Su’a William Sio says he looks forward to tabling the Tax Justice petition before parliament. He says having 50,000 signatures on a petition is enough reason for Parliament to take note and consider the merits and substance of this petition.
“The large numbers of people signing this petition also reflects the significant numbers of New Zealanders who are struggling to make ends meet due to the high cost of living, which I see everyday in Mangere,” says Mr Sio.
“Labour recognises that the cost of living is a huge issue in our communities and that’s why it has already set out its initial policies – removing all GST off fresh fruits and vegetables, and no tax on the first $5000 of income.”
As well as calling for the removal of GST off all food. The Tax Justice Petition calls for a Financial Transaction Tax on speculation. Currently the billions made by financiers like John Key and his ‘trader’ mates, goes untaxed. While food is taxed. This is why the campaign is called Tax Justice.
New Zealanders can sign an online version of the Tax Justice petition here
Sounds familiar Peter : “…..higher minimum wages flush more money into the economy without cutting into job growth — the latter a long-held contention of business interests and many conservatives.”
Is Christchurch going to come through this ok? Will the people return to at least the same as before and the economy rapidly gain its former capacity?
I don’t know, and there seem to be murmurings along these lines. There still seems to be a steady but low exodus from the city. Hundreds and hundreds of empty houses for rent. Businesses chopped down and evaporating.
Hope these thoughts are in the wrong direction but doubts are creeping in here and there.
Maybe what would help is some large scale demolition. Knock down a couple of the large buildings asap in order to show that progress is happenning.
Then again, only two weeks until the shortest day!
I think that history shows us that there is something akin to the “grieving process” that follows disasters like this.
One of those things that happen is the phase where the problem looks so big and the effort so little that people despair can set in – where you wonder how life can ever be “normal” again.
Human’s are resilient, very adaptive and have the smarts to survive. Human’s have throughout time adapted to changes in their physical environment and rebuilt that which has been destroyed.
Christchurch has taken a hit and, like the aftershocks, there is more to come as people adjust to the new realities (i.e. the need to relocate, the need to start a new business and or close an old one, dealing with the loss of investment etc).
When we build a life for ourselves we do so over time. Buy a car, lay down a lawn, build a house, get a job, move house, fix the plumbing, get the kids into a school.
But with an earthquake, not only is what you have built up over time destroyed or changed in a short time, you have to rebuild any number of things in a short time. Then you have to adapt to changes in the city – cafes you went to aren’t there anymore, the route you take to work doesn’t exist anymore, your morning walk no longer has the trees you loved.
All in all that is a HUGE number of stressors in with a short time in which to adapt.
Things will be “normal” again for Christchurch. Not “the same” but normal.
I feel (as much as I am able:-) ) for the burden that Chch people have to carry.
Having said all that, (and as an aside) the Christchurch earthquake was an obvious change that needs to be adapted to and humans will adapt.
It’s the slow stuff that worries me. The insidious creep of climate change may blind us to the urgent need to adapt.
Hi VTO,
I think that William Joyce has it right. Grieving is what you may have to do for all that is lost. I have gone through major changes forced on me by outside forces and while I tried to hold on to all that was familiar to me I found I could not move on until I acknowledged and grieved for all that I lost and I lost all.
It has taken me years and I still grief of and on but it gets easier in time and you and Christchurch will rebuild. It’s human nature.
Kind regards
Ev
I lived in Christchurch for 10 years when it was still beautiful. Went back after 22Feb; it’s a wreck, it will never be the same. I came up to Auckland for work just before all the quakes began and I’m sorry to say I have no desire to go back.. too depressing and messed up 🙁
Well I read a report the other day saying that Christchurch has had a total of 21 new housing consents since Sept last year, for replacing earthquake damaged housing.
At this pitiful run rate, they’ll still be fixing up houses from the recent Christchurch earthquake damage in the 24th/25th century.
Insurance companies are being slow to pay out, they are waiting for engineers to figure out how to stabilise the ground under those damaged properties, seems like a catch-22
While our bankster elite (both John and Don are after all finance boys firmly connected to the financial Wall street elite and the neocon boys through friendships and business relationships with Armitage, Geitner and Milton Friedman to name a few) advance the agenda of the international banksters here is a video of family members of some of those who died on the day it all began; 9/11 2001.
And why did people bet on the airplane companies to loose value in the week of 911. Oh and on Merrill Lynch too?
These ads are shown all over the US and with the UK marines of the coast of Yemen and 2000 US marines ready to invade Libya and New Zealand under attack from the Neocons scheisters who started it all I feel it is important to keep reminding people that this is not going away.
For more background information on the coordinated financial attack all the countries in the European/US region of influence (New Zealand amongst them) are currently suffering and the ongoing implementation of the NeoCon agenda in the middle East read up on it here.
There are still hundreds of questions not answered about the events that opened the door to all these developments and we will not stop until the family members, architects and engineers have those answers.
Surprising in the educated bloggers here that a number use loose instead of lose. I get the right meaning from the context, but why the mistake? I have seen it on Jackal’s posts and others too.
Try thinking of loose change in the pocket, though you can lose that. I think I need a better example.
It is the damn spell checkers. I notice it myself (and not just on the iPad). I check for spelling errors by looking at the spelling error highlights. If a word is spelt correctly but is the wrong variant then I don’t see it.
The classic examples in these pages is ‘you’ when people mean ‘your’. It shows up in posts and comments everywhere.
The converse is also true. I’m just itching to change ‘spelt’ because it shows as an error because of the idiot dictionary on this system.
