well – to be totally honest – there was a couple of years of “unproductive borrowing”
plus that was when the interest on them was pretty high
factor in a gap between the first and second batches of study (pre and post grad stuff) where i was earning 8 5ths of bugger all (plus a false start at the beginning before any of that) and “presto chango” – big debt
my advice to your 18 year old would be
do it once, do it right and stick at it. Its all the bad planning and false starts that gets you
Yeah, the biggest killer for lots of people with student loans is that they screw around, fail courses, waste time etc, or take a gap year, or simply drop out of university because it’s not the right course for them (should’ve gone to polytech and gotten a trade qualification).
Doing degrees in non-commercial studies doesn’t help either.
A student loan gets written off when you die. Those who can, should pay their loans off. Those who can’t because of low wages etc shouldn’t.
National’s idea of chasing people in other countries who do not pay their student loans will end up costing New Zealand much more than is retrieved. It’s more stupid Right wing legislation that will not work.
A Ministry of Education report said only $6.4 billion of the $13.9 billion borrowed since students started getting loans in 1992 has been paid back. Student loan debt is growing by around $1 billion annually.
“National’s idea of chasing people in other countries who do not pay their student loans will end up costing New Zealand much more than is retrieved. It’s more stupid Right wing legislation that will not work.”
So far the recovery rate has been something like $3-4 for every dollar spent. Pretty good rate of return, especially when compared to Roads of Notional Significance.
So far the recovery rate has been something like $3-4 for every dollar spent. Pretty good rate of return, especially when compared to Roads of Notional Significance.
I bet that doesn’t take into account the bonus of confirming to our talented young grads around the world that New Zealand is run by tossers happy to chase them down across seven seas for loan money.
While at the same time giving tax payer funds away to rorting farmers, bankrupt finance companies and under insured insurers?
Yeah, the biggest killer for lots of people with student loans is that they screw around, fail courses, waste time etc, or take a gap year, or simply drop out of university because it’s not the right course for them
Part of the problem is that many 18 year-olds have no idea about what will suit them – they know in theory what they want to do, but that doesn’t always work for them when the reality arrives, or they don’t know how to prioritise learning over the distractions. Loans are a huge penalty for taking a longer time than to mature a bit.
Congratulations! My daughter is a month away from paying hers off – 13 years. Apart from one year out to have a child she’s been working full-time since she qualified. She didn’t mess around, got a trade qualification and is earning reasonable money now. She’d be paying it forever if the interest was not removed.
Media academic Donald Matheson calls The Standard a victim of ‘the trend to squash opposing views’ and a ‘major offender’
The poor wee fella must have become a bit timid and debate shy having been couped up in academia. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10737026
(it’s the last item at bottom of Drinnans page)
He should go and hang out at kiwiblog, which he appears to rate (enough said)
The left-wing blog The Standard, used for strategic public relations by the Labour Party, was a major offender and a victim of the trend to squash opposing views.
More than a few who’ve tried opposing views are likely to agree with that.
And on Kiwiblog:
Rather than tolerance, debates are often about “having a go” at people who do not follow the correct ideological line.
Matheson mentioned the right-of-centre Kiwiblog, which he said dominated blogland due to its hit rate.
Hard to disagree with that either, although “having a go” there tends to be more of a free-for-all rather than from one party view.
Ummmph. There are some (a minority) of the authors here that have affiliations to Labour (myself included). The majority do not. I’d say that many of the authors seem more grumpy with Labour than anything else when they mention them. Mostly they focus on National.
I don’t take orders or even suggestions from Labour, and I don’t see any of the others doing so either. Even Ben seems to write whatever he is interested in from his perspective – and he is the Labour candidate in the North Shore electorate.
At a rough guess I’d say that Donald Matheson regards agreeing with Labour as being controlled by them – which is a common level of stupidity that I have been seeing from academics recently. And he is both severely mistaken and a total dickhead for thinking I moderate to squash opposing views. Which I guess is what he is talking about.
If I want to really want to squash opposing views, then I will comment rather than moderate, and tear into the persons views. I moderate to get rid of objectionable behavior that makes the site comments boring to read.
And SS, in case you hadn’t noticed – most of the discussion you get in here will be from people who have not any particular known “party view”. But I guess you probably mean that there are considerable numbers of people from the left commenting here, many of the people from the right turn out to be inadequate at putting up decent arguments against them, and as far as I can tell have a real problem distinguishing between the many viewpoints across the left. They seem to lump them as “Labor” which is about as stupid as I’d expect from a supporter of the right.
I think number of posts is more pertinent than number of authors.
I’m quite aware of varying views across the left, and also across the centre and across the right.
What often happens here (and also in reverse on Kiwiblog, I’ve been attacked much more for much longer there than here) is that if people assume you’re one of “the right” they attack you regardless of where in the spectrum you’re trying to debate. Personality blogging often prevails.
If you think I’m a supporter of the right, I won’t say stupid as I don’t know why you keep suggesting it, I’ll just say you’ve got it wrong or you know you’re wrong and say it anyway.
I’ve always been curious to know why this blog can be so unwelcoming if the perception is one isn’t the right sort of left, or centre. No matter how distant the Labour association is here I guarantee it adversely affects Labour support levels.
Polite would prevail in an ideal world, however we do not have an ideal world, though we may strive towards it, in the meantime I suggest you get some nuts.
“What often happens here (and also in reverse on Kiwiblog, I’ve been attacked much more for much longer there than here) is that if people assume you’re one of “the right” they attack you regardless of where in the spectrum you’re trying to debate. Personality blogging often prevails.”
This happens pretty much wherever you go, in whatever forum. People read your posts, decide what pigeon hole you fit in and then start arguing against the general views they ascribe to that pigeon hole rather than specifically what you said.
I’m often quite pedantic on here, and sometimes espouse views that many here would consider centre-right. Other long-time contributors probably “get” this, but on one occasion a newcomer saw one of my rightish comments and attacked me for being a right-wing nutjob.
Similarly at primary school, I was the smartest in the class and always well-behaved. We had a substitute teacher once that for some reason thought I was a troublemaker and came down on me hard for things other kids in the same room got away with. She simply assumed I was a troublemaker after first impressions and so treated me like one.
I’m often quite pedantic on here, and sometimes espouse views that many here would consider centre-right. Other long-time contributors probably “get” this, but on one occasion a newcomer saw one of my rightish comments and attacked me for being a right-wing nutjob.
Similarly at primary school, I was the smartest in the class and always well-behaved.
It’s probably me you’re thinking of Lanth, and you must admit that you are significantly right-of-centre… Oh, and this is me being poncy, but do you mean you were ‘one of the best dressed’ at primary school, or one of the cleverest? In my day kids who were said to be ‘smart’ were being told they were cheeky beggars! (That, and elegantly dressed) are the two meanings of smart in New Zealand… ) Smart has only meant clever for as long as ‘bathroom’ has meant toilet – i.e., since about 2005! It’s very ambiguous. If all of middle and upper NZ has decided to speak American, I seriously wish they’d tell the rest of us, so we don’t end up too confused! (We’re stupid, we bennies, after all!) 😀
No matter how distant the Labour association is here I guarantee it adversely affects Labour support levels.
So? They’re a big party, they can start their own blog – and in fact that is exactly what they have at Red Alert.
I have no idea if you are supporting the right or not, and neither do I care. Similarly I don’t particularly care about the perceptions of ‘Labour’ from this site. It isn’t run by or for Labour.
