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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When people suggest lowering the voting age, others argue that the young are too uneducated or silly to exercise the duties of citizenship. Australian John Quiggin has just blown that argument out of the water:Looking at the array of ignorant and vindictive old men attacking Greta Thunberg and other young ...
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...
Back in May, Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki launched another political party. Despite consisting entirely of followers of their religion, they grandly called it "Coalition New Zealand", in a vain effort to suggest it was something broader. But when they applied for registration, submitters opposed the name, as ...
The following article is excerpted and translated from two articles in recent issues of Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the revolutionary workers group active in France. We don’t necessarily agree with everything in it – for instance, the 1956-62 war for independence involved rather more revolutionary forces than ...
The Pacific is on the front line of climate change, and if we don't cut emissions quickly, some countries are literally going to be underwater. Because of this, small Pacific states had tried to use this week's Pacific Islands Forum meeting to get Pacific countries to agree to ending coal ...
To Limit Another's Rights Is To Limit One's Own: Is it too much to expect senior members of our Government to be capable of explaining that we protect the rights of human-beings precisely because not even the most depraved act can cancel-out the fact that its perpetrator is also a ...
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...
This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
West Papua solidarity activists met yesterday and resolved to call on the Prime Minister to step up to help resolve the escalating crisis in West Papua. ...
Landmark Report Released into Maori Aging and Disabilities “Manaaki Pakeke” – New Zealand Maori Council calls for a policy shift and greater focus The New Zealand Maori Council has released a comprehensive policy statement challenging the ...
MANATŪ TAONGA MINISTRY FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE MEDIA RELEASE 25 August 2019 Privacy breach identified with the Tuia 250 Voyage Trainee website Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage is investigating a serious digital privacy breach involving ...
‘Original Sin’ of Land Confiscation at Ihumātao is a wrong that can be put right by Government says Justice & Peace Commission of Catholic Diocese of Auckland ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference on August 19 that her government is likely to impose new restrictions on prisoners’ rights to send letters. She said the law could be changed in “weeks.” ...
Heart-warming images of House Speaker Trevor Mallard cradling a baby in Parliament have been welcomed around New Zealand, but the Public Service Association warns most families can only dream of such support in the workplace. ...
Applying New Zealand’s international human rights commitments, particularly those in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can help in resolving the situation at Ihumātao, Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says. ...
Climate campaigners impersonating bank staff have taken to the streets this week to expose ANZ Bank’s sponsorship of the fossil fuel industry. In the series of satirical actions in Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland, the ‘bank staff’ promoted ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty joins the Children’s Commissioner , The Green Party , The New Zealand Drugs Foundation , Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations in the calls for an immediate end to the drug testing benefit sanctions. ...
Negotiations between Port Otago workers represented by the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and management failed today and the unions have issued notice of an overtime ban from Saturday 7th September. ...
Queenstown Lakes District Council’s comments that it has applied for a consent to pollute waterways to avoid 'prosecutions by the Otago Regional Council' are unacceptable,’ Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says. ...
On March 15, the real world impact of online hate became abundantly, horrifically clear. As a shooter opened fire at two Christchurch mosques, the online image board 8chan anticipated, celebrated and amplified his killing spree. ...
Friday, 23 August: Government delegates from around the world, including New Zealand, are meeting in New York for the third of four meetings at the United Nations to agree a Global Oceans Treaty that could help to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030. Greenpeace ...
The excuses about a reportedly unwanted $57,000 payrise for Dunedin City Council CEO Sue Bidrose are laughable, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has launched the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” committing to no more than 2% annual rate hikes over the next Council term, and has written to all Mayoral and Council candidates asking them to sign. The pledge will ...
This Saturday, Pakuranga Hunt Day at the Ellerslie Racecourse will see anti-horse racing protesters demonstrating at the corner of Ascot Avenue and Greenlane East. ...
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere will meet with Pacific Island leaders and community elders today at Puhunui Reserve in South Auckland to commit to a Pasefika Cultural Centre. ...
Cruel and invalid Forced Swim Tests carried out at Victoria University of Wellington, will be exposed at the University Open Day today, so prospective students can be warned about the flawed and unethical research being conducted at the institute. ...
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
A cross political Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing group will be launched on Wednesday 28 August hosted by Sir John Kirwan and Moe Milne (ONZM) who have both been at the forefront of our country’s often difficult conversations about mental ...
Confirmation that the government will be progressing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office is great news for democracy and transparency, Federated Farmers says. ...
At first glance, Simon Bridges’ strident opposition to the government’s proposal to establish an independent office to cost political parties’ election spending plans looks childish and petty. ...
Euthanasia-Free NZ is appalled that Parliament spent so little time debating Part 2 of the End of Life Choice Bill and voted to leave it full of holes. ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie Indonesia’s harsh policies towards West Papua ought to be scrapped. Whatever happened to the brief window of enlightenment ushered in by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in 2015 with promises of a more “open door” policy towards foreign journalists and human rights groups? They were supposed ...
