NZ Herald: New Zealand’s fastest growing real estate listings site, OneRoof.co.nz, today announced a strategic partnership with Bank of New Zealand (BNZ).
This marks the beginning of a long-term relationship that will enable both organisations to achieve a joint vision of helping more New Zealanders into their own homes.”
Housing crisis solved! Thanks BNZ and NZH, with NZ in both your names I know you have NZ as your core interest. How much do you think you can get for it?
“The easy fix … is to look at further engineering marvels or medical approaches and more technology to counter the root cause, when all we need is to go back to basics.”
This business has certainly identified a need. Quite sure that advice (go back to basics) applies to adults too. Possibly prohibitively expensive: “relatively low fees” but time will tell.
Anyway, hats off for trying. I recommend gardening and walking in parks for adults with tech malaise who are probably not allowed to attend this pre-school, it helps.
Haha. I like this I thought of the same idea but as a service for a laugh; and to wind up those lefties in the pronoun debate. Like there’s not enough BS to contend with. I reckon he’s having a bit of a wind up himself. Bit of a creep though.
I thought I might identify as a black, handicap, gay, female: for funding purposes. It’d certainly help if I was also younger.
Now watch very boring people lose their shit over this non issue in a world gone mad.
Why don’t you try it then if it’s so easy to get funding, bet you don’t coz reality is not what’s imagined in your head. And no, I’m not wound up, I just find you idiotic.
Did I miss something there Marty? Where did he write/talk about himself in the third person? (I am not going to go into all the female pronouns for that question, either….)
I guess the subject of my satirical ire was not made clear as it cropped up in a response to James comment concerning a man trying to change to the age he ‘identifies with’.
This guy is likely taking the piss out of the Canadian debate on new laws enforcing the use of a persons preferred pronoun e.g. he, she, shim (there’s a list out there); the debate which subsequently saw Jordan Peterson’s rise to fame in that he opposed this law.
Now the mere mention of this man’s name get’s people howling for blood round these parts only attack articles and regurgitating all sorts of reviews and articles hating on him seem allowed. They call him transphobic.
I like to know what people are saying, he is an interesting enough fellow who popped up on the youtube radar.
What fascinated me the most was the amount of hate generated towards a man who, agree with him or not, tried to make a rational debate about free speech. Rallies were organised, speeches disrupted, anger vented!
With Peterson’s fame came lots of correspondence. Not all hate mail. Persons in the LGBT community were expressing to him that the issues radicals were taking him to task for were not their issues at all and they wanted to be left alone not thrust in the spotlight.
This rang bells re: disabilities, tokenism, et. al… being patronized.
Provided they genuinely feel that they have been born into the body of an 18-year-old and can convince counsellors and facilitators of that fact, why on earth not? We must endeavour to be inclusive, and encourage diversity in our Brave New World…
“A deceased brothel owner and reality television star has won a state assembly seat in Nevada in the midterm elections. Dennis Hof, who owned seven legal brothels in the state, died last month during his 72nd birthday celebrations.”
Repugs are real big on forgiving the sinner. As long as he’s their kind of sinner. Recently getting indicted in an ongoing criminal investigation with the risk of substantial jail time is no obstacle to re-election.
Dennis Frank
A dead man wins a political place in the USA. Priceless. As WeTheBleeple says ‘a world gone mad’. Though WTB don’t be so cynical about everything that you’re putting down systems and people using them, trying to struggle on will you.
I am am a fan of the rant. Usually the ranter is saying what many are thinking. There is a feeling of solidarity and that somebody in the world can see things from one’s own POV. And sometimes having said or written it, the whole matter becomes clearer and one can see where the logical points are missing or a new line to take that is as cunning as a Backadder joke!
Edmund: Oh, please, please tell me what your plan is, please tell me, please tell me.
Percy: All right: I go along to the Infanta’s room and tell her that you’ve gone mad.
She comes to the door, and you meet her disguised as a little pig.
Then — and this is the cunning bit — instead of saying `oink oink’,
you say `mooooo’! http://blackadderquotes.com/i-have-a-cunning-plan
As long as we can think up ideas like that, we can go forward with confidence,
and regain our balance (after we have rolled around laughing).
German Greens seem to be resurgent at long last, and social democrats are heading down the gurgler: “The social democratic SPD has been the biggest loser in recent years. Once dominant, it has struggled to attract voters. Its 13 per cent score in the Forsa poll is the lowest recorded by the party since it was banned by the Nazis.”
“One survey by pollsters Forsa found the CDU/CSU on 27 per cent, while the Greens were on 24 per cent, up three. The far-right AfD trailed on 13 per cent, the same score as the centre-left social democrats. The leftist Die Linke and centre-right liberal FDP were both on 9 per cent each.”
End of an era in Germany, when Merkel departs in a few weeks. Here’s a voter analysis from Oct 1st that outlines the emerging political terrain. One graph depicts an already-established populist majority – dramatically illustrating Fukuyama’s thesis that identity politics are now playing out on the political right (more than on the left): https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-political-center-sways-toward-populist-fringes-study/a-45696487
“One in three voters now sympathizes with populist policies, according to a new study by the Bertelsmann Foundation.” The writer is only referring to one portion of the three-way split shown in the graph. Not mentioning the third of voters that self-identify as `partially populist’ seems as likely to be willful misrepresentation as incompetence. What’s wrong with popularity anyway?? Why so scared?
Commentators routinely dismiss populism as banal or a bizarre trend. Winston, our local exemplar, has proven consistently that it ain’t so. Google’s definition: “In politics, populism refers to a range of approaches which emphasise the role of “the people” and often juxtapose this group against “the elite”. There is no single definition of the term, which developed in the 19th century”.
“The survey, which sampled 3,400 voters in May and August, measured populist attitudes around an individual’s tendency to sympathize with three core factors: anti-establishment attitudes, anti-pluralism and the desire for more sovereignty.”
You were trying to help by doing this and sadly you have paid the ultimate price. It must be very hard for your family and friends at this time – kia kaha
Ed I couldn’t agree more. I find boxing repugnant. It’s not just the risk of significant head injury which can lead to death, second one recently. It’s that fighting is regarded as sport/entertainment.
‘Soccer’ is a non contact sport. Rugby has changed rules in attempting to deal with head injuries.
You or I can freely play ‘soccer’ or rugby on the street or over at the park. But we don’t get to play boxing. That’s called “arrested and up in court”.
KJT………………..I can’t agree with that. You are not allowed to hit someone on the rugby or soccor field. The whole point of boxing is to hit someone, actually to knock them out. Boxing condones hurting someone………………… so the psychological message it sends people is that this is acceptable. The aim of rugby etc is to score points through running, kicking a ball etc. Of course they are contact sports so there will be injuries, but there are rules to minimize these injuries.
I agree about head injuries in those sports, and in an ideal world I probably would ban them, particularly rugby , but realize there is little or no chance of that.
I am not sure what you mean by hair splitting kit. The whole aim of boxing is to hit your opponent hard with the view to knocking them out. Sports such as rugby there is no intention to hit your opponent ideally to knock them out. In fact if you did this you would likely be sent off……..
None of the other sports people list down this thread include physical violence……….archery as someone mentioned is about hitting a target, not a person.
I am not saying we should ban sports cause of risk. For me it’s that I find fighting ie hitting another person, actually aiming to punch them in the head and knock them out vile and repugnant……………..it is the one sport I would ban if I could…….
That would be true if no pros ever died or where damaged seriously.
I love a good boxing match though
Maybe all charity fights should have big helmets as a rule and thicker gloves.
That’s one of the suggestions floating around, and should have been done years ago. The other suggestion a couple of trainers came up with was longer training requirements before the bout, licensed trainers, and better attention to matching competitors.
The Eds of the world just don’t seem to get how much of an art there is to most of the pugilistic sports. It really is just as much chess as thumpythumpy.
And by that stage in the fight Boyd was already out of attack ideas for quite some time.
That’s the real thing about Tyson – nobody could figure out how to hit him without getting thumped themselves.
Yeah, He ruled the heavyweight division for a good 5+ years.
Tyson was my favourite boxer by far, loved his speed, power, quickness, movement combined with tremendous balance.
Lennox Lewis was about the only guy who could deal with Tyson, height and reach and a really controlled game plan.
Awesome, intelligent boxer, just a bit mechanical for me.
The thing is that pugilistic sports are sports, not combat. So put in the protective gear, so mistakes aren’t fatal. And minimise those mistakes with comprehensive training.
The one I’ve not usually been partial to is cage-fighting – they remove most of the safety measures, but still ban things that would give a quick end to a real fight. And sometimes it just becomes a gross-out contest, too. So it’s sport, but between beavis and butthead. And no, this is not something I would say to their faces, as I’m not looking for injury 😉
So should horse riding, tramping, mountaineering, rugby, cricket, walking across the road, surfing ,swimming, cycling, long distance running, helicopter flying, parachuting, hanggliding , wind surfing, driving anything, working , eating, drinking, swimming, drug taking of any kind, lying on the couch for hours, basicly anything you can think of.
They all kill people one way or another, the only solution is to end it all right now.
Or grow up and get some perspective.
If it was really about that, you would also be demanding an end to any sport which is ritualized warfare, which may cause injury, . I.E. all team sports, for one.
Actually, it’s about two people making a conscious decision to engage in a form of hand to hand combat. I would not refer to it as sport, as such… nor would I refer to it as vile…that is overly dramatic…
As a point of reference, for my opinion…..’vile’ is waging warfare around the globe murdering, maiming and displacing hundreds of millions of people in relatively short time-frame….
Vile (not exhaustive or exclusive)
Economic/financial warfare
Conventional warfare
Guerilla warfare
Covert warfare
Weather warfare
Space warfare
Environmental warfare
Legal warfare
Political warfare
Ideological warfare
Ad Nauseum
I’m strongly left and have been since I took my first breath when I hit the ground ,
(thanks Bruce ), but the main thing that fucks me off about a large section of the overly concerned ” left ” is that they want to STOP things, all sorts of things that actually do not personally affect them.
Sure people tragicly die doing stuff that they freely want to do but that is their choice. Or we could ban Free Choice, now there’s the permanent political wilderness right there.
Adrian. No to banning those sports…..they don’t involve intentionally hurting someone else.
My husband and I saw a group of young guys in an organised fight in Brisbane. We stepped in because there was concrete beneath them and it could have been a tradgey. I am proud that we did. They said to us that they knew they shouldn’t be doing it.
If boxing is ok, why is hitting another person not? Just curious about the rationale
Time to stop using a rugby match/ Marathon/ yacht race, to raise money for charity. There are better alternatives. The personal cost is to high when a death occurs.
Fixed it for you.
The academic lefts biggest problem with boxing is us, the “great unwashed”, like it.
Just the same as we like yacht racing, Rugby and Beer drinking.
Hell yeah, I forgot about yachting and boating and fishing and gardening ( that compost is a killer) and don’t even start me on lawnmowing. All these things are comparable they are sports or pastimes. They all kill far more people than boxing, which incidently I don”t even like. you’ve got to have a screw loose if you want to get the shit thumped out of you, but much like free speech ( which incidently also gets you killed ) I will defend others right to freely do what they want.
Adrian does that include parents hitting their kids? Two adults having a fist fight over an issue hurting each other cause that is their right? Oh wait that is breaking the law
I think that’s an idiotic smart-arse response. I watch enough netball and basketball to note the physical clashes, the contact in ‘non-contact’ sports. I watch a lot of football (soccer) to see the perpetual heading of the ball as well as the collisions, often involving heads.
So if the case is “so clear” with about 90% of our contact sports people developing CTE be clear and tell us if you’re including netball, and basketball, and football and judo and whatever other sports?
Footballs ignoring it also. Sterling uni in Scotland did a study where they had a machine flight corners in and 20 footballers took I think 10 headers each
Then cognitive testing showed more than 75% of them suffered a loss of function.
One small exercise…..imagine a life of it from childhood up.
Education of parents concerning the extremely high risks involved would be a good start. This would get the ball rolling on government interest via the noise parents might then make. I’m all for (informed) freedom of choice; but minors are also involved in vast numbers and so probably need some Government oversight for the benefit of their safety.
Not as often as rugby players, say, but when they do cop a whack it’s often quite a solid one from a boom or pole or flying pulley block. Not to mention losing appendages to taut ropes going around hard things.
I guess we got this far by being energetic using violence. It can only be contained with some protections properly policed. The world is coming to an end anyway, as we know it, we face floods, fires, starvation. Why do you still think along 20th century lines? Let people go for it, as I say with limitations. Soon we won’t have the range of jobs that are already lower than around 1970s. Earning money by physical sport will be an accepted career even with risks. As Auden says
“Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.”
Living is an option in a damaged world and society without much love. People must be able to support themselves, and boxing and physical sports are ways of necessity, as well as personal advancement even with the risks.
Practically it is foolish to go on about banning them, just try and protect those involved from egregious harm, and provide suitable care for the injured.
Thinking about the replacement of mental, sedentary work and pasttimes in place of the manual, hands-on, physical reminds me how recent and wide-ranging this change has been. It has destroyed the society we had and I don’t think we will recover from the damage.
I am getting discursive here thinking about the love-hate relationship we have with this technology. I note that computers became mainstream with PCs around 1980. My sons played around with Amigas which were great but never got the breakthrough in the competitive world of tech. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_computers#VIC-20_and_Commodore_64
And this is where the most bruising fighting is going on, in the machine and ether world, rather than the physical. Now physicality of anything is up in the air so to speak, physical labour, books and knowledge, everything being downgraded by use of ‘clouds’. And we can only watch this fighting, large corporations battling for the dominance of the world’s everything.
(A memory of the Amiga RIP. Commodore’s later product line, the Amiga platform, ran a GUI operating system by default. The Amiga laid the blueprint for future development of personal computers with its groundbreaking graphics and sound capabilities. Byte called it “the first multimedia computer… so far ahead of its time that almost nobody could fully articulate what it was all about.”[56]
You might be onto something Greywarshark, my prediction is that E-Sports, computer gemes etc are going to kill more people than all other adventurous pastimes combined. The indolence, lack of exercise and fitness will all have a heavy cost in lower life expectantcy.
“The average gamer, far from being a teen, is actually a 35-year-old man who is overweight, aggressive, introverted and … often depressed, according to a report (.pdf) out this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”
That’s a really good point. Exercise not only improves physical health, but mental health as well. It probably benefits society far more than the downsides. Love to see that study.
I’d rather get out in the garden or bush than a boxing ring myself. If I get gored by a pig or a thistle it’s my own stupid fault. I know the risks.
But this (sport related brain injury) does seem like one of those things it’s more comfortable not to talk about in ‘polite society.’ Like Israel, China, and the 80’s.
Lead in our water and our standards which are double those of China and Scandinavia, aren’t being policed by MoBie. High lead in our drinking water is not coming from old pipes in the ground which one might think would be the source, but uncontrolled standards on taps especially the mixer ones, I have one to be installed that I bought earlier on special, so how do I know that it is up to standard. Is there any authoritative and responsible body that I can ring?