What I care about is this site. In particular what I perceive as attacks on it by people attempting to meme it – which is what I perceive you as trying to do. I do tend to associate that particular attack as being a right-wing meme because the people of the left have usually had some experience with trying to get Labour to do things that are new in the political space..
Quite simply trying to say that it is run by Labour is offensive as hell to me and the authors. It is a denigration of the resources, time and effort by myself and the other authors and moderators have put into making this site as successful as it is. That has been done without support from any political party (except for an annoying accident for a few weeks). Most of the time it done despite the political parties and we get quite a lot of back end moaning from various parts of Labour.
But basically we’ve had a gutsfull of the “Labour blog” meme over the years. I personally have zero tolerance for it. If you use it, then you can expect to get removed from my site and sight.
Quite simply if you sound like a someone trying a series of well known memes from 2008’ish you’ll get responses from commentators, moderators, and me that reflect our experience of those memes. They may still sound fresh to you, but the world moves on and you’ll find that they sound tired and desperate to us. Learn to argue.
I think number of posts is more pertinent than number of authors.
Same thing applies. Right now we have more posts from authors who support Labour than I think that we have ever had over the last month or so. But a large part of that was because Marty G bowed out from writing earlier this year. He wasn’t exactly the greatest advocate for the Labour party and stated that quite clearly in his final post as well as many others. He did 922 posts that made up the bulk of the posts over last year.
Anthony/r0b, Mike, and Ben have stepped up their posts which means for probably the first time there are more posts written by actual Labour supporters than not. Eddie seems to lean to Labour as well. I quite like it – but then I’m a Labour supporter.
It also doesn’t really affect the mix. The constraint on political views is on who has time to and who is motivated to write. Other authors with posting records like Irish, Zet or The Sprout will get more time to write. One of the authors with just a few posts will get motivated. Or we will finally get around to getting some of the guest posters logins.
There have been been times when this site looks like a convention of Greens – even from authors who’d normally support Labour. Some times when it has looked like a revivalist meeting for New Labour. It really just depends on who has time to write posts. Right now, I think that it also depends on when I have time to fix the Contribute Post pages.
“And he is both severely mistaken and a total dickhead for thinking I moderate to squash opposing views. Which I guess is what he is talking about.”
I think he’s talking about the echo-chamber effect and commentators dogpiling up against others (even if they deserve it, like big bruv), not specifically the moderating behaviour. Probably his point is that the moderating style allows this to happen, which personally I don’t have a problem (which is why I’m here).
Matheson mentioned the right-of-centre Kiwiblog, which he said dominated blogland due to its hit rate.
I haven’t seen any statistics in recent years – it is possible that other blogs are in fact more popular than Kiwiblog now. Are blog statistics available?
Here are the rankings of New Zealand blogs with publicly available statistics for June 2011. These rely on blogs having sitemeters which allow public access to the stats. There are now over 250 blogs on the list.
The blogs are listed in the table below, together with monthly visits and page view numbers for June, 2011.
[lprent: A better page is this one at Open Parachute where you can see all of the stats that have been collected over the last couple of years. Our first full month was May – the month that required me to add a new server… I was pretty glad to see the mid winter slump finally starting ]
I was talking to Chris last night at Bryce Edwards lecture and showing him that. We’ll see what can be done. I’ll also ask Brian Edwards if he’d like a hand.
Ummm. jarbury should be able to to that OK at ATB. Russell will know how to do it.
But it really isn’t that hard to setup at least not for sites that don’t quite have our volumes. At present there are several analytics, a neilson, and now a sitemeter on this site. One GA is for us, and the sitemeter was stuck in for Open Parachute.
Scanning Open Parachute for June 2011 I note that both Kiwiblog and The Standard have about the same Page Views/Month yet The Standard has 100,000 less hits – approx 150,000 to Kiwiblog 250,000. So it seems that visitors read The Standard blog widely compared to Sound Bite Charlies tossing graffiti at Kiwiblog. Does that sound prejudiced! I bet it’s the case though.
Intermittent Signal Jully ’11 – A move from thinking smart business leaders. Pick up the interview from Radio NZ 9to Noon this morning. Is NZ at risk of squandering its Pure Advantage?
Rob Morrison is the chair of the newly-formed Pure Advantage group of business leaders, who include Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall and Air NZ CEO Rob Fyfe. (27′55″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
More on google under nz pure advantage – one excerpt –
Pure Advantage, a group made up of business leaders urging New Zealand to embrace green technology and join the ‘green growth’ industry, was launched …
They are working on a parallel, but in touch with nz group –
(on google) 1 Feb 2011 – The eight-strong Advisory Group will be chaired by Business New Zealand Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly and includes entrepreneur Melissa … This is – the Government’s advisory group on green growth.
There is money in being green, frogs can turn into princes (or princesses). These pure advantage business people are alert to the fact that we are rated 15 in the world by some Yale survey for good ecology and they say, reasonably, that as the only country in the world that has as its main selling slogan that it is 100% Pure, then 15th doesn’t cut it. And there are ways that we can create new business and utilise our present knowledge in using efficient ecological systems and also work on developing new ideas both for us and places like China which has money available for R&D in green matters.
Yesterday, it took GeoNet over two hours before they even registered a 7.6 Magnitude earthquake on their website. The powerful earthquake hit off the Kermadec Islands at 7.03am NZT at a depth of 48.5km.
A tsunami warning system for New Zealand would incorporate Geonet’s infrastructure, so it’s not weird at all to infer that they’re the authority to implement one.
Geonet tracks earthquakes. They don’t track tsunamis.
It took over two hours for them to even register the 7.6 M earthquake on their website. If you think that’s acceptable, you’re a fruit loop!
The pacific ocean tsunami monitoring centre in Hawaii tracks tsunamis. They had a warning out 11 minutes after the quake.
It took as little as 5 minutes for some of the tsunami to hit Japan. Without a proper warning system in New Zealand, Hawaii’s information is relatively irrelevant. The top speed of a tsunami over the open ocean is about 800 kilometers per hour. A large earthquake many kilometres away can generate significant tsunami, even when it’s hardly felt in New Zealand. A closer large earthquake that generates a tsunami when there are no proper warning systems in place in most areas will be catastrophic!
I’m not sure why listing a distance earthquake which is going to result in no shaking damage in NZ on the Geonet site is important?
Listing a large earthquake on GeoNet in an acceptable time frame is important when that quake might generate a tsunami. The point is that it took over two hours for them to register the quake. There is no proper tsunami warning system in place for New Zealand especially if a quake is close to shore. An early warning system could save lives. If you don’t think that’s important, then pray tell us why?
For earthquakes that are far away, when a tsunami takes an hour+ to reach here, it will be monitored and reported by the station in Hawaii. And then distributed by the TV and radio as appropriate.
For earthquakes that are much closer, putting an update on the geonet website isn’t going to save anyone and again the information (if there is any) will be coming from radio and TV.
No one in any scenario is going to be expecting tsunami information to be posted to the geonet website. The radio and TV stations get information directly from civil defence.
I’m unsure why you’ve failed to understand my argument? New Zealand needs a tsunami early warning system… full stop.
When there is an earthquake, finding out how big it was and where it was located is required to know if there is a tsunami danger. If the data is not available, Civil Defense cannot act appropriately. GeoNet has obviously not replaced it’s earthquake location system with SeisComP3 or any other relevant system so the problem remains. Saying you’ll do something and actually doing it are two entirely different things.
