No, you’re wrong James. He should pay more tax, Govt should then set up an advisory committee staffed by Labour faithful who get their cut, then the diversity advisors can filter a bit more out, then Iwi, with the resulting much-dimished sum forming an election bribe to gullible students. Get with the new picture. 😐
As you say, Good on him. Why are YOU hating on him. It neither makes him a good or a bad person but someone who has made a good gesture. Try and cheer up and see the good James.
Huh? Where in his comment does James suggest that he is “hating on him”? Or are you just showing your own prejudices towards James because he is not a leftie?
Bloody rich people huh? He’s the one making that statement, no one else here did today, he sure is trying to hate on someone, but yes he did prove my prejudice is justified.
You have my sympathy if you cannot consider that, rather than “hating on someone”, what James might be suggesting is that not all “bloody rich people” are selfish arseholes and some are prepared to share their wealth in philanthropic ways such as donations to universities.
And you have my sympathy if you think celebrating a good deed is a good excuse to start a flame war at 06:33 am. Good deeds are done by all segments of society, Left/Right, Rich/Poor all based on what they can do or how much wealth they have and they should be all acknowledged accordingly. Congratulations to Graeme Hart for a great donation that should help many people.
share their wealth in philanthropic ways such as donations to universities.
Meanwhile they’re cheating on their taxes to a far greater extent and the only reason why they got rich in the first place was because they were stealing from the workers.
Do you have evidence he is cheating on his taxes? And not all rich people get that way by stealing from others. You realise that right?
You know it’s possible to be rich and moral/socially conscious right?
So David Attenborough is an immoral thief?
How about Stephen King? The late Stephen Hawking? The Rolling Stones – all of them immoral thieves are they?
Yes, I should have known better than to bite. What is the saying re Sarcasm being the lowest form of Wit. I suspect he is half there. Have a lovely day.
Hart does done a good thing with some amount of his money. I am pleased he has. It is likely he will get good feelings from it too cause we know this is what happens when we give. It’s a win win all round”………
But let’s use it as a call to action for our govt to fund essential health services………..
By the way I think the truly great people are the dentists, dr nurses, health auxiliary who train for many years and work day in and day out………dentistry is a particularly thankless job and is associated with high suicide rate
A call to action that should start with saving the country’s AYA cancer support service. Next week will see the axing of all CanTeen’s regional youth workers and closure of Hamilton, Hawkes Bay, Dunedin and Taranaki centres. Don’t develop cancers if you’re 14 to 25 years old and live there.
How does he get the status of “key citizen”? Has he done anything particularly special for the countryz? I bet most kiwis would have no idea who he is.
Actually it’s a signal that the balance is so lopsided, the people who get seen as philanthropists are those who gained in the back of other peoples sweat and blood…
It is also a cover which allows the govt to hide behind explaining why education, health and other essential social services can’t be fully funded all the time…which of course they can be…
Donations such as this are only necessary in the mirage that is being protected at cost to all else…
It’s nothing to do with whether he is a good or bad person. But the donation raises a question. If the money he has appropriated for himself was actually better distributed across the community in the first place, would the donation even be necessary?
A society that relies on charity is like one that relies on the proceeds of gambling. It’s a society that’s not working properly.
We should all demonstrate that we are good citizens who do more to support society than simply relying on the state to do it all. Charity is one of those things that demonstrate that, and it’s a stronger moral duty on the 1% than anyone else.
I agree with the sentiment, but at no point did I say or mean anything about relying on the state to do it all. I was pointing out the internal contradictions of charity as a means of social organisation, especially where it focuses and fawns on the munificence of the wealthy.
Modelling a range of different scenarios, Motesharrei and his colleagues conclude that under conditions “closely reflecting the reality of the world today… we find that collapse is difficult to avoid.” In the first of these scenarios, civilisation:
“…. appears to be on a sustainable path for quite a long time, but even using an optimal depletion rate and starting with a very small number of Elites, the Elites eventually consume too much, resulting in a famine among Commoners that eventually causes the collapse of society. It is important to note that this Type-L collapse is due to an inequality-induced famine that causes a loss of workers, rather than a collapse of Nature.”
What’s that favourite of the RWNJs? That people shouldn’t have children if they can’t afford them?
Hart should be grateful.
Good to see him give something back ,seeing as he purchased the Govt Printing Office for around 1/5th of its real market value.
Lange opposed the deal,so Prebble/Douglas went behind his back.
Hart has parlayed that windfall into a billion dollar empire using the time honoured tradition of redundancies,consolidation and asset stripping.
Let me rephrase it then to avoid your misrepresentation.
“If I greet Mr Hart’s donation with anything less than fawning adulation, it has nothing to do with whether he is a good or bad person”
If the money he has appropriated for himself was actually better distributed across the community in the first place, would the donation even be necessary?
If the money was better distributed across society we’d probably eliminate poverty in this country.
A society that relies on charity is like one that relies on the proceeds of gambling. It’s a society that’s not working properly.
Personally, I resent the state having to rely on the charity of the rich to function. If he happily pays his full share of taxes, then the university won’t need whatever wealth he decides is surplus to his needs. That is what socialism is – no longer being grateful for whatever crumbs the rich decide to give you.
What makes you think he doesn’t pay his fair share of tax?
He’s rich so we can assume that he’s a) dodging all sorts of taxes that most other people pay and b) that he bludged all the money he has causing massive poverty.
What’s with you John S. Do you think you are in a court of law? Just say that DTB is making unfounded assumptions and stop filling up the thread with your demands.
It’s Open mike, but participants are expected to bring something worthwhile to the feast; writers a plate please! Otherwise you are more like a nongate-crasher.
Stephen King has sold in excess of 350 million copies of his work which would make him very rich indeed.
What if we all got together and decided that Stephen King wrote really good fiction and that we should support him in this with his work then being freely available to anyone who wants to read it.
How much do you think we’d decide to pay him? More or less than he got from selling his books?
And I’d say that Stephen King has put a hell of a lot of that income he got from his books into gathering unearned income.
That’s just an assumption you’re making. Evidence or GTFO. Fact is King got rich from selling his books, his own work. Which is why you are wrong and just making assumptions
Considering the estimated fraud I actually want proof that a rich person isn’t rorting the system.
Of course, the system is designed to help a few people steal from everyone else so even if they’re not rorting the system they’re still acting immorally.
Aside from anything else I just don’t think it’s healthy to have accumulated such wealth. Just my opinion. I can never fathom why people would want that much money. Given that radical economic transformation isn’t about to happen anytime soon, I prefer mr hart has given some money to this dental school. It a very worthy endeavor…..
Btw jacinda arderns only asset is her house, which she has a mortgage on…..
That’s quite funny as on lots of sites I see “lefties” “tarred” with the same brush all the time and there is no “proof” or truth in what is said when they are all labelled, lazy, shiftless, useless, unemployed, inemployable, dumb, that they have lots of “kids”, etc and that they deserve everything they “get” for being all of the aforementioned things.
If what you are saying is don’t generalise that is very good advice.
Variously, costs are bulked up, every possible tax deduction is deployed, interest is raked out to foreign associates via loan payments, other income is funnelled offshore via “service fees”, intellectual property payments, and swaps and other derivatives. ”
” The majority of the tax avoidance is accomplished by wiping out taxable income, not by paying a low tax rate on taxable income.”
” interest payments are made to offshore associates, and so on.”
Since 1985, the distribution of earnings in NZ widened by 22%, compared to an average rise in the OECD of 15%. Capital income has become more unequally distributed, at a faster rate than in most OECD countries.
Speaking of which, I’ve been trying to explain to my kid how medieval knights were maybe not as cool as he thinks, and their main occupation in life was oppressing the peasants and living off the fruits of other people’s work
I’ve read piketty. There are rich and well off people in our society who pay all their taxes and aren’t the super rich hoarders you are claiming them to be
Before my father died he was very wealthy. He only had one home. A couple of vehicles and made his living as a fairly well known and respected doctor. That’s it. You are talking shit
Good on him, but what about the rest of the country? Time they worked out why everyones teeth as so bad. Too much sugar and acid and processed food is a big factor. Time poor food and harmful drinks have safety labelling on them like cigarettes. Would also help if people had the ability to cook again rather than working 2 jobs or having so little money or skills or being on drugs (that apparently we feel the need to encourage drug smugglers to settle in NZ to help make drugs more freely available).
I’m not sure this evolution for 2 parents working has been the best for society – no time for cooking and kids being raised by minimum wages child care workers, is that really creating healthy happy communities and society. It has gone from a women’s right to choose to work, to begin forced to work for financial reasons as you need two incomes to survive in many cases these days.
P>S> I think I read that Sroubek’s business was importing in fruit juice (plus drugs) so another reason to deport him as most fruit juice is worse than coke for your teeth due to acidity and sugar levels.
You always had two income families. women in the past worked, often full time and oftentimes their children would work too. And the he poor never had good teeth, and it is more to do with access to good affordable health care then food choices.
Only the well off could afford to have a stay at home mum.
I notice that James’ comment at 1 has resulted in about 55 replies. It is good to be getting that level of critique on the important issues of our time, and the methods we can use to meet our problems.
It is enthusiasm for discussing the important matters by so many here that gives The Standard prominence for intelligent, incisive citizen involvement in preparing for the future, among the numbers of blogs discussing NZs direction and approach
US court evidence showing that medical device manufacturers knew surgical mesh could cause catastrophic injuries including “a permanently destroyed vagina” was provided to New Zealand politicians on a health select committee in 2014.
In other words the ACC scheme has made us a dumping ground for dodgy products. Negligent US companies don’t care because unlike NZ companies they don’t pay into the scheme, but they are benefiting.
Even worse, those injured are finding themselves in court against ACC because ACC refuses to accept their claims of injury.
I have a friend who went through this traumatic experience that lasted well over ten years. The NZ surgeons both refused to accept the mesh products were causing harm, and also lied when they assured that all the mesh had been removed after more surgeries.
Alongside this, ACC has refused to acknowledge injury saying it was impossible to determine that the ill health and pain was caused by the mesh. ACC presented doctors opinions in court from doctors that had not examined my friend, but had reviewed the other doctors records. That case is ongoing.
The only relief was from the loan of money from family that allowed her to go – along with other NZ and Australian women – to Dr Veronica in the US, who is surgically removing all traces of mesh product the most successfully. Apparently, his surgery schedule is filled with these cases and he is now very experienced and very likely to have a good outcome. After a typical surgery recovery – never experienced prior – as the pain and infections were always ongoing – her health and wellbeing improved immensely.
ACC still is fighting her case, and this injury and ACC denial experience will be shared by many women in NZ.
Thanks joe90
I had heard in the past that USA continues selling overseas things that have been banned in the USA. This item is an indictment on them and that practice.
A captain’s knock, another debutant spinner having a blinder (a bit Australian….), a target set for the opposition and a great two sessions of cricket.
Congratulations to the captain, coach and team.
A cruel situation.
It seems these women were no more than guinea pigs, unaware participants in a trial.
Perhaps ACC can cover all victims, then ACC can sue Ethicon/Johnson & Johnson to recover costs.
After all, isn’t that what the resolution part of the TPPA is for?
A few of us were discussing how people rise up in the ranks but are bullies. Some are pretty obvious but then you get the smiling assassins. Like Diane Maxwell. I can picture her being the girl who excluded others in those awful triads that girls get sucked into. Socialised to be extremely articulate from a young age as many girls are, this type of bully often becomes the ‘teacher’s pet’, head girl and is very successful. Their bullying is insidious and I believe the bullys have no idea now that they have been outed. Complete lack of awareness because their type of bullying has been ok most of their lives. Anyway just a theory – and observations from my own experiences and that of my three daughters.
“I’ve seen people saying since this came out that the staff are being precious,” she said. But that is untrue, claimed the official, who believes “the difference is that her behaviour with people she doesn’t like is so vitriolic and so consistent over time that it becomes traumatic.”
Parliamentary Service, which employs MPs’ support staff, contacted the whistleblower on Wednesday night to ask him to stop sharing private and confidential information, or it would be “forced” to act.
It said the decision “was not made lightly” but it was concerned that other staff’s personal information was being made public, causing distress.
The staffer said the fact he was the one in legal jeopardy when he had come forward to Parliamentary Service with evidence of alleged unlawful and bullying behaviour was ironic.
“It reinforces the issue that I have with powerful people getting protected and promoted. I’ve lost my job and she still has her job – that’s typical,” he claimed.
Having been down this particular road more than once in the past I’m livid with rage that it is still going on.
Who the hell do Parliamentary Services think they are? They are supposed to support staff and take appropriate action on their behalf against violent bullies. And believe me Maggie B is a ‘violent bully’. No, she doesn’t go around bashing people with pieces of wood, Her method of destruction is psychological. She hounds and harasses with verbal violence to the point her targets lose all their confidence and self esteem and can no longer operate. Then, when they finally manage to muster up the strength to report the behaviour, they lie through their teeth and lay the blame at their targets’ feet.
Bullies of this calibre have no empathy for their victims and happily destroy lives everywhere they go without a hint of a conscience. They demean and denigrate them in front of people. They spread garbage about them behind their backs and call them ‘nutters’ when in fact… they are the nutters.
This young man who is putting it out there is exceedingly brave and I applaud him for doing so. My only hope is he is getting plenty of support because he will need it. I also know from experience his former superiors directly in the firing line will stop at virtually nothing to silence him.
Unfortunately @ Anne, someone needs to come up with an updated Peter Principle.
Although I’m not suggesting our public service was perfect before the 80s reforms, sure as shit a new phenomenon has emerged.
It goes along the lines of the Edmonds Baking Powder slogan “sure to rise”.
The higher they rise however, the more versed in spin, lying and bullshit, self-preservation, politicisation, leaking, etc. they become.
When you look at the record – especially over the past decade, it’s becoming harder to know which little dysfunctional feifdom is worst.
Is it MPI? or NZTA/MOT?, or MBIE and all its chattels? or maybe Krekshuns? or DSW/WINZ? or Health? or even Edgeikayshun, HCNZ even.
You’d have to admit it’s a bloody sorry record, but what’s worse is that the coalition don’t seem to realise that a good many of their ‘officials’ are more than likely their worst enemas – even if they’re nice blokes and blokesses.
I keep saying – “roll on Chippie’s reforms”, though I’m not that hopeful.
Some of us did (for example) try to warn I L-G he was going to be set up – although that little episode might yet backfire.
Having been down this particular road more than once in the past I’m livid with rage that it is still going on.
Can’t say that I’m surprised. IMO, powerful people have become even more protected over the last couple of decades.
Who the hell do Parliamentary Services think they are?
They seem to think that they’re the protectors of the powerful.
And believe me Maggie B is a ‘violent bully’. No, she doesn’t go around bashing people with pieces of wood, Her method of destruction is psychological.
Yep. We need to accept that psychological bullying is still violence.
Then, when they finally manage to muster up the strength to report the behaviour, they lie through their teeth and lay the blame at their targets’ feet.
Bullies always blame their victims and there’s so many around to help them do so.
In one fell swoop some ex-pupil white knight a la the one at the top of the thread, Hart not James, will come in with a donation which would cover the $1250 per pupil they ask for.
The hubs would manage the size of all their schools, putting limits on the numbers of out-of-zone students.
The funding system would be changed to double the extra funds for more disadvantaged students from 3 per cent of total funding now to 6 per cent, and schools in richer areas would not be allowed to make up for this by asking parents for big “donations”.
Ah, I see the whingers problem – they won’t be able to attract students from out of zone, charge high fees and thus restrict access to state schools to rich people only.
Ironically the changes were welcomed by school trustees, whose powers would be emasculated. School Trustees Association president Lorraine Kerr said boards would be glad to hand over “compliance” tasks such as health and safety, employment and property maintenance.
That’s probably a good idea. Most people who get elected to school boards probably don’t have a clue as to how to do those.
The taskforce also proposes abolishing intermediate schools and encouraging either junior colleges (Years 7-10) and senior colleges (Years 11-13), or full primary schools (Years 1-8) and full secondaries above them.
As I said the other day the amount that our young need to learn before they leave school has increased and we should be looking at extending school out to 20/21. Split into three: years 1 to 7, 8 to 13 and then the final two or three years. Can’t leave school until finishing junior college.
