is basic human decency to speak up and protect any vulnerable child from harm, so withholding information in child abuse cases and allowing the abuse to happen by not speaking up is, put simply, a cowardly move,” says Jess McVicar Co-Leader ...
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Despite the team of experts putting it straight that Joyce n Billshit have told utter falsehoods re- fiscal hole. The RNZ webpage continues to use a title which still gives the lie oxygen
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/election-2017/338839/fiscal-hole-hit-the-havoc-button
And in my opinion she’s very soft on Joyce in just calling him intemperate, rather than a liar intent on misleading the public. Going on about the “Havoc Claim” as it’s called in political science…… bullshit! even the political scientist call shit like this what it is – Dirty Politics!!
Straight out of the Dr. Joseph Goebbels manual:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
That senile old git Richard Prebble is also making shit up – featured on the Herald site.
Classy. Very classy.
Oh. Snap. There were no comments on open mike when I started on my comment below on the same OP.
I don’t think she needs to be tougher on Joyce, he is already looking like damaged goods, and Hawyward’s explanation comes across as calm and rational, rather than adding to the Joyce-style hysteria.
Nah, Joyce is the type of person that needs a good kicking before he learns stuff right proper in his ed.
Would we be okay with this being said about a female politician?
Just asking, like.
Apologies I was of course speaking metaphorically, as it seems he keeps on banging on with his lies. Bit like a child with chocolate covered face adamantly telling mummy he didn’t eat the cake, HONEST!!
Besides, if someone with a penchant for violence were to kick Dildo Joyce in the head, his demonstration of his thickness would mean the kicker more likely to end up with a damaged foot.
Respect for owning your slip up. We all veer into inappropriate language from time to time, and should always be ready to be pulled up on it.
Controlling the message via their control over RNZ, wouldn’t hurt labour to attack IMO Joyce and Blinglish have burnt a lot of capital over this.
Frame it as general dishonesty with other examples to depower the numbers meme into more general lying behaviour to get people realising this is what they are, lying deceptive wreckers.
That’s all they know at this stage, it’s called fear mongering, creating doubt in the voters mind.
They really are desperate !! But the sheep will follow sadly
I know in democratic countries you are not supposed to put ex politicians on trial, but I’d happily make an exception for Richard Prebble. What a traitor to the left.
Left? What left?
Prebble
Douglas
Caygill
Goff
Dunne
Bassett
Should probably also go non-politician and imprison Fay and Richwhite as well.
Well, I see Prebble has an OP in the NZ Herald, that even the NZH twitter won’t directly link to:
The comments so far to the tweet are by the unimpressed – calling Prebble irrelevant.
Every time I see an op-ed by Prebble I stop reading it after the ‘by Richard Prebble’.
The man who doesnt know the difference between weather and climate. Sadly he is not alone in that.
He’d have plenty of mates if that’s your criteria.
Yes. I read his Advertorial in the Herald this morning. Typical of him. Shameless by the Herald. Not he calls Ardern, Jacinda.
Bronwyn Hayward is a political academic the mainstream media needs to use more for political analysis. Posted on RNZ last night, she explains the way Steven Joyce used the “havoc claim” gambit in his false allegations of an 11 billion dollar hole in the NZLP budget.
Hayward says this gambit can undermine democracy and turn off potential voters. However, it can, as in the Joyce instance, blow back on the user of the havoc claim, and damage their vote. This happened because Ardern called it out pretty quickly in the leaders debate, and because many economists and mainstream media journalists critiqued the false claim strongly.
Furthermore, Hayward estimates that NZers have become more savvy about political false claims having watched overseas elections, such as in the US.
Well said – my guess is that the Nats want a term in Opposition, hoping that the next Govt will force the Greens and NZF to work together – could be fun
Oh, I expect Joyce will be correct in hind-sight, as the Banking Cartel and International Rating Agencies smash the NZD (floating international lending rate) under a Labour lead Govt.
Of course – it’s not as if rating agencies haven’t recognized Bill’s fiscal genius – with downgrades.
the dollar will likely fall (but not necessarily crash as it is likely to do under a continuation of the current settings) mainly due to a reigning in of immigration and investment restrictions as stated by Labour….and that will be great for our exporters. The RBNZ has been bemoaning the dollars strength for years and even told Key to put the brakes on immigration to stop the upward pressure…Key of course knew better.
I imagine the tax shelter ‘industry’ will be feeling a chill too.
