Chris Hedges discusses with UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer the conditions of Julian Assange's detention, his psychological and physical health as well as the judicial proceedings against the WikiLeaks founder.
Exclusive footage showing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London’s high security Belmarsh prison has been obtained by Ruptly. It was filmed on a device by a fellow inmate who describes himself as a supporter of the whistleblower.
Two words: David Kelly. I understand a documentary about his "suicide" is being made which will raise many questions about the 'dark actors' he spoke about before his death.
175 years or the death warrant for someone that exposed the deep state of the USA's ( aka CIA / FBI and the neo con Hawks ) military industrial complexes agenda.
Disgusting.
Whats more disgusting is that a little while ago a Mod / blogger on this site tried to relegate that all down to a now disproven Swedish ' rape' charge , – along with all the other fan kids who supported that twisted identity politics apologist for the far right.
How gross.
How vomitous.
Learn well from your elders and superiors, freaks. Learn your history well before you dare to comment and speak.
There is a new type of constituent on the rise in Global Politics these days. They're not conservative but they're old fashioned. They're not Liberal but they're flashy. They are composed of both sexes, some token races and a broad range of age and economic cohorts. I am, of course, talking about Elvis Impersonators.
When the King of Rock & Roll shrugged off his mortal coil in 1977, there were already a few diehard fans who wanted to be the King more than most. These folk, armed with sequins, bedazzlers and a wide variety of fringed suede rodeo wear; soon made their way onto karaoke stages everywhere as they began to pretend in earnest.
From a paltry few on the fringes of fashion the movement grew. Three impersonators in 1978, 12 in 79, and now, in 2019, 100 million billion Elvis Impersonators and growing bigly.
While this group had been considered a joke amongst establishment politicians, the groups candidate, Donald ‘Jive Turkey’ Trump, took the reins of power in America after threatening to perform a 24 hour rendition of Heartbreak Hotel if he didn't win. Trump's opposition, Hillary 'I left my heart in San Francisco' Clinton's fate was also sealed in a presidential debate when, after calling Trump a petulant pig, he countered with 'You aint nothin' but a hound dog'.
Trump's first decree was to change the title of President to King, and to have stacks of burgers delivered to the White House by a Black Man. This pleased him tremendously. Other initiatives have seen him eradicate all record of Chuck Berry, and to establish laws banning Mexican Elvis Impersonators from America; especially the good ones. Future initiatives include rhinestone studs to replace the stars on the American flag, Karaoke machines with the complete Elvis collection installed in all McDonalds, and 250 Billion dollars put into research for hair replacement therapy.
People all over the world have wrung their hands in earnest 'how did an Elvis Impersonator get power in the White House' simply forgetting the promise of burgers for all, and how he'd combed over the truth. Also, that Hillary was nothin' but a hound dog.
There hasn't been a lot of discussion on the nature of the new budget. For what it is worth it is a game changer in its approach to setting policy guidelines on government spending. Yet from what I see in NZ its been a huge "Meh!"
However, progressive media overseas are looking not at the details -(which regrettably is the focus of most NZers) – but at the overall intention and direction of the new Wellbeing Budget process.
Here is an article on Vox's Future Perfect to see what I mean.
Forget GDP — New Zealand is prioritizing gross national well-being
The country’s new “well-being budget” emphasizes citizen happiness over capitalist gain.
We usually think of a country’s wealth or capital in terms of its financial bottom line: its gross domestic product. But New Zealand challenged the world to assess it in terms of a very different commodity, as the country released the first-ever “well-being budget” on May 30.
To Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the purpose of government spending is to ensure citizens’ health and life satisfaction, and that — not wealth or economic growth — is the metric by which a country’s progress should be measured. GDP alone, she said, “does not guarantee improvement to our living standards” and nor does it “take into account who benefits and who is left out.”
The budget requires all new spending to go toward five specific well-being goals: bolstering mental health, reducing child poverty, supporting indigenous peoples, moving to a low-carbon-emission economy, and flourishing in a digital age.
To measure progress toward these goals, New Zealand will use 61 indicators tracking everything from loneliness to trust in government institutions, alongside more traditional issues like water quality.
Ardern, who has spoken of empathy as the trait most needed in political leaders nowadays, said that her government has “laid the foundation for not just one well-being budget, but a different approach for government decision-making altogether.”