/sarc
The thing is that the government regulations have placed the responsibility on the working plumber to be installing product that is lawful (and I don’t know if it mentions health). But where is the screen and list of tested, reliable product that a plumber could refer to for a check as to lawful brands?
Great link. There are so many worries for government and opposition MP’s like Stadiums, conventions centres, defending the rights of drug lords, it seems that poisoning with fake products (children in particular are effected by lead) does not seem to be high on the agenda.
Know someone who was nearly killed by an incorrect fitting off an imported gas oven. Probably widespread but not much interest in addressing anything at source.
But hey, products come from companies and often overseas made and NZ has been the poster child for neoliberalism and trade for decades now and against any regulations on ‘trade’ you know like stopping bad or incorrect products coming in and poisoning unsuspecting consumers.
Synthetics-contaminated cooking utensil poisoned Porirua children
More on this – NZ ‘voluntary’ regulation standards…
“Currently New Zealand adherence to standard is voluntary. Products are not being tested and as a result, there is a high risk that unsafe products are readily available to consumers both instore and online,” Wallace said.
“We believe that there will be other tapware and pipe systems out there that will also fail this standard.”
A mandatory water mark on all plumbing products was implemented in Australia following several high-profile cased of poor-quality products in its public water systems.
Wallace said he believed New Zealand should have a compulsory third-party testing and verification process for all plumbing products sold on the market.
That didn’t take long. The moment King Con gets confident he can get a compliant replacement confirmed, Attorney General Sessions is gone. Watch out for attempts to end the Mueller investigation.
I don’t want to talk about his returns. I just want to look at them. Better yet, I want a group of deeply cynical financial experts to spend however long it takes for a thorough look at them, Fortunately, the new Dem-majority House is about to do that for me.
Gawd I’m sick of popcorn. Any suggestions for an alternative?
Pretzels? Little hard crunchy things? Ugh. If you’re ever in Philadelphia, be sure to get a big old genuine soft pretzel. With some mustard. After that, those little hard ones will forever just seem wrong.
I’m guessing that the new Democrat majority in the House means it now has the option of establishing its own investigation in case Mueller’s becomes a fizzer? If so, sending a macho signal akin to the Maori haka is understandable. I agree it would be entertaining to call his bluff and see how his 70 year old frame performs!
But really, the offer of bipartisan legislation is intended to break gridlock, so the Democrats will look churlish & petty if they fail to reciprocate. All he’s doing is signalling pragmatism, and the return to traditional politics. Seems a mutual-benefit scenario to me. Why not make democracy work for a change?
Nah investigate. I think t.rump is scared and probably rightly so.
I have to say that I sorta want gridlock and his policies and plans stopped – I really have zero time for t.rump – I’d monkey wrench every single thing he wants to do.
And I understand your sentiment – you may be a better, kinder man than me I think.
Doubt it, just non-partisan. I rarely approve of his messaging and behaviour. But I remember him hosting fund-raisers for the Clintons. He’s an opportunist more than anything, I reckon.
“The bad news: he now looks to have a better chance at staying in office until 2025. This year’s midterm elections broke for Trump much more than expected.” “Also, the midterms should make it a near-certainty that no serious Republican will challenge Trump for the presidential nomination in 2020. He has proven once again that he is an impressive electoral campaigner with a crude but effective grasp of strategy.”
This all hinges on whether the Republican establishment has a better option than Trump. Given that he has outperformed Obama at this stage of the cycle (roughly half the swing against), they may well read it as evidence that he’s not as flaky as he seems.
Victim mentality. I caught a brief excerpt from a piece on Radionz – a woman, sounds young, outlining some supposedly sexist behaviour, like ‘He shook the hand of my male colleague but didn’t shake mine’. Women who acted to advance the feminist wishes for respect in the world for women did not suggest that they should wait to be given it. Women need to learn to be assertive and put themselves forward when appropriate, not just whinge.
It has not been common for men and women to shake hands, and if this man did not and she wanted to be greeted and establish a friendly basis to their interaction, then she should have put her hand forward, and nodded or smiled to him which would have indicated that she had agency and was going to be a person who would be involved and responsible. Problem solved, established standing indicated in a small gesture. He would not have refused to shake her hand unless he was a moron and a weird, patriarchal-cult type.
Perhaps he didn’t acknowledge her. I didn’t hear the piece though and maybe she used a bad example. I have experienced plenty of times when I have been ignored or apparently have been invisible owing to gender.
On the other hand social niceties are a peculiar thing. I always offer my hand and although sometimes the other party looks briefly surprised, we shake hands and get on with business.
Hit the banks with a $100m annual levy, says Shane Jones after review
“Banking strategists in this country and overseas are conscious that New Zealand is one of the few developed countries that do not have a banking levy. Aussie banks pay it in their own country, but they get a free good in our country. Make them pay for it.”
Australia has introduced a bank levy of 0.06 per cent on the liabilities of major banks, expected to raise about A$1.5b annually.”
“A police officer “drove dangerously” at 200kmh during a pursuit in which two people died, an official review has found.
The officer drove at speeds reaching 200kmh in an 80kmh area during the pursuit which ended in a crash which left two dead and three injured on October 23.”
Since when have police sat down and reviewed this car chasing behaviour. Ever? Why are they so concerned about cars being stolen? Caring about property before people?
Do they take the malicious attitude that ‘There’s another no good useless young crim off our books’ when the joy-riders get over-excited and scared and try to flee, like they have seen shown on reality tv? These people are being incited to suicide, and the police should be made culpable. Stopping this would not be going soft on crime, the work of crime prevention would continue, but it should not extend to enticing police to what is a murderous response, assymetric to the crime they are facing. (We have seen this before in the case where a dedicated graffitist was knifed to death by a householder defending his fence and aggravated by this vandalism.)
The whole car chase thing and unrealistic targets for proactive prevention of crime is monstrous and brings the police into bad repute and they disgrace themselves by continuing this unacceptable behaviour.
“Ngāi Tāmanuhiri has worked alongside the Ministry of Education to create an educational resource, targeted at 9-11-year-old te reo Māori learners, called ‘He Putanga nō Uki’, which is a story about the discovery of the Horouta waka.
Ngāi Tāmanuhiri Chief Executive Robyn Rauna says they are delighted to have been given the opportunity to tell their story, their way.
“He Putanga nō Uki is one of those stories we were raised on. To be able to capture it as an educational resource is invaluable and it’ll enhance not only our Māori kids and mokopuna, but contribute to the local history of this region.”
From the “Tory Bastards are all the Same” file Doug Ford, the recently elected Conservative Premier of Ontario has been accused of covering up sexual misconduct allegations against a senior minister by saying he was taking leave to deal with addiction/medical issues.
“But in an unusual move, some ministers were assured Friday by a senior official that the “public story” would be the drinking, which is what was shared with the media, while the “real story” was the complaint by the male staffer.“
lol. The rail proposal for hamilton Auckland. They are planning the 99% rail connection. You’d think they take it the last hundred meters and connect it with the bus terminal. You know actually create a integrated public service. There is a empty plot of land between the cricket ground and hamilton school. just next to the kmart and over tge road, yes, of the main bus terminal. Its not rock science, its catchment area, Look i get that future stations in e.hamilton, Nawton, the base, are priorities, but really, 99% of the way. Why bother if your not serious?
They need a new trunk line for the heavy stuff to bypass Hamilton, and use the existing lines, a stop in east hamilton, one at central, one at nawton, one at the base. but someone wants the train to goto the wasteland that is the old station.
@Soddenleaf, sounds like a good idea to get the trains 100% into integrated public transport. Why is public transport run and designed by imbeciles in NZ who fail to understand any concept of customer experience?
Easy. Middle managers run nz, they churn rent for themselves by distorting best practice. Oh, Look how much extra money I’ve just made varying price, quality, availability, service, consistency, and thus creating a on paper debt that is immediately fill by the new plan that exports rent, and thus bonuses.
I think it’s to with the lack of carrying capacity ie, the lack of a double track in places from Hamilton to to the outer Suburbs of Auckland, the lack of the 3rd and 4th mainline on the Southline within Auckland itself and the main Auckland station being rather on the small size doesn’t help either.
Then is the rolling stock as well, is there going to be Wifi on broad? refreshments on broad? And a luggage Van for those going to Auckland Airport or those that want to carry their bicycle?
Yes the whole setup has too be integrated with other public transportation like the bus connection to Auckland Airport etc etc.
In Auckland the officials spend all their money on buildings like Britomart then fail to put enough care into the design of the actual transport. They are more interested in spending the money on construction of the building terminal itself than what the money is for, aka well designed train services.
Auckland is an example of what not to do with public transport. But the council and government keep giving AT and others more money even though they have proven they are incompetent. Even the AT’s own chairman has his own speech written for him and released without him reading it.
More money ain’t going to create any better outcomes on public transport when our biggest problem is bad leadership and appalling decision making, poor benefits to customers, poor long term planning and risk management and toxic culture.
Public transport incompetence is spreading to Wellington with their screwed up decision making coming through with diesel buses and a new bus service it sounds like people are not happy with.
Possibly to do with extensive lobbying by private sector developers on everything in NZ,. Had to laugh when seeing the unasked for Auckland Stadium developers on TV stating it would not cost ratepayers a cent, (just billions in free MT Eden land) and then next sentence saying they wanted funding from the council for a feasibility study! It’s laughable but the officials and MSM lap it up.
Greedies are so enabled now, that they don’t even wait for the council but just get ‘an idea’ then lobby the crap out of it, which remarkably seems to work here and we get white elephant after white elephant, not fit for purpose because it’s all designed around greed and giving away public money to private interests and networks, not what is needed.
If you think Wellywood’s public transport system a mess, then CHC’s is a shit fight atm thanks to ECAN who couldn’t organise a piss up in the local brewery with a fistful of fifties let alone organising root at the Atami Bath House.
There busses aren’t coordinated, with long term vision and let alone long term planning. The Suburban and InterCity Rail has been kicked into touch without any thought at reserving, de-conflicting or preserving the RoW which is mad given current tends atm around Canterbury Region.
I thought they’d, in their genius decide to increase the walking distance from the ferries to the track in brutamart in the new plan. Geez, why not site the intercity bus stop up the top of the hill away from any significant… …oh, wait, they did already. Hey, instead of worrying about public transport, coz they are on top of all that so badly, let’s pedestrianize Queen street. Final a good idea, totally off the cuff and without any actual pressure. The fact that a dual highway hasn’t decreased the public transit time between auckland and hamilton is astonishing, like they don’t plan. Just wet tgeir pants with some bug idea. The solution is simple, Run a bus down the Waikato highway tgat makes minimum time stopping, so no round the one way system. I.e To get future customer, Run a bus from the side of the te raps highway one, walking distance from the base bus terminus (plus put a walkway in) and have the bus stop briefly by coming off the state highway, connect to local buses near on ramps etc. Then time it, avoid the airport, create a regular timetable, advertize it, set the price, not 1 dollar nonsense so nobody knows the real price. You know what competitive economies do to reduce costs for everyone and drive growth. Rent seeking behavior is the problem with the nz economy.
Start with using buses to create Patrons for the corridor, cut out the time lost and use the new highway to cut the direct time from the large town, to the large city.
I realise this is the Labour government and they have little interest in value for taxpayers dollars.
But before anyone forks out 80 million has there actually been any market research or feedback on how many people will use this train service to travel to Auckland for work or if it’s even remotely what commuters want?
I was going to write why this service will be a complete flop but saw this comment which summed up what I was going to write.
Who goes to Papakura? No one., 2hrs 29m to downtown Auckland, plus the time to get to the station and park. Let’s allow another 30m. that’s 3 hrs.
Then what do I do when I get there? wait for a bus, pay for a cab, get on another train? Whichever, allow a further 30m to get to my first destination.
Then how do I get to my next destination? Pay for another cab and allow another hour at least.
Then get my way back to the train station, in getting close to 5.00pm traffic and do it all again in reverse?
Apparently there is a record boom for home alterations and extensions creating “high-quality larger dwellings”… so record building does not necessarily equate to affordable housing or energy efficiency, in fact, I’d guess the opposite…
Sounds like basic standards like lead levels in tap ware are not being inspected or any interest in scams like counterfeit building materials. Wonder how long it is before the rate payers and government and health workers will be called upon to rectify the latest building scandal and health effects, while the businesses bringing in dodgy materials get away scott free by liquidating their companies.
“Nearly a quarter of consented alterations in the June quarter, 1,437 in total, were carried out in the Auckland region where the average value of nearly $134,000 per project was more than two-thirds above the average project spend nationally.
The second highest number of alterations were carried out in Wellington, where 846 building consents were issued in the June quarter, the highest quarterly number since 2004. At a combined value of $62 million, alteration projects account for 20 percent of all residential building work in the region – well above the percentage nationwide.
In Canterbury, 829 consents were granted for alterations worth a total of $44 million. The average project value of less than $53,000 is well below the national average, and the scale of alterations has eased up significantly since averaging up to $85,000 per project as recently as three years ago.
Meanwhile, Otago is in the grip of its own record-breaking home do-up craze. Both the 594 alterations consented in the June quarter, and the combined project value of $27 million, far surpassed anything seen since the Statistics NZ records began in 1990.”
Treasury calls to review a subsidy scheme that has seen $1 billion paid out to Hollywood producers since 2004 were over-ruled by Economic Development Minister David Parker.
Documents released under the Official Information Act show Treasury officials considered that a long-delayed evaluation of the high-profile scheme was flawed. They believed its claimed return of $2.50 for every government dollar spent might actually be a 10c loss, and the scheme was spurring investments that would be better directed elsewhere.
Surprise, surprise.
Government subsidies to foreign multi-national corporations costs us more than we get back.
But this government is going to keep them.
So, who’s this government ruling for? Us or the corporations?
The neo-liberal ‘free-market’ hypothesis that the 4th Labour government brought in and every government since has kept specifically rules out government subsidies for business.
Film is an industry that is now pretty big in New Zealand. It touches a whole bunch of trades.
We really only broke into it with Xena Warrior Princess 20 years ago, and carefully sustained it after the great Jackson boom began.
They are the most mobile of industries, who scoop subsidies from any country they can find, so we really will lose them if we don’t keep subsidising them. Note: if your studio is in Wellington, it’s a tax efficiency. If it’s anywhere else it’s a subsidy. Not fair and almost true.
We subsidise most industries, some more than others, some more directly than others.
Would still be good to see the Cabinet paper that rolled the subsidy scheme over.
I’m not really against subsidising film production (Or anything as long as doing so is in the national interest) in NZ but I’d make the subsidy only available to NZ firms with NZ content. I see no point in subsidising already successful foreign multi-nationals.
I also happen to think that subsidising local talent would do more for the nation.
Screen entertainment broadly is one of the most subsidized industries we have.
Those subsidies apply both locally and internationally.
Locally, we have the whole of TVNZ, Maori TV, NZ On Air and its equivalent maori agency, NZ Film Commission, as well as smaller enterprises such as the 24 Hour Film Competition, and bunches of others. Throwing millions and millions per year at it, as they have for decades. Then of course there’s public sponsorships for all those film festivals, particularly the main one.
