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.
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HealthNZ yesterday “dropped” 454 pages of documents relating to its financial performance over the last 18 months. The documents confirm that it has a massive structural deficit, which, without savings, is expected to be $1.4 billion annually beyond the current financial year. But the papers also suggest that Health NZ ...
Hi,It’s been awhile since we’ve done an AMA on Webworm — so let’s do it. Over the next 48 hours, I’ll be milling around in the comments answering any questions you might have. Leave a commentI genuinely look forward to these things as I love the Webworm community so much ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkMuch of my immediate family lives in Asheville and Black Mountain, NC. While everyone is thankfully safe, this disaster struck much closer to home for me than most. There is lots that needs to be done for disaster relief, and I’d encourage folks ...
The past couple of days, an online furore has blown up regarding commentator/scholar Corey Olsen and his claim that there is no Tolkienian canon. The sort of people who delight in getting outraged over such things have been piling onto Olsen, and often doing it in a matter that is ...
Perhaps when the archaeologists come picking their way through the ruins of a civilisation that was so fond of its fossil fuel comforts it wasn't prepared to give up any of them, they will find these two artefacts. Read more ...
Here in Aotearoa, our right-wing, ATLAS-network-backed government is rolling back climate policy and plotting to raise emissions to allow the fossil fuel industry a few more years of profit. And in Canada, their right-wing, ATLAS-network-backed opposition is campaigning on doing the same thing: Mass hunger and malnutrition. A looming ...
UPDATED:August 2024The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi (NZCTU) notes with extreme concern the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as the continued encroachment of illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories. The NZCTU is extremely concerned that there is increasing risk of a broader regional ...
I’m just a bottom feederScum of the earthAnd I’m cursedWith the burden of empathyMy fellow humans matter to meBottom Feeder - Written, Performed and Recorded by Tane Cotton.Bottom Feeder or Fluffernutter, which one are you? Or, more to the point, which do you identify as? It’s not simply a measure ...
Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says he anticipates an increase in people “coming into the Corrections system”. The Corrections Department has applied for fast tracking so it will be able to add more beds at Mt Eden Prison when needed. Photo: Getty ImagesKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six ...
Remember when a guy walked into a mosque and shot everyone inside? He killed 44 people. And he then drove to a second mosque and shot and killed 7 more. He was on his way to a third mosque in Ashburton when he was stopped and arrested by the New ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler On Bluesky, it was pointed out that Asheville, NC was recently listed as a place to go to avoid the climate crisis. link Mother Nature sent a “letter to the editor” indicating that she didn’t agree: ...
On the weekend, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop admitted that not everyone will “like” his fast track wish-list, before adding: “We are a government that does not shy away from those tough decisions.” Hmm. IMO, there’s nothing “tough” about a government using its numbers in Parliament to bulldoze aside the public’s ...
First they came for Newshub, and I said nothing because I didn’t watch TV3. Then they came for One News, and I said nothing because I didn’t pay much attention to them either. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out because all the ...
Something I especially like about you all, you loyal and much-appreciated readers of More Than A Feilding, is that you are so very widely experienced and knowledgeable. Not just saying that. You really are.So I'm mindful as I write today that at least one of you has been captain of an ...
On Friday, Luxon and Reti were at Ormiston Private Hospital to talk up the benefits of private money in public health. [And defend Casey Costello - that’s a given for now by our National Party Ministers - including the medical doctor Shane Reti.]Luxon and Reti said we were going to ...
Hi,If you are unfortunate like me, you will have seen this image over the weekend.Donald Trump returned to the site of his near-assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania — except this time he brought Elon Musk with him. It’s difficult to keep up with Trump’s brain, but he seems to have dropped ...
Last week finally saw the first major release of detailed data from last year’s Census. There are a huge number of stories to be told from this data. Over the next few weeks we’ll be illuminating a few of them – starting today with an initial look at how New ...
The Government finance hand brake that stalled construction momentum in early 2024 remains firmly on. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, October 7:Infrastructure and Housing Minister Chris Bishop ...
Change is coming to America. Next month’s elections are likely to pave the way for an overhaul of US foreign policy– regardless of whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the presidency. Decisions made in Washington will also have a direct impact on Wellington. While the Biden administration started its ...
Those business leaders who were calling last week for some indication of an economic plan from the Government got their answer yesterday. In what amounted to the first substantial pointer to the future rather than the past from a Government Minister, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop set out the reasons for ...