Your argument amounts to: “New Zealand doesn’t have any tsunami warning system for earthquakes within 800 km and here’s an excuse for why GeoNet doesn’t provide information.”
It’s pathetic Lanthanide, you’re making a fool of yourself.
You have to love Cactus Kate for her severely misanthropic viewpoints. Her latest is a classic look at the right wing mind…..
(CGT)…It will be the first time in three years that Labour have set the policy agenda.
They are commencing a mainstream class warfare. A war between those who for years have profited from buying and selling property, and those who have always aspired to but now are discouraged to do so. A war between those New Zealanders working hard to better themselves in the higher tax brackets and those who dont wish to contribute positively and seek to vote themselves an income when they don’t deserve the vote because they are net beneficiaries.
Kate shows her advanced vision of the democratic principle by implying if you are on the wrong side of the wealth ledger you should not get the vote. Ayn would definitely approve, the poor are bludgers who deserve nothing from those who got rich at their expense. especially not a vote.
That’s strange, I just went and checked the poll again 8:40 PM after voting a little while ago and the results now show:
No
50%, 1270 Votes
Yes
51%, 1321 Votes
Total of 2591 votes.
However the No was at the top of the question but it has now been changed to the Yes question at the top. The poll has clearly been altered after the results weren’t going National’s way. Fraudulent bastards!
The new Rainbow Warrior ship was floated last Monday. It’s the first time that Greenpeace has a purpose built ship which is environmental in design, set for sailing and perfect for the purpose of spreading the message of sustainability and peace to the world.
I’ve just set up a media news monitor, mainly to keep track of the stories I read. Check it out.
“Bureaucrats throw ze weight around and zumetimes refuze to grant ze consentz on flimsy excuses. Ze RMA rules that require consultation with ze Maori, must be eradicated. Zat iz why we must have ze first past ze post system, or we will become overrun with ze underclasses who ve pay to breed.” said Don Brash at a recent vote for change rally.
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew DesslerAs readers of this Substack will know, I've been increasingly concerned about the destruction of one of America’s greatest competitive advantages: our university research system. Recently, the Trump administration announced that they were going to cut university overhead rates to ...
Indonesia’s low-key rejection of reported Russian interest in military basing in Papua says more than it appears to. While Jakarta’s response was measured, it was deliberate—a calculated expression of Indonesia’s foreign policy doctrine of non-alignment, ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI released Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report developed for the next government and to promote public debate and understanding ...
On 27 January 1973, the conflict in Vietnam was brought to an end with the formal signing in Paris of the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring the Peace in Vietnam by four parties: ...
Back in 2018, Aotearoa was in the midst of the Operation Burnham inquiry. During this, it emerged that key evidence was subject to a US veto under an obscure and secret treaty. Part of the Five Eyes arrangement, this treaty was referred to by a number of different names in ...
I hate to sound the alarm, but New Zealand’s economy is teetering on the edge, and Finance Minister Nicola Willis is wielding her austerity axe with a reckless abandon that could plunge us into a prolonged recession. The 2025 Budget, with its brutal $1.1 billion reduction in baseline spending, is ...
I hate to sound the alarm, but New Zealand’s economy is teetering on the edge, and Finance Minister Nicola Willis is wielding her austerity axe with a reckless abandon that could plunge us into a prolonged recession. The 2025 Budget, with its brutal $1.1 billion reduction in baseline spending, is ...
Crime Pays for the PoliticiansThis morning, Paul Goldsmith, the Minister who wants Te Reo Maori scrubbed, announced that prisoners who are serving terms of less than 3 years be barred from voting. From left, Police Minister Mark Mitchell, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith & Mental Health Minister Matt DooceyNZ’s Electoral Review ...
Well, I can't see and I can't hearThey've burnt out all the feelingsAnd I never been so crazy, and it's just my second yearFour walls, wash basinFour walls, wash basinFour walls, wash basin, prison bedSongwriter: Don Walker.The coalition parties are mulling the austerity budget they will soon put to the ...
First, hats off to Tory Whanau. Her decision to bow out and run for the Māori ward instead, putting the city’s future above her personal ambition, is commendable. Facing a torrent of personal abuse and a council mired in chaos, she still delivered on water investment, cycleways, and housing reforms. ...
Trump Kills A Sure-ThingIn Canada, the Conservatives fell from a 21 point lead a few months ago to a decisive loss yesterday. The Canadian Liberals are ~ 2 to 3 seats short of a majority, which means PM Mark Carney but will still need to work through opposition parties ...
Australia’s cost-of-living election has a khaki tinge and an uneasy international tone. You know defence is having an impact when a political party promises to raise taxes to buy more military kit, and makes defence ...
The Waitākere Ranges, a stunning natural taonga west of Auckland, are at the heart of a brewing controversy that’s exposing the ugly underbelly of New Zealand’s political discourse. A proposed deed of acknowledgement, grounded in the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act 2008, aims to establish a joint decision-making committee with ...
I spoke last night with Simplicity Chief Economist and Head of Policy about the Government's latest budget policy tightening, the risks for infrastructure investment and a potential dampening of GDP growth.He points out that the Government has cut capital expenditure so far in the current financial year, rather than ...
The Ukrainian air force went to war against invading Russian forces in February 2022 with just 125 combat aircraft concentrated at around a dozen large bases. Given Russia’s overwhelming deep-strike advantage—hundreds of deployed warplanes and ...
Briefly this morning: Nicola Willis rules out charities tax or any tax hike to reduce budget deficit. She’s focused instead on spending cuts. There are 1,000 at-risk kids without a social worker, NZ Herald reports.Housing shortages are a factor in high-risk sex offenders being put out early into uncontrolled community ...
Truly, these are tough times for our nation’s leaders. In future, how on earth are they going to find the sort of money they’ve been happy to throw at landlords, tobacco companies, and wealthier New Zealanders ever since they got elected? On Defence, how are they going to find those ...
A couple of months ago now I wrote a post about the new set of discount rates government agencies are supposed to use in undertaking cost-benefit analysis, whether for new spending projects or for regulatory initiatives. The new, radically altered, framework had come into effect from 1 October last year, ...
Huawei dominates Indonesia’s telecommunication network infrastructure. It won over Indonesia mainly through cost competitiveness and by generating favour through capacity-building programs and strategic relationships with the government, and telecommunication operators. But Huawei’s dominance poses risks. ...
Democracy and the liberal tradition have long been seen as among the most basic tenets of the American way of life. They are also the main reason the West has for the past 80 years ...
Nicola Willis continues to compare the economy to a household needing to tighten its belt to survive. Photo: Getty Images The key long stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, April 29 are: Nicola Willis today announced a cut in the Government’s new spending ...
The Herald had another announcement today about a new solar farm being officially opened - this time the 63MW Lauriston solar farm in Canterbury. It is of course briefly "NZ’s biggest solar farm", but it will soon be overtaken by Kōwhai park at Christchurch airport (168MW) and Tauhei (202MW), both ...
I woke this morning to the shock news that Tory Whanau was no longer contesting the Wellington mayoralty, having stepped aside to leave the field clear for Andrew Little. Its like a perverse reversal of Little's 2017 decision to step aside for Jacinda - the stale, pale past rudely shoving ...