I once chugged out an entire 12k word assignment that used, in every instance (which is quite often in an assignment on party leadership changes), “lead” instead of “led” because it was a bit rushed and I was reading it in my head to sound like “head” not “heed”. Interesting that my brain was full of the base metal I was spelling 🙂
I don’t like the USA bias which means a word with s is often underlined because it should be z. Myself I like to keep z as a rare letter for when I play scrabble for high stakes. Other USAisms intrude too but I find spell checker helpful, it does pick up the errors which occur more often since the last upgrade of the Opera browser when the font for the standard decreased straining my eyesight, and some of my keys are so worn that the wrong alpha gets up. Machinery!
Exactly! I use Open Orifice and make certain it’s set to UK English (as NZ English isn’t an option weirdly..) When I use Word (only occasionally), it defaults back to US English, and quite insanely, many language schools offer only US English on their computers – I say insanely because many students I’ve had, have come to NZ because they want to avoid learning US dialect…
If a word is spelt correctly but is the wrong variant then I don’t see it.
That reminds me of a story I heard years ago from a woman working as a temp dicta-typist, who got into a power of trouble for typing “The morning Jew lay gently on the grass”… 😀
Spelt as in the grain? Try meaning ‘fora’ (plural of forums in Microsoft Word. It simply won’t allow it, which caused trouble in an essay I was writing for linguistics in 2003)
Smarmy Peter Dunne. On Morning Report about 1080 with his own particular brand of common sense. Which is to heap an attitude of nonsense on anything that he doesn’t agree with. And the report saying that more 1080 is needed, and that the use of it has been refined so that it achieves its goals with minimum downside, he can’t agree with. Because he has become spokesperson for the huntin, shootin community. That is the constituency he has adopted, and vice versa, and he needs some group to back his Greta Garbo party (she was known for a comment that she ‘Wanted to be alone’). His ‘ commonsense’ approach is to point out the failure of 1080 so far to completely solve the problem of defoliating and predating furry critters, possums, rats etc etc which breed like billyoh out in the back country. Trappers should be used providing employment, but the wild areas of NZ are extremely hard to work in, and that method is impossibly expensive for government.
He was arguing against two women, one from Forest and Bird which he tried to portray as soft-headed greenies, and (thanks google) Dr Jan Wright [who]was sworn in as Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment for a five-year term on 5 March 2007. Jan has a multidisciplinary background … He called their argument emotional during his forthright emotional rant and brought up various nice ideas such as trappers and possum fur providing jobs (impossible as the large number of possums required for a viable business would increase their numbers and stymie the drive to urgently decrease their destructive reign.)
He thinks the environment should be sacrificed so that jobs can be created, he can get the hunting votes, and he can stay in parliament to dole out his common sense. And the hunters say they care for the environment and want to protect it. They care about their own interests, the ease of finding targets, and their hunting dogs which can fall prey to 1080 as they range around. But one dog can kill 200 kiwi in a short time. So the hunters as a group have members who are destroying protected wild life themselves. And the environmental lobby fears that all kiwi will vanish with this sort of predation and other problems, in a few decades.
“Because he has become spokesperson for the huntin, shootin community.”
They were nearly a political Party weren’t they Prism, but became instead a lobby group funneled through Mr Dunne. Funny therefore that Mr Dunne should blast a scientific report? No?
The discussion on 9 to noon about 9:30 ish ended with an American damning the use of aerial dropping of 1080. He said NZ was the only country who used this method, and therefore it must be wrong! Really?
He did say that there should be a research project set up. That would be good.
1 third with no action.
1 third aerial drop.
1 third bait station.
His rant about making a fur trapping business for export growth was clearly him just mouthing the right words.
If industrial-scale fur trapping were a viable business, it would already exist. The 1080 coverage is said to be a very very small percentage of all DOC lands, so there’s nothing stopping him from setting up a fur business dealing to possums in the rest of the country. I would suggest (don’t know, but I’m assuming) that the DOC areas with 1080 aerial drops are in the parts of the country where other methods of control aren’t feasible anyway.
I have some insider knowledge of 1080 drops, their impressive results (possums and also rats and stoats as a bonus), the way they are carefully GPS mapped so they avoid farms and waterways (unlike the bad old days when the pellets were dropped anywhere), and the various bullshit stories and even dangerous sabotage attempts coming from the hunting and/or DOC hating community. The Commissioner is completely bang on with her report, there is no other working alternative. Certainly not bloody trapping. Its a shame the government isn’t interested in slinging more money at the programme so they can cover more ground. Idiots like Dunne and those Graf brothers make me bloody furious.
Recent murmurings from the forgotten coast confirm that for sheep the price per kilo of wool is a handful of dollars, whereas for possum fur it is now one hundred and thirty dollars.
I have not read the report yet but everything in the media today lacks any actual facts and instead is a variation of “I have read the research and concluded that my view is right.” There have been no facts presented as part of the report release today. Subtle. Prove me wrong before this gets completely out of hand. Which it will in a localised way.
Getting out at night shooting the buggers, plucking them the moment they die (best time to pluck them and that about 22 X. That is a lot of hard work for a measly $130 and whether they are a pest or not it’s still a big mammal you have to kill and they are hard to kill. Not fun.
Now all we need are possum shepherds who can individually muster dozens at the time. To heck with 1080, bring back The Dog Show.
And now the news: the sheep dog trials ended in a ruckus when all four were found guilty. Baaaaaad dog! (that one was probably ancient when the Two Ronnies did it).
