But those contracts aren’t protected by the Residential Tenancies Act, giving people in emergency housing a shaky claim on the title “tenant”, and no certainty of shelter beyond seven days. On the other hand, the contracts sometimes roll over indefinitely – in some cases for years – because the actual social housing wait list now exceeds 22,000 people.
lex Cassels has owned The Setup on Manners since 2015, when he converted levels two and three into a budget hotel. He manages a diverse property portfolio throughout the central city, including a controversial suite of residential apartment buildings and another emergency housing provider in Ghuznee St.
There are about 100 people in emergency accommodation across those two sites. But Cassels says he “doesn't want to talk about people in emergency housing.”.
“It’s very disrespectful – it upsets me, actually,” the 39-year-old property developer says. “They are not second class people. I deal with them all the time now. They’re people like you and me, and we need to respect them the same way, and give them the same basic dignity. Otherwise, we’re creating a two-tier society, and that’s just not on.”
Dear Mr. Property Developer, the only reason you can hold on to your development without an influx of backpacckers who don't care how many are shoved into a room as they only stay a night or two is the two tier rental / owning houses system that we have. And if you too are one of those that profit of this misery by making millions of not housing people i can understand why you would not want to talk about it. It might not reflect well upon you. Those who can still afford to rent/buy will try to do so, and those that are excluded by the market will get shoved into your hovel with no rental security for a week or more at the highest market price and WINZ will pay so as to look humane, and the government is happy to foot the bill so as to not come across as the callous useless tories they are.
These arrogant out of touch good for nothing people.
It needs to be all about the needs of the people who are staying in emergency accommodation. The landlord will use any financial advantage for their own benefit.
It is about the disruption and unknown when faced with being homeless caused by not being able to afford a rental or due to the landlord selling up. I can see why there needs to be restrictions for those who cause problems for the emergency guests, even though they themselves are an emergency guest over stepping it.
Night shelters should never have become run down. There were never enough of them. They were supervised. I personally do not like night shelters long term but they are vital short term.
Is it just me who thinks this?Not having a bed, (even in a night shelter) is depriving a person of a basic human right.
Accessing emergency housing has barriers. Walking in off the street to a night shelter is straight forward.
The government could rent the flats outright for market rent and then place the people in need in a safe and secure flat, rather then pay the mortgage of this guy on the backs of the homeless.
Yes and I thought that to. The landlord has arranged it the way he has as it is more lucrative. He eases his conscience by saying he is helping, yes but at an inflated cost for the government. I know this is going to sound nuts but he could charge what a weeks rent would be for an apartment. They all could who are at the government trough.
I did read how bad the run down night shelter was. The reality is that some people are so high, intoxicated, acutely unwell that a night shelter needs to be designed so it is safe, maintained and can be managed.
Does anyone know how a homeless person manages when they have no bed and they are high, intoxicated or acutely unwell?
I was never high, intoxicated or actuely unwell while being a transient teenager, but if you don't have access to shelter or emergency housing you have the choice of – somewhere in the woods a little encampment which is probably the safest, in some doorways with cameras – also somewhat safe, somewhere in someones house in exchange for sex, on someones sofa or floor because they are generous or in occupied empty housing (not here in NZ obviously) and of course your car if you have one. There really are no good options, and frankly to live this way it helps being high or intoxicated cause sober is just no way to live on the streets, and most have mental illness, come from broken homes, abusive situations etc. There is a small subset of people that have made a proffesional life on living on the streets but these are not people you would find in emergency housing.
Currently the people living in emergency housing are people who can not find a rental, who may work a job, who may have been made homeless not because they are bad renter but because they simply lost their rental.
Yes, landlords wanting more and more rent or selling up is the main cause for homelessness for most in emergency housing.
Those with complex needs require support to readjust to living within 4 walls. Rent free for 90 days and power paid. Basically relegating financial responsibility to someone else.
There needs to be some sort of housing assistance to prevent further homelessness. Peter is being robbed to pay Paul and the government needs to pay Paul to not rob Peter.
Government need to buy existing homes as they cannot build them fast enough. 22,000 people waiting for state housing is only going to increase.
Are the 22,000 part of the emergency housing stats?
The jolly lolly for the home investor is no longer sweet.
There needs to be a jolly lolly deposit scheme for the first home buyer so they can give their landlord notice.
I note that close to 100% of homes the government purchase will not be a home investor ghost home. People will actually live in the home which I thought was the purpose of purchasing a home.
Lolly as in money a slang term. The lolly from the government, something like using the old family benefit (probably closest to it WFF) to get an advance to use for a home deposit. I do realise not everyone gets WFF.
Third paragraph, I expect not note, I tried to edit but to late.
It is proving to be a challenge to rebalance the effects of what home investors have done to the housing and rental market. The banks are also culpable with easy loans when a person has collateral.
I am advocating for first home owners so they can pay their own mortgage.
It would be a thrill to give the landlord 28 days notice and move into your own place.
The kaingaroa scheme falls short for a deposit. I do like the Aussie one for single parents 2% required, the federal government top it up 18% so the 20% deposit has been reached. I have seen it so many times the shortfall in NZ and if kiwis saver was that great there would be more first home buyers.
I saw a link to the NZ branch of the tory eugenicist, Toby Young's; Free Speech Union over on TS's Feeds list the other night. That was quite a rabbit hole! See the DR for 7/5 for my immediate response.
Though free speech is apparently only for Jordan William and his asshat associates. Whitmore on Redline doesn't seem to be interested in free speech for those who disagree with her views about what constitutes peril to the "Anglosphere" anyway.
Fortunately, I kept a draft copy of my comment that got disappeared – though not the later "Test Failed" single line about that disappearance which also got disappeared. So in the interest of freeing speech that the Free Speech Union does not want to be free, I will reproduce that here. The topic was chosen simply because it addressed the name and claims in the caption under the post's photo:
"…we would not generally exclude people from joining the Free Speech Union, or eject existing members, for engaging in uncivil behaviour (although we reserve the right to do so)."
So not really totally Free Speech at the FSU is it? Who exactly gets to determine what counts as "uncivil" in that context?
As a test then; Maya Forstater worked out her full contract, but that was not subsequently renewed because her colleagues found that presence was toxic to workplace morale. I am not going to say that the OP description is necessarily a lie; perhaps they are merely ignorant of such details in their rush for an easy slogan?
She's in the process of appealing, so I won't bother quoting from the (easily locatable if you are not daunted by all the big words) original ruling. But this did seem an important point for a FSU to consider (without even making a Godwhiny):
"Queen’s Counsel will argue on her behalf that her beliefs should be protected by law and she should have the right to refer to anyone however she likes, wherever and whenever she likes.
"If those arguments succeed, the court judgment won’t only apply in her specific case, it will apply in workplaces and businesses throughout the country. It will mean, for example, that a person will be permitted to misgender a trans work colleague, indeed be legally protected if they do so. This puts employers in an impossible position where one employee is entitled to harass another, likely making the employer liable to the harassed employee for discrimination. It is both morally wrong and practically unworkable: employers will not be able to meet their duty of making workplaces safe to work in or public spaces safe to visit.
"It would also, which perhaps may even concern Forstater, apply not only to beliefs that harm transgender people, but to any controversial belief a person may hold – including, for example, a belief that women are intellectually inferior to men. If Ms Forstater succeeds before the court, a man at work will have the protection of the law to make those statements at work whenever he likes, causing whatever damage he likes to the women he works with. That cannot be right. "
To clarify: MF didn’t do anything at her workplace that led to her contract not being renewed. She was tweeting from her personal Twitter account and the only connection with her employers or job was she said in her Twitter bio who she worked for.
So Forstater was fired not for transphobia at work but for tweeting personally such things as biological sex exists in a binary, that humans can’t literally change sex biologically and that she would use people’s preferred pronouns as a courtesy but didn’t believe people should be coerced into pronoun use.
of course that should be protected speech.
Seems reasonable that her employers ask her to remove reference to them given she was tweeting politically, but she should still be able to tweet without being fired.
the comparison with incells is specious. One, MF doesn’t argue for harm to be done to trans people. She wants trans people to have the same human rights as others. Two, Twitter is full of misogyny that largely goes unchallenged, include the routine death and rape threats aimed at gender critical feminists, as well as the routine use of violent and often sexually violent imagery used to attack GCFs that the trans supporting left has been silently sanctioning for years.
Forstater made the very grave error in declaring that it is impossible to change one's biological sex. "Sex" being generally understood (from a biological science point of view) to mean " either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions. " (Oxford)
One sex produces eggs and the other sperm. In the vast majority of births the sex of the baby is obvious upon observation of genitalia. It is impossible to change one's biological sex.
The number of births where the baby is intersex has been reported to be as low as 0.018% or as high as roughly 1.7%, depending on which conditions are counted as intersex.[4][5][6] The number of births with ambiguous genitals is in the range of 0.02% to 0.05%.
…either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.
Okay Weka – I will provide more links in the future, it just seemed redundant in this case; as it's right there on the side of the page. Forgot that you can't see that on mobile. Alhough the comment I tried to leave earlier just got eaten by a single backspace, even though not Ctrl-A selected.
Anyway, it has been (until late afternoon) not too bad an autumn Saturday down here – I have been out and about. I will try and address some of the responses to my comment later on when kids in bed. At least I hope I will have more luck at that with a proper keyboard than a touch-screen.
Sorry Weka – that wasn't supposed to be a spray and walk away comment. I just didn't get around to responding on the weekend, and now it seems a bit pointless to dig up a two day old OM thread.
Also, the site is still eating comments if I so much as glance at the backspace key; on laptop as well as mobile.
I sometimes write my posts in a text editor and then cut and past across. I don't lose many but it's bloody annoying when it happens. Flick Lynn an email if it keeps happening.
Forget Now "terfs can be free to spout their transphobia".
Can you clarrify what is transphobic? Cause it seems to me if you are not prepared to say Trans Women are real women, for example, then you are branded as Trans phobic.
Many of us struggle to do so, because there is a difference between trans women and women who are biological women. And frankly I think I should be free not to have to say that trans women are real women. Absence of me saying that seems to label me trans phobic.
It is a fact that trans women and biological women are different. Different builds hormones, muscle mass, different experience growing up boy v. girl. Differences that give for example Laureen Hubbard a considerable advantage over other competitors in weight lifting. That is just unfair to biological women competitors and as such I will tell the truth about the disadvantageous situation for Laureens competitors and I want shut up about that.
The hope, I believe, is to become, not pre-industrial but post-industrial.
What I object to is that when I ask for more details on what this is meant to entail, and how the author thinks it might work – I'm told I'm 'strawmanning' and a flat out refusal to engage.
It doesn't give me any confidence in the real motives behind the thinking in this post at all. Like you I'm very supportive around the specifics of doing agriculture far more intelligently than we are, but when it's being used as a figleaf to 'smash capitalism' I sense a dishonest agenda in play.
Convince me otherwise.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Your first comment didn’t ask for detail. It went straight to your idea that sustainability = dark ages. That’s a straw man, hence the moderation.
Your latest comment presents another straw man: that the post is a fig leaf for smashing capitalism. There’s no such thing in the post, in fact I dropped bread crumbs all the way through of general ideas on solutions that are nothing to do with smashing capitalism (I tend to be agnostic on smashing capitalism as a pragmatic next step).
It’s obvious you didn’t understand the post. My suggestion is to stop making shit up about what I write and think if you want to comment under my posts. And if you want explanations then ask the commentariat. There are plenty of people in that conversation that can tell you what it’s about, and in fact some even tried to. And as McFlock pointed out, I’ve written a whole bunch of posts as part of a series explaining regenag and now sustainability, I’m guessing if we went back and looked we’d find you arguing against your straw men rather than engaging with the substance of the posts and asking for explanations.
I’ve just said to Gosman, probably the commenter furtherest from my politics, that he can argue against the post but he has to understand it first. Especially the basic premises which are just not what you are asserting.
You can ask that, that’s fine. What you can’t do is make up shit about the post or my thinking, which is what you’ve been moderated for. I’ve made suggestions about how to get answers to your questions, up to you if you want to use them next time. Please stay out of the conversation under that post from now though as I’ve spent more time on this than I want to.
If you will not specify in any detail what you're thinking – and I note that you're explicitly refusing to do so even now – then you don't have much grounds to complain when someone asks you to expand and clarify what you have in mind.