These subsidies generate massive studio houses, particularly in Auckland for tv. They include scriptwriters, grips, producers, set designers, catering, logistics and travel, actors, scouts, wardrobe, jewelers, the whole 9 yards.
Internationally, we have tax breaks that have helped form Wellywood and the entire world-beating empire in Miramar, who win work from around the world and bring it here in partnership with others. And no, we’re never going to have the capacity to write, produce, direct, market, and distribute all by ourselves. We are always going to be a small slice of bigger deals.
Then of course there’s the tax-and ratepayer funding that gets poured into publicly-owned film studios, such as the one operated in Henderson.
Tote all of that up. I can’t say Im comfortable when I start setting out the taxpayer $$ per actor. But then, I do see it as an industry worth supporting.
LIke I support dump trucks of taxpayer $$ being poured into totally unprofitable industries like rail and public transport.
I see the Reserve Bank is keeping the official cash rate at 1.7% because, ” However, core consumer price inflation remains below our 2 per cent target mid-point, necessitating continued supportive monetary policy. ”
What an utter load of fucking BULLSHIT we all know prices are increasing like 5 of the grocery items we bought this week had between a 15-20% price increase then our rates are going up by 10% and insurance had just increased by 25%
These neoliberal fucking prats in the Reserve Bank are not even putting their heads out the window to see if it is raining. They just regurgitate the Neo crap amongst themselves and believe it as fact
Get the arseoles off their aresoles to walk around a few supermarkets and then they will see the REAL and TRUE inflation rate.
This so-called inflation rate is designed to let the banks justify paying low-interest rates on savings and also to keeps the wages low
Utter fucking crap, it is about time that sewer had a great sort out.
One of the reasons why I think going cashless is necessary is because it would give an accurate rate of inflation right down to the local level. Would be able to measure inflation in each individual shop.
The OCR will remain low, because raising it will lead to ‘severe outcomes’…
RBNZ, along with most (all) Central Banks, are making decisions using a failed and flawed set of policy and guidelines… They are stuck with the limited changes and levers they have available between the proverbial rock and hard place….the problems are systematic…..they will not change….indeed they cannot change….
Central bank decisions will become further divorced from what the ‘real economy’ is experiencing and living through….
Southern cross fail. The truth is it is ALL about profit.
“Just six days before Auckland mum Anna Jobsz was due to have her ovaries removed she was told her insurer wouldn’t pay.”
Southern Cross Health Society chief marketing officer Chris Watney said “Once the lifetime allowance was reached, any further procedures would not be funded, This would place too much of a burden of cost on the collective membership of our society – raising premiums significantly.”
“Southern cross fail. The truth is it is ALL about profit”
I might be wrong but the way i understand it Southern cross is NOT for profit.
Southern cross is pretty good, they are much better than the shit company i have medical insurance with.
It may not be about profit but it is about keeping costs down.
Jobsz has been insured with Southern Cross Insurance since 2001, with a $120 monthly premium. The plan originally provided unlimited surgical treatment for cancer.
In 2016 Southern Cross created the cap of between $30,000 and $50,000 per lifetime, depending on the member’s plan, for preventative operations.
Proof positive that private insurance doesn’t work. For profit private insurance is even worse because of the dead-weight loss of profit.
1) didn’t read the full file
2) made the decision the same day he was told about it
3) apparently spoke with the PM because he was so conflicted over it
4) relied on the advice of Immigration NZ staff
5) now has in inquiry into the INZ process around it
6) but had the information there to read himself
7) limitation of deportation liability didn’t need to be made right away considering Sroubek is still in prison.
The whole thing is a clusterfuck.
Still though, doesn’t mean he should resign. He should admit he fucked up and explain what he’s going to do to ensure that INZ don’t cause Ministers to fuck up in the future, rectify the matter, and then resign.
And yet people say that NZ1st was going to send NZ to hell in a handcart. Seems like Labour is doing that pretty well on their own.
I will be accused of being a “Jacinda fan”. So be it!! I am. Why ? go to her facebook page.
There is a brilliant video of children”s responses to her request for a Christmas card design showing a NZ Christmas. WOW and WOW!!
What a great idea and person she is.
Overseas people, especially Aussies compared her with Scomo in his bus seeking votes.
She radiates her love of Children, and a wonderful ability to connect, especially with the Mum who missed the deadline and sent a photo of her child’s efforts.
Jacinda’s comments were so supportive. “Don’t beat yourself up as a Mum.” And doing a screen shot of their effort. She is indeed gold. She is genuine.
Now some will say “What about …..?” You fill the gap. But guess what, everyone of those parents know her as special.
“the election would be about the dangerous situation created by Washington that has caused two militarily powerful countries to prepare for war with the US. This is the most serious development of my lifetime.”
If the U.S. had an independent media….
“the election would be about the American police state that, based on the 9/11 lie, the weapons of mass destruction lie, the use of chemical weapons lie, the Iranian nukes lie, the Russian invasion of Ukraine lie, was accepted by the insouciant Americans. Those responsible for these lies, which have caused massive war crimes, for which US administrations should be indicted, are feted and rich. The rest of us have experienced the loss of civil liberty and privacy. Any individual in the way of the police state is mowed down.”
If the U.S. had an independent media….
“the election would be about the de-industrialization of the United States. Today the offshoring of American manufacturing and industry has reduced the US military to dependence on Chinese suppliers.”
If the U.S. had an independent media….
“the election would be about the 20 years of US and NATO/EU war crimes against Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen, and US and NATO support for Israel’s war crimes against the remnants of the Palestinian people, and US and NATO/EU support for the neo-nazi regime established by the Obama regime in Ukraine to commit war crimes against the breakaway Russian provinces, the populations of which refuse to become victims of Washington’s overthrow of the democratic elected Ukrainian government and installation by “America’s first black president” of a neo-nazi regime.”
If the U.S. had an independent media……
“the election would be about the orchestrated demonization of Iran. The completely stupid dope that Trump appointed Secretary of State just declared (the utter fool should not be permitted to open his mouth) that Washington was going to drive Iran into the ground unless the government agreed to behave like a normal state.”
Roberts is one of the most readable righties, but mostly only if you squint and pretend its satire. On economics, he’s very similar to Don Brash. Politically, he pitches himself as being an independent conservative, with a sideline in left hate and wacky conspiracy theories, including that the CIA owns all the media.
The reason I find him interesting is that he’s been around a long time. He was working for Reagan during the rise of the neo Cons and seems to vaguely resent that the modern right don’t give him the props he thinks he deserves. This means he does occasionally put a good shot across the bows of his fellow conservatives.
As I wrote at the time, Trump vastly over-estimates the power of the president.
And so do most people. When the President is “in tune” with institutional power, then stuff is on steroids.
And as I’ve pointed out before on numerous occasions, the “take down” of Trump would have been attempted on Sanders too. I think people miss the point.
Kia ora The Am Show
There you go the gun control laws in America are not protecting the people that the LAW Maker’s are elected to do. Not line the rifle association pocket’s there you go money over live’s alcohol was a factor to the shooting happened in a bar .
Well O that’s correct the most important issue that will cause the most damage to OUR society Global Warming and Nothing from the media the WestCoast heavy rains and floods who is suppressing this reality .
I agree that most farmers pro a healthy environment and clean water ways and a better future for the descendants.
The only problem with the smoking in car’s ban is the police will have another tool to hit the poor common person on the head with at there discretion Its not like they are all Honorable people .
The Maori AllBlacks are playing in Brazil ka pai lets hope they are hosted well I think its good getting Aotearoa’s presents known in Brazil .
There you go Andrew Becroft alcohol the damage it does to people and the unborn child is a tragedy .
judy is full of it she will dig as deep as she could to get into power no matter who she walk’s on.
Ka kite ano
Eco Maori is pro wind and solar its cheaper and safer that nuclear
UK nuclear power station plans scrapped as Toshiba pulls out
Here is a excerlint opportunity to use solar and wind power generation to full the gap in the power sector in the UK
Firm’s nuclear arm to wind up next year and scrap Cumbria plant leaving big hole in UK energy plans
Some industry watchers said the collapse of the scheme should be seen as an opportunity rather than a risk, for the UK to prioritise renewables instead.
Jonathan Marshall, an analyst at the ECIU thinktank, said: “Shifting away from expensive, complicated technology towards cheaper and easier to build renewables gives the UK the opportunity to build an electricity system that will keep bills for homes and businesses down for years to come.”
The government’s infrastructure advisers recently urged ministers to rethink their nuclear plans and focus on renewables instead.
Ka kite ano link below
This crab could save your life – if humans don’t wipe it out first few people in the world are aware their wellbeing may one day depend on a blue-blooded crab that looks like a cross between the facehugger from Alien and a gigantic louse. Fewer still realise this ancient creature now faces its greatest threat in more than 450m YEAR’s .
This is one reason why I say we have to protect OUR biodiversity all creatures should be treated like Dimonds Ka kite ano links below.
IT was a good start to Equality for all with Wahine and minority cultures who have won power in the American mid term election’s THIS IS JUST the start we have to keep fighting for Equality for all people and mother earth creatures ka kite ano.
P.S You no I say Wahine are more humane and intelligent than men
This is what I call innovation and thinking out side the square the new generation who wont let the old generation stop OUR world’s progress to a better future for all .
A underground road tunnel it save’s the environment no vital land use big + there is heaps of room underground and electric vehicles also it limits the weather damage that roads get from bush fires tornadoes hurricanes in theory less maintenance cost
Ka kite ano Link below
Elon Musk says his first tunnel will open in December
Here is how the Crown treated Tangata Whenua Sir Āpirana Ngata proposed the Crown set apart a portion of the lands it acquired from Māori for settlement by Māori veterans or that it purchase land from Māori explicitly for the purpose of rehabilitation. But the government, including the prime minister, refused to change any of its policies to support the needs of Māori
In some cases, Māori made gains, while others expressed frustration the sacrifices made for the price of citizenship never came to pass .For his book, Soutar says it was difficult to get the families of veterans to talk about what life was like growing up with someone who was probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition more widely considered now but ignored during and after World War I
In the place they called “Hell”, the Somme in France, Soutar say the pioneers worked in harrowing conditions.
Bodies had been lying on the ground, shells exploding. So the bodies are getting blown up again and again..
“A skull would just appear while they were digging out the wall of a trench, bones everywhere.
The smell of the place, bodies that had rotted. They became so used to it.”
The pioneers performed grim tasks as they made their way across France and Belgium.
They were going up two ridge lines with a valley in between, trying to take out the Turkish trenches. One lot started a haka on one ridge, the Māori on the other side heard it. So when they were going to take a trench they’d do a haka also.
“It was during the night and if you’ve never heard a haka before, like the Turks, how frightening it must have been.” There is a need for the wrong’s that was dish out to Maori and Pacific tangata after World WAR 1 & 2 to be acknowledged apologized & compensation for there unfair treatment . Brown people were not aloud to drink in the same pub as white people . Ka kite ano link below. P.S I Know a lot of my tipuna Whano went to both War’s https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/108363904/maori-soldiers-great-war-battle-for-equality
Black girl magic’: 19 black women ran for judge in Texas county – and all 19 won Democrats won all 59 judicial races in Harris county in Tuesday’s midterm elections. In one of the most eye-catching and significant results, the long-time incumbent Republican county judge, Ed Emmett – in effect, the county’s chief executive – lost to Lina Hidalgo, a 27-year-old first-time candidate who immigrated from Colombia as a teenager Ka kite ano link below Mana Wahine
Kia ora Tekaea It was cool watching the pepei waiata and haka .
I don’t like talking about War as I don’t want to give the act any oxygen and hopefully it will drift into our history book’s
Uawa Awa tuna are sweet its good to see there are a few tuna in the Awa and to see the Wahine teaching the tamariki facts about tuna.
The new Wellington Hospital being built from the good donor and the government is going to benefit the people ka pai
Ka kite ano P.S I have tau toko the Maori AllBlacks in Eco Maori yesterdays post
Kia ora Newshub West Coast flood’s= Global Warming
Tragic that shooting in America condolences to the people who lost love one .
There you go Chris Finlayson I can see right through him he thinks people in jail don’t have rights and is using the topic of voters right as a political missile and he made the new laws to block the rights to vote for prisoners.
judey looks like you will have to find another way to line your pockets the Ancient Kauri export ban of unfinished Kauri products that law being upheld is going to save alot our wetlands .
That forest fire in Northen California is a shame condolences to the people who lost love ones and property .
There you go Prince Charles thinks about his and our grandchildren future ka pai .
I agree with the German man we should educate the youth about the tragedies of war
the way I see it the common poor suffered great losses .
Good on the Russian adventure for setting sail around the world from Aotearoa I liked watching the Royal albatross gliding above the water to .
Ka kite ano
What a big spin its the Banks & business that have most the wealth from OUR fast rising house prices that have being artificially inflated over the last 10 years.
national increased immigration sold off the state houses to private enterprises and ignore the fact of a housing shortage and you create a banker & real estate agents wealthy person’s DREAM land making billion’s mean while we have a tsunami of people living under a bridge and our personal dept is huge did this researcher take that out of the equation we were at the top of the list in the 60 70’s .Some did not like a country that had better living standards per person that them so they decided to throw a spanner in the works an what do you know we have heaps of people underthe bridge
Feeling wealthy? New Zealand ranks sixth in global wealth report Ka kite ano.
link below.
Kia ora Newshub Nation I have already said the made my view’s on the teachers strike .
Yes I agree with that statement that employee’s should be the focus it the people the people but I say people should not expect corrections in inequality of pay to happen over night I see some people using this phenomenon as a political missile .
Technology is going to change the employment landscape and Maori & Pacific people will be displaced the most from this technology that’s why I back a Universal wage so we will be able to survive on part time seasonal work. Robots are coming on fast.
Michel I agree Auckland needs a night shelter like the one that Tini is running in Rotorua called the Hub it is working good to.
Ka kite ano
sandflys thank’s for the Vip escort when I went to pick up the mokopuna’s I smelt them as soon as I got on the state highway .
I have eased up on the factual stories about there bad behavior’s as it can affect other’s
But they keep using every dirty lying cheating trick in there book to damage my whano name and my good character. There are many story about there bad behavior’s I’m holding back till the time is correct .
I had one car at the back and 2 in front they plant a cop car were it can not be seen by a over taking lane and the driver in front slows down to get me to over take them an on goes the cop cars lights given me a speeding ticket for being 3 km over the speed limit while over taking the slow car . They have pulled once on me before but I won’t fall at trick for that trick twice . Muppets ka kite ano
I see the sandflys puppets all over the place they are lapping up the sandflys lies and cheating way’s . These people are jealous of Eco Maori sweet truthful music from my Flute Muppets. Ka kite ano
The sandfly’s will lock up a brown person as soon as look at them convicted as far as the law can see bounse more putea .
The sandflys will never give up there false harassment suppression and smear campaign of Eco Maori and his immediate whano.
Why because I have let the whole world know that the policing force around the whole world is corrupt can’t have a Brown person get away with that .
They will protect there false image links below.
