It came to me overnight. No drugs, no alcohol, so it must have been the cheese.
The answer as to who NZF will choose for Government is both. No wait and keep reading. For one half of the term NZF goes with National, and then for the other half of the term he goes with Labour/Greens.
See my estimate is that the 7 year itch needs to be adjusted into NZ Government years (what will become known as the NZGY): One and a half NZGYs is equal to 7 human years.
And so with the honeymoon is over, and everybody is fighting over who is the favourite child, it’s separation time and you need to find a new significant other. Luckily in NZ this time we have a spare. Now there are not many electorates around the world who plan so well.
As to the sequencing, well that something that I hope will come to me after tonight’s bout of dreaming.
The “Peters Deal” has already been made. It requires that John Key, newly stripped of his titles, returns to Parliament to play the role of caddy to Winston, as the new PM strides about the Beehive dressed in plus-fours and spats, swinging a flanged niblick at politicians from all parties, foolish enough to venture onto the “Links” as Winston calls what were previously known as the Halls of Power. “It’s a simple and straightforward game”, quipped Peters at his first press conference as Prime Minister, clipping Key behind the ear for a momentary lapse of concentration and also for fun, “the aim being to belt these useless sods into the Joyce Hole with as many swings as I choose. Yes, my caddy “Jonny” was reluctant to take the role, but given what I’ve got on him, he had no choice, and certainly, I am enjoying the sound of his constant whining. The golf bag I have him carrying is loaded heavy with full bottles of wine from his own vineyard – rubbish I won’t be drinking, but then, neither will he!”. Prime Minister Peters said he’d be needing a course of Botox shortly, as the muscles in his face responsible for his trade mark grin are beginning to fibrillate from constant use.
Going at full power Robert G. Please hurry with the next episode. I feel like the eager USA residents waiting for the boat from UK for the next instalment of Charles Dickens’ Little Nell.
The Q&A panel suggested there should be set procedures for MMP party negotiations once all votes are counted. After all we should be better at it after 21 years of MMP one participant claimed. For example Russell Norman suggested that the party with the most votes lead initial negotiations rather than have a minority party manage “bids” from two large parties.
So what ideas can be generated here, in this forum, to improve the status quo?
What does that even mean? NZF policies are all going to be enacted by the new Parliament?
The problem with having journalists interview one another is that none of them are particularly intelligent or insightful. That’s why we end up with these trite fortune cookies instead.
Dont buy into that tail dog crap. The negotiations look fine its about giving the country the nearest policy match that we voted for. It is quite proper that the smaller parties should gain this influence thats why we have mmp
Exactly. We have MMP so that the majority of people have a say rather than being ruled by a minority as happened under FPP and which, seemingly, National and the journalists want us to return to.
The only reason Peters is a problem is because the media gives him additional power and then Peters plays them. If the MSM were reporting to inform the public instead of being circus promoters and entertainers then we’d have a process that served us better.
The problem is the media saying there is a problem.
I’ve seen and heard so much stuff about Peters “holding the country to ransom” and implying he is doing terrible things.
I thought he was doing what he has to do.
And I am fairly certain that whatever is being said behind closed doors isn’t out here. So how can he be judged on that? At this stage judging him on policies we say are terrible is rubbish. He fairly got to that position with those policies. Like National and Labour got to their positions with policies some say are crap, destructive and dumb.
IMO Peters (historically) has been a big part of creating this situation, so I’m not that sympathetic to him personally (I rate him as one of the main reasons why we have a bastard version of MMP rather than a representative one). The MSM is out of control. They’re all power mongers.
I’m not convinced there is anything significantly wrong with the conventions on how coalitions are formed though. I’m also not convinced that rules would force power mongers to behave better, or at least that this is the best way to get power mongers to behave better.
For many, including the panel, the tail wags the dog.
Funny how all these right-wingers who are supposedly so familiar with how negotiations work in the private sector are suddenly horrified that one party to the negotiations might choose to exercise whatever leverage it has and somebody needs to do something about it. Harden the fuck up, you pathetic whiners.
“Funny how all these right-wingers who are supposedly so familiar with how negotiations work…”
Since when was Russell Norman (who made the suggestion) a right-winger?
If Norman’s idea was followed this time, NZF would negotiate with National first and only talk to Lab+Greens if they couldn’t reach an arrangement with the Nats. They wouldn’t be able to weigh up different options and it seems to me that if they did move on to the “second choice’ negotiations they would have less leverage as that team would know the small party had used up its other option (while they would still have plenty of leverage in the first set of negotiations), so that would distort things somewhat.
Personally, I don’t see a big problem and I’d be fine with them taking more time. I think Peters has created a perception of being a bit of a demagogue and a rogue, but presumably he’s learnt from his previous coalition experiences and he seems keen to handle things differently from 20 years ago. If anything, I think he’s rushing it this time. I can see an agreement in principal being reached by Thursday, but not an actual coalition deal. Confidence and supply may well be on the cards.
I can see an agreement in principal being reached by Thursday, but not an actual coalition deal. Confidence and supply may well be on the cards.
If I was betting person that would be my choice. The fact he is adamant an agreement can be reached by Thursday suggests to me he has already made up his mind to go with C and S. The question is, will it be with National or Lab/Greens? No bets on that one.
Let elected representatives decide how they’ll represent their constituents in whichever way they choose. The “problem” with the status quo is impatience.
Who’s going to police Russel’s attempt to legitimise the “moral mandate”?
It would only need a simple signal from the Governor-General, within a timetable saying they had x days for the highest -polling party to propose a government, after which it goes to second place to have a go within x days.
Why should any party be given negotiating privileges not given to all the other parties? Governing is about managing a variety of competing demands. I think the first grouping to show they can come together for a majority, in a completely unstructured negotiating arena, is genuinely the best outcome for the country. Put any preconditions on that and the chances of a not-the-best outcome increase.
Yeah, I was surprised to see Russel Norman promoting the idea of privileging the party with the most votes. It would reward National for cannibalising its potential coalition partners and encourage Labour to do the same. Strictly a proposal for FPP enthusiasts, I would have thought.
In Negotiations with big countries like China or USA, tiny NZ manages to gain some advantages but the tail waggers would argue that NZ should jolly well sit down and do what those big countries dictate. Small players have no rights!
I heard the all white male panel wanting rules for how to talk to each other.
What a bizarre concept. It really is simple.
After the election parties approach each other and have a conversation. This is called “talking”. Then if they want to, they raise the level of the talking to negotiation. Negotiation is talking with a view to making an Agreement.
WHy is this so hard? I suspect part of the problem is having an all male, white panel for a start.
“After the election parties approach each other and have a conversation. This is called “talking”. Then if they want to, they raise the level of the talking to negotiation. Negotiation is talking with a view to making an Agreement.”
That’s pretty well it, like minded parties will have more in common and commit sooner to negotiations.
The J Key trained media is PATHETIC, has no idea about how to deal with the outcome of the election and has no info to pass on so just makes stuff up, surmises and in some cases tries to influence negotiations towards their beloved party.
For nine long years national have unfunded and under valued our schools and educators.
Schools have been struggling and asking for change for years, but national have not listened, rather they have done what ever they want to do and to hell with how our educators feel about it. NewsRoom have published an article today about it.
The value of education in any society is enormous, education lifts people out of poverty, reduces crime, educated people raise economies and save lives.
One of the greatest gifts we can give children is to help them feel valued and important, a way to do this is through education. But if we aren’t valuing our educators and schools, how is that making our children feel? If educators are underpaid and overworked and not even listened to, then the whole education system suffers.
Living in hope for change and support in our education sector, one thing is for sure all the opposition parties value education, educators and kids, that gives me hope.
In the meantime, if you are able, rock on down to your local school and get involved and volunteer. The rewards are enormous, and it helps to bring communities together and saves lives.
NZ1st, Labour and Greens all want change in our education system, so do voters, more voted for education changes than keeping the system as it is.
Three more sleeps, we need a win for the kids of NZ and those that educate them.
It will be an enormous task to make the changes to our education system which need to be made.
I fear the horse has bolted on having a society which sees learning and teaching as anything more than a paint-by-numbers consumer exercise. That means the focus is on peripheral consumer views of the issues to do with schooling, like teachers’ pay.
Valuing teachers and schools is critical but the vital changes need to be in the acceptance of the essential notions about learning and the paramountcy of those. Arriving at the point by saying that ‘teachers are important’ is putting the cart before the horse.
Totally agree with you Pete about it being an enourmous task. But the upside is, teachers will probably leap at the chance to be heard and involved, am sure there won’t be a lack of enthusiasm in brainstorming any changes 😀
Like Douglas and Richardson’s reforms it will take decades for anyone to reverse the damage the blind following of the business model has done to Tertiary and the blind desire to churn out little cogs in businesses wheels has done to Schooling. So many people wanting to impose their education system on generations that might as well live on a different planet by comparison.
Cinny @ 4. There is a good Education column, “Teachers fight to fix education system” by Teuila Fuatai on Newsroom.
““National standards, allowing charter schools in, removing incentives for 100 percent qualified teachers in Early Childhood Education, not adequately funding support staff, constantly cutting back on the operations grant – all these things all point in the same direction: that the system has an escalating crisis that needs to be fixed,” he says.”
Not a moral right to govern.
Jack Vowles
Professor Jack Vowles is in Victoria University of Wellington’s School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations.
‘A party ‘winning’ with a little over 44 percent of the votes cannot reasonably claim a moral right to govern: at best being the plurality winner designates being the first in the queue to seek that role. This advantages National. But stability and durability of a coalition or other government arrangement is enhanced by ideological proximity and congruence between the partners. This advantages the centre-left combination of Labour, New Zealand First and Green. A majority is 50 percent plus one. In 2017, as at every election since 1996, New Zealand has collectively continued to reject the option of having a single-party majority government.’
“Until now we’ve had the world gate-crash our party. But now it is time to make it work for us.
Let’s design our country to make it better for us. Bring in the people by all means but send them to where we need them. Let’s not give them what they need from us so easily.
People are lining up to come here because we are the last paradise on Earth.
Our small population is our winning card. Let’s not lose that.
Everything we do we must ask ourselves this question: Will this make our country better for those living in it now?”
Nice big swinging arm movements there.
The project that I am in has approximately 65% foreigners, and would not have been possible without them.
The suburb of another project I worked on was revived with fresh immigrant capital over a decade.
The town with my holiday home has been transformed for good with foreigners choosing to live and invest here.
Our immigration settings should always be up for debate, but it is not helpful for Duncan Garner to base the immigration debate on ethnicity.
I posted about this last night.
I agree with your summation. We need an intelligent discussion about immigration, identity and infrastructure.
Duncan Garner has written an article backing Winston on immigration after his experience shopping in Kmart.
It has provoked a lot of criticism and support on Stuff and twitter.
Bradbury also writes this article
‘Why we urgently need to investigate Chinese influence over National’
‘The shocking reality that the National Party is little more than a front for Chinese business interests demands far more attention than it gained…
New research paper lays bare China’s influence campaign in New Zealand
Concerns raised over political donations and directorships offered to former ministers and relatives
Chinese-owned New Zealand dairy farms said to possibly being used to test advanced missile technology’
The only good thing you can say about Garner is that he does his own shopping. George Bush Senior lost masses of votes when he was shown shopping (playing the common man) at a supermarket during the 1993 campaign and being amazed at how the product scanners worked….clearly it was the first time he had stepped inside such an establishment.
Mass immigration is a mixed bag; upside is growth, diversity, investment and cheap labour; downside … ask Maori. There are two narratives here and most people experience a mix of both.
True there is a real difference; European colonisation was largely the outcome of the massive disparity of industrialisation and technology in that era, and a with this a sense of entitled superiority which enabled them to project and impose on indigenous peoples around the globe. In many ways the British Empire was a peak version of the old patterns of history, wars, migrations and displacement being an ancient story; although the sheer geographic extent of it was unprecedented.
Colonisation in Aoteoroa came towards the end of that period, and followed a somewhat different pattern to say India or China. Here the vast majority of ordinary immigrants were escaping very poor prospects to build themselves a better life. They endured awful, dangerous journeys in the hope of a fresh start. While of course the elites plundered NZ and extracted as much wealth as they could in the usual fashion of Empires; over time something else happened … a whole new society dominated by sheer numbers of Europeans and their cultural habits arose to almost (but not completely) supplant what had existed before.
While for example the local peoples of Africa, India and China remained dominant, in the Americas and Australiasia they did not, with colonisation culminating in the physcial, economic and cultural displacement of indigenous peoples almost everywhere.
Colonisation is an essentially extractive process, a giant wealth pump that siphons resources back to the elites at the centre of empire. Immigration is the movement of peoples, usually to either escape active persecution, or to seek a better life elsewhere; this being an ancient feature of human life for probably millions of years.
Yet ultimately the end result can be very similar; in 1840 Maori were still by far the dominant population and few who signed the ToW could have imagined that within decades they’d be fighting wars to defend what remained of their land rights, or that by the turn of the century the Australian phrase “smoothing the pillow of a dying race” would enter the lexicon of their experience.
Already it impacts our elections, much of provincial NZ moved distinctly left, while Auckland now some 26% Asian/Indian, voted solidly for the status quo. Already on both sides of the Tasman there are real concerns around the CCCP’s projection of not so very soft power into our political systems.
That has to be Garner’s core question; where are we going? Because there really is no upper limit to the number of people from all over the world who would like to immigrate here. It’s not unrealistic to imagine a New Zealand in our lifetimes with a population exceeding 10 million; consisting of maybe 1m Maori/Polynesian, 3m Caucasian and another 6m from Asia.
Nothing inherently wrong with this; but I find it hard to imagine such a change will have zero political and social consequences.
The mindset of a colonists and an immigrants are almost the opposite of each other. One comes to squash existing peoples the other to join. Quite different. The average settler was extractive not just the colonising elites. i don’t buy the innocent running away from exploitation so ended up exploiting others line.
