Dotcom’s going to want something that he is in charge of from the ground up as party president. And do you think Jonkey is going to gift ACT Epsom with Dotcom in it.
It appears from 2 stories in today’s Sunday Herald that the pathetic Paula Bennett is in for a deserved spanking having spent the last couple of days misleading the Parliament on the number of child abuse/neglect cases reported this year,
A ‘computer program fault’ is apparently what will be blamed for Bennett’s ‘mistake’ where She has used Parliaments Question Time lambasting the Opposition with claims that cases of abuse and neglect have been falling when all the time the opposite is the case,
The second of the stories in the Sunday Herald highlights the fact that having refused the Children’s Commissioner the monies necessary to undertake a comprehensive study of ‘child poverty’ Bennett will be less than pleased that using His initiative said Commissioner found the necessary 500 grand from the Roy McKenzie charitable foundation and the report produced is said to paint an extremely bleak picture of ‘child poverty’ in New Zealand which will be made public this week,
Another FAILURE by another shameful Minister in Slippery’s Shameful National Government…
Because people don’t like to go to whaleoils site heres something interesting:
I just wanted to share with you some of my experience as a beginning teacher in NZ and my views on the education system.
Unlike most teachers, I am not a lefty, not a unionist and I am male. I got into teaching with the sole purpose of making a difference in education. So i took the leap and enrolled in a local university and began my teaching degree. It was here that the ineptitude of our education system became evident. Over the next three years, I was surrounded by a ragtag group of people, ranging from recent school graduates to the nearing retirement aged. The year I began was the first year they doubled the size of the intake, from 30-60 and this created a number of problems.
Firstly, the campus was not large enough to hold a larger intake and our teacher training suffered from overcrowding and under resourcing. As time wore on, it became evident that things were not “equal”. Maori students were given the fast track on anything and everything and it soon became clear that they were destined for “greater” things. Some students were being treated differently by the lecturers as well. I remember one guy posted on Facebook, on the morning an assignment was due, that he better think about doing it. He handed the assignment in a week late and still received a pass mark. Uni policy for most assignments states that you lose 10% per day late and this guy was definitely not an “A” student. This sort of thing was a regular occurrence for the next three years and it made it hard for me to respect my cohort and the university.
Fast forward to the final year. Out of 45 people who made it to the end of the degree, only about 10 jobs came up in our area and 5 of them were taken up by new teachers (myself included) at the same school. And now, over 3 years later, only half of my graduating class have jobs as teachers. It was at this school that everything I thought, and knew, became irrelevant. It quickly became evident that most of what we had learned over the past 3 years had nothing to do with actual teaching. Those classes on creative pedagogy and integrated curriculums were pushed by the wayside, as the school had a focus on literacy and numeracy.
Add to this the fact that not one person from the school, took the time to really sit down and explain to us how their reading, writing and maths programmes actually worked and you have a recipe for disaster. So here I was, at a new job, in a new career, wandering through the “dark” with no light in sight. The phrase “trial by fire” is an understatement to what I endured. Only once I had been there a while and got to know people, that I began to get shown things (it took 6 months before I received a tour of the resource room).
It was during my first year at this school, that I began to experience the true bureaucracy that exists in education and its responsibility for the downfall of student achievement. As professional development in the school, we were subjected to an improvement programme that required us to be observed by an “expert” who would attend the school each term and check on our progress. During my first meeting with this expert and all subsequent meetings, he proceeded to identify all of the bad things I was doing as a teacher, never once identifying anything positive. He then ended each meeting without actually telling me how to improve or change my teaching. After speaking with other colleagues, this was the “norm” and happened to everyone, every-time. For this “in-depth” analysis of the school’s teachers, he was getting paid about $40k per year by the school.
Which brings me to his greatest advocate at the school, the deputy principal. Now at most schools I have attended and had the pleasure of interacting with, the principal is the figurehead of the school community. They are usually charismatic, passionate, friendly and a great advocate for their staff and pupils. Our principal was none of these, he had the charisma of a fence post. And although he was the figurehead of the school community, the school itself was run by his deputy, who had affectionately been nicknamed “The Pitbull”. This hobbit-esque woman ruled with an iron fist and her word was law. Because you can’t argue with 40 years of experience right? It became this woman’s crusade to improve the literacy and numeracy within the school and this meant by any means necessary. It was widely known that the school marked harder at the beginning of the year to make the marks lower and therefore increase the perceived “improvement” achieved over the year. But I began to question things when we were told that our end of year marks were to low and we need to “fix” them. To me, this is called fudging the numbers, but to my colleagues this was a common practice that did occur at other schools also.
So over the next 18 months I taught at this school and the last 6 months were rocky to say the least. My class in my second year became known as the class from hell. I started the year with 2 bipolar boys and 2 girls who had been separated at their last school. The class quickly descended into an unsafe environment for the other students. Here are some examples of the behaviour of these students. One girl, assaulted boys on a regular basis, by pulling hair, punching, kicking and stomping. She also threatened to murder a student’s family and threatened another teacher. One boy trashed the classroom in a fit of rage and after this he was moved to another class, flipped out at lunchtime and was removed in handcuffs by police. Another boy pulled a knife on a student in the classroom in front of a reliever. Also, another boy threw tables, chairs and objects around the classroom in numerous rages. Oh, and these were 11 year old students in a decile 7 school. When I approached the management for assistance with handling the class (this was less than 2 months into the year) I was told that it was all my fault and that I was to blame for everything that occurred in the classroom. To cut a long story short, my competence was called into question and I was effectively placed on probation. I chose to fight the school and undertook an advice and guidance programme to clear my name. This did not happen to a colleague though, who faced with a similar situation, chose to allow the school to help her find employment elsewhere. This was arranged by the school management and another local school, and was held over her head even after she left.
As a result of this, I resigned from the school and have left NZ to teach overseas. The grass is much greener over here and I now teach in a school that has a supportive management team and I am able to teach with the advice and guidance of people that I respect wilfully, not because they intimidate people.
I left NZ because there were not many options available to me. There is a lack of jobs, there are too many older teachers in education who are stuck in their ways and the schooling system is run like an “old boys” club. Also, the fact that education is treated as a political football in NZ means that every 3 years or so, it is 2 steps forward and 1 step back. When Labour and National finally decide to agree on actually fixing the education system rather than promoting their own political agendas, I will happily return to NZ. National standards are a good concept, as they give us benchmarks to aim for. But if they are not standard across all schools, they are completely useless. To finish off, I want to add my 2 cents to the recent PISA results discussion. NZ does have a world class education system and it suits “our” people, who are creative thinkers and doers, not robots. But the one difference Asia has that sets them apart, is that yes, you can fail and failure is not an option. When NZ can realise that “working towards”, “below” and “not achieved” are all bullshit ways of saying “FAIL”, the better.
‘..Also, the fact that education is treated as a political football in NZ means that every 3 years or so, it is 2 steps forward and 1 step back. When Labour and National finally decide to agree on actually fixing the education system rather than promoting their own political agendas,…’
I have heard much the same from my daughter who teaches in primary school and it is a fair comment that cold be applied not just to education, luckily she hasn’t experienced any of the other things in the schools she has taught at that your correspondent mentions.