It's clear you think BAU is not sustainable – and in this I agree. Evolutionary change is both necessary and inevitable. But when I ask you to be more specific about what direction you want to take us, and think about the broader implications of going there – it seems you don't want to do this at all.
I’ve already said why I’m not explaining to you specifically and noted that there are others who might be more willing /shrug. I have no problem taking with people about what I write who don’t start out derailing my posts and then doubling and tripling down when asked not to.
When there is a perception and growing unease (!) that big changes are on the horizon, agendas become clearer and lines between them fuzzier. Different lobby groups can band together in their fight against a perceived common agenda and thus against a perceived common enemy; the raison d'être of lobby groups and so-called movements. The latter tends to often act as a bandwagon for all sorts of agendas, which may not have all that much in common – many a fringe party campaigns on a single issue rather than on a comprehensive and cohesive policy platform. In fact, it is not uncommon to see one agenda, which is not necessarily the founding one, hijack and take over a movement.
Some people are so intrinsically suspicious of change and people in power that it borders on paranoia; their ignorance but most their fear and emotions can drive them straight into the arms of populist propagandists and conspiracy advocates.
None of this is conducive to constructive public debate, which of course plays straight into the hands of those who prefer to maintain status quo and BAU.
There is some dangerous stuff happening with cancel culture and my particular focus is on being accused of being trans phobic unless you spout the ideological position that gender is fluid and trans women are real women.
The denial of biological sex is anti scientific. The language that trans activists use often amounts to deconstructing women's identity.
Great links Rosemary.
I am also waitng to see the outcome of Harry Millers second court case (hes an ex cop who in the context of a gender self i d debate on twitter got visited by the police at his work, despite the police acknowledging he hadn't committed a crime. He took Humberside Police to court and won. Good on him
Same old discrimination tropes today that were used decades ago against gays and lesbians- that males werent msaculine enough or the women werent femine enough. Because they didnt fit gender sterotypes of the time, then they didnt count as humans either
Biological sex is the physical reality that enables Homo sapiens to reproduce. Female/male. That there are variations within that doesn’t mean the binary doesn’t exist. Maybe you were referring to social dynamics around gender? If you did mean biology then please explain how a male and a person who’s not female could conceive a child.
It's not a 'continuum' – biological sex is very much a bi-modal distribution. Yes there is some overlap in some characteristics (like height for example), but overall it's idiotic to pretend that most people (>99%) don't clearly identify as male or female.
Biology is not a perfect sorting machine that unambiguously puts everyone into one sex or another, occasionally it blurs the boundaries, but using these boundary cases to dismantle an idea that's utterly embedded in our natures is just silly.
You do realise most of the non-Western world is laughing at us for even having this 'debate'.
If your argument on 'biological sex' falls apart ( 3.5% on the continuum) then your your real aim against gender identity and even more specifically men who identify as women has no basis either.
Just because its maybe a few % who have a gender identity different to their genitals its not OK to use Catholic Church teachings as basis for everyone else.
Personally I don't have a dog in these ongoing 'gender wars' at all. Biological sex is for all practical purposes a male/female divide with a tiny fraction of ambiguous individuals. The idea there are 3.5% of people who're biologically ambiguous simply doesn't align with everyday experience. (My partner reads these threads sometimes, and she just shakes her head with incredulity that any of this is a 'thing'.)
As for 'gender' – well I'm even less impressed by the whole concept itself. I fully recognise that individual people, being the creative and diverse bunch they are, will express their sexual identity in a whole range of ways. In this I really don't care, as long as I'm not compelled to partake I'm perfectly happy to live and let live.
But to then use gender as a tool to start dividing people into categories and then setting them against each other – well I think I'll leave it here and go back to self-censoring before I say anything I might further regret.
'he idea there are 3.5% of people who're biologically ambiguous simply doesn't align with everyday experience."
Yes, because its isnt so obvious, and everyday experience isnt a good way to judge, not that you are, many other do.
But I would agree about your other views,it wouldn't generally matter to everybody else. But the Catholic Church and other conservatives with their dogma and discriminatory views have been joined by some progressives in common cause- but they claim a scientific basis which is flat out wrong. They are only left with prejudice which is almost entirely against men who identify as women.
So true! Biology or rather Mother Nature is not a sorting machine at all. It is a human construct, by and large, and mainly one from/by the Western/European cultural and historical philosophy.
In this binary logic, the world was divided into mutually exclusive units – life forms into species and genera through Linnaean taxonomy; people into different categories through censuses and ‘nation states’; human inquiry into different disciplines; …
So if binary biology is nothing more than a Western construct, how come all non-Western cultures – and all of the non-human animal kingdom for that matter – seem to have no problem identifying which are the boys and the girls and then setting about having babies?
These are extreme cases. But many other animals cannot be classified simply as “males” and “females”, as if members of each sex will look and act according to the same template.
I didn’t say that though did I. Care to explain how humans reproduce without the sex binary? Seriously, I’d like to hear your thinking.
if on the other hand you mean that that the word sex has social as well as biological meaning, then I’d agree with you. But you said there is no such thing as biological sex and that requires an explanation using biology not social concepts.
It seems you using the biological race theories ( based on physical attributes) to apply to the 'gender-sphere'
The real point of classifying people into different races was to 'allow' discrimination. Which is the same aim as those who follow the strict biological sex theory , its for exclusionary reasons. A social construct is being used for social exclusion
I can tell you as a woman who no longer ovulates that I’m still biologically female. To suggest that women who can’t conceive aren’t female is fucked up and offensive.
You still haven’t explained how there is no such thing as biological sex. It’s nothing to do with race. There’s no such thing as biological races in humans, and there’s no evidence for such. Otoh, reproduction is well studied, and humans understood it before western science came along because it’s observable.
Anyway, this is going to get boring fast, to save us the trouble I’ll assume you are talking about social aspects of sex, probably conflated with gender, and are not in fact talking about biology
Biological sex is real. Our lives depend on it. Literally.
Gender expression on the other hand is whatever one wants. The presumption that one's genitals dictates one's personality is false. Feminists have battled long and hard for this. This idea that if one's personality fails to conform to some archaic notion of gender then one was born into the wrong body is a hugely retrograde step.
The concept that failing to conform to sex-role stereotypes can be fixed with drugs and surgery is, to some of us, abhorrent.
It is an example of how destructive our present direction is to communities and human patterns of life that bind us together, that we are now arguing about how we show we are people and what sort of people and how we reproduce ourselves etc.
Once we didn't question like this and the progressive attitude was to make things better for ourselves as people, now many are educated to think along machine-like lines, to question everything, and we have no certainties, no ground to stand upon.
With the ground opening under us, a group needs to rise that presents an ethos that embraces us and which everybody can accept apart from the most utopian or misognystic. We need to agree on some Guiding Principles which could lead to us questioning a proposition; such as 'Is this going to be helpful for solving a problem or advancing betterment' or some other open query that looks to positive outcomes.
Thats merely a catholic church teaching… which is fine if you choose to follow that faith. Dont expect to impose on anyone else. Do YOU want to impose it on others ?
'The Church supports people being whole and healthy people. Our understanding of gender is tied to biological sex, which is also tied to the spiritual reality of a person. For this reason, the Church does not teach that a person’s gender can be different than their biological sex, that it falls onto a spectrum, or that it can be fluid.'
There is the same 'fluidity' for sex and gender. May not be the same people.
Dont let the facts about small group ( around the same proportion as twins) who dont have fit your theory on 'biological sex' get in the way of your abhorrence- which is really about men becoming women isnt it!
Nope, no problem with people transitioning to another gender, including trans women. Do have a problem with people who make assertions on TS that they can’t explain. You’ve got some beliefs there, which is fine, I’m just not seeing the evidence to support where you are asserting them as fact.
It's a woman's, man's or non-binary person's right to choose (or not choose.)
Choice delayed is choice denied, particularly in more 'on demand' societies.
They may not be typical of people who have transitioned to another gender. And they are not a judgement on the decisions of other trans people, be they trans men, trans women or non-binary.
Both of these young people are conscious of how stories of detransition have been used by transphobic organisations and commentators to invalidate the experience of trans and non-binary people, and attack their hard-fought access to health care. Neither Ellie nor Nele deny the rights of trans people. They do, however, question whether transition is always the right solution.
" conform to sex-role stereotypes can be fixed with drugs and surgery is abhorrent'
Maybe you should protest outside fertility clinics as they use drugs to improve women's ability to conceive. Gynecologists can tell you about common physical impediments to childbirth that are corrected by surgery.
Also Im surprised you dont about the surgery called Cesarean section.
Surgery and drugs is OK when it meets your requirements but not for others? And please dont stigmatise those that do.
Let me put it this way. One of my part timer is a trans women, however she will never menstruate, never get pregnant, never give birth, and never go through menopause.
And these are differences that can make a great difference in life.
AS to how 'infertile' women perceive this?
Well i had a hysterectomy 20 odd years ago due to a rapid growth tumor. So now i don't menstruate anymore, had a whole lot of sex without having any pregnancy scare (wow, so liberating!) never gave birth and now go through menopause. Also the money i saved on female hygiene products is just insane! That shit is expensive.
Am I still a biological women. I just never birthed a child. . And also let me assure you that your question about 'infertile women' also applies to 'infertile men' – what would you call them?
I simply suggest that you stay away from this discussion as clearly you don't want to listen to women and the potential issues they have in a conservation that acutely affects them.
As for trans women are women? No matter how many and how hard anyone wants to believe that they are a women or are like all women – or as Kaitlyn Jenner said 'for all intend and purposes i ama woman' but i certainly would never discuss menstruation, child birth, menopause, breastfeeding, hysterectomies, cervical cancer, fallopian cysts, etc with them. Because they would have no clue what i am speaking of. Cause that part of women hood is biological and we did not ask for it, it came with us.
Gender Fluidity arent necessarily the same people as those who dont fit the idea of a biological sex.
Why are you so obsessed about menstruation, those before puberty and after menopause cant. Is that another category of what makes a woman ?
What those people who beat the biological sex drum want to do is create a rigid class of what a women is, so they can exclude the gender fluid/ and those without the right genitals/childbirth etc.
And when they can create the right genitals – your abhorrence shows its your own social construction thats threatened. Well boo hoo, its unacceptable to use some sort of psuedo biological reasoning to create discrimination.
It’s not an obsession with menstruation, she named a range of life stages specific to females (irrespective of whether all females go through all stages). Women talking about the experiment of menstruation is core to femajesy and no other class of people. The push to stop women talking about their own experiences is part of why there is the sex/gender war.
thing that fucks me off about your position is that we could have been having a conversation about how to make society safe and good for women and gender fluid people. But the insistence that this class of people doesn’t exist is pitting people who should other wise be allies against each other.
you can make up shit about and misrepresent my beliefs and there’s not a lot I can do about it (although I will moderate on TS if it gets out of hand), but the numbers of women who are increasingly alarmed not by trans people but by the loss of women’s culture and rights is getting larger every day. I just hope the left wing GCFs prevail, because the right wing GC people are going to do massive damage other wise.
Where have I said anything about a class that doesnt exits.
Medically the idea of a rigid he-she line doesnt scientifically happen
'According to the BBC documentary, Me, My Sex and I, “There are about a dozen different conditions that blur the line between male and female. They’re known as disorders of sexual development or DSDs…. Altogether, DSDs occur as frequently as twins or red hair.”
when you get your menstruation around 10 – 13 and you have this until you are well into your 40s it is not an obsession but a bodily function thanks to biology. Its like men having boners in the morning. The only ones having them are those that are born with a penis. Also not an obsession. Just a biological tick in the 0 1 universe that creates 'man' and 'woman' and guarantees the survival of the species.
The fact that you have to ask why we women are so obsessed about menstruation actually says it all. Biological women menstruate, whether they want to or not. Actually most of us would be really happy to live without that particular part of womanhood but conversely it is a universal shared experience that brings us together. It is a thing that makes us women.
Womanhood is not all about genitals, it is about shared experience and all the stuff Sabine said and sadly for your perspective the plumbing that makes us menstruate is ONE aspect of that.
Women and Trans women are different. I don't see this as discriminatory just as. Different is not a judgement it is just different!!