I believe that civics is already a compulsory subject. The question is how much time is spent on it and if the subjects covered are the same across the country and if enough is actually covered.
It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.4
People recognise immoral behaviour when they see it and our monetary system is immoral. It is designed to steal from the majority of people. In fact, the entire capitalist system is.
Another bad sign of globalism when people seem to being arrested around the world based on political reasons.
Pretty sure China is not a signatory to the sanctions ban on Iran (and not sure that that Iran should have a sanctions ban in the first place especially when Saudi does not have one!)
Weird, Saudi goes around murdering people and that is ok. Most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi’s and that was ok. And Saudi are murdering people in Yemen and that is ok too by the US and the world.
Time, NZ got out of this idea that trade and globalism is a winner for NZ, because it’s more a shit fight for power and control. Fairness and transparency are out of the window. NZ is much better to pursue an independent foreign policy from both US and China and develop our economy not solely based on trade agreements that actually make NZ worse off in terms of domestic problems and inability to trade freely (aka the opposite of free trade) by too much regulation in the agreements. For example being able to trade with Russia but for ‘soft power’ reasons do not do so.
Also absolute joke that BT are removing Huawei tech for UK security reasons, the UK government signed to get China to build a nuclear power station for them! What could be more dangerous, someone in control of nuclear power in your country or someone who might be able to snoop on a few conversations?
China demands release of Huawei executive arrested in Canada
Meng Wanzhou, who faces extradition to US, said to have been investigated over alleged sanctions breaches
Well NZ is part of dangerous spying with 5 eyes. We already have mass surveillance here and not much said from our government… everyone is spying on everyone else… The spies don’t want other spies spying on them it seems to boil down to.
We have a Natz MP who is probably a spy and China own vast amount of people and assets here in NZ, but not a care from our government, they just take the money (or give it away like water rights) but all of a sudden worried about Huawai? Its just doing the US bidding. NZ government would be happy to give up all sovereignty if they got a short term boast out of it and they keep the donations and Ponzi rolling in.
Robert Fisk has spoken and written of the evil farce … where head chopping and sex slave taking terrorists in places like Mosul …. become sanitized as ‘rebels ‘… when they ply their blood letting and throat cutting in Syria.
Continuing the long trend of Britain / Usa involving themselves with populations suffering a poor deal …. and giving them something much much worse.
His latest writing on the hypocrisy of western values / morals,…. speaks the truth to our diet of bullshit and murderous delusions … The sick sort Wayne Mapp endorses
“A generation ago, the CIA’s “Operation Phoenix” torture and assassination programme in Vietnam went way beyond the imaginations of the Saudi intelligence service. In spook language, Khashoggi was merely “terminated with maximum prejudice”. If the CIA could sign off on mass murder in Vietnam, why shouldn’t an Arab dictator do the same on a far smaller scale? True, I can’t imagine the Americans went in for bone saws. Testimony suggests that mass rape followed by mass torture did for their enemies in Vietnam.”
“But still it goes on. Here’s Democrat senator Bob Menendez this week. The US, he told us, must “send a clear and unequivocal message that such actions are not acceptable on the world’s stage”. The “action”, of course, is the murder of Khashoggi. And this from a man who constantly defended Israel after its slaughter of the innocents in Gaza.”
“Yet when at least one recent US presidential incumbent of that high office can be considered guilty of war crimes – in Iraq – and the deaths of tens of thousands of Arabs, how come American senators are huffing and puffing about just one man, Mohammed bin Salman, who (for a moment, let us set aside the Yemen war) is only being accused of ordering the murder and dismemberment of one single Arab?
After all, world leaders – and US presidents themselves – have always had rather a soft spot for mass murderers and those who should face war crimes indictments. ” ………………
” The message has been clear and unequivocal for decades. The US “national interest” always trumps (in both senses) morality or international crime. ” ….
“By the time Rumsfeld arrived for his meeting, more than 3,000 victims had fallen amid Iraqi gas clouds. The figure would reach at least 50,000 dead. Which is, in mathematical terms, Jamal Khashoggi times 50,000.”
Its our ugly truth …. and Fisk is far from alone in telling it
The best news on the Education Front since the introduction of “Tomorrow’s Schools” has been the publication of Bali Haque’s review.
Much as I admired David Lange he did nothing for students or teachers when he introduced the so called market model into education. At that time we had an education system that was admired throughout the world and certainly did not need changing. The advent of “TS” brought huge stress to many communities with little or no benefit. There is no doubt though that some principals, particularly in the primary sector, relished their new found power.
Intermediate schools have always been of doubtful value, apart from providing promotional opportunities for Primary Principals. The notion of Form 1 – 4 or middle schools has been around for a long time, as have senior schools. They are to be encouraged.
The immediate reaction from the Trustees association and the Principals Association has been very positive. The Nay Sayers are coming from the quarters to be expected and they are already indulging in extreme forms of derogatory terms e.g, “Stalinism”.
Here is an opportunity to really put our education system “back on the rails” so let’s have a healthy and robust debate on the issue. As a now retired senior teacher who went through the “ordeal” of adjusting to “TS” I have plenty more I could say.
+1
“Much as I admired David Lange he did nothing for students or teachers when he introduced the so called market model into education. At that time we had an education system that was admired throughout the world and certainly did not need changing.”
David Lange was the much needed antidote to R.D.Muldoon. I think that there was a collective sigh of relief when, mainly thanks to David Lange’s wit and debating skills (plus a revulsion to Muldoon’s overbearing style) Labour won the 1984 election in a land slide (and repeated the effort in 1987). The country stood largely united (and still does) on NZ being declared a nuclear free zone (the sky didn’t fall in as so many of the of the devotees of US foreign policy predicted it would) and who could forget Lange’s performance at the Oxford debate. David Lange gave us “voice of our own” when it came to dealing with foreign powers and we appreciated it. Sadly for David, and the country as a whole, he became entrapped with the policies of Douglas, Prebble, Bassett and co who brought in Neoliberal economics under a socialist banner (treachery I call it) and David and Geoffrey Palmer (a great statesman in my humble opinion) woke up to too late. The rest is history.
Geoffrey Palmer (a great statesman in my humble opinion)
That opinion is more than “humble”, it’s FITH.
Geoffrey Palmer is an international disgrace. His manipulation by the loathsome ex-president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, was perhaps the lowpoint of his career….
That of course is also a matter of opinion Morrisey. I am well aware of the incident that you refer to and I was deeply disappointed and angry at the outcome of the commission. While we can agree on the result of that particular inquiry (and we may claim it as an error of judgement on Geoffrey Palmer’s part because, of course, we are are privy to all the information he had) it does not detract from all the work that Palmer did in his time as a leading Labour member of parliament and, most importantly, his championing of MMP. Cheers.
Palmer ceded all authority on that farcical “commission” to Alvaro Uribe, the brutally repressive, bloodstained “strong man” of Colombia and an avowed supporter of Israel’s crimes. Next to that cowardly behaviour, his championing of MMP is hollow.
Remember Tomorrows Schools came out of demands by many, most of whom never put themselves forward for board roles, for more parental control of scholl direction.
Short bloody memories, the blight of the whingers.
It came out of demands by a small group of fanatical right wingers who controlled the Labour Party. Far from consulting anyone with any expertise, Lange—or more accurately, Douglas, Moore and Bassett—installed a supermarket operator, one Brian Picot, to chair the farcical commission whose mission it was to dismantle our education system.
We’re still suffering the consequences thirty years later.
I’m pretty sure that parents had input into the running of schools before 1989. Education boards were democratically elected, and schools were run by school comittees and PTA’s. Schools simply had more central support and expertise to draw on.
If anything TS lessened parental involvement. If you are having issues with your local school, there is no place to really turn to for help, and the school closures over the past 2 decades would not have happened if the education boards were still in charge.
Tomorrows Schools had little impact on Secondary school governance. It was in the Primary area that the impact was greatest with respect to school management. But that was just one part of it. The effect on the secondary sector was immense with schools paying ridiculous amounts of money in promotional material for self promotion. This was felt particularly in the medium sized rural towns (Masterton, Levin for example) where two school competed for clientele from a fixed market. But it was also the loss of free and readily attainable professional advice that was to prove costly. Fair do’s: entrepreneurial professionals set themselves up as advisors and ” did very nicely thank you” dragging out money from operational grants that could have been better spent on other educational aids, books and computers to name just two.
This from Marcus Morris should be noted – worth repeating.
Much as I admired David Lange he did nothing for students or teachers when he introduced the so called market model into education. At that time we had an education system that was admired throughout the world and certainly did not need changing. The advent of “TS” brought huge stress to many communities with little or no benefit. There is no doubt though that some principals, particularly in the primary sector, relished their new found power.
Another supposedly progressive Labour change of the 1980’s – done as a result of ideology, sales promotion and and addled opinion.
As an retired senior teacher how many parents did you speak to over the years whose children grew well through intermediate school who said “Intermediate schools have always been of doubtful value”?
The answer is obvious – there was no alternative so they had no other point of reference. Middle schools have always made much more sense. As far as I am aware there has been little research to prove the efficacy of Intermediate schools – again, what was there to compare them with but you might be able to correct me on that point. As a student I attended both an Intermediate School and full primary school. I don’t think I lost anything in attending the latter for the last eighteen months of my primary education. We used to be bussed to “manual” and enjoyed the afternoon out. My first year teaching was in an Intermediate School before I moved into the secondary sector. For much of my career I worked in a Form One to Seven structure which worked well in rural areas. However, I feel that a three tiered system with years seven to ten being taught as a separate entity, would have huge advantages.
I’m in a district where there are just about all the options. (No middle school) I’m sure most of the parents in the years our kids were at the intermediate they went to wouldn’t say/have said that intermediates were of doubtful value. I think many of them would be absolute advocates for that system.
I was at some talk somewhere about the time where advantages/disadvantages between the systems were talked about. We have a very highly regarded high decile Yr1-8 school pretty close to us and had to make a decision. Whoever it was had some research about types of schooling. I think it was Ministry of Education stuff. I do remember a term being used – ‘slippage’ – to do with kids ‘going backwards’ with moving between schools and the affect of doing it twice in a short time for two intermediate years. I also remember the findings by and large being they were six of one, half a dozen of the other and other factors and possibilities came into it determining the good for kids.
Pete, I am in no way denigrating the quality of the teaching that has taken place in Intermediate schools over many decades. Teachers in those schools are unquestionably as dedicated and committed as they are in any other sector. In its inception back in the thirties (the brainchild of Dr Beeby I think) it was designed to bridge the gap between primary and secondary styles of learning (I assume). In other words to help children to adjust from a single teacher classroom to a situation where they would face multiple teaching styles (was there another reason). It is pertinent to remember that in those far off days the vast majority of students left school at fifteen and went into apprenticeships. This was still the case in the time of my own school days in the fifties when two years secondary education was all that was needed to get into most types of tertiary training. My point is that the division has always seemed contrived. Puberty doesn’t begin at age eleven and end two years later. And I have never understood the social advantages. Children leave primary school as “seniors” at the end of year six, have two years to adjust and gain seniority at intermediate and then go through the trauma of readjustment again in year nine.
Finally, if intermediate schools were deemed such a good idea (and they have been around for eighty plus years) why have they not been more widely introduced overseas.
PS I have a suspicion that your children were educated in the same suburb as my grandchildren. Their parents opted for the “full” primary school and have never regretted it.
The worst thing they did was fiddle with our style of assessment. Or should I say experimented with. I was part of the group given grades from 1 to 9. I was in a top school and each school was allocated grades. I came 3rd in the school in computer studies and got a grade 4. Nobody could get a 1.
The year before we did School Certificate under the old system. At least that system was fair, and encouraged students to try. I do feel fiddling with structures of schools will do little to address the real issues. In particular the present system is working well for girls but it’s failing to engage boys in the same way. Having 2 females vs 1 male in tertiary education will have long term social consequences.
The primary and secondary system is responsible for the resultant.
” In particular the present system is working well for girls but it’s failing to engage boys in the same way. Having 2 females vs 1 male in tertiary education will have long term social consequences.”
Link to studies about this aspect.
The education system has not been delivering for all students – whether male or female in terms of preparing them for full engagement with work or community.
Achievement levels in a flawed system aren’t the indicators we should focus on. Our education system should deliver New Zealanders that are able to engage, work and play in a meaningful manner.
IIRC, The old School Cert system automatically scaled to fail half the students despite achievement. That is also less than ideal, and not a system we should return to.
You don’t link to stats that match your comments, so work on that. Someone I know has been involved in work with the MoE and NZQA to raise Māori achievement levels – which is an entirely different topic to the one you introduced, so I’m expecting a bit more than rushed stats leading to inaccurate conclusions.
Enjoy the day with your kids, it’s nice to have swimming weather on the weekend.
The report you linked to – different from the first – does show a higher percentage of female enrolments, which apparently has been the case since 2006. The report says that the average percentage of females enrolled is 59%.
There are no conclusions in this report, as the data they have collated for gender has not been matched with other criteria to indicate why this is the case.
As you mentioned the male percentage in apprenticeships is likely to be higher.
In typical female occupations such as carer, ECE, and nursing a qualification is often gained – and sometimes legally required.
Further on in the report it says there has been an increase in NZQF enrolments which are industry and trade based qualifications, while the university enrolments have stayed quite static.
Looking at the statistics only, you have no context or valuable data that gives insight into why enrolments or attendance is the way it is.
“I am correct in saying we have an education gap.
That’s larger than the claimed pay gap, that we endlessly hear about from the Ministry for women.”
Your focus on ‘male’ achievement is a very narrow one.
We already know there are greater gaps for Māori and Pasifika students
There will be substantial gaps for:
– Students from low-socio economic groups
– Students from families with low disposable income not entitled to support,
All of these groups need specific targeting and assistance in improve education outcomes, as long as the education provided is of high quality and suitable for purpose.
“One of the “best interests of the child things” but on the doesn’t count list because it’s males.
The Minister for Men remains silent.”
You seem capable of reasoned discussion, so I don’t know why you are taking a single data point and quite willfully reading malice into it. There is not enough data there to give a reason why the ratio is skewed.
eg. There seemed to be considerably more females in the age 24-60 yr group, but that might be reflective of the population as a whole as females outnumber males in the population after the age of 30 IIRC.
But as I said, you would need better data before drawing that conclusion.
You are also conflating issues here.
We are speaking about education, ‘the best interests of the child’ – which I agree with – relates to the custody conversation we had.
Just thinking the change from male majority to female majority might in part be due to the requirement for Early Childhood Centres to have qualified staff that happened in the early 2000’s. Add to that the fact that only 2.6% of ECE staff are male and you have a large female contingent in a growing industry that require qualifications to remain working.
But as I mentioned, there is not enough data in the linked report to give the information needed to make judgements, only loosely based theories that need further research.
I don’t think that TS had anything to do with the changing of assessment procedure. That was just coincidental. The old School Certificate was not good. It was designed to fail 50% of the population with the result that many people were, literally, scarred for life with a sense of failure at school. It was an indictment on the system. SFC was also a flawed scheme where schools were locked into an award process which was tied intrinsically with grades gained by a particular cohort of students at SC level in their previous years study.
The final five years of my teaching service saw the introduction of NCEA and, in its initial form, I saw great merit. However as more an and more assessment is being placed back on the schools and their teachers (as was the case with SFC) my enthusiasm has wained more then somewhat.
We live in a world were you pass or fail.
If you don’t pass your drivers test, you don’t get it.
If you don’t pass your firearms test, you don’t get it.
If you don’t pass your university test, you don’t get it.
I don’t have a problem with competency testing.
I don’t have a problem with completed the task, award.
I do have a problem with teachers time inside school and out of school, waisting time with endless assessing with the present system.
I want teachers teaching as near to 100% of the time when they are with the kids. I want teachers to live happy lives, not burdened with what at the end of the day is pointless assessing.
I would rather we went back to tests without reporting % but just giving A, B, C, D with a much smaller project contribution for some subjects like Art.
School C, as Marcus mentions, was scaled to a normal distribution curve to ensure that 50% of people failed. That is not a pass and you don’t get it but rather a pass and we will fail you anyway.
We can learn from our mistakes and create a better way of doing it.