Even the Guardian has an article outlining the new Well-Being Budget process.
Child poverty, domestic violence and mental health will be the priorities in New Zealand’s “wellbeing budget”, the finance minister has announced, with the nation declaring itself the first in the world to measure success by its people’s wellbeing.
On Tuesday Grant Robertson said that despite New Zealand’s “rockstar” economy many New Zealanders were being left behind, with home ownership at a 60-year low, the suicide rate climbing and homelessness and food aid grants on the rise.
According to predictions by the International Monetary Fund, the New Zealand economy is expected to grow at around 2.5 % in 2019 and 2.9% in 2020. But Robertson emphasised many New Zealanders were not benefitting in their daily lives.
Although comparable countries such as the UK have begun to measure the national rate of wellbeing, New Zealand is the first western country to design its entire budget around wellbeing priorities and instruct its ministries to design policies to improve wellbeing.
Shock! Horror! that The Guardian would cover, and no doubt like, a safe, middle of the road, hand wringing, non transformational, financially suffocated budget from NZ Labour….have you ever read the Guardian?
Have you actually read what this Well-being budget is about and how it was created? Are you, as well as almost every other NZer, completely unaware that this is a world first – aimed at creating a Budget and therefore Government Policy that addresses the welfare of all New Zealanders – not just the chosen few. Yes even the Guardian has chosen to highlight the significance of this world first attempt at creating a better society.
And yes I do read the Guardian which you obviously don't. You might like to read the article I linked to, to see what it does have to say. I quoted some of it for you.
Here is what Robert Kennedy had to say about our obsession with GDP – the fiscal measure that drove previous Budgets both here and everywhere else in the western world.
"“For me, well-being means people living lives of purpose, balance and meaning to them, and having the capabilities to do so,” said Robertson"
Purpose balance and meaning are great – but we only get to that point once material necessities are taken care of and not under continual threat of loss or removal by the powerful – "the realm of freedom begins where the realm of necessity ends."
All elected MPs are there to further the wellbeing of every NZer. We believe most MPs who say that that is what they are there for.
So how does the behaviour of MPs like Simon Bridges fit into that claim? By all means hold the Government to account but to deny the evidence that the Budget marks a significant shift to improve the wellbeing of we the people, is treasonous in my book. Bullies twist truth, belittle, sneer and demean. Does this sound like what Bridges/Bennett do?
<i>" deny the evidence that the Budget marks a significant shift to improve the wellbeing of we the people, is treasonous in my book "</i>
I'm with Rosemary on this. Despite the fanfare, the improvements proposed are not significant in terms of investment or effectiveness. As an innovative budget it does not deliver more for those who have waited an awfully long time to be noticed.
We were not told if the "leaked" material was actually part of the Budget. Gordon writes:
To repeat: the fact that the information released by Bridges had been only the pre-announced stuff – which was why it had been pre-loaded on the website, awaiting the full inputs on Budget Day itself – should have immediately told those concerned what they were (almost certainly) dealing with.
So molehills certainly grow. Had Treasury/Robertson front footed this it would have negated Simon's blather wouldn't it?
…early on the Wednesday, the sole focus of National leader Simon Bridges on the “bungling” and incompetence” aspects (while not giving further revelations about Budget content) should have galvanized Robertson to go on the front foot and (a) publically clarify the likely nature of the leak (b) re-assure the public of its limited nature and thereby (c) begin to distance the government from Treasury’s overcooked initial “explanation” as to what had happened. As we now know, Robertson did none of the above.
This new information is concerning.
Indeed, why didn't Grant Robertson front foot it the next day – or the day after?
It could be because they were receiving conflicting information from more than one source so they decided to go for an inquiry.
Molly and Rosemary I wonder why the commentary on the Wellbeing Budget has been noticed and written about overseas. After all, a small country Budget would usually cause a big yawn or less – unless it was the beginning of some pretty important direction in spite of the relentless naysayers.
Ianmac. Twenty something years ago I was speaking with a child protection social worker from the UK. This social worker had attended a training program on Family Group Conferences.
The model they were rolling out in her area of the Midlands was based on our wonderful Family Group Conference scheme here in New Zealand. "World Beating!!!" "Innovative!!!" "The Answer to Rising Youth Offending!!!".