Well I do take postings like this with a grain of salt (could be due to sour grapes and all that) but as an overview he does bring up some good points especially the bit about both parties being to blame
A Few points. (given that I bothered to read anything that might have been posted in the gutter in the first place.
“I was surrounded by a ragtag group of people, ranging from recent school graduates to the nearing retirement aged.”
I understand 45 to be the maximum age of enrolment unless under exceptional circumstances. Of course the young whipper-snappers have all the answers – can never learn from their elders.
“True bureaucracy” – emotive words but not explained.
“Professional Development” – School focussing on Literacy and Numeracy. He should have been an expert already in both of these areas – that’s what he should have been bringing with his diploma.
He proffers a whole lot of criticism of education based on his unsubstantiated claims of experience in one school, and yet in the whole missive does not appear to suggest one solution.
As above really, I suspect theres more then a few sour grapes at work but as an overview he does bring up some points about whats wrong with the system (both parties sticking their oars in)
I mean when I was in uni the fee paying students from China were certainly hogging the lecturers time, making it difficult for everyone else and the amount of collaboration on assignments was more then what was expected so their were a lot complaints made but from my pov they were just being smart and they got the results so fair play but someone else could see it another way
I think hes mostly venting but I agree that both parties play political football with education and thats where most of the problems start with
Having observed young Christopher’s progress over several years now, we are very pleased with his development into a more rational commenter who at times makes useful contributions to The Standard learning environment.
One notes a welcome change in attitude not uncommon in formerly troubled students as the reality of poll results brings home the futility of pointless abusive behaviour.
A capable young lad showing increasing promise: more work needed in the areas of political comprehension and logic, but overall a good result from a difficult personal beginning: end of year rating: ACHIEVED.
@ ak
chris 73 could even become the next Frank Mac (here’s hoping). Maybe there’s something to be said for allowing trolls to enter the site, and be confronted with rational arguments.
After all, there are quite a few Natzis that are now utterly embarrassed by the crass, self-serving, self-indulgent, selfish policies the party they once claimed an affinity with has now become.
(In my experience, they’re usually the ones that can’t stand the likes of trader John, or ladder puller-uppers, or – snobbery aside – nouveau riche Johnny-cum-latelies – but whatever their motivation – they are disillusioned).
Sometimes I wonder why Chris Finlayson has been hanging out so long – but then, maybe I misjudged his character, and maybe he is actually … well – just scared basically and a Limp Biscuit.
Silly Labour (bloody silly, even fucktardinous dimwittery) …. ‘cos Labour still has its equivalents.
Shame we can’t get them all together where they could reminisce – perhaps over a glass of Ch-ch-ch-chardonay – perhaps somewhere in HawkesBay, or even Waiheke Island.
Took me a while to realise Chris that your post was a quote.
Some of the stuff reported is questionable. The violence by kids in the class of 11 year olds is not credible. You would not be placed “on probation” if there were problems.
Note that the greener overseas is not named.
Politicians should leave schools alone. Leave it Education to develop properly researched and tested improvements without political interference, without League Tables, without using kids as footballs, without fear and favour.
For over a hundred years Education has evolved an improved from the bottom up until recently when this Government has interfered with disastrous results. We had had high PISA rankings because of Educational school driven innovation but this was in spite of political interference. (Mind you PISA rankings might cause unintended consequences like narrowing the focus of teaching and learning.)
Earlier I posted this bit (and I’ll put in quotes as well)
“Well I do take postings like this with a grain of salt (could be due to sour grapes and all that) but as an overview he does bring up some good points especially the bit about both parties being to blame”
I spent some time at the Christchurch College of Education a few years back and while there were some worthy people it also had its fair share of ex-hippies and people who were all theory and no practical
… nothing wrong with ex-hippies mate. Generally peace loving people who like to get on with their neighbours for the betterment of all mankind. chris73 some advice – don’t discredit your own discussions by letting your prejudices show through.
There may well have been some friction (may not be the correct term) as I was still in uniform at the time and the people that I was dealing with weren’t the same people that he was teaching about
He was training us to be dealing with nice, well-mannered middle class kids so there wasn’t anything about conflict management or how to deal with troubled kids
Both my parents were teachers. They met and married at ATC and both variously worked in many schools much of their lives. Later my father moved into another career, but Mum taught Intermediate until she retired.
She loved the classroom. She was really good at it. She hated the staffroom; all of the problems she ever encountered started there. So what your source has written has a certain old familiarity to it.
But what has changed in the last few decades is that we have been constantly diminishing teaching as a profession with meddling, micromanagement and over evaluation. Great teachers are not robots, rattling off a narrowly proscribed curriculum according to a tight timetable.
Children are not widgets in an education factory. They are unique, they each have their own strengths that will be uncovered in its own time … with encouragement and care. And some children will respond to some teachers, and not others.
Like many professions, teaching is about 50% science and 50% an artform. Great teachers have learnt how to weave these two coda into a true “educement”; inducing the flowering of emotional, intellectual and aesthetic sensibility in their charges.
It is the same weaving of the rational and the instinctive, the received wisdom and the creative impulse … that makes a great doctor, an outstanding jurist, the inspirational engineer or scientist. Equally if we treat teachers like disposable units in a factory, they will treat their children the same. And we will regret that bitterly.
PS: The incidents of violence mentioned are not implausible. Mum never saw anything quite that bad, but not too far off. Invariably … without exception …. the root cause lay in a grossly dysfunctional family. Incidentally she taught most of her life in one of NZ’s poshest suburbs.
My BF’s vision for education is that Teaching would be a rock-star profession: it will pay well and be highly respected. Instead of the best and brightest going off to become professionals, and those in the (typically) middle-lower end of the spectrum who don’t know what else to do with their lives so become teachers, teaching would be an inviting profession for the best and brightest.
Also when the teachers union demands a pay rise, smaller class sizes and all of the other changes in conditions that they want, they will get everything they ask for except the pay rise… which comes later when they prove the things they asked for are effective.
Expertise :
-“it is not necessary for an individual to have a professional or academic qualification.”-see shepherds.
-Skilled Memory Theory ; Ericsson et al;
– Deep structures ; Chi et al;
-and “dialogic expertise”
from “an ordinary fellow from another town” – Twain 😀
Corruption and kickbacks in NZ business, especially with contractors to councils etc as part of PPPs. The situation is being highlighted with a focus on rading contracts to Auckland Council since 2010:
Simon Everett was formerly managing director of roading contractor Blacktop Construction. His company collapsed in September, and Everett said he was now in a position to call for a debate on business practices that had become increasingly sharp.
[…]
Everett’s concerns were echoed by industry spokesman Jeremy Sole, chief executive of the New Zealand Contractors Federation, who warned recent public-sector contracting changes raised risks.
“There’s a propensity for some clients to move to very large contracts, which raises the stakes considerably. The game is changing dramatically, and the incentives are there to do whatever it takes. We might start to see an increase in corruption as a result,” Sole said.