As we introduced NCEA we began dropping in international standing. I believe this is due to the burden on teachers. A happy teacher is a good teacher. A overworked and stressed teacher is not a happy teacher.
I largely concur with what you say however the point about SC under the old system was that it was norm referenced and lead to very artificial and grossly unfair results. NCEA is, or was, standards based – just like the drivers licence. You reached the standard – you passed and if you passed well you this was acknowledged with a Merit or Excellence award.
Is this the only intelligent thing Nash has ever said?
“We gave you a chance … My view on this has always been the same. Let him go home. Let him go to some other country. I don’t want these sorts of people in New Zealand … Good riddance, never come back.”
While they are about it, time that the whole marriage situation with immigration was tightened up. If should take 20 years to get full citizenship and welfare in NZ to stop people purchasing it for the wrong reasons, (or that reason gone by lunch time aka like many people’s relationships and marriages) and if you go to jail and get a conviction you are automatically deported.
Look at Sroubek’s case, his wife supported him, now shortly later seems to be in hiding in a police safe house because she is afraid of him??? My how the situation seems changed in a short period of time. You can’t change people’s emotions, but our immigration policy should not be at the mercy of people’s short term relationships or fake labour and fake businesses and all these new import businesses that are caught importing in drugs, should be instant deportation.
Having a much longer time frame for citizenship would do a lot of clean up NZ, where 1 in 4 people are now living here from overseas and the news head lines seem full of them operating outside NZ laws, thus changing our country into some drugs fuelled, illegal working hell hole where scams are everywhere, which is out of kilter with our safe, clean, green image with high educational and moral standards and low corruption levels from 30 years ago. Stupidity and short term greed is making NZ a much worse place for more people.
Some questions about Mrs Sroubek come to mind. Was her immigration status reliant on her husbands flawed residency and if he was a criminal, was she living on the proceeds of crime and should also be deported.
Well, I want to agree that only citizens should vote but I still feel if you are living and working in a country and paying tax you should have a say how those tax dollars are spent
If a person is living and working in a country then they should be a citizen.
If they’re not a citizen then they shouldn’t be living and working in that country.
Not necessarily. You may be working in a country just for your personal benefit, and contribute nothing to that society other than your consumption and tax.
Societies and countries remain healthier when they are valued. If someone decides that New Zealand is the country where they want to contribute more than the bare minimum, and make a commitment to that decision by becoming a citizen – only then should they have the right to vote.
Not 100% sure but I think NZ citizens can work in OZ, but get little welfare there these days. Although I think part of that is how NZ is the world’s third largest immigration by capita group, and the new citizens are using the NZ passport to enter other counties thus making other countries tighten up against NZ citizens which again is making things worse for NZ citizens born here or long term migrants who came here before the Ponzi.
Voting should be a privilege and a right for the people born in that country. If you are not born and living in NZ, then it should take 20 years to vote and be a NZ citizen. Now we have people who come here, fake job or just here for 11 days and can vote and change our government. It is not acceptable or fair to long term citizens to be able to buy your way into NZ and getting very fast voting rights.
There should at the very least be a requirement that the end product is 100 done in NZ. Not obvious pretend finished dishonesty.
It a bit like our unprocessed export pine trees. I have never understood the difficulty in making chopsticks in NZ. Or timber, or plywood, or specialist products like the old Armour Board. We loose far to many good jobs due to commercial nodding and winking.
DJW … Your 100% correct about the stripping of our forest resources …. with NZ jobs disappearing overseas alongside the raw unprocessed non-value added logs.
Some of the worst operators …. funded with stolen money and corruption in their home countries have brought into NZ …. often based on lies …. including that they would build and engage in Processing of the timber in NZ.
Instead of processing and jobs …. what we got with this particular outfit ..,. was non- compliance with regulations …. them operating in a environmentally destructive manner ….leading to the first ‘ timber Lahar ‘ that I am aware of in NZ…. no doubt all the wildlife and ecosystems in the river was minced and ground out of existence by this timber Lahar … https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/104486938/tolaga-bay-cleanup-could-cost-10m-but-who-should-pay
A person like that should not be allowed to even be in an administrative position. We don’t let people with convictions that could result in two years of jail into parliament.
An “expert” who calls the 19th century “the eighteen hundreds.”
Jim Mora’s inane chat show just gets worse every episode. The Panel, RNZ National, Friday 7 December 2018
Jim Mora, Alan McIlroy, Tim Watkin, Caitlin Cherry
Announcing the menu for today’s learned discussions, the determinedly chirpy Caitlin Cherry makes out as if she is something other than an inane and frivolous commentator:
JIM MORA: Caitlin Cherry, good afternoooon.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Good afternoon. Speaking of extremely lucrative, um, things to dooooo, uh, I’m going to talk about YouTube stars. And, to be honest, I feel like just packing it all IN, and doing some INANE thing and commenting on it, and becoming a YouTube star and making MILLIONS.
MORA: And you COULD, Caitlin!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Yeeeees, I’m sort of not QUITE in the right age bracket….
A minute later, we are treated to a typically high-flown piece of rhetoric from the show that Caitlin Cherry, that enemy of inanity, produces:
JIM MORA: Someone was complaining about the way we say “entrepreneur”, rhymes with manure, rather than entrepreneur, rhymes with fleur….
A little later, the first query in the (almost always) twee and insubstantial One Quick Question segment was: “What is the meaning of watershed?” It was answered by something called “Ken Grace from the Department of Writing”. I tuned him out as soon as he used the phrase “the eighteen hundreds.” He meant, of course, the nineteenth century, but he was either dumbing it down for the RNZ audience, or was too dumb to understand it himself. Either way, it’s unacceptable.
BTW: where the hell is the Department of Writing? Is it in the infamous John Davies’ non-existent Denver State University, perhaps?
The 19th century started on Wednesday, January 1, 1800. The eighteen hundreds finished on Sunday, December 31, 1809. Of course you know that, my good friend, and so does anyone with a measurable I.Q.
But not, apparently, the “expert” consulted by that ridiculous chat show.
The 19th Century actually started on January 1st, 1801. The eighteen hundreds began a year earlier. This confusion, which you are party to, is why we celebrated the recent millennium a year early. And also because Prince realised that ‘party like it’s two thousand’ doesn’t scan as well.
PS, did you really mean to say the 1800’s finished in 1809? I think we should be told!
Interesting article in the Herald today on how Uber Eats is damaging small food outlets.
Think before you use the Uber model.
It is destroying small businesses, by the sound of it.
The money you spend goes to billionaires in California, as opposed to workers in New Zealand.
And Uber doesn’t pay its share of tax.
If use catch an Uber taxi or order Uber Eats, never grumble about an underresourced health system.
Your consumer choice contributed to that happening.
Be a citizen- not a consumer.
Here is an excerpt from the article.
“One Auckland business owner who runs an Indian takeaway says Uber Eats’ commission fees are too high – particularly for small and medium-sized businesses.
“If a business is selling $100 worth of food, about $41 [after GST] is going to go to Uber Eats,” says the business owner, who wants to remain anonymous.
He says it would work out cheaper to hire a person to deliver the food itself, but the popularity of Uber Eats means that being on the platform is essentially a way of marketing the business, and “that’s where the customers are”.
Uber Eats policy says businesses must not increase their prices on the platform and they should be the same as those offered in-store. However, the takeaway owner says that is not feasible and many users do increase their prices on the app to accommodate the high commission fees.”
Totally agree Draco.
If a corporation won’t make its fair contribution to society, it should be boycotted and banned.
The secondary rugby schools of Auckland, the Extinction rebellion activists and the yellow vest demonstrators show us the way.
The Uber model insinuates itself through the needs of people to earn who have become unemployed through the machinations of the free market under-cutting businesses, jobs, wages and the local market in which they operated.
So first the free market destabilises a relatively stable market, causing collapse of small business, jobs and income, then the people affected have to find a way to earn an insecure incoe., Then theyhave that destabilised by the free market operators finding ways to exploit other insecure people to compete and undercut their jobs and income. So insecure people eternally fight for reducing earnings while uber, go their unscrupulous way taking a management cut – the ultimate fight for life.
Uber is also exploitative of human resources, requiring drivers to compensate for the failings of their business model to consider the well-being of the main resource that they benefit from.
Yeah, the poor sod that turned up at my place last night was a very willing participant. Ragged clothes, soul flapping off his shoes, broken English and nearly in tears because he’d been given the wrong address.
The people driving are being exploited through their need to work to live. The people who own Uber are getting income from the work of others while doing little to nothing themselves.
The bit I don’t get with the Uber model is why the taxi co-ops haven’t come up with a similar app based system, or a developer seen the opportunity to create one.
With an IPO coming up what’s the chance it’s hugely undersubscribed followed by a plunge into oblivion.
Draco’s assertion that some rich prick is raping the drivers looks like some rich sucker is keeping some poor driver in a kind of existence. Makes me feel more for uber’s competitors / victims.
Uber is a parasitic wasp and the customers are it’s larvae.
But there’s a third party that’s often glossed over: the customer. The rating systems used by these companies have turned customers into unwitting and sometimes unwittingly ruthless middle managers, more efficient than any boss a company could hope to hire. They’re always there, working for free, hypersensitive to the smallest error. All the algorithm has to do is tally up their judgments and deactivate accordingly.
The site used to be huge in tourism, now it’s virtually gone. We had been getting a steady stream of reviews of our gallery up until mid last year, and then it just stopped. The same appears to be happening on other properties as well.
I am very sceptical of everything Uber says about their business in this light. How many customers (human and active) have they really got, and how many fares are actually being turned.
Zoomy offers better overall rates and conditions for drivers, but drivers will often not pick up fares during peak times because Uber then offers a premium. So customers have to pay more, and don’t get to choose between services.
The short-term chase for higher individual earnings means that the better terms and conditions offered by Zoomy are not prioritised by drivers.
They also offer a better service for customers, no peak rates, and a training system for all drivers:
You must be at least 18 years of age, and hold a P endorsement on your drivers license. You’ll also need to own an iPhone or Android phone.
All Zoomy drivers are required to go through our approval process, which includes an NZTA Driver Check, having a CoF on your vehicle and hold a Passenger Licence.
Along with being in good condition, your car needs to be a 2008 model or younger, have four external door handles and at least five seatbelts.
Finally, you’ll need to complete a driver training course with our driver team.
This article on the Stuff website poses a good question.
The French are protesting will we?
It seeks the opinions of Max Rashbrooke and John Minto.
Excerpts from the article.
“An estimated 100,000 people have taken to the streets in France over the last month to protest the rising price of fuel and the cost of living in general.
However, according to statistics collected by the OECD in 2017 the French have it a lot better than New Zealanders, with a greater disposable income and lower levels of inequality.
So where are the New Zealand protests?
Inequality researcher Max Rashbrooke said at the heart of New Zealander’s inaction was a general complacency from those who are doing OK.”
My take.
Of course we did have protests back in the 1980s as workers around the country saw their rights and work conditions removed. Then draconian laws in the early 90s removed that right.
France never adopted the neoliberal poison to the same degree and no politician ( until Macron) has dared to apply the economic shock doctrine New Zealand politicians applied from 1984 to 1993.
And why did the protests not succeed in the 1980s? Well, it was theoretically a ‘Labour’ government that forced through the radical anti-worker laws. The Labour movement was stunned, shocked and fractured. It failed to resist as a united front.
In 2018 there are laws that make such united action very hard.
Nevertheless if the midwives, the teachers, the engineers, the junior doctors, the firefighters, the nurses, the bus drivers, the train drivers , the supermarket workers, the fast food workers all stopped work on the same day.
And repeated that action every week – united- indefinitely until neoliberal capitalism was abandoned,.. then we’d see a change.
Sadly many New Zealanders have been propagandised into being obedient consumers. A cheap UBER taxi, a cheap UBER eat, a cheap Macdonalds, a cheap piece of plastic from the Warehouse or another big box consumer hellhole trumps workers’ rights and conditions.
New Zealanders have been atomised. Their sense of community has been undermined and many no longer see society as any bigger than the nuclear family. Digital devices have taken this to another level as the atomisation now reduces us to the individual level.
And few notice and few care. The dumbing down of the population means there’s more uproar over Coca Cola’s Santa than our burning planet and unequal country.
Approximately 30% of the population vote for the National Party. They are the complacent sector who have forgotten empathy. Their attitudes will only change when the crisis hits them personally.
They should remember John Donne’s famous quote.
“No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. ”
Everything is wanted cheaper in NZ, because that shows more efficiency. That is the mantra from the well-off to the not, who have been propagandised with that message.
And the further message is that all the people having well-being is not something that NZ can afford. Prices of labour have to fall to the lowest base line for instance, so that others can take advantage of the ones at the bottom to keep costs of needed services low, and then profitable business can be built on that advantage.
Change that mindset to care about each other again, to want others to have a good basic life style and opportunities to better it! But that is so old-fashioned.
Apparently Maggie Barry uses having a trace of 1970’s thinking as a reason for disdain. People who do not remember or understand the past, which was of an attempted moral society, can’t change. NZs learned to go for cheap, and they got nasty.
NZ is not an admirable society now; anything good about it is either glossy on the surface stuff, or shows up only in spots, or thinly stretched and stressed.
News from Wellington – they are going to build a new concert hall. I wondered where it would be sited. Then I thought of all the expenditure on the site for the memorial of WW1. That has been marked. Perhaps they can move on now, and turn that memorial into a living one housing the creative doings of those who have lived on. The concert hall would be named the Memorial Hall for WW1 and WW2, both having been important sacrifices by NZs. Do something both thoughtful and practical please you big-noting politicians.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=114526
And the comments are interesting and informed.
One refers to to pointyheads being stuck on large buildings on the shore line masking the view. Perhaps it is shades of The Opera House in Sydney which was a giant step up for them, (they are now monetising this by shining advertisements onto it).
I think we can forget about the Norway Option: Lunde compares Britain to an abusive partner who spikes your drinks. https://t.co/vrqtcMoJmZ— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) December 8, 2018
"I think you would mess it all up for us, the way you have messed it all up for yourselves."Heidi Nordby Lunde, president of Norway's European Movement, is sceptical about calls for the UK to strike a Norway-style deal with the EU. pic.twitter.com/uEpiO3yXPp— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) December 7, 2018
"I think you would mess it all up for us, the way you have messed it all up for yourselves."
Heidi Nordby Lunde, president of Norway's European Movement, is sceptical about calls for the UK to strike a Norway-style deal with the EU. pic.twitter.com/uEpiO3yXPp
I have a post traumatic health issue, the result of an injury suffered decades ago, which has resulted in a serious disability requiring a surgical fix. I’m able to oblige myself of the treatment and support offered by ACC, timely consultations and private hospital surgery, post-surgery appliances, home help and income support.
For no known reason, the same issue spontaneously afflicts post-menopausal women, seriously disabling them, and requires the same surgical fix. But unless they have health insurance, they’re treated by the public system. Long waits for surgical consultations, long surgery waiting lists, bureaucratic difficulties in obtaining post-surgery home help and appliances, and a pittance in income support.
If National’s plan to extend ACC to victims of illness as well as accidents put an end to the two tier health system these women are forced to endure, then all power to them.
But this is the Nats you’re talking about, they think the US Health Market is the ideal model to follow & they have a history of trying to Privatise ACC.
So you have to understand that what at first sounds good is likely to be actually intended to destroy &/or Privatise the last vestiges of Social Welfare in the longer term.
Kia ora R & R the problems with our housing is some people turned it into WEALTH making enterprises banks pollie realestate ect.
Communal living is good the old look after the mokopunas and the younger work that model worked for thousands of years the capitalist don’t like this model because it is to hard to sell there snake oil /lies to us when you have communal living the old wise give good advice to the youth .
I liked Nania’s idea of sweat equity the buyers work in building the house and are given equity in the house for there labour Ka kite ano. rents are sky rocketing at the minute and the banks love safe as houses hence big profts
We can not keep burning our environment and our grandchildren’s future for greedy oil barons
Adani: thousands protest across Australia against Carmichael mine
Thousands of protestors campaigning against Indian mining giant Adani’s controversial Queensland coalmine have taken to the streets in major cities across Australia to call on the government to stop it going ahead.