I don't think she fully believed me when I told the the scheme was largely a flop.
There's the spin, and then there's the reality.
Perhaps some of us live closer to the ground.
Results Ianmac, how are we going to measure the outcomes/outputs?
What is wellbeing? Wellbeing is when people lead fulfilling lives with purpose, balance and meaning to them. Giving more New Zealanders the capability to improve their wellbeing requires tackling the long-term challenges we face as a country, like the mental health crisis and breaking the cycle of child poverty and domestic violence. It means improving the state of our environment, the strength of our communities and the performance of our economy. Making the best choices for current and future generations requires looking beyond economic growth and considering social, environmental, and economic implications together. The Wellbeing Budget does this in three ways:
1. Breaking down agency silos and working across government to assess, develop and implement policies that improve wellbeing
2. Focusing on outcomes that meet the needs of present generations at the same time as thinking about the long-term impacts for future generations, and
3. Tracking our progress with broader measures of success, including the health of our finances, natural resources, people and communities.
The Wellbeing Budget Package focuses on the five priorities announced in the Budget Policy Statement, as well as funding to maintain public services at the level New Zealanders expect. These priorities were identified using collaborative and evidence-based processes, involving Science Advisors and the Treasury’s Living Standards Framework. The five priorities are:
• Supporting mental wellbeing for all New Zealanders, with a special focus on under 24-year-olds
• Reducing child poverty and improving child wellbeing, including addressing family violence
• Lifting Māori and Pacific incomes, skills and opportunities • Supporting a thriving nation in the digital age through innovation, social and economic opportunities, and
• Creating opportunities for productive businesses, regions, iwi and others to transition to a sustainable and low-emissions economy.
Macro, I find myself in company with The Chairman more and more these days, – the link he put up is worth watching.
I miss the lack of critique of any policy just because it is produced by the current coalition. It is not just a question of tribal politics, there are New Zealanders who are currently living diminished lives – and who have already waited decades to be noticed and they are still required to wait.
There are fundamental failures in essential services that need innovative and directed change, and none of this is happening.
I am beyond 'missing'. I feel bereft. Near weeping I am at the lack of real debate and shocked at the slurs against those of us who are not yet convinced…
Hint…not being 100% convinced this Current Mob are committed to reversing three decades of sociopathic governance doth not a National supporter make.
Getting fleas is usually better than being dog tucker.
The results of election2017 are the facts on the ground. I sure can't see any other coalition deal possible from those results that would deliver more funadamental change than what we have.
At least they're making an effort, and minimising NZ1's immigration ideas while supporting the regional growth plans.
FFS, this centre left bs is tiring. All you ever do is lose voters, you have done that for the last 30 odd years. You keep throwing people to the wolves in the name of political expediency. Your ideological as all hell without accepting you are – and it makes you look alot like those other crazy ideologies.
If the labour party of the early 20th century had acted like you lot, then social democracy would never of happened.
Just a final point, because the blindly obvious needs to be said. You know that quoting Bismark and/or Churchill makes you look like a Tory prick on a left wing website, don't you?
Screw you. I tried the NLP and Alliance. There were others even further left that made even less of an impact. If incrementalism is losing votes, why did none of them take the place of Labour?
That's the shitty thing about democracy – votes win, not theory.
The sooner you realise that, the sooner you'll stop railing against your nearest allies.
This government is not the end in itself. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning – especially if the terminally glum start being able to identify friend from foe.
The results of election2017 are the facts on the ground. I sure can't see any other coalition deal possible from those results that would deliver more funadamental change than what we have.
Evidently, you need help to see. Labour could have (in numerous ways) offered Peters more, allowing him to keep face with his supporters in return for his support for more.
Ah, so the way to getting more left wing policy is the make policy concessions to an inherently conservative party, rather than focusing on the common ground?
Which policy concessions do you recommend Labour and the Greens make to NZ1? Walk back a bit on immigration? In exchange for what?
Ah, so the way to getting more left wing policy is the make policy concessions to an inherently conservative party, rather than focusing on the common ground?
No. Offering more where there is common ground along with more (such as in the way of funding) where concessions have already been made. Conditional on more NZF support of course.