Transwomen have their own stuff, leave us with our stuff please.
I think you are male Ghost, but I could be wrong. "Obsessed about menstruation" lol lol lol………………….A woman would understand why this might be the case!
… but i certainly would never discuss menstruation, child birth, menopause, breastfeeding, hysterectomies, cervical cancer, fallopian cysts, etc with them. Because they would have no clue what i am speaking of.
What a most peculiar statement. People do discuss these things with people of the opposite sex, e.g. with their partners/spouses. Not every woman has (had) the things you list and similarly, not every man has (had) erectile issues, prostate or testicular cancer or male breast cancer, for example. We discuss [my emphasis] these things, which can be among the most personal, with people we trust and I don’t see how this would or could be limited to one’s own sex only. I might be missing something here.
Women do talk to other women about things that they don’t talk to men about. In the same way gardeners might talk with other gardeners about a topic. They might also talk to non gardeners but the conversation is different. This is a common thing among humans.
Yes, common, that is the key word here, which here means not exclusively or not always. This is a crucial point that often is ignored, sometimes (?) deliberately, which is in/with many (?) public discussions and debates on complex and sensitive issues, some people and/or groups are excluded, ignored, or cancelled even. I’m convinced that this never ends with good outcomes for all in the long run, not even when it is (supposedly) only (!) temporary. For example, when X talk about X then Y should stay silent and listen. It takes effort, sometimes considerable effort, from all sides to be as inclusive as possible and not to slide into technical jargon or lingo that excludes others or turns discussions into superficial and almost meaningless convos. Make of that what you will.
I get the point at the general level but Sabine was saying that she personally wouldn’t talk to a trans woman about biological processes specific to females. Whether that’s absolute or not I don’t know (I didn’t take it that way, I took it to mean she wouldn’t talk women’s business rather than never ever talk female biology, and it’s Sabine’s style to be blunt and appear absolutist).
But, there are times when exclusion is appropriate. Women having spaces separate from men, Maori caucuses within or alongside Pakeha dominant orgs, men’s drumming circles, we have a lot of such things in human society that aren’t in and of themselves discriminatory. It’s hard to see how Sabine could have made her comment inclusive when the point of it was to show difference.
No, while i talk women stuff with her, such as lower pay for women, being an immigrant women, travelling as a women, cooking, boys, career in her chosen field and so on, i would not discuss with her the trauma of having an emergency hysterectomy and in doing so having lost all potential children i could have born. There are the things that i can 'identify' with her as a women, and then there are things that i can not identify with her as a women. If that makes any sense, in the same sense as i don't expect to talk about all her issues to me just because we both fall in that box 'women' now. She and I we know full well that we are not 'the same', but we both identify as women.
As to my 'blunt' style, i am german and thus lack all english sense of etiquette and am usually to honest to be polite, and english is not my first language. So maybe that should also be factored in. Not everyone is native.
I think talking to a trans woman about menstruation etc, wouldn't be something I would do. It would feel a bit like talking about my pregnancy to an infertile couple, but it would depend I guess.
It’s not an obsession with menstruation, she named a range of life stages specific to females (irrespective of whether all females go through all stages). Women talking about the experiment of menstruation is core to femajesy and no other class of people. The push to stop women talking about their own experiences is part of why there is the sex/gender war.
The same applies to people who want us to discuss these very personal issues with people we might not care to because they find refusal to do so ‘peculiar’. Nothing peculiar about it. Unless women now no longer have the right to discuss these female centric biological issues with people whom they identify with?
Obviously, no two people are the same and I don’t recognise your and weka’s reasoning as a given that applies to all and this is what I meant by “peculiar” but it is obvious from your reaction you took it to mean something different and negative; it wouldn’t be the first time 🙁
I don’t think anybody here today has said or tried to stop women discussing certain issues with “people whom they identify with” (AKA other women) but one doesn’t get to pick and choose here who replies and what they’ll say. Weka has previously posted Leftie-only and women-only posts on this site and even then people stray across, sometimes accidentally, sometimes not … However, even then, you cannot stop people commenting and trying to run interference from the side lines in posts such as this one (i.e. OM). Personally, I don’t think it is the most effective and efficient way to go about it but I have supported & policed the efforts as weka knows. Framing it as a “war” is problematic, IMO.
I don’t want this to become an argument so this is my final comment about it here and now.
There is war going on Incognito, and it’s terrible. TS had largely been sheltered from it for a range of reasons.
It’s not that women in this conversation have been stopped from speaking, but then this is a mixed sex space. However TS most definitely has a history of women not being able to fully take part and that’s never been resolved. That’s not been around the gender/sex wars, but there’s something here about watching left wing men not listen to women, again, in this particular war as it comes to TS. Many people are underestimating just how serious this is for women.
beyond that, there are absolutely massive issues with suppression of debate in the war. And women are bearing the brunt of that. This is a listen and learn situation imo, not that men should take part but an acknowledgment of not getting what we are talking about wouldn’t go amiss.
I will add that I don’t consider TS to be a safe debate space for trans people either, nor other groups. This is part of why I haven’t talked about the war until recently and why I’ve written only one post. But the war is about to arrive in our faces because of NZ legislative changes and we need to get up to speed with how to make room for the debate here.
To give you an example, women are being told in social media groups not to use language specific to their bodies because it’s exclusionary. That’s the context for Ghost’s reductionist and dismissive framing of women talking about our bodies. Am happy to explain why having our language taken is such a big deal if it’s not apparent.
Ghost you are making a big claim "there is no such thing as biological sex". and using a Forbes magazine article, written by a ?Journalist? Please. Big claims call for very big evidence. And I mean scientific evidence.
You are alive because a female produced an egg and a male sperm. The female then carried you in her womb and gave birth to you. Even if IVF etc, was used, it is still the same process.
Ghost, you make extraordinary claims "there is no such thing as biological sex" and then use a Forbes magazine article, written by a ?journalist? to back it up .
Extraordinary claims call for extraordinary evidence. Science please.
You are alive because a female egg got fertilized by a male sperm and you were carried in someones womb for approx 9 mths and then said women gave birth to you.
That women would have ovulated, menstuated, grown breasts, had the capacity to breast feed and then has or will go through menopause. She is on average of shorter stature to men, she has less muscle mass and more oestrogen and progesterone. These are the facts and if you do not accept them, you need some compelling evidence to present to say otherwise. People on this site acknowledge that there are some people (a very small minority who are born asexual and that there are a very small minority of people who are born a sex and experience gender dysphoria about this.
Most of us here are likely to have compassion for this and be respectful towards such people. Some of us really object to having science re-written, by people who aren't scienctists and being told unless we tow this ideological line we are trans phobic and run the risk of being cancelled.
What you arguing for is called Essentialism, thats theres immutable rules which determine these things . However you are wrong, as was explained in a whole issue of Lancet ( is that 'medical' enough for you)
And yet, as medical anthropologist Katrina Karkazis pointed out in The Lancet last year, the facile search for a definitive trait of biological sex continues:
For a century, scientists studied an array of human characteristics that inform our ideas of what makes someone a woman or a man, seeking to pin down a single, definitive biological indicator. Bodies troubled these schemes and led to socially untenable categorizations. If gonads were understood as the essence of sex, women who were phenotypically female but who had testes were men. This didn’t make sense, so scientists proposed yet other traits. Even as they debated which biological trait signaled its essence, scientists understood sex as biological and involving multiple, if contested, factors.
"As such, there is growing support for the idea that gender classification is not simply a matter of biology, but rather is the result of complex and ever-shifting interactions between culture and biology."
Hmmm. A scientific journal suggesting that what we were taught in intermediate school was a simplified version of what is actually a much more complex and nuanced subject?
“Even as they debated which biological trait signalled its essence, scientists understood sex as biological and involving multiple if contested factors”.
In reply to McFlook, biological sex in the vast majority of cases isn’t complex or nuanced. For The vast majority of people their assigned sex at birth is simple and straightforward. They have anatomy and biological differences that make it clear they are either female or male and this is egosyntonic
The article is published it a medical journal,but no cries to do away with assigning sex at birth.
Interestingly it is the activists who are calling for gender self id, not scientists or medical associations
so scientists agree that sex is biological. So do I.
A recurring theme in these discussions here seems to be that just because something appears to apply to the vast majority of people, for the purposes of discussion we can ignore the existence of anyone for whom it does not actually apply – even if the discussion is partly about them.
Reasserting a category is soothing for people trying to resist it being reconceptualised. Has happened every step of the way. Won't matter ultimately but can cause harm in the meantime.
Yes Sacha, I object to what being a women is being recategorized.
I am sorry if that is hurtful for some, but believe I have science on my side and also have a right to defend the de construction of my identity as a women.
McFlook re your comments.
Most of us here are likely to have compassion for this and be respectful towards such people. Some of us really object to having science re-written, by people who aren't scienctists and being told unless we tow this ideological line we are trans phobic and run the risk of being cancelled.
No I’d like you to explain something about your reference beyond that sound bite. Because it looks like you think they took a specific position and I’m not sure you are correct.
Thanks. A quick look at the start, they’re talking about biology not being destiny, ie we have a biology but it doesn’t predetermine what women should do or what roles we should have in society. That’s different from saying there’s no biological definition of female.
The minute expressions such as "pregnant people" and "menstruators" and "lactators" began appearing in MSM and governmental publications as if all of these are not applicable to women only, some of us realized this whole issue had gone too far. Way too far.
GCF have spoken about their concerns that the trans movement could conceivably erase women, as defined as 'adult human female'. They were obviously right.
…biological sex did not define women? And yet, back in those heady days of Women's Lib, some of the more radical spent time with mirrors strategically placed so they could properly acquaint themselves with the parts of their anatomy they had been conditioned (for millennia) to hide and be ashamed of.
I believe that what was meant by not being 'defined' by biological sex was that we women should not be confined by limitations placed upon us by a largely predominant patriarchy because we are female.
Back we are to that old chestnut of 'sex-role-stereotypes'…revived again by this trans movement which seems to believe that biological sex does define and confine a person.
I believe that what was meant by not being 'defined' by biological sex was that we women should not be confined by limitations placed upon us by a largely predominant patriarchy because we are female.
this. It’s also a misreading of GCF views to conflate them with bioessentialism. Words and their shared meaning matter.
@Sacha. No. I meant what I said. These people clearly truly believe that they can only be 'true to themselves' if they can legally change their biological sex. (As if such a thing is actually possible.)
As if they are defined and confined by their biological sex.
They are not. Just as I am not. Or yourself. Or any of us.
talk about being reduced to biological happenings.
No longer a girl, or a women but a menstruator, lactators, pregnant people'.
Heck, why would anyone be upset by these charming adjectives to descripe describe the one half of the world population that bred all of worlds humanity.
A recurring theme in these discussions here seems to be that just because something appears to apply to the vast majority of people, for the purposes of discussion we can ignore the existence of anyone for whom it does not actually apply – even if the discussion is partly about them.
humans reproduce via two biological sexes, social understandings of sex are more nuanced, intersex people exist, trans people exist, biologically female people exist. None of those things are contradictory.
when a woman starts talking about her politics and experience as a woman it doesn’t harm others that she doesn’t always refer to them. #notallhumans is a reactionary response. It’s patronising too.
I don’t recall support for intersex people being talked about here until women started talking about their politics. Maybe we can find ways to support both groups.
So when medical science is finally able to give people the fully-functioning reproductive system of their choice, do you think these arguments will stop? Because I don't.
I don't think that will be possible. Reproduction and childbirth and lacttion is complex and lots of it we don't understand particularly well. But I don't see how that is relevant. You want men of the distant future to be able to have babies (why?), but you don't want women in the here and now to have the right to determine their own existence and politics? This is not new McFlock, but as I've said I'm surprised to hear it coming from you.
I'm not sure how distant it actually is, but where will the discussion go when it does happen?
Every time someone has nailed sex into two distinct categories, an exception gets brought up. So then the commenter either says that such exceptions are so uncommon as to make the experiences of those people not worth considering (although they're not usually honest enough to put it into those terms), or tightens up the criteria. But there are eventually exceptions to those criteria, too. And the more the criteria get tightened, more and more people get kicked out of one group or the other – even people who aren't the targets of the people obsessed with the binary.