Hee hee. But it’s viable. A series of traplines checked once every day or two should, in a well populated area, realise a few dozen possums. 15 possums for a kilo of fur. They are quite easy to kill – hold them upside down by the tail and a quick chop to the back of the arching neck. 5 minutes to de-fur when fresh, 15 when not so. Move the traplines steadily back to the next ridge / valley / river and chomp through larger areas. It is entirely feasible. People already do it. Subsidies to the extent of 1080 cost may well be enough to break the back of trapping excuses.
As for 1080, when will we learn? 245t anyone? Or how about asbestos? Formaldehyde? The “authorities” claimed each and every one of these killers was ok too. Pardon me if I am not a believer.
the point is though that it’s not the high income yields for investment in work that you suggest – for the industry to be sustainably if womone worked 8 hours a day on traplines they’d have to get ($130/night*5nights = $650/w) a permanantly sustainable catch rate of 15 possums a night. Not including skinning or treating costs.
And we want skilled workers (even if trappers) to get more than that, as well as the possum industry to be unsustainable, i.e. possum eradication (not farming on DoC reserves).
ianmac Yes Dunne was for more research. Yet he wasn’t interested in the facts presently gathered. I think some of these guys use the idea of research as a delaying tactic so they don’t have to be seen doing something that will aggravate some possible voters. Talk, do nothing and the spotlight will turn away to some other problem.
For sure more research would be good, if government can prise money out of the wealthy’s pockets where they put those tax cuts. Um, sorry, we were a bit out on our budgets for the country and shouldn’t have cut the tax rate like that. We’re sure you’ll understand that we now need it back!
I think bait stations are used where possible aren’t they. Would half and half with 1080 for active depopulation of pests be the right proportion of intervention? I think they should use what they have to in as careful a way as possible. (One email to the station commented on the unlikelihood of Peter Dunne having done the bait station thing, getting out into the wild countryside, crawling through wet grass. You would have to go and put the trap in, bait it, back to check it, then rebait or dispose of the dead animal safely. Then repeat…for quite a while.)
A few years ago, a couple of Density Church members came to my house and asked for money. They appeared to be hyped on some sort of drug or perhaps that was just religious fervour. I engaged in conversation with them for a while but ultimately told them I had nothing to give, which wasn’t far from the truth. Once I had made it clear that I wasn’t going to part with any folding, they skedaddled leaving the gate open on the way out. I thought this rather rude as I had sheep that could’ve escape onto the road. Luckily I noticed, as there are large fines for wandering stock these days.
I could have predicted that one. I heard somebody mention he might be going to work for the UN. I’m not holding my breath in expectation of all his detractors to apologize for their accusations now that he’s been exonerated.
He hasn’t been exonerated (which has a quite explicit meaning and would have required him to stand trial to achieve).
He has not been charged because the evidence did not stack up to something that could be taken to court under a criminal charge. In other words the police did not think that they had even the moderate chance of winning the case.
It could be that he didn’t do whatever the allegation was, or that the alleged activity was not illegal, or that there was insufficient evidence. Unfortunately that is about all that Darren Hughes would or could get publically from the police will be the yes/no about if they are charging him.
I was meaning the word exonerated in the public and not legal sense. Perhaps vindicated would have been more appropriate. Whatever the case, it seems that the damage has been done and not only to his career. It will be a cold day in hell before Phil Goff gets an apology for the almost two weeks of media beat up we were all subjected to.
I believe speculating further when the police have found there is no case to answer would be inappropriate.
I don’t know. The trouble is, it only clears Hughes of criminal charges, but the police won’t go into details. So it means we don’t know if there was anethical or moral breach:
Well if there is no charge he’s innocent in my mind. He should be reinstated and there should be a public apology. The red necked Tory dirty trick brigade have come unstuck . I bet Crosby Textor are furious and licking their wounds.
They should now be exposed, and those responsible should be named .
Yesterday, Martyn Bradbury AKA Bomber declared war on the Jackal for debating issues raised in an article written for Tumeke entitled “Why I can’t vote Green this election.” His blog was inspired by an announcement concerning the political position of the Green Party. The implications of declaring WAR are far ranging as can be seen in the National Government’s “War on Beneficiaries,” which proposes the forced sterilization of Woman on the DPB in some kind of Nazi inspired Eugenics Program…
National knows it’s exact plan. Too early to tell really means that they haven’t softened up the populace enough to accept their radical, right-wing plans that give more power and our wealth to the capitalists yet.
Dont worry, guys and gals, the union movement and the Labour party will stop John Key and his minions dead in their tracks with a series of strongly worded press releases and a tacky website or two.
Yes! You heard right! Peter Dunne is our first Hero of the Week Award winner. I know we give Dunne a bit of stick… I mean who could go past the Bouffant or planking incident without throwing in a few jibes. For now, let’s put that aside. Let’s also out aside the fact that he’s a right-wing politician that’s been supporting the corrupt National Party in their campaign against society. The Jackal believes in the benefits of giving credit where credit is due, so good on ya mate!
I use Clearnet for my e-mail. To reduce spam and phishing, all customers have been sent a letter which in part says:
“Consequently, from 11 July 2011 you will no longer be able to send Clearnet email if you are connected from an overseas location and using email software such as Outlook, Microsoft Mail, Apple Mail etc”
Does this mean that usual e-mail traffic to/from friends overseas will be blocked? Will enquire further tomorrow.
Confusing terminology but what it means is that, if you’re overseas, you won’t be able to send email from a local (on the PC) email client. At a guess I’d say that you’ll still be able to use their web based mail client to send email.