Isnt a lower NZD great for exporters and shite for importers and kiwis spending their tax cuts on overseas holidays? Pardon me while I weep
God, I hope so.
Let No Flower of the Spring Pass by Us – Wisdom of Solomon 2:1-24
(Bible quote for the day – but respect for the Bolshevik right to atheism)
Atheism predated Bolshevism by centuries (even millennia depending on your definition of the term):
Knutzen after Ulpian
Capitalist’s response to a crisis:
“Prices for flights out of South Florida have skyrocketed as high as more than US$3000 (NZ$4166) per person for domestic flights, which would otherwise cost a fraction of the price during what’s typically one of the slowest times of the year for air travel.”
We see the same response to housing, Christchurch’s earthquake, and so on.
Where there’s a buck to be made!
Has Trump erected big tents in a safety zone, called them Trump Tents and charging???
To be fair he would only be following the Clinton’s example in Haiti.
From memory I heard stories like that about uber recently as well in another city after another disaster.
air nz put on $50 flights so i and many others could get to ch ch to help with the clean up after the second one i recall
Looks like the Labour Party, in government, would support the Green party policy to re-structure and improve Work and Income.
Turei led the way with great sacrifice to her political career, the Labour Party look to be following.
Good
Another Disability meeting Wagner couldnt be bothered with and Act didnt bother eitber. Speaks volumes.
Carolyn_nth
Both those links take me to the same Newsroom post (which I hadn’t seen – so thanks for that). Was there a second piece to which you were trying to link as well?
Sorry, think I just didn’t format the one link correctly. Just one article.
“Robertson was less clear than Mathers in his initial answer on whether Labour would increase the rate of supported living payments, but when pressed for a ‘yes or no’ answer by moderator Susie Ferguson, said: ‘Yes.'”
Disappointing (and far less convincing) that he had to be “pressed” for an answer.
Moreover, unlike the Greens, Labour didn’t commit to an amount.
We have a chance to choose better, and clearly the Greens are the better choice.
Paigon is my newly discovered word/term of today. Seems appropriate to introduce it here.
This is great, fantastic news.
So then the next things it would be nice to know are:
– who would be the Minister for Social Development in a Labour-led government?
– how would they fix the culture at WINZ?
– what relevant experience have they got in effecting cultural change?
– is there budget for it?
A.
PS I’m not trolling, I honestly want to know what the plan is!
I think most of that is dependent on the size of Labour’s coalition partner and which party it is.
The culture change wouldn’t necessarily need a budget – issue the directives and the staff must follow.
NZ1 would, I suspect, be focussed on the very young and very old, so would maybe have associate ministers in those areas.
Greens have more of a holistic approach, so might be wanting the top slot.
Carmel Sepuloni is the Social Development go-to for Labour. Seems to be pretty good.
> The culture change wouldn’t necessarily need a budget
I don’t want to make this all about money, but I think it is going to cost more, if only because more beneficiaries will get their proper entitlements. But also I think some turnover of personnel will be needed and that is going to come at a cost (golden handshakes, recruitment costs, etc).
> – issue the directives and the staff must follow.
That’s not how life works, you can’t change workplace culture by saying ‘I now direct that everyone behave differently’.
I don’t know what the Nats (and previous Govts did) to stuff up the culture at WINZ so comprehensively but I think it’s going to take a lot of work and time to reverse that. Inspirational leadership will be necessary but not sufficient.
> Carmel Sepuloni is the Social Development go-to for Labour. Seems to be pretty good.
Never been a Minister let alone a Cabinet Minister, never been a senior manager in any form of organisation, never led a culture change project as far as I can see, I have no confidence that she can do the business.
A.
“….never been a senior manager in any form of organisation, never led a culture change project as far as I can see, I have no confidence that she can do the business.”
Anne Tolley, Paula Bennet, Gerry Brownlee…shall I continue?
Right, they lacked management experience when they entered Parliament, they couldn’t fix the culture at WINZ even if they wanted to which they don’t, nor (I fear) can Sepuloni.
A.
If someone else failed to do a job they didn’t want to do, does that mean it is a particularly difficult job?
The Minister isn’t involved in the hands on implementation of a culture change (though are ultimately responsible)….that is the CEOs role.
Turnover would only be needed in the case of misconduct. And if people end up getting more money, this isn’t a bad thing. If there’s a blowout, it can be handled.