And one way to fund that (along with raising more revenue for the Government overall) is to vastly increase the tourist levy. From the $35 recently announced to say $200 per adult and a $100 per child. That way, a million visitors (NZ has almost 4 million annually) would generate in excess of $100 million in new Government revenue. That would help buy a lot more of NZF's support.
So your suggestion is that both NZ1 and Labour have a "common ground" in triple-figure tourist levies? Without any data on how that might affect tourism in the regions?
@McF
I know the outdoor community is definitely fed up with the chronic underfunding of DoC, while at the same time watching the tourism industry profit either directly or indirectly from the Conservation Estate.
I've participated in numerous discussions elsewhere that all generally agree that increased levies on tourists is both justified and affordable for most visitors.
Yes it will price some marginal visitors from coming here, and yes there is plenty of scenery elsewhere in the world. What everyone agrees on is that NZ's competitive advantage is in the quality of visitor's experience here and maintaining that is the intelligent way forward.
Yeah, that is probably the case. There's a long haul between that and NZ1 in particular supporting the tourist industry cool off a bit. The transition to package coach tours does keep more of the money away from the regions visited, but tourism is still an employer in a lot of the regions.
There have already been calls to slow our tourism numbers. We have a shortage of hotel rooms and an expected surging increase in visitors.
Therefore, we have scope for numbers to slow and perhaps even fall off a little.
Additionally, although numbers may fall off, the up side is it is likely to lift the quality of visitors which in turn are likely to spend more increasing our tourist income stream.
But of course, I wasn't suggesting research on it not being done. Nevertheless, as you can see, with tourism trending up coupled with NZ reaching maximum capacity, the notion has real potential.
Not at all. I highlighted one way Labour could have possibly gained more NZF support.
Moreover, seeing as an entry levy has recently been announced, it indicates the three support the notion. Suggesting the potential for increasing it is in the realm of reality.
No. I don't seriously think this government will deliver meaningful changes, which is why I didn't vote Labour last election. With or without NZ First, none of their election promises seem to be effective solutions to my personal areas of concern.
That seems to be borne out by the last twenty months of policy and programmes.
But I will not cheer for substandard measures because of their … Coalition partner, self-imposed budget restrictions, need to get re-elected, rhetoric about wellbeing…
I will applaud along with many others when policy arrives that does help the most marginalised and forgotten.
So what have you applauded in the last couple of years?
Winter energy payments? $60/w for parents of infants? Money to apprenticeships? Healthy rental homes? Removal of "name the father" benefit sanctions? Actually setting child poverty reduction as a targeted priority? Supergold card? First year free tertiary education?
I hope that all of you who have responded to The Chairman @ 3.4 understand that he is a concern troll, and, just like the devil, quotes the scriptures for his own purposes. His aim is to spread despondency on the Left, and with your replies you have pretty well given him reason to smile sardonically.
Labour's failure to deliver that is behind the growing despondency on the left
The only despondency on show is from the nat media and you.
And as rim clingers have quite unrealistic expectations and won't ever be satisfied, however left the government is, they're always moping, so nothing in particular to do with this budget.
Firstly, addressing you in your bubble, they're not my heroes and heroines, they're just who I voted for, and sure there are policies I want which aren't there yet, but considering the make up of the government I fully accept you can't always get what you want when you want it. Compromises have to be made, but it's still better than English's nats ruling the roost, right? Well that's called progress. Next time out, if we vote accordingly, then I’d expect to see more and more.
As far as despondency goes, it's just more of the same from the same people, here and the media. I stand by my above post. There is no groundswell of dissatisfaction against the government, no movement for change, no national debate. Nothing is perfect, not by a long shot, but to claim growing despondency is just malicious.
As shown numerous times, I'm far from the only one disappointed.
The People's Budget was totally about the recent Budget.
What's come to my attention is there is more and more left commentators (that are largely supportive of Labour) expressing their disappointment.
And while you foolishly write them off as mopers, you forget they are the voices and those working on the front line whose insights help change public opinion and help muster Labour's foot soldiers and voters come election day.
The problem with getting rid of the mosquitoes is they are an integral part of the food chain in many ecosystems. So I am a little surprised that Wiles is advocating it.