In a pre-Budget speech this morning the Minister of Finance announced that this year’s operating allowance – the net amount available for new initiatives – was being reduced from $2.4 billion to $1.3 billion (speech here, RNZ story here). Operating allowance numbers in isolation don’t mean a great deal (what ...
Of the two things in life that are certain, defence and national security concern themselves with death but need to pay more attention to taxes. Australia’s national security, defence and domestic policy obligations all need ...
The Coalition of Chaos is at it again with another half-baked underwhelming scheme that smells suspiciously like a rerun of New Zealand’s infamous leaky homes disaster. Their latest brainwave? Letting tradies self-certify their own work on so-called low-risk residential builds. Sounds like a great way to cut red tape to ...
Perfect by natureIcons of self indulgenceJust what we all needMore lies about a world thatNever was and never will beHave you no shame don't you see meYou know you've got everybody fooledSongwriters: Amy Lee / Ben Moody / David Hodges.“Vote National”, they said. The economic managers par excellence who will ...
The Australian Defence Force isn’t doing enough to adopt cheap drones. It needs to be training with these tools today, at every echelon, which it cannot do if it continues to drag its feet. Cheap drones ...
Hi,Just over a year ago — in March of 2024 — I got an email from Jake. He had a story he wanted to tell, and he wanted to find a way to tell it that could help others. A warning, of sorts. And so over the last year, as ...
Back in the dark days of the pandemic, when the world was locked down and businesses were gasping for air, Labour’s quick thinking and economic management kept New Zealand afloat. Under Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson, the Wage Subsidy Scheme saved 1.7 million jobs, pumping billions into businesses to stop ...
When I was fifteen I discovered the joy of a free bar. All you had to do was say Bacardi and Coke, thanks to the guy in the white shirt and bow tie. I watched my cousin, all private school confidence, get the drinks in, and followed his lead. Another, ...
The Financial Times reported last week that China’s coast guard has declared China’s sovereignty over Sandy Cay, posting pictures of personnel holding a Chinese flag on a strip of sand. The landing apparently took place ...
You might not know this, but New Zealand’s at the bottom of the global league table for electric vehicle (EV) chargers, and the National government’s policies are ensuring we stay there, choking the life out of our clean energy transition.According to the International Energy Agency’s 2024 Global EV Outlook, we’ve ...
We need more than two Australians who are well-known in Washington. We do have two who are remarkably well-known, but they alone aren’t enough in a political scene that’s increasingly influenced by personal connections and ...
When National embarked on slash and burn cuts to the public service, Prime Minister Chris Luxon was clear that he expected frontline services to be protected. He lied: The government has scrapped part of a work programme designed to prevent people ending up in emergency housing because the social ...
When the Emissions Trading Scheme was originally introduced, way back in 2008, it included a generous transitional subsidy scheme, which saw "trade exposed" polluters given free carbon credits while they supposedly stopped polluting. That scheme was made more generous and effectively permanent under the Key National government, and while Labour ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
The news of Virginia Giuffre’s untimely death has been a shock, especially for those still seeking justice for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Giuffre, a key figure in exposing Epstein’s depraved network and its ties to powerful figures like Prince Andrew, was reportedly struck by a bus in Australia. She then apparently ...
An official briefing to the Health Minister warns “demand for acute services has outstripped hospital capacity”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāThe key long stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, April 28 are: There’s a nationwide shortage of 500 hospital beds and 200,000 ...
We should have been thinking about the seabed, not so much the cables. When a Chinese research vessel was spotted near Australia’s southern coast in late March, opposition leader Peter Dutton warned the ship was ...
Now that the formalities of saying goodbye to Pope Francis are over, the process of selecting his successor can begin in earnest. Framing the choice in terms of “liberal v conservative” is somewhat misleading, given that all members of the College of Cardinals uphold the core Catholic doctrines – which ...
A listing of 30 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 20, 2025 thru Sat, April 26, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
Let’s rip the shiny plastic wrapping off a festering truth: planned obsolescence is a deliberate scam, and governments worldwide, including New Zealand’s, are complicit in letting tech giants churn out disposable junk. From flimsy smartphones that croak after two years to laptops with glued-in batteries, the tech industry’s business model ...
When I first saw press photos of Mr Whorrall, an America PhD entomology student & researcher who had been living out a dream to finish out his studies in Auckland, my first impression, besides sadness, was how gentle he appeared.Press released the middle photo from Mr Whorrall’s Facebook pageBy all ...
It's definitely not a renters market in New Zealand, as reported by 1 News last night. In fact the housing crisis has metastasised into a full-blown catastrophe in 2025, and the National Party Government’s policies are pouring petrol on the flames. Renters are being crushed under skyrocketing costs, first-time buyers ...
Would I lie to you? (oh yeah)Would I lie to you honey? (oh, no, no no)Now would I say something that wasn't true?I'm asking you sugar, would I lie to you?Writer(s): David Allan Stewart, Annie Lennox.Opinions issue forth from car radios or the daily news…They demand a bluer National, with ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Do the 31,000 signatures of the OISM Petition Project invalidate the scientific consensus on climate change? Climatologists made up only 0.1% of signatories ...
In the 1980s and early 1990s when I wrote about Argentine and South American authoritarianism, I borrowed the phrase “cultura del miedo” (culture of fear) from Juan Corradi, Guillermo O’Donnell, Norberto Lechner and others to characterise the social anomaly that exists in a country ruled by a state terror regime ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
Chris Bishop has unveiled plans for new roads in Tauranga, Auckland and Northland that will cost up to a combined $10 billion. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from Aotearoa political economy around housing, poverty and climate in the week to Saturday, April 26:Chris Bishop ploughed ahead this week with spending ...
Unless you've been living under a rock, you would have noticed that New Zealand’s government, under the guise of economic stewardship, is tightening the screws on its citizens, and using debt as a tool of control. This isn’t just a conspiracy theory whispered in pub corners...it’s backed by hard data ...
The budget runup is far from easy.Budget 2025 day is Thursday 22 May. About a month earlier in a normal year, the macroeconomic forecasts would be completed (the fiscal ones would still be tidying up) and the main policy decisions would have been made (but there would still be a ...
On 25 April 2021, I published an internal all-staff Anzac Day message. I did so as the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for Australia’s civil defence, and its resilience in ...
You’ve likely noticed that the disgraced blogger of Whale Oil Beef Hooked infamy, Cameron Slater, is still slithering around the internet, peddling his bile on a shiny new blogsite calling itself The Good Oil. If you thought bankruptcy, defamation rulings, and a near-fatal health scare would teach this idiot a ...
The Atlas Network, a sprawling web of libertarian think tanks funded by fossil fuel barons and corporate elites, has sunk its claws into New Zealand’s political landscape. At the forefront of this insidious influence is David Seymour, the ACT Party leader, whose ties to Atlas run deep.With the National Party’s ...
Nicola Willis, National’s supposed Finance Minister, has delivered another policy failure with the Family Boost scheme, a childcare rebate that was big on promises but has been very small on delivery. Only 56,000 families have signed up, a far cry from the 130,000 Willis personally championed in National’s campaign. This ...
This article was first published on 7 February 2025. In January, I crossed the milestone of 24 years of service in two militaries—the British and Australian armies. It is fair to say that I am ...
He shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningI will remember him.My mate Keith died yesterday, peacefully in the early hours. My dear friend in Rotorua, whom I’ve been ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on news New Zealand abstained from a vote on a global shipping levy on climate emissions and downgraded the importance ...