Everyone can determine their own existence and politics. But if those politics are based upon a myth as an excuse to endanger others and deny them medical care, other people are allowed (and have a duty) to criticise those politics.
As you put it, "humans reproduce via two biological sexes". That says absolutely nothing about the gamut of people who never had the biological equipment to reproduce. And there are others who have had medical intervention to either get functioning reproductive organs, or organs that look like functioning reproductive organs.
So the statement "humans reproduce via two biological sexes" is simply a description of the reproductive act, and is of no help whatsoever in discussing who should participate in which sporting event or who should use which toilet block.
If you don't like the continuum idea, try ""humans reproduce via two biological sexes that are two general classes that mostly (but by no means entirely) account for millions of variations in human sexual or reproductive organs".
That didn’t answer my question. Do you think there is a class of people that are biologically female? You are implying there is in your last paragraph, but I just want to be clear.
I'm not sure I would use that term (or "biologically male", for that matter), to denote a "class" of people.
There are males and females.
There are males with female characteristics and vice versa. Not just the sex organs: hormone levels, bodily proportions, whatever. Are they not "biologically" one because they have features of the other?
Is it so difficult to imagine that just as sometimes there might be a mismatch in the physical characteristics between one sex pole and the other, there might be a mismatch between the physical characteristics and the complex physiology and chemistry of the brain? But even then "biologically [male/female]" would still be a relative term, not a categorical one.
Yeah! Nationalise builders and their companies and suppliers of building materials and have the whole building industry prioritised to building stock for government houses.
That'd go down well.
Oops, except for those working of shoddy school buildings. Oh and those upgrading hospitals.
It's just a comment to summarise the debate – people want 'The Government' to do everything, be involved with everything to do with housing. Government is in the gun when any element of housing is not to someone's satisfaction.
I'd read the Tauranga article earlier. Surely only by one agency having control of all facets of housing, linking, co-ordinating controlling can they be blamed for all shortfalls and problems.
When we have someone in Tauranga offering to pay $30,000 upfront and a Rotorua couple so desperate they pay more than they can affair is just the market working?
You want the Government to get in boots and all and tackle everything?
My suggestion would be a start. Then there'd be railing though about 'communism' and let the market decide. Or the half pie measures like wanting the Government involvement in fringe little bits.
Housing and homelessness was literally was the reason for so many to actually vote for these timewasters. But yeah, i get it the second election was won by Covid, so now they don't have to pretend anymore to work for the people. Now they literally just seem to show off to some think tanks and big business who hopefully will elect them when they lose the next election.
Honestly i don't think anyone in this country voted for Andrew Little to grandstand with his remake of the Health System in NZ, all the while freezing wages for 'frontline' worker. And certainly no one voted for Michael Woods to pontificate and potentially fuck up the already fucked up process of wage negotiations in NZ.
I just want this bloody government to do one thing, and that is to encourage smart building – building to rent, not building to accumulate an assett or several to create an even worse housing shortage by keeping houses empty for Captial Gains by the thousands..
But that is in the too hard basket it seems. And yes, i do want the government to interfere in the 'free and unregulated market' and regulate to the best of the greater good and for the benefit of all.
Good explainer from RNZ. Still this Q: are there examples of herd immunity to an illness, from vaccination, where repeat vaccination is needed ongoing, or is this new territory?
Also, has the govt described how border opening might work and how non vaccinated people would be protected?
The Rotumans come from a tiny island north of Fiji and try to live there in a good and practical way. They keep their connections going in New Zealand and show us a good Pacific way to be. I hope their ceremonial get-together is an enjoyable occasion of friendly meetings.
Navigating the EESG Cross-Currents: Sustainable Stakeholder Corporate Governance
Leo E. Strine Jr. and Karessa L. Cain – Leo and Karessa will join us via livestream from the US to discuss a practical approach to sustainable stakeholder corporate governance, exploring employee, environmental, social and governance considerations for directors.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/442116/endangered-leatherback-turtle-returned-to-hapu Documents show more than $10,000 was spent by DOC and Te Papa on transportation and a burial ceremony. Te Rūnanga o Koukourārata chair Dr Matiu Payne said the honu is a taniwha, a guiding deity for his people, and is part of the legends passed down, although this traditional knowledge was purposely not widely shared
This was a good decision and expenditure. Maori don't tell all to nosy tauiwi who often take the knowledge and exploit it. Also remember how much that the government is prepared to pay elite professionals for some task, could be $1000 a day.
eg New Tauranga City Council commissioners could … – NZ Herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz › bay-of-plenty-times › news
5/02/2021 — Commissioners appointed to lead Tauranga City Council could be paid … A Cabinet paper shows Tolley to be paid up to $1,800 a day for her work, and … The term of the commission will run until just after the next local government … days a week for the other commissioners, while they work to…
You obviously still don’t understand context. Let me explain it to and for you:
A link as a reply can stand on its own, especially if it points to factual/informative content and the URL is sufficiently self-explanatory and/or it is a direct answer to somebody’s question. A link out of the blue that goes to an opinion piece or video clip, for example, when the URL is not explaining it clearly is a no-no because there’s no context.
Please don’t hesitate to ask if you need further clarification.
Please don’t run interference with my pre-moderation comments again, thanks.
A new analysis of the toll of the Covid-19 pandemic suggests 6.9 million people worldwide have died from the disease, more than twice as many people as has been officially reported.
In the United States, the analysis estimates, 905,000 people have died of Covid since the start of the pandemic. That is about 61% higher than the current death estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 561,594. The new figure also surpasses the estimated number of U.S. deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic, which was estimated to have killed approximately 675,000 Americans.
Thanks joe90 – an interesting analysis from the IHME. The apparent estimated 10-fold under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths in Japan is noteworthy as the Olympics loom.
Looking at past NZ history in the 1980's. This, deja vu all over again?
New Zealand’s economic difficulties persisted into the mid-1980s, and Muldoon’s National Government favoured erratic policies which ranged from severe spending cuts, to energy-intensive development, to an extreme wage and price freeze. Unemployment continued to increase and New Zealand society was changing:
Māori protest at the legacies of colonisation was more visible; a third wave of feminism challenged many assumptions about work, family life, fertility and the media; environmental movements challenged assumptions about economic growth and development; and there was increasing discussion around a non-aligned and anti-nuclear foreign policy. https://www.labour.org.nz/history
Who or what was responsible for changing our direction? Douglas/Treasury?
[Douglas] argued in 1982 that the government should actively support small business, and intervene to stop the aggregation of assets by big business. In his view, the government should use the tax system to encourage productive investment and discourage speculative investment. Until the end of 1983, Douglas saw exchange rate, tax and protection policies as means of actively shaping the business environment. In August 1982 he supported a contributory superannuation scheme as a means of funding industrial development and in February 1983 he wrote a paper called "Picking Winners for Investment" which proposed the establishment of local consultative groups to guide regional development. In a paper dated May 1983, Douglas argued that an unregulated market led to unhealthy concentrations of market power. //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics#Events_after_the_1981_election
At the end of 1983 there was a marked change in Douglas's thinking. He prepared a caucus paper called the "Economic Policy Package" which called for a market-led restructuring of the economy…He acknowledged the contribution to the package of Doug Andrew, a Treasury officer on secondment to the parliamentary opposition, among others.[25] W H Oliver noted the close alignment of the package and Economic Management,[26] Treasury's 1984 briefing to the incoming government.[27] His assessment was that Douglas was predisposed towards the Treasury view because its implementation required decisive action and because greater reliance on the market solved what Douglas saw as the problem of interest-group participation in policy-making. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics#A_new_direction,_1983%E2%80%931984
/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics#Minister_of_Finance,_1984%E2%80%931988
In 1984, Roger Douglas was made Minister of Finance, with two associate ministers of finance, David Caygill and Richard Prebble. They became known as the "Treasury Troika" or the "Troika", and became the most powerful group in Cabinet.[32] Douglas was the strategist, Prebble the tactician, while Caygill mastered the details. With Caygill the "nice cop" and Prebble the "nasty cop", Douglas could sometimes appear as steering a considered middle course. Later Trevor de Cleene was made undersecretary to Douglas, with special responsibility for Inland Revenue. [33] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics#Immediate_results
Probably, but we embraced it (at least the political class did) early and with such enthusiasm we appear to have disabled ourselves to the extent we are unable to imagine anything else.
However, Professor Peter Collignon from Australian National University said the risk of transmission between New South Wales and New Zealand was very low.
I have a niggling worry besetting my brow – is our government still vital and in good mental health? Who tests them to make sure they are compos mentis? Do they need to be all wired up in their seats in Parliament that send a regular charge through to jerk their muscles every half hour, sort of like A Weekend at Bernies.
Or are they reminiscent of the Dead Parrot Sketch. Are they appearing, saying their piece after being partly resuscitated, and then being nailed back on their perch? Are they too debilitated to let fly with chirpy policy after a long squawk over Covid19 and other tiresome bothers? Will we end up being offered a slug, that doesn't talk for our next PM?
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Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
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https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/125038675/the-truth-about-the-setup-on-manners-wellingtons-notorious-emergency-housing-hotel
Dear Mr. Property Developer, the only reason you can hold on to your development without an influx of backpacckers who don't care how many are shoved into a room as they only stay a night or two is the two tier rental / owning houses system that we have. And if you too are one of those that profit of this misery by making millions of not housing people i can understand why you would not want to talk about it. It might not reflect well upon you. Those who can still afford to rent/buy will try to do so, and those that are excluded by the market will get shoved into your hovel with no rental security for a week or more at the highest market price and WINZ will pay so as to look humane, and the government is happy to foot the bill so as to not come across as the callous useless tories they are.
These arrogant out of touch good for nothing people.
It needs to be all about the needs of the people who are staying in emergency accommodation. The landlord will use any financial advantage for their own benefit.
It is about the disruption and unknown when faced with being homeless caused by not being able to afford a rental or due to the landlord selling up. I can see why there needs to be restrictions for those who cause problems for the emergency guests, even though they themselves are an emergency guest over stepping it.
Night shelters should never have become run down. There were never enough of them. They were supervised. I personally do not like night shelters long term but they are vital short term.
Is it just me who thinks this?Not having a bed, (even in a night shelter) is depriving a person of a basic human right.
Accessing emergency housing has barriers. Walking in off the street to a night shelter is straight forward.
The government could rent the flats outright for market rent and then place the people in need in a safe and secure flat, rather then pay the mortgage of this guy on the backs of the homeless.
Yes and I thought that to. The landlord has arranged it the way he has as it is more lucrative. He eases his conscience by saying he is helping, yes but at an inflated cost for the government. I know this is going to sound nuts but he could charge what a weeks rent would be for an apartment. They all could who are at the government trough.
I did read how bad the run down night shelter was. The reality is that some people are so high, intoxicated, acutely unwell that a night shelter needs to be designed so it is safe, maintained and can be managed.
Does anyone know how a homeless person manages when they have no bed and they are high, intoxicated or acutely unwell?
I was never high, intoxicated or actuely unwell while being a transient teenager, but if you don't have access to shelter or emergency housing you have the choice of – somewhere in the woods a little encampment which is probably the safest, in some doorways with cameras – also somewhat safe, somewhere in someones house in exchange for sex, on someones sofa or floor because they are generous or in occupied empty housing (not here in NZ obviously) and of course your car if you have one. There really are no good options, and frankly to live this way it helps being high or intoxicated cause sober is just no way to live on the streets, and most have mental illness, come from broken homes, abusive situations etc. There is a small subset of people that have made a proffesional life on living on the streets but these are not people you would find in emergency housing.
Currently the people living in emergency housing are people who can not find a rental, who may work a job, who may have been made homeless not because they are bad renter but because they simply lost their rental.
Yes, landlords wanting more and more rent or selling up is the main cause for homelessness for most in emergency housing.
Those with complex needs require support to readjust to living within 4 walls. Rent free for 90 days and power paid. Basically relegating financial responsibility to someone else.
There needs to be some sort of housing assistance to prevent further homelessness. Peter is being robbed to pay Paul and the government needs to pay Paul to not rob Peter.
Government need to buy existing homes as they cannot build them fast enough. 22,000 people waiting for state housing is only going to increase.
Are the 22,000 part of the emergency housing stats?