A listing of 30 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, September 29, 2024 thru Sat, October 5, 2024. Story of the week We're all made of standard human fabric so it's nobody's particular fault but while "other" parts of the world ...
The National Government has sneakily reneged on protecting the Hauraki Gulf, reducing the protected area of the marine park and inviting commercial fishing in the depleted seascape. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the Government’s response to the report into the North Island weather events but urges it to push forward with legislative change this term. ...
The Green Party echoes a call for banks to divest from entities linked to Israel’s illegal settlements in Palestine, and says Crown Financial Institutions should follow suit. ...
Te Whatu Ora’s finances have deteriorated under the National Government, turning a surplus into a deficit, and breaking promises made to New Zealanders to pay for it. ...
The Prime Minister’s decision to back his firearms minister on gun law changes despite multiple warnings shows his political judgement has failed him yet again. ...
Yesterday the government announced the list of 149 projects selected for fast-tracking across Aotearoa. Trans-Tasman Resources’ plan to mine the seabed off the coast of Taranaki was one of these projects. “We are disgusted but not surprised with the government’s decision to fast-track the decimation of our seabed,” said Te ...
At Labour’s insistence, Te Whatu Ora financial documents have been released by the Health Select Committee today showing more cuts are on the way for our health system. ...
Fresh questions have been raised about the conduct of the Firearms Minister after revelations she misled New Zealanders about her role in stopping gun reforms prior to the mosque shootings. ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford still can’t confirm when the Government will deliver the $2 billion worth school upgrades she cut earlier this year. ...
Labour acknowledges the hundreds of workers today losing their jobs as the Winstone Pulp mill closes and what it will mean for their families and community. ...
In Budget '24, the National Government put aside $216 million to pay for a tax cut which mainly benefitted one company: global tobacco giant Philip Morris. Instead of giving hundreds of millions to big tobacco, National could have spent the money sensibly, on New Zealand. ...
Te Whatu Ora’s financials from the last year show the Government has manufactured a financial crisis to justify making cuts that are already affecting patient care. ...
Over 41,000 Palestinian’s have been murdered by Israel in the last 12 months. At the same time, Israel have launched attacks against at least four other countries in the Middle East including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. “You cannot play the aggressor and the victim at the same time,” said ...
Associate health minister Casey Costello has made a fool of the Prime Minister, because the product she’s been fighting to get a tax cut for and he’s been backing her on is now illegal – and he doesn’t seem to know it. ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee’s inquiry into climate adaptation is something that must be built on for an enduring framework to manage climate risk. ...
The Government is taking tertiary education down a worrying path with new reporting finding that fourteen of the country’s sixteen polytechnics couldn’t survive on their own,” Labour’s tertiary education spokesperson Dr Deborah Russell says. ...
Today the government announced a $30m cut to Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori- a programme that develops te reo Māori among our kaiako. “This announcement is just the latest in an onslaught of attacks on te iwi Māori,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi. ...
The Government has shown its true intentions for the public service and economy – it’s not to get more public servants back to the office, it’s more job losses. ...
The National Government is hiding the gaps in the health workforce from New Zealanders, by not producing a full workforce plan nearly a year into their tenure. ...
Today, the Crown Mineral Amendment Bill was read for the first time, reversing the ban on oil exploration off the coast of Taranaki. It was no accident that this proposed law change was read directly after the Government started to unravel the ability of iwi and hapū Māori to have ...
Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Justice, Tākuta Ferris, has hit out at the Government, demanding the Crown prove its rights to the foreshore, following the Marine and Coastal Area Amendment Bill, passing its first reading. "Māori rights to the foreshore pre-exist the Declaration of Independence, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and ...
The one-stop-shop Fast-track Approvals Bill, and the 149 projects listed in the Bill, will help rebuild our struggling economy and kick-start economic growth across the country, Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop says. “Since 2022, New Zealand has battled anaemic levels of economic growth. If we want Kiwi kids to stop ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today announced the appointment of Sir Brian Roche as the next Public Service Commissioner. “I am delighted to appoint Sir Brian to this crucial leadership position,” Mr Luxon says. “Sir Brian is a highly respected New Zealander who has held significant roles across the public and ...
Forestry Minister Todd McClay today announced the establishment of a Forestry Sector Reference Group to drive better outcomes from the Forestry Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Registry. “We are committed to working with the forestry sector to provide greater transparency and engagement on the forestry ETS registry as we work to ...
New Zealand’s fuel resilience is being strengthened to ensure people and goods keep moving and connected to the world in case of disruptions, Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones says. “Fuel security is a priority for the Coalition Government. We are acutely aware of how important engine fuels are to our ...