I understand the fear people have about asians taking over but they arent and won’t imo not while the euros are dominant.
The mindset of a colonists and an immigrants are almost the opposite of each other. One comes to squash existing peoples the other to join. Quite different.
[Citation needed]
I understand the fear people have about asians taking over but they arent and won’t imo not while the euros are dominant.
Fake news buddy – do you know what opinion means? You may cling to others analysis like a child to apron strings but I chose to create my own opinions from all that I read and learn. Perhaps that is the difference between man and machine – a basic fact.
One comes to squash existing peoples the other to join.
A good distinction; I’m sure that was the experience of Maori during the late 1800’s, but it’s harder to know if it was the intention of the hundreds of thousands of very poor Irish, Scottish, Welsh and others who made perilous journey in tiny ships to the most remote land on the face of the earth … to ‘squash the Maoris’.
I’ve read stories of families who’d hold a wake for those departing, because effectively they’d never be seen or likely heard from again.
Now I agree the elites certainly arrived with a different mindset; but they were always a tiny minority. The vast majority were very ordinary immigrants who where effectively just displaced peoples themselves and arrived with no more intent than to escape the colonisation they’d already lived through.
We have our stories too.
And yes the euros are numerically dominant over the whole of NZ at the moment, but barely so in Auckland. And within a few decades Maori/Polynesian/Euro might well be a minority.
Again if you asked all the Kaumatua who signed the ToW in 1840 did they want within 60 years for their mokopuna would to be reduced to a marginalised minority in their own land … I think most would have said no. And would that have made them all racists?
Yes it was a difficult journey to escape persecution and they came to a land denuded of indigenous people and culture. All they could do was take up the plough after putting the gun down, to make the land productive so that their family could thrive. Better than letting it waste and spoil. /semi sarc ☺
As you may recall, I have an ‘adopted’ Chinese son. He’s now an airline pilot in Xian City, flying 737’s four times a week on a triangular night route. He started as the orphaned son of rice farming peasants and has done well. It took time to get to know each other, but a shared interest in aviation and scary youtube videos gave us a lot in common. 🙂
He already had an anglicised first name and when he asked us a few months back for permission to use my surname as well … because he regarded us as his second family … I was remarkably moved.
Conversations with him could be unsettling though. Flying over the vast apparently empty expanses of Australia while he was training here, it seemed to him that it was very much underutilised. He was very clear that lots of Chinese could transform it all into much more productive uses rather than let it ‘waste and spoil’. /Not sarc at all.
Conversations with him could be unsettling though. Flying over the vast apparently empty expanses of Australia while he was training here, it seemed to him that it was very much underutilised. He was very clear that lots of Chinese could transform it all into much more productive uses rather than let it ‘waste and spoil’.
“The mindset of a colonists and an immigrants are almost the opposite of each other. One comes to squash existing peoples the other to join.”
True, but there is a third dynamic here. We have a neoliberal internal government that has an imperialist mindset and is in charge of immigration policy. So this isn’t simply about what immigrants want when they come here, it’s about who is choose who gets to come, how they come, and why.
“I understand the fear people have about asians taking over but they arent and won’t imo not while the euros are dominant.”
I don’t want to focus on Asians, for obvious reasons, but afaik if you increase a population fast enough from immigration then the culture of that society will change. The issue here is whether that matters, not that it’s not happening.
Where I live the immigration issues are from Europeans, Brits and Americans. And Aucklanders. /shrug. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t some serious racism issues in NZ around Pākehā fears of Asians, but I think it’s a mistake to work on that being the *only problem here.
Yes of course you are correct. Same here. Part of the issue for me is pulling all the individual strands out – a big poster would be good. Immigration, foreign ownership, refugees, cultural solidification and openness, racism, names of things, infrastructure, city verses country, home ownership, wages, neoliberalism, and so on
There probably are some people who have a fear of Asian culture taking over the dominant English culture.
That’s not wholly unreasonable; after all is this not exactly what Maori have been saying for the past hundred years or more?
No culture is all good or all bad, they’re all a random mix of social habits that arose from the accidents of history and geography. Each has strong points, and each has less attractive aspects. Typically we like to be proud of what we’re good at, and have massive blind spots around the rest.
And when we look at an outsider culture we tend to be most irked by their blind spots and weaknesses, and much slower to appreciate what they do well.
Because most people are very change resistant the process of getting used to each other, building on our strengths and discarding our failings is a slow process that cannot be easily rushed.
Exactly … it’s not immigration that is the problem. We are ALL immigrants of one sort or another. But the nature and rate of that immigration can easily change a society in ways people are not ready for, nor desire.
Going back to the Maori experience; many of the very early European arrivals (prior to 1840 most actually arrived from America), integrated very tightly with the Maori iwi they encountered. From the Maori perspective this was not a problem at all; indeed many rather valued their ‘white Maori’ because it facilitated economic and political opportunities.
And it shouldn’t be forgotten that Maori and Europeans have intermarried at remarkably high rates; that while Maori and Europeans maintain quite distinct cultures at a personal level there is a huge amount of cross-over.
Now if hypothetically Europeans had arrived at a relatively low rate during the 1800’s, and most had continued to integrate into Maori society as the early pattern indicated … the entire question of ‘colonisation’ would never have occurred.
An imperfect example might be to point to the Samoan/German experience … while it clearly started out as colonisation, in the aftermath of WW1 the rate of immigration slowed dramatically, and the two populations then had time to successfully merge into a distinct culture of it’s own.
If your definition of ‘assimilation’ is based on your experience of euros demographically overwhelming maori, then absolutely. The idea that Maori should all become ‘well behaved brown skinned Euros’ is of course repugnant.
But over time distinct cultures that flourish side by side, DO influence each other, and intermarriage DOES generate whole new patterns. In the long run both cultures finish up the stronger for it, initially separate and ultimately as something new.
Actually, I don’t think it’s the fact of there being self checkouts that is KMart’s problem – it’s that there are not enough of them.
they do still have some person operated checkouts, and some staff overseeing the self checkouts.
the queues at St Lukes’ Kmart the last few times I’ve been there were horrendous. At first I thought it was because of a sale.
Basically, if they are selling that much stuff, to that many people, they need more checkouts – and that would require more money spent on checkouts, and more staff to over see them.
Basically, if they are selling that much stuff, to that many people, they need more checkouts – and that would require more money spent on checkouts, and more staff to over see them.
Bomber Bradbury’s analysis is excellent. and Bomber is spot on there-nicely observed.
Nah. Bomber’s being as much a useless donkey dick as Duncan Garner.
Here’s Bomber.
he’s (Garner) trying to articulate the frustration many Aucklander’s feel at the cramped infrastructure groaning under the weight of a surge in immigration numbers and the total inability of Government to show any leadership by properly funding the migration growth which they are promoting.
I’ll spell this one out.
There is crap infrastructure and there is immigration. The insidious and unspoken line (it’s common enough and embraced by NZ Labour among others) is that immigration is somehow responsible for the infra-structure being crap…and for it getting getting more crap.
But it’s not.
The infra-structure is crap because successive governments have neglected it. Infra-structure is crap because of bad management; a failure on the part of the politicians who presume to control and manage such things.
But hey. Let’s point the finger “over there” at past and present immigrants instead, some of who could have been offered very good jobs laying in and maintaining all that infrastructure that successive governments have paid fuck all attention to (beyond flogging bits to private concerns that could extract massive profits off the back of steady deterioration).
And as a footnote not an aside, you may or may not have noticed that proposed immigration settings are set along lines of class (ie, huge bias against low skilled or poor immigrants)…which kind of defeats the purpose (if such a purpose exists) of getting basic infra-structure up to scratch.
I agree that lack of planning for infrastructure is not the fault of immigrants. It’s also true that there are natural limits to growth, and there is a relationship between the number of people and what can support them in the physical world and whether that is problematic.
There is crap infrastructure and there is immigration. The insidious and unspoken line (it’s common enough and embraced by NZ Labour among others) is that immigration is somehow responsible for the infra-structure being crap…and for it getting getting more crap.
No it’s not.
The point is that the immigration hasn’t been planned for and the necessary infrastructure built. Then there’s the influence it has on wages – you know, the sub-par wages we have because there’s so many people being imported by businesses specifically to keep wages down.
In other words, the cost of the immigration hasn’t been covered.
Garner and Bradbury seem to skip past who creates the pressure on the infrastructure which is not the immigrants.
Remember the guy who came in on the Investment visa? Was going to build that hotel in Epsom? After 5-10 years has not? Now, how hard to have in place a law that says if you do not do what you promise you forfeit the money you had to bring in. It goes tot he Govt coffers and you get PR or Citizenship rescinded. That would be easy if there was political will. BUT it happens a bit.
Secondly, we have the kiwifruit industry brazenly not giving migrant workers contracts and paying under minimum wage (over 50%) of them. That is deliberate law breaking to take advantage of vulnerable people seeking a better life. It is also interrupting the blessed market the right loves SO much. IF there are not enough workers, wages should go up under market forces.
Instead they are deliberately driven down. Single people on benefits would DO seasonal jobs IF
1. The pay was better
2. They could get straight back on a benefit when the work finished
As long as it takes WINZ weeks or months to start paying someone coming off seasonal work it would be a foolish person who leaves it to take a short term job. When you add in the weeks or months to get back on support the real hourly rate of the seasonal work is well below $10 an hour.
“Our immigration settings should always be up for debate, but it is not helpful for Duncan Garner to base the immigration debate on ethnicity.”
Or to do so in a way that is pretty blatantly racist (I will grant him this, I don’t think he realised he was being racist. Time for him to learn though).
Individual advantages from immigration doesn’t mean that Duncan Garner’s points as displayed in Ad’s comment aren’t correct. They are valid points and need to be thought about and acted on.
The application of rational thinking should not be drowned by sentiment and past success. Now we need something different. You only have to look at the whole picture to see that.
A classic example of unfettered immigration, is the experience of the Fijian’s, in a democracy, where the immigrants end up out numbering the citizens, the migrants can set up their own political parties and win with a majority in democratic elections.
There are many other example as well through northern Africa.
Countries with relatively small populations are at serious risk from overpopulating their countries with migrants.
NZ has a very small population compared to China or India, for either or both of those 2 countries to lose 100 million, they wouldn’t even register on population numbers, but if they all arrived at NZ…….
Refugees should be the first choice of migrants to be allowed to enter NZ, a good example of this is the new Green’s member.
A leader of the Tūhoe people’s drive for self-determination, Tamati Kruger, will give the 2017 Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture on 31 October. (Tuesday)
Tue, October 31, 2017 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Location
OGHLecTh (102-G36)
Corner of Princes St & Waterloo Quadrant
The University of Auckland
The lecture, at the University of Auckland, will be a historic opportunity for Tūhoe to explain their philosophy of Mana Motuhake/Self-Determination to a national audience, and to report on how the approach is working out in practice since the iwi signed a settlement with the Crown in 2013.
The settlement transferred management of the Tūhoe homeland in the former Urewera National Park to a new entity Te Urewera, which Kruger chairs, run jointly by the Crown and Tūhoe.
It also agreed in principle that Tūhoe should run its own social services, including healthcare and education, for its own people.
So far Tūhoe has opened a health clinic at Taneatua and plans two more, it runs youth and counselling services, offers educational scholarships, and is becoming involved in wider educational and social services.
Tāmati Kruger was educated at Victoria University in Wellington, where he also tutored in te reo Māori and was involved in the early days if the Te Reo Māori Society in the 1970s.
He was the chief Tūhoe negotiator in the settlement process and also chairs the tribal body Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua.
The lecture will be held at the University of Auckland and you can register here.
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October 2017
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A video of Lisa Marriot’s 2016 lecture, ‘Are we all equal in NZ?’, is here.
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Twitterfinger J. Putinpussy barfs up yet another obstacle to actually getting anything done. By picking a fight with someone he really needs onside, but has zero leverage over.
You mean he has no strategy! Simply reacts in a vengeful way… Based on all of the evidence of Trump’s first nine months in office, it’s impossible to conclude that he has any sort of comprehensive strategy or theory of the case. He acts (or reacts) and sees what happens. There’s no bigger plan that we’re not privy to. There’s really no plan at all.
Loved this Tweet from Corker in response: “”It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning,” “
Well that is certainly true! Executive orders is about all that has been achieved and even then may are subject to litigation. I can’t say the “beautiful, and wonderful” Tax plan has much hope of success either when the populous wake up to the realisation as to who are the ones going to benefit… and it certainly isn’t them!
The stacking of the EPA with Climate denialists is unfortunately having an effect, and the run down of funding in social services and eduction, and FEMA. The flow on will be increasing dissatisfaction and resentment to the administration and they will have a very difficult job at re-election in 2018 and almost no hope in 2020.
A recent poll has the Chump on only 24% approval rating and even 33% of Repugnents disapprove as well.
The big thing they’ve achieved is stacking the courts. McConnell refusing to confirm Obama appointments left a huge backlog of vacancies that they’ve been fairly quickly filling with Heritage Foundation recommendations.
President Caligula, and no one in GOP has the stones to hold him accountable.
President Trump told the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Seema Verma to deny a request from the Republican-controlled state of Iowa to fix their health-care marketplace, according to The Washington Post.
According to the Post, Iowa officials sought for months to get federal permission to fix health insurance markets in their state, but they were shut down by Trump administration officials.
Critics of the president say Trump’s unusual move is a part of the administration’s effort to undermine ObamaCare
We have unemployment in NZ and under-employment too in high numbers. Yet the employers can’t find retail workers with enough ability and bleat they need to bring people in from overseas because they have new ideas. This was the plaint of Massey Uni professional on RadioNZ – couldn’t find so here is Scoop on it.
“There is concern that New Zealand doesn’t have a strong enough talent pipeline. We definitely have skills gaps in buying, merchandising and digital, and this will only be exacerbated as retailers compete with the likes of Amazon,” he says.