Why won’t they put tracking devices in cop cars it will make them more accountable for there action’s it will make there job safer and safer for the public .
But know they cant be caught with there pant;s down at a crime seen at the same place and point in time that could be tracked and traced the data would be stored and can be retrieved at a later date who cares about safety protecting there image is what counts first to the NZpolice. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/10/revealed-no-gps-trackers-in-nz-police-fleet.html.
The sandfly’s have cost me jobs they have cost my son jobs and are still giving my children underarm bowls me and my SON would have been managing Farm;s if the sandflys did not play God and spread lie’s about my family $70.000 +each I will be raging on there ASS from now on they don’t give a shit about what they are doing to my kid;s so they can go get————————————————————————— .
ECO MAORI will win this WAR Bob Marley was one of the worlds greatest Prophets
every thing he said is TRUE
New Zealand Council of Civil Liberties lawyer Michael Bott said “surveillance creep” is a worry and that people risked accepting being monitored “24 hours a day, seven days a week”. Ka kite ano This is what the sandflys are doing to me and my whano and worse they are adding lies and spinning this propagandize to anyone they can sell it to.
Kia ora R&R I had my plans changed I was not going to comment today .
Transport is a good topic .
Eco Maori back’s Electric car and trains charged by renewable energy as hydrogen has to many losses when making the gas and storing it .
You lose %7 to %10 making the gas and more when its used for energy making electricity out of it. so I say stick with electricity and battier power storage’s .
The efficiency of electric is gaining every year and so is battier technology is advancing fast. Hydrogen will have its place in our transport mix but I predict that electricity will be the main stay .
The oil baron’s have suppressed electric transport tec for many year’s The total efficiency % losses will be about %20 to %30 thats way to high to waste
Ka kite ano P.S hope my post did not show you our scary reality
Kia ora The Hui this is a good topic its is cool to get the facts out about FetalAlcohol syndrome is a big problem for the unborn child .
Its worest than PEE coke a lot of man made substances as the story is being told on the show.
The big picture to our reality is the Booze baron have being suppressing this knowledge of the evil affects alcohol has on the human body’s systems .
Ka kite ano. Yes this will affect Maori tamariki more than other cultures.
Kia ora Jenny from Marae Sir Ngatta Love was a tool that was used as a missile to damage Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Mana and image .I bet if it was a old European leader it would have been white washed the justice system protects ITS OWN .
And worst still he died in Jail he should not have been put in Jail .
This is going to change and we are going to change it .
It was a week after he was buried before we found out he had died .
Yes I say the system does not respect and understand Tangata Whenua Culture
Ka kite ano P.S Kia kaha
2018 was a WAY better election for Democrats than most people seem to think.
Bernie Did say don’t count your chickens and he was correct It was a big blue wave Ka pai for the Socialist Democrats for a big effort on the trumexit it look’s like he has a blue——-banned on now Ka kite ano link below
Precious declaration saysYours is yours and mine you leave alone nowPrecious declaration saysI believe all hope is dead no longerTick tick tick Boom!Unexploded ordnance. A veritable minefield. A National caucus with a large number of unknowns, candidates who perhaps received little in the way of vetting as the party jumped ...
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Bryce Edwards writes – Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper ...
That is the only way to describe an MP "forgetting" to declare $178,000 in donations. The amount of money involved - more than five times the candidate spending cap, and two and a half times the median income - is boggling. How do you just "forget" that amount of money? ...
In this week’s “A View from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and spoke about the upcoming US elections and what the possibility of another Trump presidency means for the US role in world affairs. We also spoke about the problems Joe … Continue reading → ...
Hi,Two years ago I briefly featured in Justin Pemberton’s Web of Chaos documentary, which touched on things like QAnon during the pandemic.I mostly prattled on about how intertwined conspiracy narratives are with Evangelical Christian thinking, something Webworm’s explored in the past.(The doc is available on TVNZ+, if you’re not in ...
The Government is leaving the entire construction sector and the community housing sector in limbo. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government released the long-awaited Bill English-led review of Kāinga Ora yesterday, but delayed key decisions on its build plan and how to help community housing providers (CHPs) build ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons Farmers who can’t sleep, worrying they’ll lose everything amid increasing drought. Youth struggling with depression over a future that feels hopeless. Indigenous people grief-stricken over devastated ecosystems. For all these people and more, climate change is taking a clear toll ...
New Zealand’s relationship with China is becoming harder to define, and with that comes a worry that a deteriorating political relationship could spill over into the economic relationship. It is about more than whether New Zealand will join Pillar Two of Aukus, though the Chinese Ambassador, more or less, suggested ...
Been hoping we would see something like this from Sir Geoffrey Palmer. This is excellent.The present Bill goes further than the National Development Act 1979 in stripping away procedures designed to ensure that environmental issues are properly considered. The 1979 approach was not acceptable then and this present approach is ...
He’s Got The Moxie: Only Willie Jackson possesses the credentials to meld together a new Labour message that is, at one and the same moment, staunchly working-class, union-friendly, and which speaks to the hundreds-of-thousands of urban Māori untethered to the neo-tribal capitalist elites of the Iwi Leaders Forum.IT’S ONE OF THE ...
Tree-huggers may well accuse the Government of giving them the fingers, after Energy Minister Simeon Brown announced new measures to protect powerlines from trees, rather than measures to protect trees from powerlines. It can be no coincidence, surely, that this has been announced at the same as Fisheries Minister Shane Jones ...
Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper who could take over the Labour ...
Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law.Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum.AUT ...
Alwyn Poole writes – In New Zealand we have approximately 460 high schools. The gaps between the schools that produce the best results for students and those at the other end of the spectrum are enormous.In terms of the data for their leavers, the top 30 schools have ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be ...
Brian Eastonwrites – The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am ...
The split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed Gantz out into the open. ...
On Thursday 17 May, the Mayoral Proposal for Auckland’s Long Term Plan 2024-2034 was passed by Auckland Council, 20 to 1. It is set to be formally adopted by the Governing Body at its June 27th meeting. The entire process took 8 hours, with the vast majority of that time ...
Pakanga o muaTukua, ka ngaroPuritia taku ringaNgaro ana te ara ki pae rauThere's a battle aheadMany battles are lostBut you'll never see the end of the roadWhile you're travelling with meLate yesterday morning I headed to Wynyard Quarter to see Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick give their pre-budget State of ...
Maybe the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister expected the worst, so they mounted a stout defence of the Budget tax cuts to their party faithful at a party conference over the weekend. In turn, they were greeted with applause, which, though it may have been less than wildly enthusiastic, ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 12, 2024 thru Sat, May 18, 2024. Story of the week “The legislation I signed today [will] keep windmills off our beaches, gas in our tanks, and ...
TL;DR: Here’s six links that stood out to me in the last day in Aotearoa’s political economy to 6:06am on Sunday, May 19:Aotearoa-NZ is the seventh worst in the OECD’s homelessness rankings, just behind the United States and just ahead of Australia. BlackRock thinks rate hikes actually worsen inflation because ...
Halfway up a historic tower in York, we are neither up nor down. At the top you will have views of a city steeped in antiquity, made and remade by Romans, Normans, Vikings, Tescos. Below, you will find a retired minister happy to tell you all about this most astonishing ...
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David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people ...
No one knows what it's likeTo be the bad manTo be the sad manBehind blue eyesNo one knows what it's likeTo be hatedTo be fatedTo telling only liesHave you ever wondered what life must be like for Mike Hosking? Seeing things in black and white through blue tinted specs? In ...
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Hi,I think we all made it through another week — congratulations. I’ve been digesting the new Arab Strap record, which is astonishing. In other news, I’m going to be doing a Webworm popup in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday July 13. I’ll bring a bunch of merch, and some other ...
The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am going to explore the Bill from the perspective of its proponents with their ...
New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be shooting the proposal in the foot. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging the PostPrimary Teachers Association to put learning ahead of ideology. He wants the union leaders to call off their teachers meetings around the country where they hope to muster the strength to undo the government’s plans to establish several ...
What are police for? "Fighting crime" is the obvious answer. If there's a burglary, they should show up and investigate. Ditto if there's a murder or sexual assault. Speeding or drunk or dangerous driving is a crime, so obviously they should respond to that. And obviously, they should respond to ...
Michael Reddell writes – I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s ...
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana has passed an unpleasant milestone: she has now been absent for as many parliamentary sitting days as she has been present for this year. Tana is on full pay while she is suspended, and will benefit from a ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is no coincidence that two Labour should-have-been MPs are making the most noise about public sector cuts. As assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons has been at the forefront of revealing where the next round of state sector job ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a ...
This is one of the (extra) weekly columns on music or movies. Plenty of solid analyses of Possession exist online and most of them – inevitably – contain spoilers. This column is more in the way of a first-timer’s aid to getting your initial bearings. You don’t need to have ...
I am painting in oil, a portrait of a manWho has taken all the heart aches,And all the pain he can stand.I am using all the colors of blue,I have here on my stand.I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.This has been an interesting week for me. ...
Helen Clark joins the Hoon as a special guest talking whether Aotearoa should join Aukus II, and her views on the fast track legislation and how Luxon and the new Government are performing. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts ...
With an election due in less than nine months, Britain’s embattled PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a useful speech earlier this week. He made a substantial case for his government, perhaps as compelling as is possible in the current environment. Quite an achievement. His overall theme was security, first pulling ...
Open access notablesPublicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions, Pearson et al., Climatic Change:We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate ...
You can be all negative about these charter schools if you want, but I’m here to accentuate the positive. You can get all worked up, if you want to, by the contradiction of Luxon saying We’re going to make sure that every school in the country is teaching exactly the same ...
Losing The Room: One can only speculate about what has persuaded the Coalition Government that it will pay no electoral price for unreasonably pushing ahead with policies that are so clearly against the national interest. They seem quite oblivious to the risk that by doing so they will convince an increasing ...
Name suppression decisions can be tough sometimes. No matter your views on free speech, you have to be hard-hearted not to be torn by the tug of the competing arguments. I think you can feel the Supreme Court wrestling with that in M v The King. The case for ...
The Merchants of Menace: The Coalition Government has convinced itself that the “Brahmins’” emollient functions have become much too irksome and expensive. Those who see themselves as the best hope of rebuilding New Zealand’s ailing capitalist system, appear to have convinced themselves that a little bit of blunt trauma is what their mollycoddled ...
When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants:On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
“Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZB report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, “Did I kill someone?” Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
Muriel Newman writes – Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” The fight for ...
Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the proposed legislation. Twenty-seven thousand submissions have been made to Parliament ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
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. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing them ...
The Coalition Government will introduce legislation this year that will enable roadside drug testing as part of our commitment to improve road safety and restore law and order, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand. In ...
The Government has announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “Kāinga Ora is a large and important Crown entity, with assets of $45 billion and over $2.5 billion of expenditure each year. It ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour is pleased that Pseudoephedrine can now be purchased by the general public to protect them from winter illness, after the coalition government worked swiftly to change the law and oversaw a fast approval process by Medsafe. “Pharmacies are now putting the medicines back on their ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Da jia hao. Good morning everyone. Prime Minister Luxon, your excellency, a great friend of New Zealand and my friend Ambassador Wang, Mayor of what he tells me is the best city in New Zealand, Wayne Brown, the highly respected Fran O’Sullivan, Champion of the Auckland business ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
The PSA is taking action to force the Ministry of Education to comply with its legal obligations to do everything it can to find other roles for staff it is laying off because of the Government’s spending cuts. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Waling, Senior Lecturer & Research Fellow, Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University Netflix There has been much excitement in the lead up to the first four episodes of Bridgerton’s season three, featuring leading couple Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa De Bortoli, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Council for Educational Research Taylor Flowe/Unsplash, CC BY Australian teenagers have more disruptive maths classrooms and experience bullying at greater levels than the OECD average, a new report shows. But in better news, Australian ...
Poet, editor and former bookseller Jane Arthur’s debut children’s novel Brown Bird is the story of a shy, self-conscious 11-year-old – partly based on her childhood self – venturing out of her quiet comfort zone. Children’s books are close to my heart because mostly I believe that adults are rings ...
Peter Jackson is bringing Lord of the Rings back to Wellington, producing two new Gollum films in Wellington. Madeleine Chapman (Gollum) argues with Madeleine Chapman (Smeagol) about it. First of all, I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. Of course it’s great news!I don’t know, it gives me ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a part-time media librarian and superannuitant explains how he spends and saves. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Male Age: 65 Ethnicity: EuropeanRole: Media librarian ...
The Government’s Environmental Select Committee is refusing to engage meaningfully when it matters the most over new fast tracking environmental legislation, says Ngāti Ruanui. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Marsh, Senior Research Fellow in Public Health, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Christoph Soeder/dpa New Zealand’s decision to no longer offer free influenza vaccines for all children under 12 will likely wipe out recent gains in uptake. And it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexis Anja Kallio, Deputy Director (Research), Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University Many young people in contact with the justice system come from backgrounds of extreme poverty, parental abuse or neglect, parental incarceration and disrupted education. These complex traumas often manifest as addictions ...
The agency was found to be underperforming and ‘not financially viable’, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. A damning report A government-ordered ...
Asia Pacific Report For more than 76 years, Palestinians have resisted occupation, dispossession and ethnic cleansing, culminating in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Yet in the midst of this catastrophic seven months of “hell on earth”, it is a paradox that there exists an extraordinary oasis of peace and nature. ...
You’ll never set foot in one. But its emissions still effect you. Shanti Mathias reports on a campaign to make private jet owners pay for their emissions in some way. The private jet passengers saunter down the red carpet, wearing sunglasses and heels; paparazzi cameras flash. The sky is blue, ...
Quality teachers back on the front line can only be a good thing. One of the difficult things we teach in senior English classes at secondary school is the development of an idea. This involves deepening your argument, without instead “going sideways” and merely adding examples while repeating the same ...
Opinion: People with certain types of health conditions are more likely than others to have their symptoms dismissed, minimised or disbelieved. These conditions are diagnosed based on the patient self-report of symptoms, where there is no definitive diagnostic test that can prove the existence of disease or demonstrate structural or ...
The intensity of it, ironically, can feel like bullying. Social media activism is reaching something of a peak with the war in Gaza, using the hashtag Blockout2024. It started at this year’s MetGala when influencer and model Haley Kalil was caught on video muttering ‘let them eat cake’ – suddenly ...
It’s 2011 and I am 43 years old. My partner, Christine, and I got together when I was 36. We had been friends for about 10 years before that. One of the first things I asked Christine was whether she wanted to have kids. I had just come out of ...
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Opinion: As an indication of the eye-watering sums involved for the mega-prison plans announced two weeks ago by Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell, consider that $932 million has already been spent on a separate facility due to open at Waikeria next year – that’s about $1.5 million for each of the ...
New Caledonia’s Tontouta International Airport remains closed, and Air New Zealand’s next scheduled flight is on Saturday — although it is not ruling out adding extra services. Air NZ’s Captain David Morgan said on Monday evening flights would only resume when they were assured of the security of the airport ...