Dealings between private and public-sector bodies needed to be policed more thoroughly, Sole said. “Most of our interactions are with central or local government agencies, and we would be very upset if anything above a Christmas Card was exchanged.”
The Serious Fraud Office is investigating individuals at Auckland Transport over alleged irregularities in the procurement of roading maintenance contracts. The council-controlled company fired a senior manager in September following an internal investigation into the corruption allegations dating back to 2010.
[…]
Toresen said public-sector organisations had rules against employees receiving gifts from contractors, but these were being skirted. “Most large organisations have a gift register and it’s being breached. It’s a funny sort of no man’s land because it’s not really well tested.”
Its not just auckland but rural areas where big contracts to big players squeeze local contractors out.
Then the locals discover the maintenance cycles and quality of work deteriorate over time and roads that used to be well looked after are let go as thats all the big contractor allowed for OR the local crowd lowballed it to get the work and ends up losing money.
blacktop have plenty to be unhappy about with downers and FH practices.
When is the news media going to drop the continuous assaults on decency?
If they wish to report on a vicious crime, put it in a crime section where those who enjoy such reporting can head to and be satisfied.
My “Bookmark” directs me to the news outlet.
I therefore do not need to be greeted by such revolting headlines.
Being that you wouldn’t answer any of the repeated questions I put to you I see no reason to answer yours
So I’ll try again, what did you mean by this:
“Give the missus a serious seeing to when she got home late with the Maccers dinner and no dipping sauce didya ?”
See I’m assuming you were asking if I’m physically abusive towards my wife however I’d like to know what you meant by it and why you come to that conclusion
No not really, people can disagree with me all they like (and they do) but suggesting I beat my wife simply because you disagree with me isn’t clever and it isn’t funny
Vince Siemer seems to be a very dedicated axe-grinder but every now and then I check in to his site for a read-up on his latest sharpenings. His New Zealand Judge Files are interesting reading.
Relevant part of Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 re name suppression:
” 200. Court may suppress identity of defendant
(1) A court may make an order forbidding publication of the name, address, or occupation of a person who is charged with, or convicted or acquitted of, an offence.
(2) The court may make an order under subsection (1) only if the court is satisfied that publication would be likely to—
(a) cause extreme hardship to the person charged with, or convicted of, or acquitted of the offence, or any person connected with that person; or
(b) cast suspicion on another person that may cause undue hardship to that person; or
(c) cause undue hardship to any victim of the offence; or
(d) create a real risk of prejudice to a fair trial; or
(e) endanger the safety of any person; or
(f) lead to the identification of another person whose name is suppressed by order or by law; or
(g) prejudice the maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences; or
(h) prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand.
(3) The fact that a defendant is well known does not, of itself, mean that publication of his or her name will result in extreme hardship for the purposes of subsection (2)(a). ”
Interesting to note that Section 393 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 repealed Section 66 of the Land Transport Act 1998 with effect from 5 March 2012:
” 66. Names of drivers convicted of alcohol or drug-related offences may not be suppressed
[Repealed]
Section 66: repealed, on 5 March 2012 (applying in relation to a proceeding for an offence that was commenced before that date), by section 393 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81). “
I’d rather we had blanket name suppression UNTIL a conviction was obtained. Then apply suppression only on the basis of the risk of victims being applied, and/or whether a defense team immediately signals intent to appeal.
Geez I love rhubarb – maybe that’s the problem. It’s a vege (as in animal/vege/mineral) that should be confined to digestive tracts – rather than an animal/vegetable/mineral phenomenon that can be used to bandage up failing ideology.
Christ Draco! I have a marketing idea already! The ‘Rhubarb Bandage’! (Mathew Hooten will be pleased)
John Key, Don McKinnon, Jim Bolger and Pita Sharples are going to Mandela’s funeral.
Personally, I think that Cunliffe should politely decline and send John Minto instead – if Minto would want to go with the Blue boys, that is.
Strangely enough, of the four you mention, it’s perhaps Don McKinnon that can claim the moral high ground – even though he chose to align himself with a bunch of Natz way back when. At least he made some efforts to engage with prisoners and victims of ‘the State’, and ease their plight. As for the others – their record is self-evident.
Abbott claim that nothing is wrong with the kiwi living in OZ policy, that it didn’t hurt his pakeha wife any, is of course classic Australian racism – adopt the whiter babies so you can take the higher moral ground and dictate a racist policy on the rest
So central banks actions for me and you are pretty 2nd degree. None of us use central bank money, we use commercial bank money. An increase in commercial bank money supply (by loan making) can have effects in the real economy, but supplies of cash to banks by a central bank only increases the money supply by effectively giving banks the confidence to lend more loans because they have more central bank reserves to back up any payments they will need to make. However, the link is not simple. If I am a bank treasurer sitting on a book of bad loans, I know that I will need a lot of central bank money in future to settle claims made on me by other banks. Any excess liquidity provided to me by the ECB will be used to shore up my balance sheet, not expand it.
One of the problems with our present monetary system is that neither the central bank nor the government has any real control over how much money is in circulation. That falls almost solely upon the private banks who create most of the money in circulation and they’re incentivised to make ever more ‘safe’ loans which means housing and so we get housing bubbles – just like the one we’re seeing in Auckland now.
@ Draco …. the harder they rise, the harder they fall. It’s just a bloody pain waiting for it all to happen sometimes. (But it is inevitable. Do the smart thing – make sure the entire family is equipped with ear muffs so they don’t have to hear the sound of pigs squealing)
Claims of sea level rise globally. In order for central Australia to be flooded there needs to be ~20m rise in sea levels, but such a vast area being flooded should buffer sea level rises!!!! That maybe good, but there is a problem, the hot environment will necessarily evaporate massive amounts of water into the atmosphere! So if we don’t get the projected sea level rises we may get an even worse scenario of much more rain globally. And a warmer world will also cool faster to balance itself, and that cooling will occur over the northern hemisphere continents (how else did all that ice get there during the ice age). Australia great desert will pump water into the atmosphere and snow will be dumped….
Australia’s vast interior, called the Outback, is ringed by coastal mountains and often quite dry. Because of the low-lying nature of the continent’s eastern interior and the lack of river runoff in its western dry environment, most of the heavy rainfall of 2010–11 remained inland rather than flowing into the oceans. While some of it evaporated in the desert sun, much of it sank into the dry, granular soil of the Western Plateau or filled the Lake Eyre basin in the east.
“No other continent has this combination of atmospheric set-up and topography,” Fasullo says. “Only in Australia could the atmosphere carry such heavy tropical rains to such a large area, only to have those rains fail to make their way to the ocean.”
As much as I follow climate change news, any predictions made on 20m sea rise should be ignored for the fact that it is almost sci-fi-level speculation at the moment. 2m sea rise can happen in the next century and its implications are bad enough that we don’t need to think about after it. If we can’t survive 2m, why should we worry about 20m? 😛
20m rises are indeed implausible in the next century.
Unless the West Antarctic Ice Shelf (WAIS) breaks up. That would lead to a rather rapid 6-7m rise in sea level over the period of about a decade or less.