“The skills and competencies required are becoming a lot more sophisticated – retailers need staff that understand how business models are changing if they are to successfully integrate their physical and digital platforms.”
This from Google:
Bachelor of Retail and Business Management … – Massey University http://www.massey.ac.nz/retail
The multi-billion dollar retail sector is New Zealand’s second-largest for employment, responsible for seamlessly and endlessly delivering goods and services to …
NZ Herald: New Zealand’s Latest News, Business, Sport, Weather … http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/carmen-hall/
2 days ago – carmen.hall@nzme.co.nz. @ Bay_Times … Rotorua business leaders plan a national campaign to attract skilled workers. ROTORUA … NEW ZEALAND · Migrants struggling to find jobs. 12 Sep, 2017 10: …. Data shows retail spending on cards in Tauranga jumped 6.4% for year to June. ….. That was hard but I can’t imagine …
and this from USA
Companies can’t find workers to rebuild after Harvey and Irma | Don’t … http://www.sentinel-echo.com/…/companies-can-t-find-workers…/article_282d07a1-f5cc-5b...
4 days ago – More people were looking for jobs , particularly men. … Business owners say a lack of skilled workers who can pass a drug test has stalled their growth . Companies can’t find workers to rebuild after Harvey and Irma
By Danielle Paquette | The Washington Post Oct 4, 2017 Updated Oct 4, 2017
This from USA, where we seem to import ideas and policies from as we have adopted a drug testing regime which seems to be draconian and unnecessary for most employers.
Adani are virtually bankrupt and the entire thing is a scam to get money out of the Qlnd govt to prop up their failing investments elsewhere.
Tellingly none of the big banks will touch them, and the big automation player I know, who’d normally have people dedicated to winning a project of this scale aren’t bothering to waste time on it.
This week is the week we find out if the infamous Barnaby Joyce loses his job, and his deputy and a few others as well.
One decision has already been made for the One Nation party candidate Robertson, the Flat earth believer, the Supreme court found he was not eligible, ignorance is not a defense, grim times for the Turnbull Govt with only a majority of one and 20 consecutive negative polls for him, the latest one seeing him fall another 2 points
I’ve just finished filling out the 12 pages of Temporary Additional Support Re-Application paperwork, a joyful 3 monthly ritual in order to be able to pay the rent.
Anyone familiar with these forms will know about that threatening sounding Q.20 :
“You and your partner must take all necessary steps to increase income or reduce costs where possible. Please indicate where what steps you and/or your partner have taken to get other assistance, reduce costs or increase income.”
I was very tempted to write in “voted for Greens on their platform of raising benefit levels.” Would that constitute an attempt to increase income when one has no other ways of doing so?
Unfortunately I was too scared to- because even if the satire is over their heads, there is a very real fear these days that the slightest criticism against the system, and I’m implicating benefit rates here of course, will cross the desk of the wrong person ie one who could make things very difficult.
Looking forward to running the security gauntlet, and a long queue at the office, just to get the stamped receipt for said papers, then hope to god they don’t mess up again like last time. Multiply this scenario for 100s of 1000s of NZers…
Weka, you’re brave posting in forms. I did once, many moons ago and they were never seen again. Best practice these days is to hand deliver- if practically possible- physically hand them over and request a stamped signed receipt. They usually photocopy the front page and hand that back.
The annual DB confirmation paperwork can only be mailed back to somewhere in Auckland so no choice there and I’m terrified because there’s no way of knowing it arrived until a) your payments keep going in as usual or b) you get the letter saying it’s been stopped. And they wonder why the increasing rates of severe anxiety?
I used to hand deliver and get it date stamped until I got to ill to do so. So needs must. I take the view that if I post the forms and they get lost, it’s WINZ’s fault and it’s on them to sort it out. If my benefit was lapsing because of their fuck ups, then it’s time to get senior management and advocates or CLC lawyers involved. None of that is probably any less time consuming or stressful than what you are doing though 🙁
” You and your partner must take all necessary steps to increase income or reduce costs where possible. Please indicate where what steps you and/or your partner have taken to get other assistance, reduce costs or increase income.” ”
I think they cut and paste this for everything… Principals, DHBs, Tertiaries, Rape Prevention Orgs… just substitute partner
They also change the rules without feeling the need to inform their ‘clients’.
In order to receive the supported living payment (the old invalid benefit), I had to supply a medical certificate. The doctor needed to indicate how long the med cert was for, ie 2 years, five years or never. Three years ago my rheumatologist signed me off as never needing another one. However last year Winz requested a new one. When I phoned to ask why, I was told someone would call me back. subsequently I received a voicemail threatening to look into my part-time employment 3 years ago.
Apparently everyone on SLP now needs to provide a med cert every two years. Next year, at 64 yrs, I will have to provide another one. This has no useful purpose and is outright harassment.
All those who said waiting for the outcome of the special votes was a waste of time and made no difference were wrong.
Winston Peters said he wanted to wait until after the results of specials as they could change things significantly, Bill and the media disagreed, they said no significant change, however, Peters, after the release of the specials, announced that the outcome was SIGNIFICANT.
Maybe, to extrapolate, the significance indicates a more likely outcome for one side and not the other, my view is that L/G block is now in good contention, based on Peters putting so much emphasis on the SIGNIFICANCE of the specials.
Welcome to new Zealand – neo-liberal hellhole.
No wonder we have health issues in this country.
No doubt Katherine Rich pimps for these organisations.
‘Kiwi kids are exposed to 27 junk food advertisements a day, study finds.’
In a world-first study by Otago and Auckland universities, 168 children from across the Wellington region, aged between 11 and 13, wore cameras around their necks for four days, capturing what they saw every seven seconds.
In one case, a poster for Coca-Cola hung on a classroom wall. In others, marketing for sugary or energy drinks on the sides of dairies or on the ends of buses plagued their journey home.
“The consequence of that is obesity,” she said. “[Kids] are twice as likely to see junk food marketing as healthy marketing, it goes against that effort to help children maintain their weight.”
Ministry of Health statistics show 11 per cent of New Zealand children aged between 2 and 14 are obese, and a further 22 per cent are overweight.
Sugary drinks, fast food, confectionary and snack food advertisements were the most common found in the study. Product packaging was the dominant platform, followed by signs.
In an effort to reduce exposure, the researchers are calling on the incoming Government to impose a sugary drinks tax, regulate junk food marketing and impose rules that would see only healthy foods sold in schools.
They would also like to see a ban on junk food advertising in sports, such as Gatorade’s partnership with the All Blacks.’
Hidden cost of feeding grain to farm animals to hit $1.32tn a year
‘Our habit of feeding human foods, such as grain and soya, to farm animals will cost us $1.32tn (£1tn) a year by 2050 globally, according to environmental campaigners.
The hidden costs of the industrial farming system are vast, and urgently need to be brought into clear focus, Peter Stevenson of Compassion in World Farming told the Extinction and Livestock conference in London. “There’s a worrying disconnect between the retail price of food and the true cost of production. As a result, food produced at great environmental cost can appear to be cheaper than more sustainably produced alternatives.”
“Cheap food is something we pay for three times, once at the checkout, again in tax subsidies and again in the enormous clean up cost to our health and environment,” his colleague Philip Lymbery pointed out.
We are paying for soil erosion, water pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change, and a multitude of other impacts which are passed on to the public by farmers and the sector, the conference heard. For example, our current rate of soil loss costs £400bn a year globally, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has estimated that water pollution in six EU states alone costs €2bn-5bn a year; and according to the European Environment Agency the current rate of biodiversity loss is reducing global GDP by 3% every year.’…….
Every Single Piece Of Plastic Ever Made Still Exists.
……..’Because plastic lasts for so long, every single piece of plastic ever made still exists, and will continue existing for at least 500 years. To put that in context, if Leonardo da Vinci had drunk water from a plastic bottle when he was painting the Mona Lisa, that bottle would not have fully decomposed yet.
Every day, more and more plastic is produced, used and thrown away. In countries where disposable cups are made of plastic, for example, it may take only seconds for one to leave the package, be used, and end up in a trash can. So much plastic is being consumed that there is an area bigger than France of throw-away plastic swirling at all depths in the North Pacific Ocean. It has become so ubiquitous that birds are using it to build their nests.’……
Not quite true, some plastics are organically based and used in the agricultural industries, others are very susceptible to UV corrosion which do break down to their base products a bit like rusting steel.
Something that annoys me, is that everyone blames the plastic bottles for ending up in the water ways and sea, yet, the bottles themselves are not responsible, they didn’t leap out of someone’s hand and into the river, but the PEOPLE discarding them are, surly there is a degree of responsibility of humans to care for the environment by recycling and discarding in the proper manner, plastic water bottles are a very good method of hydration, they are also relatively safe and bacteria free, ideal in emergencies. Plastic bottle manufacturers recycle a very high percentage returned bottles.
If you look at some of the less developed countries, where waste disposal is non existent and the main means of disposal is to simply “biff it out the window”, there is no system for garbage collection, unfortunately the migrants from these countries when emigrating to more civilized countries don’t usually adapt to the changes and values and continue to litter as they always have, I’ve actually seen graphic evidence of this in some overseas cities in areas of particularly high migrant residents from these under developed countries.
The micro beads used in cosmetics are a real problem too, with some countries banning products containing micro beads.
NewsFlash
I remember a past Parliamenary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Williams, in 2002 praise the efforts of the Mayor of a Brazilian city for cleaning up the city and making it a people-friendly more attractive place.
Morgan Williams (ecologist) – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Williams_(ecologist)
John Morgan Williams (born 25 March 1943), known as Dr. J. Morgan Williams or Morgan Williams, is a New Zealand ecologist and agricultural scientist who served as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment from 1997 to March 2007. … Greening the City: Bringing Biodiversity Back into the Urban
Environment”.
I think that they encouraged people to hand in rubbish from the streets and favellas for physical, practical reward, such as food, perhaps some eggs. It made a big difference. Also they had covered bus stops made in clear plastic so people were covered and crime was discouraged. That would be much appreciated.
Curitiba – Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment http://www.pce.parliament.nz/media/pdfs/CURTIBA.pdf
On the southern plateau of Brazil one city, Curitiba, has lifted itself out of tough … Brazilian Ambassador to New Zealand and his staff for assisting with visits and complimentary visas to Brazil. … mercial competition models, separation of poli- cies from ….. Morgan. Transport corridor. Section through transport corridor (IPPUC). http://www.pce.parliament.nz/media/pdfs/CURTIBA.pdf
I think anyone who comes to this blog would be interested in this report. I urge you to read it because it deals with many things that way heavily on this country now, and might be helpful to consider points for Auckland. Probably the Auckland activist group already have many similar policies but lack the breadth of mind in the elites to effect change for the lumpenproletariat.
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
The Workshop is a charitable trust for public good. The Workshop undertake research to find ways of communicating that will build support for the solutions that work to solve complex social and environmental problems. See their Report on Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform below. ...
Being and Being Bought (Spinifex Press, 2013) by Kajsa Ekis Ekman A synopsis and commentary of Chapters 1-2 by Daphna Whitmore Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book She opens the discussion with a definition of ...
I make no claims to having much legal knowledge, so I defer to those trained in this area.I am very much enjoying this twitter stream from m'learned friend in Edinburgh, deciphering the legal arguments around the Scottish court challenge to Boris Johnson, based on the charmingly obscure principle of Nobile ...
Ivory Folly? The University of Auckland’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, upheld the right of the radical nationalist group, Action Zealandia to exercise their freedom of speech – not matter how distasteful that speech might be. A wiser community of students and scholars would have nodded their agreement and moved on. ...
If you are not convinced terrorist Organisation ‘Extinction Rebellion’ is very, very dangerous – watch this video at one of their recent meetings. Not only is this obviously mentally ill Woman begging the other terrorists to promote killing and “eating” babies and children, if you watch carefully other members nod ...
The Ombudsman has been surveying people about their knowledge of the OIA and the right to information. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that widespread:The Chief Ombudsman says too many New Zealanders were in the dark over their right to access official information. Peter Boshier said an independent survey released yesterday on ...
In the wake of last Friday's climate strike, Peter McKenzie had an article in The Spinoff about protest strategies. The school strike movement is "polite" and cooperates with those in power because that's its kaupapa - its led by schoolkids who understandably don't want to risk arrest. But there's more ...
So, the latest ruminations on the gnews from Westminster (Again, sorry; I'll stop making that pun right now). This follows on from, and likely repeats bits of, my last post, on the suggestion that a Government of National Unity (GNU) should be set up and then oversee a referendum before ...
New Zealand likes to think of itself as not a racist country (despite being founded on the racist dispossession and subjugation of Maori). But for years, we've had a racist refugee policy, which basicly excludes refugees from Africa and the Middle East unless they already have relatives here. Now, the ...
Several people have asked me whether a particular repeat litigant could be declared a vexatious litigant, in light of their recent decision to appeal an adverse High Court ruling. My nascent tweet thread was getting ridiculously long, so it became this blog post instead.The short answer is: no. The particular ...
Appealing To The Past: Action Zealandia, like so many of the organisations springing up on the far-Right, across what they call the “Anglosphere”, is born out of the profound confusion over what a man is supposed to be in the twenty-first century and, more importantly, what he is supposed to do.THE STATUE OF ...
The attempts of anti-democratic transactivists to (often violently) disrupt women’s rights organising is largely ignored by those sections of the left most prone to misogyny and authoritarianism in New Zealand. In Britain, however, scores of trade union and left activists added their names to a letter in July, defending ...
The Justice Committee has reported back on the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill. The Bill would establish an independent, quasi-judicial body to investigate and review potential miscarriages of justice, and refer them back to the Court of appeal if required. It would be a vital backstop to our judiciary, help ...
by The Spark On September 14, a total of 22 drones and cruise missiles struck two oil installations in Saudi Arabia, the Abqaiq processing facility and the Khurais oil field. Abqaiq is the largest oil production facility in the world. For a few days afterwards, Saudi Aramco, the Saudi national ...