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Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
The Workshop is a charitable trust for public good. The Workshop undertake research to find ways of communicating that will build support for the solutions that work to solve complex social and environmental problems. See their Report on Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform below. ...
What is language? We generally assume that it a facility unique to humans, allowing us to share what’s in and on our minds. We can tell of our plans, our past exploits, our knowledge. It also allows us to lie. And yet there are vast numbers of people we can’t ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of Queensland Last month, scientists uncovered a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an ...
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody.Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit ...
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney One spring morning in 1850, over 8,000 Sydneysiders marched through town to protest the resumption of transportation – the act of sending British criminals to Australia. It was the largest protest in Australia thus far, an ...
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew.This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?!There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John M Clarke, Team Leader, Regional Projections, CSIRO Last month we lost Dr Penny Whetton – one of the world’s most respected climate scientists and a brilliant mentor to the next generation of researchers. Penny will also be remembered as a passionate ...
Ten moose were upended into the Dusky Sounds in 1910. Now, their descendants are getting their day in the sun.The climate crisis is affecting wildlife all over the country: rockhopper penguin populations are in drastic decline, tuatara eggs aren’t hatching females, and the ice walls keeping predators away from kea ...
Security footage of NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell being thrown out of a Tauranga bar looks unlikely to ever be aired - despite his leader Winston Peters promising a screening. ...
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...
Expect the old campaigner Winston Peters to be at his belligerent best as he gears up for another election. He’s kept his party alive for 27 years and he shows no sign of quitting. The omens may be bleak—polls this week showed his party below the 5% threshold– but Peters ...
The National Party has agreed to take down any videos breaching the current rules around the use of parliamentary TV footage, as all parties try to reach consensus. ...
Recently the Health Promotion Agency released a report into hazardous drinking in New Zealand. The report shows that Māori who drink alcohol and live in deprived circumstances are less likely to have a harmful relationship with alcohol if they ...
Turkey-US joint-statement on military ops within Syria’s territory.The Turkish Embassy in New Zealand issued Evening Report this unabridged United States of America-Republic of Turkey joint-statement detailing what both sides agreed to regarding Turkey’s military operations within the so-called security zone within Syrian territory near Turkey’s southern border. It is ...
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash didn’t mention what winners will receive, when he proudly called for entries for a new public award “to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector”. Nor did he mention the cost to taxpayers of this initiative. Point of Order’s checks with the website where more details have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona R Martin, Senior Lecturer in Convergent and Online Media, University of Sydney One of the basic tenets of the ABC Act is independence from government. Yet once again, in contravention to that principle, the federal government is trying to push through ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway.modernity to globalisationwhen I get there as still life and landscape and also portraitureseeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globeslices of pie offer up the vision after the sermonexpressing emotions without coherent narrative supportbecause no artist responded to this callemploying ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi to rule out any taxpayer-funded purchase or bailout for Mediaworks’s channel Three. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “For the last few months Mediaworks ...
The Police Commissioner's announcement that squadcars of officers with automatic rifles will patrol New Zealand's streets is dangerous and unnecessary, according to the criminal justice community organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The ...
News broke this morning that Mediaworks is seeking to sell off, and even contemplating closing, its TV division. What might that mean for journalism?For journalism in New Zealand, the loss of Three’s TV division is a devastating blow. It is not yet known whether any of the news properties will ...
In our defence of our coalition Government policy on climate change, we fully support Government plan to use rail funding for rail infrastructure upgrades to promote use rail infrastructure for freight around NZ. ...
The billions of tonnes of plastic in our oceans isn’t going away any time soon, but innovative companies here and abroad are working together to find silver linings to this daunting problem.Fishing boats head out to sea and set their nets. They go back to shore. They head back out, ...
An EveningReport.nz investigation by Kevin ListKiwibank services. Image by Kevin List.Evening Report looks into the separation of Kiwibank from New Zealand Post, and considers the impact on the public’s access to banking services in their communities.Kiwibank. What’s going on? Kiwibank and New Zealand Post are in the ...
Local Government New Zealand today confirmed what many local election commentators have observed; that more of the voting public cast their ballots in favour of women candidates than ever before. ...
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 (this week we totted up the data a day early, on Wednesday, to let our books ed. ...
New Zealand's mineral manufacturing sector is expected to face some testing times, with softer prices, tighter margins and sluggish export markets. ...
Portugal has been painted by pro-cannabis legalisation groups as a model to follow. Yet just last month, the mayor of Porto contradicted his previous pro-harm reduction position and endorsed reintroducing criminal penalties for drug use in public spaces. ...
Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Kevin Short announced today the inclusion of six Cook Island First World War soldiers in the New Zealand and Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s official rolls of honour. ...
The latest statistics released by the Health Promotion Agency showing a dramatic fall in the numbers of cigarettes being sold in supermarkets, service stations, and liquor stores are being welcomed by the Vaping Trade Association of New Zealand (VTANZ). ...
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.NZ First Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Where to from here? How NZ First will win in ...
Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), a climate change network, will host a conference in Wellington on 11 November (Armistice Day) to promote holding a Citizens Assembly in 2020, as a way of breaking the current political deadlock on treating climate ...
MediaWorks’ owners have called time after years of losses from its TV division. Sources say the company will announce it is for sale – if no buyers emerge, it will close within months.Three is facing the biggest crisis in its three decade history today, as its ownership will soon announce ...