Protesters marched in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns on Saturday, just a week after 15,000 school students demonstrated against government inaction on climate change.
It follows the announcement last month by Adani it would self-finance the controversial project after scaling back its size and scope.
Climate change strike: thousands of school students protest across Australia
Read more
The coal project is being downsized from a 60-million-tonnes a year, $16.5 billion mega-mine to a more manageable 10-to-15 million tonnes a year costing around $2 billion.
In Brisbane, hundreds of protestors gathered outside Adani’s headquarters to voice their opposition to the project.
“No longer will we sit back and be lectured to by people who are outdated and out of touch,” Thomas Cullen told the crowd.
Kai ora Marae yes the justices system has served up us maori a big heap of ————–.
Pakeha means bad breath when the Europeens arrived here the had scurby hence pakeha.
The neo liberals who have big boxes of tissues like to use tack tics to stir up people emotions and try and drag the great tau toko and mana that is being given to te tangata whenua culture at the minute they are scared fool’s black faces and Maori santa I stayed away from the black faces debate so as not to given any publicity no publicity it fades away into our past.
PEE is a very bad drug and must be stamped out in Aotearoa its has infected all our maori community’s being pushed by———— I have already put out there who is pushing this ——— Miriama.
I see crime is falling and the prison population has fallen by 800 / 8 % ka pai ka kite ano.
P.S do you see all the efford the sandflys are putting into suppressing Eco Maori’s influence I know some do know about this
Kia ora Newshub Condolences to Grace Millane family .
Lloyd there you go someone will use anything to float there toilet even a sad tragic thing that is happening in Paris the alt right are to extreme.
I thought of a way to get people to have pride in there neighborhood have the best garden competitions with good prizes was one Idea for housing corp houses .
That’s a good thing putting cash on vehicles and other places for people to find at that camping grounds this close to Chrismas ka pai
The 7s Rugby looked exciting Niki & Andrew
Ka kite ano P.S some people still think they can see me through the camera lens
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The Treaty on Open Skies is one of the most effective mechanisms for preventing war curently in force. By letting countries make surveillance flights over each others' territory, it eliminates fears that they are secretly preparing for war. So naturally, the US is planning to withdraw from it: The Trump ...
. . April 5: Day eleven of living in lock-down… My one day of rest for the week, and an opportunity to mow my lawns – which I’d been delaying for about three weeks. (On the plus side, the damp micro-climate in my back yard yielded three lovely fresh mushrooms ...
As far as anyone can say, New Zeaand still has a general election scheduled for September 19 this year. The election will be accompanied by two referenda, one of which will ask voters:Do you support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill?The official campaign period for the cannabis referendum begins ...
The vast majority of tributes to the Listener hearken back to its glory days, with little reflection on the magazine as it was at its end.I wrote for it, for half the Listener’s life; I have known personally all the editors except the first (mythical) three. From 1978 to 2014 ...
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ...
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...
Some time during the night we went over the 850,000 views mark. We might have had our millionth view by the end of this year – certainly by early next year. Most of the people involved in Redline spent years and years producing various small left-wing papers and selling them ...
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messagesfrom different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand will enter into transit arrangements with a range of countries to make it easier for each other’s citizens to get home. “There are millions of people around the world stranded ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Communities stepping up to help New Zealanders stay at home to break the transmission of COVID-19 and save lives have received Government support, said Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “Delivering groceries for the elderly who can’t shop online, providing data packs for low income families to keep them connected, and being ...
Across New Zealand 120 sites are taking samples to be tested for COVID-19. 68 community based assessment centres (CBACs) have been established to take samples from people with COVID-19 symptoms. Alongside this, 52 other centres including designated general practices, swabbing centres, and mobile clinics are now testing people for ...
The Ministry of Education is working with partners to develop a package of options so that students can learn at home when Term 2 begins on 15 April, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. Supports are also being prepared for households with children under five, to help parents and whānau ...
Māori Television to begin educational te reo programmes Ki te Ao Mārama – a new online learning space Thousands of hard copy learning packs ready for distribution Helpdesk and advice service for kōhanga, kura and wharekura Television, the internet and hard copy learning packs are some of the ways whānau ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced an initial package of support to help the people and the Government of Vanuatu respond to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Our Pacific neighbours have been hit by a Category 5 Cyclone at the same time as dealing with the economic impacts ...
Tourism New Zealand to lead work reimagining the way tourism operates in post-COVID-19 world. Ministers to review International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy investment plan. The Government, industry and business are working together to develop a plan for how tourism will operate in a post-COVID-19 world, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis ...
More New Zealanders are taking up the chance to work in horticulture as the sector keeps New Zealanders fed and in jobs during the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our ...
The Provincial Development Unit is working through applications and projects to see where Provincial Growth Fund money can be repurposed for initiatives deemed more critical to fighting the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “We need to be throwing everything we have at ...
The Government’s wage subsidy to protect jobs and keep workers and businesses connected during the lockdown has now supported over a million New Zealanders, with $6.6 billion already paid out. “We’re supporting businesses to pay wages, and stay connected with their workers so that we are all in a better ...
The Government is stepping up efforts to help protect New Zealand’s Pacific communities in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet has agreed that $17 million will be allocated to support a COVID-19 Pacific Response Package, which will: Support Pacific health and disability services facing increased demand; Ramp up public health messaging ...
“Yesterday evening the Health Minister advised me of his trip to a beach during the lockdown and offered his resignation,” Jacinda Ardern said. “Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses. “But right now, my priority is our ...
Last night as part of my preparation for the Epidemic Response Committee, I provided the Prime Minister with a complete picture of my activity outside my home during Alert Level 4. That included the fact that on the first weekend of the Alert Level 4 lockdown I drove my family ...
A range of support is being rolled out across New Zealand to help people look after their mental health during COVID-19 Health Minister David Clark said this morning. “COVID-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty into our lives and many of us will be feeling some level of distress or ...
The New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...
Hospital preparations for COVID-19 are well advanced says Health Minister David Clark. “Hospitals across New Zealand are repurposing buildings and training staff to get ready for COVID-19 patients. This gives me confidence that we are well prepared for any potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing hospital level care,” said David ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
By RNZ News Social media misinformation about Covid-19 is putting Pacific communities in New Zealand at particular risk, government advisers say. The government announced a $17 million package toward building an awareness campaign in Pacific languages, as well as support for health providers. Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa identified ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn McMahon, Deputy Dean, School of Law, Deakin University A distinctive feature of the prosecution of Cardinal George Pell is that the former choirboy who accused him of sexual abuse (known in the High Court as Complainant “A”) was regarded as a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Palmer, Associate professor, Deakin University The law on what we can and can’t do during the coronavirus outbreak is changing on an almost hourly basis. Some of what is written now might be overtaken by the shifts in the pandemic powers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Mudgway, Senior Lecturer in Law, Auckland University of Technology As millions of people are moving work and social interactions online to protect themselves from COVID-19, existing online safety measures may not be enough to deal with a surge in harassment and ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says the primary sector will play a critical role in NZ’s economic recovery once the country emerges from the Covid-19 lockdown. It is the first time (at least within Point of Order’s close surveillance of the issue) that a coalition minister has acknowledged how the pandemic ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Doughney, Emeritus professor, Victoria University The loss of international students due to COVID-19 restrictions, and predicted second semester declines, will see universities lose between A$3 and 4.5 billion, according to Universities Australia. The higher education sector was dealt another blow this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Oliver, Research Leader in Respiratory cellular and molecular biology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Professor, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney Harry Potter author JK Rowling says a breathing technique has helped her coronavirus-like respiratory symptoms, a ...
8 April 2020 This media release summarises changes to the operation of the courts entering week of COVID-19 alert level 4. It also looks ahead to how the courts will operate in the short and medium term under alert restrictions. Courts to function ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Glasziou, Professor of Medicine, Bond University Should members of the public be wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic? It’s a controversial question, with different countries and authorities giving different advice. We have reviewed the results of more than a dozen ...
The Government is moving to safeguard businesses from insolvency with 'safe harbour' legislation for directors’ liabilities and a business debt hibernation regime. Practically, the business debt hibernation regime will see company directors seeking ...
This Passover, we won’t be attending synagogue, we won’t be participating in large raucous dinners and sharing our food with our extended family and friends, we won’t be welcoming strangers into our homes, as Jewish people are instructed to do, writes Juliet Moses.Tonight, on what is hopefully the halfway point ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brad Elphinstone, Lecturer in psychology., Swinburne University of Technology The same week social distancing measures were announced in Australia (March 16 – March 22), sales of game consoles leaped 285.6%. Prior to this, sales were declining month on month. We’ve also seen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Harris, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, UNSW As part of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all elective surgeries across Australia have been temporarily cancelled. Elective surgery is non-urgent surgery people choose (elect) to have: things like cataract surgery, joint replacement, ...
Infratil and Wellington Council are preparing to lend Wellington Airport funds to help it cope with a traffic collapse because of Covid-19 restrictions, DIleepa Fonseka reports from Infratil's update to investors Wellington City Council and listed investment firm Infratil are preparing a loan to support Wellington Airport, which has seen ...
The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersThese posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early ...
After two weeks of lockdown, police are no longer taking "I didn't know the rules" as a valid excuse, Marc Daalder reports Two weeks into the nationwide lockdown, the police are starting to take non-compliance seriously. The number of prosecutions nearly tripled in 24 hours and 76 new breaches of ...
As the Ministry of Social Development struggles to cope with unprecedented inquiries due to Covid-19, Child Poverty Action Group is calling for the Government to fix our broken welfare system and redesign it so all New Zealanders, but particularly ...
Fijian authorities are scrambling to ensure Cyclone Harold doesn’t make the country’s Covid-19 crisis worse, Teuila Fuatai reports. As Cyclone Harold hits Fiji, authorities have issued physical distancing and sanitation guidelines for evacuation centres. Lashing rain and strong winds caused widespread flooding, power outages and damage to homes and buildings ...
The Government has announced a $88 million package to help students adjust to the new normal of learning from home Thousands of modems and internet-ready devices are being sent to households around the country, in a bid to bridge the digital divide before children resume their studies at home next ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Jenkins, Professor, Respiratory Medicine, UNSW Sydney and Clinical Professor at the University of Sydney, George Institute for Global Health The new respiratory coronavirus COVID-19 is particularly worrying for the 2.7 million Australians who already suffer from asthma. That’s roughly one in ...
By Maggie Boyle of FBC News Fiji disaster authorities have put the whole of Viti Levu island on restricted movement due to TC Harold. Director for National Disaster Management Vasiti Soko confirmed the step had been taken as a precautionary measure. Soko said everyone except emergency services were to ...
By Wansolwarastaff Fiji now has 15 coronavirus cases after a single new case has been confirmed by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama. The new case was one of 25 samples that were tested at the molecular lab and is the husband of an existing patient from Lautoka – the Zumba ...
Māori will likely make up the worst unemployment figures in the forthcoming economic recession. Things can’t go back to the way they were, writes Joshua Hitchcock.Our world has changed. While it is too early to know with any certainty what the full impact of this crisis will be on Māori, ...
‘New Zealand leads world in public perception of Covid-19 response,’ says pollster Colmar Brunton.Public support for the official New Zealand response to the Covid-19 outbreak remains high, and well ahead of the world’s richest coutries, new polling suggests.The numbers show New Zealanders’ backing for measures “far outstrips the response in ...
People waiting a week or longer for the results of their Covid-19 tests say the delays are making them anxious, even as the Government says they're nothing to worry about, Marc Daalder reports Anand Rama says the worst part wasn't the waiting, it was that he had no idea how ...
In any crisis, large or small, people usually rally round those in control so long as they convey a sense of knowing what they are doing. If those in charge lose that sense, start to waver, or are otherwise deflected, then their authority quickly starts to erode, warns Peter Dunne ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa O’Donnell, Senior Research Fellow, University of Western Australia Tackling a health crisis such as COVID-19, with society in lockdown can’t help but place families under strain. It’s been reported family violence notifications to police nearly tripled in some areas of China’s ...
A new study released today by Colmar Brunton shows the public’s response to Government measures to tackle COVID-19 far outstrips the response in any of the G7 nations. The Colmar Brunton COVID Times is a study of over 600 New Zealanders surveyed from ...
Launching a new series, 60 Seconds with Siouxsie, the inimitable Dr Wiles has a few sharp words for anyone thinking they might catch up with neighbours for a drink or a chat, even at a couple of metres apart.In our first video, made possible by the support of Spinoff members, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bekessy, Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning, Leader, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science), RMIT University Intriguing things sometimes happen in places deserted by people. Plants creep back, animals return, and slowly, birdsong fills the air. The coronavirus pandemic means ...
What’s an Ōamaru sweet maker doing giving away a product remarkably similar to the late, lamented Snifter? Amanda Thompson searches for the truth behind a minty mystery.I’m not in this for laughs, people. I’m not playing. At the time of writing, things are bad, they don’t seem to be getting ...
The Tūpuna Maunga Authority is calling for a total ban on the private sale of fireworks following the latest fire at Maungarei / Mt Wellington on Tuesday 7 April. Fire and Emergency crew in attendance advised Authority management they received reports of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geetanjali Saluja, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Governments everywhere face the challenge of getting people to stay home so they can limit the spread of coronavirus. In order to make their messages more effective, governments must ensure these appeals resonate with the ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Government has no plans to end New Zealand’s four-week lockdown ahead of schedule, despite acknowledging there are signs the country is “starting to turn a corner” in its fight against coronavirus. Ardern’s comments came as Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield reported there had been ...
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Today, dozens of peace groups, academics and human rights campaigners are calling on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to withdraw from RIMPAC, the world’s largest, US-led military exercise due to begin in June. The text of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meredith Rossner, Professor of Criminology, Australian National University In the past, the courts were ideal breeding grounds for spreading disease. In what became known as the “Black Assize”, a deadly fever that swept through prisons and courts in England in 1586, 11 ...
Returning nutrients to the soil was once part of every culture, and now, more than ever, it’s time we restore its valuable role in everyday life.Like keep cups, organic cotton tote bags and eco-friendly cleaning products, composting can at times seem like a new trend latched on to by sustainability-obsessed ...
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The Prime Minister’s chief science adviser Juliet Gerrard says the next few days will be key to determining when the country can come out of lockdown at the end of four weeks. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Trauer, Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia is effectively in lockdown. Public gatherings of more than two people are banned and people are only permitted to leave home for a limited set of reasons. The recent tough measures appear to be ...
She’s not a teacher or a fluent speaker – she just wants to practise with you. Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Today we’re asking and answering: how many?E hia te roa o te rāhui e toe ana? How long have ...
Jacinda Ardern has pushed back on calls to lift New Zealand out of lockdown early - but businesses say we need a roadmap for how and when we come out the other side Business leaders have urged the Government to provide greater clarity about how New Zealand will move out ...
It looks like troughers should go back to the drawing board before submitting – or re-submitting – their claim to a serving from the Provincial Growth Fund. Shane Jones, the Minister of Munificence, has announced that the Provincial Development Unit is working through applications and projects ” … to see ...
E tū members at Fletcher Building Ltd are opening up about how they expect their pay cut to affect them and their families. The company has announced that most workers are in line for a wage cut of up to 70%, while the top executives on millions of ...
A simple, long overdue change in New Zealand’s policy for blood donations would benefit everyone, writes Dr. Oliver Armstrong-Scott. The New Zealand Blood Service recently pleaded for Kiwis to continue donating blood during the Covid-19 lockdown to ensure supplies do not run out. As a medical doctor, I have seen ...
Tonight New Zealand marks the halfway point of alert level four. Assuming, that is, it ends on schedule. What will determine the decision to lift the strictest restrictions, and what comes next? Kate Newton of RNZ asks the experts.Covid-19 researchers in New Zealand are optimistic that the level four restrictions ...
If crisis point was met, there is little doubt that the Bay of Plenty regions District Health Boards and hospitals could not cope with a severe outbreak of COVID-19. Medical staff would be stretched to their limits, resulting in deaths, and iwi and hapu in ...
The creators of a commercial property clause that may exempt tenants from paying all or some of their rent say it is working as intended. Clause 27 of the Auckland District Law Society (ADLS) Deed of Lease includes a "no access in emergency clause", which the Property Councilwarned could lead ...