Edit
relegatingtransferringWhat a jolly good idea!!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kiwis-cant-outbid-kainga-ora-government-grilled-over-750-million-house-buying-bill/5C2LMNP7F5ZTSJMDF6BL3P2SG4/
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/04/government-buys-hundreds-of-houses-in-direct-competition-with-first-home-buyers.html
Yes it is a jolly good idea and I say keep doing it.
What would work for first home buyers raising a deposit?
The people who are in competition with first home buyers are the home investors.
Another jolly good idea!
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/govt-housing-package-backs-first-home-buyers
The jolly lolly for the home investor is no longer sweet.
There needs to be a jolly lolly deposit scheme for the first home buyer so they can give their landlord notice.
I note that close to 100% of homes the government purchase will not be a home investor ghost home. People will actually live in the home which I thought was the purpose of purchasing a home.
What do you mean?
I could not parse your third paragraph either.
Lolly as in money a slang term. The lolly from the government, something like using the old family benefit (probably closest to it WFF) to get an advance to use for a home deposit. I do realise not everyone gets WFF.
Third paragraph, I expect not
note, I tried to edit but to late.It is proving to be a challenge to rebalance the effects of what home investors have done to the housing and rental market. The banks are also culpable with easy loans when a person has collateral.
Yes, I know the alternative meaning of lolly. I don’t get how you’d want to link it up to giving notice to the landlord, that’s all.
Yes, it takes time to unwedge a big obstacle with little manoeuvring room.
Tenant is able to buy a first home through a government deposit scheme, 28 days notice to the landlord.
Keep your eye on the Australian full budget next week. I saw a headline daily mail Australia about single parents and a 2% deposit for a home.
It looks like you tried to post this link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-08/single-parents-assistance-buying-home-new-budget/100126040.
You know that NZ has a deposit scheme too through KiwiSaver: https://kaingaora.govt.nz/home-ownership/first-home-grant/
I still don’t know whether you’re advocating for Government assistance to go to Landlords when giving notice.
I am advocating for first home owners so they can pay their own mortgage.
It would be a thrill to give the landlord 28 days notice and move into your own place.
The kaingaroa scheme falls short for a deposit. I do like the Aussie one for single parents 2% required, the federal government top it up 18% so the 20% deposit has been reached. I have seen it so many times the shortfall in NZ and if kiwis saver was that great there would be more first home buyers.
I saw a link to the NZ branch of the tory eugenicist, Toby Young's; Free Speech Union over on TS's Feeds list the other night. That was quite a rabbit hole! See the DR for 7/5 for my immediate response.
Though free speech is apparently only for Jordan William and his asshat associates. Whitmore on Redline doesn't seem to be interested in free speech for those who disagree with her views about what constitutes peril to the "Anglosphere" anyway.
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2021/05/07/the-free-speech-union-nz-branch/
Fortunately, I kept a draft copy of my comment that got disappeared – though not the later "Test Failed" single line about that disappearance which also got disappeared. So in the interest of freeing speech that the Free Speech Union does not want to be free, I will reproduce that here. The topic was chosen simply because it addressed the name and claims in the caption under the post's photo:
"…we would not generally exclude people from joining the Free Speech Union, or eject existing members, for engaging in uncivil behaviour (although we reserve the right to do so)."
So not really totally Free Speech at the FSU is it? Who exactly gets to determine what counts as "uncivil" in that context?
As a test then; Maya Forstater worked out her full contract, but that was not subsequently renewed because her colleagues found that presence was toxic to workplace morale. I am not going to say that the OP description is necessarily a lie; perhaps they are merely ignorant of such details in their rush for an easy slogan?
She's in the process of appealing, so I won't bother quoting from the (easily locatable if you are not daunted by all the big words) original ruling. But this did seem an important point for a FSU to consider (without even making a Godwhiny):
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/maya-forstater-rowling-trans-b1838137.html
If TERFs can be free to spout their transphobia, then why would you expect InCels to keep their misogyny quiet?
[link added so we know what you are referring to and for context. In future please supply a link with your comment. – weka]
If TERFs can be free to spout their transphobia, then why would you expect InCels to keep their misogyny quiet?
To clarify: MF didn’t do anything at her workplace that led to her contract not being renewed. She was tweeting from her personal Twitter account and the only connection with her employers or job was she said in her Twitter bio who she worked for.
So Forstater was fired not for transphobia at work but for tweeting personally such things as biological sex exists in a binary, that humans can’t literally change sex biologically and that she would use people’s preferred pronouns as a courtesy but didn’t believe people should be coerced into pronoun use.
of course that should be protected speech.
Seems reasonable that her employers ask her to remove reference to them given she was tweeting politically, but she should still be able to tweet without being fired.
the comparison with incells is specious. One, MF doesn’t argue for harm to be done to trans people. She wants trans people to have the same human rights as others. Two, Twitter is full of misogyny that largely goes unchallenged, include the routine death and rape threats aimed at gender critical feminists, as well as the routine use of violent and often sexually violent imagery used to attack GCFs that the trans supporting left has been silently sanctioning for years.
Some light reading…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/29/im-credited-with-having-coined-the-acronym-terf-heres-how-it-happened
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/18/judge-rules-against-charity-worker-who-lost-job-over-transgender-tweets
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/19/incels-why-jack-peterson-left-elliot-rodger
Forstater made the very grave error in declaring that it is impossible to change one's biological sex. "Sex" being generally understood (from a biological science point of view) to mean " either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions. " (Oxford)
One sex produces eggs and the other sperm. In the vast majority of births the sex of the baby is obvious upon observation of genitalia. It is impossible to change one's biological sex.
The number of births where the baby is intersex has been reported to be as low as 0.018% or as high as roughly 1.7%, depending on which conditions are counted as intersex.[4][5][6] The number of births with ambiguous genitals is in the range of 0.02% to 0.05%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex
Although environmental toxins just may be increasing that rate…https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5017538/
"Gender" on the other hand…
…either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.
This popped up on my Twitter feed this morning.
https://twitter.com/lynnw192/status/1390795858698903557
You might enjoy this too if you’re not already following Lynn. This is the story of so many left wing women, beautifully told.
https://twitter.com/lynnw192/status/1390819453407883267
Mod note for you, please let me know that in future you will supply the relevant link/s.
Okay Weka – I will provide more links in the future, it just seemed redundant in this case; as it's right there on the side of the page. Forgot that you can't see that on mobile. Alhough the comment I tried to leave earlier just got eaten by a single backspace, even though not Ctrl-A selected.
Anyway, it has been (until late afternoon) not too bad an autumn Saturday down here – I have been out and about. I will try and address some of the responses to my comment later on when kids in bed. At least I hope I will have more luck at that with a proper keyboard than a touch-screen.
thanks FN.
Sorry Weka – that wasn't supposed to be a spray and walk away comment. I just didn't get around to responding on the weekend, and now it seems a bit pointless to dig up a two day old OM thread.
Also, the site is still eating comments if I so much as glance at the backspace key; on laptop as well as mobile.
I sometimes write my posts in a text editor and then cut and past across. I don't lose many but it's bloody annoying when it happens. Flick Lynn an email if it keeps happening.
Forget Now "terfs can be free to spout their transphobia".
Can you clarrify what is transphobic? Cause it seems to me if you are not prepared to say Trans Women are real women, for example, then you are branded as Trans phobic.
Many of us struggle to do so, because there is a difference between trans women and women who are biological women. And frankly I think I should be free not to have to say that trans women are real women. Absence of me saying that seems to label me trans phobic.
It is a fact that trans women and biological women are different. Different builds hormones, muscle mass, different experience growing up boy v. girl. Differences that give for example Laureen Hubbard a considerable advantage over other competitors in weight lifting. That is just unfair to biological women competitors and as such I will tell the truth about the disadvantageous situation for Laureens competitors and I want shut up about that.
The hope, I believe, is to become, not pre-industrial but post-industrial.
What I object to is that when I ask for more details on what this is meant to entail, and how the author thinks it might work – I'm told I'm 'strawmanning' and a flat out refusal to engage.
It doesn't give me any confidence in the real motives behind the thinking in this post at all. Like you I'm very supportive around the specifics of doing agriculture far more intelligently than we are, but when it's being used as a figleaf to 'smash capitalism' I sense a dishonest agenda in play.
Convince me otherwise.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Your first comment didn’t ask for detail. It went straight to your idea that sustainability = dark ages. That’s a straw man, hence the moderation.
Your latest comment presents another straw man: that the post is a fig leaf for smashing capitalism. There’s no such thing in the post, in fact I dropped bread crumbs all the way through of general ideas on solutions that are nothing to do with smashing capitalism (I tend to be agnostic on smashing capitalism as a pragmatic next step).
It’s obvious you didn’t understand the post. My suggestion is to stop making shit up about what I write and think if you want to comment under my posts. And if you want explanations then ask the commentariat. There are plenty of people in that conversation that can tell you what it’s about, and in fact some even tried to. And as McFlock pointed out, I’ve written a whole bunch of posts as part of a series explaining regenag and now sustainability, I’m guessing if we went back and looked we’d find you arguing against your straw men rather than engaging with the substance of the posts and asking for explanations.
I’ve just said to Gosman, probably the commenter furtherest from my politics, that he can argue against the post but he has to understand it first. Especially the basic premises which are just not what you are asserting.
Absolute bullshit moderation. You do this far too often.
In the post you specifically say:
Which leads us to the second issue, of how to make a living as we move beyond the conventional farming and economic models?
Well I'm asking a highly pertinent question around the basic premises of the post and you all you offer is 'breadcrumbs'. That's just not good enough.
[deleted]
[Leave it alone please MB, I’d rather not have the drama on the weekend]
Mod note.
Oh, well. Let's all delete Muttonbird's posts!
Ironic given I probably just saved you from a ban.
From who, ffs?
Any of the mods whose had a gutsful of flaming and of arguing about moderation
So why does the comment at 3.1.1 still exist?
It is exists because you put it there
You can ask that, that’s fine. What you can’t do is make up shit about the post or my thinking, which is what you’ve been moderated for. I’ve made suggestions about how to get answers to your questions, up to you if you want to use them next time. Please stay out of the conversation under that post from now though as I’ve spent more time on this than I want to.
If you will not specify in any detail what you're thinking – and I note that you're explicitly refusing to do so even now – then you don't have much grounds to complain when someone asks you to expand and clarify what you have in mind.
It's clear you think BAU is not sustainable – and in this I agree. Evolutionary change is both necessary and inevitable. But when I ask you to be more specific about what direction you want to take us, and think about the broader implications of going there – it seems you don't want to do this at all.
I’ve already said why I’m not explaining to you specifically and noted that there are others who might be more willing /shrug. I have no problem taking with people about what I write who don’t start out derailing my posts and then doubling and tripling down when asked not to.
Many farmers are smelling another agenda as well.
When there is a perception and growing unease (!) that big changes are on the horizon, agendas become clearer and lines between them fuzzier. Different lobby groups can band together in their fight against a perceived common agenda and thus against a perceived common enemy; the raison d'être of lobby groups and so-called movements. The latter tends to often act as a bandwagon for all sorts of agendas, which may not have all that much in common – many a fringe party campaigns on a single issue rather than on a comprehensive and cohesive policy platform. In fact, it is not uncommon to see one agenda, which is not necessarily the founding one, hijack and take over a movement.
Some people are so intrinsically suspicious of change and people in power that it borders on paranoia; their ignorance but most their fear and emotions can drive them straight into the arms of populist propagandists and conspiracy advocates.
None of this is conducive to constructive public debate, which of course plays straight into the hands of those who prefer to maintain status quo and BAU.
Thanks for some sanity on this Rosemary and Weka.
There is some dangerous stuff happening with cancel culture and my particular focus is on being accused of being trans phobic unless you spout the ideological position that gender is fluid and trans women are real women.
The denial of biological sex is anti scientific. The language that trans activists use often amounts to deconstructing women's identity.
Great links Rosemary.
I am also waitng to see the outcome of Harry Millers second court case (hes an ex cop who in the context of a gender self i d debate on twitter got visited by the police at his work, despite the police acknowledging he hadn't committed a crime. He took Humberside Police to court and won. Good on him
There is no such thing as 'biological sex' just like the idea humans are divided into 'biological races'
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/06/15/the-myth-of-biological-sex/?sh=6c52b3b876b9
‘According to the BBC documentary, Me, My Sex and I, “There are about a dozen different conditions that blur the line between male and female. They’re known as disorders of sexual development or DSDs…. Altogether, DSDs occur as frequently as twins or red hair.”