From memory though, there are organisms that suppress malaria in the mosquito phase. Wohlbachia comes to mind. Those look like better targets for further engineering.
Scientists have identified some ecological niches (pollinators, food) for mosquitos but also believe mosquitos ecological niche would be filled fairly readily. While I am dubious of such claims the fact is mosquitos are an absolute curse to mankind.
It only takes one, non-disease carrying mossy to completely screw up your nights sleep. And I've slapped myself so it hurt a number of times coming out of slumber to target the whining buzz. Yet here in NZ we have it easy, but in many countries these things severely weaken and even kill humans.
I think a gene drive makes more sense than an engineered fungi (or microbe) because every critter we've ever tried to control with insecticidal compounds has simply grown a resistance to it over time. The more you use bio and chemical pesticides, the greater the chances they will be overcome.
Some folks in the greens resist for the sake of resisting and have little to no scientific or ecological knowledge. Others are extremely sharp, are are not close to the Luddites as you describe. Is it dogmatism or caution that keeps them in opposition to such technology? Science has done itself no favors getting in bed with the corporates of the world. Now, the world is understandably cautious.
The rent a crowd mob really are annoying (and shrill), but sometimes they're the only people protesting and illuminating things of great public interest. Without canaries in the coal mine we'd all be cooked.
Folding and letting industry just get on with anything is a mugs game. At the end of the day public interest and common sense should prevail – but not if there's money to be made – then it's a dollar each way.
I understand that the wild animal seasonal stampede across the vast plains was to get free of the midges. Perhaps we subconsciously are taking a lesson from the wild when some of us (not me) set out on marathons. Perhaps they do serve some practical purpose other than avoiding sitting and thinking about our world and we people and what we personally can do to aid us all in the near future after disasters played like concertinas. Perhaps they will set themselves up as part of a message relay system when the lines go down from Auckland to Wellington.
Agreed. In the early days of GE technology there were good reasons to be cautious and hold back. That's not the same thing as being stuck in the past forever.
And the same with nuclear power. The first few generations of nuclear energy generation were worth skipping over, but the new molten salt reactors look a lot more promising.
The first one or two generations of any new technology will always have the most unintended consequences. But GE has been around for quite a few decades now and the world may have problems, but a runaway GE disaster is not one of them.
I'm not advocating that NZ should rush into a wholesale embrace of GE, but the time is past when we can justify keeping the door fully slammed shut either.
Qiane Matata-Sipu says “We live here, this is our whenua, we’ve been here for 800 years and we’ll be here for 800 more and if it’s not me it will be my daughter. I’m so actively involved in this kaupapa and sacrificing time with my family now because I don’t want her to have to do this when she gets older, so she can just be and not have to fight and not have to try to protect her whenua and assert her rights and right the wrongs of her past.”
Fletchers has 18 months from May 6 to close the Ihumātao Quarry Road, and force the SOUL protesters off the land. Matata-Sipu doesn’t think Fletcher have all the necessary paperwork to do so yet, and is holding on to hope that someone steps in to help them claim back their whenua before it comes to confrontation.
“You have to be hopeful, if you lose your hope you have nothing left … This is all a part of history and what we’re asking people is: What side of history do you want to be on? How do you want to be remembered? This is our whenua that we are so strongly connected to, so what have we got to lose?”
"In 1863 Ihumātao was confiscated by the crown as a punishment for supporting the Kīngitanga movement, and Matata-Sipu says since then, the government and council have not done enough to make reparations."
Well the crown should bloody well give it back then. That's the modern day equivalent of taking Fletchers land for supporting National.
"I don't think about Simon Bridges to be perfectly honest," one person told Newshub.
"I'm a little bit disappointed in him," said another.
One local said they're a "super fan of National" – but not its leader.
"I think he made quite a lot of it when he could have told us in perhaps not such a derogatory way," said another.
"He could've waited and delved into it later but not beforehand, he only does it so he can get his face out there which we don't want to see anyway," one person said.
yep and he'll come out saying that either the polls are a waste of time (until one shows his support increasing) or that he is confident everything is cool. But his pinched lemon pursed lipped grimace (reminiscent of that 5th tequila shot lemon suck you may remember) will slightly lighten as sour lemonaid gets ingested instead.