Hi,In case you missed it, New Zealand icon Lorde has a new single out. It’s called “What Was That”, and has a very low key music video that was filmed around her impromptu performance in New York’s Washington Square Park. When police shut down the initial popup, one of my ...
A strategy of denial is now the cornerstone concept for Australia’s National Defence Strategy. The term’s use as an overarching guide to defence policy, however, has led to some confusion on what it actually means ...
Photo by Beth Macdonald on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat with myself, and regular guests climate correspondent and on climate ...
The IMF’s twice-yearly World Economic Outlook and Fiscal Monitor publications have come out in the last couple of days. If there is gloom in the GDP numbers (eg this chart for the advanced countries, and we don’t score a lot better on the comparable one for the 2019 to ...
For a while, it looked like the government had unfucked the ETS, at least insofar as unit settings were concerned. They had to be forced into it by a court case, but at least it got done, and when National came to power, it learned the lesson (and then fucked ...
The argument over US officials’ misuse of secure but non-governmental messaging platform Signal falls into two camps. Either it is a gross error that undermines national security, or it is a bit of a blunder ...
Cost of living ~1/3 of Kiwis needed help with food as cost of living pressures continue to increase - turning to friends, family, food banks or Work and Income in the past year, to find food. 40% of Kiwis also said they felt schemes offered little or no benefit, according ...
Hi,Perhaps in 2025 it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the CEO and owner of Voyager Internet — the major sponsor of the New Zealand Media Awards — has taken to sharing a variety of Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories to his 1.2 million followers.This included sharing a post from ...
In the sprint to deepen Australia-India defence cooperation, navy links have shot ahead of ties between the two countries’ air forces and armies. That’s largely a good thing: maritime security is at the heart of ...
'Cause you and me, were meant to be,Walking free, in harmony,One fine day, we'll fly away,Don't you know that Rome wasn't built in a day?Songwriters: Paul David Godfrey / Ross Godfrey / Skye Edwards.I was half expecting to see photos this morning of National Party supporters with wads of cotton ...
Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Broadcasting, Tākuta Ferris, and MP for Tāmaki Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, are demanding the Government significantly increase its investment in Whakaata Māori in Budget 2025. The call comes following the release of the network’s 2025 Social Value Report at an event today, attended by MP ...
The National Party’s announcement to reinstate a total ban on prisoner voting is a shameful step backwards. Denying the right to vote does not strengthen society — it weakens our democracy and breaches Te Tiriti o Waitangi. “Voting is not a privilege to be taken away — it is a ...
Nicola Willis announced that funding for almost every Government department will be frozen in this year’s budget, costing jobs, making access to public services harder, and fuelling an exodus of nurses, teachers, and other public servants. ...
The Government’s Budget looks set to usher in a new age of austerity. This morning, Minister of Finance Nicola Willis said new spending would be limited to $1.4 billion, cut back from the original intended $2.4 billion, which itself was already $100 million below what Treasury said was needed to ...
Right‑wing ministers are waging a campaign to erase Māori health equity by tearing out its very foundations. ACT’s Todd Stephenson dismisses Treaty‑based nursing standards as “off‑track distractions” and insists nurses only need “skill and a kind heart,” despite clear evidence that cultural competence saves lives. Health Minister Simeon Brown’s funding cuts, hiring ...
The Green Party has renewed its call for the Government to ban the use, supply, and manufacture of engineered stone products, as the CTU launches a petition for the implementation of a full ban. ...
Te Pāti Māori are appalled by Cabinet's decision to agree to 15 recommendations to the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector following the regulatory review by the Ministry of Regulation. We emphasise the need to prioritise tamariki Māori in Early Childhood Education, conducted by education experts- not economists. “Our mokopuna deserve ...
The Government must support Northland hapū who have resorted to rakes and buckets to try to control a devastating invasive seaweed that threatens the local economy and environment. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill that would ensure the biological definition of a woman and man are defined in law. “This is not about being anti-anyone or anti-anything. This is about ensuring we as a country focus on the facts of biology and protect the ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ang Li, ARC DECRA and Senior Research Fellow, NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne Across Australia, communities are grappling with climate disasters that are striking more frequently and with ...
Opposition MPs say the government's plan to remove voting rights for prisoners is "ridiculous", but it has been welcomed by the Sensible Sentencing Trust. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Victoria Cornell, Research Fellow, Flinders University shutterstockbeeboys/Shutterstock It would be impossible at this stage in the election campaign to be unaware that housing is a critical, potentially vote-changing, issue. But the suite of policies being proposed by the major parties largely ...
Unless your workplace is already utopia – and we haven’t come across one yet – there is a good reason for all union members to come to this hui. Union members and delegates from many different unions and workplaces have told us why they and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Daria Nipot/Shutterstock Australia’s headline inflation rate held steady at a four-year low of 2.4% in the March quarter, according to official data, adding to the case for ...
Our targets aren’t ambitious enough. Supported by seven independent experts, we’re arguing that the targets are not aligned with what’s required to limit warming to 1.5°C, and the Commission didn’t carry out its analysis in the way the law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Micah Boerma, Researcher, School of Psychology and Wellbeing, University of Southern Queensland Nitinai Thabthong/Shutterstock One of the highlights of the school year is an overnight excursion or school camp. These can happen as early as Year 3. While many ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Edwell, Associate Professor in Ancient History, Macquarie University SvetlanaVV/Shutterstock Something tells me US president Donald Trump would love to be a Roman emperor. The mythology of unrestrained power with sycophants doing his bidding would be seductive. But in fact, ...
It is an unjustifiable limit on the electoral rights of New Zealand citizens that will disproportionately harm Māori, writes law lecturer Carwyn Jones.The government has announced that it intends to resurrect the ill-conceived, Bill of Rights-breaching blanket ban on prisoner voting. This policy was previously implemented by a law ...
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 30, 2025. Locked up for life? Unpacking South Australia’s new child sex crime lawsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Xanthe Mallett, Criminologist, CQUniversity Australia Melnikov Dmitriy/Shutterstock It’s election time, which means the age old ...
“The promise was for this to be revenue neutral, to reduce congestion and improve efficiency. But if the funds can be spent elsewhere, we’ll call it what it is—another tax.” ...
With just a few days to polls-time, Ben McKay joins Toby Manhire to chat about the Albo v Dutto denouement. This Saturday Aussies will (compulsorily) head to the polls. At the start of the year, Labor under Anthony Albanese was staring down the barrel of defeat and the first one-term ...
Palestinians do not have the luxury to allow Western moral panic to have its say or impact. Not caving in to this panic is one small, but important, step in building a global Palestine network that is urgently needed, writes Dr Ilan PappéANALYSIS:By Ilan Pappé Responses in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle Loquellano/Pexels Did you start 2025 with a promise to eat better but didn’t quite get there? Or maybe you want to branch out from making the same meal every week ...
“New Zealand is now running the worst primary deficit of any advanced economy. Net core Crown debt has exploded from $59 billion in 2017 to a projected $192 billion this year.” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert G. Patman, Professor of International Relations, University of Otago GettyImagesGetty Images Is it possible to reconcile increased international support for Ukraine with Donald Trump’s plan to end the war? At their recent meeting in London, Christopher Luxon and his British ...