As New Zealand enters day 14 of a scheduled four-week lockdown, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield says New Zealand can be ‘increasingly confident’ . ...
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By Florencio Miranda Ximenes and Antónia Gusmão in Dili Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak has explained the decision to dismiss the vice-health minister, saying he lost trust in her to do the job. The President dismissed Élia António de Araújo dos Reis Amaral from her post on Friday, following ...
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The National Party leader intends to continue commuting between Tauranga and Wellington so he can do his job effectively in an unprecedented situation. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. Today’s contentPublic health strategy, exiting lockdown Thomas Manch (Stuff): A path out of lockdown is being charted, but experts say ...
US death toll catching Italy's fast; Johnson on oxygen in ICU, but not intubated; US threatens India, Canada over mask and drugs; Germany accuses America of 'piracy' as China, Russia send supplies to New YorkUS cases spiral: The United States leads the world in total cases, but not yet ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meead Saberi, Senior lecturer, UNSW Traffic jams may have disappeared from our roads as people stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic, but we can be confident they will be back. Scientists have studied traffic and congestion for decades. We know a lot ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Lindsey, Malcolm Smith Professor of Asian Law and Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society, University of Melbourne Almost no one thinks Indonesia is handling the COVID-19 pandemic well. Until early March, the government claimed it had no ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rod Lamberts, Deputy Director, Australian National Centre for Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University Good news: COVID-19 is not the only thing going on right now! Bad news: while we’ve all been deep in the corona-hole, the climate crisis has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Waters-Lynch, Lecturer Entrepreneurship and Innovation, RMIT University If you’re working from home for the first time, you might be asking yourself why you didn’t get to do this years ago. The benefits of remote work have been discussed for nearly half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roslyn Petelin, Course coordinator, The University of Queensland When a literary luminary such as Thomas Kenneally declares so early in 2020 that he is certain a “more original” novel “will not be published this year”, the reviewer faces a challenge. The book ...
Open Mike 08/12/2018 
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Bloody rich people huh:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/12/graeme-hart-gives-otago-university-its-largest-ever-donation.html
Good on him.
No, you’re wrong James. He should pay more tax, Govt should then set up an advisory committee staffed by Labour faithful who get their cut, then the diversity advisors can filter a bit more out, then Iwi, with the resulting much-dimished sum forming an election bribe to gullible students. Get with the new picture. 😐
As you say, Good on him. Why are YOU hating on him. It neither makes him a good or a bad person but someone who has made a good gesture. Try and cheer up and see the good James.
Huh? Where in his comment does James suggest that he is “hating on him”? Or are you just showing your own prejudices towards James because he is not a leftie?
Bloody rich people huh? He’s the one making that statement, no one else here did today, he sure is trying to hate on someone, but yes he did prove my prejudice is justified.
You have my sympathy if you cannot consider that, rather than “hating on someone”, what James might be suggesting is that not all “bloody rich people” are selfish arseholes and some are prepared to share their wealth in philanthropic ways such as donations to universities.
And you have my sympathy if you think celebrating a good deed is a good excuse to start a flame war at 06:33 am. Good deeds are done by all segments of society, Left/Right, Rich/Poor all based on what they can do or how much wealth they have and they should be all acknowledged accordingly. Congratulations to Graeme Hart for a great donation that should help many people.
If you think James started a ‘flame war’ with his remarks, why did you fuel it with your remarks about James “hating on him”?
Meanwhile they’re cheating on their taxes to a far greater extent and the only reason why they got rich in the first place was because they were stealing from the workers.
Do you have evidence he is cheating on his taxes? And not all rich people get that way by stealing from others. You realise that right?
You know it’s possible to be rich and moral/socially conscious right?
No it’s not.
The only way to get rich is to steal from others.
So David Attenborough is an immoral thief?
How about Stephen King? The late Stephen Hawking? The Rolling Stones – all of them immoral thieves are they?
Yes.
Jacinda is in a huge salary and is rich. Who has she been stealing off?
And Simon Bridges??????
“Bloody Rich People” is James being smart and he thinks it is mocking all those Lefties who all despise Rich Pricks.
Yes, I should have known better than to bite. What is the saying re Sarcasm being the lowest form of Wit. I suspect he is half there. Have a lovely day.
Hart does done a good thing with some amount of his money. I am pleased he has. It is likely he will get good feelings from it too cause we know this is what happens when we give. It’s a win win all round”………
But let’s use it as a call to action for our govt to fund essential health services………..
By the way I think the truly great people are the dentists, dr nurses, health auxiliary who train for many years and work day in and day out………dentistry is a particularly thankless job and is associated with high suicide rate
A call to action that should start with saving the country’s AYA cancer support service. Next week will see the axing of all CanTeen’s regional youth workers and closure of Hamilton, Hawkes Bay, Dunedin and Taranaki centres. Don’t develop cancers if you’re 14 to 25 years old and live there.
It’s a really good signal from one of our key citizens to all other of our 1% to donate more towards education.
It’s also particularly good that it is going towards dentistry for people who can’t afford it in South Auckland.
Well said.
How does he get the status of “key citizen”? Has he done anything particularly special for the countryz? I bet most kiwis would have no idea who he is.
Apparently stealing from lots of people and causing poverty is how to become a ‘key citizen’.
Do you have evidence he stole from people? It’s a bold claim which you should back up
Being rich is evidence enough.
Just because our laws support that theft doesn’t change it from being theft.
No it isn’t. If you going to call someone a thief then provide evidence or GTFO
You are being particularly delusional today Draco.
Perhaps get some sunshine.
Go back to your Mum’s basement with your goth metal idealising dolled up females Draco
Actually it’s a signal that the balance is so lopsided, the people who get seen as philanthropists are those who gained in the back of other peoples sweat and blood…
It is also a cover which allows the govt to hide behind explaining why education, health and other essential social services can’t be fully funded all the time…which of course they can be…
Donations such as this are only necessary in the mirage that is being protected at cost to all else…
Key citizens…Ad …awful!
Hear hear
It’s nothing to do with whether he is a good or bad person. But the donation raises a question. If the money he has appropriated for himself was actually better distributed across the community in the first place, would the donation even be necessary?
A society that relies on charity is like one that relies on the proceeds of gambling. It’s a society that’s not working properly.
We should all demonstrate that we are good citizens who do more to support society than simply relying on the state to do it all. Charity is one of those things that demonstrate that, and it’s a stronger moral duty on the 1% than anyone else.
I agree with the sentiment, but at no point did I say or mean anything about relying on the state to do it all. I was pointing out the internal contradictions of charity as a means of social organisation, especially where it focuses and fawns on the munificence of the wealthy.
Charity being necessary is proof that we’re not paying enough tax – especially the rich.
In fact, the rich shouldn’t exist as they’re the problem and not the solution.
🙄
WTF?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/14/nasa-civilisation-irreversible-collapse-study-scientists
What’s that favourite of the RWNJs? That people shouldn’t have children if they can’t afford them?
Yeah, the rich are the problem.
> It’s nothing to do with whether he is a good or bad person.
That seems false. It shows that he is a good person, at least in this act. People should be grateful.
A.
Hart should be grateful.
Good to see him give something back ,seeing as he purchased the Govt Printing Office for around 1/5th of its real market value.
Lange opposed the deal,so Prebble/Douglas went behind his back.
Hart has parlayed that windfall into a billion dollar empire using the time honoured tradition of redundancies,consolidation and asset stripping.
Yes – accumulation by dispossession is not forgiveable simply because some of the accumulated wealth trickles back to the dispossessed via charity.
Let me rephrase it then to avoid your misrepresentation.
“If I greet Mr Hart’s donation with anything less than fawning adulation, it has nothing to do with whether he is a good or bad person”
Why should we be grateful about his theft from so many?
Evidence for theft please
If the money was better distributed across society we’d probably eliminate poverty in this country.
QFT
Personally, I resent the state having to rely on the charity of the rich to function. If he happily pays his full share of taxes, then the university won’t need whatever wealth he decides is surplus to his needs. That is what socialism is – no longer being grateful for whatever crumbs the rich decide to give you.
What makes you think he doesn’t pay his fair share of tax?
What do you know about his tax affairs.
A.
He’s rich so we can assume that he’s a) dodging all sorts of taxes that most other people pay and b) that he bludged all the money he has causing massive poverty.
Evidence he’s a tax dodger please
Graeme Hart’s Mum has joined the board.
He’s rich. Evidence enough.
No it isn’t evidence
As the only way to get rich is through theft then, yes, it is.
No it isn’t. Is the famous author or musician or artist a thief?
What’s with you John S. Do you think you are in a court of law? Just say that DTB is making unfounded assumptions and stop filling up the thread with your demands.
This is open mike is it not?
Or the brain surgeon?
It’s Open mike, but participants are expected to bring something worthwhile to the feast; writers a plate please! Otherwise you are more like a nongate-crasher.
Do you go on holiday?
If you do you are richer than someone who can’t
You have the internet. Other people can’t afford it
Why are you not paying enough tax?
Having those things is not the same as being rich.
Rich = living upon other people’s work without providing value equivalent to the value received
In other words being rich = being a thief.
No Draco you are wrong. Stephen King has sold in excess of 350 million copies of his work which would make him very rich indeed.
That’s his own efforts. Not a thief and rich
No, I’m right.
What if we all got together and decided that Stephen King wrote really good fiction and that we should support him in this with his work then being freely available to anyone who wants to read it.
How much do you think we’d decide to pay him? More or less than he got from selling his books?
And I’d say that Stephen King has put a hell of a lot of that income he got from his books into gathering unearned income.
That’s just an assumption you’re making. Evidence or GTFO. Fact is King got rich from selling his books, his own work. Which is why you are wrong and just making assumptions
There is no reply button for your other post
So Ardern, who is one of the highest paid people in the country and is paid by workers tax, is a thief?
She may be paid excessively but she does actually work.
The rich tend to have passive income on top of any wages/salary. It’s the passive income that is the theft. The passive income is unearned.
Ardern probably does have some passive income which would make her a thief.
What Draco means is that he doesnt know how to become rich.
It sounds like he has failed and is on the bones of his arse and are very bitter.
🙄 just like we can assume those who are struggling are drug addicts and bludgers 🙄
No. We actually have laws that ensure that owners get paid for doing nothing.
🙄 More drivel from the high prophet of unproven repetitive cant.
SM
Spoken like the true exponent of beating up leftie ideas.
What makes you think he doesn’t pay his fair share of tax?
How do you know he DOES pay his fair share of tax?
You are the one making the claim that he doesn’t
Do you think the megarich pay their fair share of tax?
I’d want proof particular ones don’t before tarring every single one with the same brush.
It is a bit like saying all National voters are greedy and don’t care about the environment, or all Labour voters are tree hugging SJWs
Considering the estimated fraud I actually want proof that a rich person isn’t rorting the system.
Of course, the system is designed to help a few people steal from everyone else so even if they’re not rorting the system they’re still acting immorally.
Aside from anything else I just don’t think it’s healthy to have accumulated such wealth. Just my opinion. I can never fathom why people would want that much money. Given that radical economic transformation isn’t about to happen anytime soon, I prefer mr hart has given some money to this dental school. It a very worthy endeavor…..
Btw jacinda arderns only asset is her house, which she has a mortgage on…..
That’s quite funny as on lots of sites I see “lefties” “tarred” with the same brush all the time and there is no “proof” or truth in what is said when they are all labelled, lazy, shiftless, useless, unemployed, inemployable, dumb, that they have lots of “kids”, etc and that they deserve everything they “get” for being all of the aforementioned things.
If what you are saying is don’t generalise that is very good advice.
I agree
…all National voters are greedy and don’t care about the environment, or all Labour voters are tree hugging SJWs
That’s actually quite a fair summation of both parties.
Fair share is a subjective measure.
A thief on the other hand is someone who has stolen from others.
A claim Draco throws around without evidence and shows him to be delusion and envious.
Your wrong Antoine
Although Hart is no where as bad as that wanker Eric watson …. he’s no saint either
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12020225
” the core of the dispute was a $48m loan by the Chilean subsidiary to its British Virgin Islands parent.”
HHHmmm
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/top40-tax-dodgers-countdown-critics-and-trends/
Variously, costs are bulked up, every possible tax deduction is deployed, interest is raked out to foreign associates via loan payments, other income is funnelled offshore via “service fees”, intellectual property payments, and swaps and other derivatives. ”
” The majority of the tax avoidance is accomplished by wiping out taxable income, not by paying a low tax rate on taxable income.”
” interest payments are made to offshore associates, and so on.”
Heres some other billionaires who give to charity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGITecuBEHQ … how good are they ?
Yeah that’s fair.
Since 1985, the distribution of earnings in NZ widened by 22%, compared to an average rise in the OECD of 15%. Capital income has become more unequally distributed, at a faster rate than in most OECD countries.
There should not be billionaires in this world.
The inequality isnt his fault!
A.
It really is.
You know how many people own as much wealth as 3.7 billion people?
42
It’s worse than mere fault: it is an evil.
Blame the system, not the individual rich person.
A.
You can’t pitchfork a system, Antoine.
Vile Leveller!
A.
Speaking of which, I’ve been trying to explain to my kid how medieval knights were maybe not as cool as he thinks, and their main occupation in life was oppressing the peasants and living off the fruits of other people’s work
A.
> Poor Kid.
.OWT
But we can change it if we’re willing to accept its failings.
Not many people seem willing to do so.
What f**k do you think the socially conscious left are trying to do!
They are the system twonny.
It’s horrifying that so few have so much. I don’t care if you’re rich but I do care when you hoard
Being rich is a state of hoarding.
No it isn’t
I suggest you read Piketty because his research shows that it really is. It’s how rich people always destroy a society.
I’ve read piketty. There are rich and well off people in our society who pay all their taxes and aren’t the super rich hoarders you are claiming them to be
You obviously need to read him again. He specifically states that having wealth results in the accumulation of more wealth.
Hoarding.
Just because he said it doesn’t mean he is right. I’ve known plenty of modest and honest rich people
He not only said it but has the research to back it up.
Rich people are hoarders. In most cases they’re rich because they’re hoarders.
All you have is evidence free assertions.
Before my father died he was very wealthy. He only had one home. A couple of vehicles and made his living as a fairly well known and respected doctor. That’s it. You are talking shit
No, this is what socialism is https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/11/venezuela-is-months-from-the-end-game-of-total-chaos-or-a-coup.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/advancednano+(nextbigfuture).
Utter failure.
Good on him, but what about the rest of the country? Time they worked out why everyones teeth as so bad. Too much sugar and acid and processed food is a big factor. Time poor food and harmful drinks have safety labelling on them like cigarettes. Would also help if people had the ability to cook again rather than working 2 jobs or having so little money or skills or being on drugs (that apparently we feel the need to encourage drug smugglers to settle in NZ to help make drugs more freely available).
I’m not sure this evolution for 2 parents working has been the best for society – no time for cooking and kids being raised by minimum wages child care workers, is that really creating healthy happy communities and society. It has gone from a women’s right to choose to work, to begin forced to work for financial reasons as you need two incomes to survive in many cases these days.
P>S> I think I read that Sroubek’s business was importing in fruit juice (plus drugs) so another reason to deport him as most fruit juice is worse than coke for your teeth due to acidity and sugar levels.
https://www.carefreedental.com/resources/17-nutrition/82-4-common-drinks-that-are-worse-for-your-teeth-than-soda
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fruit-juice-is-just-as-bad-as-soda#section1
You always had two income families. women in the past worked, often full time and oftentimes their children would work too. And the he poor never had good teeth, and it is more to do with access to good affordable health care then food choices.
Only the well off could afford to have a stay at home mum.
What’s the catch? Is it for a Chair in Barbecuology?
“Good on him”??!!?? Why isn’t he paying his fair share of tax?
Our universities and schools do not depend on the whims of the likes of this rich fool.
I notice that James’ comment at 1 has resulted in about 55 replies. It is good to be getting that level of critique on the important issues of our time, and the methods we can use to meet our problems.
It is enthusiasm for discussing the important matters by so many here that gives The Standard prominence for intelligent, incisive citizen involvement in preparing for the future, among the numbers of blogs discussing NZs direction and approach
Nope. The university shouldn’t need donations and only bludgers are that rich.