As I walked out in the streets of Tauranga
As I walked out in Tauranga one day
I saw Simon Bridges dressed in his brown winkle-pickers,
White shirt, blue tie, and brylcreem pomade.
Oh play the drum loudly and not quite in rhythm
To echo my political career up to this date.
Take me to Caucus I'll hand in my papers
I’ll hand in my papers for I’m resigning today!
"I see by your outfit that you're a reporter"
These words he did say as I boldly walked by
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story
Got stabbed in the back and I still don't know why."
"T'was once I was famed as leader of National
And still am as far as the caucus might say
But 5 per cent of voters are all that support me
Five per cent, with David Seymour on a good day.
"Go fetch me a glass of a craft Monteith lager
And a drum kit to beat up a political storm!"
Before I returned his caucus had left him
For champers with Judith and let him forlorn.
"Oh play the drum loudly and not quite in rhythm
To echo my political career up till now.
Take me to Caucus I'll hand in my papers
I'll hand in my papers for I'm resigning, the cow! "
Despite this, the party's deputy leader Paula Bennett insists Bridges' leadership is safe.
"I'm the person that works most closely with him and I can tell you that I reckon that he is going to be our next Prime Minister," she told the AM Show this morning.
She said the public know that Bridges was "capable and he is intelligent and is incredibly hard-working".
Oh and I just heard DPF is going to be on the radio with Jesse explaining the difference between the polls – ffs that guy is tainted and not independent imo – use your brains radionz or whatever you’re called.
Is anyone else lost for words that the Herald pays Hoskings to write this "Ardern's D-Day snub a glib insult to D Day" though it goes hand in hand with the day by day reckonings if she attends something it is to grab favour and headlines and if not it's a glib insult.
That aside and I suppose people will decide, assuming they even see it as such or even an issue, but blatant "glib dismissal" is, for me, written all over the Opposition "leader's" face with his thick-skinned denial that a huge number of NZers from all quarters are not buying into him, his leadership or his most recent political offering.
I had hoped that following their recent Theft of Documents – Without Permission – and distributing them nation wide – Simon Bridges and Mrs Bennett would realise their stupidity, get out of their National gutter, and follow the Laws that ban Theft and promote ethics.
Instead, they have utterly ridiculed the 2019 Budget which has been built on new structures. WellBeing Budget – for All. The Finances are allotted to achieve the highly innovative structures.
Mr Bridges and Mrs Bennett immediately started their propaganda declaring there is nothing for the Middle Class. They will get nothing.! Liars.
How low do those two Politicians go !
The Coaltion Government must develop well spoken Advocates and send them through Aotearoa to make sure all of New Zealand knows the Truth.
They are the opposition, I recall labour where also more than adept at barking at every passing car Just accept not every one has jumped onto the Jacinda train
"barking at every passing car" & how effective was that for Labour? & they were disparaged for doing it too, National haven't learned a thing, what's the saying about the definition of stupidity is repeating the same thing & expecting a different result? That's National bouncing off that same wall…long may it last.
The words of the song from Midnight Oil regarding civil freedoms – pertaining even to Julian Assange and his plight against overwhelming state collusion and bullying , our wildlife brethren and the environment we share , still ring true today.
Then it was Bush and Blair and their odious lies on 'weapons of mass destruction' and Bush Sr's One World Govt fetish… today its that same hack of globalists trying to silence one of our greatest exposer's of Deep State secrecy ,… Julian Assange.
Thing is , your taking stats from a time when NZ didn't have any opposition to Douglas's neo liberalism. Or Bolgers, or Richardsons, or Shipleys , or Clarkes or any of the other scumbags who followed Douglas.
And we have yet to see any viable opposition to neo liberalism to date.
Therefore the whole argument is slanted in favor of the incremental diatribe of that of ideology. Therefore it is bogus. Proves nothing. And that is why we have had a Teachers strike. And in future, there will be more as more Union leaders acquiesce to their members instead of Labour party fishead's and demand realistic wages and conditions.
Don't blame me. – I'm just the messenger .
And personally ?
I don't give a rats shit what anyone of you thinks. And why ?, – because I don't give a rats arse about being tribal. I could just as soon see Labour take a dive as well as National , so long as the working people of NZ get a fair deal , – which they haven't over the last 35 years of bullshit neo liberal incrementalism.