How much will NeoLiberal irregulation of the building sector and subsequent leaky homes crisis cost us? $47 billion, according to a new book:The total cost to fix all of New Zealand's leaky homes would be $47 billion, probably. The estimate comes from a new book, Rottenomics written by journalist Peter ...
Below is the start of another excellent article on the Freer Lives blog. Click onto the link at the end of this extract to read the full article. The punch-a-terf, kill-a-terf message pervades social media, always righteously delivered, chin held high. By contrast, the dehumanised “terfs” themselves, that is gender-critical ...
The Reserve Bank is currently planning tighter banking regulation, requiring banks to hold enough local capital to survive a 1-in-200 year financial crisis in order to protect consumers. The big Aussies banks, those foreign leeches who suck $5 billion in profit out of our economy every year, don't like that, ...
Its the usual story: a police officer beats a handcuffed suspect so hard they break one of their own fingers. The IPCA investigates and concludes that the use of force was unlawful. And the police refuse to do anything about it:A man punched repeatedly in the face by a police ...
From time to time we add links to our blogroll. The latest blog we have added is Freer Lives. This is a Marxist gender-critical blog, based in Melbourne, Australia. On it you will find a bunch of excellent articles which use the tools of Marxist analysis to critique the rise ...
Last Friday say the largest protest in a generation, as 170,000 people joined the school strike and marched to demand real action on climate change. The demands of the school strike were simple and clear: declare a climate emergency, set a climate target of net-zero by 2040, impose a total ...
Labour is a rather middle of the road capitalist party and earlier this year we discussed how far from being ‘transformative’, Ardern’s government is. An article published this week in the Guardian, by Bryce Edwards (political scientist and commentator at Victoria University), looks at Ardern’s business as usual performance. Where ...
In the hours since my last interminable wittering about the possibility of a Government of National Unity (GNU) in Britain, there has been a slight maybe development:A Corbyn-led caretaker government could then sit for several months while it enacted and delivered a referendum with the support of smaller parties and ...
Jeremy Clarkson says much like Greta Thunberg, Anne Frank “didn’t like what was going on”, but “she didn’t have a tantrum about it.” Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has offered praise to historical figure Anne Frank, comparing her favourably to 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, who he attacked in ...
Press release by Speak Up For Women Lesbians from women’s rights group Speak Up For Women are furious at reports that Rainbow Tick are threatening Massey University with the removal of their ‘tick’ if they let the group’s event go ahead. The group has been under attack from trans ...
By Duncan Garner Before you jump down my throat, nobody cares about the environment more than me. I have a garden, and since my wife and I broke up, I’ve let it grow wildly out of control, so please don’t tell me I’m not doing enough for plants. They’re ten ...
Local government elections are upon us again. It is a fair bet that, when they are over, we will have all the usual complaints that, despite their undoubted importance, the turnout was depressingly low. So, why do local elections attract so little attention and involvement from the general public? I ...
Yesterday the High Court released its decision in Moncrief-Spittle v Regional Facilities Auckland Limited, on the (alleged) decision by the Auckland Council and Mayor Phil Goff to deny use of a public venue to a pair of visiting nazi grifters. Based on the information available back then, I said that ...
Image credit:45 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Blog I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. ...
So, more on the possibility of a Government of National Unity (GNU) in Britain.Two things, first. The numbers in parliament make things very difficult. And anyone who is saying X will happen or Y is impossible is spinning. We can not tell and will not know until votes are actually ...
The government is promising tough action against climate change via the Zero Carbon Bill and a strengthened ETS. Meanwhile, the Overseas investment Office is granting foreign coal companies permission to expand coal mining:Coal Action Network Aotearoa has slammed a decision by the Overseas Investment Office to allow Bathurst Coal to ...
Don't You Dare Let Them Down, Jacinda! Many New Zealanders, especially young New Zealanders, continue to believe that change – real change – is possible. Do we have criticisms about the way in which Jacinda’s government has gone about “transforming” New Zealand? Of course we do. But the very fact ...
. . With some historical and present context, it should become readily apparent to Pakeha that the occupation at Ihumātao is not a free-for-all conflict for any and everyone to become involved in. First, some important dates: . 1840 . The year in which the Treaty of Waitingi was signed. ...
If this is how you propose to defend free speech, then freedom of speech is in grave danger An open letter from James Robb to Jan Thomas, Vice-chancellor of Massey University Massey University in Wellington is the venue for an event on 13 November called Feminism 2020, organised by Speak Up For ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
Another busy week, from speaking with world leaders on the world stage about climate change, to equipping our school leavers with everything they need to get ahead in life. ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says Air New Zealand has "an obligation to look after Kiwis", and urged the national carrier not to hike up their prices after Jetstar airline announced their withdrawal from regional flights this week. The Provincial Champion also expressed his disappointment at Jetstar’s decision on ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will help fund a new dredge for the Port of Greymouth to ensure the regional fishing fleet have a reliable and productive harbour, Parliamentary Undersecretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today “Last year the movements of ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said he was "immensely disappointed" at the withdrawal of the Jetstar airline from regional routes. He has also warned national carrier Air New Zealand not to capitalise on the Australian budget airline’s decision by “gouging” regional air travellers. "Air New Zealand has historically challenged ...
International credit ratings agency Moody's gave a glowing assessment of New Zealand’s economy in its latest report, which ranks the country’s economic strength as "very high" while saying growth remains "robust". The report says it's expected New Zealand's economy will grow between 2.5 and 3 percent in the next few ...
The Coalition Government is allocating nearly $6 million to a campaign to stop Australian beekeepers marketing their products as "mānuka" honey. This move comes after Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones accused Australian honey producers of trying to steal what was indigenous to New Zealand. "The Aussies are trying to ...
The Provincial Growth Fund has provided $400,000 to Great South to help the agency drive Southland's regional economic development aspirations. The funding will allow Great South, which is Southland's economic development agency, to appoint a portfolio manager and a project support adviser, who will provide project management expertise and support ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The One Billion Trees Fund has just hit two significant milestones that will create more than 7,500 hectares of new forest cover, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Speaking at a celebratory dinner at Parliament to mark 100 years of the New Zealand Forestry Service, Minister ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has lashed out at the New Zealand Transport Authority board, telling one of its new members to “get on with your job” or else they would get replaced. His comments come in response to a now deleted tweet from board member Patrick Reynolds, which ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed further details on the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s visit to New Zealand next month. Their Royal Highnesses will visit New Zealand from 17-23 November – their third joint visit to New Zealand and first in four years. They arrive in Auckland ...
Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth and Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, heads to Thailand today to attend the final Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Ministerial meeting, as negotiations enter their final stages. “The RCEP Agreement would anchor New Zealand in a regional agreement that covers 16 countries, ...
Pacific young people living in the Hawke’s Bay, Southland and Otago regions will have access to support services that have proved successful in helping young people find new earning and learning opportunities. “Tupu Aotearoa is about changing Pacific young peoples’ lives. Our young people are talented, they are smart, they ...
Introduction As the Minister for ACC I thank you all for the work that you do supporting New Zealanders in their literally most vulnerable moments. From those who hold people’s lives in their hands, to the people who research technique, technology and trends, your work is highly valued. A special ...
Notes prepared for speeches in Christchurch – Wednesday 9 October 2019 Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There ...
Minister of Health Dr David Clark and Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare say this year’s World Mental Health Day theme is a reminder of why the Government’s work on mental health is so important. “This year the World Federation for Mental Health has made suicide prevention the main theme ...
Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni will represent the government at Australia’s Meeting of Cultural Ministers in Adelaide this week. “This year’s meeting is special because New Zealand is expected to become an International Member of the Meeting of Cultural Ministers at this Australian forum,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “The meeting is an opportunity to ...
The Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service has resolved 608 insurance and EQC claims in its first year in operation, Minister Megan Woods has announced. The government service, which celebrates its first birthday today, provides a one stop shop to help Cantabrians still battling to get their homes repaired or rebuilt ...
Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There has been an increasing amount of attention paid to the outlook ...
The Government is acting swiftly to strengthen NZTA’s regulatory role following a review into the Transport Agency, and Ministry of Transport’s performance as its monitor, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. An independent review by Martin Jenkins has found NZTA failed to properly regulate the transport sector under the previous ...
The Netherlands and New Zealand have a long-standing and close relationship based on many shared interests and values. We value the rule of law, our democracies, and multilateralism. And we value our environment – at home and globally. Right now there are major global challenges in all of these areas – ...
The Government is putting right a decade’s worth of underpayment to nurses, doctors and other health workers, says Health Minister Dr David Clark. Initial sampling of District Health Boards payroll records has found that around $550-$650 million is owed to DHB staff to comply with the Holidays Act. It’s expected ...
A strong surplus and low debt show the economy is performing well, and means the Government is in a good position to meet the challenges of global economic uncertainty. “The surplus and low levels of debt show the economy is in good shape. This allows the Government to spend more ...
New applications from mining company OceanaGold to purchase land in Waihi for new tailings ponds associated with its gold mines have been approved. Minister of Finance Grant Robertson and Associate Minister of Finance David Parker considered the applications under the Overseas Investment Act. Earlier this year, applications from OceanaGold to ...
New Zealanders in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay will witness Māori, Pākehā and Pacific voyaging traditions come together today as the Tuia 250 Voyage flotilla assembles for the first time, Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti Minister Kelvin Davis says. “Tuia 250 is a national commemoration and an opportunity for honest conversations ...
Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker leaves tomorrow for Dubai, London and Berlin for a series of meetings to advance New Zealand’s trade interests. In Dubai he will visit New Zealand’s Pavilion at Expo 2020 where construction is underway. There he will meet Minister of State for International Cooperation, Her ...
Confirmation that PHARMAC will fund two new cancer drugs is further evidence of the good progress the Government is making to improve the treatment of New Zealand’s leading cause of death, Health Minister David Clark says. From 1 December PHARMAC will fund alectinib (Alecensa) for ALK positive advanced non-small cell ...
An additional $2.7 million has been announced for the Government Strategy for Women and Girls in Sport and Active Recreation on the first anniversary of the strategy’s launch. Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson gave the opening address to the first Sport NZ Women + Girls Summit in Wellington today, ...
As part of its work to ensure businesses can get the skilled workers they need, the Coalition Government is re-opening and re-setting the Parent Category visa programme, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. The move will: support skilled migrants who help fill New Zealand’s skills gaps by providing a pathway for ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has today announced Major General Evan Williams of the New Zealand Defence Force has been selected as the commander of a significant, longstanding peacekeeping mission in the Middle East. In December, Major General Williams takes over as Force Commander for the Multinational Force and Observers ...
A record number of nurses are now working to deliver health services to New Zealanders as the Government’s increased funding and new initiatives rebuild key workforces start to show results, Health Minister Dr David Clark says. • 1458 more DHB nurses since the Government took office • 106 more midwives ...
Farmer and former Nuffield scholar Mel Poulton has been appointed New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy, Minister for Trade and Export Growth, David Parker, and Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, announced today. The position supports key Government objectives, including raising the value of New Zealand agricultural goods and services. Mel is ...
New Zealand’s Pacific and Māori voyaging heritage is acknowledged and celebrated today as waka of the Tuia 250 voyage flotilla arrive in Tūranga / Gisborne. “Today we celebrate Tangata Whenua, the first people of Aotearoa, and the triumphs of the voyaging tradition that brought our ancestors here from Polynesia 1000 ...
“Fijian Language Week starts on Sunday and the theme reminds us how important it is that we each have something to anchor ourselves to, something that can help us pause and feel in control in a rapidly changing world,” says Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio. “Family, culture, faith, ...
The Government is establishing an Airspace Integration Trials Programme to support the safe testing and development of advanced unmanned aircraft and accelerate their integration into the aviation system, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods announced today. The Government will work with leading, innovative aviation industry partners to test and ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today welcomed the NZ Transport Agency’s decision to fund urgent safety improvements and confirm the designation of the Ōtaki to North of Levin highway. Safety upgrades will be made along 23.4km of the existing state highway, running along SH1 from the end of the Peka Peka ...
New Zealand playing its part in Asia-Pacific and globally are behind changes announced today to the Coalition Government’s three year refugee quota policy, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “We are proud to be a welcoming and inclusive nation committed to supporting some of the world’s most vulnerable people to rebuild ...
Creating thriving regions and inclusive local communities is the aim of the Welcoming Communities programme being rolled out across the country, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway today. A successful pilot of the scheme ran over the last 2 years led by Immigration New Zealand and involved ten councils across five regions ...
Takahē may be flightless but their population is flying high with the official count reaching 418 after a record breeding season that produced an estimated 65 juveniles, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. “The population reaching a high of 418 is great news for takahē which were considered ...
New Zealand is today taking action to reduce the potent global warming hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases, Climate Minister James Shaw and Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. “The global agreement to reduce these potent greenhouse gases is another step in New Zealand’s commitment to reduce global warming. It is estimated ...
The Inquiry has today published Minute No 21. This Minute sets out how the Inquiry intends to proceed given that the Attorney-General the Hon David Parker has agreed to extend the Inquiry’s reporting date by three months to 31 March 2020. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grace Skrzypiec, Senior Lecturer, Flinders University Many Australian students don’t know the difference between banter and bullying, with some saying they joke about wishing their friend would “drown” or “die in a car crash”. More than 800 Australian students aged 11-16 took ...
But he did play a crucial role in helping journeyman Andy Foster knock over Justin Lester. Team Gone By Lunchtime size up the local elections, gaze plaintively at the dramas in the NZ First Party, and ask how bad the new poll is for Jacinda Ardern.Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and ...
In the fifth episode of Actually Interesting, The Spinoff’s monthly podcast exploring the effect Artificial Intelligence has on our lives, Russell Brown speaks to Ben Reid, executive director of the AI Forum, about the role of government in embracing and regulating AI.Subscribe to Actually Interesting via iTunes or listen on the player below.To ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Local government Henry Cooke (Stuff): How to lose an election: Over-promise or under-deliver Simon Collins ...