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’. A first date that ends up in the emergency room. A flagging marriage that finds new energy through tennis. The founder of a dating app who doesn’t ...
If we want to grow support for New Zealand’s aid, we need to get better at partnering with the ‘unlike-minded’ as well as the ‘like-minded’, and much better at telling people what we do with the money they give, says Josie Pagani, Executive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Orsola De Marco, Astrophysicist , Macquarie University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How are stars made? –Zali, age 8, Karkoo, South Australia. How are stars made? Well, stars are not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gita Mishra, Professor of Life Course Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland All women know to expect the time in life when their periods finish and they reach menopause. Many might even look forward to it. What many women don’t ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, University of Sydney Since ancient times, horse behaviour, and the bond between horses and humans, has been a source of intrigue and fascination. The horse-lore that has accumulated over the centuries is ...
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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Clayton Mitchell denies accusations around a night out, food insecurity on the rise, and UK PM Boris Johnson secures deal with dubious prospects.NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has got himself in a spot of late night bother in a Tauranga ...
As the rugby world wrestles with the new reality that players can, and will, be dismissed for accidental contact with an opponent’s head it's worth pondering the fate of three All Blacks not selected for the Ireland quarterfinal. ...
A new exhibition in Raetihi offers a rare opportunity to see early, colonialism-focused works by Wellington artist Barbara Strathdee, writes Pat Baskett. ...
Italy's Ambassador to New Zealand Fabrizio Marcelli responds to Newsroom stories - and The Detail podcasts - questioning the price of imported tinned tomatoes in light of reports of slave labour in the industry in his home country. ...
A measles outbreak in Samoa suspected to be responsible for the death of a one-year-old was “inevitable”, according to an expert who thinks NZ could have prevented it. ...
The big shock of the results in the weekend’s local elections was the unseating of Justin Lester as Wellington mayor. We invited him to pen a sort-of-valedictory.My three years as the mayor of Wellington ended on Sunday and I will forever remain grateful for the experience.I’m also acutely aware of ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Alex Braae reviews a night spent on the Intercity overnight sleeper bus getting from Wellington to Auckland.The most important thing to understand about long haul bus travel is that it’s all about getting exactly ...
Britain and the EU have agreed new terms for divorce. But with the Conservatives’ Northern Irish support party unimpressed, can the British prime minister at last put an end to the interminable shitstorm?At last, a deal! A palpable deal! A path out of the endless brain-melt!“Where there is a will, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Government sources insist shock jock Alan Jones didn’t drive Thursday’s announcement of a cash payment to drought-striken farmers about to be turfed off their household support because they’d reached the four year time limit. They ...
The proposition that global warming driven by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a risk that needs to be dealt with has achieved a large measure of agreement among policymakers. The proposition that it has to be dealt with right now and at great cost has no such consensus.One point ...
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Open mike 08/06/2011 
I find this unbelievable:
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‘
Labour MP for Mangere to table Tax Justice petition before parliament.
As well as calling for the removal of GST off all food. The Tax Justice Petition calls for a Financial Transaction Tax on speculation. Currently the billions made by financiers like John Key and his ‘trader’ mates, goes untaxed. While food is taxed. This is why the campaign is called Tax Justice.
New Zealanders can sign an online version of the Tax Justice petition here
Thank you for bringing this petition to my attention Jenny, I have just signed it and will urge my friends and family to do so as well.
‘
Hi Jilly, You might like this.
Kind regards Jenny
Todays Huffington Post in support of increasing mimimum wages
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/07/minimum-wage-increase-help-economy-experts_n_872617.html
‘
It may be little wonder that even conservative media are considering increasing minimum wages as US workers share of national income has fallen to its lowest point in modern history
Echoing the concerns expressed at the Huffington Post on this level of inequality, David Rosenberg asks, “Is this sustainable?”
Sounds familiar Peter : “…..higher minimum wages flush more money into the economy without cutting into job growth — the latter a long-held contention of business interests and many conservatives.”
Is Christchurch going to come through this ok? Will the people return to at least the same as before and the economy rapidly gain its former capacity?
I don’t know, and there seem to be murmurings along these lines. There still seems to be a steady but low exodus from the city. Hundreds and hundreds of empty houses for rent. Businesses chopped down and evaporating.
Hope these thoughts are in the wrong direction but doubts are creeping in here and there.
Maybe what would help is some large scale demolition. Knock down a couple of the large buildings asap in order to show that progress is happenning.
Then again, only two weeks until the shortest day!
I think that history shows us that there is something akin to the “grieving process” that follows disasters like this.
One of those things that happen is the phase where the problem looks so big and the effort so little that people despair can set in – where you wonder how life can ever be “normal” again.
Human’s are resilient, very adaptive and have the smarts to survive. Human’s have throughout time adapted to changes in their physical environment and rebuilt that which has been destroyed.
Christchurch has taken a hit and, like the aftershocks, there is more to come as people adjust to the new realities (i.e. the need to relocate, the need to start a new business and or close an old one, dealing with the loss of investment etc).
When we build a life for ourselves we do so over time. Buy a car, lay down a lawn, build a house, get a job, move house, fix the plumbing, get the kids into a school.
But with an earthquake, not only is what you have built up over time destroyed or changed in a short time, you have to rebuild any number of things in a short time. Then you have to adapt to changes in the city – cafes you went to aren’t there anymore, the route you take to work doesn’t exist anymore, your morning walk no longer has the trees you loved.
All in all that is a HUGE number of stressors in with a short time in which to adapt.
Things will be “normal” again for Christchurch. Not “the same” but normal.