From Nicki Hager , author of the book 'Dirty Politics' to the Afghanistan incident to which John Key was signatory for the go – ahead , and Wayne Mapp was the Minister of Defense , and the subsequent Police raiding of his ( Hagers ) home to Martyn Bradbury's 'behind closed doors evidence' against him by the NZ Police,… to the illegal warrant and arrest and detainment of Kim Dotcom and the illegal impounding of his assets designed to deny him moneys to finance his defense, – in order to pander to the then ratification of the Hollywood Motion Picture industry's TTPA's copyright laws before Congress which have no jurisdiction in NZ ,…
How can we ever expect to see Julian Assange receive a fair trial if we cannot even stand up against corruption on our own shores?
Just to say I have put up an extensive comment on How to Get There which is in moderation at present because there were quite a few links. But then come and see –
on tree planting in Africa – the Green Wall, and
A NZr Wendy Campbell Purdie who did wonders with tree planting and disbelieving governments, and
Algeria and Morocco about their tree planting in the past and now
and Moroccos solar array and
the many women who have been involved in tree planting schemes on the planet and
An idea by environmental scientists on how to create a different sort of boundary between USA and Mexico.
And remember that How to Get There is a living document' it is just not fish'n'chips wrapper thrown away after the day, it is the actual fish and chips! There to take a bite of whatever is on offer and lots of good things over the weeks.
And btw… this site seems to have turned to shit a little bit as of late… no offense but its a little crappy with posting or pasting atm… anyways we humans are slow learners it seems at times… me included , so its nothing personal. And that's why again, … the posting of Midnight Oil. In the words of Led Zeppelin, … the 'Song Remains The Same'…
WK I know you are a bit wild and a force of nature commenter but please don't throw ordure around just saying. If there is something with the site that you want improved say so – don't say it's shit.
So specifically is it difficult for you to put up links, vids etc? If so state the problem, ask others for advice, and we can all learn – very helpful if it gets explained on site. List the problems will you so we don't get too much creativity of description.
No , its not the site ,- its great ,… its more the techco side that's cumbersome.
I use Google , and the pasting thingy is crap.
I'd also thank you to not distract from the 'issues' at hand and attempt to relegate them to a mere mechanical technological deflection because you are comfortable with the format. Other than that , no problems from what you posted.
The issue lies with the spell checker and the post / paste thingy.
Who says I'm comfortable with the format? I just realise that lprent is a sort of wizard who puts a lot of his spare time into keeping this show going. So I have been schtum for a long time about the search engine, just a wee mention FTTT, and now I am happy to have that.
If something else doesn't work out I find a way around it, or swear, or do what you did and ask. I just don't say the shebang is shit, as I try to adopt the 'substance over style' approach.
The spell checker I find now, if I go into edit, is so littered with those terms for a space @&sb sort of thing, which get underlined in red, that I can't see any wrong spellings. That's my moan. Also if anyone wants to know how to get rid of unwanted links in pasted material I have found a way. But I am in Firefox and am told that I should be updating. So maybe it's only me.
Its cool that Canada has banned single use plastic bags and cutlery by 2021 .I will write a post on Canadas indigenous people today.
I agree there is a huge gap in the rural and provincial NZ I say a cottage industry set up around our Marae.
Its very good that New Zealand is pulling our troops out of Iraq.
I try not to use cash as for me when I use cash I spend to much.
48 % is not the Majority of people like the other person said the people need to be informed of the TRUTH about weed so people can make good informed decision & discussion on weed.
With what happened in Murrupara its because there are no jobs that's why I have been advocating for Marae based cottage industry's and other ways for people to earn a income the forestry industry is not delivering what was promised to the East Coast. Consist Mahi is good for the Wairua. If te tangata tried to get mahi in town there are no whare/houses
Happy birthday young fella Mark that looks like a nice cake.
It's sad to see Louis the last Canadian tangata whenua /people of the land coders in world war 2 pass it even sadder than him and his pears didn't get recognized for the great contribution they made that helped shape our society today.
Condolences to his whanau/family for their losses.
Last of the Mohawk code talkers dies after finally being hailed a war hero
Second world war efforts of Louis Levi Oakes and other indigenous peoples stayed secret coders.