And that event could easily occur at any time over the next several centuries. It’s happened before and will almost certainly happen again. We just don’t really know when.
What about the fact that water is most dense at 4 degrees? Think of sub 4 degree water as a cold reservoir we humans are using up rapidly, at present heating 0-4 degrees water up to 4 degrees and thus holding back expansion of heating of water over 4 degrees. So we hit a tipping point where expansion begins, although as I point out its non-linear (as sea rise they flood more area and for ever small rise there is more area to inundate).
Of course I’m speculating again, but hey, ain’t like this is a science journal. Also saline water is heavier, as warmer sea water hits the polar refrigerator it becomes more saline (some water freezes) and drops. More fresh water from melting land glaciers means slightly less dense water.
from the article;
-“…Libertarianism in my country is actually being taken seriously as an intelligent mode of political thought…It’s astonishing to me…People are saying ‘I don’t need anything but my ability to make a profit…” then to paraphrase, “We do not care who educates your children, only where ours are schooled, We do not care who funded and built the power generators, who puts out the fires or turns up to medical emergencies and accidents, who else requires water, or how freakin’ hot and turbulent the climate gets…”- Sam Hall…
Yet again, we are gutting our ability to prosecute white collar criminals while putting the boot on the neck of anyone unfortunate enough to not have silver spoons…
Friday spot got lost. But here’s some fast ruminating from Jackie Mason on going to the psychiatrist to find himself.
I went to a psychiatrist. I’m not ashamed to admit it. It’s because I didn’t know who I was. He took one look at me and said right away, “This is not you.”
I said, “If this is not me, then who is it?”
He said, “I don’t know either.”
I said, “Then what do I need you for?”
He said, “To find out who you are.”
I said to myself, If I don’t know who I am, how do I know who to look for? And even if I find me, how do I know it’s me? Besides, if I want to look for me, why do I need him? I can look myself…I need a partner (“shutef”)? Ten years ago I’d be glad to look for anybody. Now I’m doing good. Why should I look for him? He needs help? Why doesn’t he look for me?”
He said, “The search for the real you will have to continue. That’ll be a hundred dollars, please.”
I said to myself, “If this is not the real me, why should I give HIM a hundred dollars? I’ll look for the real me. Let HIM give me a hundred dollars.
…But what if I find the real me and he doesn’t think it’s worth a hundred dollars? Then I’ve stuck my money with the real him.”
Then I said, “For all I know the real me might be going to another psychiatrist altogether. Might even be a psychiatrist himself. Wouldn’t it be funny if you’re the real me and you owe me a hundred dollars?”
I said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll charge you fifty dollars and we’ll call it even.” http://haruth.com/mw/3minutes.html
By an astonishing coincidence, greywarbler, I heard precisely the same comedy item on ‘The Laugh Track’ (Nat Rad) about an hour before you posted this. Serendipity or what !
swordfish
No coincidence, I heard it on rnz too and it was so good I searched on google for it. I couldn’t find any good youtube items but the shot gun speech of the prose carries the joke well. I said we needed some joie de vivre eh! I like to share some good things to keep our spirits up as we hear the policy filtering through that sounds like deja vue. Soon I’ll be so sick of hearing it that I will be writing French all the time, c’est la vie.
You’re a very good sport, greywarbler. In fact, so much so that I now feel more than a smidgen guilty about my mild teasing over the last couple of days. So, I’ll desist at this point with what, in retrospect, could be deemed borderline troll-like behaviour.
(And if I know Mr Prentice like I think I do, he’ll currently be circling me like a shark, just waiting for another dumbarse comment so he can come down like a ton of bricks. With my next comment, I’ll be expecting to see my beautiful teal-blue gravatar next to the name ‘Total Shit-For-Brains’, much like the said 1prent hilariously did a few weeks ago for some Tory troll purporting to be ‘Peter Davis’ (although in that case he altered the moniker to something like ‘Complete and Utter Dickhead’)).
that was just lovely, and well-timed to coincide with the day’s other rewards. (I didn’t wish to bore you with roguish repetition) .Moved me, moved me when it was released, they played it on our local AM radio station at particular times, usually around 4.30-7.30 PM. Bookmarked a non-research site for a change; progress, otherwise, All Selections Hand-Made.
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TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
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Sunday thought: would Kim Dotcom not be the perfect new leader for the ACT party?
After all, he has successfully ousted the previous leader, he is apparently a genuine libertarian, and he is looking for a political vehicle…
Dotcom’s going to want something that he is in charge of from the ground up as party president. And do you think Jonkey is going to gift ACT Epsom with Dotcom in it.
i doubt john key will gift epsom to a truly libertarian act, no corporate handouts for one thing.
Might not need a gift. Might not be Epsom either…
Maya Angelou tribute to Nelson Mandela: His Day is Done
Dotcon won’t support any party that supports the TPPA.
Because of copyright
It appears from 2 stories in today’s Sunday Herald that the pathetic Paula Bennett is in for a deserved spanking having spent the last couple of days misleading the Parliament on the number of child abuse/neglect cases reported this year,
A ‘computer program fault’ is apparently what will be blamed for Bennett’s ‘mistake’ where She has used Parliaments Question Time lambasting the Opposition with claims that cases of abuse and neglect have been falling when all the time the opposite is the case,
The second of the stories in the Sunday Herald highlights the fact that having refused the Children’s Commissioner the monies necessary to undertake a comprehensive study of ‘child poverty’ Bennett will be less than pleased that using His initiative said Commissioner found the necessary 500 grand from the Roy McKenzie charitable foundation and the report produced is said to paint an extremely bleak picture of ‘child poverty’ in New Zealand which will be made public this week,
Another FAILURE by another shameful Minister in Slippery’s Shameful National Government…
Because people don’t like to go to whaleoils site heres something interesting:
I just wanted to share with you some of my experience as a beginning teacher in NZ and my views on the education system.
Unlike most teachers, I am not a lefty, not a unionist and I am male. I got into teaching with the sole purpose of making a difference in education. So i took the leap and enrolled in a local university and began my teaching degree. It was here that the ineptitude of our education system became evident. Over the next three years, I was surrounded by a ragtag group of people, ranging from recent school graduates to the nearing retirement aged. The year I began was the first year they doubled the size of the intake, from 30-60 and this created a number of problems.
Firstly, the campus was not large enough to hold a larger intake and our teacher training suffered from overcrowding and under resourcing. As time wore on, it became evident that things were not “equal”. Maori students were given the fast track on anything and everything and it soon became clear that they were destined for “greater” things. Some students were being treated differently by the lecturers as well. I remember one guy posted on Facebook, on the morning an assignment was due, that he better think about doing it. He handed the assignment in a week late and still received a pass mark. Uni policy for most assignments states that you lose 10% per day late and this guy was definitely not an “A” student. This sort of thing was a regular occurrence for the next three years and it made it hard for me to respect my cohort and the university.