I feel (as much as I am able:-) ) for the burden that Chch people have to carry.
Having said all that, (and as an aside) the Christchurch earthquake was an obvious change that needs to be adapted to and humans will adapt.
It’s the slow stuff that worries me. The insidious creep of climate change may blind us to the urgent need to adapt.
Hi VTO,
I think that William Joyce has it right. Grieving is what you may have to do for all that is lost. I have gone through major changes forced on me by outside forces and while I tried to hold on to all that was familiar to me I found I could not move on until I acknowledged and grieved for all that I lost and I lost all.
It has taken me years and I still grief of and on but it gets easier in time and you and Christchurch will rebuild. It’s human nature.
Kind regards
Ev
I lived in Christchurch for 10 years when it was still beautiful. Went back after 22Feb; it’s a wreck, it will never be the same. I came up to Auckland for work just before all the quakes began and I’m sorry to say I have no desire to go back.. too depressing and messed up 🙁
Well I read a report the other day saying that Christchurch has had a total of 21 new housing consents since Sept last year, for replacing earthquake damaged housing.
At this pitiful run rate, they’ll still be fixing up houses from the recent Christchurch earthquake damage in the 24th/25th century.
Insurance companies are being slow to pay out, they are waiting for engineers to figure out how to stabilise the ground under those damaged properties, seems like a catch-22
While our bankster elite (both John and Don are after all finance boys firmly connected to the financial Wall street elite and the neocon boys through friendships and business relationships with Armitage, Geitner and Milton Friedman to name a few) advance the agenda of the international banksters here is a video of family members of some of those who died on the day it all began; 9/11 2001.
They still have questions and so do 1500+ architects and engineers.
And why did people bet on the airplane companies to loose value in the week of 911. Oh and on Merrill Lynch too?
These ads are shown all over the US and with the UK marines of the coast of Yemen and 2000 US marines ready to invade Libya and New Zealand under attack from the Neocons scheisters who started it all I feel it is important to keep reminding people that this is not going away.
For more background information on the coordinated financial attack all the countries in the European/US region of influence (New Zealand amongst them) are currently suffering and the ongoing implementation of the NeoCon agenda in the middle East read up on it here.
There are still hundreds of questions not answered about the events that opened the door to all these developments and we will not stop until the family members, architects and engineers have those answers.
Surprising in the educated bloggers here that a number use loose instead of lose. I get the right meaning from the context, but why the mistake? I have seen it on Jackal’s posts and others too.
Try thinking of loose change in the pocket, though you can lose that. I think I need a better example.
Lost loose losers losing loose change usually means loose lost brains losing looseness. Lost?.
vto Now that’s education for you – Anne Tolley look and marvel.
It is the damn spell checkers. I notice it myself (and not just on the iPad). I check for spelling errors by looking at the spelling error highlights. If a word is spelt correctly but is the wrong variant then I don’t see it.
The classic examples in these pages is ‘you’ when people mean ‘your’. It shows up in posts and comments everywhere.
The converse is also true. I’m just itching to change ‘spelt’ because it shows as an error because of the idiot dictionary on this system.
Now, now, stop blaming the machinery 😛
I once chugged out an entire 12k word assignment that used, in every instance (which is quite often in an assignment on party leadership changes), “lead” instead of “led” because it was a bit rushed and I was reading it in my head to sound like “head” not “heed”. Interesting that my brain was full of the base metal I was spelling 🙂
I don’t like the USA bias which means a word with s is often underlined because it should be z. Myself I like to keep z as a rare letter for when I play scrabble for high stakes. Other USAisms intrude too but I find spell checker helpful, it does pick up the errors which occur more often since the last upgrade of the Opera browser when the font for the standard decreased straining my eyesight, and some of my keys are so worn that the wrong alpha gets up. Machinery!
Exactly! I use Open Orifice and make certain it’s set to UK English (as NZ English isn’t an option weirdly..) When I use Word (only occasionally), it defaults back to US English, and quite insanely, many language schools offer only US English on their computers – I say insanely because many students I’ve had, have come to NZ because they want to avoid learning US dialect…
That reminds me of a story I heard years ago from a woman working as a temp dicta-typist, who got into a power of trouble for typing “The morning Jew lay gently on the grass”… 😀
Spelt as in the grain? Try meaning ‘fora’ (plural of forums in Microsoft Word. It simply won’t allow it, which caused trouble in an essay I was writing for linguistics in 2003)
vicky 32 That sentence obviously should have been “The mourning Jew lay gently on the grass…” 😯
That’s poetry vto.
Smarmy Peter Dunne. On Morning Report about 1080 with his own particular brand of common sense. Which is to heap an attitude of nonsense on anything that he doesn’t agree with. And the report saying that more 1080 is needed, and that the use of it has been refined so that it achieves its goals with minimum downside, he can’t agree with. Because he has become spokesperson for the huntin, shootin community. That is the constituency he has adopted, and vice versa, and he needs some group to back his Greta Garbo party (she was known for a comment that she ‘Wanted to be alone’). His ‘ commonsense’ approach is to point out the failure of 1080 so far to completely solve the problem of defoliating and predating furry critters, possums, rats etc etc which breed like billyoh out in the back country. Trappers should be used providing employment, but the wild areas of NZ are extremely hard to work in, and that method is impossibly expensive for government.