By RNZ Pacific A Solomon Islands province has agreed to lease a large island to a Chinese developer to develop into a special economic zone, weeks after the country opened diplomatic ties with China. But already cracks abound; there has been no official announcement and the provincial premier says the ...
The New Zealand First MP and Minister Shane Jones is still backing the firearms ban, despite being pictured with what appears to be an AR-15 semi-automatic while holidaying in Asia. ...
Everyone needs to be concerned about the draft National Policy Statement on Urban Development that the Ministry for the Environment has released. It is incompatible with the spirit of transparency and inclusiveness. ...
Prodigal Son is a new crime procedural coming hot and fresh to TVNZ 1 on Mondays at 8.30pm.Jean Sergent has a few reasons why you should be watching it. If you like serial killer shows, Michael Sheen, dark drama, Michael Sheen, twisted family dynamics, or Michael Sheen – strap yourself ...
Voters in the 2019 local elections have elected the largest number of new mayors in 30 years, with 26 candidates set to don mayoral chains for the first time later this month. ...
A team of investigators dedicated to stamping out violent extremism online is being set up with the government announcing $17 million in funding over four years. ...
In a major boost to efforts to counter violent extremism on the internet, the Government has promised $17m over four years to the Censorship Compliance Unit. ...
The final dinner party on Married at First Sight NZ brought an ugly misogyny to light. But it was far from the first time sexism reared its head this season, writes Alex Casey.It began with a man being edited out of the show after his domestic violence charges came to ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) is recommending members hold on to potentially illegal shotgun shells containing steel shot until the law banning certain types of ammunition is clarified. ...
New collaborative gifting platform Joyable is looking to shake up how we group-purchase gifts. Co-founders (and sisters) Rochelle Sheldon and Kimberley Crossman explain how their latest venture works. Joyable (not to be confused with the social anxiety-reducing app of the same name) is a somewhat left-field move for co-founder Rochelle ...
The extraordinary battle for the Tron has ended in a way no one quite saw coming, with the city relinquishing its stranglehold on the title of New Zealand’s most embarrassing council. Angela Cuming reports.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a ...
On the eve of the announcement of the winner of the 2019 Booker prize, Spinoff books editor Catherine Woulfe outs herself as a giant know-nothing. Booker time. Tomorrow morning I will sit there refreshing Twitter like the drinking bird on The Simpsons. A winner will be announced. And I’ll be gripped ...
National's claim that things only went south when Phil Twyford took charge of transport is not supported by us at CEAC and we see that this begun in 2008 as we witnessed the change then while working as a partnership group with NZTA then. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Churchill, Research Fellow in Sociology, University of Melbourne There’s an old maxim: not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. But there are some things we should count, and gender and sexual diversity are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Pollock, Climatologist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Northern Australia is likely to see fewer cyclones than usual this season, but hot, dry weather will increase the risk of fire and heatwaves across eastern and southern Australia. The Bureau of Meteorology today released ...
We are in The Good Time for avocados. Alex Casey talked to an expert on how to make the most of it. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. A time when a new avocado headline is published somewhere in New Zealandeverysingleday. A time when it is ...
Sexual harassment and assault are an issue in all walks of life, but addressing the problem is particularly difficult when the perpetrator holds public office. Today campaigner Carrie Buckmaster launches a parliamentary petition calling for more transparency on the issue.The ongoing Labour Party scandal around handling of sexual harassment allegations ...
Dunedin’s new mayor Aaron Hawkins is the first official Green Party mayor in NZ and, arguably, the first to represent the city’s student population as much as its older residents. Josie Adams, who guessed he would win, asked him ten questions about his win.The Spinoff local election ...
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (F&P) has upgraded its full year guidance again after gaining the right to sell its new full face mask in the United States. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Shadow foreign minister Penny Wong says Australia needs to “define the boundaries” of its engagement with China now the relationship between the two countries is in a new phase. Focusing on China policy in a ...
Canon Rugby in Focus: Ireland awaits an All Blacks team that will be well-rested. Perhaps too well-rested. Rested and ready, or a game short and not match fit. Those are the two scenarios that will have All Blacks fans fretting this week ahead of ...
With the government recently announcing a desire to help our cities grow up and out, leading New Zealand IoT expert Kriv Naicker today questioned whether New Zealand is falling behind in the use of smart city technology to help achieve this goal. ...
You famously said climate change was this generation’s nuclear-free moment. But when Extinction Rebellion uses the tactics of the Nuclear Free movement, you say you aren’t impressed. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Regina Jefferies, Affiliate, Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW In the past five years, more than 95,000 people who arrived by plane have lodged a claim for asylum in Australia, new statistics show. Labor’s Immigration Spokesperson, Senator Kristina ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Waller, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Organs from potential donors once rejected as being unsafe to transplant may not be as risky as once thought, new Australian research shows. Our study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, suggests organs from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Merrilyn Delporte, PhD Candidate, Queensland University of Technology Australia’s refugee policy has led to a two-track education system. Those processed offshore, and deemed refugees by the time they have arrived in Australia, are entitled to fee support for university. But the almost ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marion Terrill, Transport and Cities Program Director, Grattan Institute Congestion charging should be introduced in Australia’s largest cities, as Grattan Institute’s latest report shows. Our analysis also finds that the people who commute to the Melbourne and Sydney CBDs by driving are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David C. Ribar, Professorial Research Fellow, University of Melbourne Australia, like the United States, makes it hard for people who get benefits to stay on them. It’s not simply a matter of withdrawing benefits as people get jobs and work more hours ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ana Silkatcheva, Doctoral Candidate (Oriental Studies – Islamic Art and Archaeology), University of Oxford; Curatorial Researcher, Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney In 2005, the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) opened Australia’s first permanent galleries of Islamic art. ...
Council's can expected more pressure from their own ranks to tackle climate change with a new crop of young councillors determined to fight it head on. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Analysis that hits the mark after a big weekend of local elections, new party poll released, and Dunedinites turn out to clean up in honour of killed student.By now, you probably know whether or not you have a new local ...
Would any of the politicians who opposed the marriage equality bill have voted differently if it had passed today? Greta Yeoman asked them.Just over five years ago, New Zealand politicians voted 77-44 to legalise gay marriage, making this country the 13th in the world to do so. Of the 44 ...
We have been on a collision course with freshwater in this country for over a century, writes Dr Jonathan West. Time to make some uncomfortable choices. ...
Teenager Ella Benn has lost part of her left leg, and part of her right lung, to cancer. But with the guidance of a Paralympic legend, she's determined to be a swimming star in her own right. ...
Spark Sport’s six year deal with New Zealand cricket has dealt another blow to Sky TV. The company’s share price has sunk to an all-time low and as Mark Jennings writes, its future existence depends on winning rugby rights. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The ALP has announced an inquiry into the head office of the NSW ALP, after weeks of shocking revelations at the Independent Commission against Corruption about scandals in the handling of donations. The review, announced ...
The new Canterbury Regional Council is set to have a 50-50 gender balance, a younger average age, and people from backgrounds including law, science, farming, insurance and landscape architecture. ...
Aucklanders did not turn out in their droves to vote for incumbent Phil Goff but nor did they embrace the erratic campaigning of challenger John Tamihere. ...
Four of NZ's six largest cities changed mayors on Saturday, three through incumbents being ousted at the local polls. The new crew now need to be the change they promised. ...
Hayden Donnell identifies who did well, and who got massively owned, in the 2019 local elections.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism, click here.Most of these winners and losers lists fail to capture the nuances ...
Sophie Handford, one of the country's youngest new councillors, hadn't expected to get elected and was at a barn dance when she found out the results. ...
Arms Bill a Legislative Colander: Must Be Rewritten SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER 2019 The Arms Bill has been written so poorly than it must be abandoned and rewritten, according to the Council of Licenced Firearm Owners, COLFO. ...
In one of the biggest surprises of the local elections, Andy Foster has seized the Wellington mayoralty from Justin Lester. In this cheat sheet, we answer some of the big questions about Andy Foster, such as ‘who is Andy Foster?’ The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff ...
Wellington mayoral frontrunner Andy Foster says if he gets into office his backer Sir Peter Jackson won't be influencing what happens within the new council. ...
Fritters are a New Zealand classic and these ones, packed with fresh spring produce, make a perfect light lunch or dinner.Spring is well and truly upon us – my garden has exploded and I take such pleasure in being able to harvest its bounty on a daily basis. We are ...
Anna Knox, who spent four years living in Saudi Arabia, has been waiting for a book like Celestial Bodies – a story that shakes up entrenched ideas of women in the Middle East. Early on in Jokha Alharthi’s Celestial Bodies, Abdullah, son of Sulayman the Merchant, describes his family home in the ...
Madeleine Chapman celebrates the girl truths of Netflix’s hit show about puberty, Big Mouth.Girls are horny too. Girls are angry too. How to have an orgasm. The episode titles of Big Mouth are literal and accurate. Girls are horny too! Girls are angry too! How to have an orgasm!Big Mouth follows ...
The Māori Party has selected Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to win back the Te Tai Hauāuru seat in next year’s general election, it announced at its AGM in Whangaehu today. ...
Open Mike 09/10/2017 
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...5 hours ago
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...2 days ago
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...2 days ago
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...3 days ago
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...4 days ago
https://mailchi.mp/7d9133add053/closing-the-gap-october-2019-newsletter ...4 days ago
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...5 days ago
Local government elections are upon us again. It is a fair bet that, when they are over, we will have all the usual complaints that, despite their undoubted importance, the turnout was depressingly low. So, why do local elections attract so little attention and involvement from the general public? I ...2 weeks ago
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It came to me overnight. No drugs, no alcohol, so it must have been the cheese.
The answer as to who NZF will choose for Government is both. No wait and keep reading. For one half of the term NZF goes with National, and then for the other half of the term he goes with Labour/Greens.
See my estimate is that the 7 year itch needs to be adjusted into NZ Government years (what will become known as the NZGY): One and a half NZGYs is equal to 7 human years.
And so with the honeymoon is over, and everybody is fighting over who is the favourite child, it’s separation time and you need to find a new significant other. Luckily in NZ this time we have a spare. Now there are not many electorates around the world who plan so well.
As to the sequencing, well that something that I hope will come to me after tonight’s bout of dreaming.
The “Peters Deal” has already been made. It requires that John Key, newly stripped of his titles, returns to Parliament to play the role of caddy to Winston, as the new PM strides about the Beehive dressed in plus-fours and spats, swinging a flanged niblick at politicians from all parties, foolish enough to venture onto the “Links” as Winston calls what were previously known as the Halls of Power. “It’s a simple and straightforward game”, quipped Peters at his first press conference as Prime Minister, clipping Key behind the ear for a momentary lapse of concentration and also for fun, “the aim being to belt these useless sods into the Joyce Hole with as many swings as I choose. Yes, my caddy “Jonny” was reluctant to take the role, but given what I’ve got on him, he had no choice, and certainly, I am enjoying the sound of his constant whining. The golf bag I have him carrying is loaded heavy with full bottles of wine from his own vineyard – rubbish I won’t be drinking, but then, neither will he!”. Prime Minister Peters said he’d be needing a course of Botox shortly, as the muscles in his face responsible for his trade mark grin are beginning to fibrillate from constant use.
Wot bout paula?
Of course there has to be a golf bag.
Robert. Robert. Will it be true? Is it credible? Hope so but what will Jacinda be doing in your dream? Surely not bagging it like Paula!
Well, she’d be really teed-off and as for the greens, it’d be rough going.
Going at full power Robert G. Please hurry with the next episode. I feel like the eager USA residents waiting for the boat from UK for the next instalment of Charles Dickens’ Little Nell.
Any handicap ratings listed in the clubhouse?–nick’s for example.
Post-Election Negotiations
The Q&A panel suggested there should be set procedures for MMP party negotiations once all votes are counted. After all we should be better at it after 21 years of MMP one participant claimed. For example Russell Norman suggested that the party with the most votes lead initial negotiations rather than have a minority party manage “bids” from two large parties.
So what ideas can be generated here, in this forum, to improve the status quo?
Why? What is the problem with how things are currently being done?
For many, including the panel, the tail wags the dog.
It’s a fukn spineless dog that can’t manage a tail.
“It’s a fukn spineless dog that can’t manage a tail.”
Expression of the day!
What does that even mean? NZF policies are all going to be enacted by the new Parliament?
The problem with having journalists interview one another is that none of them are particularly intelligent or insightful. That’s why we end up with these trite fortune cookies instead.
+111
And still none of them understand that at any time Labour or National can say no to NZF. Tail cannot wag a dog that holds its tail still.
Dont buy into that tail dog crap. The negotiations look fine its about giving the country the nearest policy match that we voted for. It is quite proper that the smaller parties should gain this influence thats why we have mmp
^^^this.
+ 100%
Exactly. We have MMP so that the majority of people have a say rather than being ruled by a minority as happened under FPP and which, seemingly, National and the journalists want us to return to.
AND that it needs to take some time.
In addition why do some people and the media think that in the past 2 weeks the parties were doing nothing?
The only reason Peters is a problem is because the media gives him additional power and then Peters plays them. If the MSM were reporting to inform the public instead of being circus promoters and entertainers then we’d have a process that served us better.
The problem is the media saying there is a problem.
I’ve seen and heard so much stuff about Peters “holding the country to ransom” and implying he is doing terrible things.
I thought he was doing what he has to do.
And I am fairly certain that whatever is being said behind closed doors isn’t out here. So how can he be judged on that? At this stage judging him on policies we say are terrible is rubbish. He fairly got to that position with those policies. Like National and Labour got to their positions with policies some say are crap, destructive and dumb.
IMO Peters (historically) has been a big part of creating this situation, so I’m not that sympathetic to him personally (I rate him as one of the main reasons why we have a bastard version of MMP rather than a representative one). The MSM is out of control. They’re all power mongers.