Fast forward to the final year. Out of 45 people who made it to the end of the degree, only about 10 jobs came up in our area and 5 of them were taken up by new teachers (myself included) at the same school. And now, over 3 years later, only half of my graduating class have jobs as teachers. It was at this school that everything I thought, and knew, became irrelevant. It quickly became evident that most of what we had learned over the past 3 years had nothing to do with actual teaching. Those classes on creative pedagogy and integrated curriculums were pushed by the wayside, as the school had a focus on literacy and numeracy.
Add to this the fact that not one person from the school, took the time to really sit down and explain to us how their reading, writing and maths programmes actually worked and you have a recipe for disaster. So here I was, at a new job, in a new career, wandering through the “dark” with no light in sight. The phrase “trial by fire” is an understatement to what I endured. Only once I had been there a while and got to know people, that I began to get shown things (it took 6 months before I received a tour of the resource room).
It was during my first year at this school, that I began to experience the true bureaucracy that exists in education and its responsibility for the downfall of student achievement. As professional development in the school, we were subjected to an improvement programme that required us to be observed by an “expert” who would attend the school each term and check on our progress. During my first meeting with this expert and all subsequent meetings, he proceeded to identify all of the bad things I was doing as a teacher, never once identifying anything positive. He then ended each meeting without actually telling me how to improve or change my teaching. After speaking with other colleagues, this was the “norm” and happened to everyone, every-time. For this “in-depth” analysis of the school’s teachers, he was getting paid about $40k per year by the school.
Which brings me to his greatest advocate at the school, the deputy principal. Now at most schools I have attended and had the pleasure of interacting with, the principal is the figurehead of the school community. They are usually charismatic, passionate, friendly and a great advocate for their staff and pupils. Our principal was none of these, he had the charisma of a fence post. And although he was the figurehead of the school community, the school itself was run by his deputy, who had affectionately been nicknamed “The Pitbull”. This hobbit-esque woman ruled with an iron fist and her word was law. Because you can’t argue with 40 years of experience right? It became this woman’s crusade to improve the literacy and numeracy within the school and this meant by any means necessary. It was widely known that the school marked harder at the beginning of the year to make the marks lower and therefore increase the perceived “improvement” achieved over the year. But I began to question things when we were told that our end of year marks were to low and we need to “fix” them. To me, this is called fudging the numbers, but to my colleagues this was a common practice that did occur at other schools also.
So over the next 18 months I taught at this school and the last 6 months were rocky to say the least. My class in my second year became known as the class from hell. I started the year with 2 bipolar boys and 2 girls who had been separated at their last school. The class quickly descended into an unsafe environment for the other students. Here are some examples of the behaviour of these students. One girl, assaulted boys on a regular basis, by pulling hair, punching, kicking and stomping. She also threatened to murder a student’s family and threatened another teacher. One boy trashed the classroom in a fit of rage and after this he was moved to another class, flipped out at lunchtime and was removed in handcuffs by police. Another boy pulled a knife on a student in the classroom in front of a reliever. Also, another boy threw tables, chairs and objects around the classroom in numerous rages. Oh, and these were 11 year old students in a decile 7 school. When I approached the management for assistance with handling the class (this was less than 2 months into the year) I was told that it was all my fault and that I was to blame for everything that occurred in the classroom. To cut a long story short, my competence was called into question and I was effectively placed on probation. I chose to fight the school and undertook an advice and guidance programme to clear my name. This did not happen to a colleague though, who faced with a similar situation, chose to allow the school to help her find employment elsewhere. This was arranged by the school management and another local school, and was held over her head even after she left.
As a result of this, I resigned from the school and have left NZ to teach overseas. The grass is much greener over here and I now teach in a school that has a supportive management team and I am able to teach with the advice and guidance of people that I respect wilfully, not because they intimidate people.
I left NZ because there were not many options available to me. There is a lack of jobs, there are too many older teachers in education who are stuck in their ways and the schooling system is run like an “old boys” club. Also, the fact that education is treated as a political football in NZ means that every 3 years or so, it is 2 steps forward and 1 step back. When Labour and National finally decide to agree on actually fixing the education system rather than promoting their own political agendas, I will happily return to NZ. National standards are a good concept, as they give us benchmarks to aim for. But if they are not standard across all schools, they are completely useless. To finish off, I want to add my 2 cents to the recent PISA results discussion. NZ does have a world class education system and it suits “our” people, who are creative thinkers and doers, not robots. But the one difference Asia has that sets them apart, is that yes, you can fail and failure is not an option. When NZ can realise that “working towards”, “below” and “not achieved” are all bullshit ways of saying “FAIL”, the better.
‘..Also, the fact that education is treated as a political football in NZ means that every 3 years or so, it is 2 steps forward and 1 step back. When Labour and National finally decide to agree on actually fixing the education system rather than promoting their own political agendas,…’
I have heard much the same from my daughter who teaches in primary school and it is a fair comment that cold be applied not just to education, luckily she hasn’t experienced any of the other things in the schools she has taught at that your correspondent mentions.
Well I do take postings like this with a grain of salt (could be due to sour grapes and all that) but as an overview he does bring up some good points especially the bit about both parties being to blame
A Few points. (given that I bothered to read anything that might have been posted in the gutter in the first place.
“I was surrounded by a ragtag group of people, ranging from recent school graduates to the nearing retirement aged.”
I understand 45 to be the maximum age of enrolment unless under exceptional circumstances. Of course the young whipper-snappers have all the answers – can never learn from their elders.
“True bureaucracy” – emotive words but not explained.
“Professional Development” – School focussing on Literacy and Numeracy. He should have been an expert already in both of these areas – that’s what he should have been bringing with his diploma.
He proffers a whole lot of criticism of education based on his unsubstantiated claims of experience in one school, and yet in the whole missive does not appear to suggest one solution.
That’ll be because the entire thing is made up.
Well of course it is, anything that runs contrary to what you believe has to be made up
chris73
So your comments on the points I raise …
As above really, I suspect theres more then a few sour grapes at work but as an overview he does bring up some points about whats wrong with the system (both parties sticking their oars in)
I mean when I was in uni the fee paying students from China were certainly hogging the lecturers time, making it difficult for everyone else and the amount of collaboration on assignments was more then what was expected so their were a lot complaints made but from my pov they were just being smart and they got the results so fair play but someone else could see it another way
I think hes mostly venting but I agree that both parties play political football with education and thats where most of the problems start with
chris. Buy a keyboard with fucking quote marks on it. I have no idea how many of those words are from you, Jason Ede, or some other subnormal twat.
That’s tough for a “cut and paste” web site.
That makes no sense.
You really can’t work out how much of that is mine…ok heres mine:
“Because people don’t like to go to whaleoils site heres something interesting:” and the rest is his
Dick
Don’t be a fuckwit chris, you often quote people without any indication which parts are quoted.
In the above, for all anyone knows the entire last paragraph could’ve been yours.
It’s annoying as all fuck to read and it would only take you a second to add a couple of quote marks like a normal human would.
The only person who would possibly think that the last paragraph could be mine would be you
or anyone else who has wrestled with your bizarre and arbitrary system of punctuation.
Just use fucking quote marks like everyone else manages to.