Arise, Sir Graeme!
Mesh victims denied the right to sue Johnson & Johnson because US judge decides ACC can pay. 22% of mesh claims denied by ACC.
Why is NZ paying for J&J negligence?
And why do we insist on dragging the pain out? Just help them ffs.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/109061370/mesh-destroys-intimacy-in-marriage-but-kiwi-victim-cannot-sue
Quote from link above:
US court evidence showing that medical device manufacturers knew surgical mesh could cause catastrophic injuries including “a permanently destroyed vagina” was provided to New Zealand politicians on a health select committee in 2014.
In other words the ACC scheme has made us a dumping ground for dodgy products. Negligent US companies don’t care because unlike NZ companies they don’t pay into the scheme, but they are benefiting.
Was Baarp Baaarp Coleman minister at the time?
Even worse, those injured are finding themselves in court against ACC because ACC refuses to accept their claims of injury.
I have a friend who went through this traumatic experience that lasted well over ten years. The NZ surgeons both refused to accept the mesh products were causing harm, and also lied when they assured that all the mesh had been removed after more surgeries.
Alongside this, ACC has refused to acknowledge injury saying it was impossible to determine that the ill health and pain was caused by the mesh. ACC presented doctors opinions in court from doctors that had not examined my friend, but had reviewed the other doctors records. That case is ongoing.
The only relief was from the loan of money from family that allowed her to go – along with other NZ and Australian women – to Dr Veronica in the US, who is surgically removing all traces of mesh product the most successfully. Apparently, his surgery schedule is filled with these cases and he is now very experienced and very likely to have a good outcome. After a typical surgery recovery – never experienced prior – as the pain and infections were always ongoing – her health and wellbeing improved immensely.
ACC still is fighting her case, and this injury and ACC denial experience will be shared by many women in NZ.
Well, our regulators will accept shit products.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/108990220/Export-only-medical-devices-poorly-regulated
Thanks joe90
I had heard in the past that USA continues selling overseas things that have been banned in the USA. This item is an indictment on them and that practice.
Good points A.
A piece of good news, our cricket team have won a series overseas.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/109176715/black-caps-set-pakistan-280-to-win-in-79-overs-on-final-day-of-deciding-test
A captain’s knock, another debutant spinner having a blinder (a bit Australian….), a target set for the opposition and a great two sessions of cricket.
Congratulations to the captain, coach and team.
A cruel situation.
It seems these women were no more than guinea pigs, unaware participants in a trial.
Perhaps ACC can cover all victims, then ACC can sue Ethicon/Johnson & Johnson to recover costs.
After all, isn’t that what the resolution part of the TPPA is for?
Oops.
Replied to my self rather than A’s comment.
Either the height of arrogance or the coffee hadn’t kicked in yet.
I’m not sure it’s a totally legit result. Pakistan’s run chase in the 1st test looks real dodgy in my opinion.
What were the odds eh g? And who took those odds?
Jeez you and maui are cynical so and so’s.
Says yeah wow go the black caps….great game to watch
If dating were like a job interview.
Thank God for Findsomeone.
Hoots!
A few of us were discussing how people rise up in the ranks but are bullies. Some are pretty obvious but then you get the smiling assassins. Like Diane Maxwell. I can picture her being the girl who excluded others in those awful triads that girls get sucked into. Socialised to be extremely articulate from a young age as many girls are, this type of bully often becomes the ‘teacher’s pet’, head girl and is very successful. Their bullying is insidious and I believe the bullys have no idea now that they have been outed. Complete lack of awareness because their type of bullying has been ok most of their lives. Anyway just a theory – and observations from my own experiences and that of my three daughters.
Maggie Barry has form, say previous staffers and public servants who worked closely with her as Minister: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12173091
And this bit:
Having been down this particular road more than once in the past I’m livid with rage that it is still going on.
Who the hell do Parliamentary Services think they are? They are supposed to support staff and take appropriate action on their behalf against violent bullies. And believe me Maggie B is a ‘violent bully’. No, she doesn’t go around bashing people with pieces of wood, Her method of destruction is psychological. She hounds and harasses with verbal violence to the point her targets lose all their confidence and self esteem and can no longer operate. Then, when they finally manage to muster up the strength to report the behaviour, they lie through their teeth and lay the blame at their targets’ feet.
Bullies of this calibre have no empathy for their victims and happily destroy lives everywhere they go without a hint of a conscience. They demean and denigrate them in front of people. They spread garbage about them behind their backs and call them ‘nutters’ when in fact… they are the nutters.
This young man who is putting it out there is exceedingly brave and I applaud him for doing so. My only hope is he is getting plenty of support because he will need it. I also know from experience his former superiors directly in the firing line will stop at virtually nothing to silence him.
Oops: third to last paragraph should read … she lies through her teeth etc. It is the hall mark of any big time bully girl or boy.
Unfortunately @ Anne, someone needs to come up with an updated Peter Principle.
Although I’m not suggesting our public service was perfect before the 80s reforms, sure as shit a new phenomenon has emerged.
It goes along the lines of the Edmonds Baking Powder slogan “sure to rise”.
The higher they rise however, the more versed in spin, lying and bullshit, self-preservation, politicisation, leaking, etc. they become.
When you look at the record – especially over the past decade, it’s becoming harder to know which little dysfunctional feifdom is worst.
Is it MPI? or NZTA/MOT?, or MBIE and all its chattels? or maybe Krekshuns? or DSW/WINZ? or Health? or even Edgeikayshun, HCNZ even.
You’d have to admit it’s a bloody sorry record, but what’s worse is that the coalition don’t seem to realise that a good many of their ‘officials’ are more than likely their worst enemas – even if they’re nice blokes and blokesses.
I keep saying – “roll on Chippie’s reforms”, though I’m not that hopeful.
Some of us did (for example) try to warn I L-G he was going to be set up – although that little episode might yet backfire.
Cudda Shudda Wudda eh?
OwT
Nowt you say can be dismissed! Good points, with a sharp play on words.
Can’t say that I’m surprised. IMO, powerful people have become even more protected over the last couple of decades.
They seem to think that they’re the protectors of the powerful.
Yep. We need to accept that psychological bullying is still violence.
Bullies always blame their victims and there’s so many around to help them do so.
Pushback against education system proposal throws up some interesting language: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12173227
A not very helpful analysis there Sacha?
Reframing white flight as diversity is quite cunning of them.
Yeah, that too.
Auckland Grammar aren’t going to give up the purse strings without a hell of a fight.
In one fell swoop some ex-pupil white knight a la the one at the top of the thread, Hart not James, will come in with a donation which would cover the $1250 per pupil they ask for.
Or they could wean themselves from subsidies and become the fully private school they want to be.
Ah, I see the whingers problem – they won’t be able to attract students from out of zone, charge high fees and thus restrict access to state schools to rich people only.
That’s probably a good idea. Most people who get elected to school boards probably don’t have a clue as to how to do those.
As I said the other day the amount that our young need to learn before they leave school has increased and we should be looking at extending school out to 20/21. Split into three: years 1 to 7, 8 to 13 and then the final two or three years. Can’t leave school until finishing junior college.
And teach civics as a compulsory subject and also life skills like how to budget, how taxes work, interest rates etc.
Help people to understand their place and power in society and how to avoid falling into financial traps
I believe that civics is already a compulsory subject. The question is how much time is spent on it and if the subjects covered are the same across the country and if enough is actually covered.
Now that’d be interesting especially if they combined it with how money is created by the private banks.
As Ford says:
People recognise immoral behaviour when they see it and our monetary system is immoral. It is designed to steal from the majority of people. In fact, the entire capitalist system is.
Another bad sign of globalism when people seem to being arrested around the world based on political reasons.
Pretty sure China is not a signatory to the sanctions ban on Iran (and not sure that that Iran should have a sanctions ban in the first place especially when Saudi does not have one!)
Weird, Saudi goes around murdering people and that is ok. Most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi’s and that was ok. And Saudi are murdering people in Yemen and that is ok too by the US and the world.
Time, NZ got out of this idea that trade and globalism is a winner for NZ, because it’s more a shit fight for power and control. Fairness and transparency are out of the window. NZ is much better to pursue an independent foreign policy from both US and China and develop our economy not solely based on trade agreements that actually make NZ worse off in terms of domestic problems and inability to trade freely (aka the opposite of free trade) by too much regulation in the agreements. For example being able to trade with Russia but for ‘soft power’ reasons do not do so.
Also absolute joke that BT are removing Huawei tech for UK security reasons, the UK government signed to get China to build a nuclear power station for them! What could be more dangerous, someone in control of nuclear power in your country or someone who might be able to snoop on a few conversations?
China demands release of Huawei executive arrested in Canada
Meng Wanzhou, who faces extradition to US, said to have been investigated over alleged sanctions breaches
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/05/meng-wanzhou-huawei-cfo-arrested-vancouver
The person who can snoop on all your conversations. Doing so gives knowledge and knowledge is power.
Well NZ is part of dangerous spying with 5 eyes. We already have mass surveillance here and not much said from our government… everyone is spying on everyone else… The spies don’t want other spies spying on them it seems to boil down to.
We have a Natz MP who is probably a spy and China own vast amount of people and assets here in NZ, but not a care from our government, they just take the money (or give it away like water rights) but all of a sudden worried about Huawai? Its just doing the US bidding. NZ government would be happy to give up all sovereignty if they got a short term boast out of it and they keep the donations and Ponzi rolling in.
Robert Fisk has spoken and written of the evil farce … where head chopping and sex slave taking terrorists in places like Mosul …. become sanitized as ‘rebels ‘… when they ply their blood letting and throat cutting in Syria.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-sex-slaves-lamiya-aji-bashar-nadia-murad-sinjar-yazidi-genocide-sexual-violence-rape-sakharov-a7445151.html
Continuing the long trend of Britain / Usa involving themselves with populations suffering a poor deal …. and giving them something much much worse.
His latest writing on the hypocrisy of western values / morals,…. speaks the truth to our diet of bullshit and murderous delusions … The sick sort Wayne Mapp endorses
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/robert-fisk-jamal-khashoggi-trump-gina-haspel-cia-recordings-muslims-torture-yemen-a8670246.html
“A generation ago, the CIA’s “Operation Phoenix” torture and assassination programme in Vietnam went way beyond the imaginations of the Saudi intelligence service. In spook language, Khashoggi was merely “terminated with maximum prejudice”. If the CIA could sign off on mass murder in Vietnam, why shouldn’t an Arab dictator do the same on a far smaller scale? True, I can’t imagine the Americans went in for bone saws. Testimony suggests that mass rape followed by mass torture did for their enemies in Vietnam.”
“But still it goes on. Here’s Democrat senator Bob Menendez this week. The US, he told us, must “send a clear and unequivocal message that such actions are not acceptable on the world’s stage”. The “action”, of course, is the murder of Khashoggi. And this from a man who constantly defended Israel after its slaughter of the innocents in Gaza.”
“Yet when at least one recent US presidential incumbent of that high office can be considered guilty of war crimes – in Iraq – and the deaths of tens of thousands of Arabs, how come American senators are huffing and puffing about just one man, Mohammed bin Salman, who (for a moment, let us set aside the Yemen war) is only being accused of ordering the murder and dismemberment of one single Arab?
After all, world leaders – and US presidents themselves – have always had rather a soft spot for mass murderers and those who should face war crimes indictments. ” ………………
” The message has been clear and unequivocal for decades. The US “national interest” always trumps (in both senses) morality or international crime. ” ….
“By the time Rumsfeld arrived for his meeting, more than 3,000 victims had fallen amid Iraqi gas clouds. The figure would reach at least 50,000 dead. Which is, in mathematical terms, Jamal Khashoggi times 50,000.”
Its our ugly truth …. and Fisk is far from alone in telling it
https://www.christianpost.com/news/isis-wives-jealous-of-sex-slaves-husbands-buy-virgins-for-10k-on-apps-rape-9-y-o-girls.html
@reaons hypocrisy is rampant now in governments decision making.
Obama was a shameless supporter of the headchoppers and heart-eaters. As long as they’re sworn enemies of Iran, we support ’em.
The best news on the Education Front since the introduction of “Tomorrow’s Schools” has been the publication of Bali Haque’s review.
Much as I admired David Lange he did nothing for students or teachers when he introduced the so called market model into education. At that time we had an education system that was admired throughout the world and certainly did not need changing. The advent of “TS” brought huge stress to many communities with little or no benefit. There is no doubt though that some principals, particularly in the primary sector, relished their new found power.
Intermediate schools have always been of doubtful value, apart from providing promotional opportunities for Primary Principals. The notion of Form 1 – 4 or middle schools has been around for a long time, as have senior schools. They are to be encouraged.
The immediate reaction from the Trustees association and the Principals Association has been very positive. The Nay Sayers are coming from the quarters to be expected and they are already indulging in extreme forms of derogatory terms e.g, “Stalinism”.
Here is an opportunity to really put our education system “back on the rails” so let’s have a healthy and robust debate on the issue. As a now retired senior teacher who went through the “ordeal” of adjusting to “TS” I have plenty more I could say.
+1
“Much as I admired David Lange he did nothing for students or teachers when he introduced the so called market model into education. At that time we had an education system that was admired throughout the world and certainly did not need changing.”
There’s a very good documentary about the Lange and the 4th Labour Govt called ‘revolution’ it’s on YouTube
The full length 2006 documentary about our education system – A Civilised Society can be found on NZ on Screen.
Worth the watch as well.
Hear Hear Marcus!
Much as I admired David Lange…
After that ritual statement, you then proceed, rightly, to remind us how destructive Lange was.
What did you “admire” about him?
David Lange was the much needed antidote to R.D.Muldoon. I think that there was a collective sigh of relief when, mainly thanks to David Lange’s wit and debating skills (plus a revulsion to Muldoon’s overbearing style) Labour won the 1984 election in a land slide (and repeated the effort in 1987). The country stood largely united (and still does) on NZ being declared a nuclear free zone (the sky didn’t fall in as so many of the of the devotees of US foreign policy predicted it would) and who could forget Lange’s performance at the Oxford debate. David Lange gave us “voice of our own” when it came to dealing with foreign powers and we appreciated it. Sadly for David, and the country as a whole, he became entrapped with the policies of Douglas, Prebble, Bassett and co who brought in Neoliberal economics under a socialist banner (treachery I call it) and David and Geoffrey Palmer (a great statesman in my humble opinion) woke up to too late. The rest is history.
Geoffrey Palmer (a great statesman in my humble opinion)
That opinion is more than “humble”, it’s FITH.
Geoffrey Palmer is an international disgrace. His manipulation by the loathsome ex-president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, was perhaps the lowpoint of his career….
https://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/2/as_turkey_freezes_israel_ties_critics
Not sure what FITH means but I am sure it is not complimentary. You are entitled to your opinion of course, I will certainly stick with mine.
As you clearly know nothing about Geoffrey Palmer’s disgrace, your opinion is worthless.
That of course is also a matter of opinion Morrisey. I am well aware of the incident that you refer to and I was deeply disappointed and angry at the outcome of the commission. While we can agree on the result of that particular inquiry (and we may claim it as an error of judgement on Geoffrey Palmer’s part because, of course, we are are privy to all the information he had) it does not detract from all the work that Palmer did in his time as a leading Labour member of parliament and, most importantly, his championing of MMP. Cheers.
Palmer ceded all authority on that farcical “commission” to Alvaro Uribe, the brutally repressive, bloodstained “strong man” of Colombia and an avowed supporter of Israel’s crimes. Next to that cowardly behaviour, his championing of MMP is hollow.
Remember Tomorrows Schools came out of demands by many, most of whom never put themselves forward for board roles, for more parental control of scholl direction.
Short bloody memories, the blight of the whingers.
It came out of demands by a small group of fanatical right wingers who controlled the Labour Party. Far from consulting anyone with any expertise, Lange—or more accurately, Douglas, Moore and Bassett—installed a supermarket operator, one Brian Picot, to chair the farcical commission whose mission it was to dismantle our education system.
We’re still suffering the consequences thirty years later.