I’m not convinced there is anything significantly wrong with the conventions on how coalitions are formed though. I’m also not convinced that rules would force power mongers to behave better, or at least that this is the best way to get power mongers to behave better.
I didn’t see Q and A.
For many, including the panel, the tail wags the dog.
Funny how all these right-wingers who are supposedly so familiar with how negotiations work in the private sector are suddenly horrified that one party to the negotiations might choose to exercise whatever leverage it has and somebody needs to do something about it. Harden the fuck up, you pathetic whiners.
It would be funny if it weren’t important. They want rules about how to talk to other people…
“Funny how all these right-wingers who are supposedly so familiar with how negotiations work…”
Since when was Russell Norman (who made the suggestion) a right-winger?
If Norman’s idea was followed this time, NZF would negotiate with National first and only talk to Lab+Greens if they couldn’t reach an arrangement with the Nats. They wouldn’t be able to weigh up different options and it seems to me that if they did move on to the “second choice’ negotiations they would have less leverage as that team would know the small party had used up its other option (while they would still have plenty of leverage in the first set of negotiations), so that would distort things somewhat.
Personally, I don’t see a big problem and I’d be fine with them taking more time. I think Peters has created a perception of being a bit of a demagogue and a rogue, but presumably he’s learnt from his previous coalition experiences and he seems keen to handle things differently from 20 years ago. If anything, I think he’s rushing it this time. I can see an agreement in principal being reached by Thursday, but not an actual coalition deal. Confidence and supply may well be on the cards.
Since when was Russell Norman (who made the suggestion) a right-winger?
He’s a late jumper onto that particular bandwagon, which is otherwise stocked with right-wingers, and probably its least significant advocate.
I can see an agreement in principal being reached by Thursday, but not an actual coalition deal. Confidence and supply may well be on the cards.
If I was betting person that would be my choice. The fact he is adamant an agreement can be reached by Thursday suggests to me he has already made up his mind to go with C and S. The question is, will it be with National or Lab/Greens? No bets on that one.
Let elected representatives decide how they’ll represent their constituents in whichever way they choose. The “problem” with the status quo is impatience.
Who’s going to police Russel’s attempt to legitimise the “moral mandate”?
+100
Too many people with NO patience.
It would only need a simple signal from the Governor-General, within a timetable saying they had x days for the highest -polling party to propose a government, after which it goes to second place to have a go within x days.
Why should any party be given negotiating privileges not given to all the other parties? Governing is about managing a variety of competing demands. I think the first grouping to show they can come together for a majority, in a completely unstructured negotiating arena, is genuinely the best outcome for the country. Put any preconditions on that and the chances of a not-the-best outcome increase.
Yeah, I was surprised to see Russel Norman promoting the idea of privileging the party with the most votes. It would reward National for cannibalising its potential coalition partners and encourage Labour to do the same. Strictly a proposal for FPP enthusiasts, I would have thought.
Hell no. We’d never get a bloody government.
We need to let the parties negotiate first.
In Negotiations with big countries like China or USA, tiny NZ manages to gain some advantages but the tail waggers would argue that NZ should jolly well sit down and do what those big countries dictate. Small players have no rights!
Isn’t it the case, that we do..?
I heard the all white male panel wanting rules for how to talk to each other.
What a bizarre concept. It really is simple.
After the election parties approach each other and have a conversation. This is called “talking”. Then if they want to, they raise the level of the talking to negotiation. Negotiation is talking with a view to making an Agreement.
WHy is this so hard? I suspect part of the problem is having an all male, white panel for a start.
Tracey
“After the election parties approach each other and have a conversation. This is called “talking”. Then if they want to, they raise the level of the talking to negotiation. Negotiation is talking with a view to making an Agreement.”
That’s pretty well it, like minded parties will have more in common and commit sooner to negotiations.
The J Key trained media is PATHETIC, has no idea about how to deal with the outcome of the election and has no info to pass on so just makes stuff up, surmises and in some cases tries to influence negotiations towards their beloved party.
For nine long years national have unfunded and under valued our schools and educators.
Schools have been struggling and asking for change for years, but national have not listened, rather they have done what ever they want to do and to hell with how our educators feel about it. NewsRoom have published an article today about it.
The value of education in any society is enormous, education lifts people out of poverty, reduces crime, educated people raise economies and save lives.
One of the greatest gifts we can give children is to help them feel valued and important, a way to do this is through education. But if we aren’t valuing our educators and schools, how is that making our children feel? If educators are underpaid and overworked and not even listened to, then the whole education system suffers.
Living in hope for change and support in our education sector, one thing is for sure all the opposition parties value education, educators and kids, that gives me hope.
In the meantime, if you are able, rock on down to your local school and get involved and volunteer. The rewards are enormous, and it helps to bring communities together and saves lives.
NZ1st, Labour and Greens all want change in our education system, so do voters, more voted for education changes than keeping the system as it is.
Three more sleeps, we need a win for the kids of NZ and those that educate them.
It will be an enormous task to make the changes to our education system which need to be made.
I fear the horse has bolted on having a society which sees learning and teaching as anything more than a paint-by-numbers consumer exercise. That means the focus is on peripheral consumer views of the issues to do with schooling, like teachers’ pay.
Valuing teachers and schools is critical but the vital changes need to be in the acceptance of the essential notions about learning and the paramountcy of those. Arriving at the point by saying that ‘teachers are important’ is putting the cart before the horse.
Great to see your sentiments!
Totally agree with you Pete about it being an enourmous task. But the upside is, teachers will probably leap at the chance to be heard and involved, am sure there won’t be a lack of enthusiasm in brainstorming any changes 😀
Am finding out more about NZ1st MP’s and it turns out that five out of nine are teachers, this gives me hope for our education sector.
Like Douglas and Richardson’s reforms it will take decades for anyone to reverse the damage the blind following of the business model has done to Tertiary and the blind desire to churn out little cogs in businesses wheels has done to Schooling. So many people wanting to impose their education system on generations that might as well live on a different planet by comparison.
Cinny @ 4. There is a good Education column, “Teachers fight to fix education system” by Teuila Fuatai on Newsroom.
““National standards, allowing charter schools in, removing incentives for 100 percent qualified teachers in Early Childhood Education, not adequately funding support staff, constantly cutting back on the operations grant – all these things all point in the same direction: that the system has an escalating crisis that needs to be fixed,” he says.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/10/08/52023/teachers-negotiate-for-education-sector-survival
Thank you Ian 😀
Not a moral right to govern.
Jack Vowles
Professor Jack Vowles is in Victoria University of Wellington’s School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations.
‘A party ‘winning’ with a little over 44 percent of the votes cannot reasonably claim a moral right to govern: at best being the plurality winner designates being the first in the queue to seek that role. This advantages National. But stability and durability of a coalition or other government arrangement is enhanced by ideological proximity and congruence between the partners. This advantages the centre-left combination of Labour, New Zealand First and Green. A majority is 50 percent plus one. In 2017, as at every election since 1996, New Zealand has collectively continued to reject the option of having a single-party majority government.’
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/10/08/52205/not-a-moral-right-to-govern
Which is why we need a return to academics as experts, not former politicians and paid lobbyists
Stephanie Rodgers has had a go at this anti-immigration column by Duncan Garner.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/97625919/duncan-garner-dear-nz-how-do-we-want-to-look-in-20-years
He concludes:
“Until now we’ve had the world gate-crash our party. But now it is time to make it work for us.
Let’s design our country to make it better for us. Bring in the people by all means but send them to where we need them. Let’s not give them what they need from us so easily.
People are lining up to come here because we are the last paradise on Earth.
Our small population is our winning card. Let’s not lose that.
Everything we do we must ask ourselves this question: Will this make our country better for those living in it now?”
Nice big swinging arm movements there.
The project that I am in has approximately 65% foreigners, and would not have been possible without them.
The suburb of another project I worked on was revived with fresh immigrant capital over a decade.
The town with my holiday home has been transformed for good with foreigners choosing to live and invest here.
Our immigration settings should always be up for debate, but it is not helpful for Duncan Garner to base the immigration debate on ethnicity.
I posted about this last night.
I agree with your summation. We need an intelligent discussion about immigration, identity and infrastructure.
Duncan Garner has written an article backing Winston on immigration after his experience shopping in Kmart.
It has provoked a lot of criticism and support on Stuff and twitter.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/97625919/duncan-garner-dear-nz-how-do-we-want-to-look-in-20-years
https://twitter.com/DuncanGarnerNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Bomber Bradbury’s analysis is excellent.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/10/08/why-duncan-garners-k-mart-checkout-metaphor-is-actually-delightfully-perfect/
Bradbury also writes this article
‘Why we urgently need to investigate Chinese influence over National’
‘The shocking reality that the National Party is little more than a front for Chinese business interests demands far more attention than it gained…
New research paper lays bare China’s influence campaign in New Zealand
Concerns raised over political donations and directorships offered to former ministers and relatives
Chinese-owned New Zealand dairy farms said to possibly being used to test advanced missile technology’
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/10/06/why-we-urgently-need-to-investigate-chinese-influence-over-national/
Bomber is spot on there-nicely observed.
The only good thing you can say about Garner is that he does his own shopping. George Bush Senior lost masses of votes when he was shown shopping (playing the common man) at a supermarket during the 1993 campaign and being amazed at how the product scanners worked….clearly it was the first time he had stepped inside such an establishment.
Mass immigration is a mixed bag; upside is growth, diversity, investment and cheap labour; downside … ask Maori. There are two narratives here and most people experience a mix of both.
Colonisation is a lot different to immigration. I wish we could keep the two subjects separate and I understand why allies are sought.
Colonisation is a lot different to immigration.
True there is a real difference; European colonisation was largely the outcome of the massive disparity of industrialisation and technology in that era, and a with this a sense of entitled superiority which enabled them to project and impose on indigenous peoples around the globe. In many ways the British Empire was a peak version of the old patterns of history, wars, migrations and displacement being an ancient story; although the sheer geographic extent of it was unprecedented.
Colonisation in Aoteoroa came towards the end of that period, and followed a somewhat different pattern to say India or China. Here the vast majority of ordinary immigrants were escaping very poor prospects to build themselves a better life. They endured awful, dangerous journeys in the hope of a fresh start. While of course the elites plundered NZ and extracted as much wealth as they could in the usual fashion of Empires; over time something else happened … a whole new society dominated by sheer numbers of Europeans and their cultural habits arose to almost (but not completely) supplant what had existed before.
While for example the local peoples of Africa, India and China remained dominant, in the Americas and Australiasia they did not, with colonisation culminating in the physcial, economic and cultural displacement of indigenous peoples almost everywhere.
Colonisation is an essentially extractive process, a giant wealth pump that siphons resources back to the elites at the centre of empire. Immigration is the movement of peoples, usually to either escape active persecution, or to seek a better life elsewhere; this being an ancient feature of human life for probably millions of years.
Yet ultimately the end result can be very similar; in 1840 Maori were still by far the dominant population and few who signed the ToW could have imagined that within decades they’d be fighting wars to defend what remained of their land rights, or that by the turn of the century the Australian phrase “smoothing the pillow of a dying race” would enter the lexicon of their experience.
Already it impacts our elections, much of provincial NZ moved distinctly left, while Auckland now some 26% Asian/Indian, voted solidly for the status quo. Already on both sides of the Tasman there are real concerns around the CCCP’s projection of not so very soft power into our political systems.
That has to be Garner’s core question; where are we going? Because there really is no upper limit to the number of people from all over the world who would like to immigrate here. It’s not unrealistic to imagine a New Zealand in our lifetimes with a population exceeding 10 million; consisting of maybe 1m Maori/Polynesian, 3m Caucasian and another 6m from Asia.
Nothing inherently wrong with this; but I find it hard to imagine such a change will have zero political and social consequences.
A couple of points
The mindset of a colonists and an immigrants are almost the opposite of each other. One comes to squash existing peoples the other to join. Quite different. The average settler was extractive not just the colonising elites. i don’t buy the innocent running away from exploitation so ended up exploiting others line.
I understand the fear people have about asians taking over but they arent and won’t imo not while the euros are dominant.
[Citation needed]
Except it seems that they are (see Bradbury’s Chinese Influence on National).
These are questions that need to be asked and get answered and not just dismissed by what you believe to be true.
It’s my opinion
https://theconversation.com/no-youre-not-entitled-to-your-opinion-9978
Yes I am.
Only if you can back it up and you can’t.
Not true as I have just proved.
You’ve never proved anything. You can’t back up your opinions even with sound logic never mind actual research.
Fake news buddy – do you know what opinion means? You may cling to others analysis like a child to apron strings but I chose to create my own opinions from all that I read and learn. Perhaps that is the difference between man and machine – a basic fact.
Then link to it. Backup what you say with facts, research and logic.
You’ve never, ever done that and almost everything you say comes across as you talking out your arse.
One comes to squash existing peoples the other to join.
A good distinction; I’m sure that was the experience of Maori during the late 1800’s, but it’s harder to know if it was the intention of the hundreds of thousands of very poor Irish, Scottish, Welsh and others who made perilous journey in tiny ships to the most remote land on the face of the earth … to ‘squash the Maoris’.
I’ve read stories of families who’d hold a wake for those departing, because effectively they’d never be seen or likely heard from again.
Now I agree the elites certainly arrived with a different mindset; but they were always a tiny minority. The vast majority were very ordinary immigrants who where effectively just displaced peoples themselves and arrived with no more intent than to escape the colonisation they’d already lived through.
We have our stories too.
And yes the euros are numerically dominant over the whole of NZ at the moment, but barely so in Auckland. And within a few decades Maori/Polynesian/Euro might well be a minority.
Again if you asked all the Kaumatua who signed the ToW in 1840 did they want within 60 years for their mokopuna would to be reduced to a marginalised minority in their own land … I think most would have said no. And would that have made them all racists?