He was arguing against two women, one from Forest and Bird which he tried to portray as soft-headed greenies, and (thanks google) Dr Jan Wright [who]was sworn in as Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment for a five-year term on 5 March 2007. Jan has a multidisciplinary background … He called their argument emotional during his forthright emotional rant and brought up various nice ideas such as trappers and possum fur providing jobs (impossible as the large number of possums required for a viable business would increase their numbers and stymie the drive to urgently decrease their destructive reign.)
He thinks the environment should be sacrificed so that jobs can be created, he can get the hunting votes, and he can stay in parliament to dole out his common sense. And the hunters say they care for the environment and want to protect it. They care about their own interests, the ease of finding targets, and their hunting dogs which can fall prey to 1080 as they range around. But one dog can kill 200 kiwi in a short time. So the hunters as a group have members who are destroying protected wild life themselves. And the environmental lobby fears that all kiwi will vanish with this sort of predation and other problems, in a few decades.
“Because he has become spokesperson for the huntin, shootin community.”
They were nearly a political Party weren’t they Prism, but became instead a lobby group funneled through Mr Dunne. Funny therefore that Mr Dunne should blast a scientific report? No?
The discussion on 9 to noon about 9:30 ish ended with an American damning the use of aerial dropping of 1080. He said NZ was the only country who used this method, and therefore it must be wrong! Really?
He did say that there should be a research project set up. That would be good.
1 third with no action.
1 third aerial drop.
1 third bait station.
His rant about making a fur trapping business for export growth was clearly him just mouthing the right words.
If industrial-scale fur trapping were a viable business, it would already exist. The 1080 coverage is said to be a very very small percentage of all DOC lands, so there’s nothing stopping him from setting up a fur business dealing to possums in the rest of the country. I would suggest (don’t know, but I’m assuming) that the DOC areas with 1080 aerial drops are in the parts of the country where other methods of control aren’t feasible anyway.
lanthanide That’s what I have heard. That 1080 is essential for the most inacessible areas.
I have some insider knowledge of 1080 drops, their impressive results (possums and also rats and stoats as a bonus), the way they are carefully GPS mapped so they avoid farms and waterways (unlike the bad old days when the pellets were dropped anywhere), and the various bullshit stories and even dangerous sabotage attempts coming from the hunting and/or DOC hating community. The Commissioner is completely bang on with her report, there is no other working alternative. Certainly not bloody trapping. Its a shame the government isn’t interested in slinging more money at the programme so they can cover more ground. Idiots like Dunne and those Graf brothers make me bloody furious.
Recent murmurings from the forgotten coast confirm that for sheep the price per kilo of wool is a handful of dollars, whereas for possum fur it is now one hundred and thirty dollars.
I have not read the report yet but everything in the media today lacks any actual facts and instead is a variation of “I have read the research and concluded that my view is right.” There have been no facts presented as part of the report release today. Subtle. Prove me wrong before this gets completely out of hand. Which it will in a localised way.
Of course, there is a relative cost in getting that kilo of possum fur vs a kilo of wool.
Getting out at night shooting the buggers, plucking them the moment they die (best time to pluck them and that about 22 X. That is a lot of hard work for a measly $130 and whether they are a pest or not it’s still a big mammal you have to kill and they are hard to kill. Not fun.
Yes the land comes free for a start
Lol.
Now all we need are possum shepherds who can individually muster dozens at the time. To heck with 1080, bring back The Dog Show.
And now the news: the sheep dog trials ended in a ruckus when all four were found guilty. Baaaaaad dog! (that one was probably ancient when the Two Ronnies did it).
Hee hee. But it’s viable. A series of traplines checked once every day or two should, in a well populated area, realise a few dozen possums. 15 possums for a kilo of fur. They are quite easy to kill – hold them upside down by the tail and a quick chop to the back of the arching neck. 5 minutes to de-fur when fresh, 15 when not so. Move the traplines steadily back to the next ridge / valley / river and chomp through larger areas. It is entirely feasible. People already do it. Subsidies to the extent of 1080 cost may well be enough to break the back of trapping excuses.
As for 1080, when will we learn? 245t anyone? Or how about asbestos? Formaldehyde? The “authorities” claimed each and every one of these killers was ok too. Pardon me if I am not a believer.
Add vioxx and synthetic red food colouring to the list. Mobile phone radiation too…
the point is though that it’s not the high income yields for investment in work that you suggest – for the industry to be sustainably if womone worked 8 hours a day on traplines they’d have to get ($130/night*5nights = $650/w) a permanantly sustainable catch rate of 15 possums a night. Not including skinning or treating costs.
And we want skilled workers (even if trappers) to get more than that, as well as the possum industry to be unsustainable, i.e. possum eradication (not farming on DoC reserves).
ianmac Yes Dunne was for more research. Yet he wasn’t interested in the facts presently gathered. I think some of these guys use the idea of research as a delaying tactic so they don’t have to be seen doing something that will aggravate some possible voters. Talk, do nothing and the spotlight will turn away to some other problem.
For sure more research would be good, if government can prise money out of the wealthy’s pockets where they put those tax cuts. Um, sorry, we were a bit out on our budgets for the country and shouldn’t have cut the tax rate like that. We’re sure you’ll understand that we now need it back!
I think bait stations are used where possible aren’t they. Would half and half with 1080 for active depopulation of pests be the right proportion of intervention? I think they should use what they have to in as careful a way as possible. (One email to the station commented on the unlikelihood of Peter Dunne having done the bait station thing, getting out into the wild countryside, crawling through wet grass. You would have to go and put the trap in, bait it, back to check it, then rebait or dispose of the dead animal safely. Then repeat…for quite a while.)
