An fawning interview of Marc Weldon and ensuing article by Matt Nippert.
Noted his comment about ‘wild claims made on left-wing blogs that the axing of Campbell Live was orchestrated by Beehive,’
An obsequious piece of writing.
she has made a living buying other peoples shows and putting nz in the name. our flag will probably be USA flag with nz in tiny letters somewhere. she will get a damehood within 12 months on the basis that her flag work is contribution to the community.
Very disappointing for Matt Nippert. No mention of the fact that a large number of the shows commissioned by TV3 are from Julie Christie’s old company Eyeworks. It was sold to Warner’s but I have yet to see any report that says Julie Christie no longer has any financial interest in that company.
The Auckland mayoralty is shaping up to be a vote splitting lolly scramble if silly old Lenny doesn’t call it a day and ease the way for Phil Goff-Off. Williamson won’t be impressed to hear former Telecom Boss lady Theresa Gattung is being mooted as a real right-wing contender. Of course it could be spin to make Judy’s buddy Maurice Williamson look more appealing. Plenty of voters will remember the dirty tactic’s employed by Gattung to hold a monopoly on telecommunications for Telesuckie.
“* On the need for regulation:
This is pretty much a manufactured grievance. You know that’s the case because the only people marching in the streets about it are our competitors, not customers.”
I marched off and never been back to Telecom/Spark thanks to Ms Gattung. Cunliffe done some good work unbundling the monopoly she held over the market.
Perhaps we should look on the bright side. Theresa set a new bar for honesty and transparency. Let’s have more of Theresa-style corporate truth telling
More MSM talk up articles on Amy Adams and domestic violence. Nacts & DV
What’s the NAct agenda here? Shoring up the female vote? Amy making a run for party leader? Covering other bad news with this campaign? Hiding a Nact party internal problem with DV?
Why isn’t the media asking the hard questions- but Minister your government has-
– removed the Bristol clauses in the DV legislation
– removed reporting of DV assaults from the police statistics
– failed to check if the police are using “police safety orders” (bad name if ever there was one) to minimise arrests and keep law n’ order stats down
-failed to fund legal aid in the family court
-failed to fund rape centres and refuges
-redone child support on flimsy or no evidence and taken money away from the children’s needs
-presided over the roastbusters
– did the malaysian diplomat deal
– not come clean about the why some NAct MP’s have left parliament
-uses WINZ to hound the parent looking after the kids
all of which covers up or ratifies the attitudes associated with the violence.
So Minister, Why are you suddenly broadcasting concern and suddenly think you need to do something? What are your real motives since past performance suggests your lot couldn’t care less.
Or is it that the cost they tout $14B, means Nact would like to remove all this from the public funding and make it how it used to be 66 years ago – something that went on behind closed doors without interference from others
well said…
removed funding of high school programmes for girls that resulted in higher self esteem and reporting of abuse…
womens refuge struggle for funding so relying on gaffe by hells pizza to survive
Thanks Tracey – I was sure I had missed plenty too. MSM just keeps running these articles without a single question – just like they were Amy’s publicity machine. The public deserves a lot more from the MSM.
Nor are comments ever opened so they can say this.
Personally I think they may be trying to move all this out of the public sphere of intervention so they don’t have to spend any state funds on it.
Cue a few underfunded providers who have whole families referred to them but no court or police action possible and ultimately no DPB type welfare – people have to stay in the relationships or starve on the street – more the NAct mindset.
Now imagine what that would look like if they included private debt. And no matter what they include in the visuals none of it is payable which means that the private banks will have an eternity of bludging off of everyone else unless we change the system.
Total money owed is roughly in the region of the world’s total GDP. In other words all money is created as debt and it can never be paid back. The banking cartel own the planet, I wish people would wake up.
Titirangi kauri tree owner kickstarts debate with environmental application.
Yep those incompetent council resources consent officers again, don’t notice the Kauri trees in the first place should be preserved, then grant the application, than back track and the owner verbally agrees to preserve them, only to change their mind and then go to remove the SEA status completely and not only on that property but others the developer owns.
Oh to be a developer in Auckland and buy cheap sites cos they are protected, put in consents to remove the protection led by 70 page proposal that fails to mention the mature Kauris and Rimu’s on the site, and then bobs your uncle the council will of course agree to clear the site, to put in double garaging and a 2 story residence cos too much hassle to build around the trees who they failed to notice in the first place or even understand why they should be preserved.
If anyone notices, agree to preserve them. buy time and then go back to environment court with hanky in hand and a dodgy deal with council who will sign anything to get one of their bad decisions through, crying what a victim they are.
I would like to see more penalty for those that manipulate the reports in the first place and more accountability to council for not noticing these very disturbing occurrences to by pass the district plan often ironically being spear headed by their own officers who seem to want to remove all protection from Auckland so that they have even less to do and more power in the process.
so Lenihan is basically arguing that if the protest hadn’t happened they would have removed the trees despite the SEA status and then because the site was cleared they could apply to have the SEA status removed. This puts him pretty high on the scale of evil developers IMO and he now has zero credibility or trustworthyness.
He also appears to have forgotten that the protest had nationwide support.
+1, it’s as if he’s learnt nothing over the whole debacle too. Maybe he just wants to show that he really is right, but to go through all of this again is either stupidity or pigheadedness.
You might like to read the actual submission #851 which was made in January 2014. Google “Unitary Plan Submissions”. This is a submission to the Unitary Plan – it is being heard by a panel of independent Commissioners. It has hit the news now because the hearings are in progress and this submitter has turnd up to speak to his submission.
It is not – repeat not, a Council officer initiative.
The council appoint the independent commissioners. They council read and review the reports and make a recommendation to the independent commissioners.
The independent commissioners are not independent at all, they are appointed by the council.
The indépendant commissioners practically always follow the recommendations of council.
The environment court practically always follows the submission of the council. The council when it goes to environment court, just appoint expensive lawyers to defend their bad decisions which are paid by the ratepayer.
The environment court seldom decline an application. As an applicant you are virtually guaranteed success as long as you can get the council to ‘support’ it.
Any applicant has an over 99% chance of success, all they have to do is get the council to support an application.
Therefore it puts the council officers in a huge position of power and open to abuse as there is no real independent checks and balances. Often it is hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions of profit for some developer or industry – all in the hands of officers who probably earn $60k.
Can you imagine in a ‘real’ court that convicts 99% of people – it would be called a Kangaroo court.
And that folks is the Council and Environment court process.
So you are saying that developers bribe Council officers to get favourable reports? Seeing that most reasonable sized developments would have several officers – a Development Engineer, a Traffic Engineer, perhaps an Arborist and/or an Ecologist, plus the Planner who puts it all together and makes a recommendation, are you saying they are all bribed? Then there is the Senior Planner who reviews and possibly signs off the report for the Commissioner, or if it is for a hearing, then a more senior Manager reviews and clears the hearing report. They are all bribed too are they? Then the Commissioners – just one if it is a Duty Commissioner, or up to 4 including a Local Board member if it is a hearing. That is a lot of cash to be chucking around.
Do you actually have any proof of this – you know like “evidence”? I am sure Penny Bright would be intrested in evidence – she has been working away full time for the last 7 years to uncover corruption at Council and come up with zip.
This is a good opinion piece on TPPA especially for sending to those who don’t know much about the topic.
Ross Henderson: TPPA deserves a transparent discussion
“You could argue – the Government has argued – that no one’s seen the detail yet and this is all scare-mongering. But why can’t they give us a simple guarantee that they won’t sign up to a deal which increases the cost of healthcare and threatens our power as a nation to make our own laws?”
“But why can’t they give us a simple guarantee that they won’t sign up to a deal which increases the cost of healthcare and threatens our power as a nation to make our own laws?”
hmmm. For a start, I’m not willing to trust this govt on anything they say and do. But more importantly when did the debate shift to, it’s ok to sign if we get these concessions? Isn’t the whole point that it’s a secret agreement and we can’t know what concessions to ask for other than the ones that we know about because of leaks? Shouldn’t we be opposing secret trade agreements on principle?
Why can’t globalisation be done transparently anyway?
Why can’t globalisation be done transparently anyway?