John Campbell’s new TVNZ+ docuseries is a gripping and unsettling look at how Destiny Church has amassed money and power – and why its growing aggression should alarm us all.As I sat down for dinner with my fiancée last Friday night, we faced the age-old question of deciding what ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Graci Kim, author of new middle grade novel, Dreamslinger.On 7 April Graci Kim announced on her social media channels that she wasn’t going to be touring the ...
Access Community Health support workers will strike from 12-2pm on Thursday, 1 May - International Workers’ Day - the same day as senior doctors and Auckland City Hospital’s perioperative nurses will also walk off the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Monica Gagliano, Research Associate Professor in Evolutionary Biology, Southern Cross University Zenit Arti Audiovisive Earth’s cycles of light and dark profoundly affect billions of organisms. Events such as solar eclipses are known to bring about marked shifts in animals, but do ...
By Reza Azam Greenpeace has condemned an announcement by The Metals Company to submit the first application to commercially mine the seabed. “The first application to commercially mine the seabed will be remembered as an act of total disregard for international law and scientific consensus,” said Greenpeace International senior campaigner ...
No good thing ever lasts and this week, the Samoan call was lost to the corporate world forever. Everybody’s heard a cheehoo before. Certainly if you’ve ever been in the vicinity of two or more Samoans, you’ll have heard one whether you wanted to or not. It soundtracks every sports ...
The largest iwi in Aotearoa has yet to settle its Treaty claim. As debate continues, Pene Dalton makes the case for clarity and courage. And settlement. Ngāpuhi is the largest iwi in Aotearoa, with over 180,000 people connected by whakapapa – and our population is growing. That growth brings pride ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Clune, Honorary Associate, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney While many Australians have already voted at pre-poll stations and by post, the politicking continues right up until May 3. So what’s happened across the country over the past five weeks? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Briony Hill, Deputy Head, Health and Social Care Unit and Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Kate Cashin Photography According to a study from the United States, women experience weight stigma in maternity care at almost every visit. We expect this experience ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magnus Söderberg, Professor & Director, Centre for Applied Energy Economics and Policy Research, Griffith University Christie Cooper/Shutterstock In an otherwise unremarkable election campaign, the major parties are promising sharply different energy blueprints for Australia. Labor is pitching a high-renewables future powered ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paula McDonald, Professor of Work and Organisation, Queensland University of Technology Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock US President Donald Trump declared earlier this year he would forge a “colour blind and merit-based society”. His executive order was part of a broader policy directing the US ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Garrow, Editorial Web Developer This federal election, both major parties have offered a “grab bag” of policy fixes for Australia’s stubborn housing affordability crisis. But there are still two big policy elephants in the room, which neither side wants to touch. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scarlette Nhi Do, Sessional Academic, The University of Melbourne Scene from Apocalypse Now (1979)Prime Video The Vietnam War (1955–1975) was more than just a chapter in the Cold War. For some, it was supposed to achieve Vietnam’s right to self-determination. ...
Analysis - Nothing is certain in politics, and Labor could still lose the election as polls are known to get it wrong in Australia, writes Corin Dann. ...
The associate education minister has appealed for mayors’ support on improving school attendance. But should it really be part of their job, asks Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.Mayors unimpressed by Seymour’s call to arms Associate education ...
The Scientific American Blog Network, more than 30 blogs from different fields of science,
Kiwiblog outage
Kiwiblog will be off air this Sunday between 6 am and midday approx. The sewer it is on is being cleaned and moved.
Cleaned and moved? It will take a lot of cleaning …
Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
+1
-72.3
So you would never venture there then? Not to throw crap like this anyway.
Just remember to clean your system of the bogs crap!
The DF’s Kiwibog – Foaming Nappy Shit since 2003
Has Whale got the necessary permits for dumping waste, or is it just going to sort of over flo.
Paid off my student loan!
Congratulations! And apologies from my generation to yours that you ever had to take one. Education should be free.
$1000 p.a. tertiary fees is reasonable.
You can earn that with a summer holiday job and still have beer money.
me too!
(and im pushing 40 – thats how long its taken)
That’s scary, I have an 18 year old heading off to Uni next year!
well – to be totally honest – there was a couple of years of “unproductive borrowing”
plus that was when the interest on them was pretty high
factor in a gap between the first and second batches of study (pre and post grad stuff) where i was earning 8 5ths of bugger all (plus a false start at the beginning before any of that) and “presto chango” – big debt
my advice to your 18 year old would be
do it once, do it right and stick at it. Its all the bad planning and false starts that gets you
Yeah, the biggest killer for lots of people with student loans is that they screw around, fail courses, waste time etc, or take a gap year, or simply drop out of university because it’s not the right course for them (should’ve gone to polytech and gotten a trade qualification).
Doing degrees in non-commercial studies doesn’t help either.
I’m going for the record longest time to repay a student loan ………….
(is that morally wrong?? its a bit hard to judge these things when you’re a rwnj)
A student loan gets written off when you die. Those who can, should pay their loans off. Those who can’t because of low wages etc shouldn’t.
National’s idea of chasing people in other countries who do not pay their student loans will end up costing New Zealand much more than is retrieved. It’s more stupid Right wing legislation that will not work.
A Ministry of Education report said only $6.4 billion of the $13.9 billion borrowed since students started getting loans in 1992 has been paid back. Student loan debt is growing by around $1 billion annually.
“National’s idea of chasing people in other countries who do not pay their student loans will end up costing New Zealand much more than is retrieved. It’s more stupid Right wing legislation that will not work.”
So far the recovery rate has been something like $3-4 for every dollar spent. Pretty good rate of return, especially when compared to Roads of Notional Significance.
I bet that doesn’t take into account the bonus of confirming to our talented young grads around the world that New Zealand is run by tossers happy to chase them down across seven seas for loan money.
While at the same time giving tax payer funds away to rorting farmers, bankrupt finance companies and under insured insurers?
Yes, an excellent rate of return for NZ.
Part of the problem is that many 18 year-olds have no idea about what will suit them – they know in theory what they want to do, but that doesn’t always work for them when the reality arrives, or they don’t know how to prioritise learning over the distractions. Loans are a huge penalty for taking a longer time than to mature a bit.
Too true! (I made the same mistakes..) Luckily my son didn’t…
Congratulations! My daughter is a month away from paying hers off – 13 years. Apart from one year out to have a child she’s been working full-time since she qualified. She didn’t mess around, got a trade qualification and is earning reasonable money now. She’d be paying it forever if the interest was not removed.
I’m 55 and I still owe 9 grand.
Media academic Donald Matheson calls The Standard a victim of ‘the trend to squash opposing views’ and a ‘major offender’
The poor wee fella must have become a bit timid and debate shy having been couped up in academia.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10737026
(it’s the last item at bottom of Drinnans page)
He should go and hang out at kiwiblog, which he appears to rate (enough said)
Here’s the full comment on The Standard:
More than a few who’ve tried opposing views are likely to agree with that.
And on Kiwiblog:
Hard to disagree with that either, although “having a go” there tends to be more of a free-for-all rather than from one party view.
Ummmph. There are some (a minority) of the authors here that have affiliations to Labour (myself included). The majority do not. I’d say that many of the authors seem more grumpy with Labour than anything else when they mention them. Mostly they focus on National.
I don’t take orders or even suggestions from Labour, and I don’t see any of the others doing so either. Even Ben seems to write whatever he is interested in from his perspective – and he is the Labour candidate in the North Shore electorate.