I’m pretty sure that parents had input into the running of schools before 1989. Education boards were democratically elected, and schools were run by school comittees and PTA’s. Schools simply had more central support and expertise to draw on.
If anything TS lessened parental involvement. If you are having issues with your local school, there is no place to really turn to for help, and the school closures over the past 2 decades would not have happened if the education boards were still in charge.
Tomorrows Schools had little impact on Secondary school governance. It was in the Primary area that the impact was greatest with respect to school management. But that was just one part of it. The effect on the secondary sector was immense with schools paying ridiculous amounts of money in promotional material for self promotion. This was felt particularly in the medium sized rural towns (Masterton, Levin for example) where two school competed for clientele from a fixed market. But it was also the loss of free and readily attainable professional advice that was to prove costly. Fair do’s: entrepreneurial professionals set themselves up as advisors and ” did very nicely thank you” dragging out money from operational grants that could have been better spent on other educational aids, books and computers to name just two.
Apparently that was supposed to be the idea.
This from Marcus Morris should be noted – worth repeating.
Much as I admired David Lange he did nothing for students or teachers when he introduced the so called market model into education. At that time we had an education system that was admired throughout the world and certainly did not need changing. The advent of “TS” brought huge stress to many communities with little or no benefit. There is no doubt though that some principals, particularly in the primary sector, relished their new found power.
Another supposedly progressive Labour change of the 1980’s – done as a result of ideology, sales promotion and and addled opinion.
100% concur with your sentiments Marcus Morris (9) … well said.
As an retired senior teacher how many parents did you speak to over the years whose children grew well through intermediate school who said “Intermediate schools have always been of doubtful value”?
The answer is obvious – there was no alternative so they had no other point of reference. Middle schools have always made much more sense. As far as I am aware there has been little research to prove the efficacy of Intermediate schools – again, what was there to compare them with but you might be able to correct me on that point. As a student I attended both an Intermediate School and full primary school. I don’t think I lost anything in attending the latter for the last eighteen months of my primary education. We used to be bussed to “manual” and enjoyed the afternoon out. My first year teaching was in an Intermediate School before I moved into the secondary sector. For much of my career I worked in a Form One to Seven structure which worked well in rural areas. However, I feel that a three tiered system with years seven to ten being taught as a separate entity, would have huge advantages.
I’m in a district where there are just about all the options. (No middle school) I’m sure most of the parents in the years our kids were at the intermediate they went to wouldn’t say/have said that intermediates were of doubtful value. I think many of them would be absolute advocates for that system.
I was at some talk somewhere about the time where advantages/disadvantages between the systems were talked about. We have a very highly regarded high decile Yr1-8 school pretty close to us and had to make a decision. Whoever it was had some research about types of schooling. I think it was Ministry of Education stuff. I do remember a term being used – ‘slippage’ – to do with kids ‘going backwards’ with moving between schools and the affect of doing it twice in a short time for two intermediate years. I also remember the findings by and large being they were six of one, half a dozen of the other and other factors and possibilities came into it determining the good for kids.
Pete, I am in no way denigrating the quality of the teaching that has taken place in Intermediate schools over many decades. Teachers in those schools are unquestionably as dedicated and committed as they are in any other sector. In its inception back in the thirties (the brainchild of Dr Beeby I think) it was designed to bridge the gap between primary and secondary styles of learning (I assume). In other words to help children to adjust from a single teacher classroom to a situation where they would face multiple teaching styles (was there another reason). It is pertinent to remember that in those far off days the vast majority of students left school at fifteen and went into apprenticeships. This was still the case in the time of my own school days in the fifties when two years secondary education was all that was needed to get into most types of tertiary training. My point is that the division has always seemed contrived. Puberty doesn’t begin at age eleven and end two years later. And I have never understood the social advantages. Children leave primary school as “seniors” at the end of year six, have two years to adjust and gain seniority at intermediate and then go through the trauma of readjustment again in year nine.
Finally, if intermediate schools were deemed such a good idea (and they have been around for eighty plus years) why have they not been more widely introduced overseas.
PS I have a suspicion that your children were educated in the same suburb as my grandchildren. Their parents opted for the “full” primary school and have never regretted it.
The worst thing they did was fiddle with our style of assessment. Or should I say experimented with. I was part of the group given grades from 1 to 9. I was in a top school and each school was allocated grades. I came 3rd in the school in computer studies and got a grade 4. Nobody could get a 1.
The year before we did School Certificate under the old system. At least that system was fair, and encouraged students to try. I do feel fiddling with structures of schools will do little to address the real issues. In particular the present system is working well for girls but it’s failing to engage boys in the same way. Having 2 females vs 1 male in tertiary education will have long term social consequences.
The primary and secondary system is responsible for the resultant.
The education gap.
” In particular the present system is working well for girls but it’s failing to engage boys in the same way. Having 2 females vs 1 male in tertiary education will have long term social consequences.”
Link to studies about this aspect.
The education system has not been delivering for all students – whether male or female in terms of preparing them for full engagement with work or community.
Achievement levels in a flawed system aren’t the indicators we should focus on. Our education system should deliver New Zealanders that are able to engage, work and play in a meaningful manner.
IIRC, The old School Cert system automatically scaled to fail half the students despite achievement. That is also less than ideal, and not a system we should return to.
https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/174162/2016-rounded-maori-summary.xlsx
So it was 2:1 in this group but has improved to 3 1/3:2
It’s an issue needing to be addressed. I know some people are trying but it’s still a big gap.
Sorry Molly can’t do more, taking kids swimming.
You don’t link to stats that match your comments, so work on that. Someone I know has been involved in work with the MoE and NZQA to raise Māori achievement levels – which is an entirely different topic to the one you introduced, so I’m expecting a bit more than rushed stats leading to inaccurate conclusions.
Enjoy the day with your kids, it’s nice to have swimming weather on the weekend.
Summary. Males:females
Lvl 1&2. 1:1.27
Lvl 3. 1:1.56
Lvl 4 to 7 1:1.15
Bachelor & higher. 1:1.45
Ace. 1:2.53
Lvl 4 is lower due to aprenterships.
So I’m wrong in saying 1:2. Sorry Molly.
1:2 exists for Graduate diplomas.
1:2.67 for adult honours.
I am correct in saying we have an education gap.
That’s larger than the claimed pay gap, that we endlessly hear about from the Ministry for women.
One of the “best interests of the child things” but on the doesn’t count list because it’s males.
The Minister for Men remains silent.
The report you linked to – different from the first – does show a higher percentage of female enrolments, which apparently has been the case since 2006. The report says that the average percentage of females enrolled is 59%.
There are no conclusions in this report, as the data they have collated for gender has not been matched with other criteria to indicate why this is the case.
As you mentioned the male percentage in apprenticeships is likely to be higher.
In typical female occupations such as carer, ECE, and nursing a qualification is often gained – and sometimes legally required.
Further on in the report it says there has been an increase in NZQF enrolments which are industry and trade based qualifications, while the university enrolments have stayed quite static.
Looking at the statistics only, you have no context or valuable data that gives insight into why enrolments or attendance is the way it is.
“I am correct in saying we have an education gap.
That’s larger than the claimed pay gap, that we endlessly hear about from the Ministry for women.”
Your focus on ‘male’ achievement is a very narrow one.
We already know there are greater gaps for Māori and Pasifika students
There will be substantial gaps for:
– Students from low-socio economic groups
– Students from families with low disposable income not entitled to support,
All of these groups need specific targeting and assistance in improve education outcomes, as long as the education provided is of high quality and suitable for purpose.
“One of the “best interests of the child things” but on the doesn’t count list because it’s males.
The Minister for Men remains silent.”
You seem capable of reasoned discussion, so I don’t know why you are taking a single data point and quite willfully reading malice into it. There is not enough data there to give a reason why the ratio is skewed.
eg. There seemed to be considerably more females in the age 24-60 yr group, but that might be reflective of the population as a whole as females outnumber males in the population after the age of 30 IIRC.
But as I said, you would need better data before drawing that conclusion.
You are also conflating issues here.
We are speaking about education, ‘the best interests of the child’ – which I agree with – relates to the custody conversation we had.
Just thinking the change from male majority to female majority might in part be due to the requirement for Early Childhood Centres to have qualified staff that happened in the early 2000’s. Add to that the fact that only 2.6% of ECE staff are male and you have a large female contingent in a growing industry that require qualifications to remain working.
But as I mentioned, there is not enough data in the linked report to give the information needed to make judgements, only loosely based theories that need further research.
I don’t think that TS had anything to do with the changing of assessment procedure. That was just coincidental. The old School Certificate was not good. It was designed to fail 50% of the population with the result that many people were, literally, scarred for life with a sense of failure at school. It was an indictment on the system. SFC was also a flawed scheme where schools were locked into an award process which was tied intrinsically with grades gained by a particular cohort of students at SC level in their previous years study.
The final five years of my teaching service saw the introduction of NCEA and, in its initial form, I saw great merit. However as more an and more assessment is being placed back on the schools and their teachers (as was the case with SFC) my enthusiasm has wained more then somewhat.
We live in a world were you pass or fail.
If you don’t pass your drivers test, you don’t get it.
If you don’t pass your firearms test, you don’t get it.
If you don’t pass your university test, you don’t get it.
I don’t have a problem with competency testing.
I don’t have a problem with completed the task, award.
I do have a problem with teachers time inside school and out of school, waisting time with endless assessing with the present system.
I want teachers teaching as near to 100% of the time when they are with the kids. I want teachers to live happy lives, not burdened with what at the end of the day is pointless assessing.
I would rather we went back to tests without reporting % but just giving A, B, C, D with a much smaller project contribution for some subjects like Art.
D resulting in do it again.
School C, as Marcus mentions, was scaled to a normal distribution curve to ensure that 50% of people failed. That is not a pass and you don’t get it but rather a pass and we will fail you anyway.
We can learn from our mistakes and create a better way of doing it.
As we introduced NCEA we began dropping in international standing. I believe this is due to the burden on teachers. A happy teacher is a good teacher. A overworked and stressed teacher is not a happy teacher.
I largely concur with what you say however the point about SC under the old system was that it was norm referenced and lead to very artificial and grossly unfair results. NCEA is, or was, standards based – just like the drivers licence. You reached the standard – you passed and if you passed well you this was acknowledged with a Merit or Excellence award.
Is this the only intelligent thing Nash has ever said?
“We gave you a chance … My view on this has always been the same. Let him go home. Let him go to some other country. I don’t want these sorts of people in New Zealand … Good riddance, never come back.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12171765
While they are about it, time that the whole marriage situation with immigration was tightened up. If should take 20 years to get full citizenship and welfare in NZ to stop people purchasing it for the wrong reasons, (or that reason gone by lunch time aka like many people’s relationships and marriages) and if you go to jail and get a conviction you are automatically deported.
Look at Sroubek’s case, his wife supported him, now shortly later seems to be in hiding in a police safe house because she is afraid of him??? My how the situation seems changed in a short period of time. You can’t change people’s emotions, but our immigration policy should not be at the mercy of people’s short term relationships or fake labour and fake businesses and all these new import businesses that are caught importing in drugs, should be instant deportation.
Having a much longer time frame for citizenship would do a lot of clean up NZ, where 1 in 4 people are now living here from overseas and the news head lines seem full of them operating outside NZ laws, thus changing our country into some drugs fuelled, illegal working hell hole where scams are everywhere, which is out of kilter with our safe, clean, green image with high educational and moral standards and low corruption levels from 30 years ago. Stupidity and short term greed is making NZ a much worse place for more people.
Some questions about Mrs Sroubek come to mind. Was her immigration status reliant on her husbands flawed residency and if he was a criminal, was she living on the proceeds of crime and should also be deported.
Yes where did the money come from for that 2 million dollar house they own?
I think getting rid of Permanent Residence would do more while ensuring control of NZ by NZers by allowing only citizens to vote.
Well, I want to agree that only citizens should vote but I still feel if you are living and working in a country and paying tax you should have a say how those tax dollars are spent
Citizens only should vote in central government elections.
Residents can vote in local body elections.
If a person is living and working in a country then they should be a citizen.
If they’re not a citizen then they shouldn’t be living and working in that country.
So you’re pretty much cancelling everyone’s OE then. Oh and everyone is Australia will have to come home
Short term work visas. They’re visiting rather than living.
Or they could, you know, get citizenship.
I actually get pissed off with people going on about NZers living in Oz being treated as 2nd class citizens. They’re not citizens.
I think the issue is NZers have less rights than people from Germany, for example
Not necessarily. You may be working in a country just for your personal benefit, and contribute nothing to that society other than your consumption and tax.
Societies and countries remain healthier when they are valued. If someone decides that New Zealand is the country where they want to contribute more than the bare minimum, and make a commitment to that decision by becoming a citizen – only then should they have the right to vote.
Not 100% sure but I think NZ citizens can work in OZ, but get little welfare there these days. Although I think part of that is how NZ is the world’s third largest immigration by capita group, and the new citizens are using the NZ passport to enter other counties thus making other countries tighten up against NZ citizens which again is making things worse for NZ citizens born here or long term migrants who came here before the Ponzi.
Voting should be a privilege and a right for the people born in that country. If you are not born and living in NZ, then it should take 20 years to vote and be a NZ citizen. Now we have people who come here, fake job or just here for 11 days and can vote and change our government. It is not acceptable or fair to long term citizens to be able to buy your way into NZ and getting very fast voting rights.
If it was 80% non -compliant looting before …. https://publicaddress.net/envirologue/swamp-monsters-the-looting-of-northlands/
https://d3nd7i493f0o21.cloudfront.net/assets/upload/342293/1260009865/swamp-kauri-stockpile-ruakaka_david-wong-tung.jpg
Then tell me Judith collins business associates have not been looting more …. and looting harder.
The pile of loot looks a lot larger now ………………
https://www.google.com/maps/place/35%C2%B052'06.7%22S+174%C2%B027'55.2%22E/@-35.8687951,174.4647808,119m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x6d0c84ab7cf51103:0x500ef6143a30170!2sRuakaka!3b1!8m2!3d-35.9063963!4d174.4471293!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d-35.8685388!4d174.4653194
Looks like some dodgy buisness.
There should at the very least be a requirement that the end product is 100 done in NZ. Not obvious pretend finished dishonesty.
It a bit like our unprocessed export pine trees. I have never understood the difficulty in making chopsticks in NZ. Or timber, or plywood, or specialist products like the old Armour Board. We loose far to many good jobs due to commercial nodding and winking.
The main reason that the timber is not processed here is because the cutting rights have been sold to off-shore interests.
Its much worse than that Slokta …. we’ve sold the land along with the trees in many instances..
Often to people or organizations who will structure their affairs so they never make a profit in NZ … and never pay any tax.
At which point it becomes asset stripping ….. as opposed to investment.
All foreign owned land should be taken back.
Immediately.
DJW … Your 100% correct about the stripping of our forest resources …. with NZ jobs disappearing overseas alongside the raw unprocessed non-value added logs.
The international forestry sector is involved in corruption, murder, environment destruction, displacement and dispossession for local communities etc etc. http://www.sarawakreport.org/2014/06/the-sarawak-timber-mafias-global-menace/
Some of the worst operators …. funded with stolen money and corruption in their home countries have brought into NZ …. often based on lies …. including that they would build and engage in Processing of the timber in NZ.
Instead of processing and jobs …. what we got with this particular outfit ..,. was non- compliance with regulations …. them operating in a environmentally destructive manner ….leading to the first ‘ timber Lahar ‘ that I am aware of in NZ…. no doubt all the wildlife and ecosystems in the river was minced and ground out of existence by this timber Lahar … https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/104486938/tolaga-bay-cleanup-could-cost-10m-but-who-should-pay
NZs good international name is also being used to cover up some of their other illegal logging http://www.sarawakreport.org/2012/01/sarawak-timber-scandal-hits-uk-expose/
We should take it back.
Without compensation.
And try Douglas for treason.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/366868/tolaga-bay-forestry-company-s-illegal-logging-history-revealed
Company director who underpaid staff is approved as an immigration adviser
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/09/company-director-who-underpaid-staff-is-approved-as-an-immigration-adviser.html
A person like that should not be allowed to even be in an administrative position. We don’t let people with convictions that could result in two years of jail into parliament.