Lack of any effective mechanisms to ensure democratic accountability at a global level is why.
For instance, why is it not the role of the UNDP to broker these trade deals? Why have they been shut out of the process? If you wanted true global trade, what organisation is better placed to regulate it?
While has long been fashionable to sneer at the UN, most of it’s shortcomings have been imposed on it by the dominant big powers determined to prevent it from ever impinging on their nation state sovereignty.
From this perspective it’s fairly plain that these deals like the TPP have much less to do with globalisation and open trade, and much more to do with entrenching corporate advantage.
Sorry, but you’ll never get support from me for a world government. Imagine Key’s lot in charge with legitimacy 🙁 Think global, act local*, we should be devolving. Globalisation is horse shit. My question was a bit rhetorical, designed to point to the Emperor’s new clothes. As you say, globalisation is all about making a few people rich, and is nothing to do with open trade. Transparency would severely impact on their ability to do business. What’s stunning is that so many people are still complacent about it.
*CC, PO and probably the GFCs all suggest we should be trading locally not globally.
That’s pretty much the same logic local warlords would have used against the rise of the nation state; and abandons the global stage to those actors big and powerful enough to act upon it. Big finance, big military and big data.
Imagine Key’s lot in charge with legitimacy
The one thing worse than bad government is no government. Unless you really are an anarchist who doesn’t believe in governance at all. In which case you may have been on the wrong forum all these years. 🙂
Almost all the most intractable challenges humanity faces are global in nature. Their solutions will be too. I personally think some form of global governance is inevitable; the real challenge will be the struggle over who controls it and in whose interests.
Nor is there any reason to argue that global governance means the demise of the devolved local forms either. No more than for instance, the existence of the nation state implies the end of all city council’s.
I don’t agree with that red – the solutions will come locally rather than globally because trying to enact a global solution (if one could even be invented) to each community just is not possible imo.
We are at/near the ‘top’ in terms of globalisation – all downhill from here imo – mainly due to the effects of running out of cheap energy and the extra energy being put into the system as climate warming continues.
I’m aware my view probably is out of synch with most lefties around here .. and by this I’m really not trying to disrespect why most people feel like this.
For so many of us we feel that the governments are bad enough … we can only dread how much more frustrating and difficult a global government might be. I’ve a lot of sympathy with that.
But I do believe that the world entered a permanent new phase when it entered the first round of globalisation, based on coal and steam engines, in the mid-1800’s. We are now close to the end of the second round, that has been based on oil and electronics; and all the upheaval that this ending may imply.
But regardless of how much cheap energy we’ve so profligately wasted – along the way we also gained a whole raft of knowledge, technologies and ways of looking world that will prove durable. Yes the hugely wasteful form of globalisation that is currently on it’s last legs will fail – but this does not preclude a new form arising in it’s place.
For instance, let me imagine a third round of globalisation driven by solar and bio-mimicry. Such a thing might be possible; and with it the still unsolved challenges of just and democratically global governance will still be a live issue.
The further the civilization develops, though, the less it questions the validity of the basic ideas themselves, and the urban environment is a critical factor in making this happen. By limiting, as far as possible, the experiences available to influential members of society to those that fit the established architecture of thought, urban living makes it much easier to confuse mental models with the universe those models claim to describe, and that confusion is essential if enough effort, enthusiasm, and passion are to be directed toward the process of elaborating those models to their furthest possible extent.
so for me the idea that the “whole raft of knowledge, technologies and ways of looking world that will prove more durable” fit with JMG’s description of civilization, in that that ideal described above is derived from the structure of the civilization itself (mental model) and thus supports the notion of that civilization – rather than it is an inherent truth.
Unless you really are an anarchist who doesn’t believe in governance at all.
It’s not that they don’t believe in governance but that they don’t believe in a separate entity called government. In an anarchist society it’s the people making collective decisions and rules. In other words, the people are the government. Otherwise known as democracy.
I personally think some form of global governance is inevitable; the real challenge will be the struggle over who controls it and in whose interests.
Again, that comes down to democracy and not dictatorial organisations that are subservient to the corporations.
What I truly see standing in the way of a globalised world are:
1. Culture: At the moment there is a global cultural clash
2. Equality: We need everyone to have the same living standard. Without that then there will be wars and other strife as people try to equalise or prevent that equalisation (IMO, a lot of what the Western world does these days is to actually to prevent that equalisation).
3. Massive population decline: We simply don’t have enough resources to keep everyone at the current Western Living standard.
Mostly I’d agree. Forgive me if I decline to address anarchism; it’s simply a topic I have no strong ideas about. But I would add to your latter three points:
1. We live in a globalised world, but it lacks the underpinning values and culture to let it flourish positively.
2. Absolutely – this is why inequality (and social injustice in all it forms) matters so much
You’ve more or less expressed exactly what I am saying. Yes we live in a globalised world, in which various supra-national powers wield unaccountable power. One might even describe them as a form of oligarchical government; fair enough.
But democratically accountable – they most certainly are not.
Our forms of government (local and national) are effectively bankrupt, and not just on ideas 😉 That is a serious issue for their continued control over people. If they can’t fund core services, then they will gradually disappear. The other problem they have is a loss of trust, and these power structures are getting more and more arrogant as time goes on. I think we’ll gradually see people investing their trust into local grassroots movements/groups that are outside the current system that keeps on making the same bureaucratic, out of touch mistakes. On a global level, as persistent depressions spread across the world, I think reduced trade between nations may mean countries become more insular like many countries were before globalisation.
I happily endorse exactly what you are saying about increased local grassroots movements.
The nation state is under siege from both above and below, from both the forces of globalisation AND those of an increasing desire for peoples to assert their cultural identity. The rise of the SNP is the example which springs immediately to my mind.
And for the most part I’d assert this is a good thing. Nation states have monopolised their position at the top of the political totem pole for too long. Relinquishing portions of their sovereignty, both to a federal global governance and to revitalised cultural/ grassroots movements, would quite likely address a fair slice of the ‘arrogance’ issue you describe.
If they can’t fund core services, then they will gradually disappear.
Government can’t fund services because the business sector has been attacking them, telling people that they’re paying too much in taxes, that taxes are theft, that the business sector can do it better/cheaper and people have been buying into that BS. This result in people complaining about the taxes and so governments cut taxes the end result is that our society no longer has the support structure to keep it going and it collapses.
You gotta wonder if John Roughan can even see the external edges of his keyboard with the size of his blinkers.
No need to link to it, just imagine an idyllic pasture festooned with iridescent flowers dancing in warm breezes as cherubs of wonderment float by gleefully distributing petals of joy.
[Never to dissipate] intoxication by the fumes of well rewarded hagiography perhaps ? With such skin in the game the role ceases to be that of journalist…….it’s forever the role of ‘spurnalist’ – reliably ready spurning of anything/one failing to endorse the subject of the well rewarded hagiography. Delivered with increasingly solemn old-world-vicar-like pomposity. Caricaturish really.
The Weekend Herald commentaries look to be well choreographed, there seems to be a fair level of coaching by Herald management. All too often the National Party fan club all pick the same topic to comment on. That might be coincidence once but not when it’s as frequent as the Herald commentaries.
It’s quite notable that with Roughan’s pieces the Herald often holds back the reader comments until days later, by then readers have moved on and don’t read the scorn heaped on him. That has to be deliberate.
Jimmy Kimmel: “Not all English people are like this jackal.”
Murdering rich bastard condemned around the world.
A rich, pampered, cocaine-sniffing, prostitute-chasing playboy and recreational hunter who rejoices in the nickname “The Big H” has been condemned around the world after it was revealed he had killed Afghani peasants and boasted about it.
Angry crowds waved signs saying “KILLER”, “ROT IN HELL”, “THE BUTCHER OF BUCKINGHAM” and “I AM AFGHANISTAN”, and shouted messages like “Extradite!” and “Shut him down!” They want the playboy to be sent back to Afghanistan to face charges.
To resounding applause, late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel declared: “Not all English people are like this jackal.”
Referring to the dentist who killed a lion (Cecil?) made me think about how they crop up in books.
In Catch 22 by Joseph Heller – The question of “Who promoted Major Major?” alludes to Joseph McCarthy’s questioning of the promotion of Major Peress, an army dentist who refused to sign loyalty oaths.