At a rough guess I’d say that Donald Matheson regards agreeing with Labour as being controlled by them – which is a common level of stupidity that I have been seeing from academics recently. And he is both severely mistaken and a total dickhead for thinking I moderate to squash opposing views. Which I guess is what he is talking about.
If I want to really want to squash opposing views, then I will comment rather than moderate, and tear into the persons views. I moderate to get rid of objectionable behavior that makes the site comments boring to read.
And SS, in case you hadn’t noticed – most of the discussion you get in here will be from people who have not any particular known “party view”. But I guess you probably mean that there are considerable numbers of people from the left commenting here, many of the people from the right turn out to be inadequate at putting up decent arguments against them, and as far as I can tell have a real problem distinguishing between the many viewpoints across the left. They seem to lump them as “Labor” which is about as stupid as I’d expect from a supporter of the right.
I think number of posts is more pertinent than number of authors.
I’m quite aware of varying views across the left, and also across the centre and across the right.
What often happens here (and also in reverse on Kiwiblog, I’ve been attacked much more for much longer there than here) is that if people assume you’re one of “the right” they attack you regardless of where in the spectrum you’re trying to debate. Personality blogging often prevails.
If you think I’m a supporter of the right, I won’t say stupid as I don’t know why you keep suggesting it, I’ll just say you’ve got it wrong or you know you’re wrong and say it anyway.
I’ve always been curious to know why this blog can be so unwelcoming if the perception is one isn’t the right sort of left, or centre. No matter how distant the Labour association is here I guarantee it adversely affects Labour support levels.
Polite would prevail in an ideal world, however we do not have an ideal world, though we may strive towards it, in the meantime I suggest you get some nuts.
“What often happens here (and also in reverse on Kiwiblog, I’ve been attacked much more for much longer there than here) is that if people assume you’re one of “the right” they attack you regardless of where in the spectrum you’re trying to debate. Personality blogging often prevails.”
This happens pretty much wherever you go, in whatever forum. People read your posts, decide what pigeon hole you fit in and then start arguing against the general views they ascribe to that pigeon hole rather than specifically what you said.
I’m often quite pedantic on here, and sometimes espouse views that many here would consider centre-right. Other long-time contributors probably “get” this, but on one occasion a newcomer saw one of my rightish comments and attacked me for being a right-wing nutjob.
Similarly at primary school, I was the smartest in the class and always well-behaved. We had a substitute teacher once that for some reason thought I was a troublemaker and came down on me hard for things other kids in the same room got away with. She simply assumed I was a troublemaker after first impressions and so treated me like one.
It’s probably me you’re thinking of Lanth, and you must admit that you are significantly right-of-centre… Oh, and this is me being poncy, but do you mean you were ‘one of the best dressed’ at primary school, or one of the cleverest? In my day kids who were said to be ‘smart’ were being told they were cheeky beggars! (That, and elegantly dressed) are the two meanings of smart in New Zealand… ) Smart has only meant clever for as long as ‘bathroom’ has meant toilet – i.e., since about 2005! It’s very ambiguous. If all of middle and upper NZ has decided to speak American, I seriously wish they’d tell the rest of us, so we don’t end up too confused! (We’re stupid, we bennies, after all!) 😀
No, I’m not thinking of you at all, and I definitely don’t consider myself right of centre at all.
Nevertheless, you sometimes are! 🙂
No matter how distant the Labour association is here I guarantee it adversely affects Labour support levels.
So? They’re a big party, they can start their own blog – and in fact that is exactly what they have at Red Alert.
I have no idea if you are supporting the right or not, and neither do I care. Similarly I don’t particularly care about the perceptions of ‘Labour’ from this site. It isn’t run by or for Labour.
What I care about is this site. In particular what I perceive as attacks on it by people attempting to meme it – which is what I perceive you as trying to do. I do tend to associate that particular attack as being a right-wing meme because the people of the left have usually had some experience with trying to get Labour to do things that are new in the political space..
Quite simply trying to say that it is run by Labour is offensive as hell to me and the authors. It is a denigration of the resources, time and effort by myself and the other authors and moderators have put into making this site as successful as it is. That has been done without support from any political party (except for an annoying accident for a few weeks). Most of the time it done despite the political parties and we get quite a lot of back end moaning from various parts of Labour.
But basically we’ve had a gutsfull of the “Labour blog” meme over the years. I personally have zero tolerance for it. If you use it, then you can expect to get removed from my site and sight.
Quite simply if you sound like a someone trying a series of well known memes from 2008’ish you’ll get responses from commentators, moderators, and me that reflect our experience of those memes. They may still sound fresh to you, but the world moves on and you’ll find that they sound tired and desperate to us. Learn to argue.
I think number of posts is more pertinent than number of authors.
Same thing applies. Right now we have more posts from authors who support Labour than I think that we have ever had over the last month or so. But a large part of that was because Marty G bowed out from writing earlier this year. He wasn’t exactly the greatest advocate for the Labour party and stated that quite clearly in his final post as well as many others. He did 922 posts that made up the bulk of the posts over last year.
Anthony/r0b, Mike, and Ben have stepped up their posts which means for probably the first time there are more posts written by actual Labour supporters than not. Eddie seems to lean to Labour as well. I quite like it – but then I’m a Labour supporter.
It also doesn’t really affect the mix. The constraint on political views is on who has time to and who is motivated to write. Other authors with posting records like Irish, Zet or The Sprout will get more time to write. One of the authors with just a few posts will get motivated. Or we will finally get around to getting some of the guest posters logins.
There have been been times when this site looks like a convention of Greens – even from authors who’d normally support Labour. Some times when it has looked like a revivalist meeting for New Labour. It really just depends on who has time to write posts. Right now, I think that it also depends on when I have time to fix the Contribute Post pages.
“And he is both severely mistaken and a total dickhead for thinking I moderate to squash opposing views. Which I guess is what he is talking about.”
I think he’s talking about the echo-chamber effect and commentators dogpiling up against others (even if they deserve it, like big bruv), not specifically the moderating behaviour. Probably his point is that the moderating style allows this to happen, which personally I don’t have a problem (which is why I’m here).
Matheson mentioned the right-of-centre Kiwiblog, which he said dominated blogland due to its hit rate.
I haven’t seen any statistics in recent years – it is possible that other blogs are in fact more popular than Kiwiblog now. Are blog statistics available?
June ’11 – NZ blogs sitemeter ranking
[lprent: A better page is this one at Open Parachute where you can see all of the stats that have been collected over the last couple of years. Our first full month was May – the month that required me to add a new server… I was pretty glad to see the mid winter slump finally starting ]
Obviously, Russell Brown’s Public Address and (his bete noire) Chris Trotter’s Bowalley Road aren’t included.
I was talking to Chris last night at Bryce Edwards lecture and showing him that. We’ll see what can be done. I’ll also ask Brian Edwards if he’d like a hand.
Ummm. jarbury should be able to to that OK at ATB. Russell will know how to do it.
But it really isn’t that hard to setup at least not for sites that don’t quite have our volumes. At present there are several analytics, a neilson, and now a sitemeter on this site. One GA is for us, and the sitemeter was stuck in for Open Parachute.
If anyone wants a hand – give me a yell.
Scanning Open Parachute for June 2011 I note that both Kiwiblog and The Standard have about the same Page Views/Month yet The Standard has 100,000 less hits – approx 150,000 to Kiwiblog 250,000. So it seems that visitors read The Standard blog widely compared to Sound Bite Charlies tossing graffiti at Kiwiblog. Does that sound prejudiced! I bet it’s the case though.