Had to put this tweet up:
by @paulwaite
oh I like that
The King of Destiny Church
http://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2011/06/king-of-destiny-church.html
A few years ago, a couple of Density Church members came to my house and asked for money. They appeared to be hyped on some sort of drug or perhaps that was just religious fervour. I engaged in conversation with them for a while but ultimately told them I had nothing to give, which wasn’t far from the truth. Once I had made it clear that I wasn’t going to part with any folding, they skedaddled leaving the gate open on the way out. I thought this rather rude as I had sheep that could’ve escape onto the road. Luckily I noticed, as there are large fines for wandering stock these days.
Breaking news on Stuff: “Darren Hughes will not be charged – police.”
What now for Darren Hughes?
Will he make a return to politics?
Can he do this at the next election?
I could have predicted that one. I heard somebody mention he might be going to work for the UN. I’m not holding my breath in expectation of all his detractors to apologize for their accusations now that he’s been exonerated.
He hasn’t been exonerated (which has a quite explicit meaning and would have required him to stand trial to achieve).
He has not been charged because the evidence did not stack up to something that could be taken to court under a criminal charge. In other words the police did not think that they had even the moderate chance of winning the case.
It could be that he didn’t do whatever the allegation was, or that the alleged activity was not illegal, or that there was insufficient evidence. Unfortunately that is about all that Darren Hughes would or could get publically from the police will be the yes/no about if they are charging him.
I was meaning the word exonerated in the public and not legal sense. Perhaps vindicated would have been more appropriate. Whatever the case, it seems that the damage has been done and not only to his career. It will be a cold day in hell before Phil Goff gets an apology for the almost two weeks of media beat up we were all subjected to.
I believe speculating further when the police have found there is no case to answer would be inappropriate.
I don’t know. The trouble is, it only clears Hughes of criminal charges, but the police won’t go into details. So it means we don’t know if there was anethical or moral breach:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5116263/No-charges-against-former-Labour-MP-Darren-Hughes
Well if there is no charge he’s innocent in my mind. He should be reinstated and there should be a public apology. The red necked Tory dirty trick brigade have come unstuck . I bet Crosby Textor are furious and licking their wounds.
They should now be exposed, and those responsible should be named .
Bomber Declares War on the Jackal
Yesterday, Martyn Bradbury AKA Bomber declared war on the Jackal for debating issues raised in an article written for Tumeke entitled “Why I can’t vote Green this election.” His blog was inspired by an announcement concerning the political position of the Green Party. The implications of declaring WAR are far ranging as can be seen in the National Government’s “War on Beneficiaries,” which proposes the forced sterilization of Woman on the DPB in some kind of Nazi inspired Eugenics Program…
Here we go again.
National are really starting to get their ducks in a row, but using the usual vague dissembling language they are becoming known for. Just a “a couple of initiatives around industrial relations, but what those are it’s too early for us to tell,” ‘Too early to tell’ but apparently early enough to give the teaser to RNZ (at least) about bargaining agents.
Talk about a forked tongue. I keep waiting for the metaphorical young boy in the media to shout “the emperor has no clothes”.
National knows it’s exact plan. Too early to tell really means that they haven’t softened up the populace enough to accept their radical, right-wing plans that give more power and our wealth to the capitalists yet.
Dont worry, guys and gals, the union movement and the Labour party will stop John Key and his minions dead in their tracks with a series of strongly worded press releases and a tacky website or two.
This is the link I meant to include above.
Hero of the Week Award – Peter Dunne
Yes! You heard right! Peter Dunne is our first Hero of the Week Award winner. I know we give Dunne a bit of stick… I mean who could go past the Bouffant or planking incident without throwing in a few jibes. For now, let’s put that aside. Let’s also out aside the fact that he’s a right-wing politician that’s been supporting the corrupt National Party in their campaign against society. The Jackal believes in the benefits of giving credit where credit is due, so good on ya mate!
Worth a look
http://www.dailymotion.com/user/OneWorldTV/subscriptions/2011-06-08/1:1?mode=playlist&from=email_subscriptiondigestusers&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=SubscriptionDigestUsers&utm_campaign=Alert-SubscriptionDigestUsers#videoId=xj5okw
This compelling tour of developing countries on the front line of climate
change shows the impacts they are experiencing today.Community organisers,
government ministers, development workers and aid donors speak out. A
special CDKN collaboration with OneWorld films.http://www.oneworldgroup.org
I use Clearnet for my e-mail. To reduce spam and phishing, all customers have been sent a letter which in part says:
“Consequently, from 11 July 2011 you will no longer be able to send Clearnet email if you are connected from an overseas location and using email software such as Outlook, Microsoft Mail, Apple Mail etc”
Does this mean that usual e-mail traffic to/from friends overseas will be blocked? Will enquire further tomorrow.
Confusing terminology but what it means is that, if you’re overseas, you won’t be able to send email from a local (on the PC) email client. At a guess I’d say that you’ll still be able to use their web based mail client to send email.
I was out earlier this evening and recorded Back Benchers – have just watched it. I was left absolutely gobsmacked by Hillary Calvert’s antics – sheesh, words fail me. Between her and the MP for New Plymouth – go Andrew Little!! I was also delighted to see Clare Curran in her Highlander’s rugby shirt, after being turfed out of Parliament on Tuesday. It reminded me of a friend who was denied entry into a well known night club in Auckland in the 1960s [can’t recall the name] because he didn’t wear a tie. My friend immediately went outside, divested himself of his shirt, found a tie and went back inside – he was allowed in!!