Yes it was a difficult journey to escape persecution and they came to a land denuded of indigenous people and culture. All they could do was take up the plough after putting the gun down, to make the land productive so that their family could thrive. Better than letting it waste and spoil. /semi sarc ☺
As you may recall, I have an ‘adopted’ Chinese son. He’s now an airline pilot in Xian City, flying 737’s four times a week on a triangular night route. He started as the orphaned son of rice farming peasants and has done well. It took time to get to know each other, but a shared interest in aviation and scary youtube videos gave us a lot in common. 🙂
He already had an anglicised first name and when he asked us a few months back for permission to use my surname as well … because he regarded us as his second family … I was remarkably moved.
Conversations with him could be unsettling though. Flying over the vast apparently empty expanses of Australia while he was training here, it seemed to him that it was very much underutilised. He was very clear that lots of Chinese could transform it all into much more productive uses rather than let it ‘waste and spoil’. /Not sarc at all.
Interesting, good on you for that relationship.
So many people see the gap not the space. They miss infinity by only a little.
Sounds like John Key’s pronouncement that water flowing down the river and into the sea was wasted. It’s the same thinking that brought about the death of the Aral Sea.
“The mindset of a colonists and an immigrants are almost the opposite of each other. One comes to squash existing peoples the other to join.”
True, but there is a third dynamic here. We have a neoliberal internal government that has an imperialist mindset and is in charge of immigration policy. So this isn’t simply about what immigrants want when they come here, it’s about who is choose who gets to come, how they come, and why.
“I understand the fear people have about asians taking over but they arent and won’t imo not while the euros are dominant.”
I don’t want to focus on Asians, for obvious reasons, but afaik if you increase a population fast enough from immigration then the culture of that society will change. The issue here is whether that matters, not that it’s not happening.
I think it is all about the Asians actually and the fear of Asians that some euros have.
Where I live the immigration issues are from Europeans, Brits and Americans. And Aucklanders. /shrug. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t some serious racism issues in NZ around Pākehā fears of Asians, but I think it’s a mistake to work on that being the *only problem here.
Yes of course you are correct. Same here. Part of the issue for me is pulling all the individual strands out – a big poster would be good. Immigration, foreign ownership, refugees, cultural solidification and openness, racism, names of things, infrastructure, city verses country, home ownership, wages, neoliberalism, and so on
so many strands arggggg…
There probably are some people who have a fear of Asian culture taking over the dominant English culture.
Personally, I’m concerned with an excess of foreigners making the people already here even more poverty stricken. And that’s already happening.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/90260050/overseas-investment-office-approves-sharp-increase-in-foreign-land-ownership
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11883554
I’m also concerned with how many people NZ can sustainably support. We don’t know that at all and yet we’re letting in an unlimited number of people.
Valid concerns imo.
There probably are some people who have a fear of Asian culture taking over the dominant English culture.
That’s not wholly unreasonable; after all is this not exactly what Maori have been saying for the past hundred years or more?
No culture is all good or all bad, they’re all a random mix of social habits that arose from the accidents of history and geography. Each has strong points, and each has less attractive aspects. Typically we like to be proud of what we’re good at, and have massive blind spots around the rest.
And when we look at an outsider culture we tend to be most irked by their blind spots and weaknesses, and much slower to appreciate what they do well.
Because most people are very change resistant the process of getting used to each other, building on our strengths and discarding our failings is a slow process that cannot be easily rushed.
Exactly … it’s not immigration that is the problem. We are ALL immigrants of one sort or another. But the nature and rate of that immigration can easily change a society in ways people are not ready for, nor desire.
Going back to the Maori experience; many of the very early European arrivals (prior to 1840 most actually arrived from America), integrated very tightly with the Maori iwi they encountered. From the Maori perspective this was not a problem at all; indeed many rather valued their ‘white Maori’ because it facilitated economic and political opportunities.
And it shouldn’t be forgotten that Maori and Europeans have intermarried at remarkably high rates; that while Maori and Europeans maintain quite distinct cultures at a personal level there is a huge amount of cross-over.
Now if hypothetically Europeans had arrived at a relatively low rate during the 1800’s, and most had continued to integrate into Maori society as the early pattern indicated … the entire question of ‘colonisation’ would never have occurred.
An imperfect example might be to point to the Samoan/German experience … while it clearly started out as colonisation, in the aftermath of WW1 the rate of immigration slowed dramatically, and the two populations then had time to successfully merge into a distinct culture of it’s own.
There are wildly different Māori experiences that the ones you have heard of.
There is no blending into a distinct new culture – that is just another assimilation fantasy imo.
I’m not sure why you are driving down this road – i thought you had made your point way up the thread. As a peaceful gesture I am disengaging.
that is just another assimilation fantasy imo.
If your definition of ‘assimilation’ is based on your experience of euros demographically overwhelming maori, then absolutely. The idea that Maori should all become ‘well behaved brown skinned Euros’ is of course repugnant.
But over time distinct cultures that flourish side by side, DO influence each other, and intermarriage DOES generate whole new patterns. In the long run both cultures finish up the stronger for it, initially separate and ultimately as something new.
I quite liked Stan Grant’s take on this:
https://e-tangata.co.nz/news/we-must-remember-our-history-but-move-beyond-it
Actually, I don’t think it’s the fact of there being self checkouts that is KMart’s problem – it’s that there are not enough of them.
they do still have some person operated checkouts, and some staff overseeing the self checkouts.
the queues at St Lukes’ Kmart the last few times I’ve been there were horrendous. At first I thought it was because of a sale.
Basically, if they are selling that much stuff, to that many people, they need more checkouts – and that would require more money spent on checkouts, and more staff to over see them.
And now extend that to all of our infrastructure.
Bomber Bradbury’s analysis is excellent. and Bomber is spot on there-nicely observed.
Nah. Bomber’s being as much a useless donkey dick as Duncan Garner.
Here’s Bomber.
I’ll spell this one out.
There is crap infrastructure and there is immigration. The insidious and unspoken line (it’s common enough and embraced by NZ Labour among others) is that immigration is somehow responsible for the infra-structure being crap…and for it getting getting more crap.
But it’s not.
The infra-structure is crap because successive governments have neglected it. Infra-structure is crap because of bad management; a failure on the part of the politicians who presume to control and manage such things.
But hey. Let’s point the finger “over there” at past and present immigrants instead, some of who could have been offered very good jobs laying in and maintaining all that infrastructure that successive governments have paid fuck all attention to (beyond flogging bits to private concerns that could extract massive profits off the back of steady deterioration).
And as a footnote not an aside, you may or may not have noticed that proposed immigration settings are set along lines of class (ie, huge bias against low skilled or poor immigrants)…which kind of defeats the purpose (if such a purpose exists) of getting basic infra-structure up to scratch.
Not to mention that the arrangements in Kmart are not about infrastructure, but due to commercial decisions.
Kmart are currently treating paying customers in a pretty shoddy way. The queues around the store I’ve been to are crazy.
It’s privately owned infrastructure but it’s still infrastructure.
And there’s absolutely nothing that the customers can do about it.
I agree that lack of planning for infrastructure is not the fault of immigrants. It’s also true that there are natural limits to growth, and there is a relationship between the number of people and what can support them in the physical world and whether that is problematic.
No it’s not.
The point is that the immigration hasn’t been planned for and the necessary infrastructure built. Then there’s the influence it has on wages – you know, the sub-par wages we have because there’s so many people being imported by businesses specifically to keep wages down.
In other words, the cost of the immigration hasn’t been covered.
Garner and Bradbury seem to skip past who creates the pressure on the infrastructure which is not the immigrants.
Remember the guy who came in on the Investment visa? Was going to build that hotel in Epsom? After 5-10 years has not? Now, how hard to have in place a law that says if you do not do what you promise you forfeit the money you had to bring in. It goes tot he Govt coffers and you get PR or Citizenship rescinded. That would be easy if there was political will. BUT it happens a bit.
Secondly, we have the kiwifruit industry brazenly not giving migrant workers contracts and paying under minimum wage (over 50%) of them. That is deliberate law breaking to take advantage of vulnerable people seeking a better life. It is also interrupting the blessed market the right loves SO much. IF there are not enough workers, wages should go up under market forces.
Instead they are deliberately driven down. Single people on benefits would DO seasonal jobs IF
1. The pay was better
2. They could get straight back on a benefit when the work finished
As long as it takes WINZ weeks or months to start paying someone coming off seasonal work it would be a foolish person who leaves it to take a short term job. When you add in the weeks or months to get back on support the real hourly rate of the seasonal work is well below $10 an hour.
Hold on, Bill.
I haven’t heard Labour blame our insufficient infrastructure on immigration.
Labour’s argument is, due to our lacking infrastructure we need to take a breather on immigration, giving us time to play catch up.
“Our immigration settings should always be up for debate, but it is not helpful for Duncan Garner to base the immigration debate on ethnicity.”
Or to do so in a way that is pretty blatantly racist (I will grant him this, I don’t think he realised he was being racist. Time for him to learn though).
Good morning weka,
Did you get my message?
I have now 🙂 Just putting it up. Thanks!
Individual advantages from immigration doesn’t mean that Duncan Garner’s points as displayed in Ad’s comment aren’t correct. They are valid points and need to be thought about and acted on.
The application of rational thinking should not be drowned by sentiment and past success. Now we need something different. You only have to look at the whole picture to see that.
Billshit.
It would have been possible if we’d developed our people and economy rather than throwing it away via neo-liberalism.
Don’t need foreign money to utilise NZ’s resources. For that we need NZ money.
So? Auckland has been badly transformed because of all the foreigners choosing to live here.
He didn’t. He based it upon there being too bloody many and that we’re not planning for it.
A classic example of unfettered immigration, is the experience of the Fijian’s, in a democracy, where the immigrants end up out numbering the citizens, the migrants can set up their own political parties and win with a majority in democratic elections.
There are many other example as well through northern Africa.
Countries with relatively small populations are at serious risk from overpopulating their countries with migrants.
NZ has a very small population compared to China or India, for either or both of those 2 countries to lose 100 million, they wouldn’t even register on population numbers, but if they all arrived at NZ…….
Refugees should be the first choice of migrants to be allowed to enter NZ, a good example of this is the new Green’s member.
NZ is already in a situation where immigrants outnumber indigenous people by something like 5 to 1 or greater.
“The town with my holiday home has been transformed for good with foreigners choosing to live and invest here.”
I can’t believe I read that here at The Standard. How about you ask the locals whose town it is what they think.
Latest lecture from the Bruce Jesson Foundation. As with all it will be interesting – you lucky Aucklanders and even Hamiltonians, don’t miss it.
Register to hear Tūhoe leader Tāmati Kruger’s 2017 Bruce Jesson Lecture – At
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2017-bruce-jesson-lecture-tuhoe-and-self-determination-tickets-37052604337
A leader of the Tūhoe people’s drive for self-determination, Tamati Kruger, will give the 2017 Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture on 31 October. (Tuesday)
Tue, October 31, 2017 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Location
OGHLecTh (102-G36)
Corner of Princes St & Waterloo Quadrant
The University of Auckland
The lecture, at the University of Auckland, will be a historic opportunity for Tūhoe to explain their philosophy of Mana Motuhake/Self-Determination to a national audience, and to report on how the approach is working out in practice since the iwi signed a settlement with the Crown in 2013.
The settlement transferred management of the Tūhoe homeland in the former Urewera National Park to a new entity Te Urewera, which Kruger chairs, run jointly by the Crown and Tūhoe.
It also agreed in principle that Tūhoe should run its own social services, including healthcare and education, for its own people.
So far Tūhoe has opened a health clinic at Taneatua and plans two more, it runs youth and counselling services, offers educational scholarships, and is becoming involved in wider educational and social services.
Tāmati Kruger was educated at Victoria University in Wellington, where he also tutored in te reo Māori and was involved in the early days if the Te Reo Māori Society in the 1970s.
He was the chief Tūhoe negotiator in the settlement process and also chairs the tribal body Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua.
The lecture will be held at the University of Auckland and you can register here.
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October 2017
FYI
2016 Lecture
A video of Lisa Marriot’s 2016 lecture, ‘Are we all equal in NZ?’, is here.
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c/- Politics & International Relations
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Thanks heaps for this
Good one
Twitterfinger J. Putinpussy barfs up yet another obstacle to actually getting anything done. By picking a fight with someone he really needs onside, but has zero leverage over.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/08/politics/donald-trump-bob-corker-tweets/index.html
Some analysis of what this means about his strategy.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/08/politics/trump-corker-attack/index.html
You mean he has no strategy! Simply reacts in a vengeful way…
Based on all of the evidence of Trump’s first nine months in office, it’s impossible to conclude that he has any sort of comprehensive strategy or theory of the case. He acts (or reacts) and sees what happens. There’s no bigger plan that we’re not privy to. There’s really no plan at all.
Loved this Tweet from Corker in response:
“”It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning,” “
It’s minor relief to be watching them spending their time taking potshots at each other rather than working as a team to implement their agenda.
Well that is certainly true! Executive orders is about all that has been achieved and even then may are subject to litigation. I can’t say the “beautiful, and wonderful” Tax plan has much hope of success either when the populous wake up to the realisation as to who are the ones going to benefit… and it certainly isn’t them!
The stacking of the EPA with Climate denialists is unfortunately having an effect, and the run down of funding in social services and eduction, and FEMA. The flow on will be increasing dissatisfaction and resentment to the administration and they will have a very difficult job at re-election in 2018 and almost no hope in 2020.
A recent poll has the Chump on only 24% approval rating and even 33% of Repugnents disapprove as well.
The big thing they’ve achieved is stacking the courts. McConnell refusing to confirm Obama appointments left a huge backlog of vacancies that they’ve been fairly quickly filling with Heritage Foundation recommendations.
President Caligula, and no one in GOP has the stones to hold him accountable.
President Trump told the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Seema Verma to deny a request from the Republican-controlled state of Iowa to fix their health-care marketplace, according to The Washington Post.