He can’t he it’s having it’s sewers flushed.
Intermittent Signal Jully ’11 – A move from thinking smart business leaders. Pick up the interview from Radio NZ 9to Noon this morning.
Is NZ at risk of squandering its Pure Advantage?
Rob Morrison is the chair of the newly-formed Pure Advantage group of business leaders, who include Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall and Air NZ CEO Rob Fyfe. (27′55″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
More on google under nz pure advantage – one excerpt –
Pure Advantage, a group made up of business leaders urging New Zealand to embrace green technology and join the ‘green growth’ industry, was launched …
They are working on a parallel, but in touch with nz group –
(on google) 1 Feb 2011 – The eight-strong Advisory Group will be chaired by Business New Zealand Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly and includes entrepreneur Melissa … This is – the Government’s advisory group on green growth.
There is money in being green, frogs can turn into princes (or princesses). These pure advantage business people are alert to the fact that we are rated 15 in the world by some Yale survey for good ecology and they say, reasonably, that as the only country in the world that has as its main selling slogan that it is 100% Pure, then 15th doesn’t cut it. And there are ways that we can create new business and utilise our present knowledge in using efficient ecological systems and also work on developing new ideas both for us and places like China which has money available for R&D in green matters.
Time for an Early Warning System
Yesterday, it took GeoNet over two hours before they even registered a 7.6 Magnitude earthquake on their website. The powerful earthquake hit off the Kermadec Islands at 7.03am NZT at a depth of 48.5km.
Read about half your post, and it’s very weird.
Geonet tracks earthquakes. They don’t track tsunamis.
The pacific ocean tsunami monitoring centre in Hawaii tracks tsunamis. They had a warning out 11 minutes after the quake.
I’m not sure why listing a distance earthquake which is going to result in no shaking damage in NZ on the Geonet site is important?
Lanthanide says:
A tsunami warning system for New Zealand would incorporate Geonet’s infrastructure, so it’s not weird at all to infer that they’re the authority to implement one.
It took over two hours for them to even register the 7.6 M earthquake on their website. If you think that’s acceptable, you’re a fruit loop!
It took as little as 5 minutes for some of the tsunami to hit Japan. Without a proper warning system in New Zealand, Hawaii’s information is relatively irrelevant. The top speed of a tsunami over the open ocean is about 800 kilometers per hour. A large earthquake many kilometres away can generate significant tsunami, even when it’s hardly felt in New Zealand. A closer large earthquake that generates a tsunami when there are no proper warning systems in place in most areas will be catastrophic!
Listing a large earthquake on GeoNet in an acceptable time frame is important when that quake might generate a tsunami. The point is that it took over two hours for them to register the quake. There is no proper tsunami warning system in place for New Zealand especially if a quake is close to shore. An early warning system could save lives. If you don’t think that’s important, then pray tell us why?
I think you’ve missed the point.
For earthquakes that are far away, when a tsunami takes an hour+ to reach here, it will be monitored and reported by the station in Hawaii. And then distributed by the TV and radio as appropriate.
For earthquakes that are much closer, putting an update on the geonet website isn’t going to save anyone and again the information (if there is any) will be coming from radio and TV.
No one in any scenario is going to be expecting tsunami information to be posted to the geonet website. The radio and TV stations get information directly from civil defence.
For some reason I can’t edit it any more (shouldn’t have timed out yet).
You might also like to read these links:
http://geonet.org.nz/news/archives/2011/locating-earthquakes-being-faster.html
http://geonet.org.nz/news/archives/2011/jun-22-2011-overnight-earthquake-proves-troublesome-to-locate.html
I’m unsure why you’ve failed to understand my argument? New Zealand needs a tsunami early warning system… full stop.
When there is an earthquake, finding out how big it was and where it was located is required to know if there is a tsunami danger. If the data is not available, Civil Defense cannot act appropriately. GeoNet has obviously not replaced it’s earthquake location system with SeisComP3 or any other relevant system so the problem remains. Saying you’ll do something and actually doing it are two entirely different things.
Your argument amounts to: “New Zealand doesn’t have any tsunami warning system for earthquakes within 800 km and here’s an excuse for why GeoNet doesn’t provide information.”
It’s pathetic Lanthanide, you’re making a fool of yourself.
You have to love Cactus Kate for her severely misanthropic viewpoints. Her latest is a classic look at the right wing mind…..
(CGT)…It will be the first time in three years that Labour have set the policy agenda.
They are commencing a mainstream class warfare. A war between those who for years have profited from buying and selling property, and those who have always aspired to but now are discouraged to do so. A war between those New Zealanders working hard to better themselves in the higher tax brackets and those who dont wish to contribute positively and seek to vote themselves an income when they don’t deserve the vote because they are net beneficiaries.
Kate shows her advanced vision of the democratic principle by implying if you are on the wrong side of the wealth ledger you should not get the vote. Ayn would definitely approve, the poor are bludgers who deserve nothing from those who got rich at their expense. especially not a vote.
The most revealing bit is her tax proposals ( http://asianinvasion2006.blogspot.com/2011/01/labours-top-10-tax-policies-of-2011.html ) which provides a great pointer indicating all the areas RWNJs are terrified Labour will go, it is a sort of sign posting of where the money is that we should be taxing. Nice work Kate.
The bottom 95% of income earners and wealth holders in this country aren’t worth knowing anyway.
Poll: Tell Bill English that you like the CGT!
http://www.billenglish.co.nz/
Haha almost 90% are for the tax.
I just went and did that! Yes, the results will cause English some discomfort, I am sure! 🙂
It’s a meaningless yes/no poll, there’s a lot more to CGT than that.
The poll is just another Nat/Lab one up contest that has nothing to do with what’s best.
Really? Gosh. Thanks ever so much.
That’s strange, I just went and checked the poll again 8:40 PM after voting a little while ago and the results now show:
No
50%, 1270 Votes
Yes
51%, 1321 Votes
Total of 2591 votes.
However the No was at the top of the question but it has now been changed to the Yes question at the top. The poll has clearly been altered after the results weren’t going National’s way. Fraudulent bastards!
That doesn’t even compute Jackal! No 50% and Yes 51% doesn’t add up right… I would not put cheating past them..
Go torture Bill English:
http://www.billenglish.co.nz/
Damn, looks like the NATs are almost pulling even on the poll, at long last 😀
And now after he has had a hell of a lot of his supporters voting No.
Its No
43% 1455 votes
Yes
58% 1932 Votes
Got his mum, friends and party faithful trying to skew the numbers against CGT.
Honest Bill should just remove that poll from his website.
He can blame Labour for uploading it.
A New Rainbow Warrior
The new Rainbow Warrior ship was floated last Monday. It’s the first time that Greenpeace has a purpose built ship which is environmental in design, set for sailing and perfect for the purpose of spreading the message of sustainability and peace to the world.
I’ve just set up a media news monitor, mainly to keep track of the stories I read. Check it out.
Friday Fun with Photos #8
“Bureaucrats throw ze weight around and zumetimes refuze to grant ze consentz on flimsy excuses. Ze RMA rules that require consultation with ze Maori, must be eradicated. Zat iz why we must have ze first past ze post system, or we will become overrun with ze underclasses who ve pay to breed.” said Don Brash at a recent vote for change rally.