The Government will reform New Zealand’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system to provide significant regulatory relief for businesses, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee says. “Cabinet has approved an AML/CFT reform work programme which will ensure streamlined, workable, and effective regulations for businesses, law enforcement, and ...
Significant reforms are underway in the building and construction portfolio to help enable more affordable homes and a stronger economy, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “If we want to grow the economy, lift incomes, create jobs and build more affordable, quality homes we need a construction sector that ...
Minister Responsible for the GCSB and Minister of Defence Judith Collins will travel to Singapore and Brussels for Singapore International Cyber Week and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defence Ministers’ Meeting. New Zealand has been invited to attend the NATO meeting alongside representatives from the European Union and the ...
Toitū ngā pōito o te kupenga a Toitehuatahi! A Government commitment to restoring the health and mauri of the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana will enhance the area for generations to come, Minister of Conservation Tama Potaka says. Cabinet recently agreed to pass the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill into law, ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour says the Government has committed to action on overseas investment, where the country’s policy settings are the worst in the developed world and holding back wage growth. “Cabinet has agreed to the principles for reforming our overseas investment law. At the core of these principles ...
The annual East Asia Summit (EAS) held in Laos this week underscored the critical role that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plays in ensuring a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. "My first participation in an EAS has been a valuable opportunity to engage ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says the feedback from the health and safety roadshow will help shape the future of health and safety in New Zealand and grow the economy. “New Zealand’s poorly performing health and safety system could be costing this country billions,” says Ms van ...
The Government has released the independent Advisory Group’s report on the 384 projects which applied to be listed in the Fast-track Approvals Bill, and further detail about the careful management of Ministers’ conflicts of interest, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop says. Independent Advisory Group Report The full report has now been ...
The Government Policy Statement (GPS) on electricity clearly sets out the Government’s role in delivering affordable and secure electricity at internationally competitive prices, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand’s economic growth and prosperity relies on Kiwi households and businesses having access to affordable and secure electricity at internationally competitive prices. ...
The Government has broadly accepted the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care whilst continuing to consider and respond to its recommendations. “It is clear the Crown utterly failed thousands of brave New Zealanders. As a society and as the State we should have done better. ...
The brakes have been put on contractor and consultant spending and growth in the public service workforce, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “Workforce data released today shows spending on contractors and consultants fell by $274 million, or 13 per cent, across the public sector in the year to June 30. ...
The Crown accounts for the 2023/24 year underscore the need for the Government’s ongoing efforts to restore discipline to public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Financial Statements of the Government for the year ended 30 June 2024 were released today. They show net core Crown net debt at ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will chair negotiations on carbon markets at this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) alongside Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and Environment, Grace Fu. “Climate change is a global challenge, and it’s important for countries to be enabled to work together and support each other ...
A new confirmation of payments system in the banking sector will make it safer for Kiwis making bank transactions, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “In my open letter to the banks in February, I outlined several of my expectations of the sector, including the introduction of a ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour is pleased to see Pharmac continue to increase availability of medicines for Kiwis with the Government’s largest ever investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the Government,” says Mr Seymour. “When our ...
The Government has released its long-term vision to strengthen New Zealand’s disaster resilience and emergency management, Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced today. “It’s clear from the North Island Severe Weather Events (NISWE) Inquiry, that our emergency management system was not fit-for-purpose,” Mr Mitchell says. “We’ve seen first-hand ...
Today’s cut in the Official Cash Rate (OCR) to 4.75 per cent is welcome news for families and businesses, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “Lower interest rates will provide much-needed relief for households and businesses, allowing families to keep more of their hard-earned money and increasing the opportunities for businesses ...
Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop has asked Sport NZ to review and update its Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport. “The Guiding Principles, published in 2022, were intended to be a helpful guide for sporting bodies grappling with a tricky issue. They are intended ...
The Coalition Government is restoring confidence to the rural sector by pausing the rollout of freshwater farm plans while changes are made to ensure the system is affordable and more practical for farmers and growers, Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “Freshwater farm plans ...
The latest report from the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) and Stats NZ, Our air 2024, reveals that overall air quality in New Zealand is improving, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Statistics Minister Andrew Bayly say. “Air pollution levels have decreased in many parts of the country. New Zealand is ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts has announced the appointment of Stuart Horne as New Zealand’s Climate Change Ambassador. “I am pleased to welcome someone of Stuart’s calibre to this important role, given his expertise in foreign policy, trade, and economics, along with strong business connections,” Mr Watts says. “Stuart’s understanding ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti and Associate Health Minister Casey Costello have announced a pilot to increase childhood immunisations, by training the Whānau Āwhina Plunket workforce as vaccinators in locations where vaccine coverage is particularly low. The Government is investing up to $1 million for Health New Zealand to partner ...