And actually, you can change workplace culture by making reasonable changes to workplace expectations. And if a few folks don’t play along, give them fair opportunity to do their jobs, then go through the disciplinary process.
As for Sepuloni, does CEO of Vaka Tautua count? Google it.
edit: I did it for you
> As for Sepuloni, does CEO of Vaka Tautua count?
Hmm yes, that would help
2 1/2 years as CEO, apparently – between terms in parliament.
We shall hope it helps
meh
Seemed to be a fairly weak reservation you had in the first place, which turned out to be complete bunk.
we should be concerned…it would appear that whatever it is that ails Joyce is contagious.
Meet back here in a year or two’s time, by then we’ll know if the problem’s all fixed or not!
dunno about fixed. But I’d expect a significant improvement.
Trump had lots of business and management experience…
Turnover may only be at the very top. The workers want to be compassionate, most people go into those jobs because of that, not the pay scale. Currently KPI’s encourage meaness. That change will cost nothing.
Everyone currently in a cabinet position had never done it before 2008 and many had not done anything meaningful in this line in their businesses.
Ministers are more akin to a Director than a CEO. And even CEO’s are not in charge of operations as a rule. You are talking about operations. They hire people for this, they do not do it themselves. .
I was subjected to the change from Labour to National management as a ‘Client’. The WINZ staff certainly changed their attitude.
“Bully from the top on down the line” is how the change was applied. That and negative PR about bennies. Some of the better staff left. The new style upset them. Others stayed and thrived with the bullying style.
> Some of the better staff left. The new style upset them. Others stayed and thrived with the bullying style.
Interesting. That reinforces for me that there is going to need to be some staff changes
A.
The secret diary of Antoine:
heh.
continued:
Well, I have my doubts but I guess we’ll see when breakfast time comes
It couldhave been turei (if Greens made it back) but Ardern ruled that out and Turei can only return if she wins Te Tai Tonga
Thank you Carolyn,
As a polio victim 1947, I am now needing all the aids. So a fairer way of accessing needs would be great. Some products I need are a heavy burden on the purse.
When I enquired, my Dr”s Nurse offered me a mobility card.
None of my other needs seemed to feature. So clear guidelines? Great
Another 1News Colmar-Brunton tonight…
Tolley wants to punish the youth for not having a job. Would it not make better sense to give them free education/training instead. Maybe they haven’t got a job because they have no skills. Without an education or skills they probably have naught to feel good about themselves.
I now understand why the Nats are so anti any kind of free tertiary education, it’s because Joyce pissed around at varsity when it was free for him and he thinks everyone else will do the same.
We know what will happen. We do not need a crystal ball.
http://metro.co.uk/2012/02/29/government-scraps-benefit-sanctions-from-work-experience-schemes-335905/
Cheers for the link Trace about the UK, that was interesting, so Tolleys idea has been tried and failed overseas, a bit like national standards etc, failed borrowed policy
But it hits the hot buttons of those soft middle white voters…
garner to his credit has just demolished tolleys shiney new policy
If you have time can you say more or post a link. I cannot watch because I refuse to honour Richardson with my eyes and ears.
went on about how only 430 people have failed under the new testing scheme they do have less than 1% of course tolley made some shit up on the fly to counter it , also a laywer pointed out that these are the very people that will be pushed into a life of crime if the dole is cut ,
Thanks. Given the low numbers revealled when Key tried this on, you wonder where (or to whom) the $72m would go. My guess is nowhere, just like the incentive to teachers to go to lower deciles was kept quiet but was included in bragging about spending on education.
they just had a couple more fallas on ( some guy from Vend? and a newshub producer ) they demolished it as well , line of the day, ”there’s more drug use in the young nats”
Love it!
Here’s the link from Garner interviewing Tolley this morning.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/nats-accused-of-going-after-the-brash-trash.html
+1 BWaghorn, if the interview comes up online will try and remember to post it laters.
I know of a couple of teenagers with a deadbeat dad and an absent mother, they aren’t working, or training etc. They never had a chance to start with. Their parents are uneducated and due to poverty they don’t see any hope for themselves. They can’t afford further education, and they have no dreams because they feel they have no future. And it’s reasons like that why I’m a massive supporter for free tertiary education. To give EVERYONE a chance no matter their past, background or upbringing.