Who made you the arbiter of grammar and punctuation? I’ll post how I post and if you don’t like it then either fuck off or don’t read it
Your school didn’t have a focus on literacy, that much is obvious…
“Who made you the arbiter of grammar and punctuation? “
Yeah, I invented quote marks and I’m trying to impose them on the world for my own gratification.
🙄
Moron.
And how DARE you suggest to chris a simple and quick method for making his comments slightly more readable. You utter, utter bastard.
catty 😀 ( avoirdupois )
not putting quote marks is a de facto claim of ownership/authorship of the words..
..phillip ure..
Having observed young Christopher’s progress over several years now, we are very pleased with his development into a more rational commenter who at times makes useful contributions to The Standard learning environment.
One notes a welcome change in attitude not uncommon in formerly troubled students as the reality of poll results brings home the futility of pointless abusive behaviour.
A capable young lad showing increasing promise: more work needed in the areas of political comprehension and logic, but overall a good result from a difficult personal beginning: end of year rating: ACHIEVED.
Not sure if thats a burn or not but its amusing either way
-Could do better in Social Studies.
@ ak
chris 73 could even become the next Frank Mac (here’s hoping). Maybe there’s something to be said for allowing trolls to enter the site, and be confronted with rational arguments.
After all, there are quite a few Natzis that are now utterly embarrassed by the crass, self-serving, self-indulgent, selfish policies the party they once claimed an affinity with has now become.
(In my experience, they’re usually the ones that can’t stand the likes of trader John, or ladder puller-uppers, or – snobbery aside – nouveau riche Johnny-cum-latelies – but whatever their motivation – they are disillusioned).
Sometimes I wonder why Chris Finlayson has been hanging out so long – but then, maybe I misjudged his character, and maybe he is actually … well – just scared basically and a Limp Biscuit.
Silly Labour (bloody silly, even fucktardinous dimwittery) …. ‘cos Labour still has its equivalents.
Shame we can’t get them all together where they could reminisce – perhaps over a glass of Ch-ch-ch-chardonay – perhaps somewhere in HawkesBay, or even Waiheke Island.
Not that I had an issue working out what was yours.
But in case you don’t know, here’s how to quote.
[blockquote]Quoting..[/blockquote]
Just replace the [ ] with the greater than less than symbols to get it to work
Took me a while to realise Chris that your post was a quote.
Some of the stuff reported is questionable. The violence by kids in the class of 11 year olds is not credible. You would not be placed “on probation” if there were problems.
Note that the greener overseas is not named.
Politicians should leave schools alone. Leave it Education to develop properly researched and tested improvements without political interference, without League Tables, without using kids as footballs, without fear and favour.
For over a hundred years Education has evolved an improved from the bottom up until recently when this Government has interfered with disastrous results. We had had high PISA rankings because of Educational school driven innovation but this was in spite of political interference. (Mind you PISA rankings might cause unintended consequences like narrowing the focus of teaching and learning.)
Earlier I posted this bit (and I’ll put in quotes as well)
“Well I do take postings like this with a grain of salt (could be due to sour grapes and all that) but as an overview he does bring up some good points especially the bit about both parties being to blame”
I spent some time at the Christchurch College of Education a few years back and while there were some worthy people it also had its fair share of ex-hippies and people who were all theory and no practical
But thats just my opinion
… nothing wrong with ex-hippies mate. Generally peace loving people who like to get on with their neighbours for the betterment of all mankind. chris73 some advice – don’t discredit your own discussions by letting your prejudices show through.
There may well have been some friction (may not be the correct term) as I was still in uniform at the time and the people that I was dealing with weren’t the same people that he was teaching about
He was training us to be dealing with nice, well-mannered middle class kids so there wasn’t anything about conflict management or how to deal with troubled kids
Chris,
Both my parents were teachers. They met and married at ATC and both variously worked in many schools much of their lives. Later my father moved into another career, but Mum taught Intermediate until she retired.
She loved the classroom. She was really good at it. She hated the staffroom; all of the problems she ever encountered started there. So what your source has written has a certain old familiarity to it.
But what has changed in the last few decades is that we have been constantly diminishing teaching as a profession with meddling, micromanagement and over evaluation. Great teachers are not robots, rattling off a narrowly proscribed curriculum according to a tight timetable.
Children are not widgets in an education factory. They are unique, they each have their own strengths that will be uncovered in its own time … with encouragement and care. And some children will respond to some teachers, and not others.
Like many professions, teaching is about 50% science and 50% an artform. Great teachers have learnt how to weave these two coda into a true “educement”; inducing the flowering of emotional, intellectual and aesthetic sensibility in their charges.
It is the same weaving of the rational and the instinctive, the received wisdom and the creative impulse … that makes a great doctor, an outstanding jurist, the inspirational engineer or scientist. Equally if we treat teachers like disposable units in a factory, they will treat their children the same. And we will regret that bitterly.
PS: The incidents of violence mentioned are not implausible. Mum never saw anything quite that bad, but not too far off. Invariably … without exception …. the root cause lay in a grossly dysfunctional family. Incidentally she taught most of her life in one of NZ’s poshest suburbs.
Personally I think teachers should be paid more
Personally I think we should value them more.
+1
My BF’s vision for education is that Teaching would be a rock-star profession: it will pay well and be highly respected. Instead of the best and brightest going off to become professionals, and those in the (typically) middle-lower end of the spectrum who don’t know what else to do with their lives so become teachers, teaching would be an inviting profession for the best and brightest.
Also when the teachers union demands a pay rise, smaller class sizes and all of the other changes in conditions that they want, they will get everything they ask for except the pay rise… which comes later when they prove the things they asked for are effective.
For outstanding excellence in educational commentary with distinction: RedLogix 6.3.1.1.1.
A must-read on the subject and as always a pleasure old chap, do keep it up.
Expertise :
-“it is not necessary for an individual to have a professional or academic qualification.”-see shepherds.
-Skilled Memory Theory ; Ericsson et al;
– Deep structures ; Chi et al;
-and “dialogic expertise”
from “an ordinary fellow from another town” – Twain 😀
“hippies” have quite open minds which is a good asset when helping children to think critically.
Corruption and kickbacks in NZ business, especially with contractors to councils etc as part of PPPs. The situation is being highlighted with a focus on rading contracts to Auckland Council since 2010:
Its not just auckland but rural areas where big contracts to big players squeeze local contractors out.
Then the locals discover the maintenance cycles and quality of work deteriorate over time and roads that used to be well looked after are let go as thats all the big contractor allowed for OR the local crowd lowballed it to get the work and ends up losing money.
blacktop have plenty to be unhappy about with downers and FH practices.
small players “sleep with the fishes”.
Why such headlines from a “serious” media outlet. “Knife embedded in head”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11168963
When is the news media going to drop the continuous assaults on decency?
If they wish to report on a vicious crime, put it in a crime section where those who enjoy such reporting can head to and be satisfied.
My “Bookmark” directs me to the news outlet.
I therefore do not need to be greeted by such revolting headlines.
The Herald is not serious.
It is garbage.
I dunno, quite a lot of it is serious garbage. John Armstrong and most editorials in particular come to mind.
Aha Arfamo. So does “serious garbage” stink?