The Government is looking at strengthening requirements for building professionals, including penalties, to ensure Kiwis have confidence in their biggest asset, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says “The Government is taking decisive action to make building easier and more affordable. If we want to tackle our chronic undersupply of houses ...
The Government is taking further action to tackle the unacceptable wait times facing people trying to sit their driver licence test by temporarily extending the amount of time people can drive on overseas licences from 12 months to 18 months, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The previous government removed fees for ...
The Government has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring New Zealand is a safe and secure place to do business with the launch of new cyber security resources, Small Business and Manufacturing Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Cyber security is crucial for businesses, but it’s often discounted for more immediate business concerns. ...
Investment in Apprenticeship Boost will prioritise critical industries and targeted occupations that are essential to addressing New Zealand’s skills shortages and rebuilding the economy, Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston say. “By focusing Apprenticeship Boost on first-year apprentices in targeted occupations, ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has announced a funding boost for Palmerston North ED to reduce wait times and improve patient safety and care, as well as new national standards for moving acute patients through hospitals. “Wait times in emergency departments have deteriorated over the past six years and Palmerston ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has announced a funding boost for Palmerston North ED to reduce wait times and improve patient safety and care, as well as new national standards for moving acute patients through hospitals. “Wait times in emergency departments have deteriorated over the past six years and Palmerston ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia! If it’s good for the people, get on with it! A $35 million Government investment will enable the delivery of 100 affordable rental homes in partnership with Waikato-Tainui, Associate Minister of Housing Tama Potaka says. Investment for the partnership, signed and announced today ...
This week’s inaugural Ethnic Xchange Symposium will explore the role that ethnic communities and businesses can play in rebuilding New Zealand’s economy, Ethnic Communities Minister Melissa Lee says. “One of my top priorities as Minister is unlocking the economic potential of New Zealand’s ethnic businesses,” says Ms Lee. “Ethnic communities ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters are renewing New Zealand’s calls for restraint and de-escalation, on the first anniversary of the 7 October terrorist attacks on Israel. “New Zealand was horrified by the monstrous actions of Hamas against Israel a year ago today,” Mr Luxon says. ...
Kia uru kahikatea te tū. Projects referred for Fast-Track approval will help supercharge the Māori economy and realise the huge potential of Iwi and Māori assets, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka says. Following robust and independent review, the Government has today announced 149 projects that have significant regional or national ...
The Fast-track Approvals Bill will list 22 renewable electricity projects with a combined capacity of 3 Gigawatts, which will help secure a clean, reliable and affordable supply of electricity across New Zealand, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Government has a goal of doubling New Zealand’s renewable electricity generation. The 22 ...
The Government has enabled fast-track consenting for 29 critical road, rail, and port projects across New Zealand to deliver these priority projects faster and boost economic growth, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “New Zealand has an infrastructure deficit, and our Government is working to fix it. Delivering the transport infrastructure Kiwis ...
The 149 projects released today for inclusion in the Government’s one-stop-shop Fast Track Approvals Bill will help rebuild the economy and fix our housing crisis, improve energy security, and address our infrastructure deficit, Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop says. “The 149 projects selected by the Government have significant regional or ...
A new multi-purpose recreation centre will provide a valuable wellbeing hub for residents and visitors to Ruakākā in Northland, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. The Ruakākā Recreation Centre, officially opened today, includes separate areas for a gymnasium, a community health space and meeting rooms made possible with support of ...
It follows the navy saying they are committed to supporting the ship's removal, and the prime minister saying it's up to the insurers and the navy to work out. ...
“You can do this mate!” | Watch the full series: http://thespinoff.co.nz/videos/home-education 🌲Rachel never thought she’d be homeschooling ever in her entire life, but Felix was having trouble finding a school that fit him. Now, he’s making friends at Forest School, and growing his confidence at improv theatre classes. Still, Rachel ...
Over 10,000 school students in New Zealand learn outside of school, but that doesn’t mean they’re always learning at home. The Spinoff Cover Story is our premier long-form feature offering, made with the generous support of our members. Read our other cover stories here. On a ridge near Mount Eden, a ...