The House - The grammar of being an MP is harder than you might think. MPs in Parliament choose their words with care, and it just got more complicated. ...
As a format it predates almost all reality TV, and that’s precisely why it works in 2019, writes Duncan Greive.There’s something deeply comforting about watching Celebrity Treasure Island. It is a very pure form of escapism, largely because it explicitly recalls a world without the internet, and before everything started ...
Residents in Los Angeles and Orange County warned to check for symptoms after an infected NZ teen visited theme parks including Disneyland and Universal Studios earlier this month.Californian health authorities have issued warnings to residents and visitors after a New Zealand teenager was found to have spent five days in ...
When you crave fresh, bright flavours but summer veges seem far away, throw together this simple salad.Growing up we often ate this salad, or one very similar to it. My mum is a fantastic cook and this dish is one she still makes to this day – though I must ...
Analysis of New Zealand media headlines reveals a lot of people slamming a lot of other people.Slamming is at epidemic levels in New Zealand news. Drawn from just the last month, we present a selection of slamming.On July 27A union boss slammed David ClarkOn July 29Police slammed a dangerous photographerOn ...
Vana Manasiadis wrote a collection of poetry in the wake of her mother’s death. In this essay, ahead of her appearance at the Going West festival, she argues that as a nation Aotearoa needs to learn to make space for mourning. When Mum died in Athens, I cried loudly and publicly ...
The giant hand that captivated, delighted and disgusted the nation is now settling into its new Wellington home. For City Gallery Wellington’s blog, Spinoff arts editor Megan Dunn talked to Ronnie van Hout, the man who made Quasi.“Quasi is in the wrong place,” wrote art critic Warren Feeney in 2016, ...
At school camp, the children are banned from having phones, laptops, lollies, chocolate, money, cotton clothing or independent thoughts. They, are, however, allowed home baking – but it’s gotta be hearty. How hearty are you? We are packing for a school camp. If you’re thinking that the middle of winter is ...
Phil Goff’s rival has already pledged an 0800-Jacinda homeless hotline and an 18-lane harbour bridge. What’s next? The two most important people in the 2019 campaign for the Auckland mayoralty faced each other down on Wednesday night across the desk in the NZME debate: Bernard Orsman and Simon Wilson. Correction: it ...
Split Level View Finder: Theo Schoon and New Zealand Art is the exhibition that sparked a protest over issues of cultural appropriation and institutional representation. Theo Schoon is a divisive historical figure. But is his art any good? Martin Patrick reviews.British novelist L.P. Hartley once wrote that “the past is ...
Ahead of debuting her solo show at New Zealand Fashion Week, Korean-NZ couture designer Cecilia Kang talks about growing up ‘feminine’, being influenced by the LGBTQ+ community, and why an ‘administrative error’ at Fashion Week left her so shaken up. ‘I like something big,” says Cecilia Kang, gesturing to the giant ...
The Labour Party is distancing itself from one of its members who is strongly pro-Beijing and has caused controversy in the Chinese community by standing for local office in Auckland. ...
Faced with staff shortages, equipment failures, cancer risks, and a jump in critical calls that can leave them traumatised, some firefighters are wondering if it’s time to hang up the hose. Gareth Shute reports on the dissatisfaction inside Fire and Emergency New Zealand.The state of our nation’s fire service is ...
“She comes over. You’re my mother, she says. Yes, I say. I don’t know you, she says”: a mother and child seaside story by Wellington author Jan Pryor. Photo by Peter Black. ...
On Monday the government announced its new five-year strategy to reduce the Māori prison population. Emilie Rākete looks at another ‘kaupapa Māori’ prison initiative that degrades prisoners and asks if Corrections are capable of seeing it through.On August 19th, the Department of Corrections announced Hōkai Rangi, its new strategy intended ...
By Michael Andrew The Indonesian media is contributing to resentment and racism toward Papuans, according to a human rights researcher and former journalist. Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch Jakarta told Pacific Media Watch many Indonesian journalists either view Papuans as enemy “separatists” or deviants and their reporting tends to convey these ...
Analysis - The prime minister puts a stake in the ground over petrol prices, National balks at having its election promises costed and the government puts millions into helping the homeless. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danilo Ignacio de Urzedo, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Record fires are raging in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, with more than 2,500 fires currently burning. They are collectively emitting huge amounts of carbon, with smoke plumes visible thousands of kilometres away. Fires in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sean Docking, Post-doctoral researcher, La Trobe University Basketball fans around the world were recently sickened by the footage of NBA star Kevin Durant’s Achilles tendon rupturing during a game. But while many think it’s only elite athletes who suffer from Achilles tendon ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University The possibility of blackouts affecting half of Victoria has attracted plenty of attention to a document once read only by industry insiders and policy wonks: the Electricity Statement of Opportunities. The Statement, updated ...
George Clooney sold his tequila company for a billion dollars – but is the stuff any good? The Spinoff finds out. Imagine being so stupidly sexy you sneeze and sell a billion-dollar booze company. That’s what George Clooney did last year, flicking off the tequila business he started accidentally with an ...