Asia Pacific Report As Israel drives the Palestinians deeper into another Nakba in Gaza with its assault on Rafah, the Palestine Youth Aotearoa (PYA) and solidarity supporters in Aotearoa New Zealand tonight commemorated the original Nakba — “the Catastrophe” — of 1948. The 1948 Nakba . . . more than ...
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Hosking: Banks aren’t crooks.
NZ Herald: New Zealand’s fastest growing real estate listings site, OneRoof.co.nz, today announced a strategic partnership with Bank of New Zealand (BNZ).
This marks the beginning of a long-term relationship that will enable both organisations to achieve a joint vision of helping more New Zealanders into their own homes.”
Housing crisis solved! Thanks BNZ and NZH, with NZ in both your names I know you have NZ as your core interest. How much do you think you can get for it?
More zeros on an Australian bank’s profits….if they had partnered with Kiwibank I would have been impressed.
“The easy fix … is to look at further engineering marvels or medical approaches and more technology to counter the root cause, when all we need is to go back to basics.”
This business has certainly identified a need. Quite sure that advice (go back to basics) applies to adults too. Possibly prohibitively expensive: “relatively low fees” but time will tell.
Anyway, hats off for trying. I recommend gardening and walking in parks for adults with tech malaise who are probably not allowed to attend this pre-school, it helps.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12156192
If you can change your sex – why not age?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6363439/Pensioner-69-identifies-45-year-old-tries-change-age.html
Haha. I like this I thought of the same idea but as a service for a laugh; and to wind up those lefties in the pronoun debate. Like there’s not enough BS to contend with. I reckon he’s having a bit of a wind up himself. Bit of a creep though.
I thought I might identify as a black, handicap, gay, female: for funding purposes. It’d certainly help if I was also younger.
Now watch very boring people lose their shit over this non issue in a world gone mad.
Why don’t you try it then if it’s so easy to get funding, bet you don’t coz reality is not what’s imagined in your head. And no, I’m not wound up, I just find you idiotic.
That’s what I was going for.
They have a point though you are idiotic based on the crap you wrote.
Seeing as you interjected yourself….proving WTB’s final sentence to have been, let’s face it, predictably accurate
Such low hanging fruit. I will mock stupidity in a stupid manner. The irony is never lost on myself. 😉
Whoops talking in 3rd person about yourself is a sure sign of puffed upness 😂
Lol dims like you two make taking the piss so much fun 🤣
Did I miss something there Marty? Where did he write/talk about himself in the third person? (I am not going to go into all the female pronouns for that question, either….)
You have replyed to the wrong comment to myself.
It was the one where you mentioned 3rd person, Marty. But I accept your flippant reply as an admission..
I bow to your expertise. I’m nicked, fair cop.
Aw shucks…
Your frequent foot-shooting might qualify you as disabled.
That’s sharp, and funny.
I do have a disability, part of that being a lack of filter. I also possess the capacity to be wrong and say so, which can be rare round these parts.
Some users also fail to understand a piss-take, while others are clever indeed. I’m not gonna dumb it down or censor myself into mediocrity.
Neither gay nor disabled nor minority folk in general have asked to be the poster children of bored PC pushers. It’s patronizing and separating.
Neither gay nor disabled nor minority folk in general have asked to be the poster children of bored PC pushers.
I would be fascinated to know what that actually means.
Fascinated, or hoping for something to pick at?
I guess the subject of my satirical ire was not made clear as it cropped up in a response to James comment concerning a man trying to change to the age he ‘identifies with’.
This guy is likely taking the piss out of the Canadian debate on new laws enforcing the use of a persons preferred pronoun e.g. he, she, shim (there’s a list out there); the debate which subsequently saw Jordan Peterson’s rise to fame in that he opposed this law.
Now the mere mention of this man’s name get’s people howling for blood round these parts only attack articles and regurgitating all sorts of reviews and articles hating on him seem allowed. They call him transphobic.
I like to know what people are saying, he is an interesting enough fellow who popped up on the youtube radar.
What fascinated me the most was the amount of hate generated towards a man who, agree with him or not, tried to make a rational debate about free speech. Rallies were organised, speeches disrupted, anger vented!
With Peterson’s fame came lots of correspondence. Not all hate mail. Persons in the LGBT community were expressing to him that the issues radicals were taking him to task for were not their issues at all and they wanted to be left alone not thrust in the spotlight.
This rang bells re: disabilities, tokenism, et. al… being patronized.
So, we can have 5 year olds voting and going to the pub?
Provided they genuinely feel that they have been born into the body of an 18-year-old and can convince counsellors and facilitators of that fact, why on earth not? We must endeavour to be inclusive, and encourage diversity in our Brave New World…
“A deceased brothel owner and reality television star has won a state assembly seat in Nevada in the midterm elections. Dennis Hof, who owned seven legal brothels in the state, died last month during his 72nd birthday celebrations.”
“Hof ‘crushed his opponent from the great beyond’ says campaign manager”. Just goes to show that spiritual leadership can produce political success, eh? “Nevada is the only state in the US where prostitution remains legal in some areas.” Must be a hot-bed of liberalism!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/midterms-2018/midterm-election-results-denis-hof-dead-wins-nevada-assembly-seat-brothel-a8621461.html
Repugs are real big on forgiving the sinner. As long as he’s their kind of sinner. Recently getting indicted in an ongoing criminal investigation with the risk of substantial jail time is no obstacle to re-election.
https://thinkprogress.org/four-of-last-nights-house-republican-winners-may-not-even-serve-their-full-terms-fb1a487dc00f/
Dennis Frank
A dead man wins a political place in the USA. Priceless. As WeTheBleeple says ‘a world gone mad’. Though WTB don’t be so cynical about everything that you’re putting down systems and people using them, trying to struggle on will you.
Yeah good point I’m just realizing I’m on the offensive too much lately. Balance required.
I am am a fan of the rant. Usually the ranter is saying what many are thinking. There is a feeling of solidarity and that somebody in the world can see things from one’s own POV. And sometimes having said or written it, the whole matter becomes clearer and one can see where the logical points are missing or a new line to take that is as cunning as a Backadder joke!
Edmund: Oh, please, please tell me what your plan is, please tell me, please tell me.
Percy: All right: I go along to the Infanta’s room and tell her that you’ve gone mad.
She comes to the door, and you meet her disguised as a little pig.
Then — and this is the cunning bit — instead of saying `oink oink’,
you say `mooooo’!
http://blackadderquotes.com/i-have-a-cunning-plan
As long as we can think up ideas like that, we can go forward with confidence,
and regain our balance (after we have rolled around laughing).
German Greens seem to be resurgent at long last, and social democrats are heading down the gurgler: “The social democratic SPD has been the biggest loser in recent years. Once dominant, it has struggled to attract voters. Its 13 per cent score in the Forsa poll is the lowest recorded by the party since it was banned by the Nazis.”
“One survey by pollsters Forsa found the CDU/CSU on 27 per cent, while the Greens were on 24 per cent, up three. The far-right AfD trailed on 13 per cent, the same score as the centre-left social democrats. The leftist Die Linke and centre-right liberal FDP were both on 9 per cent each.”
“Another poll by Emind told a similar story, with Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats on 25 per cent, the Greens on 21 per cent, the AfD on 15 per cent, the SPD on 14 per cent, Die Linke on 10 per cent, and the FDP on 9 per cent.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/green-party-conservative-angela-merkel-germany-polls-latest-a8618846.html
End of an era in Germany, when Merkel departs in a few weeks. Here’s a voter analysis from Oct 1st that outlines the emerging political terrain. One graph depicts an already-established populist majority – dramatically illustrating Fukuyama’s thesis that identity politics are now playing out on the political right (more than on the left):
https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-political-center-sways-toward-populist-fringes-study/a-45696487
“One in three voters now sympathizes with populist policies, according to a new study by the Bertelsmann Foundation.” The writer is only referring to one portion of the three-way split shown in the graph. Not mentioning the third of voters that self-identify as `partially populist’ seems as likely to be willful misrepresentation as incompetence. What’s wrong with popularity anyway?? Why so scared?
Commentators routinely dismiss populism as banal or a bizarre trend. Winston, our local exemplar, has proven consistently that it ain’t so. Google’s definition: “In politics, populism refers to a range of approaches which emphasise the role of “the people” and often juxtapose this group against “the elite”. There is no single definition of the term, which developed in the 19th century”.
“The survey, which sampled 3,400 voters in May and August, measured populist attitudes around an individual’s tendency to sympathize with three core factors: anti-establishment attitudes, anti-pluralism and the desire for more sovereignty.”
Interesting insight to the trend here: ” women are increasingly supporting right-wing populist parties, and they are often more radical than their male peers.”
https://www.dw.com/en/women-increasingly-drawn-to-right-wing-populist-parties-study-shows/a-45284465
Boxing is a barbaric spectacle and should be banned.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/108410999/fight-for-christchurch-boxer-kain-parsons-dies-after-charity-match
RIP Kain.
You were trying to help by doing this and sadly you have paid the ultimate price. It must be very hard for your family and friends at this time – kia kaha
Ed I couldn’t agree more. I find boxing repugnant. It’s not just the risk of significant head injury which can lead to death, second one recently. It’s that fighting is regarded as sport/entertainment.
Rugby and soccer are ritualised fighting also. Ban them to?
‘Soccer’ is a non contact sport. Rugby has changed rules in attempting to deal with head injuries.
You or I can freely play ‘soccer’ or rugby on the street or over at the park. But we don’t get to play boxing. That’s called “arrested and up in court”.
Just an observation.
KJT………………..I can’t agree with that. You are not allowed to hit someone on the rugby or soccor field. The whole point of boxing is to hit someone, actually to knock them out. Boxing condones hurting someone………………… so the psychological message it sends people is that this is acceptable. The aim of rugby etc is to score points through running, kicking a ball etc. Of course they are contact sports so there will be injuries, but there are rules to minimize these injuries.
I agree about head injuries in those sports, and in an ideal world I probably would ban them, particularly rugby , but realize there is little or no chance of that.
Bit of hair splitting going on here.
I am not sure what you mean by hair splitting kit. The whole aim of boxing is to hit your opponent hard with the view to knocking them out. Sports such as rugby there is no intention to hit your opponent ideally to knock them out. In fact if you did this you would likely be sent off……..
None of the other sports people list down this thread include physical violence……….archery as someone mentioned is about hitting a target, not a person.
I am not saying we should ban sports cause of risk. For me it’s that I find fighting ie hitting another person, actually aiming to punch them in the head and knock them out vile and repugnant……………..it is the one sport I would ban if I could…….
I don’t think boxing is the problem here
It’s a bunch of non-trained novices trying to box that is the problem
Agree.
That would be true if no pros ever died or where damaged seriously.
I love a good boxing match though
Maybe all charity fights should have big helmets as a rule and thicker gloves.
That’s one of the suggestions floating around, and should have been done years ago. The other suggestion a couple of trainers came up with was longer training requirements before the bout, licensed trainers, and better attention to matching competitors.
The Eds of the world just don’t seem to get how much of an art there is to most of the pugilistic sports. It really is just as much chess as thumpythumpy.
I watched an early Tyson training vid with Kevin Rooney the other day – it was scarey and beautiful at the same time.
And yes to compulsory headgear and bigger gloves.
This was my favourite knockout
Insane hand speed and power.
And by that stage in the fight Boyd was already out of attack ideas for quite some time.
That’s the real thing about Tyson – nobody could figure out how to hit him without getting thumped themselves.
Yeah, He ruled the heavyweight division for a good 5+ years.
Tyson was my favourite boxer by far, loved his speed, power, quickness, movement combined with tremendous balance.
Lennox Lewis was about the only guy who could deal with Tyson, height and reach and a really controlled game plan.
Awesome, intelligent boxer, just a bit mechanical for me.
The thing is that pugilistic sports are sports, not combat. So put in the protective gear, so mistakes aren’t fatal. And minimise those mistakes with comprehensive training.
The one I’ve not usually been partial to is cage-fighting – they remove most of the safety measures, but still ban things that would give a quick end to a real fight. And sometimes it just becomes a gross-out contest, too. So it’s sport, but between beavis and butthead. And no, this is not something I would say to their faces, as I’m not looking for injury 😉
I might have guessed you’d be a fan.
https://youtu.be/t7ZwMVLMezI
yeah I’ve heard of that. Never been a chess man, myself 🙂
Chris T – 100%
So should horse riding, tramping, mountaineering, rugby, cricket, walking across the road, surfing ,swimming, cycling, long distance running, helicopter flying, parachuting, hanggliding , wind surfing, driving anything, working , eating, drinking, swimming, drug taking of any kind, lying on the couch for hours, basicly anything you can think of.
They all kill people one way or another, the only solution is to end it all right now.
Or grow up and get some perspective.
Utter nonsense.
These things are not comparable.
Rubbish. Of course they are. Many sports are based on former military necessities. Archery, Judo, Karate, Rugby.
Rugby has a higher injury rate than boxing. And like most ball sports, designed to increase agility and fitness for warfare.
Let’s ban that also.
So tramping is comparable to assault.
Of course….
If it was really about that, you would also be demanding an end to any sport which is ritualized warfare, which may cause injury, . I.E. all team sports, for one.
Ed, they are directly comparable
I just find it vile that there is a sport that is about deliberately hitting someone.
ankerawshark (6.3.1.3) … Absolutely agree 100%. How people can sit there and cheer as someone gets beaten is beyond me!
Abhorrent authorised violence I call it.
Worth noting which posters approve of and enjoy violence.
Not nice…..
Actually, it’s about two people making a conscious decision to engage in a form of hand to hand combat. I would not refer to it as sport, as such… nor would I refer to it as vile…that is overly dramatic…
As a point of reference, for my opinion…..’vile’ is waging warfare around the globe murdering, maiming and displacing hundreds of millions of people in relatively short time-frame….
Vile (not exhaustive or exclusive)
Economic/financial warfare
Conventional warfare
Guerilla warfare
Covert warfare
Weather warfare
Space warfare
Environmental warfare
Legal warfare
Political warfare
Ideological warfare
Ad Nauseum
, basically anything you can think of. You could add a surgical procedure/operation to the list.
An alternative other than boxing to raise funds is worth serious consideration.
I’m strongly left and have been since I took my first breath when I hit the ground ,
(thanks Bruce ), but the main thing that fucks me off about a large section of the overly concerned ” left ” is that they want to STOP things, all sorts of things that actually do not personally affect them.
Sure people tragicly die doing stuff that they freely want to do but that is their choice. Or we could ban Free Choice, now there’s the permanent political wilderness right there.
Hear hear
Tummy pat for you.
To the point, I agree a lot with the sentiment.
Adrian. No to banning those sports…..they don’t involve intentionally hurting someone else.
My husband and I saw a group of young guys in an organised fight in Brisbane. We stepped in because there was concrete beneath them and it could have been a tradgey. I am proud that we did. They said to us that they knew they shouldn’t be doing it.
If boxing is ok, why is hitting another person not? Just curious about the rationale
Time to stop using a boxing match to raise money for charity. There are better alternatives. The personal cost is to high when a death occurs.