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night – A white supremacist organization [whose leader, a dentist named Lionel Jones] discovers his existence [Campbell] and makes him a cause celebre, inviting him to speak to new recruits as a “true American patriot.”
(Howard W Campbell is a playwright who became a Nazi propagandist for the USA so he could secretly broadcast coded messages aiding the Allies. He is conspired against
by a white supremacist dentist when back in the USA, still denigrated as a Nazi sympathiser.)
I think the dentists of the USA became annoyed at the portrayal of their profession in an unflattering way and took some legal action. But I am not sure about this, it may have just been considered.
Yes it’s almost become a cliché – the dentist who is “broken” in some way that emerges as brutality or “deviancy”. Even the latest “The Hangover” films had the dentist as both domestically and socially “suspect” – you know, compared to mainstream Hollywood gender roles.
This Big_H bloke could be a Francis Macomber type on the inside: using and running from women, killing only from positions of superiority, a real coward despite his alleged military “derring-do”. I hope he didn’t track or shoot the Lion from a vehicle… Ernest would not be pleased. Wastrels, he called them. Unlike Fitzgerald, he didn’t much like the rich, at all. A good woman could sort Big_H out, if he had the guts to stick with her, and if none available, a Margot character would solve the problem, too.
@Morrisey
I am surprised that you are targeting Prince Harry. Why? Many of your links seem anti-royalist. He has enough snappers and slappers stalking him. I think that he deserves not to have stories scraped up as an excuse to build a phantom story.
National Party standard approach to a controversy.
1. Fire up John Key’s Dirty Politics Machine
2. Start lying.
3. Lie about lying and then immediately attack, never defend, never explain
4. blame the last Labour government
5. Try a sleaze distraction
6. Blame the public service
7. Never ever admit liability
8. Blame an opposition MP personally
9. Keep lying
10. Scramble like crazy behind the scenes to come up with some good news.
11. Rinse and repeat.
This Mark Todd (not the horsey one) is doing something special in NZ, along with his compatriot. This is a must listen for all who know we are needing changes in thinking and doing in housing and education and on. Good listening with Kim at Radionz. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201765712
10:05 Playing Favourites with Mark Todd
Mark Todd is the co-founder, with Ben Preston, of Auckland urban development company Ockham Residential, and the Ockham Foundation, an education-based registered charity. Ockham Residential is the new sponsor of the New Zealand Book Awards, to be produced by the Auckland Writers Festival from 2016.
Geez our journalists are lazy. Apparently it’s not our dairy thats the problem it’s the Canadians not wanting the TPPA because their diary industry would be flooded with shit US milk if the borders were opened. Groser ( pissed again most likely ) thinking he’s the great intellect and hard nosed negoitiator and the idoit scibblers hanging on every word.
Fuck me we’ve fallen a long way
Tourism is going to be our saviour when dairy goes down.
Here is a piece on Radionz about the Canary Islands off Spain that have 11 million tourists a year?? Anyway they find the locals are being pushed out of their own island by the burgeoning tourist infrastructure of resorts appealing to tourists alone.
The locals’ small businesses are going out of business.
The unemployment for youth right up to the 30s? is 56%. The business is not spreading out to the island because of the truly-vertical integration where the accommodation hotels are self-contained and capture all the spending.
There are so many ways to shoot yourself in the foot with tourism as your main business.
Those who do any thinking about NZ wider prosperity and business stability should take note and learn the lessons now. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201765598
That gave a good look at the issues Spanish tourism faces, in part due to an investment boom / bust like we had in 2000s in property here and in dairy the last few years. We’ve got the same conflicts in our tourist industry, but the scale is really different. The effects and responses are very different too.
We’re lucky in a way that we are so far away form the markets that create the Spanish problem, you can commute from Spain to London, people do, so they get millions of short stay visitors who just want to get plastered and then go home. We require a bit more commitment, and that tends to self select.
We also go through viscous cycles. Combine this with the distance thing and investment here isn’t as attractive as places closer to the big markets. So we’re not as likely to get the mega resort developments. But we need to manage these cycles more effectively. The recent 25% appreciation of our currency due to the dairy boom has been hell for tourism, we’re back in the game with the US market now but the Aussie market has a long way to go. We need to be around AUD 0.80 before we’re going anywhere there. The worst affected in our case have been some of our suppliers, carvers and artists who’ve been smacked around by businesses failing and have had to go and get other jobs to survive, they’ve gt to start again if they want to go back to their art.
The vertical integration does happen here, but there’s a strong move by industry leaders to higher value independent visitors in most markets. A lot of the understand that we will always be limited because of the distance and there’s no point selling a package for $1000 when you can sell a better one for $10,000 . There’s a market for group tours, but independent packages erode that once the market matures, like the Chinese and US have. The closest we have to the Canarys would be the cruise lines, they expect their slice of everything, and can be very unpleasant.
The industry needs clear political leadership to get through these cycles, the current minister is MIA, he seems to think Sky City is the total of the industry. But if he’s pushed he’ll take credit for all those who are getting somewhere (surviving) despite his governments policies. It’s an opportunity for the opposition to get traction where there could be a bit of a muddle.
@Graeme
That gives a really thorough summary to our problems as I have heard them.
That massive short-stay, go and get bombed then home, is a killer for places like Venice with environmental problems, sea level rise and infrastructure limitations. They need high spending visitors with true appreciation for their wonders.
In UK they have put down board walks at Lands End. We have protected Tane Mahuta similarly. Though it is interesting that if NZsare wanting to go and view on the tourist buses, seats will be booked up for months ahead. It could be that some of our attractions are already overrun by tourists even with the distance disadvantage.
The trick is getting the tourists to come to your town and spend at least a night there, and not just follow a well-trodden route. For instance, I have heard that Kerikeri, a pretty little place, is down on its uppers.
I think the Oz aren’t big spenders, and are short stayers. Though while we still own AirNZ, there is money to be made in transporting them and those NZs who cross to the Gold Coast. I think the Japanese and US are bigger spenders.
Detective Inspector Grant Wormald didn’t perjure himself because surveillance is completely different from intercepting communications….
Knock me over with a feather!
I remember in the early 80’s as a member of a national Public Questions Committee wondering whether the IPCA structure was the best way to go . I’m now more than convinced that it was not. This is such another extreme case of the Police covering their backsides with a supposedly “independent” inquiry . They have to go and a completely independent body set up instead. What we have now is just a joke – if it wasn’t so serious.
+100
At the same time how about a completely independent Prosecution Service that has no connection to Police. Preferably not even ex police as investigators.
It is time that Police do not decide when of if they will prosecute
I’m inclined to agree. Perhaps a system along the lines of the French or Scottish, or something similar. A separate legal body completely independent from the Pollice.
It is not a stretch to say many people who live in the cities of New Zealand, do not spare much of a thought for the volunteer based emergency services that populate the small towns and rural communities across our country. Not until they need them of course.
Like when they are visiting their rural investment property and dozing in the sun after (an often illegal) burn off that wasn’t quite as dead as the owner thought and the winds of the late afternoon decide to have some fun with the smouldering cuttings from their overgrown plot of future plans.
For many, thankfully, that is the one and only time they have anything to do with a volunteer Fire Service. But that service does much much more.
And New Zealand should really do more for them. But when?
After the embers have been dampened?
After the once grand forest is a dark shadow of itself and the hillside is nothing more than ashes?
After the steel and speed and flesh and ignorance have left little but twisted carnage that someone has to reach into and check for a pulse? After the wreckage has been towed away from the unfamiliar highway, that wasn’t designed to be driven in the same manner as some motorway being used on a pre-dawn munchie run? After the frightened family are huddled in the back of the ambulance, assured and safe as the impact of a moment’s indecision is cleared away? After the blood has been hosed off the road?
After the final tarpaulin is dragged off the storm battered roof, scrubbed down, dried off and carefully stored until the next alarm? After the broken limbs of busted trees are roped in the dark and dragged out from under bridges as the raging floodwaters rise and homes are threatened? Homes that might even belong to the volunteers themselves, who have left their families, as they do without question, night after night day after day. Heading out in the middle of deep winter storms when the cold steel rain annihilates any chance of comfort. In the height of summer when surf is calling and barbeque chatter not cackling pyres are all the exhausted men and women wanted to hear? Is it only after these events we should remind ourselves how desperately we need them?