The departure of "two Pākehā men" from the government's justice reform group will not hurt the quality of its final report, another member of the team says. ...
Combatting internet-related harm is being stymied by inter-industry disagreement and a lack of information about the extent and nature of the problem, a new report says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, J.W. Nevile Fellow in Economics and host of The Airport Economist, UNSW Amid the tributes to former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and the stories of his authenticity, courage and quirky interests – like trains and military history – what ...
Current leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Is Simon Bridges really trying to channel Donald Trump? Or is he taking his cue from Scott Morrison? Or is he looking to emulate Boris Johnson? Whatever the inspiration, there’s been a clear change in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]Michelle Grattan talks about the sad news of the passing of former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer with University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini. They also discuss Scott Morrison’s recent announcement about joining ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel Crowley, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, James Cook University In February, about 600,000 cattle were killed by catastrophic flooding across north Queensland’s Carpentaria Gulf plains. The flood waters rose suddenly, forming a wall of water up to 70km wide. Record depths were ...
Simon Day dined alone at Monique Fiso’s Wellington restaurant Hiakai, and discovered it was the perfect way to appreciate the meaning of this special food. “Would you like a few more minutes with your phone?” the waitress at Hiakai asked sympathetically as I mashed a final goodbye text to my wife ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Willamson, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia’s gender pay gap is diminishing, says a new report, but some contributors to it seem harder to overcome than others. For me, the finding hit close to home. The report, by KPMG for ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and ...
Honey producer Comvita has confirmed a full year net loss of $27.7m with China market access restrictions and tougher regulations locally affecting the company's sales. ...
James Elliott realises John Tamihere's uncosted bridge proposal wasn't actually a metaphor, but a fine example of 'folks is mighty generous with money what they ain’t got'. ...
A new poem by Oamaru-born poet Nick Ascroft.SupermanHalfway up the ascent zigzagging from Royal Terrace to upper Stuart Street carrying four too-heavy grocery bags I begin to understand that I will not make it. My huffing personage – from the fingers, white with the strain, to a face the colour of rhubarb – will ooze into the pavement and roll slowly ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.Sound the alarm, because it’s time for another absolute chaos pod. We’re talking haunted dolls in Waipu, we’re talking giant hands taking over Wellington, we’re talking soft serve cones dipped in powdered Milo. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Press, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania This week, the ABC revealed that the Australian Defence Force wants to roll out military technology in Antarctica. The article raises the issue of what is, or is not, ...
New Zealand teacher aides say their pay reflects an outdated idea of what they do. Elizabeth McLeod hears from four TAs, and one parent, about the classroom realities they face every dayCleaning up poo, defusing violent situations, copping physical and verbal abuse: these are the realities of a teacher aide’s ...
The lanky sidekick from Jono and Ben journeys around New Zealand trying to solve small town problems. Does he succeed?Guy Williams, hardly a shy, retiring type, has been screaming out for his own vehicle for years. A loud, lanky, fearless comic, he’s spent nearly a decade in MediaWorks purgatory, sat ...
Ballot Box.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The nature of New Zealand general election campaigns could be significantly changed with the proposed establishment of an “umpire” to adjudicate over political party manifesto policies. A suggestion has been put forward by the Government for the establishment of a parliamentary watchdog ...
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 content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Ihumātao Delphine Herbert and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Tainui to buy Ihumātao land – sources Danielle ...
Open Mike 08/12/2018 
My wife and I have had dogs for the whole of our 52 years of married life – and that has meant sharing our lives with our little furry friends. Because we usually spend a good part of our evenings watching television, it also means that our dogs have learned ...16 hours ago
. . Former Police, Corrections, and Justice Minister in the previous John Key government, Judith Collins, has been ridiculed on social media after posting a comment on Twitter that was patently untrue; . Wrong!! National did not remove Prisoners’ ability to vote. Parliament voted through a Private Member’s Bill ...2 days ago
Speaker Trevor Mallard was left to look after Jones, while his usual caretaker, Winston Peters, underwent surgery. A truly adorable scene from Parliament yesterday has gone viral, after Speaker Trevor Mallard cradled an extremely drunk Shane Jones in his arms while the House was in session. Loud “awwww”s could be ...2 days ago
Western media have defended their decision not to cover the fires so as not to give them any oxygen. Social media outrage continues to grow around the sentiment that mainstream western media is devoting too little coverage to an ongoing series of fires in the Amazon rainforest, and in doing ...2 days ago
A Long Time Ago, In A Parallel Universe Far, Far Away: The political journalist scratched his head in confusion. Only then did he notice the name of the building: ‘The Jacinda Ardern Presidential Library and Public Resource Centre’. Making his way inside to the information desk, he asked the librarian ...3 days ago
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Nothing from me tody - I'm off to Christchurch to pretend to be other people for a weekend. Normal bloggage should resume on Tuesday. ...3 days ago
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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.
https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/182296/2016-pt-provider-based-enrolments-part1b.pdf
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.