Same old discrimination tropes today that were used decades ago against gays and lesbians- that males werent msaculine enough or the women werent femine enough. Because they didnt fit gender sterotypes of the time, then they didnt count as humans either
Biological sex is the physical reality that enables Homo sapiens to reproduce. Female/male. That there are variations within that doesn’t mean the binary doesn’t exist. Maybe you were referring to social dynamics around gender? If you did mean biology then please explain how a male and a person who’s not female could conceive a child.
Sound a very catholic question, that we merely exist to reproduce and your genitalia defines your sex.
The continuum exists and is as common as twins.
It's not a 'continuum' – biological sex is very much a bi-modal distribution. Yes there is some overlap in some characteristics (like height for example), but overall it's idiotic to pretend that most people (>99%) don't clearly identify as male or female.
Biology is not a perfect sorting machine that unambiguously puts everyone into one sex or another, occasionally it blurs the boundaries, but using these boundary cases to dismantle an idea that's utterly embedded in our natures is just silly.
You do realise most of the non-Western world is laughing at us for even having this 'debate'.
If your argument on 'biological sex' falls apart ( 3.5% on the continuum) then your your real aim against gender identity and even more specifically men who identify as women has no basis either.
Just because its maybe a few % who have a gender identity different to their genitals its not OK to use Catholic Church teachings as basis for everyone else.
Personally I don't have a dog in these ongoing 'gender wars' at all. Biological sex is for all practical purposes a male/female divide with a tiny fraction of ambiguous individuals. The idea there are 3.5% of people who're biologically ambiguous simply doesn't align with everyday experience. (My partner reads these threads sometimes, and she just shakes her head with incredulity that any of this is a 'thing'.)
As for 'gender' – well I'm even less impressed by the whole concept itself. I fully recognise that individual people, being the creative and diverse bunch they are, will express their sexual identity in a whole range of ways. In this I really don't care, as long as I'm not compelled to partake I'm perfectly happy to live and let live.
But to then use gender as a tool to start dividing people into categories and then setting them against each other – well I think I'll leave it here and go back to self-censoring before I say anything I might further regret.
'he idea there are 3.5% of people who're biologically ambiguous simply doesn't align with everyday experience."
Yes, because its isnt so obvious, and everyday experience isnt a good way to judge, not that you are, many other do.
But I would agree about your other views,it wouldn't generally matter to everybody else. But the Catholic Church and other conservatives with their dogma and discriminatory views have been joined by some progressives in common cause- but they claim a scientific basis which is flat out wrong. They are only left with prejudice which is almost entirely against men who identify as women.
Here,here.
Edit,that’s for Redlogix
So true! Biology or rather Mother Nature is not a sorting machine at all. It is a human construct, by and large, and mainly one from/by the Western/European cultural and historical philosophy.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/dame-anne-salmond-iwi-and-kiwi-beyond-the-binary
So if binary biology is nothing more than a Western construct, how come all non-Western cultures – and all of the non-human animal kingdom for that matter – seem to have no problem identifying which are the boys and the girls and then setting about having babies?
Be careful with absolutist statements.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160624-we-have-the-wrong-idea-about-males-females-and-sex
This is much more fun:
That was very good, thanks.
I didn’t say that though did I. Care to explain how humans reproduce without the sex binary? Seriously, I’d like to hear your thinking.
if on the other hand you mean that that the word sex has social as well as biological meaning, then I’d agree with you. But you said there is no such thing as biological sex and that requires an explanation using biology not social concepts.
maybe you should ask women who cant concieve that question
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/female-infertility/symptoms-causes/
It seems you using the biological race theories ( based on physical attributes) to apply to the 'gender-sphere'
The real point of classifying people into different races was to 'allow' discrimination. Which is the same aim as those who follow the strict biological sex theory , its for exclusionary reasons. A social construct is being used for social exclusion
I can tell you as a woman who no longer ovulates that I’m still biologically female. To suggest that women who can’t conceive aren’t female is fucked up and offensive.
You still haven’t explained how there is no such thing as biological sex. It’s nothing to do with race. There’s no such thing as biological races in humans, and there’s no evidence for such. Otoh, reproduction is well studied, and humans understood it before western science came along because it’s observable.
Anyway, this is going to get boring fast, to save us the trouble I’ll assume you are talking about social aspects of sex, probably conflated with gender, and are not in fact talking about biology
There is no such thing as 'biological sex'
Presuming you are a human…how did you get here?
Biological sex is real. Our lives depend on it. Literally.
Gender expression on the other hand is whatever one wants. The presumption that one's genitals dictates one's personality is false. Feminists have battled long and hard for this. This idea that if one's personality fails to conform to some archaic notion of gender then one was born into the wrong body is a hugely retrograde step.
The concept that failing to conform to sex-role stereotypes can be fixed with drugs and surgery is, to some of us, abhorrent.
It is an example of how destructive our present direction is to communities and human patterns of life that bind us together, that we are now arguing about how we show we are people and what sort of people and how we reproduce ourselves etc.
Once we didn't question like this and the progressive attitude was to make things better for ourselves as people, now many are educated to think along machine-like lines, to question everything, and we have no certainties, no ground to stand upon.
With the ground opening under us, a group needs to rise that presents an ethos that embraces us and which everybody can accept apart from the most utopian or misognystic. We need to agree on some Guiding Principles which could lead to us questioning a proposition; such as 'Is this going to be helpful for solving a problem or advancing betterment' or some other open query that looks to positive outcomes.
Depends on who is asking and who is answering; just ask intersectionalists.
Thanks incognito – just an idea to throw into the lucky dip, just for a toy to play with – perhaps a battery in it would get it working.
Thats merely a catholic church teaching… which is fine if you choose to follow that faith. Dont expect to impose on anyone else. Do YOU want to impose it on others ?
'The Church supports people being whole and healthy people. Our understanding of gender is tied to biological sex, which is also tied to the spiritual reality of a person. For this reason, the Church does not teach that a person’s gender can be different than their biological sex, that it falls onto a spectrum, or that it can be fluid.'
You appear to not understand the difference between biological sex and social gender.
There is the same 'fluidity' for sex and gender. May not be the same people.
Dont let the facts about small group ( around the same proportion as twins) who dont have fit your theory on 'biological sex' get in the way of your abhorrence- which is really about men becoming women isnt it!
Nope, no problem with people transitioning to another gender, including trans women. Do have a problem with people who make assertions on TS that they can’t explain. You’ve got some beliefs there, which is fine, I’m just not seeing the evidence to support where you are asserting them as fact.
Ive given a Lancet link ( it was a whole issue), the Forbes story talked about the BBC documentary.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32764-3/fulltext
The science doesnt support your view, which is based on your understandings only. Someone called it an view taught in intermediate school.
It should be clear the abhorrence was Rosemarys comment, but the threads get tangled.
It's a woman's, man's or non-binary person's right to choose (or not choose.)
Choice delayed is choice denied, particularly in more 'on demand' societies.
" conform to sex-role stereotypes can be fixed with drugs and surgery is abhorrent'
Maybe you should protest outside fertility clinics as they use drugs to improve women's ability to conceive. Gynecologists can tell you about common physical impediments to childbirth that are corrected by surgery.
Also Im surprised you dont about the surgery called Cesarean section.
Surgery and drugs is OK when it meets your requirements but not for others? And please dont stigmatise those that do.
Let me put it this way. One of my part timer is a trans women, however she will never menstruate, never get pregnant, never give birth, and never go through menopause.
And these are differences that can make a great difference in life.
AS to how 'infertile' women perceive this?
Well i had a hysterectomy 20 odd years ago due to a rapid growth tumor. So now i don't menstruate anymore, had a whole lot of sex without having any pregnancy scare (wow, so liberating!) never gave birth and now go through menopause. Also the money i saved on female hygiene products is just insane! That shit is expensive.
Am I still a biological women. I just never birthed a child. . And also let me assure you that your question about 'infertile women' also applies to 'infertile men' – what would you call them?
I simply suggest that you stay away from this discussion as clearly you don't want to listen to women and the potential issues they have in a conservation that acutely affects them.
As for trans women are women? No matter how many and how hard anyone wants to believe that they are a women or are like all women – or as Kaitlyn Jenner said 'for all intend and purposes i ama woman' but i certainly would never discuss menstruation, child birth, menopause, breastfeeding, hysterectomies, cervical cancer, fallopian cysts, etc with them. Because they would have no clue what i am speaking of. Cause that part of women hood is biological and we did not ask for it, it came with us.
Gender Fluidity arent necessarily the same people as those who dont fit the idea of a biological sex.
Why are you so obsessed about menstruation, those before puberty and after menopause cant. Is that another category of what makes a woman ?
What those people who beat the biological sex drum want to do is create a rigid class of what a women is, so they can exclude the gender fluid/ and those without the right genitals/childbirth etc.
And when they can create the right genitals – your abhorrence shows its your own social construction thats threatened. Well boo hoo, its unacceptable to use some sort of psuedo biological reasoning to create discrimination.
It’s not an obsession with menstruation, she named a range of life stages specific to females (irrespective of whether all females go through all stages). Women talking about the experiment of menstruation is core to femajesy and no other class of people. The push to stop women talking about their own experiences is part of why there is the sex/gender war.
thing that fucks me off about your position is that we could have been having a conversation about how to make society safe and good for women and gender fluid people. But the insistence that this class of people doesn’t exist is pitting people who should other wise be allies against each other.
you can make up shit about and misrepresent my beliefs and there’s not a lot I can do about it (although I will moderate on TS if it gets out of hand), but the numbers of women who are increasingly alarmed not by trans people but by the loss of women’s culture and rights is getting larger every day. I just hope the left wing GCFs prevail, because the right wing GC people are going to do massive damage other wise.
Where have I said anything about a class that doesnt exits.
Medically the idea of a rigid he-she line doesnt scientifically happen
'According to the BBC documentary, Me, My Sex and I, “There are about a dozen different conditions that blur the line between male and female. They’re known as disorders of sexual development or DSDs…. Altogether, DSDs occur as frequently as twins or red hair.”
when you get your menstruation around 10 – 13 and you have this until you are well into your 40s it is not an obsession but a bodily function thanks to biology. Its like men having boners in the morning. The only ones having them are those that are born with a penis. Also not an obsession. Just a biological tick in the 0 1 universe that creates 'man' and 'woman' and guarantees the survival of the species.
The fact that you have to ask why we women are so obsessed about menstruation actually says it all. Biological women menstruate, whether they want to or not. Actually most of us would be really happy to live without that particular part of womanhood but conversely it is a universal shared experience that brings us together. It is a thing that makes us women.
Womanhood is not all about genitals, it is about shared experience and all the stuff Sabine said and sadly for your perspective the plumbing that makes us menstruate is ONE aspect of that.
Women and Trans women are different. I don't see this as discriminatory just as. Different is not a judgement it is just different!!
Transwomen have their own stuff, leave us with our stuff please.
Women and Trans women are different. I don't see this as discriminatory just as. Different is not a judgement it is just different!!
Transwomen have their own stuff, leave us with our stuff please.
Exactly. Well said. It's really not that hard to understand.
Thank you!
I think you are male Ghost, but I could be wrong. "Obsessed about menstruation" lol lol lol………………….A woman would understand why this might be the case!
What a most peculiar statement. People do discuss these things with people of the opposite sex, e.g. with their partners/spouses. Not every woman has (had) the things you list and similarly, not every man has (had) erectile issues, prostate or testicular cancer or male breast cancer, for example. We discuss [my emphasis] these things, which can be among the most personal, with people we trust and I don’t see how this would or could be limited to one’s own sex only. I might be missing something here.
Maybe limited imagination can lead people towards essentialism?
I can’t imagine how
Women do talk to other women about things that they don’t talk to men about. In the same way gardeners might talk with other gardeners about a topic. They might also talk to non gardeners but the conversation is different. This is a common thing among humans.