According to the Post, Iowa officials sought for months to get federal permission to fix health insurance markets in their state, but they were shut down by Trump administration officials.
Critics of the president say Trump’s unusual move is a part of the administration’s effort to undermine ObamaCare
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/354170-trump-told-hhs-to-deny-request-to-fix-iowa-obamacare-market-report
We have unemployment in NZ and under-employment too in high numbers. Yet the employers can’t find retail workers with enough ability and bleat they need to bring people in from overseas because they have new ideas. This was the plaint of Massey Uni professional on RadioNZ – couldn’t find so here is Scoop on it.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1710/S00197/massey-survey-shows-amazon-effect-spooks-local-retailers.htm
Professor Elms says the survey also showed continued concerns about skill shortages in the sector. The top two most frequently-mentioned human resource priorities in both 2016 and 2017 were staffing and training.
“There is concern that New Zealand doesn’t have a strong enough talent pipeline. We definitely have skills gaps in buying, merchandising and digital, and this will only be exacerbated as retailers compete with the likes of Amazon,” he says.
“The skills and competencies required are becoming a lot more sophisticated – retailers need staff that understand how business models are changing if they are to successfully integrate their physical and digital platforms.”
This from Google:
Bachelor of Retail and Business Management … – Massey University
http://www.massey.ac.nz/retail
The multi-billion dollar retail sector is New Zealand’s second-largest for employment, responsible for seamlessly and endlessly delivering goods and services to …
NZ Herald: New Zealand’s Latest News, Business, Sport, Weather …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/carmen-hall/
2 days ago – carmen.hall@nzme.co.nz. @ Bay_Times … Rotorua business leaders plan a national campaign to attract skilled workers. ROTORUA … NEW ZEALAND · Migrants struggling to find jobs. 12 Sep, 2017 10: …. Data shows retail spending on cards in Tauranga jumped 6.4% for year to June. ….. That was hard but I can’t imagine …
From RadioNZ
In the latest bid to solve the construction industry’s critical labour shortage, a new campaign starts today with the aim of attracting up to 20,000 foreign workers. The website LookSee Build New Zealand has 20 companies signed up looking for new staff as the pressure mounts to meet a projected demand for almost 60,000 skilled workers in just five years.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201861653/construction-industry-s-latest-push-to-recruit-overseas-workers
and this from USA
Companies can’t find workers to rebuild after Harvey and Irma | Don’t …
http://www.sentinel-echo.com/…/companies-can-t-find-workers…/article_282d07a1-f5cc-5b...
4 days ago – More people were looking for jobs , particularly men. … Business owners say a lack of skilled workers who can pass a drug test has stalled their growth .
Companies can’t find workers to rebuild after Harvey and Irma
By Danielle Paquette | The Washington Post Oct 4, 2017 Updated Oct 4, 2017
This from USA, where we seem to import ideas and policies from as we have adopted a drug testing regime which seems to be draconian and unnecessary for most employers.
I think they all need fresh ideas.
Worth a look, when you have time
Adani are virtually bankrupt and the entire thing is a scam to get money out of the Qlnd govt to prop up their failing investments elsewhere.
Tellingly none of the big banks will touch them, and the big automation player I know, who’d normally have people dedicated to winning a project of this scale aren’t bothering to waste time on it.
Yeah, but Turnbull and co are happy to loan a Billion or two, backing the Mining Industry
RedLogix, NewsFlash
Yes and yes. You are both correct.
This can be found from 36:15 in the clip.
This week is the week we find out if the infamous Barnaby Joyce loses his job, and his deputy and a few others as well.
One decision has already been made for the One Nation party candidate Robertson, the Flat earth believer, the Supreme court found he was not eligible, ignorance is not a defense, grim times for the Turnbull Govt with only a majority of one and 20 consecutive negative polls for him, the latest one seeing him fall another 2 points
Unless….
I’ve just finished filling out the 12 pages of Temporary Additional Support Re-Application paperwork, a joyful 3 monthly ritual in order to be able to pay the rent.
Anyone familiar with these forms will know about that threatening sounding Q.20 :
“You and your partner must take all necessary steps to increase income or reduce costs where possible. Please indicate where what steps you and/or your partner have taken to get other assistance, reduce costs or increase income.”
I was very tempted to write in “voted for Greens on their platform of raising benefit levels.” Would that constitute an attempt to increase income when one has no other ways of doing so?
Unfortunately I was too scared to- because even if the satire is over their heads, there is a very real fear these days that the slightest criticism against the system, and I’m implicating benefit rates here of course, will cross the desk of the wrong person ie one who could make things very difficult.
Looking forward to running the security gauntlet, and a long queue at the office, just to get the stamped receipt for said papers, then hope to god they don’t mess up again like last time. Multiply this scenario for 100s of 1000s of NZers…
Lol, I can understand the temptation (and agree with the need for caution).
Re the office visit, would be interesting if beneficiaries kept time records of what is involved in keeping a benefit.
I post my forms in, but make sure I always keep copies for myself.
Weka, you’re brave posting in forms. I did once, many moons ago and they were never seen again. Best practice these days is to hand deliver- if practically possible- physically hand them over and request a stamped signed receipt. They usually photocopy the front page and hand that back.
The annual DB confirmation paperwork can only be mailed back to somewhere in Auckland so no choice there and I’m terrified because there’s no way of knowing it arrived until a) your payments keep going in as usual or b) you get the letter saying it’s been stopped. And they wonder why the increasing rates of severe anxiety?
I used to hand deliver and get it date stamped until I got to ill to do so. So needs must. I take the view that if I post the forms and they get lost, it’s WINZ’s fault and it’s on them to sort it out. If my benefit was lapsing because of their fuck ups, then it’s time to get senior management and advocates or CLC lawyers involved. None of that is probably any less time consuming or stressful than what you are doing though 🙁
What’s DB?
Sorry, disability benefit
Sigh. I am so sorry you have to go through this.
On a slightly humourous note
” You and your partner must take all necessary steps to increase income or reduce costs where possible. Please indicate where what steps you and/or your partner have taken to get other assistance, reduce costs or increase income.” ”
I think they cut and paste this for everything… Principals, DHBs, Tertiaries, Rape Prevention Orgs… just substitute partner
Good point Tracey…anything to justify not giving money they do actually have to people and organisations that need it.
They also change the rules without feeling the need to inform their ‘clients’.
In order to receive the supported living payment (the old invalid benefit), I had to supply a medical certificate. The doctor needed to indicate how long the med cert was for, ie 2 years, five years or never. Three years ago my rheumatologist signed me off as never needing another one. However last year Winz requested a new one. When I phoned to ask why, I was told someone would call me back. subsequently I received a voicemail threatening to look into my part-time employment 3 years ago.
Apparently everyone on SLP now needs to provide a med cert every two years. Next year, at 64 yrs, I will have to provide another one. This has no useful purpose and is outright harassment.
All those who said waiting for the outcome of the special votes was a waste of time and made no difference were wrong.
Winston Peters said he wanted to wait until after the results of specials as they could change things significantly, Bill and the media disagreed, they said no significant change, however, Peters, after the release of the specials, announced that the outcome was SIGNIFICANT.
Maybe, to extrapolate, the significance indicates a more likely outcome for one side and not the other, my view is that L/G block is now in good contention, based on Peters putting so much emphasis on the SIGNIFICANCE of the specials.
Optimism? YES
Reality? we’ll still have to wait and see.
What says democracy, or the spreading there of….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11930194
Conrad selling off-the-plan Auckland apartments for NZ residency
This seems very strange to me.
Welcome to new Zealand – neo-liberal hellhole.
No wonder we have health issues in this country.
No doubt Katherine Rich pimps for these organisations.
‘Kiwi kids are exposed to 27 junk food advertisements a day, study finds.’
In a world-first study by Otago and Auckland universities, 168 children from across the Wellington region, aged between 11 and 13, wore cameras around their necks for four days, capturing what they saw every seven seconds.
In one case, a poster for Coca-Cola hung on a classroom wall. In others, marketing for sugary or energy drinks on the sides of dairies or on the ends of buses plagued their journey home.
“The consequence of that is obesity,” she said. “[Kids] are twice as likely to see junk food marketing as healthy marketing, it goes against that effort to help children maintain their weight.”
Ministry of Health statistics show 11 per cent of New Zealand children aged between 2 and 14 are obese, and a further 22 per cent are overweight.
Sugary drinks, fast food, confectionary and snack food advertisements were the most common found in the study. Product packaging was the dominant platform, followed by signs.
In an effort to reduce exposure, the researchers are calling on the incoming Government to impose a sugary drinks tax, regulate junk food marketing and impose rules that would see only healthy foods sold in schools.
They would also like to see a ban on junk food advertising in sports, such as Gatorade’s partnership with the All Blacks.’
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/teach-me/97677040/kiwi-kids-are-exposed-to-27-junk-food-advertisements-a-day-study-finds
Hidden cost of feeding grain to farm animals to hit $1.32tn a year
‘Our habit of feeding human foods, such as grain and soya, to farm animals will cost us $1.32tn (£1tn) a year by 2050 globally, according to environmental campaigners.
The hidden costs of the industrial farming system are vast, and urgently need to be brought into clear focus, Peter Stevenson of Compassion in World Farming told the Extinction and Livestock conference in London. “There’s a worrying disconnect between the retail price of food and the true cost of production. As a result, food produced at great environmental cost can appear to be cheaper than more sustainably produced alternatives.”
“Cheap food is something we pay for three times, once at the checkout, again in tax subsidies and again in the enormous clean up cost to our health and environment,” his colleague Philip Lymbery pointed out.
We are paying for soil erosion, water pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change, and a multitude of other impacts which are passed on to the public by farmers and the sector, the conference heard. For example, our current rate of soil loss costs £400bn a year globally, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has estimated that water pollution in six EU states alone costs €2bn-5bn a year; and according to the European Environment Agency the current rate of biodiversity loss is reducing global GDP by 3% every year.’…….
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/07/feeding-grain-to-farm-animals-wastes-more-than-1bn-a-year-data-shows
Rise of mega farms: how the US model of intensive farming is invading the world
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/18/rise-of-mega-farms-how-the-us-model-of-intensive-farming-is-invading-the-world
Every Single Piece Of Plastic Ever Made Still Exists.
……..’Because plastic lasts for so long, every single piece of plastic ever made still exists, and will continue existing for at least 500 years. To put that in context, if Leonardo da Vinci had drunk water from a plastic bottle when he was painting the Mona Lisa, that bottle would not have fully decomposed yet.
Every day, more and more plastic is produced, used and thrown away. In countries where disposable cups are made of plastic, for example, it may take only seconds for one to leave the package, be used, and end up in a trash can. So much plastic is being consumed that there is an area bigger than France of throw-away plastic swirling at all depths in the North Pacific Ocean. It has become so ubiquitous that birds are using it to build their nests.’……
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/every-single-piece-of-plastic-ever-made-still-exists_us_58d15c2ce4b07112b647322c?utm_campaign=Twitter&utm_source=Link&utm_medium=US
Not quite true, some plastics are organically based and used in the agricultural industries, others are very susceptible to UV corrosion which do break down to their base products a bit like rusting steel.
Something that annoys me, is that everyone blames the plastic bottles for ending up in the water ways and sea, yet, the bottles themselves are not responsible, they didn’t leap out of someone’s hand and into the river, but the PEOPLE discarding them are, surly there is a degree of responsibility of humans to care for the environment by recycling and discarding in the proper manner, plastic water bottles are a very good method of hydration, they are also relatively safe and bacteria free, ideal in emergencies. Plastic bottle manufacturers recycle a very high percentage returned bottles.
If you look at some of the less developed countries, where waste disposal is non existent and the main means of disposal is to simply “biff it out the window”, there is no system for garbage collection, unfortunately the migrants from these countries when emigrating to more civilized countries don’t usually adapt to the changes and values and continue to litter as they always have, I’ve actually seen graphic evidence of this in some overseas cities in areas of particularly high migrant residents from these under developed countries.
The micro beads used in cosmetics are a real problem too, with some countries banning products containing micro beads.
NewsFlash
I remember a past Parliamenary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Williams, in 2002 praise the efforts of the Mayor of a Brazilian city for cleaning up the city and making it a people-friendly more attractive place.
Morgan Williams (ecologist) – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Williams_(ecologist)
John Morgan Williams (born 25 March 1943), known as Dr. J. Morgan Williams or Morgan Williams, is a New Zealand ecologist and agricultural scientist who served as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment from 1997 to March 2007. … Greening the City: Bringing Biodiversity Back into the Urban
Environment”.
I think that they encouraged people to hand in rubbish from the streets and favellas for physical, practical reward, such as food, perhaps some eggs. It made a big difference. Also they had covered bus stops made in clear plastic so people were covered and crime was discouraged. That would be much appreciated.
Curitiba – Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
http://www.pce.parliament.nz/media/pdfs/CURTIBA.pdf
On the southern plateau of Brazil one city, Curitiba, has lifted itself out of tough … Brazilian Ambassador to New Zealand and his staff for assisting with visits and complimentary visas to Brazil. … mercial competition models, separation of poli- cies from ….. Morgan. Transport corridor. Section through transport corridor (IPPUC).
http://www.pce.parliament.nz/media/pdfs/CURTIBA.pdf
I think anyone who comes to this blog would be interested in this report. I urge you to read it because it deals with many things that way heavily on this country now, and might be helpful to consider points for Auckland. Probably the Auckland activist group already have many similar policies but lack the breadth of mind in the elites to effect change for the lumpenproletariat.
Just an observation: For an OK bank – certainly not amongst the worst, ASB’s Chief Jee Bung Wunder is a complete fucking irriot (going forward).
The greens have never been in power and don’t want to be
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Wow, Ian. You really sound like a person with deep understanding and penetrating analytical thought.
Blast those impotent Greens! They said they wanted to go into Government with Labour, but by the Powers of Ian, it seems they don’t !