Yup.
@ herald:..credit where credit is due..
..the hos has an editorial ripping into paula bennett..
..for doing nothing about child poverty..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11168837
which is described as a ‘blight’..
..the other side of the coin is this exercise is arse-kissing of bennett..
..by ‘tory hack’ audrey young..
..where the interest is not so much in the gag-inducing exercise in hagiography..
..but in the comments-thread..where bennett/young are both hung out to dry..
..the comments-thread was closed off at 162..with the few in support looking like they were written by bennetts’ staffers..
..bennett would need to be made of asbestos..not to feel the vitriol/hatred directed her way..
..her due for her persecutions of the weakest/poorest..
..(and i added my five cents worth of comment..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/tory-hack-audrey-young-delivers-a-master-class-in-arse-kissing-in-a-profile-of-paula-bennett-and-gets-monstered-by-commenters/
phillip ure..
i wonder how the afrikaaner boltholes up in the east coast bays are reacting to mandelas’ death..
..those who fled when apartheid was dismantled..
..didn’t he ‘ruin everything’ for them..?
..hadn’t apartheid been ‘good’ for/to them..?
..is there a (modern day) deep south reaction to kennedy assassination going on there..?
..and what about the reactions in our most racist city..?..
..christchurch..?
..are the skinheads/white-powers out celebrating in the streets..as if after a football victory..?
..phillip ure..
Rich kid wants special treatment on drink driving charge because of famous Dad
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9491090/Teen-wants-off-hook-because-of-famous-dad
Thats the problem we have with the name suppression laws in NZ
Do we have a problem with the name suppression law, or the way different judges apply it?
Both but mostly with the judges
Examples re the judges please ? And a cogent expression of your point.
Being that you wouldn’t answer any of the repeated questions I put to you I see no reason to answer yours
So I’ll try again, what did you mean by this:
“Give the missus a serious seeing to when she got home late with the Maccers dinner and no dipping sauce didya ?”
See I’m assuming you were asking if I’m physically abusive towards my wife however I’d like to know what you meant by it and why you come to that conclusion
Answer me that and I’ll answer your question
being a bit precious, aren’t you?
No not really, people can disagree with me all they like (and they do) but suggesting I beat my wife simply because you disagree with me isn’t clever and it isn’t funny
Fair enough, but you can say that without all the “what did you mean” and twee I’ll-answer-yours-when-you-answer-mine bullshit.
I disagree, if someone wants me to answer a question from them then they should answer mine as well
but why ask a question for which you have already assumed an answer?
Good question McF.
And also, has chris ever answered the first question? The one he keeps going on about, the one about his wife and the maccas?
‘Cos apparently, not answering pointless rhetorical questions can have serious consequences regarding future expectations of answers from others.
Vince Siemer seems to be a very dedicated axe-grinder but every now and then I check in to his site for a read-up on his latest sharpenings. His New Zealand Judge Files are interesting reading.
http://www.kiwisfirst.co.nz/
If his dad “makes people laugh” he has a good chance……..
Actually I see it as a problem with our media.
The case should go ahead like any normal DIC. The names should not be suppressed.
But neither should it be an opportunity for the media to indulge in a feeding frenzy just because the father of the person convicted is a politician.
Family and private lives are off-limits. This is why.
Relevant part of Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 re name suppression:
” 200. Court may suppress identity of defendant
(1) A court may make an order forbidding publication of the name, address, or occupation of a person who is charged with, or convicted or acquitted of, an offence.
(2) The court may make an order under subsection (1) only if the court is satisfied that publication would be likely to—
(a) cause extreme hardship to the person charged with, or convicted of, or acquitted of the offence, or any person connected with that person; or
(b) cast suspicion on another person that may cause undue hardship to that person; or
(c) cause undue hardship to any victim of the offence; or
(d) create a real risk of prejudice to a fair trial; or
(e) endanger the safety of any person; or
(f) lead to the identification of another person whose name is suppressed by order or by law; or
(g) prejudice the maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences; or
(h) prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand.
(3) The fact that a defendant is well known does not, of itself, mean that publication of his or her name will result in extreme hardship for the purposes of subsection (2)(a). ”
Interesting to note that Section 393 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 repealed Section 66 of the Land Transport Act 1998 with effect from 5 March 2012:
” 66. Names of drivers convicted of alcohol or drug-related offences may not be suppressed
[Repealed]
Section 66: repealed, on 5 March 2012 (applying in relation to a proceeding for an offence that was commenced before that date), by section 393 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81). “
I’d rather we had blanket name suppression UNTIL a conviction was obtained. Then apply suppression only on the basis of the risk of victims being applied, and/or whether a defense team immediately signals intent to appeal.
ooops “applied” should read “identified”
(dotage is prematurely knocking at the door – all those ‘aluminum’ saucepans)
the ‘aluminium’ thesis has not remained current. 🙂 (though not healthy for rhubarb to be cooked in).
Geez I love rhubarb – maybe that’s the problem. It’s a vege (as in animal/vege/mineral) that should be confined to digestive tracts – rather than an animal/vegetable/mineral phenomenon that can be used to bandage up failing ideology.
Christ Draco! I have a marketing idea already! The ‘Rhubarb Bandage’! (Mathew Hooten will be pleased)
John Key, Don McKinnon, Jim Bolger and Pita Sharples are going to Mandela’s funeral.
Personally, I think that Cunliffe should politely decline and send John Minto instead – if Minto would want to go with the Blue boys, that is.
Strangely enough, of the four you mention, it’s perhaps Don McKinnon that can claim the moral high ground – even though he chose to align himself with a bunch of Natz way back when. At least he made some efforts to engage with prisoners and victims of ‘the State’, and ease their plight. As for the others – their record is self-evident.
Abbott claim that nothing is wrong with the kiwi living in OZ policy, that it didn’t hurt his pakeha wife any, is of course classic Australian racism – adopt the whiter babies so you can take the higher moral ground and dictate a racist policy on the rest
Why I don’t care what the ECB does today
One of the problems with our present monetary system is that neither the central bank nor the government has any real control over how much money is in circulation. That falls almost solely upon the private banks who create most of the money in circulation and they’re incentivised to make ever more ‘safe’ loans which means housing and so we get housing bubbles – just like the one we’re seeing in Auckland now.
@ Draco …. the harder they rise, the harder they fall. It’s just a bloody pain waiting for it all to happen sometimes. (But it is inevitable. Do the smart thing – make sure the entire family is equipped with ear muffs so they don’t have to hear the sound of pigs squealing)
Claims of sea level rise globally. In order for central Australia to be flooded there needs to be ~20m rise in sea levels, but such a vast area being flooded should buffer sea level rises!!!! That maybe good, but there is a problem, the hot environment will necessarily evaporate massive amounts of water into the atmosphere! So if we don’t get the projected sea level rises we may get an even worse scenario of much more rain globally. And a warmer world will also cool faster to balance itself, and that cooling will occur over the northern hemisphere continents (how else did all that ice get there during the ice age). Australia great desert will pump water into the atmosphere and snow will be dumped….
Or something else might happen.