Yes, common, that is the key word here, which here means not exclusively or not always. This is a crucial point that often is ignored, sometimes (?) deliberately, which is in/with many (?) public discussions and debates on complex and sensitive issues, some people and/or groups are excluded, ignored, or cancelled even. I’m convinced that this never ends with good outcomes for all in the long run, not even when it is (supposedly) only (!) temporary. For example, when X talk about X then Y should stay silent and listen. It takes effort, sometimes considerable effort, from all sides to be as inclusive as possible and not to slide into technical jargon or lingo that excludes others or turns discussions into superficial and almost meaningless convos. Make of that what you will.
I get the point at the general level but Sabine was saying that she personally wouldn’t talk to a trans woman about biological processes specific to females. Whether that’s absolute or not I don’t know (I didn’t take it that way, I took it to mean she wouldn’t talk women’s business rather than never ever talk female biology, and it’s Sabine’s style to be blunt and appear absolutist).
But, there are times when exclusion is appropriate. Women having spaces separate from men, Maori caucuses within or alongside Pakeha dominant orgs, men’s drumming circles, we have a lot of such things in human society that aren’t in and of themselves discriminatory. It’s hard to see how Sabine could have made her comment inclusive when the point of it was to show difference.
No, while i talk women stuff with her, such as lower pay for women, being an immigrant women, travelling as a women, cooking, boys, career in her chosen field and so on, i would not discuss with her the trauma of having an emergency hysterectomy and in doing so having lost all potential children i could have born. There are the things that i can 'identify' with her as a women, and then there are things that i can not identify with her as a women. If that makes any sense, in the same sense as i don't expect to talk about all her issues to me just because we both fall in that box 'women' now. She and I we know full well that we are not 'the same', but we both identify as women.
As to my 'blunt' style, i am german and thus lack all english sense of etiquette and am usually to honest to be polite, and english is not my first language. So maybe that should also be factored in. Not everyone is native.
I think talking to a trans woman about menstruation etc, wouldn't be something I would do. It would feel a bit like talking about my pregnancy to an infertile couple, but it would depend I guess.
let me quote Weka, she has better words then I do.
weka…
8 May 2021 at 4:37 pm
The same applies to people who want us to discuss these very personal issues with people we might not care to because they find refusal to do so ‘peculiar’. Nothing peculiar about it. Unless women now no longer have the right to discuss these female centric biological issues with people whom they identify with?
Obviously, no two people are the same and I don’t recognise your and weka’s reasoning as a given that applies to all and this is what I meant by “peculiar” but it is obvious from your reaction you took it to mean something different and negative; it wouldn’t be the first time 🙁
I don’t think anybody here today has said or tried to stop women discussing certain issues with “people whom they identify with” (AKA other women) but one doesn’t get to pick and choose here who replies and what they’ll say. Weka has previously posted Leftie-only and women-only posts on this site and even then people stray across, sometimes accidentally, sometimes not … However, even then, you cannot stop people commenting and trying to run interference from the side lines in posts such as this one (i.e. OM). Personally, I don’t think it is the most effective and efficient way to go about it but I have supported & policed the efforts as weka knows. Framing it as a “war” is problematic, IMO.
I don’t want this to become an argument so this is my final comment about it here and now.
There is war going on Incognito, and it’s terrible. TS had largely been sheltered from it for a range of reasons.
It’s not that women in this conversation have been stopped from speaking, but then this is a mixed sex space. However TS most definitely has a history of women not being able to fully take part and that’s never been resolved. That’s not been around the gender/sex wars, but there’s something here about watching left wing men not listen to women, again, in this particular war as it comes to TS. Many people are underestimating just how serious this is for women.
beyond that, there are absolutely massive issues with suppression of debate in the war. And women are bearing the brunt of that. This is a listen and learn situation imo, not that men should take part but an acknowledgment of not getting what we are talking about wouldn’t go amiss.
I will add that I don’t consider TS to be a safe debate space for trans people either, nor other groups. This is part of why I haven’t talked about the war until recently and why I’ve written only one post. But the war is about to arrive in our faces because of NZ legislative changes and we need to get up to speed with how to make room for the debate here.
To give you an example, women are being told in social media groups not to use language specific to their bodies because it’s exclusionary. That’s the context for Ghost’s reductionist and dismissive framing of women talking about our bodies. Am happy to explain why having our language taken is such a big deal if it’s not apparent.
Ghost you are making a big claim "there is no such thing as biological sex". and using a Forbes magazine article, written by a ?Journalist? Please. Big claims call for very big evidence. And I mean scientific evidence.
You are alive because a female produced an egg and a male sperm. The female then carried you in her womb and gave birth to you. Even if IVF etc, was used, it is still the same process.
I am a biological wo
Ghost, you make extraordinary claims "there is no such thing as biological sex" and then use a Forbes magazine article, written by a ?journalist? to back it up .
Extraordinary claims call for extraordinary evidence. Science please.
You are alive because a female egg got fertilized by a male sperm and you were carried in someones womb for approx 9 mths and then said women gave birth to you.
That women would have ovulated, menstuated, grown breasts, had the capacity to breast feed and then has or will go through menopause. She is on average of shorter stature to men, she has less muscle mass and more oestrogen and progesterone. These are the facts and if you do not accept them, you need some compelling evidence to present to say otherwise. People on this site acknowledge that there are some people (a very small minority who are born asexual and that there are a very small minority of people who are born a sex and experience gender dysphoria about this.
Most of us here are likely to have compassion for this and be respectful towards such people. Some of us really object to having science re-written, by people who aren't scienctists and being told unless we tow this ideological line we are trans phobic and run the risk of being cancelled.
What you arguing for is called Essentialism, thats theres immutable rules which determine these things . However you are wrong, as was explained in a whole issue of Lancet ( is that 'medical' enough for you)
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32764-3/fulltext
And yet, as medical anthropologist Katrina Karkazis pointed out in The Lancet last year, the facile search for a definitive trait of biological sex continues:
"As such, there is growing support for the idea that gender classification is not simply a matter of biology, but rather is the result of complex and ever-shifting interactions between culture and biology."
Hmmm. A scientific journal suggesting that what we were taught in intermediate school was a simplified version of what is actually a much more complex and nuanced subject?
Who would have thought such a thing was possible.
A scientific journal is not a textbook 😉
In reply to McFlook, biological sex in the vast majority of cases isn’t complex or nuanced. For The vast majority of people their assigned sex at birth is simple and straightforward. They have anatomy and biological differences that make it clear they are either female or male and this is egosyntonic
The article is published it a medical journal,but no cries to do away with assigning sex at birth.
Interestingly it is the activists who are calling for gender self id, not scientists or medical associations
so scientists agree that sex is biological. So do I.
A recurring theme in these discussions here seems to be that just because something appears to apply to the vast majority of people, for the purposes of discussion we can ignore the existence of anyone for whom it does not actually apply – even if the discussion is partly about them.
Reasserting a category is soothing for people trying to resist it being reconceptualised. Has happened every step of the way. Won't matter ultimately but can cause harm in the meantime.
Yes Sacha, I object to what being a women is being recategorized.
I am sorry if that is hurtful for some, but believe I have science on my side and also have a right to defend the de construction of my identity as a women.
McFlook re your comments.
Most of us here are likely to have compassion for this and be respectful towards such people. Some of us really object to having science re-written, by people who aren't scienctists and being told unless we tow this ideological line we are trans phobic and run the risk of being cancelled.
Can you say more about what you have described as 'deconstruction of your identity'.
How does it feel different than when 1960s feminists said that biological sex did not define women?
Which 1960s feminists Sacha and what did they say?
You seriously want me to mansplain an entire discourse? I'd rather trust women who are articulating a position to know its context.
No I’d like you to explain something about your reference beyond that sound bite. Because it looks like you think they took a specific position and I’m not sure you are correct.
A variety of feminist theorists after Simone de Beauvoir (and ones from Europe like Luce Irigaray, not just the US writers) focused on the matter.
This is one overview of the whole area I found via googling and many of the references seem familiar: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-gender/
Thanks. A quick look at the start, they’re talking about biology not being destiny, ie we have a biology but it doesn’t predetermine what women should do or what roles we should have in society. That’s different from saying there’s no biological definition of female.
Hope others find what it actually says useful and even interesting. I'm done explaining myself any further.
You haven't explained though. You gave me a long document that I didn't have time to read on my phone in lieu of saying what you meant. /shrug.
How does it feel different …?
The minute expressions such as "pregnant people" and "menstruators" and "lactators" began appearing in MSM and governmental publications as if all of these are not applicable to women only, some of us realized this whole issue had gone too far. Way too far.
GCF have spoken about their concerns that the trans movement could conceivably erase women, as defined as 'adult human female'. They were obviously right.
…biological sex did not define women? And yet, back in those heady days of Women's Lib, some of the more radical spent time with mirrors strategically placed so they could properly acquaint themselves with the parts of their anatomy they had been conditioned (for millennia) to hide and be ashamed of.
I believe that what was meant by not being 'defined' by biological sex was that we women should not be confined by limitations placed upon us by a largely predominant patriarchy because we are female.
Back we are to that old chestnut of 'sex-role-stereotypes'…revived again by this trans movement which seems to believe that biological sex does define and confine a person.
this. It’s also a misreading of GCF views to conflate them with bioessentialism. Words and their shared meaning matter.
Surely you meant ‘does NOT define’?
@Sacha. No. I meant what I said. These people clearly truly believe that they can only be 'true to themselves' if they can legally change their biological sex. (As if such a thing is actually possible.)
As if they are defined and confined by their biological sex.
They are not. Just as I am not. Or yourself. Or any of us.
'menstruators, lactators, or 'incubators'
talk about being reduced to biological happenings.
No longer a girl, or a women but a menstruator, lactators, pregnant people'.
Heck, why would anyone be upset by these charming adjectives to descripe describe the one half of the world population that bred all of worlds humanity.
humans reproduce via two biological sexes, social understandings of sex are more nuanced, intersex people exist, trans people exist, biologically female people exist. None of those things are contradictory.
when a woman starts talking about her politics and experience as a woman it doesn’t harm others that she doesn’t always refer to them. #notallhumans is a reactionary response. It’s patronising too.
I don’t recall support for intersex people being talked about here until women started talking about their politics. Maybe we can find ways to support both groups.
So when medical science is finally able to give people the fully-functioning reproductive system of their choice, do you think these arguments will stop? Because I don't.
I don't think that will be possible. Reproduction and childbirth and lacttion is complex and lots of it we don't understand particularly well. But I don't see how that is relevant. You want men of the distant future to be able to have babies (why?), but you don't want women in the here and now to have the right to determine their own existence and politics? This is not new McFlock, but as I've said I'm surprised to hear it coming from you.
I'm not sure how distant it actually is, but where will the discussion go when it does happen?
Every time someone has nailed sex into two distinct categories, an exception gets brought up. So then the commenter either says that such exceptions are so uncommon as to make the experiences of those people not worth considering (although they're not usually honest enough to put it into those terms), or tightens up the criteria. But there are eventually exceptions to those criteria, too. And the more the criteria get tightened, more and more people get kicked out of one group or the other – even people who aren't the targets of the people obsessed with the binary.
Everyone can determine their own existence and politics. But if those politics are based upon a myth as an excuse to endanger others and deny them medical care, other people are allowed (and have a duty) to criticise those politics.
McFlock, are you saying that you don’t believe that there is a class of people that are biologically female? I’m a little unclear what your view is.
As you put it, "humans reproduce via two biological sexes". That says absolutely nothing about the gamut of people who never had the biological equipment to reproduce. And there are others who have had medical intervention to either get functioning reproductive organs, or organs that look like functioning reproductive organs.
So the statement "humans reproduce via two biological sexes" is simply a description of the reproductive act, and is of no help whatsoever in discussing who should participate in which sporting event or who should use which toilet block.
If you don't like the continuum idea, try ""humans reproduce via two biological sexes that are two general classes that mostly (but by no means entirely) account for millions of variations in human sexual or reproductive organs".
That didn’t answer my question. Do you think there is a class of people that are biologically female? You are implying there is in your last paragraph, but I just want to be clear.
I'm not sure I would use that term (or "biologically male", for that matter), to denote a "class" of people.
There are males and females.
There are males with female characteristics and vice versa. Not just the sex organs: hormone levels, bodily proportions, whatever. Are they not "biologically" one because they have features of the other?