These people are volunteers.
When that siren cries out across a calm evening, the rest of the community tenses for a moment before remembering its Tuesday night, so it’s just a call to training. But then they hear a second, third, a fourth alarm blasts across the town’s rooftops and they know there is no training tonight. Someone needs help. These volunteers do what is asked of them. They drop what they are doing and go.
They face dwindling resources and increasing call-outs. They get little thanks outside of the communities they live in and what do they ask for? – some simple respect and awareness that should be front of mind for anyone tasked with the vital job of alerting them to an alarm. Instead they have to publicly confront a company that has completely failed them. Some of those lives, those jobs, those homes, are too far away from the siren for it to be heard, so they need another way to be contacted. Pagers are the essential link between the disaster and the people you rely on to make things okay again.
Apparently, Spark want to remove this essential and singularly reliable means of alert to alarm that these selfless volunteers rely upon.
Spark is scrambling to cover their arses on this indefensible decision and are no doubt, behind the scenes, in full PR mode working out the best way to sell the fuck up to the public. They are probably counting on the fact that outside of a few donations here and there, most of New Zealand has little thought for volunteer emergency services.
What does the change really mean though? Why is it such a big deal? Pagers are so last century right! What’s with all the fuss? It is quite simple really, and once you think about it for five seconds you will know all too well why the real issue won’t be discussed in public by Spark.
Throughout rural New Zealand the mobile communications service is below par. That is an understatement of course. All across New Zealand, mobile technology in rural areas that fall outside of the State highway channels is happenchance some days, and pointless to even attempt on others. You might well have had some inconvenient loss of service whilst traveling to a friend’s farm, or when lazing at the beach on holiday, but unless you have lived it, day in day out, you cannot fully appreciate the sheer bloody uselessness of it.
Many of these volunteers live and work in the very regions where mobile coverage is sketchy at best. Spark’s decision to remove the paging technology has very real potential to cost lives. Any delay in receiving an alarm to an emergency event can cost a life. Look at it this way – if you ever venture outside of an urban centre, where the emergency services are staffed by employed members of the New Zealand Fire Service, you rely on volunteers to save lives.
If the volunteers cannot get reliable alarm alerts, that life that isn’t saved, might be yours. Do you have enough faith in the mobile services of rural New Zealand to trust your life to such a decision?
Perhaps you might like to tell Spark what you think about their complete failure to comprehend the implications of their short-sighted and undoubtedly economically driven decision.
I was under the impression that Spark (and Chorus) was created because Telecom was getting out of standard telecomms systems, and into internet TV/entertainment. Therefore telling Spark they are going wrong is pointless. They no listening no more.
Now if your volunteers would buy iphones and agree to doing a reality show like, MasterFireChief, BurnMyBush or MyVolliesRule, you might get better support.
except paging systems are notoriously unreliable they are only a one way system and the sender has no idea if the recipient has picked up the page let alone acted upon it.
We need a reliable cellular coverage that allows two way communication
Freedom – your point and prose are awesome – I’ve turned it into a poem of sorts
These people are volunteers.
For many, thankfully,
after the embers have dampened
the once grand forest is a dark shadow of itself
the hillside is nothing more than ashes.
after the steel and speed, flesh and ignorance
left little but twisted carnage that someone
has to reach into and check for a pulse.
after the wreckage has been towed
away from the unfamiliar highway, that wasn’t
designed to be driven the same manner as motorway.
after the frightened family, huddled in the ambulance back
assured and safe as the impact of a moment’s
indecision is cleared away, the blood hosed off the road.
is it only after these events we should remind ourselves
how desperately we need them, these people are volunteers,
these volunteers are people, these people are us.
@freedom
Well I think we should contact Spark. and complain.
That’s a terrific impassioned piece which is timely. The volunteer fire service does get taken for granted. The fire service management even did not use to look after their needs properly. And the government wants to load even more onto you.
So we get in touch with Spark. And listening to you, you make a better case for technological efficiency than the wealthy moaning that at one time they had to wait three months for a new phone connection at the time that privatisation was introduced.
Obviously it hasn’t worked for the country fire service. Perhaps we should change back to government services for the rural area.
What else should people be doing to help the volunteer fire services. Has their money been frozen. Is it all from government?
Well it is likely they feel neglected. They do in other countries. I wrote to the local NZ paper once saying that volunteer fire persons weren’t acknowledged enough for their good work. Then I found it on google having been uplifted and put in a USA firemens publication.
They are such a bargain as business can treat serious problem responses as an externality. And of course in neo lib economic theory there is no such thing as self sacrifice, community devotion. Everything that humans do is done for reward, so the fire person gets a feeling of satisfaction and standing in the community, even not getting paid might give a feeling of worth, so payment would spoil all that lovely spiritual elation.
Someone elsewhere in the blog is discussing that point. The way that modern economics extends its calculations over all life activities, not just those in business or trade as the old theories used to do.
Syrian military have reportedly brought down a “hostile” US surveillance drone flying in Syrian airspace, apparently without Damascus’s consent. A US official confirmed that the military “lost contact” with one of their UAVs over Latakia province.
“Syrian air defenses brought down a hostile US surveillance plane in northern Latakia,” the Syrian state news agency SANA initially on Tuesday, providing no further details. Syrian authorities have meanwhile begun an investigation to find out who owns the reconnaissance plane, reported Kuwait’s KUNA news agency.
The flying of military aircraft over another state without permission has been recognised for some time as an aggressive act of war and yet we never see this fact reported in the news when the US flies it’s planes over another state. They did it back in the Cold War and then got upset about their planes being shot down.
We’ve got it pretty good here. Don’t we? There is a certain image of New Zealand that we all like to believe in: We’re clean, green, laid-back, resourceful, fair and inventive. We’re the plucky little battlers at the end of world, quietly working hard in our little slice of paradise. All good. Sweet as. No worries.
But is this really true? If it used to be, is still true today? Will it stay true? Here at The Wireless, we took a dive into some statistics that show us where we’ve been and where we are now, and raise some big questions about where we’re headed next.
Ah, 2001. Helen Clark is Prime Minister and Jenny Shipley leads the National Party. The first Lord of the Rings film is released. Australia holds the Bledisloe Cup. Zed wins Album of the year. New Zealand’s largest company, Fonterra, is formed…
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
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Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
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ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
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Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
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The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
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Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
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The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
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In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
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An fawning interview of Marc Weldon and ensuing article by Matt Nippert.
Noted his comment about ‘wild claims made on left-wing blogs that the axing of Campbell Live was orchestrated by Beehive,’
An obsequious piece of writing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/matt-nippert/news/headlines.cfm?a_id=644
and julie christie is a genius… cdwm is an absolute flop… but it stays.
A few reality ‘hits’ can’t save this sinking ship. I love that they herald Christie as a visionary when really she’s just a muck-raker.
she has made a living buying other peoples shows and putting nz in the name. our flag will probably be USA flag with nz in tiny letters somewhere. she will get a damehood within 12 months on the basis that her flag work is contribution to the community.
Very disappointing for Matt Nippert. No mention of the fact that a large number of the shows commissioned by TV3 are from Julie Christie’s old company Eyeworks. It was sold to Warner’s but I have yet to see any report that says Julie Christie no longer has any financial interest in that company.
actual link
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/matt-nippert/news/article.cfm?a_id=644&objectid=11493726
The Auckland mayoralty is shaping up to be a vote splitting lolly scramble if silly old Lenny doesn’t call it a day and ease the way for Phil Goff-Off. Williamson won’t be impressed to hear former Telecom Boss lady Theresa Gattung is being mooted as a real right-wing contender. Of course it could be spin to make Judy’s buddy Maurice Williamson look more appealing. Plenty of voters will remember the dirty tactic’s employed by Gattung to hold a monopoly on telecommunications for Telesuckie.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11493808
Theresa Telecom”not being straight up” with customers Gattung, charming.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10380894
Good link Joe 90 here is an extract;
“* On the need for regulation:
This is pretty much a manufactured grievance. You know that’s the case because the only people marching in the streets about it are our competitors, not customers.”