How a debate about asset sales became a fascinating real-time case study in co-governance and what it means to uphold te Tiriti o Waitangi. Windbag is The Spinoff’s Wellington issues column, written by Wellington editor Joel MacManus. It’s made possible thanks to the support of The Spinoff Members. Last week, ...
Not all cricketers get to contest one, never mind two major finals during their playing days. Rachel Candy once managed two in consecutive days, and that would end up drawing a line under that part of her life.It was February 2017, and the Canterbury Magicians had succeeded in getting the ...
Analysis: Most readers will be familiar now with RNA thanks to the development of the Covid vaccine, with the two scientists whose research into RNA enabled the vaccine’s development winning the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine in 2023. Readers would be forgiven for missing the fact that research into ...
Crown cover-up? A five-part Newsroom series looks at the political and legal strategy the Crown used for decades to marginalise and defeat claims from victims of state abuse and torture. Part 1 – When the state turned on its victimsPart 2 – Legal trickery Part 3 – Full disclosure ...
My fascination with graffiti has been with me from an early age. When I first encountered it, the words literally being applied to landscape had a brutal honesty to them; an honesty that spoke in loud fluorescent capitals and swore like a bastard. At its worst graffiti is a futile ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 15 October appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Conservation minister Tama Potaka is playing down last-minute changes to a Bill that would see 19 areas of Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf protected.The “protected” areas won’t be protected from the ring nets of commercial fishers.That’s produced a chorus of outrage from most of the many groups that have spent a decade ...
Home Education follows the everyday lives of six families in Aotearoa educating their children at home. Meet Felix, who didn’t fit in at school, but is making friends elsewhere.Home Education is filmed across Aotearoa, in and around the homes of six families who have taken schooling outside ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Wille, Senior research fellow, The University of Melbourne The Australian government has committed A$95 million to fight a virulent strain of bird flu wreaking havoc globally. With the arrival of millions of migratory birds this spring, there is an increased ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lizzy Lowe, Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow in Ecology and Entomology, Edith Cowan University If you notice a tiny, strikingly coloured spider performing an elaborate courtship dance, you may have seen your first peacock spider. New species of peacock spider are discovered ...
The coalition would return to government, but both Christophers - Luxon and Hipkins - have lost popularity, according to the latest 1News-Verian poll. ...
The coalition would return to government, but both Christophers - Luxon and Hipkins - have lost popularity, according to the latest 1News-Verian poll. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Powles, Associate Professor of Law and Technology; Director, UWA Tech & Policy Lab, Law School, The University of Western Australia Since 2019, the Australian Department for Industry, Science and Resources has been striving to make the nation a leader in “safe ...
A View from Afar – In this episode of A View From Afar political scientist Paul Buchanan and host Selwyn Manning analyse how the state of Israel has gone rogue, attacking United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. At this juncture it is clear this is an intentional attack. ...
Exclusive: New leadership hires at the Human Rights Commission were contrary to recommendations made by the independent panel tasked with leading the process, documents released under the Official Information Act reveal.On a quiet Friday afternoon in August, justice minister Paul Goldsmith announced the appointment of three leadership roles at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Eldridge, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, Swinburne University of Technology Dmitrii Pridannikov/Shutterstock Heat can do amazing things to change your hairstyle. Whether you’re using a curling wand to get ringlets, a flat iron to straighten or a hair dryer to style, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Lecturer In Nutrition & Dietetics, University of the Sunshine Coast Queensland Premier Steven Miles has announced free school lunches if Labor is re-elected at the state’s upcoming election on October 26. The A$1.4 billion policy would cover primary students ...
By New Zealand Parliament failing to adequately address political corruption, Parliament fails to ensure a culture of integrity is led from the top. Human rights will always be better protected in countries that can demonstrate political integrity and transparency. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kellie Toohey, Associate Professor Clinical Exercise Physiology, Southern Cross University Ivan Samkov/Pexels When you think of lung cancer treatment, what comes to mind – chemotherapy, radiation, surgery? While these can be crucial, there’s another powerful tool that’s often overlooked: exercise. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University Installation view of OA_RR, 2016-2017 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia Photo Kate Shanasy Is Reko Rennie Australia’s equivalent of Keith Haring? Both Rennie, a Melbourne-based Aboriginal artist who celebrates ...
Alex Casey returns to a New Zealand classic on its 30th birthday. Just yesterday I walked a track through Christchurch’s Victoria Park and boy was it pleasant. The sunlight beamed through the canopy of trees, providing welcome warm zones in the cool forest air. Everyone grinned goofily as they passed ...
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.