Is it so difficult to imagine that just as sometimes there might be a mismatch in the physical characteristics between one sex pole and the other, there might be a mismatch between the physical characteristics and the complex physiology and chemistry of the brain? But even then "biologically [male/female]" would still be a relative term, not a categorical one.
IT seems that the government is happy to tackle everything but this.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rental-crisis-would-you-pay-30000-upfront-to-get-a-rental-tenants-desperate-measures/3LWOAEE5BYTNNHL4C7IGSBUSYA/
WE Need to Build to Rent! Organise that Labour!
Yeah! Nationalise builders and their companies and suppliers of building materials and have the whole building industry prioritised to building stock for government houses.
That'd go down well.
Oops, except for those working of shoddy school buildings. Oh and those upgrading hospitals.
?
It's just a comment to summarise the debate – people want 'The Government' to do everything, be involved with everything to do with housing. Government is in the gun when any element of housing is not to someone's satisfaction.
I'd read the Tauranga article earlier. Surely only by one agency having control of all facets of housing, linking, co-ordinating controlling can they be blamed for all shortfalls and problems.
When we have someone in Tauranga offering to pay $30,000 upfront and a Rotorua couple so desperate they pay more than they can affair is just the market working?
You want the Government to get in boots and all and tackle everything?
My suggestion would be a start. Then there'd be railing though about 'communism' and let the market decide. Or the half pie measures like wanting the Government involvement in fringe little bits.
What the heck are you actually saying Peter?
Housing and homelessness was literally was the reason for so many to actually vote for these timewasters. But yeah, i get it the second election was won by Covid, so now they don't have to pretend anymore to work for the people. Now they literally just seem to show off to some think tanks and big business who hopefully will elect them when they lose the next election.
Honestly i don't think anyone in this country voted for Andrew Little to grandstand with his remake of the Health System in NZ, all the while freezing wages for 'frontline' worker. And certainly no one voted for Michael Woods to pontificate and potentially fuck up the already fucked up process of wage negotiations in NZ.
I just want this bloody government to do one thing, and that is to encourage smart building – building to rent, not building to accumulate an assett or several to create an even worse housing shortage by keeping houses empty for Captial Gains by the thousands..
But that is in the too hard basket it seems. And yes, i do want the government to interfere in the 'free and unregulated market' and regulate to the best of the greater good and for the benefit of all.
Yes. That is, supposedly, what a Labour government with this mandate should be all about. Sadly, it isn't.
Good explainer from RNZ. Still this Q: are there examples of herd immunity to an illness, from vaccination, where repeat vaccination is needed ongoing, or is this new territory?
Also, has the govt described how border opening might work and how non vaccinated people would be protected?
https://amp.rnz.co.nz/article/798e00d9-866b-4753-a10b-254c901d4525
The Rotumans come from a tiny island north of Fiji and try to live there in a good and practical way. They keep their connections going in New Zealand and show us a good Pacific way to be. I hope their ceremonial get-together is an enjoyable occasion of friendly meetings.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/442124/rotumans-celebrate-language-and-culture-together-amid-covid-19
https://www.beautifulpacific.com/south-pacific-maps/fiji-islands.php
Looks like an employer conference had a visitor from the USA – one Leo Strine. Any ideas how he got into the country?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/125043890/why-is-a-labour-government-encouraging-its-employees-to-become-contractors
he didn't
Navigating the EESG Cross-Currents: Sustainable Stakeholder Corporate Governance
Leo E. Strine Jr. and Karessa L. Cain – Leo and Karessa will join us via livestream from the US to discuss a practical approach to sustainable stakeholder corporate governance, exploring employee, environmental, social and governance considerations for directors.
https://iodconference2021.co.nz/programme
Thanks I obviously didn't delve deep enough.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/442116/endangered-leatherback-turtle-returned-to-hapu
Documents show more than $10,000 was spent by DOC and Te Papa on transportation and a burial ceremony.
Te Rūnanga o Koukourārata chair Dr Matiu Payne said the honu is a taniwha, a guiding deity for his people, and is part of the legends passed down, although this traditional knowledge was purposely not widely shared
This was a good decision and expenditure. Maori don't tell all to nosy tauiwi who often take the knowledge and exploit it. Also remember how much that the government is prepared to pay elite professionals for some task, could be $1000 a day.
eg New Tauranga City Council commissioners could … – NZ Herald
https://www.nzherald.co.nz › bay-of-plenty-times › news
5/02/2021 — Commissioners appointed to lead Tauranga City Council could be paid … A Cabinet paper shows Tolley to be paid up to $1,800 a day for her work, and … The term of the commission will run until just after the next local government … days a week for the other commissioners, while they work to…
An addition about the Tauranga Council Commissioners for those curious:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/four-commissioners-appointed-to-lead-tauranga-city-council/G4EQTS2NXNNWZC26DFRN5S3C6E/
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/let-us-now-cancel-david-cohen
[link tidied up]
Hi Anker, I tidied up your link; anything after the question mark “?” can be deleted from the URL usually.
When you post a link, please include some commentary and/or analysis as to why people should click on it, thanks.
Anker, this is disappointing… See Incognito’s 2.1.1 comment in the link below on how to properly comment.
https://thestandard.org.nz/ethnic-cleansing-and-new-zealand/
No, no, no! You have the wrong end of the stick or you are stirring or both plus you’re doing it all wrong, again!
This is how you do it:
https://thestandard.org.nz/ethnic-cleansing-and-new-zealand/#comment-1791492
https://thestandard.org.nz/about-the-public-service-pay-freeze/#comment-1791375
You obviously still don’t understand context. Let me explain it to and for you:
A link as a reply can stand on its own, especially if it points to factual/informative content and the URL is sufficiently self-explanatory and/or it is a direct answer to somebody’s question. A link out of the blue that goes to an opinion piece or video clip, for example, when the URL is not explaining it clearly is a no-no because there’s no context.
Please don’t hesitate to ask if you need further clarification.
Please don’t run interference with my pre-moderation comments again, thanks.
Best paragraph 2021.
https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1389999961526345731
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2021/05/05/yes-virginia-there-is-still-a-goddamn-global-pandemic/
Likely to rival the 1918 Spanish flu death count.
A new analysis of the toll of the Covid-19 pandemic suggests 6.9 million people worldwide have died from the disease, more than twice as many people as has been officially reported.
In the United States, the analysis estimates, 905,000 people have died of Covid since the start of the pandemic. That is about 61% higher than the current death estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 561,594. The new figure also surpasses the estimated number of U.S. deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic, which was estimated to have killed approximately 675,000 Americans.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/06/new-analysis-finds-global-covid-death-toll-is-double-official-estimates/
http://www.healthdata.org/special-analysis/estimation-excess-mortality-due-covid-19-and-scalars-reported-covid-19-deaths
Thanks joe90 – an interesting analysis from the IHME. The apparent estimated 10-fold under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths in Japan is noteworthy as the Olympics loom.
Japan: Reported COVID-19 deaths = 10,390. Total COVID-19 deaths = 108,320.
Looking at past NZ history in the 1980's. This, deja vu all over again?
New Zealand’s economic difficulties persisted into the mid-1980s, and Muldoon’s National Government favoured erratic policies which ranged from severe spending cuts, to energy-intensive development, to an extreme wage and price freeze. Unemployment continued to increase and New Zealand society was changing:
Māori protest at the legacies of colonisation was more visible; a third wave of feminism challenged many assumptions about work, family life, fertility and the media; environmental movements challenged assumptions about economic growth and development; and there was increasing discussion around a non-aligned and anti-nuclear foreign policy. https://www.labour.org.nz/history
Who or what was responsible for changing our direction? Douglas/Treasury?
[Douglas] argued in 1982 that the government should actively support small business, and intervene to stop the aggregation of assets by big business. In his view, the government should use the tax system to encourage productive investment and discourage speculative investment. Until the end of 1983, Douglas saw exchange rate, tax and protection policies as means of actively shaping the business environment. In August 1982 he supported a contributory superannuation scheme as a means of funding industrial development and in February 1983 he wrote a paper called "Picking Winners for Investment" which proposed the establishment of local consultative groups to guide regional development. In a paper dated May 1983, Douglas argued that an unregulated market led to unhealthy concentrations of market power. //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics#Events_after_the_1981_election
At the end of 1983 there was a marked change in Douglas's thinking. He prepared a caucus paper called the "Economic Policy Package" which called for a market-led restructuring of the economy…He acknowledged the contribution to the package of Doug Andrew, a Treasury officer on secondment to the parliamentary opposition, among others.[25] W H Oliver noted the close alignment of the package and Economic Management,[26] Treasury's 1984 briefing to the incoming government.[27] His assessment was that Douglas was predisposed towards the Treasury view because its implementation required decisive action and because greater reliance on the market solved what Douglas saw as the problem of interest-group participation in policy-making. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics#A_new_direction,_1983%E2%80%931984
/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics#Minister_of_Finance,_1984%E2%80%931988
In 1984, Roger Douglas was made Minister of Finance, with two associate ministers of finance, David Caygill and Richard Prebble. They became known as the "Treasury Troika" or the "Troika", and became the most powerful group in Cabinet.[32] Douglas was the strategist, Prebble the tactician, while Caygill mastered the details. With Caygill the "nice cop" and Prebble the "nasty cop", Douglas could sometimes appear as steering a considered middle course. Later Trevor de Cleene was made undersecretary to Douglas, with special responsibility for Inland Revenue. [33] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics#Immediate_results
Background – Jul.1/1984 https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/bim/economic-management
and Reserve Bank –
1984/5 timeline – https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/ReserveBank/Files/Publications/Bulletins/1985/1985jan48-1nzeconomicchronology1984.pdf?revision=3fe551a1-6eac-463b-9fc6-8ad5b20b32d8
1985/6 timeline – https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/ReserveBank/Files/Publications/Bulletins/1986/1986jan49-1nzeconomicchronology1985.pdf?revision=9d0c3a2c-a1a1-48a7-b53d-420636f08334
This has been reduced but I felt that events and timelines could do with refreshment as still so relevant.
France stormed the Bastille on 14 July. Is the Treasury our parallel institution – say 4 March 1985 when our floating exchange rate was promulgated.
Doulas was sold the pup that Treasury was selling…the private banks could run the economy better than politicians…time has shown the lie.
How many in Treasury got a knighthood out of it? Or did they just get lovely lambswool skins over their seats to keep their bums warm – the bums.
Dont know where those Treasury wonks ended up, but Douglas did all right out of it.
Muldoon is often bagged but consider this fact…we have 85% renewable energy thanks to him.
Neo-liberalism would have washed upon and pummelled these shores sooner or later.
Probably, but we embraced it (at least the political class did) early and with such enthusiasm we appear to have disabled ourselves to the extent we are unable to imagine anything else.
Prick's still dead.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/552330-missouri-house-passes-bill-to-create-rush-limbaugh-day
I wondered what country the upbeat Professor was in – guess – Australia. They have less to lose by taking risks than we have.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/442106/covid-19-trans-tasman-pause-not-needed-infectious-diseases-expert
However, Professor Peter Collignon from Australian National University said the risk of transmission between New South Wales and New Zealand was very low.
I have a niggling worry besetting my brow – is our government still vital and in good mental health? Who tests them to make sure they are compos mentis? Do they need to be all wired up in their seats in Parliament that send a regular charge through to jerk their muscles every half hour, sort of like A Weekend at Bernies.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK40vtKt0Eo
Or are they reminiscent of the Dead Parrot Sketch. Are they appearing, saying their piece after being partly resuscitated, and then being nailed back on their perch? Are they too debilitated to let fly with chirpy policy after a long squawk over Covid19 and other tiresome bothers? Will we end up being offered a slug, that doesn't talk for our next PM?
Good to see Immigration NZ finally take a look at the illegal worker problem started by John Keys and his government.
It's horrible for the workers. I'd like to see major charges against those who employed them, but…
…too big to fail?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125072532/eight-illegal-workers-detained-two-deported-after-raids-on-governmentrun-sites-in-auckland
Everyone washing their hands.
Two months in to my three month temp contract I get offered a permanent full time job.
That'll teach me for turning up on time and getting stuck in.
Guess that self imposed early retirement has gone effed itself for reals this time.
Don’t you hate it when that happens
Yeah, lol.
kia kaha
Like a bulldog licking pee off a nettle 😆