I marched off and never been back to Telecom/Spark thanks to Ms Gattung. Cunliffe done some good work unbundling the monopoly she held over the market.
Perhaps we should look on the bright side. Theresa set a new bar for honesty and transparency. Let’s have more of Theresa-style corporate truth telling
Boag must lie awake at night, distressed at the thought that the Auckland Council owns shares in ports and airports .
More MSM talk up articles on Amy Adams and domestic violence.
Nacts & DV
What’s the NAct agenda here? Shoring up the female vote? Amy making a run for party leader? Covering other bad news with this campaign? Hiding a Nact party internal problem with DV?
Why isn’t the media asking the hard questions- but Minister your government has-
– removed the Bristol clauses in the DV legislation
– removed reporting of DV assaults from the police statistics
– failed to check if the police are using “police safety orders” (bad name if ever there was one) to minimise arrests and keep law n’ order stats down
-failed to fund legal aid in the family court
-failed to fund rape centres and refuges
-redone child support on flimsy or no evidence and taken money away from the children’s needs
-presided over the roastbusters
– did the malaysian diplomat deal
– not come clean about the why some NAct MP’s have left parliament
-uses WINZ to hound the parent looking after the kids
all of which covers up or ratifies the attitudes associated with the violence.
So Minister, Why are you suddenly broadcasting concern and suddenly think you need to do something? What are your real motives since past performance suggests your lot couldn’t care less.
Or is it that the cost they tout $14B, means Nact would like to remove all this from the public funding and make it how it used to be 66 years ago – something that went on behind closed doors without interference from others
well said…
removed funding of high school programmes for girls that resulted in higher self esteem and reporting of abuse…
womens refuge struggle for funding so relying on gaffe by hells pizza to survive
Thanks Tracey – I was sure I had missed plenty too. MSM just keeps running these articles without a single question – just like they were Amy’s publicity machine. The public deserves a lot more from the MSM.
Nor are comments ever opened so they can say this.
So twits like Duncan Garner can write nice stuff about them without them actually doing anything:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/70930827/duncan-garner-gutsy-stuff-from-adams-to-hit-the-bullies-where-it-hurts
collins introduced measures to deal with bullies too. turns out she is a huge self interested bully. i hope this isnt a pattern
Personally I think they may be trying to move all this out of the public sphere of intervention so they don’t have to spend any state funds on it.
Cue a few underfunded providers who have whole families referred to them but no court or police action possible and ultimately no DPB type welfare – people have to stay in the relationships or starve on the street – more the NAct mindset.
You have overlooked two glaring onslaughts, RedBaron.
The attack on privacy and the move away from the presumption of innocence.
http://www.visualcapitalist.com/60-trillion-of-world-debt-in-one-visualization/
The debt by country, not including personal debt of citizens.
+1
Now imagine what that would look like if they included private debt. And no matter what they include in the visuals none of it is payable which means that the private banks will have an eternity of bludging off of everyone else unless we change the system.
Total money owed is roughly in the region of the world’s total GDP. In other words all money is created as debt and it can never be paid back. The banking cartel own the planet, I wish people would wake up.
Titirangi kauri tree owner kickstarts debate with environmental application.
Yep those incompetent council resources consent officers again, don’t notice the Kauri trees in the first place should be preserved, then grant the application, than back track and the owner verbally agrees to preserve them, only to change their mind and then go to remove the SEA status completely and not only on that property but others the developer owns.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/70902656/titirangi-kauri-tree-owner-kickstarts-debate-with-environmental-application
Oh to be a developer in Auckland and buy cheap sites cos they are protected, put in consents to remove the protection led by 70 page proposal that fails to mention the mature Kauris and Rimu’s on the site, and then bobs your uncle the council will of course agree to clear the site, to put in double garaging and a 2 story residence cos too much hassle to build around the trees who they failed to notice in the first place or even understand why they should be preserved.
If anyone notices, agree to preserve them. buy time and then go back to environment court with hanky in hand and a dodgy deal with council who will sign anything to get one of their bad decisions through, crying what a victim they are.
I would like to see more penalty for those that manipulate the reports in the first place and more accountability to council for not noticing these very disturbing occurrences to by pass the district plan often ironically being spear headed by their own officers who seem to want to remove all protection from Auckland so that they have even less to do and more power in the process.
so Lenihan is basically arguing that if the protest hadn’t happened they would have removed the trees despite the SEA status and then because the site was cleared they could apply to have the SEA status removed. This puts him pretty high on the scale of evil developers IMO and he now has zero credibility or trustworthyness.
He also appears to have forgotten that the protest had nationwide support.
+1, it’s as if he’s learnt nothing over the whole debacle too. Maybe he just wants to show that he really is right, but to go through all of this again is either stupidity or pigheadedness.
+ 1 he needs some learning and hopefully it will come soon
You might like to read the actual submission #851 which was made in January 2014. Google “Unitary Plan Submissions”. This is a submission to the Unitary Plan – it is being heard by a panel of independent Commissioners. It has hit the news now because the hearings are in progress and this submitter has turnd up to speak to his submission.
It is not – repeat not, a Council officer initiative.
The council appoint the independent commissioners. They council read and review the reports and make a recommendation to the independent commissioners.
The independent commissioners are not independent at all, they are appointed by the council.
The indépendant commissioners practically always follow the recommendations of council.
The environment court practically always follows the submission of the council. The council when it goes to environment court, just appoint expensive lawyers to defend their bad decisions which are paid by the ratepayer.
The environment court seldom decline an application. As an applicant you are virtually guaranteed success as long as you can get the council to ‘support’ it.
Any applicant has an over 99% chance of success, all they have to do is get the council to support an application.
Therefore it puts the council officers in a huge position of power and open to abuse as there is no real independent checks and balances. Often it is hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions of profit for some developer or industry – all in the hands of officers who probably earn $60k.
Can you imagine in a ‘real’ court that convicts 99% of people – it would be called a Kangaroo court.
And that folks is the Council and Environment court process.
So you are saying that developers bribe Council officers to get favourable reports? Seeing that most reasonable sized developments would have several officers – a Development Engineer, a Traffic Engineer, perhaps an Arborist and/or an Ecologist, plus the Planner who puts it all together and makes a recommendation, are you saying they are all bribed? Then there is the Senior Planner who reviews and possibly signs off the report for the Commissioner, or if it is for a hearing, then a more senior Manager reviews and clears the hearing report. They are all bribed too are they? Then the Commissioners – just one if it is a Duty Commissioner, or up to 4 including a Local Board member if it is a hearing. That is a lot of cash to be chucking around.
Do you actually have any proof of this – you know like “evidence”? I am sure Penny Bright would be intrested in evidence – she has been working away full time for the last 7 years to uncover corruption at Council and come up with zip.
This is a good opinion piece on TPPA especially for sending to those who don’t know much about the topic.
Ross Henderson: TPPA deserves a transparent discussion
“You could argue – the Government has argued – that no one’s seen the detail yet and this is all scare-mongering. But why can’t they give us a simple guarantee that they won’t sign up to a deal which increases the cost of healthcare and threatens our power as a nation to make our own laws?”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/opinion/70882005/ross-henderson-tppa-deserves-a-transparent-discussion
Like Mr Mapp?
“But why can’t they give us a simple guarantee that they won’t sign up to a deal which increases the cost of healthcare and threatens our power as a nation to make our own laws?”
hmmm. For a start, I’m not willing to trust this govt on anything they say and do. But more importantly when did the debate shift to, it’s ok to sign if we get these concessions? Isn’t the whole point that it’s a secret agreement and we can’t know what concessions to ask for other than the ones that we know about because of leaks? Shouldn’t we be opposing secret trade agreements on principle?
Why can’t globalisation be done transparently anyway?
+1
“For a start, I’m not willing to trust this govt on anything they say and do.”
That’s a pretty good rule of thumb for anyone. Saves hours of explainings.
Why can’t globalisation be done transparently anyway?
Lack of any effective mechanisms to ensure democratic accountability at a global level is why.