Any legitimate job training is welcomed by me. Cut a swathe tgrough heaps of PTEs first.
jobs with good wages is what they need , the government needs to be a job creator, we aren’t all equal in our in how we cope with life . if it takes having 10 guys leaning on shovels to get them out of the house and feel some pride so be it.
couldn’t agree more about the government being a job creator/supplier.
the ripple out benefits are positive from seeing adults in the house, leave every day, to go to work.
i maintain that kiwirail should have (be forced to?) award its recent loco contracts within aotearoa. only 25% more expensive.
unfortunately the benefits would not appear on kiwirails balance sheet, but would be real none the less.
My concern is that there is not the well paid jobs even if the worker has the training and the skills. The world is changing from people being employed to people being self employed, contract workers. I don’t know if that is a good thing, but it’s increasingly difficult to get and keep a job these days.
Part of it, is that now everyone wants experience from young people and are unwilling to train them, NZ employers don’t want to pay for top skills from Kiwis when they are trained, it’s cheap and easy to get rid of people as it’s just a process with little costs involved, so a change in management often means that for no apparent reason (or in the case of Ms Harrison, fraud) they go around culling out their rivals to be seen to be doing something.
One of the many reasons for NZ’s low productivity is that there is an adversarial relationship between employee’s and employee’s that stems from the Rogernomics era. There needs to be a rethink on that as well as a way to create new high paid jobs in sustainable areas not just cars, cows, coal and construction with migrant labour being used to mask our appalling wages and labour laws and a system that is producing unequally educated people (illiterate or over qualified) who can’t find jobs, because many of our industries are based on low or very specific skills, with employers who just can’t be bothered training anyone when has become so easy to replace or look over a local worker for an overseas one in an overseas worker pool of billions. with the NZ taxpayer helpfully subsidising their income with working for families, accomodation benefit, free health and schooling, ACC is it all goes wrong and free super after 10 years. What overseas worker is not going to go for that!
+1
Remember that economically NZ made a decision a few decades ago to have low inflation or no unemployment. It chose low inflation. Accordingly there will always be unemployed under this economy. To bash people you need to be unemployed to meet your low inflation target is beyond cruel.
This article might interest you. It shows what a health relationship between Union and Management can achieve. It is a long read, but a good read.
https://hbr.org/1979/07/quality-of-work-life-learning-from-tarrytown
Thanks Tracey
Sue Bradford is right we need to nurture our youth not herd them around like sheep and penalize them If they get a universal wage and offer them starts in a trade that is way better than bills policy we need to nurture there wairua self worth ect teach them the work culture and let them no and give them a bright future.
TOPS should be in that debate as he deserves it Its Just Bill trying to eliminate competition.
Any employers ripping off there workers should be treated the same as a shop lifter as it is still theft and we need to let these people no that it is theft we should name and shame these employers they are a small % of employers but they are getting away with THEFT. Bryce is a good reporter good to see the likes of him back on our TVs more.
Yes, time to stop fines and start imprisoning bosses who do not have contracts and/or pay less than minimum wage. EG kiwifruit growers recently found over 50% jn that position. No howls from the public or media for personal responsibility and consequences…
Agree eco Maori/kiwi (9). Theft of labour is a serious crime in my book as well and should be treated as such, with harsh penalties dished out to unscrupulous employers!
We know what the Natz’s attitude to it is … ignore the issue completely! Be interesting to find out Labour/Greens/NZF perspective on it is and how they would address labour theft.
I like seeing all the positive news about our culture Maori culture. In my view Maori culture Is all of the people of NZ culture Its is part of what makes NZ culture unique its part of what makes us Kiwis.
Lett’s celebrate our unique Maori culture it makes us unique in our world. All cultures in NZ can be celebrated to.
Susie just did a pretty good job at making Tolley squirm re her latest round of beneficiary bashing. Hopefully audio up in due course.
The Drug Foundation says cracking down on young beneficiaries who use drugs, could push them from cannabis onto methamphetamine because it’s harder to detect.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201857588/beneficiary-drug-crackdown-could-push-users-to-meth
It could also push young addicts to cold turkey and possibly suicide. I doubt their plan is to provide Oasis type help immediately to anyone taking it up.
Push an addict further into poverty… but then Tolley says MSD do not collect the stats on how many on beneficiaries. A dead beneficiary = efficient economy under Nats?
Joyce on RNZ head-to-head debate, when asked directly could not name an economist or indeed anyone,to support his assertion of the $11billion hole in Labour’s proposed budget.