Time to stop using a rugby match/ Marathon/ yacht race, to raise money for charity. There are better alternatives. The personal cost is to high when a death occurs.
Fixed it for you.
The academic lefts biggest problem with boxing is us, the “great unwashed”, like it.
Just the same as we like yacht racing, Rugby and Beer drinking.
Simple snobbery.
You didn’t just describe Eb as the “academic left” did you?
But he does so much “Research”
Lol
Hell yeah, I forgot about yachting and boating and fishing and gardening ( that compost is a killer) and don’t even start me on lawnmowing. All these things are comparable they are sports or pastimes. They all kill far more people than boxing, which incidently I don”t even like. you’ve got to have a screw loose if you want to get the shit thumped out of you, but much like free speech ( which incidently also gets you killed ) I will defend others right to freely do what they want.
Adrian does that include parents hitting their kids? Two adults having a fist fight over an issue hurting each other cause that is their right? Oh wait that is breaking the law
You did not fix it.
If you think punching someone in the head (a probable way to get a head injury) is a good way to fund raise I don’t.
As for simple snobbery, seeing an amateur/unskilled boxer get punched in the head to raise money is not worth the risk.
If you are going to quote me, do not add in extra words.
That’s the one.
Actually, considering how charity tilts the economy from supplying what is needed we should probably be banning charity.
https://www.vox.com/2015/6/10/8760199/gates-foundation-criticism
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/24/no-such-thing-free-gift-gates-foundation-philanthropy-review
Yes!
Charity and advertising, I am in agreement with you…
banning isn’t the answer.
prohibition never works.
in this example, training for a year is a way to mange risk.
When you look at pro footballers who have received brain injuries causing all manner of residual problems…
“Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive hits”
“There’s a range of CTE symptoms, from forgetfulness to violent behavior”
“Of the 202 [footballers] brains, 177, or nearly 90 percent, were diagnosed with CTE”
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/2/2/16956440/concussion-symptoms-cte-football-nfl-brain-damage-youth
The case is clear. About 90% of our contact sports people will develop CTE.
And please note: The above stats were from a sport wearing helmets.
That !@#$%@#$% Chch counsellor Mike Davidson calling for better boxing match-ups. What, so they can punch each other indefinitely?
“The case is clear that about 90% of our contact sports people will develop CTE”?
Which are the contact sports?
You can work that out Pete, unless you played sports a long time; then working stuff out might be more difficult.
I think that’s an idiotic smart-arse response. I watch enough netball and basketball to note the physical clashes, the contact in ‘non-contact’ sports. I watch a lot of football (soccer) to see the perpetual heading of the ball as well as the collisions, often involving heads.
So if the case is “so clear” with about 90% of our contact sports people developing CTE be clear and tell us if you’re including netball, and basketball, and football and judo and whatever other sports?
Yes OK, I was being a jerk. But I think you borrowed calling me idiotic from the ironically named ‘i feel love’ and that’s plagiarism buddy.
So your point is the term contact sport does not encompass enough activities where players are at risk of CTE. Agreed.
I’m not butting heads about how many people are out there butting heads, I don’t know the extent of it.
Did I “wind you up” buddy?
Footballs ignoring it also. Sterling uni in Scotland did a study where they had a machine flight corners in and 20 footballers took I think 10 headers each
Then cognitive testing showed more than 75% of them suffered a loss of function.
One small exercise…..imagine a life of it from childhood up.
Hi Ed
Do you know if the Boxing Event Promoters in Christchurch had insured the life of each contestant ? Or did the dead boxer die penniless ?
Are all those involved in the event, including the contestants, just there for the excitement of the destruction of Heads and Brains ?
Bashing Heads and Brains should be a serious crime – and never a sport.
OK. Ban rugby, Ice hockey and yachting.
Education of parents concerning the extremely high risks involved would be a good start. This would get the ball rolling on government interest via the noise parents might then make. I’m all for (informed) freedom of choice; but minors are also involved in vast numbers and so probably need some Government oversight for the benefit of their safety.
The popularity of contact sports is undeniable.
Do Yachties get hit in the head a lot?
“Do Yachties get hit in the head a lot?”
Not as often as rugby players, say, but when they do cop a whack it’s often quite a solid one from a boom or pole or flying pulley block. Not to mention losing appendages to taut ropes going around hard things.
I guess we got this far by being energetic using violence. It can only be contained with some protections properly policed. The world is coming to an end anyway, as we know it, we face floods, fires, starvation. Why do you still think along 20th century lines? Let people go for it, as I say with limitations. Soon we won’t have the range of jobs that are already lower than around 1970s. Earning money by physical sport will be an accepted career even with risks. As Auden says
“Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.”
Living is an option in a damaged world and society without much love. People must be able to support themselves, and boxing and physical sports are ways of necessity, as well as personal advancement even with the risks.
Practically it is foolish to go on about banning them, just try and protect those involved from egregious harm, and provide suitable care for the injured.
Thinking about the replacement of mental, sedentary work and pasttimes in place of the manual, hands-on, physical reminds me how recent and wide-ranging this change has been. It has destroyed the society we had and I don’t think we will recover from the damage.
I am getting discursive here thinking about the love-hate relationship we have with this technology. I note that computers became mainstream with PCs around 1980. My sons played around with Amigas which were great but never got the breakthrough in the competitive world of tech.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_computers#VIC-20_and_Commodore_64
And this is where the most bruising fighting is going on, in the machine and ether world, rather than the physical. Now physicality of anything is up in the air so to speak, physical labour, books and knowledge, everything being downgraded by use of ‘clouds’. And we can only watch this fighting, large corporations battling for the dominance of the world’s everything.
(A memory of the Amiga RIP. Commodore’s later product line, the Amiga platform, ran a GUI operating system by default. The Amiga laid the blueprint for future development of personal computers with its groundbreaking graphics and sound capabilities. Byte called it “the first multimedia computer… so far ahead of its time that almost nobody could fully articulate what it was all about.”[56]
Observer Tokoroa 100 +++++
It is beyond me that anyone would want to watch such stuff.
You might be onto something Greywarshark, my prediction is that E-Sports, computer gemes etc are going to kill more people than all other adventurous pastimes combined. The indolence, lack of exercise and fitness will all have a heavy cost in lower life expectantcy.
What indolence?
All the gamers I’ve ever known have been seriously into sports and keeping fit.
Think Kim Dotcom.
KDC is one person. I know more than one person into gaming that do serious sports and exercise.
Your problem is your stereo-typical BS beliefs founded on nothing.
Sorry mate not looking good.
“The average gamer, far from being a teen, is actually a 35-year-old man who is overweight, aggressive, introverted and … often depressed, according to a report (.pdf) out this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2009/08/gamers-are-sad/amp
I not saying I think it is true but it is something.
That’s a really good point. Exercise not only improves physical health, but mental health as well. It probably benefits society far more than the downsides. Love to see that study.
I’d rather get out in the garden or bush than a boxing ring myself. If I get gored by a pig or a thistle it’s my own stupid fault. I know the risks.
But this (sport related brain injury) does seem like one of those things it’s more comfortable not to talk about in ‘polite society.’ Like Israel, China, and the 80’s.
You can make everyone play, risk free, computer games instead. The lack of exercise will probably fuck up more people, than boxing ever has.
Kit it’s not just about risk for me. Punching someone in the head is deeply repugnant to me.
There is no other sport I know of that is violence
One of the reasons I don’t like rugby was getting kneed in the face at school, because that was how it was played.
TKD, muy thai, karate, judo, kung fu, tai chi, wrestling… the list of pugilistic arts is long.
Kickboxing, Judo, Karate, Ice Hockey?
I don’t think children should be allowed to play rugby and similar contact sports BTW.
The risks of head and back injury is very high.
Lead in our water and our standards which are double those of China and Scandinavia, aren’t being policed by MoBie. High lead in our drinking water is not coming from old pipes in the ground which one might think would be the source, but uncontrolled standards on taps especially the mixer ones, I have one to be installed that I bought earlier on special, so how do I know that it is up to standard. Is there any authoritative and responsible body that I can ring?
/sarc
The thing is that the government regulations have placed the responsibility on the working plumber to be installing product that is lawful (and I don’t know if it mentions health). But where is the screen and list of tested, reliable product that a plumber could refer to for a check as to lawful brands?
Lab testing has found taps that leach a lot of lead into drinking water. The Master Plumbers industry group says theses are just some of the many dangerous products on the shelves and the Government must act urgently.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018670288/lab-tests-find-taps-leaching-lead-into-drinking-water
+1 greywarshark
Great link. There are so many worries for government and opposition MP’s like Stadiums, conventions centres, defending the rights of drug lords, it seems that poisoning with fake products (children in particular are effected by lead) does not seem to be high on the agenda.
Know someone who was nearly killed by an incorrect fitting off an imported gas oven. Probably widespread but not much interest in addressing anything at source.
But hey, products come from companies and often overseas made and NZ has been the poster child for neoliberalism and trade for decades now and against any regulations on ‘trade’ you know like stopping bad or incorrect products coming in and poisoning unsuspecting consumers.
Synthetics-contaminated cooking utensil poisoned Porirua children
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12142693
More on this – NZ ‘voluntary’ regulation standards…
“Currently New Zealand adherence to standard is voluntary. Products are not being tested and as a result, there is a high risk that unsafe products are readily available to consumers both instore and online,” Wallace said.
“We believe that there will be other tapware and pipe systems out there that will also fail this standard.”
A mandatory water mark on all plumbing products was implemented in Australia following several high-profile cased of poor-quality products in its public water systems.
Wallace said he believed New Zealand should have a compulsory third-party testing and verification process for all plumbing products sold on the market.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12156494
That didn’t take long. The moment King Con gets confident he can get a compliant replacement confirmed, Attorney General Sessions is gone. Watch out for attempts to end the Mueller investigation.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/07/politics/sessions-resign/index.html
And please don’t talk about my tax return.
I don’t want to talk about his returns. I just want to look at them. Better yet, I want a group of deeply cynical financial experts to spend however long it takes for a thorough look at them, Fortunately, the new Dem-majority House is about to do that for me.
Gawd I’m sick of popcorn. Any suggestions for an alternative?
But, but, but…… *shredder machine sounds in the background* …nothing to see here, move along please, lmao.
Popcorn alternatives? Pics Peanut Butter, that stuff tastes amazing.
Deepest condolences to Texas.
Popcorn alternatives?
Roasted garlic chickpeas, Marakku chickpea snacks – any form of chickpea snacks IMO!
Plus nuts, pretzels, etc … New World loose bulk snacks and mixes are wonderful. LOL
Pretzels? Little hard crunchy things? Ugh. If you’re ever in Philadelphia, be sure to get a big old genuine soft pretzel. With some mustard. After that, those little hard ones will forever just seem wrong.
“But during a testy news conference, he vowed to adopt a “warlike posture” if Democrats investigated him.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46132054
Sounds like a challenge worth taking up. Investigate.
I’m guessing that the new Democrat majority in the House means it now has the option of establishing its own investigation in case Mueller’s becomes a fizzer? If so, sending a macho signal akin to the Maori haka is understandable. I agree it would be entertaining to call his bluff and see how his 70 year old frame performs!
But really, the offer of bipartisan legislation is intended to break gridlock, so the Democrats will look churlish & petty if they fail to reciprocate. All he’s doing is signalling pragmatism, and the return to traditional politics. Seems a mutual-benefit scenario to me. Why not make democracy work for a change?
Nah investigate. I think t.rump is scared and probably rightly so.
I have to say that I sorta want gridlock and his policies and plans stopped – I really have zero time for t.rump – I’d monkey wrench every single thing he wants to do.
And I understand your sentiment – you may be a better, kinder man than me I think.
Doubt it, just non-partisan. I rarely approve of his messaging and behaviour. But I remember him hosting fund-raisers for the Clintons. He’s an opportunist more than anything, I reckon.
The Herald has analysis from “Timothy J. Lynch, Associate Professor in American Politics, University of Melbourne” onsite, but here’s where it first appeared: https://theconversation.com/the-us-midterms-show-the-power-of-trumps-divisive-messages-106161
“The bad news: he now looks to have a better chance at staying in office until 2025. This year’s midterm elections broke for Trump much more than expected.” “Also, the midterms should make it a near-certainty that no serious Republican will challenge Trump for the presidential nomination in 2020. He has proven once again that he is an impressive electoral campaigner with a crude but effective grasp of strategy.”
This all hinges on whether the Republican establishment has a better option than Trump. Given that he has outperformed Obama at this stage of the cycle (roughly half the swing against), they may well read it as evidence that he’s not as flaky as he seems.
Victim mentality. I caught a brief excerpt from a piece on Radionz – a woman, sounds young, outlining some supposedly sexist behaviour, like ‘He shook the hand of my male colleague but didn’t shake mine’. Women who acted to advance the feminist wishes for respect in the world for women did not suggest that they should wait to be given it. Women need to learn to be assertive and put themselves forward when appropriate, not just whinge.
It has not been common for men and women to shake hands, and if this man did not and she wanted to be greeted and establish a friendly basis to their interaction, then she should have put her hand forward, and nodded or smiled to him which would have indicated that she had agency and was going to be a person who would be involved and responsible. Problem solved, established standing indicated in a small gesture. He would not have refused to shake her hand unless he was a moron and a weird, patriarchal-cult type.
Perhaps he was scared that touching her uninvited would have him accused of assault?
Possible or maybe was attracted and his muppet boy brain shut him down like a rabbit in the spot light . Been known to happen to me.
Perhaps he didn’t acknowledge her. I didn’t hear the piece though and maybe she used a bad example. I have experienced plenty of times when I have been ignored or apparently have been invisible owing to gender.
On the other hand social niceties are a peculiar thing. I always offer my hand and although sometimes the other party looks briefly surprised, we shake hands and get on with business.
Hit the banks with a $100m annual levy, says Shane Jones after review
“Banking strategists in this country and overseas are conscious that New Zealand is one of the few developed countries that do not have a banking levy. Aussie banks pay it in their own country, but they get a free good in our country. Make them pay for it.”
Australia has introduced a bank levy of 0.06 per cent on the liabilities of major banks, expected to raise about A$1.5b annually.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12155528
And hit all those that live or profit from NZ a micro financial tax for all moneys (aka profits) going in and out of this country.
Might make current players invest more in NZ if they have to pay a bit more tax to take their profits or legal money laundering debt deals, out.
Bloody hell.
“A police officer “drove dangerously” at 200kmh during a pursuit in which two people died, an official review has found.
The officer drove at speeds reaching 200kmh in an 80kmh area during the pursuit which ended in a crash which left two dead and three injured on October 23.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/auckland/108261240/police-officer-was-driving-dangerously-during-fatal-pursuit-says-ipca
Since when have police sat down and reviewed this car chasing behaviour. Ever? Why are they so concerned about cars being stolen? Caring about property before people?
Do they take the malicious attitude that ‘There’s another no good useless young crim off our books’ when the joy-riders get over-excited and scared and try to flee, like they have seen shown on reality tv? These people are being incited to suicide, and the police should be made culpable. Stopping this would not be going soft on crime, the work of crime prevention would continue, but it should not extend to enticing police to what is a murderous response, assymetric to the crime they are facing. (We have seen this before in the case where a dedicated graffitist was knifed to death by a householder defending his fence and aggravated by this vandalism.)