For instance, why is it not the role of the UNDP to broker these trade deals? Why have they been shut out of the process? If you wanted true global trade, what organisation is better placed to regulate it?
While has long been fashionable to sneer at the UN, most of it’s shortcomings have been imposed on it by the dominant big powers determined to prevent it from ever impinging on their nation state sovereignty.
From this perspective it’s fairly plain that these deals like the TPP have much less to do with globalisation and open trade, and much more to do with entrenching corporate advantage.
Sorry, but you’ll never get support from me for a world government. Imagine Key’s lot in charge with legitimacy 🙁 Think global, act local*, we should be devolving. Globalisation is horse shit. My question was a bit rhetorical, designed to point to the Emperor’s new clothes. As you say, globalisation is all about making a few people rich, and is nothing to do with open trade. Transparency would severely impact on their ability to do business. What’s stunning is that so many people are still complacent about it.
*CC, PO and probably the GFCs all suggest we should be trading locally not globally.
That’s pretty much the same logic local warlords would have used against the rise of the nation state; and abandons the global stage to those actors big and powerful enough to act upon it. Big finance, big military and big data.
Imagine Key’s lot in charge with legitimacy
The one thing worse than bad government is no government. Unless you really are an anarchist who doesn’t believe in governance at all. In which case you may have been on the wrong forum all these years. 🙂
Almost all the most intractable challenges humanity faces are global in nature. Their solutions will be too. I personally think some form of global governance is inevitable; the real challenge will be the struggle over who controls it and in whose interests.
Nor is there any reason to argue that global governance means the demise of the devolved local forms either. No more than for instance, the existence of the nation state implies the end of all city council’s.
“… Their solutions will be too.”
I don’t agree with that red – the solutions will come locally rather than globally because trying to enact a global solution (if one could even be invented) to each community just is not possible imo.
We are at/near the ‘top’ in terms of globalisation – all downhill from here imo – mainly due to the effects of running out of cheap energy and the extra energy being put into the system as climate warming continues.
I’m aware my view probably is out of synch with most lefties around here .. and by this I’m really not trying to disrespect why most people feel like this.
For so many of us we feel that the governments are bad enough … we can only dread how much more frustrating and difficult a global government might be. I’ve a lot of sympathy with that.
But I do believe that the world entered a permanent new phase when it entered the first round of globalisation, based on coal and steam engines, in the mid-1800’s. We are now close to the end of the second round, that has been based on oil and electronics; and all the upheaval that this ending may imply.
But regardless of how much cheap energy we’ve so profligately wasted – along the way we also gained a whole raft of knowledge, technologies and ways of looking world that will prove durable. Yes the hugely wasteful form of globalisation that is currently on it’s last legs will fail – but this does not preclude a new form arising in it’s place.
For instance, let me imagine a third round of globalisation driven by solar and bio-mimicry. Such a thing might be possible; and with it the still unsolved challenges of just and democratically global governance will still be a live issue.
I’d offer JMG’s post
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/the-cimmerian-hypothesis-part-three-end.html
so for me the idea that the “whole raft of knowledge, technologies and ways of looking world that will prove more durable” fit with JMG’s description of civilization, in that that ideal described above is derived from the structure of the civilization itself (mental model) and thus supports the notion of that civilization – rather than it is an inherent truth.
Thanks – there is a lot of depth to this topic marty. I’d not pretend to be the font of all knowledge on it … at least not on this occasion. 🙂
ditto 🙂
It’s not that they don’t believe in governance but that they don’t believe in a separate entity called government. In an anarchist society it’s the people making collective decisions and rules. In other words, the people are the government. Otherwise known as democracy.
Again, that comes down to democracy and not dictatorial organisations that are subservient to the corporations.
What I truly see standing in the way of a globalised world are:
1. Culture: At the moment there is a global cultural clash
2. Equality: We need everyone to have the same living standard. Without that then there will be wars and other strife as people try to equalise or prevent that equalisation (IMO, a lot of what the Western world does these days is to actually to prevent that equalisation).
3. Massive population decline: We simply don’t have enough resources to keep everyone at the current Western Living standard.
Mostly I’d agree. Forgive me if I decline to address anarchism; it’s simply a topic I have no strong ideas about. But I would add to your latter three points:
1. We live in a globalised world, but it lacks the underpinning values and culture to let it flourish positively.
2. Absolutely – this is why inequality (and social injustice in all it forms) matters so much
3. Probably.
RedLogix
We have global government. It’s called multi-national corporations.
In case you missed it this week, former President Jimmy Carter says they own the entire US governance system through campaign bribes.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/30/politicians-admitting-obvious-fact-money-affects-vote/
@AmaKiwi
You’ve more or less expressed exactly what I am saying. Yes we live in a globalised world, in which various supra-national powers wield unaccountable power. One might even describe them as a form of oligarchical government; fair enough.
But democratically accountable – they most certainly are not.
Our forms of government (local and national) are effectively bankrupt, and not just on ideas 😉 That is a serious issue for their continued control over people. If they can’t fund core services, then they will gradually disappear. The other problem they have is a loss of trust, and these power structures are getting more and more arrogant as time goes on. I think we’ll gradually see people investing their trust into local grassroots movements/groups that are outside the current system that keeps on making the same bureaucratic, out of touch mistakes. On a global level, as persistent depressions spread across the world, I think reduced trade between nations may mean countries become more insular like many countries were before globalisation.
I happily endorse exactly what you are saying about increased local grassroots movements.
The nation state is under siege from both above and below, from both the forces of globalisation AND those of an increasing desire for peoples to assert their cultural identity. The rise of the SNP is the example which springs immediately to my mind.
And for the most part I’d assert this is a good thing. Nation states have monopolised their position at the top of the political totem pole for too long. Relinquishing portions of their sovereignty, both to a federal global governance and to revitalised cultural/ grassroots movements, would quite likely address a fair slice of the ‘arrogance’ issue you describe.
Government can’t fund services because the business sector has been attacking them, telling people that they’re paying too much in taxes, that taxes are theft, that the business sector can do it better/cheaper and people have been buying into that BS. This result in people complaining about the taxes and so governments cut taxes the end result is that our society no longer has the support structure to keep it going and it collapses.
+1
Shooting ourselves in the foot with demand destruction to serve the greed of a few 1 percenters
You gotta wonder if John Roughan can even see the external edges of his keyboard with the size of his blinkers.
No need to link to it, just imagine an idyllic pasture festooned with iridescent flowers dancing in warm breezes as cherubs of wonderment float by gleefully distributing petals of joy.
[Never to dissipate] intoxication by the fumes of well rewarded hagiography perhaps ? With such skin in the game the role ceases to be that of journalist…….it’s forever the role of ‘spurnalist’ – reliably ready spurning of anything/one failing to endorse the subject of the well rewarded hagiography. Delivered with increasingly solemn old-world-vicar-like pomposity. Caricaturish really.
Wasn’t that predictable…..
The Weekend Herald commentaries look to be well choreographed, there seems to be a fair level of coaching by Herald management. All too often the National Party fan club all pick the same topic to comment on. That might be coincidence once but not when it’s as frequent as the Herald commentaries.
It’s quite notable that with Roughan’s pieces the Herald often holds back the reader comments until days later, by then readers have moved on and don’t read the scorn heaped on him. That has to be deliberate.
Or they simply close down the debate.
‘
What! No unicorns?
I thought it was missing something 🙂
http://jorjajacksonridge.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/unicorn4.jpg
“What I say is what I say.”
Brutal new comedy series gets 24 million viewers.
Who said Americans don’t have a sense of irony?
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/07/opinions/opinion-gop-debate-roundup/
It’s too early to tell whether (some) farmers are in for another shock: El Nino – Explained as simply as possible.
http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/el-nino-explained-simply-possible
Link wasn’t working, I just removed the apostrope at the end 😉
Ta
Jimmy Kimmel: “Not all English people are like this jackal.”
Murdering rich bastard condemned around the world.
A rich, pampered, cocaine-sniffing, prostitute-chasing playboy and recreational hunter who rejoices in the nickname “The Big H” has been condemned around the world after it was revealed he had killed Afghani peasants and boasted about it.