For the dominant RNZ audience, that will be useful.
He could have named English or Bennett as both have supported him.
I intend asking our local MP at a meet the candidate meeting today, if he supports the Joyce outrageous claim.
yep, well done that man!(Robertson) in point blank calling Dildo (Joyce) the liar that he is on RNZ. Video link here
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/338857/video-finance-debate-national-vs-labour
If you need another reason to not vote for national this one should help.
This service is now down to 7 place on a Friday.
https://www.healthpoint.co.nz/dentistry/general-dentist/auckland-dhb-oral-health-service-regional-1/
So ask yourself, how many people in Auckland, and it has 7 places. They stopped the walk in service, because people were getting into fights. Now they just lock you out via the phone.
@Adam – shocking.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/environment/environmental-reporting-series/environmental-indicators/Home/Land/livestock-numbers
i read somewhere the other day that total stock numbers have fallen well below the 1991 level s and the stats above seem to back it.
sheep numbers have plummeted while total cattle has stayed static .
this would say that farming is already below it.s 1991 levels .
”Methane is produced in the guts of ruminant livestock as a result of methanogenic microorganisms (belonging to the Archaea). The composition of the animal feed is a crucial factor in controlling the amounts of methane produced, but a sheep can produce about 30 litres of methane each day and a dairy cow up to about 200.”
lifted from google
we have dropped 20 million sheep in that time which release approx 3.3 million cows worth of gas
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/environment/environmental-reporting-series/environmental-indicators/Home/Land/livestock-numbers
interesting…the almost static cattle number is a surprise, though the distribution is still an issue (canty dairy herd e.g.) ….take it those methane numbers quoted are robust?
http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/science/greenhouse-gases/agricultural-greenhouse-gases/methane-emissions
might be a little on the light side due to the cattle herd changing from beef to dairy
i will stand by the fact that nz has reduced its cattle emissions since 1990 till proved otherwise
https://muchadoaboutclimate.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/how-much-methane-does-a-cow-actually-produce/
since 1990 nz population has increased from 3.3-4.7 million
Allometrics suggest that human respiration is around 251g co2 per day.metabolic respiration from decomposers of human excreta is around 50% of respiration emissions it would be statistically significant.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.1330660313/abstract
plus the cars the come etc but that’s another story
I’m not so sure about that. Not a farming quibble, more a stats quibble. I wouldn’t call it “static”, even if the line’s nearly horizontal.
Look at the scale of the chart.
The numbers in the actual data tables show about 8.8million cows in 1994, 9.6M in 2002, and 10.3Mil in 2014 (an increase of 7% on 2002).
You’re right about the decline of 20mil-odd sheep, though.
Testing…
WTF, just saw this on my FB feed.
I don’t remember this policy announcement, can someone please tell me when it was released? /sarc
http://bobmccoskrie.com/?p=20234#sthash.I9f8emZU.dpbs
“Down’s syndrome advocacy group condemn Jacinda Arden’s pledge to introduce abortion up to birth for disabilities “
Bob McCoskie is simply lying. Hardly surprising, I have noticed that the fuckwits from the Family Fist are chronic liars – I guess that deliberately lying is just part of their moral code.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/05/jacinda-ardern-decriminalise-abortion-new-zealand-election
She said that abortion should be decriminalized. A quite different thing.
Yeah, you should read the FB comments to McC. Many are pointing out as usual, he’s making shit up to fit his world view.
I am not surprised.
Bob McCroskie a fundamentalist Mormon when you look into their church and Women’s Rights.
Sexual abuse .
A horid bunch of Misogynists.
McCrosky clean up your own back yard before you start telling everyone else how to live.
And frankly, she’s right. A woman shouldn’t have to pretend that she’s mentally fragile so that she can get an abortion of the basis of a threat to her mental health. It’s degrading and demeaning of women. I doubt that moving it out of the Crimes Act and into the Health arena would have any effect on the numbers of abortions being performed, but it would be more respectful of the women who require an abortion.
And prove that mental illness to 2 different doctors. Imagine you live in a rural area where seeing 1 is hard enough?
McCoskrie has a masters in economics. As far as I know has done little theological training but sees fit to take an ancient book literally. Ridiculous as you actually can’t take it literally it needs to be interpreted. It says little about abortion except making it clear that a fetus is not the same status as a human being. For instance it recommends the death penalty for murder but not for causing a miscarriage. Exodus 21 22-25. What the Bible is very clear and consistent on is that I we should feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Jesus goes so far as to say that people who don’t do this are going to hell. So I guess that since McCoskrie tends to support right wing parties he is going to he’ll.