The whole car chase thing and unrealistic targets for proactive prevention of crime is monstrous and brings the police into bad repute and they disgrace themselves by continuing this unacceptable behaviour.
Awesome initiative.
“Ngāi Tāmanuhiri has worked alongside the Ministry of Education to create an educational resource, targeted at 9-11-year-old te reo Māori learners, called ‘He Putanga nō Uki’, which is a story about the discovery of the Horouta waka.
Ngāi Tāmanuhiri Chief Executive Robyn Rauna says they are delighted to have been given the opportunity to tell their story, their way.
“He Putanga nō Uki is one of those stories we were raised on. To be able to capture it as an educational resource is invaluable and it’ll enhance not only our Māori kids and mokopuna, but contribute to the local history of this region.”
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/ngai-tamanuhiri-launches-horouta-waka-resource
From the “Tory Bastards are all the Same” file Doug Ford, the recently elected Conservative Premier of Ontario has been accused of covering up sexual misconduct allegations against a senior minister by saying he was taking leave to deal with addiction/medical issues.
“But in an unusual move, some ministers were assured Friday by a senior official that the “public story” would be the drinking, which is what was shared with the media, while the “real story” was the complaint by the male staffer.“
https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2018/11/06/tories-go-to-ground-amid-swirling-scandals-at-queens-park.html
Last day for welfare /winz submissions is tomorrow. Don’t miss it!
http://weag.govt.nz
Here’s an early look at whether it was better to run as a moderate or progressive Democratic when trying to flip a district held by a Republican.
Spoiler: the moderates did better. A lot better. The time and place for progressives to win is in the primaries of solidly Democrat districts.
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/7/18071700/progressive-democrats-house-midterm-elections-2018
1.5 BILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was the money spent on the midterms, and funny enough in some cases it just didn’t matter.
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/where-money-mattered/
lol. The rail proposal for hamilton Auckland. They are planning the 99% rail connection. You’d think they take it the last hundred meters and connect it with the bus terminal. You know actually create a integrated public service. There is a empty plot of land between the cricket ground and hamilton school. just next to the kmart and over tge road, yes, of the main bus terminal. Its not rock science, its catchment area, Look i get that future stations in e.hamilton, Nawton, the base, are priorities, but really, 99% of the way. Why bother if your not serious?
Isn’t there already an unused underground rail station in central Himilton?
Yes there is.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/103342252/politicians-unlock-doors-to-new-zealands-first-underground-train-station
They need a new trunk line for the heavy stuff to bypass Hamilton, and use the existing lines, a stop in east hamilton, one at central, one at nawton, one at the base. but someone wants the train to goto the wasteland that is the old station.
@Soddenleaf, sounds like a good idea to get the trains 100% into integrated public transport. Why is public transport run and designed by imbeciles in NZ who fail to understand any concept of customer experience?
Easy. Middle managers run nz, they churn rent for themselves by distorting best practice. Oh, Look how much extra money I’ve just made varying price, quality, availability, service, consistency, and thus creating a on paper debt that is immediately fill by the new plan that exports rent, and thus bonuses.
I think it’s to with the lack of carrying capacity ie, the lack of a double track in places from Hamilton to to the outer Suburbs of Auckland, the lack of the 3rd and 4th mainline on the Southline within Auckland itself and the main Auckland station being rather on the small size doesn’t help either.
Then is the rolling stock as well, is there going to be Wifi on broad? refreshments on broad? And a luggage Van for those going to Auckland Airport or those that want to carry their bicycle?
Yes the whole setup has too be integrated with other public transportation like the bus connection to Auckland Airport etc etc.
In Auckland the officials spend all their money on buildings like Britomart then fail to put enough care into the design of the actual transport. They are more interested in spending the money on construction of the building terminal itself than what the money is for, aka well designed train services.
Auckland is an example of what not to do with public transport. But the council and government keep giving AT and others more money even though they have proven they are incompetent. Even the AT’s own chairman has his own speech written for him and released without him reading it.
More money ain’t going to create any better outcomes on public transport when our biggest problem is bad leadership and appalling decision making, poor benefits to customers, poor long term planning and risk management and toxic culture.
Public transport incompetence is spreading to Wellington with their screwed up decision making coming through with diesel buses and a new bus service it sounds like people are not happy with.
Possibly to do with extensive lobbying by private sector developers on everything in NZ,. Had to laugh when seeing the unasked for Auckland Stadium developers on TV stating it would not cost ratepayers a cent, (just billions in free MT Eden land) and then next sentence saying they wanted funding from the council for a feasibility study! It’s laughable but the officials and MSM lap it up.
Greedies are so enabled now, that they don’t even wait for the council but just get ‘an idea’ then lobby the crap out of it, which remarkably seems to work here and we get white elephant after white elephant, not fit for purpose because it’s all designed around greed and giving away public money to private interests and networks, not what is needed.
If you think Wellywood’s public transport system a mess, then CHC’s is a shit fight atm thanks to ECAN who couldn’t organise a piss up in the local brewery with a fistful of fifties let alone organising root at the Atami Bath House.
There busses aren’t coordinated, with long term vision and let alone long term planning. The Suburban and InterCity Rail has been kicked into touch without any thought at reserving, de-conflicting or preserving the RoW which is mad given current tends atm around Canterbury Region.
I thought they’d, in their genius decide to increase the walking distance from the ferries to the track in brutamart in the new plan. Geez, why not site the intercity bus stop up the top of the hill away from any significant… …oh, wait, they did already. Hey, instead of worrying about public transport, coz they are on top of all that so badly, let’s pedestrianize Queen street. Final a good idea, totally off the cuff and without any actual pressure. The fact that a dual highway hasn’t decreased the public transit time between auckland and hamilton is astonishing, like they don’t plan. Just wet tgeir pants with some bug idea. The solution is simple, Run a bus down the Waikato highway tgat makes minimum time stopping, so no round the one way system. I.e To get future customer, Run a bus from the side of the te raps highway one, walking distance from the base bus terminus (plus put a walkway in) and have the bus stop briefly by coming off the state highway, connect to local buses near on ramps etc. Then time it, avoid the airport, create a regular timetable, advertize it, set the price, not 1 dollar nonsense so nobody knows the real price. You know what competitive economies do to reduce costs for everyone and drive growth. Rent seeking behavior is the problem with the nz economy.
Seems to me the smart way would be to do the hubs and integrative planning first then.
Start with using buses to create Patrons for the corridor, cut out the time lost and use the new highway to cut the direct time from the large town, to the large city.
I realise this is the Labour government and they have little interest in value for taxpayers dollars.
But before anyone forks out 80 million has there actually been any market research or feedback on how many people will use this train service to travel to Auckland for work or if it’s even remotely what commuters want?
I was going to write why this service will be a complete flop but saw this comment which summed up what I was going to write.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/108292102/hamilton-to-auckland-passenger-rail-service-takes-another-step-closer
Apparently there is a record boom for home alterations and extensions creating “high-quality larger dwellings”… so record building does not necessarily equate to affordable housing or energy efficiency, in fact, I’d guess the opposite…
Sounds like basic standards like lead levels in tap ware are not being inspected or any interest in scams like counterfeit building materials. Wonder how long it is before the rate payers and government and health workers will be called upon to rectify the latest building scandal and health effects, while the businesses bringing in dodgy materials get away scott free by liquidating their companies.
“Nearly a quarter of consented alterations in the June quarter, 1,437 in total, were carried out in the Auckland region where the average value of nearly $134,000 per project was more than two-thirds above the average project spend nationally.
The second highest number of alterations were carried out in Wellington, where 846 building consents were issued in the June quarter, the highest quarterly number since 2004. At a combined value of $62 million, alteration projects account for 20 percent of all residential building work in the region – well above the percentage nationwide.
In Canterbury, 829 consents were granted for alterations worth a total of $44 million. The average project value of less than $53,000 is well below the national average, and the scale of alterations has eased up significantly since averaging up to $85,000 per project as recently as three years ago.
Meanwhile, Otago is in the grip of its own record-breaking home do-up craze. Both the 594 alterations consented in the June quarter, and the combined project value of $27 million, far surpassed anything seen since the Statistics NZ records began in 1990.”
A scramble to spend capital gains on repairs and improvements?
Treasury warnings over billion-dollar film subsidies ignored
Surprise, surprise.
Government subsidies to foreign multi-national corporations costs us more than we get back.
But this government is going to keep them.
So, who’s this government ruling for? Us or the corporations?
The neo-liberal ‘free-market’ hypothesis that the 4th Labour government brought in and every government since has kept specifically rules out government subsidies for business.
Film is an industry that is now pretty big in New Zealand. It touches a whole bunch of trades.
We really only broke into it with Xena Warrior Princess 20 years ago, and carefully sustained it after the great Jackson boom began.
They are the most mobile of industries, who scoop subsidies from any country they can find, so we really will lose them if we don’t keep subsidising them. Note: if your studio is in Wellington, it’s a tax efficiency. If it’s anywhere else it’s a subsidy. Not fair and almost true.
We subsidise most industries, some more than others, some more directly than others.
Would still be good to see the Cabinet paper that rolled the subsidy scheme over.
I’m not really against subsidising film production (Or anything as long as doing so is in the national interest) in NZ but I’d make the subsidy only available to NZ firms with NZ content. I see no point in subsidising already successful foreign multi-nationals.
I also happen to think that subsidising local talent would do more for the nation.
Yes.
We have an amazing talent pool. Let’s support them.
Screen entertainment broadly is one of the most subsidized industries we have.
Those subsidies apply both locally and internationally.
Locally, we have the whole of TVNZ, Maori TV, NZ On Air and its equivalent maori agency, NZ Film Commission, as well as smaller enterprises such as the 24 Hour Film Competition, and bunches of others. Throwing millions and millions per year at it, as they have for decades. Then of course there’s public sponsorships for all those film festivals, particularly the main one.
These subsidies generate massive studio houses, particularly in Auckland for tv. They include scriptwriters, grips, producers, set designers, catering, logistics and travel, actors, scouts, wardrobe, jewelers, the whole 9 yards.
Internationally, we have tax breaks that have helped form Wellywood and the entire world-beating empire in Miramar, who win work from around the world and bring it here in partnership with others. And no, we’re never going to have the capacity to write, produce, direct, market, and distribute all by ourselves. We are always going to be a small slice of bigger deals.
Then of course there’s the tax-and ratepayer funding that gets poured into publicly-owned film studios, such as the one operated in Henderson.
Tote all of that up. I can’t say Im comfortable when I start setting out the taxpayer $$ per actor. But then, I do see it as an industry worth supporting.
LIke I support dump trucks of taxpayer $$ being poured into totally unprofitable industries like rail and public transport.
I see the Reserve Bank is keeping the official cash rate at 1.7% because, ” However, core consumer price inflation remains below our 2 per cent target mid-point, necessitating continued supportive monetary policy. ”
What an utter load of fucking BULLSHIT we all know prices are increasing like 5 of the grocery items we bought this week had between a 15-20% price increase then our rates are going up by 10% and insurance had just increased by 25%
These neoliberal fucking prats in the Reserve Bank are not even putting their heads out the window to see if it is raining. They just regurgitate the Neo crap amongst themselves and believe it as fact
Get the arseoles off their aresoles to walk around a few supermarkets and then they will see the REAL and TRUE inflation rate.
This so-called inflation rate is designed to let the banks justify paying low-interest rates on savings and also to keeps the wages low
Utter fucking crap, it is about time that sewer had a great sort out.
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/news/2018/11/official-cash-rate-unchanged-at-1-75-percent
You obviously don’t buy the same basket that the Reserve Bank uses
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/about-monetary-policy/explaining-new-zealand-s-monetary-policy/what-is-inflation
“This records the change in the price of a weighted ‘basket’ of goods and services purchased by an ‘average’ New Zealand household. The percentage change of this index is typically referred to as ‘CPI inflation’.”
halfcrown, you need to take a few overseas holidays and buy a few large TV’s then you will achieve a life that will mirror the CPI inflation 🤑
http://archive.stats.govt.nz/survey-participants/survey-resources/cpi-resource.aspx
There are about 690 goods and services included in the basket. They are classified into 11 groups:
One of the reasons why I think going cashless is necessary is because it would give an accurate rate of inflation right down to the local level. Would be able to measure inflation in each individual shop.
The OCR will remain low, because raising it will lead to ‘severe outcomes’…
RBNZ, along with most (all) Central Banks, are making decisions using a failed and flawed set of policy and guidelines… They are stuck with the limited changes and levers they have available between the proverbial rock and hard place….the problems are systematic…..they will not change….indeed they cannot change….
Central bank decisions will become further divorced from what the ‘real economy’ is experiencing and living through….
Southern cross fail. The truth is it is ALL about profit.
“Just six days before Auckland mum Anna Jobsz was due to have her ovaries removed she was told her insurer wouldn’t pay.”
Southern Cross Health Society chief marketing officer Chris Watney said “Once the lifetime allowance was reached, any further procedures would not be funded, This would place too much of a burden of cost on the collective membership of our society – raising premiums significantly.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/auckland/108419837/mum-told-six-days-before-ovarian-surgery-that-insurance-wont-cover-it
“Southern cross fail. The truth is it is ALL about profit”
I might be wrong but the way i understand it Southern cross is NOT for profit.
Southern cross is pretty good, they are much better than the shit company i have medical insurance with.
I stand corrected and withdraw and apologise.
Should always check these things twice. Thanks.
It may not be about profit but it is about keeping costs down.
Proof positive that private insurance doesn’t work. For profit private insurance is even worse because of the dead-weight loss of profit.
So now Iain Lees-Galloway
1) didn’t read the full file
2) made the decision the same day he was told about it
3) apparently spoke with the PM because he was so conflicted over it
4) relied on the advice of Immigration NZ staff
5) now has in inquiry into the INZ process around it
6) but had the information there to read himself
7) limitation of deportation liability didn’t need to be made right away considering Sroubek is still in prison.
The whole thing is a clusterfuck.
Still though, doesn’t mean he should resign. He should admit he fucked up and explain what he’s going to do to ensure that INZ don’t cause Ministers to fuck up in the future, rectify the matter, and then resign.
And yet people say that NZ1st was going to send NZ to hell in a handcart. Seems like Labour is doing that pretty well on their own.
Sounds like someone gave him shite advice, one would think one could trust ministry staff, especially those who have been doing it for years.
How many desks would an application like that cross?
Am still concerned national allowed pedos to remain in the country. Did the same staff give advice on that as well?
Sounds like someone told Galloway, that Sroubek should get permanent residency and he was only doing what he was told.
Rubbish BM.. You are surmising.
No, I’m reading between the lines.
I surmise that you cannot read the lines.
I will be accused of being a “Jacinda fan”. So be it!! I am. Why ? go to her facebook page.
There is a brilliant video of children”s responses to her request for a Christmas card design showing a NZ Christmas. WOW and WOW!!