Angry crowds waved signs saying “KILLER”, “ROT IN HELL”, “THE BUTCHER OF BUCKINGHAM” and “I AM AFGHANISTAN”, and shouted messages like “Extradite!” and “Shut him down!” They want the playboy to be sent back to Afghanistan to face charges.
To resounding applause, late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel declared: “Not all English people are like this jackal.”
http://www.kare11.com/story/news/2015/07/29/protests-set-against-dentist-who-killed-beloved-lion/30821461/
http://www.3news.co.nz/world/report-of-prince-harrys-taliban-kill-mission-denied-2012122411#axzz3iAdyhxOy
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/4712507/Air-return-for-Big-H-the-killer.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/31/prince-harry-nicknamed-big-h-by-army-comrades.html
https://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/big-h-the-afghan-killer-aka-prince-harry-of-the-royal-house-of-saxe-coburg-and-gotha-aka-winsor-descendent-of-vlad-the-impaler-aka-as-dracul/
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/30/us/walter-palmer-whereabouts/index.html?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion&iref=obnetwork
Referring to the dentist who killed a lion (Cecil?) made me think about how they crop up in books.
In Catch 22 by Joseph Heller –
The question of “Who promoted Major Major?” alludes to Joseph McCarthy’s questioning of the promotion of Major Peress, an army dentist who refused to sign loyalty oaths.
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night –
A white supremacist organization [whose leader, a dentist named Lionel Jones] discovers his existence [Campbell] and makes him a cause celebre, inviting him to speak to new recruits as a “true American patriot.”
(Howard W Campbell is a playwright who became a Nazi propagandist for the USA so he could secretly broadcast coded messages aiding the Allies. He is conspired against
by a white supremacist dentist when back in the USA, still denigrated as a Nazi sympathiser.)
I think the dentists of the USA became annoyed at the portrayal of their profession in an unflattering way and took some legal action. But I am not sure about this, it may have just been considered.
Yes it’s almost become a cliché – the dentist who is “broken” in some way that emerges as brutality or “deviancy”. Even the latest “The Hangover” films had the dentist as both domestically and socially “suspect” – you know, compared to mainstream Hollywood gender roles.
This Big_H bloke could be a Francis Macomber type on the inside: using and running from women, killing only from positions of superiority, a real coward despite his alleged military “derring-do”. I hope he didn’t track or shoot the Lion from a vehicle… Ernest would not be pleased. Wastrels, he called them. Unlike Fitzgerald, he didn’t much like the rich, at all. A good woman could sort Big_H out, if he had the guts to stick with her, and if none available, a Margot character would solve the problem, too.
@Morrisey
I am surprised that you are targeting Prince Harry. Why? Many of your links seem anti-royalist. He has enough snappers and slappers stalking him. I think that he deserves not to have stories scraped up as an excuse to build a phantom story.
On what basis does he ‘deserve’ it ?
The royals are fair game, as are the Key’s offspring
Why not take up boomerang throwing instead of horseshoes.
National Party standard approach to a controversy.
1. deny anything is wrong
2. blame the last Labour Government
3. blame anyone else
4. never accept responsibility
1. Fire up John Key’s Dirty Politics Machine
2. Start lying.
3. Lie about lying and then immediately attack, never defend, never explain
4. blame the last Labour government
5. Try a sleaze distraction
6. Blame the public service
7. Never ever admit liability
8. Blame an opposition MP personally
9. Keep lying
10. Scramble like crazy behind the scenes to come up with some good news.
11. Rinse and repeat.
12. Pretend to apologise when caught out but never actually apologise.
13. And then continue doing exactly what they were doing before.
Theresa Gattung running for Auckland mayoralty soon? On Radionz news just now.
This Mark Todd (not the horsey one) is doing something special in NZ, along with his compatriot. This is a must listen for all who know we are needing changes in thinking and doing in housing and education and on. Good listening with Kim at Radionz.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201765712
10:05 Playing Favourites with Mark Todd
Mark Todd is the co-founder, with Ben Preston, of Auckland urban development company Ockham Residential, and the Ockham Foundation, an education-based registered charity. Ockham Residential is the new sponsor of the New Zealand Book Awards, to be produced by the Auckland Writers Festival from 2016.
Geez our journalists are lazy. Apparently it’s not our dairy thats the problem it’s the Canadians not wanting the TPPA because their diary industry would be flooded with shit US milk if the borders were opened. Groser ( pissed again most likely ) thinking he’s the great intellect and hard nosed negoitiator and the idoit scibblers hanging on every word.
Fuck me we’ve fallen a long way
Tourism is going to be our saviour when dairy goes down.
Here is a piece on Radionz about the Canary Islands off Spain that have 11 million tourists a year?? Anyway they find the locals are being pushed out of their own island by the burgeoning tourist infrastructure of resorts appealing to tourists alone.
The locals’ small businesses are going out of business.
The unemployment for youth right up to the 30s? is 56%. The business is not spreading out to the island because of the truly-vertical integration where the accommodation hotels are self-contained and capture all the spending.
There are so many ways to shoot yourself in the foot with tourism as your main business.
Those who do any thinking about NZ wider prosperity and business stability should take note and learn the lessons now.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201765598
That gave a good look at the issues Spanish tourism faces, in part due to an investment boom / bust like we had in 2000s in property here and in dairy the last few years. We’ve got the same conflicts in our tourist industry, but the scale is really different. The effects and responses are very different too.
We’re lucky in a way that we are so far away form the markets that create the Spanish problem, you can commute from Spain to London, people do, so they get millions of short stay visitors who just want to get plastered and then go home. We require a bit more commitment, and that tends to self select.
We also go through viscous cycles. Combine this with the distance thing and investment here isn’t as attractive as places closer to the big markets. So we’re not as likely to get the mega resort developments. But we need to manage these cycles more effectively. The recent 25% appreciation of our currency due to the dairy boom has been hell for tourism, we’re back in the game with the US market now but the Aussie market has a long way to go. We need to be around AUD 0.80 before we’re going anywhere there. The worst affected in our case have been some of our suppliers, carvers and artists who’ve been smacked around by businesses failing and have had to go and get other jobs to survive, they’ve gt to start again if they want to go back to their art.
The vertical integration does happen here, but there’s a strong move by industry leaders to higher value independent visitors in most markets. A lot of the understand that we will always be limited because of the distance and there’s no point selling a package for $1000 when you can sell a better one for $10,000 . There’s a market for group tours, but independent packages erode that once the market matures, like the Chinese and US have. The closest we have to the Canarys would be the cruise lines, they expect their slice of everything, and can be very unpleasant.
The industry needs clear political leadership to get through these cycles, the current minister is MIA, he seems to think Sky City is the total of the industry. But if he’s pushed he’ll take credit for all those who are getting somewhere (surviving) despite his governments policies. It’s an opportunity for the opposition to get traction where there could be a bit of a muddle.
@Graeme
That gives a really thorough summary to our problems as I have heard them.
That massive short-stay, go and get bombed then home, is a killer for places like Venice with environmental problems, sea level rise and infrastructure limitations. They need high spending visitors with true appreciation for their wonders.
In UK they have put down board walks at Lands End. We have protected Tane Mahuta similarly. Though it is interesting that if NZsare wanting to go and view on the tourist buses, seats will be booked up for months ahead. It could be that some of our attractions are already overrun by tourists even with the distance disadvantage.
The trick is getting the tourists to come to your town and spend at least a night there, and not just follow a well-trodden route. For instance, I have heard that Kerikeri, a pretty little place, is down on its uppers.
I think the Oz aren’t big spenders, and are short stayers. Though while we still own AirNZ, there is money to be made in transporting them and those NZs who cross to the Gold Coast. I think the Japanese and US are bigger spenders.
From the “Believe it or Not” files – this incredible “decision” by one IPCA chairman Judge Sir David Carruthers:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11493239
In a nutshell:
Detective Inspector Grant Wormald didn’t perjure himself because surveillance is completely different from intercepting communications….
Knock me over with a feather!
I remember in the early 80’s as a member of a national Public Questions Committee wondering whether the IPCA structure was the best way to go . I’m now more than convinced that it was not. This is such another extreme case of the Police covering their backsides with a supposedly “independent” inquiry . They have to go and a completely independent body set up instead. What we have now is just a joke – if it wasn’t so serious.