Australia’s vast interior, called the Outback, is ringed by coastal mountains and often quite dry. Because of the low-lying nature of the continent’s eastern interior and the lack of river runoff in its western dry environment, most of the heavy rainfall of 2010–11 remained inland rather than flowing into the oceans. While some of it evaporated in the desert sun, much of it sank into the dry, granular soil of the Western Plateau or filled the Lake Eyre basin in the east.
“No other continent has this combination of atmospheric set-up and topography,” Fasullo says. “Only in Australia could the atmosphere carry such heavy tropical rains to such a large area, only to have those rains fail to make their way to the ocean.”
https://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/news/10090/global-sea-level-rise-dampened-australia-floods
As much as I follow climate change news, any predictions made on 20m sea rise should be ignored for the fact that it is almost sci-fi-level speculation at the moment. 2m sea rise can happen in the next century and its implications are bad enough that we don’t need to think about after it. If we can’t survive 2m, why should we worry about 20m? 😛
20m rises are indeed implausible in the next century.
Unless the West Antarctic Ice Shelf (WAIS) breaks up. That would lead to a rather rapid 6-7m rise in sea level over the period of about a decade or less.
And that event could easily occur at any time over the next several centuries. It’s happened before and will almost certainly happen again. We just don’t really know when.
What about the fact that water is most dense at 4 degrees? Think of sub 4 degree water as a cold reservoir we humans are using up rapidly, at present heating 0-4 degrees water up to 4 degrees and thus holding back expansion of heating of water over 4 degrees. So we hit a tipping point where expansion begins, although as I point out its non-linear (as sea rise they flood more area and for ever small rise there is more area to inundate).
Of course I’m speculating again, but hey, ain’t like this is a science journal. Also saline water is heavier, as warmer sea water hits the polar refrigerator it becomes more saline (some water freezes) and drops. More fresh water from melting land glaciers means slightly less dense water.
Science journals aren’t all they are cracked up to be
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott-science-journals
Perhaps you have not included all the ice which rests above sea level.
David Simon, creator of The Wire, speaks of the necessity of Marxism and the horror show of the “Two Americas”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/david-simon-capitalism-marx-two-americas-wire
from the article;
-“…Libertarianism in my country is actually being taken seriously as an intelligent mode of political thought…It’s astonishing to me…People are saying ‘I don’t need anything but my ability to make a profit…” then to paraphrase, “We do not care who educates your children, only where ours are schooled, We do not care who funded and built the power generators, who puts out the fires or turns up to medical emergencies and accidents, who else requires water, or how freakin’ hot and turbulent the climate gets…”- Sam Hall…
karol @7 raised the issue of corruption in NZ but the following is currently buried on Stuff under National News (no headline for it despite it’s far reaching consequences):
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9491510/Serious-Fraud-Office-faces-cutback
Yet again, we are gutting our ability to prosecute white collar criminals while putting the boot on the neck of anyone unfortunate enough to not have silver spoons…
Friday spot got lost. But here’s some fast ruminating from Jackie Mason on going to the psychiatrist to find himself.
I went to a psychiatrist. I’m not ashamed to admit it. It’s because I didn’t know who I was. He took one look at me and said right away, “This is not you.”
I said, “If this is not me, then who is it?”
He said, “I don’t know either.”
I said, “Then what do I need you for?”
He said, “To find out who you are.”
I said to myself, If I don’t know who I am, how do I know who to look for? And even if I find me, how do I know it’s me? Besides, if I want to look for me, why do I need him? I can look myself…I need a partner (“shutef”)? Ten years ago I’d be glad to look for anybody. Now I’m doing good. Why should I look for him? He needs help? Why doesn’t he look for me?”
He said, “The search for the real you will have to continue. That’ll be a hundred dollars, please.”
I said to myself, “If this is not the real me, why should I give HIM a hundred dollars? I’ll look for the real me. Let HIM give me a hundred dollars.
…But what if I find the real me and he doesn’t think it’s worth a hundred dollars? Then I’ve stuck my money with the real him.”
Then I said, “For all I know the real me might be going to another psychiatrist altogether. Might even be a psychiatrist himself. Wouldn’t it be funny if you’re the real me and you owe me a hundred dollars?”
I said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll charge you fifty dollars and we’ll call it even.”
http://haruth.com/mw/3minutes.html
By an astonishing coincidence, greywarbler, I heard precisely the same comedy item on ‘The Laugh Track’ (Nat Rad) about an hour before you posted this. Serendipity or what !
swordfish
No coincidence, I heard it on rnz too and it was so good I searched on google for it. I couldn’t find any good youtube items but the shot gun speech of the prose carries the joke well. I said we needed some joie de vivre eh! I like to share some good things to keep our spirits up as we hear the policy filtering through that sounds like deja vue. Soon I’ll be so sick of hearing it that I will be writing French all the time, c’est la vie.
You’re a very good sport, greywarbler. In fact, so much so that I now feel more than a smidgen guilty about my mild teasing over the last couple of days. So, I’ll desist at this point with what, in retrospect, could be deemed borderline troll-like behaviour.
(And if I know Mr Prentice like I think I do, he’ll currently be circling me like a shark, just waiting for another dumbarse comment so he can come down like a ton of bricks. With my next comment, I’ll be expecting to see my beautiful teal-blue gravatar next to the name ‘Total Shit-For-Brains’, much like the said 1prent hilariously did a few weeks ago for some Tory troll purporting to be ‘Peter Davis’ (although in that case he altered the moniker to something like ‘Complete and Utter Dickhead’)).
Only $100???? Not a real psychiatrist then 😉
Tracey
I would swear it’s a bit dated though the subject is still current, and quite electric.
ahh, but Are Friends Electric? , or do they need regular winding up…
(a $100, oh what I could do with a $100, let me think…)
I prefer to play Down In The Park myself
…And just for a second I thought I remembered you…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22Z4Tv1zn-s
Not like you to leave out the link RT. A newer version of that particular alienated angst.
that was just lovely, and well-timed to coincide with the day’s other rewards. (I didn’t wish to bore you with roguish repetition) .Moved me, moved me when it was released, they played it on our local AM radio station at particular times, usually around 4.30-7.30 PM. Bookmarked a non-research site for a change; progress, otherwise, All Selections Hand-Made.
Thanks for the reminder. It moved me too, as a teenager. And still, listening to it again.
An interesting example of what the government can gather from your location data collected from your own cellphone use and licence plate readers-
https://www.aclu.org/meet-jack-or-what-government-could-do-all-location-data
The man was honest.
The way I remember it, Ted Koppel said, ‘Well, now, the Communists….’ Mandela said, ‘They were the only ones who helped us. Next question.’”
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/the-day-a-newly-freed-mandela-came-to-new-york/
Doctor doctor..
http://forward.com/articles/188881/doctor-cannabis/?p=all
Love to… Love “…well, it’s been too many times and I can’t go back…” 😎 now,off to watch Prometheus !
CV yeah the ying and yang of economics.
Something I had described 3 years ago on this site.
OMG, Bernard Hickey used the ‘d’ word.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11168792
I’ve just seen that piece.