“We are now seeing signs of bubbles in more and more parts of the capital market where we wouldn’t have expected them,” he said in Frankfurt, noting property prices in advanced economies had hit record levels.
Making a case for tighter monetary policy a day before ECB governors are expected to unveil plans to reduce money printing due to the stronger economy, he welcomed gradually ending loose monetary policy.
“The central banks must, however, plot a middle way that averts massive losses on the markets,” he cautioned.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11918620
something I hope GR is highly conscious of, especially as we reduce the main driver to our economic growth, immigration at the same time….its going to require one hell of a juggling act.
I think I would need to have a serious disconnect with the reality of life in NZ if I was to believe that less than 1 in every 200 beneficiaries smokes a bit of weed.
Beating people with a bigger stick never improves conditions for anyone. We can’t force people to be the best they can be, it needs to come from within us. We have to want it.
The worst thing we can do is push the disenfranchised further away with Jackboot policies, we’ve watched this approach fail for centuries. The best thing we can do is to get about creating signposted, alluring, climbable pathways to satisfaction and pride….and yep, if the guy is a stoner, forestry or long-haul truck driving is probably not the best path. It appears people are pretty good at working this out for themselves, I think this is what gets us to that suspect less than 1 in 200 has a puff figure.
A long term, sustainable and successful solution to any social problem will invariably have it’s feet planted in love.
Ruth Richardson in 1991 slashed benefits. That was designed to incentivise job seeking ( based on a right wing lie that unemployed do not want to work). Since that time benefits have never recovered. Can we agree it is a failed policy and it is time to try something evidence based?
Secondly, why is ok for white employed people to do drugs? And they do, in great numbers. In my circle it is almost all who vote Nats or Act. The lefties stick with alcohol. That “evidence” is as goid as Tolley’s and Richardson before her and all those in between who did not rectify it.
In addition it waa decided we could have full employment or low inflation. We chose low inflation and now pillory those victims we know cannot get work because of it
QFT.
I wonder how Max Key is doing.
@ tracey (18.2) … no doubt creepy junior is still living off the fat of the land and driving about in his state of the art vehicle, boasting about all his (non) achievements in life, while looking for a photo op, just like Saint Dr Sir daddy!
Are the offspring of former PMs, included in the life time travel perks, or does that only apply to the retired PM and his/her spouse?
I bet he can afford illegal drugs. Does it say the same thing about his parents, if he does, that it says about parents of the poor?
So, I take it that some research into it has come out that you disagree with and you’re falling back on you beliefs that have just been proved wrong?
I don’t need to refer to research Draco, I just go about my day with my eyes and nostrils open. Do you honestly believe that less than 1 in every 200 beneficiaries smokes dope? National average, about 1 in every 12 adults smokes occasionally or more frequently, beneficiary average, 1 in every 225?….I don’t believe it and I think we’re fooling ourselves if we do.
I don’t think it matters beyond determining how best to address the situation and stopping benefit payments or forced rehab will create more problems than are solved.
Isn’t it possible they can’t afford it like the white privileged folks born to the wealthy?
No, you actually need to refer to research because otherwise you’re wrong.
As you don’t refer to research we can safely assume that you’re talking out your arse and know absolutely nothing.
No, you can assume I don’t accept all research as bona fide. I’m sure you’ve seen research that denies human induced climate change.
Not testing those people that chose not to attend a job interview because drug testing was part of the potential employer’s induction process will of course provide false numbers. I think we’re foolish to accept them as accurate.
I can introduce you to 5 beneficiaries that smoke dope Draco. I don’t know 1200 beneficiaries, I don’t know 100. I suspect most of us could tell a similar story. Cherry picking skewed research does us no favours.
Talking out my arse? Do you honestly believe that less than 1 in 225 beneficiaries smokes weed? It’s not me with 2 sets of vocal chords.
Tui, right there!
Most definitely. That was another three paragraphs of BS.
You cannot expand you’re anecdote to the entire population.
They can’t afford it, so, yes.
OK we’re going to have to agree to disagree then Draco, I’ll take your anecodal point. I’m in the Far North, much of it isn’t purchased, it’s grown.