+100
At the same time how about a completely independent Prosecution Service that has no connection to Police. Preferably not even ex police as investigators.
It is time that Police do not decide when of if they will prosecute
I’m inclined to agree. Perhaps a system along the lines of the French or Scottish, or something similar. A separate legal body completely independent from the Pollice.
Sounds like wormtongue to me.
Yes the lexical semantics involved in this decision is mind-numbing.
Obviously a box of JK Red is expected at yuletide.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/280817/fire-service-not-told-of-pager-shutdown
It is not a stretch to say many people who live in the cities of New Zealand, do not spare much of a thought for the volunteer based emergency services that populate the small towns and rural communities across our country. Not until they need them of course.
Like when they are visiting their rural investment property and dozing in the sun after (an often illegal) burn off that wasn’t quite as dead as the owner thought and the winds of the late afternoon decide to have some fun with the smouldering cuttings from their overgrown plot of future plans.
For many, thankfully, that is the one and only time they have anything to do with a volunteer Fire Service. But that service does much much more.
And New Zealand should really do more for them. But when?
After the embers have been dampened?
After the once grand forest is a dark shadow of itself and the hillside is nothing more than ashes?
After the steel and speed and flesh and ignorance have left little but twisted carnage that someone has to reach into and check for a pulse? After the wreckage has been towed away from the unfamiliar highway, that wasn’t designed to be driven in the same manner as some motorway being used on a pre-dawn munchie run? After the frightened family are huddled in the back of the ambulance, assured and safe as the impact of a moment’s indecision is cleared away? After the blood has been hosed off the road?
After the final tarpaulin is dragged off the storm battered roof, scrubbed down, dried off and carefully stored until the next alarm? After the broken limbs of busted trees are roped in the dark and dragged out from under bridges as the raging floodwaters rise and homes are threatened? Homes that might even belong to the volunteers themselves, who have left their families, as they do without question, night after night day after day. Heading out in the middle of deep winter storms when the cold steel rain annihilates any chance of comfort. In the height of summer when surf is calling and barbeque chatter not cackling pyres are all the exhausted men and women wanted to hear? Is it only after these events we should remind ourselves how desperately we need them?
These people are volunteers.
When that siren cries out across a calm evening, the rest of the community tenses for a moment before remembering its Tuesday night, so it’s just a call to training. But then they hear a second, third, a fourth alarm blasts across the town’s rooftops and they know there is no training tonight. Someone needs help. These volunteers do what is asked of them. They drop what they are doing and go.
They face dwindling resources and increasing call-outs. They get little thanks outside of the communities they live in and what do they ask for? – some simple respect and awareness that should be front of mind for anyone tasked with the vital job of alerting them to an alarm. Instead they have to publicly confront a company that has completely failed them. Some of those lives, those jobs, those homes, are too far away from the siren for it to be heard, so they need another way to be contacted. Pagers are the essential link between the disaster and the people you rely on to make things okay again.
Apparently, Spark want to remove this essential and singularly reliable means of alert to alarm that these selfless volunteers rely upon.
Spark is scrambling to cover their arses on this indefensible decision and are no doubt, behind the scenes, in full PR mode working out the best way to sell the fuck up to the public. They are probably counting on the fact that outside of a few donations here and there, most of New Zealand has little thought for volunteer emergency services.
What does the change really mean though? Why is it such a big deal? Pagers are so last century right! What’s with all the fuss? It is quite simple really, and once you think about it for five seconds you will know all too well why the real issue won’t be discussed in public by Spark.
Throughout rural New Zealand the mobile communications service is below par. That is an understatement of course. All across New Zealand, mobile technology in rural areas that fall outside of the State highway channels is happenchance some days, and pointless to even attempt on others. You might well have had some inconvenient loss of service whilst traveling to a friend’s farm, or when lazing at the beach on holiday, but unless you have lived it, day in day out, you cannot fully appreciate the sheer bloody uselessness of it.
Many of these volunteers live and work in the very regions where mobile coverage is sketchy at best. Spark’s decision to remove the paging technology has very real potential to cost lives. Any delay in receiving an alarm to an emergency event can cost a life. Look at it this way – if you ever venture outside of an urban centre, where the emergency services are staffed by employed members of the New Zealand Fire Service, you rely on volunteers to save lives.
If the volunteers cannot get reliable alarm alerts, that life that isn’t saved, might be yours. Do you have enough faith in the mobile services of rural New Zealand to trust your life to such a decision?
Perhaps you might like to tell Spark what you think about their complete failure to comprehend the implications of their short-sighted and undoubtedly economically driven decision.
http://www.spark.co.nz/contactus/
Sorry mate, but the market has spoken.
I was under the impression that Spark (and Chorus) was created because Telecom was getting out of standard telecomms systems, and into internet TV/entertainment. Therefore telling Spark they are going wrong is pointless. They no listening no more.
Now if your volunteers would buy iphones and agree to doing a reality show like, MasterFireChief, BurnMyBush or MyVolliesRule, you might get better support.
Very droll Charles …. 🙂
I hope so. These days, never can tell how close to reality droll might actually be.
Yeah. Being a professional satirist must be a daunting job these days …
except paging systems are notoriously unreliable they are only a one way system and the sender has no idea if the recipient has picked up the page let alone acted upon it.
We need a reliable cellular coverage that allows two way communication
except that until the cellular system has 100% coverage and 100% reliability the pager system is as good as it gets in many rural areas.
And that wee buzz is truly galvanising..,seldom unacknowledged.
Our rural and often volunteer emergency services deserve better.
Freedom – your point and prose are awesome – I’ve turned it into a poem of sorts
These people are volunteers.
For many, thankfully,
after the embers have dampened
the once grand forest is a dark shadow of itself
the hillside is nothing more than ashes.
after the steel and speed, flesh and ignorance
left little but twisted carnage that someone
has to reach into and check for a pulse.
after the wreckage has been towed
away from the unfamiliar highway, that wasn’t
designed to be driven the same manner as motorway.
after the frightened family, huddled in the ambulance back
assured and safe as the impact of a moment’s
indecision is cleared away, the blood hosed off the road.
is it only after these events we should remind ourselves
how desperately we need them, these people are volunteers,
these volunteers are people, these people are us.
Anyway kia kaha
whakawhetai i marty
if one positive act inspires another
i call that progress
@freedom
Well I think we should contact Spark. and complain.
That’s a terrific impassioned piece which is timely. The volunteer fire service does get taken for granted. The fire service management even did not use to look after their needs properly. And the government wants to load even more onto you.
So we get in touch with Spark. And listening to you, you make a better case for technological efficiency than the wealthy moaning that at one time they had to wait three months for a new phone connection at the time that privatisation was introduced.
Obviously it hasn’t worked for the country fire service. Perhaps we should change back to government services for the rural area.
What else should people be doing to help the volunteer fire services. Has their money been frozen. Is it all from government?
“What else should people be doing to help the volunteer fire services [?] ”
That, is a very good question
and one I have thought about a few times today
maybe we need to ask them, what they would like us to do?
Well it is likely they feel neglected. They do in other countries. I wrote to the local NZ paper once saying that volunteer fire persons weren’t acknowledged enough for their good work. Then I found it on google having been uplifted and put in a USA firemens publication.
They are such a bargain as business can treat serious problem responses as an externality. And of course in neo lib economic theory there is no such thing as self sacrifice, community devotion. Everything that humans do is done for reward, so the fire person gets a feeling of satisfaction and standing in the community, even not getting paid might give a feeling of worth, so payment would spoil all that lovely spiritual elation.
Someone elsewhere in the blog is discussing that point. The way that modern economics extends its calculations over all life activities, not just those in business or trade as the old theories used to do.
Syrian air defenses bring down US surveillance drone – reports
The flying of military aircraft over another state without permission has been recognised for some time as an aggressive act of war and yet we never see this fact reported in the news when the US flies it’s planes over another state. They did it back in the Cold War and then got upset about their planes being shot down.
Some other long term thinking, from 2001 to 2014 and 2030 (written in 2014)
Past, present, what-the-future?, some big questions for 2030 New Zealand…