What a great idea and person she is.
Overseas people, especially Aussies compared her with Scomo in his bus seeking votes.
She radiates her love of Children, and a wonderful ability to connect, especially with the Mum who missed the deadline and sent a photo of her child’s efforts.
Jacinda’s comments were so supportive. “Don’t beat yourself up as a Mum.” And doing a screen shot of their effort. She is indeed gold. She is genuine.
Now some will say “What about …..?” You fill the gap. But guess what, everyone of those parents know her as special.
If the U.S. had an independent media….
“the election would be about the dangerous situation created by Washington that has caused two militarily powerful countries to prepare for war with the US. This is the most serious development of my lifetime.”
If the U.S. had an independent media….
“the election would be about the American police state that, based on the 9/11 lie, the weapons of mass destruction lie, the use of chemical weapons lie, the Iranian nukes lie, the Russian invasion of Ukraine lie, was accepted by the insouciant Americans. Those responsible for these lies, which have caused massive war crimes, for which US administrations should be indicted, are feted and rich. The rest of us have experienced the loss of civil liberty and privacy. Any individual in the way of the police state is mowed down.”
If the U.S. had an independent media….
“the election would be about the de-industrialization of the United States. Today the offshoring of American manufacturing and industry has reduced the US military to dependence on Chinese suppliers.”
If the U.S. had an independent media….
“the election would be about the 20 years of US and NATO/EU war crimes against Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen, and US and NATO support for Israel’s war crimes against the remnants of the Palestinian people, and US and NATO/EU support for the neo-nazi regime established by the Obama regime in Ukraine to commit war crimes against the breakaway Russian provinces, the populations of which refuse to become victims of Washington’s overthrow of the democratic elected Ukrainian government and installation by “America’s first black president” of a neo-nazi regime.”
If the U.S. had an independent media……
“the election would be about the orchestrated demonization of Iran. The completely stupid dope that Trump appointed Secretary of State just declared (the utter fool should not be permitted to open his mouth) that Washington was going to drive Iran into the ground unless the government agreed to behave like a normal state.”
If the U.S. had an independent media….
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/11/05/what-this-election-is-about/
Roberts is one of the most readable righties, but mostly only if you squint and pretend its satire. On economics, he’s very similar to Don Brash. Politically, he pitches himself as being an independent conservative, with a sideline in left hate and wacky conspiracy theories, including that the CIA owns all the media.
The reason I find him interesting is that he’s been around a long time. He was working for Reagan during the rise of the neo Cons and seems to vaguely resent that the modern right don’t give him the props he thinks he deserves. This means he does occasionally put a good shot across the bows of his fellow conservatives.
As I wrote at the time, Trump vastly over-estimates the power of the president.
And so do most people. When the President is “in tune” with institutional power, then stuff is on steroids.
And as I’ve pointed out before on numerous occasions, the “take down” of Trump would have been attempted on Sanders too. I think people miss the point.
Kia ora The Am Show
There you go the gun control laws in America are not protecting the people that the LAW Maker’s are elected to do. Not line the rifle association pocket’s there you go money over live’s alcohol was a factor to the shooting happened in a bar .
Well O that’s correct the most important issue that will cause the most damage to OUR society Global Warming and Nothing from the media the WestCoast heavy rains and floods who is suppressing this reality .
I agree that most farmers pro a healthy environment and clean water ways and a better future for the descendants.
The only problem with the smoking in car’s ban is the police will have another tool to hit the poor common person on the head with at there discretion Its not like they are all Honorable people .
The Maori AllBlacks are playing in Brazil ka pai lets hope they are hosted well I think its good getting Aotearoa’s presents known in Brazil .
There you go Andrew Becroft alcohol the damage it does to people and the unborn child is a tragedy .
judy is full of it she will dig as deep as she could to get into power no matter who she walk’s on.
Ka kite ano
Here you go a link to back up my word’s about the shooting ka kite ano
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46135459
Eco Maori is pro wind and solar its cheaper and safer that nuclear
UK nuclear power station plans scrapped as Toshiba pulls out
Here is a excerlint opportunity to use solar and wind power generation to full the gap in the power sector in the UK
Firm’s nuclear arm to wind up next year and scrap Cumbria plant leaving big hole in UK energy plans
Some industry watchers said the collapse of the scheme should be seen as an opportunity rather than a risk, for the UK to prioritise renewables instead.
Jonathan Marshall, an analyst at the ECIU thinktank, said: “Shifting away from expensive, complicated technology towards cheaper and easier to build renewables gives the UK the opportunity to build an electricity system that will keep bills for homes and businesses down for years to come.”
The government’s infrastructure advisers recently urged ministers to rethink their nuclear plans and focus on renewables instead.
Ka kite ano link below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/08/toshiba-uk-nuclear-power-plant-project-nu-gen-cumbria
This crab could save your life – if humans don’t wipe it out first few people in the world are aware their wellbeing may one day depend on a blue-blooded crab that looks like a cross between the facehugger from Alien and a gigantic louse. Fewer still realise this ancient creature now faces its greatest threat in more than 450m YEAR’s .
This is one reason why I say we have to protect OUR biodiversity all creatures should be treated like Dimonds Ka kite ano links below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/03/horseshoe-crab-population-at-risk-blood-big-pharma
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/03/stop-biodiversity-loss-or-we-could-face-our-own-extinction-warns-un
IT was a good start to Equality for all with Wahine and minority cultures who have won power in the American mid term election’s THIS IS JUST the start we have to keep fighting for Equality for all people and mother earth creatures ka kite ano.
P.S You no I say Wahine are more humane and intelligent than men
This is what I call innovation and thinking out side the square the new generation who wont let the old generation stop OUR world’s progress to a better future for all .
A underground road tunnel it save’s the environment no vital land use big + there is heaps of room underground and electric vehicles also it limits the weather damage that roads get from bush fires tornadoes hurricanes in theory less maintenance cost
Ka kite ano Link below
Elon Musk says his first tunnel will open in December
https://www.euronews.com/2018/10/23/elon-musk-says-his-first-tunnel-will-open-december-n922726
Here is how the Crown treated Tangata Whenua Sir Āpirana Ngata proposed the Crown set apart a portion of the lands it acquired from Māori for settlement by Māori veterans or that it purchase land from Māori explicitly for the purpose of rehabilitation. But the government, including the prime minister, refused to change any of its policies to support the needs of Māori
In some cases, Māori made gains, while others expressed frustration the sacrifices made for the price of citizenship never came to pass .For his book, Soutar says it was difficult to get the families of veterans to talk about what life was like growing up with someone who was probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition more widely considered now but ignored during and after World War I
In the place they called “Hell”, the Somme in France, Soutar say the pioneers worked in harrowing conditions.
Bodies had been lying on the ground, shells exploding. So the bodies are getting blown up again and again..
“A skull would just appear while they were digging out the wall of a trench, bones everywhere.
The smell of the place, bodies that had rotted. They became so used to it.”
The pioneers performed grim tasks as they made their way across France and Belgium.
They were going up two ridge lines with a valley in between, trying to take out the Turkish trenches. One lot started a haka on one ridge, the Māori on the other side heard it. So when they were going to take a trench they’d do a haka also.
“It was during the night and if you’ve never heard a haka before, like the Turks, how frightening it must have been.” There is a need for the wrong’s that was dish out to Maori and Pacific tangata after World WAR 1 & 2 to be acknowledged apologized & compensation for there unfair treatment . Brown people were not aloud to drink in the same pub as white people . Ka kite ano link below. P.S I Know a lot of my tipuna Whano went to both War’s
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/108363904/maori-soldiers-great-war-battle-for-equality
Black girl magic’: 19 black women ran for judge in Texas county – and all 19 won Democrats won all 59 judicial races in Harris county in Tuesday’s midterm elections. In one of the most eye-catching and significant results, the long-time incumbent Republican county judge, Ed Emmett – in effect, the county’s chief executive – lost to Lina Hidalgo, a 27-year-old first-time candidate who immigrated from Colombia as a teenager Ka kite ano link below Mana Wahine
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/08/black-women-texas-judge-harris-county
Kia ora Tekaea It was cool watching the pepei waiata and haka .
I don’t like talking about War as I don’t want to give the act any oxygen and hopefully it will drift into our history book’s
Uawa Awa tuna are sweet its good to see there are a few tuna in the Awa and to see the Wahine teaching the tamariki facts about tuna.
The new Wellington Hospital being built from the good donor and the government is going to benefit the people ka pai
Ka kite ano P.S I have tau toko the Maori AllBlacks in Eco Maori yesterdays post
Kia ora Newshub West Coast flood’s= Global Warming
Tragic that shooting in America condolences to the people who lost love one .
There you go Chris Finlayson I can see right through him he thinks people in jail don’t have rights and is using the topic of voters right as a political missile and he made the new laws to block the rights to vote for prisoners.
judey looks like you will have to find another way to line your pockets the Ancient Kauri export ban of unfinished Kauri products that law being upheld is going to save alot our wetlands .
That forest fire in Northen California is a shame condolences to the people who lost love ones and property .
There you go Prince Charles thinks about his and our grandchildren future ka pai .
I agree with the German man we should educate the youth about the tragedies of war
the way I see it the common poor suffered great losses .
Good on the Russian adventure for setting sail around the world from Aotearoa I liked watching the Royal albatross gliding above the water to .
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Wairangi and Anna got to go pick up te mokopuna’s ka kite ano
Eddy Jone’s and Coach lol
What a big spin its the Banks & business that have most the wealth from OUR fast rising house prices that have being artificially inflated over the last 10 years.
national increased immigration sold off the state houses to private enterprises and ignore the fact of a housing shortage and you create a banker & real estate agents wealthy person’s DREAM land making billion’s mean while we have a tsunami of people living under a bridge and our personal dept is huge did this researcher take that out of the equation we were at the top of the list in the 60 70’s .Some did not like a country that had better living standards per person that them so they decided to throw a spanner in the works an what do you know we have heaps of people underthe bridge
Feeling wealthy? New Zealand ranks sixth in global wealth report Ka kite ano.
link below.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/108487187/feeling-wealthy-new-zealand-ranks-sixth-in-global-wealth-report
Kia ora Newshub Nation I have already said the made my view’s on the teachers strike .
Yes I agree with that statement that employee’s should be the focus it the people the people but I say people should not expect corrections in inequality of pay to happen over night I see some people using this phenomenon as a political missile .
Technology is going to change the employment landscape and Maori & Pacific people will be displaced the most from this technology that’s why I back a Universal wage so we will be able to survive on part time seasonal work. Robots are coming on fast.
Michel I agree Auckland needs a night shelter like the one that Tini is running in Rotorua called the Hub it is working good to.
Ka kite ano
sandflys thank’s for the Vip escort when I went to pick up the mokopuna’s I smelt them as soon as I got on the state highway .
I have eased up on the factual stories about there bad behavior’s as it can affect other’s
But they keep using every dirty lying cheating trick in there book to damage my whano name and my good character. There are many story about there bad behavior’s I’m holding back till the time is correct .
I had one car at the back and 2 in front they plant a cop car were it can not be seen by a over taking lane and the driver in front slows down to get me to over take them an on goes the cop cars lights given me a speeding ticket for being 3 km over the speed limit while over taking the slow car . They have pulled once on me before but I won’t fall at trick for that trick twice . Muppets ka kite ano
I see the sandflys puppets all over the place they are lapping up the sandflys lies and cheating way’s . These people are jealous of Eco Maori sweet truthful music from my Flute Muppets. Ka kite ano
The sandfly’s will lock up a brown person as soon as look at them convicted as far as the law can see bounse more putea .
The sandflys will never give up there false harassment suppression and smear campaign of Eco Maori and his immediate whano.
Why because I have let the whole world know that the policing force around the whole world is corrupt can’t have a Brown person get away with that .
They will protect there false image links below.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=152016
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/paterson-press/2018/04/20/feds-arrest-paterson-cop-drug-dealing-charges/536253002/
https://nypost.com/2018/04/20/fbi-busts-cop-for-allegedly-dealing-drugs-out-of-his-cruiser/
Why won’t they put tracking devices in cop cars it will make them more accountable for there action’s it will make there job safer and safer for the public .
But know they cant be caught with there pant;s down at a crime seen at the same place and point in time that could be tracked and traced the data would be stored and can be retrieved at a later date who cares about safety protecting there image is what counts first to the NZpolice.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/10/revealed-no-gps-trackers-in-nz-police-fleet.html.
The sandfly’s have cost me jobs they have cost my son jobs and are still giving my children underarm bowls me and my SON would have been managing Farm;s if the sandflys did not play God and spread lie’s about my family $70.000 +each I will be raging on there ASS from now on they don’t give a shit about what they are doing to my kid;s so they can go get————————————————————————— .
ECO MAORI will win this WAR Bob Marley was one of the worlds greatest Prophets
every thing he said is TRUE
Eco Maori Music fo the minute .
New Zealand Council of Civil Liberties lawyer Michael Bott said “surveillance creep” is a worry and that people risked accepting being monitored “24 hours a day, seven days a week”. Ka kite ano This is what the sandflys are doing to me and my whano and worse they are adding lies and spinning this propagandize to anyone they can sell it to.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/108380437/councils-eye-up-realtime-satellite-monitoring-for-compliance-matters
Kia ora R&R I had my plans changed I was not going to comment today .
Transport is a good topic .
Eco Maori back’s Electric car and trains charged by renewable energy as hydrogen has to many losses when making the gas and storing it .
You lose %7 to %10 making the gas and more when its used for energy making electricity out of it. so I say stick with electricity and battier power storage’s .
The efficiency of electric is gaining every year and so is battier technology is advancing fast. Hydrogen will have its place in our transport mix but I predict that electricity will be the main stay .
The oil baron’s have suppressed electric transport tec for many year’s The total efficiency % losses will be about %20 to %30 thats way to high to waste
Ka kite ano P.S hope my post did not show you our scary reality
Kia ora The Hui this is a good topic its is cool to get the facts out about FetalAlcohol syndrome is a big problem for the unborn child .
Its worest than PEE coke a lot of man made substances as the story is being told on the show.
The big picture to our reality is the Booze baron have being suppressing this knowledge of the evil affects alcohol has on the human body’s systems .
Ka kite ano. Yes this will affect Maori tamariki more than other cultures.
Kia ora Jenny from Marae Sir Ngatta Love was a tool that was used as a missile to damage Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Mana and image .I bet if it was a old European leader it would have been white washed the justice system protects ITS OWN .
And worst still he died in Jail he should not have been put in Jail .
This is going to change and we are going to change it .
It was a week after he was buried before we found out he had died .
Yes I say the system does not respect and understand Tangata Whenua Culture
Ka kite ano P.S Kia kaha
2018 was a WAY better election for Democrats than most people seem to think.
Bernie Did say don’t count your chickens and he was correct It was a big blue wave Ka pai for the Socialist Democrats for a big effort on the trumexit it look’s like he has a blue——-banned on now Ka kite ano link below
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/09/politics/2018-democrats-midterms/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/09/politics/democrats-midterm-statehouse-gains/index.html