But… I’m still calling you out, I bet you know 3 beneficiaries that like a puff, now name another 750 that don’t.
I don’t know any beneficiaries that smoke marijuana or use any other drugs.
And eve if I did it’d still be anecdotal. That’s why we have research – so that we don’t make decisions upon anecdotal BS.
umm d-mac you don’t hang around with beneficiaries all day do you being a employer and working stiff and all so where are your nostrils smelling the weed?
Actually there is real evidence that the poor do less drugs and alcohol than everyone else. I went to a presentation about the growing up in New Zealand study. There were lots of negatives for children from the poorest households. The one positive was they were less likely to suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome. There mother’s couldn’t afford alchohol
http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-myth-of-welfare-and-drug-use
“If Ohio is anything like Florida, which also has a drug-testing program, Schaffer will find that the large majority of welfare recipients are neither drug users nor drug dealers. From 2011 to 2012, just 108 of the 4,086 people who took a drug test failed—a rate of 2.6 percent, compared to a national drug use rate of over 8 percent. The total cost to Florida taxpayers? $45,780.
The most colossal failure of this policy was in Arizona, which passed a drug-testing law in 2009. In 2012, an evaluation of the program had startling results: After three years and 87,000 screenings, only one person had failed the drug test, with huge costs for the state, which saved a few hundred dollars by denying benefits, compared to the hundreds of thousands spent to conduct the tests.’
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-irwin/20-things-poor-people-really-do_b_4533691.html
Plastic fibres found in tap water around the world, study reveals
Exclusive: Tests show billions of people globally are drinking water contaminated by plastic particles, with 83% of samples found to be polluted
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals
Eww.
Well folks I don’t know if I am seeing things or if this is not a position for a slave I have just been reading in my local rag.
“Seeking a Nanny/Cleaner”
“Nanny Cleaner required for full-time position. Nanny/Cleaner will be taking care of child, ages 10 months, 10 years & my Aged Mom. Your responsibilities with the children include: driving children to and from school, taking children to the park, reading to children, playing with children in home. Other duties include light cleaning, some meals & occasional laundry. Nanny is required to have at least a month of experience, as well as CPR. First Aid and French is an asset. Attributes such as sense of humour, caring & responsible are a plus.
Hours are 9am – 7pm Monday to Friday. The wage is $500pw & vacation pay is included.”
I have worked this out as 50 hours a week at $10 per hour. Firstly are we allowed to pay beneath the minimum wage these days. Secondly is including the holiday pay into that $500 legal – and if so that would bring down the hourly rate even further.
I have omitted the person and their contacts but needless I must add – it is a male who is requiring these services. He obviously has no idea what it is like to look after children, plus an aged Mum whom he obviously wants this “slave ” to toilet and keep an eye on and cleaning and laundry.
Good luck with his job advertisement but if this is the calibre of work that Tolley is hoping our young people will be going into – poor hours, poor pay, no holiday pay or sick pay – then she needs to vacate her cabinet seat and retire.
Also I heard this morning that there have been thousands of complaints about the very subject above to advocates etc – complaints ranged from termination without any required reason, no security of tenure etc etc. Brave old NZ – she is in a sad state these days.
Was it board and lodging provided? If not it is a bit rude to get someone to manage a 10mth old! as well as an aged Mum.
Some immigrant desperate for work will take it.
It should say board included, if it does… but it would be odd to include board for a 5 day a week job. I use “job” loosely.
At the petrol station, chatting to strangers… ‘wow fuel is getting expensive’, they reply.. ‘it sure is’… so I say ” did you know national have introduced 18 new taxes, including six fuel taxes since they took office”.. they reply, ” really, I didn’t know that”, I say…’this year I’m voting for change”, they respond… “sounds like we need change”…’ yes we do.. have a great day’… ‘thanks love you too’
At the Dr’s…. crowded waiting room, talking to more strangers… ‘wow we can vote next week’… someone responds ‘they’ve been making all sorts of promises lately’.. I respond… “I know, and how about that steven joyce, turns out he took 8 Economic Papers at varisty and failed the lot of them”… someone else says ‘did he really?’… yes I say, and he is looking after the money’… another person says.. ‘that’s a worry’. “It sure is, and he has the cheek to say all the qualified economists are wrong and he is right”…. someone else says… ‘the only hole he has is one in his head”.. … then I was called for my appointment…. ‘have a great day everyone, nice to talk with you all’… ‘you too and nice to talk with you as well” they reply.