It would seem he is very suitable from a NZ Immigration perspective.
An “expert” who calls the 19th century “the eighteen hundreds.”
Jim Mora’s inane chat show just gets worse every episode.
The Panel, RNZ National, Friday 7 December 2018
Jim Mora, Alan McIlroy, Tim Watkin, Caitlin Cherry
Announcing the menu for today’s learned discussions, the determinedly chirpy Caitlin Cherry makes out as if she is something other than an inane and frivolous commentator:
A minute later, we are treated to a typically high-flown piece of rhetoric from the show that Caitlin Cherry, that enemy of inanity, produces:
A little later, the first query in the (almost always) twee and insubstantial One Quick Question segment was: “What is the meaning of watershed?” It was answered by something called “Ken Grace from the Department of Writing”. I tuned him out as soon as he used the phrase “the eighteen hundreds.” He meant, of course, the nineteenth century, but he was either dumbing it down for the RNZ audience, or was too dumb to understand it himself. Either way, it’s unacceptable.
BTW: where the hell is the Department of Writing? Is it in the infamous John Davies’ non-existent Denver State University, perhaps?
When did the 19th century start, Moz?
The 19th century started on Wednesday, January 1, 1800. The eighteen hundreds finished on Sunday, December 31, 1809. Of course you know that, my good friend, and so does anyone with a measurable I.Q.
But not, apparently, the “expert” consulted by that ridiculous chat show.
> Of course you know that, my good friend, and so does anyone with a measurable I.Q.
I pity anyone who has to put up with you offline
A.
Your facility with the one-liner really has to be admired.
Your compassion for my friends and family has been noted.
Er, shome mishtake, shurely?
The 19th Century actually started on January 1st, 1801. The eighteen hundreds began a year earlier. This confusion, which you are party to, is why we celebrated the recent millennium a year early. And also because Prince realised that ‘party like it’s two thousand’ doesn’t scan as well.
PS, did you really mean to say the 1800’s finished in 1809? I think we should be told!
OMG. Ya got me, te reo, and ya got me good!
Touché!
No, it started on 1 January 1801, as eny fule kno morrie.
Correct, Gabby. I’m a fool, and a damned fool at that. And don’t you forget it!
Interesting article in the Herald today on how Uber Eats is damaging small food outlets.
Think before you use the Uber model.
It is destroying small businesses, by the sound of it.
The money you spend goes to billionaires in California, as opposed to workers in New Zealand.
And Uber doesn’t pay its share of tax.
If use catch an Uber taxi or order Uber Eats, never grumble about an underresourced health system.
Your consumer choice contributed to that happening.
Be a citizen- not a consumer.
Here is an excerpt from the article.
“One Auckland business owner who runs an Indian takeaway says Uber Eats’ commission fees are too high – particularly for small and medium-sized businesses.
“If a business is selling $100 worth of food, about $41 [after GST] is going to go to Uber Eats,” says the business owner, who wants to remain anonymous.
He says it would work out cheaper to hire a person to deliver the food itself, but the popularity of Uber Eats means that being on the platform is essentially a way of marketing the business, and “that’s where the customers are”.
Uber Eats policy says businesses must not increase their prices on the platform and they should be the same as those offered in-store. However, the takeaway owner says that is not feasible and many users do increase their prices on the app to accommodate the high commission fees.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12146643
The Uber model of exploitation needs to be banned.
Totally agree Draco.
If a corporation won’t make its fair contribution to society, it should be boycotted and banned.
The secondary rugby schools of Auckland, the Extinction rebellion activists and the yellow vest demonstrators show us the way.
The Uber model insinuates itself through the needs of people to earn who have become unemployed through the machinations of the free market under-cutting businesses, jobs, wages and the local market in which they operated.
So first the free market destabilises a relatively stable market, causing collapse of small business, jobs and income, then the people affected have to find a way to earn an insecure incoe., Then theyhave that destabilised by the free market operators finding ways to exploit other insecure people to compete and undercut their jobs and income. So insecure people eternally fight for reducing earnings while uber, go their unscrupulous way taking a management cut – the ultimate fight for life.
Bingo!
The entire system is designed to ensure that wealth flows up to the already rich.
But, but maybe Draco they will donate money to our universities or health care
Aren’t the yellow vest protestors protesting about a carbon tax on petrol?
No, they are protesting about a tax on petrol. I think they call it the Macron is a wanker tax.
Uber is awesome, very efficient use of resources by willing participants, but you draco of course cannot see that
Uber is also exploitative of human resources, requiring drivers to compensate for the failings of their business model to consider the well-being of the main resource that they benefit from.
Yeah, the poor sod that turned up at my place last night was a very willing participant. Ragged clothes, soul flapping off his shoes, broken English and nearly in tears because he’d been given the wrong address.
The people driving are being exploited through their need to work to live. The people who own Uber are getting income from the work of others while doing little to nothing themselves.
That is exploitation.
um, envisaging and setting up a business model which is willingly utilised by millions of people every day is working draco.
The bit I don’t get with the Uber model is why the taxi co-ops haven’t come up with a similar app based system, or a developer seen the opportunity to create one.
We had savy down here as a trial but it didn’t work out. https://www.savy.co.nz
This. Pretty easy to kill off Uber I would have thought.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Sometimes you are really funny.
Muttonbird the genius thinks it’s pretty easy to kill off Uber.
As long as there is demand it’ll stay.
Every Uber driver I’ve spoken to has enjoyed working for uber
No John – that can’t be right. People here know better. They are all miserable.
I love Uber. Use it exclusively when travelling and often use Uber eats in different cities when away for work.
Excellent service – but I’m sure muttonbird will hav the, out of business in a week. Coz they all smart like.
As long as their investors can weather the losses.
To date, close to $12 Billion and counting.
Ouch
I didn’t realise it was that much of a money pit.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/15/uber-losses-top-1bn-ipo
With an IPO coming up what’s the chance it’s hugely undersubscribed followed by a plunge into oblivion.
Draco’s assertion that some rich prick is raping the drivers looks like some rich sucker is keeping some poor driver in a kind of existence. Makes me feel more for uber’s competitors / victims.
Uber is a parasitic wasp and the customers are it’s larvae.
But there’s a third party that’s often glossed over: the customer. The rating systems used by these companies have turned customers into unwitting and sometimes unwittingly ruthless middle managers, more efficient than any boss a company could hope to hire. They’re always there, working for free, hypersensitive to the smallest error. All the algorithm has to do is tally up their judgments and deactivate accordingly.
https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/28/9625968/rating-system-on-demand-economy-uber-olive-garden
The “customer” review can also be the death of these business models too. With Trip Advisor, once the reviews started being generated by an algorithm, or fake farm, the human trust disappeared. https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/tripadvisor-denies-claims-one-in-three-reviews-faked/news-story/55243de188cc7f1fb2abb52fee3bac45
The site used to be huge in tourism, now it’s virtually gone. We had been getting a steady stream of reviews of our gallery up until mid last year, and then it just stopped. The same appears to be happening on other properties as well.
I am very sceptical of everything Uber says about their business in this light. How many customers (human and active) have they really got, and how many fares are actually being turned.
Zoomy is an NZ-developed alternative, but I do not know how their uptake is going.
Zoomy offers better overall rates and conditions for drivers, but drivers will often not pick up fares during peak times because Uber then offers a premium. So customers have to pay more, and don’t get to choose between services.
The short-term chase for higher individual earnings means that the better terms and conditions offered by Zoomy are not prioritised by drivers.
They also offer a better service for customers, no peak rates, and a training system for all drivers:
Thought my ban had ended.
Posted something about Uber Eats and it didn’t appear?
Welcome back, Ed. Can you try another test comment and see if it comes through?
It worked.
Thank you.
Really enjoyed your post on Pete Shelley. Great musician. Great person.
Cheers, Ed, that’s much appreciated. It’s odd losing your heroes; they’re not family, they’re not friends, but they are very much part of you.
This article on the Stuff website poses a good question.
The French are protesting will we?
It seeks the opinions of Max Rashbrooke and John Minto.
Excerpts from the article.
“An estimated 100,000 people have taken to the streets in France over the last month to protest the rising price of fuel and the cost of living in general.
However, according to statistics collected by the OECD in 2017 the French have it a lot better than New Zealanders, with a greater disposable income and lower levels of inequality.
So where are the New Zealand protests?
Inequality researcher Max Rashbrooke said at the heart of New Zealander’s inaction was a general complacency from those who are doing OK.”
My take.
Of course we did have protests back in the 1980s as workers around the country saw their rights and work conditions removed. Then draconian laws in the early 90s removed that right.
France never adopted the neoliberal poison to the same degree and no politician ( until Macron) has dared to apply the economic shock doctrine New Zealand politicians applied from 1984 to 1993.
And why did the protests not succeed in the 1980s? Well, it was theoretically a ‘Labour’ government that forced through the radical anti-worker laws. The Labour movement was stunned, shocked and fractured. It failed to resist as a united front.
In 2018 there are laws that make such united action very hard.
Nevertheless if the midwives, the teachers, the engineers, the junior doctors, the firefighters, the nurses, the bus drivers, the train drivers , the supermarket workers, the fast food workers all stopped work on the same day.
And repeated that action every week – united- indefinitely until neoliberal capitalism was abandoned,.. then we’d see a change.
Sadly many New Zealanders have been propagandised into being obedient consumers. A cheap UBER taxi, a cheap UBER eat, a cheap Macdonalds, a cheap piece of plastic from the Warehouse or another big box consumer hellhole trumps workers’ rights and conditions.
New Zealanders have been atomised. Their sense of community has been undermined and many no longer see society as any bigger than the nuclear family. Digital devices have taken this to another level as the atomisation now reduces us to the individual level.
And few notice and few care. The dumbing down of the population means there’s more uproar over Coca Cola’s Santa than our burning planet and unequal country.
Approximately 30% of the population vote for the National Party. They are the complacent sector who have forgotten empathy. Their attitudes will only change when the crisis hits them personally.
They should remember John Donne’s famous quote.
“No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. ”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/108851984/the-french-are-rioting-but-they-have-it-better-than-kiwis
When the bell tolls it tolls for three.
The french do have more passion.
Everything is wanted cheaper in NZ, because that shows more efficiency. That is the mantra from the well-off to the not, who have been propagandised with that message.
And the further message is that all the people having well-being is not something that NZ can afford. Prices of labour have to fall to the lowest base line for instance, so that others can take advantage of the ones at the bottom to keep costs of needed services low, and then profitable business can be built on that advantage.
Change that mindset to care about each other again, to want others to have a good basic life style and opportunities to better it! But that is so old-fashioned.
Apparently Maggie Barry uses having a trace of 1970’s thinking as a reason for disdain. People who do not remember or understand the past, which was of an attempted moral society, can’t change. NZs learned to go for cheap, and they got nasty.
NZ is not an admirable society now; anything good about it is either glossy on the surface stuff, or shows up only in spots, or thinly stretched and stressed.
100% concur with your sentiments Marcus Morris (9) … well said.
News from Wellington – they are going to build a new concert hall. I wondered where it would be sited. Then I thought of all the expenditure on the site for the memorial of WW1. That has been marked. Perhaps they can move on now, and turn that memorial into a living one housing the creative doings of those who have lived on. The concert hall would be named the Memorial Hall for WW1 and WW2, both having been important sacrifices by NZs. Do something both thoughtful and practical please you big-noting politicians.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=114526
And the comments are interesting and informed.
One refers to to pointyheads being stuck on large buildings on the shore line masking the view. Perhaps it is shades of The Opera House in Sydney which was a giant step up for them, (they are now monetising this by shining advertisements onto it).
Oh well, back to the drawing board….
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/04/norway-option-is-worst-of-all-brexit-outcomes-for-uk-say-eu-sources-rules
Congratulations to Abbey Ercerg, the world’s 60th ranked women’s footballer.
https://offsiderulepodcast.com/60-abby-erceg/
garden variety consent dyslexics
Wow that was good.
Kiwibuild chief Exec quits:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/109196487/kiwibuild-chief-executive-stephen-barclay-has-resigned
Can’t blame him really.
A Fletcher alumni flounces……
Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12173192
Nats planning policy to ACC-ise the rest of the Social Welfare system.
…given they twice attempted to privatise ACC they would presumably be also planning to privatise the whole thing in 2nd term.
Photo Mark Mitchell? The members are looking disgruntled.
More leaks, I see.
And it’s not JLR….
I have a post traumatic health issue, the result of an injury suffered decades ago, which has resulted in a serious disability requiring a surgical fix. I’m able to oblige myself of the treatment and support offered by ACC, timely consultations and private hospital surgery, post-surgery appliances, home help and income support.
For no known reason, the same issue spontaneously afflicts post-menopausal women, seriously disabling them, and requires the same surgical fix. But unless they have health insurance, they’re treated by the public system. Long waits for surgical consultations, long surgery waiting lists, bureaucratic difficulties in obtaining post-surgery home help and appliances, and a pittance in income support.
If National’s plan to extend ACC to victims of illness as well as accidents put an end to the two tier health system these women are forced to endure, then all power to them.
Yes it sounds kinda good on the surface.
But this is the Nats you’re talking about, they think the US Health Market is the ideal model to follow & they have a history of trying to Privatise ACC.
So you have to understand that what at first sounds good is likely to be actually intended to destroy &/or Privatise the last vestiges of Social Welfare in the longer term.
Agent Orange has nominated a Fox newsreader to represent USA at the UN.
It’s so perfectly bizarre.
Bibi will be beyond thrilled.
Kia ora R & R the problems with our housing is some people turned it into WEALTH making enterprises banks pollie realestate ect.
Communal living is good the old look after the mokopunas and the younger work that model worked for thousands of years the capitalist don’t like this model because it is to hard to sell there snake oil /lies to us when you have communal living the old wise give good advice to the youth .
I liked Nania’s idea of sweat equity the buyers work in building the house and are given equity in the house for there labour Ka kite ano. rents are sky rocketing at the minute and the banks love safe as houses hence big profts
We can not keep burning our environment and our grandchildren’s future for greedy oil barons
Adani: thousands protest across Australia against Carmichael mine
Thousands of protestors campaigning against Indian mining giant Adani’s controversial Queensland coalmine have taken to the streets in major cities across Australia to call on the government to stop it going ahead.
Protesters marched in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns on Saturday, just a week after 15,000 school students demonstrated against government inaction on climate change.
It follows the announcement last month by Adani it would self-finance the controversial project after scaling back its size and scope.
Climate change strike: thousands of school students protest across Australia
Read more
The coal project is being downsized from a 60-million-tonnes a year, $16.5 billion mega-mine to a more manageable 10-to-15 million tonnes a year costing around $2 billion.
In Brisbane, hundreds of protestors gathered outside Adani’s headquarters to voice their opposition to the project.
“No longer will we sit back and be lectured to by people who are outdated and out of touch,” Thomas Cullen told the crowd.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/08/adani-thousands-protest-across-australia-against-carmichael-mine
Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Kai ora Marae yes the justices system has served up us maori a big heap of ————–.
Pakeha means bad breath when the Europeens arrived here the had scurby hence pakeha.
The neo liberals who have big boxes of tissues like to use tack tics to stir up people emotions and try and drag the great tau toko and mana that is being given to te tangata whenua culture at the minute they are scared fool’s black faces and Maori santa I stayed away from the black faces debate so as not to given any publicity no publicity it fades away into our past.
PEE is a very bad drug and must be stamped out in Aotearoa its has infected all our maori community’s being pushed by———— I have already put out there who is pushing this ——— Miriama.
I see crime is falling and the prison population has fallen by 800 / 8 % ka pai ka kite ano.
P.S do you see all the efford the sandflys are putting into suppressing Eco Maori’s influence I know some do know about this
Kia ora Newshub Condolences to Grace Millane family .
Lloyd there you go someone will use anything to float there toilet even a sad tragic thing that is happening in Paris the alt right are to extreme.
I thought of a way to get people to have pride in there neighborhood have the best garden competitions with good prizes was one Idea for housing corp houses .
That’s a good thing putting cash on vehicles and other places for people to find at that camping grounds this close to Chrismas ka pai
The 7s Rugby looked exciting Niki & Andrew
Ka kite ano P.S some people still think they can see me through the camera lens
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.