It’s up to us to inform everyone, every moment we can if we want change.
Good on you Cinny!
Those conversations are worth way more than any social media campaign or brain farts like minister Joyce uttered.
Well done.
the first of the coronal mass ejections from the sept 4 m5 eruptions has arrived,
there is a significant forbush decrease at the southpole neutron monitors
http://www.bartol.udel.edu/~pyle/thespnplot.png
Good chance of auroras in the south tonight despite the moon.
If you are feeling a bit down, or a bit blue, this interview with Maggie Gyllenhaal will perk you right up. Time stamp 10.16sec
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96594496/advocacy-group-impersonates-labour-makes-false-abortion-claims
this lot need locking up , surely this is illegal
Saving Downs make religious lobby groups look rational – doesn’t suprise me that they’d do something this stupid.
Their website also links to two generalised pro-life groups. It is also notable that this ad smearing Labour just happens to come from a special needs advocacy group in the context of a campaign in which National has been receiving bad press for its attitudes towards related issues.
“Later tonight will bring a fresh poll, with TVNZ set to release an update from Colmar Brunton that is already being touted as ‘explosive’. The last one certainly was, putting Labour in front of National for the first time in many years.
That poll was taken between Saturday August 26 and Wednesday August 30. The Reid Research poll published on Sunday, which showed Labour at 39.4 percent and National at 43.3 percent, was taken from August 22 to August 30, so is seen as slightly less up-to-date than the Colmar Brunton poll.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/07/46589/election-17days
are the voters abandoning ship?
one lives in hope, but polls fluctuate wildly these days…
and then there are polls
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96597780/a-firsttime-maori-party-mp-may-end-up-being-kingmaker-and-a-minister
I hope the MP get squashed by the electorate. I hope, before voting, they remember whose been propping up national for the last nine years.
Labour doing deals with them will be like bargaining with Dunne or Rimmer for their vote. Yucky.
Kinda interesting that again it’s released on the eve of a debate.
Here’s the link for info on how to watch the debate tonight.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96599625/how-to-watch-the-stuff-election-debate-on-your-telly
EDIT.. Just saw this… “The High Court has been told that Gareth Morgan’s party is on 1.9 per cent in the latest 1 News Colmar Brunton poll due to be released this evening, up nearly 1 per cent.”
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/latest-polling-has-gareth-morgans-top-party-up-1-9-per-cent-but-still-not-enough-eligible-tvnz-leaders-debate
Interesting… some of his supporters were cock-a-hoop earlier this week that they would get well over 6%.
Seymour gets so much coverage for a one-,man party attracting .4% of party vote….
Sixteen years on and they’re as clueless as they ever were.
The U.S. military in Afghanistan apologized Wednesday for distributing leaflets featuring an image “highly offensive” to Muslims.
The leaflets dropped Tuesday night over parts of Parwan province showed the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith, printed on the image of a dog, an animal viewed by many Muslims as unclean.
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-afghanistan-usmilitary-apology-20170906-story.html
Work and Income contact family living for years in boarding house after media coverage to get them (hopefully) on social housing register.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/338910/ministry-contacts-family-living-in-lodge-for-seven-years
Reactionary government creates a reactionary public service sector.
Labour have a lot of work to to to make things right again.
It can be done but will need the political will.
Haha. National have taken down the billboard on wall of the City Mission.
Yep. In a panic the Nats have removed their arrogant ‘keep moving forward’ poster from the Auckland City Mission. The Auckland City Mission of course looks after people who the Nats have clearly sent backward while they were moving forward.
The placement and then removal of the poster is symbolic of their blind indifference.
Of further interest is that the church has an agreement with the billboard company that no advertising shall be placed with might cause offence. Clearly the National Party does cause offence. 🙂
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/national-billboard-removed-from-city-mission.html
How come Poll results never get leaked?
I bet Wayne Eagleson gets plenty of warning.
They do sometimes tracey. UMR’s polling for the Labour Party has been leaked a bit lately and helped spur the resignation of Andrew Little.
I was thinking of the “independent” polls rather than the party polls.
NZ First uses UMR as well, so they may have leaked it.
one news teaser ad just now said a clear leader has emerged. hold on to your knitting
…but can they govern alone…. do-do-do-do
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96592417/gareth-morgan-taking-tvnz-to-court
this is just plane wrong , hopefully he gets to 3% in the poll