In the dense jungle battlefields of the south Pacific, Louis Levi Oakes was a target. Often flanked by bodyguards as he carried a large field pack with a tangle of transmission lines, the men surrounding Oakes were assigned to protect a valuable asset – his language
A Mohawk soldier from a territory straddling the US and Canada, Oakes was the last surviving member of a secretive group of second world war soldiers who used their native language to confound and frustrate enemy forces.
On 28 May he died at his home, surrounded by family. He was 94.
Known as the Mohawk code talkers, Oakes and 16 others from the Mohawk nation of Akwesasne were part of a broader – but clandestine – facet of the allied war effort. Because critical communications were vulnerable to interception, the military recruited indigenous speakers to transmit sensitive messages. As many as 500 speakers of indigenous languages were recruited into the US military to work as code talkers, including Navajo, Tlingit, Lakota, Meskwaki, Cree and Comanche, all of whom were sworn to secrecy.
The code they used, drawn from 33 different languages, confused both the Germans and Japanese, who failed to break the code.
But the classified nature of their work kept Oakes and others silent for generations ka kite ano link below.
Its good to see the next generation are treating ALCOHOL like it should be. Take with caution better still don't take at all.
Alcohol causes many problems to our society the people in glass houses throw stones at other natural relaxation thing meanwhile they ignore the problem associated with their relaxation of choice. The one giving to us from God doesn't do no we near a much damage to our society's as Alcohol.
People are sick of drinking. Investors are betting on the 'sober curious
hey are part of larger trend. People are paying greater attention to their mental health and wellness, and many Americans are specifically looking to reduce their alcohol intake. People of all ages are drinking less beer, while millennials are drinking less overall. And Silicon Valley is taking note, with tech companies reevaluating their alcohol policies and investors looking to capitalize on people who prefer not to drink.
"It's such a part of the culture, especially here in San Francisco that I would go out for dinner and have two to three drinks everyday," Silicon Valley entrepreneur Justin Kan, the CEO of law-tech startup Atrium, told CNN Business. He said he has seen a shift recently within his tech circle. "I was at a dinner with a lot of tech people last night and probably half the people weren't drinking."
Kan announced last month, in a post on Twitter, that he was giving up alcohol. He called drinking an unhealthy habit that had gotten in the way of his experiencing life. It wasn't exactly unusual for Kan to share personal details about himself: He once livestreamed his life through the startup he co-founded in 2007 called Justin.tv, which ultimately became Twitch, the popular live streaming platform for gamers now owned by Amazon.
The same day he tweeted, Kan launched a group on chat app Telegram to connect with others who were similarly deciding to get sober from alcohol. He didn't expect that more than 1,000 people would join ka kite ano link below.
,,I ,, Our young men need to learn to respect our Wahine.
The Americas Cup will put Aotearoa on the Papatuanuku map .
All the up grades to the Auckland harbor will ad value to the waterfront and a legacy.
Costco welcome to Aotearoa the duopoly of our super markets have been creaming people for way too long $60 to join the club is not to much to pay to access the shop ka pai.
I don't think Grant Robinson should step down from his Minister of finance national is just spraying wai into tawhirimate.
That guy in Australia who ran over and killed 6 people in a shopping mall looks like the police miss a the sign of his irrational behavior .
Yes with AirNew Zealand accepting ta moko shows that the world is starting to learn how great tangata whenua O Aotearoa cultural Art is ka pai.
I think Orange tamariki should keep the mokopuna with the mother for the first six months at least the number of tamariki being up lifted is a shame it is cool that our government has invested more money into helping the vaunrable people of all cultures but Maori and Pacific tamariki end up in sips the most.
Our Maori Wardens do a great job in our community's ka pai
It is very cool that our government is investigating our climate change risk so that we can mitigate a plan for the future changes advancing fast to our environment.
Thanks to the Auckland council for putting climate change in all their plans for the community developments
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Chris Hedges discusses with UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer the conditions of Julian Assange's detention, his psychological and physical health as well as the judicial proceedings against the WikiLeaks founder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_P9Nj6N58
Exclusive footage showing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London’s high security Belmarsh prison has been obtained by Ruptly. It was filmed on a device by a fellow inmate who describes himself as a supporter of the whistleblower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylCDaBM3gHo&feature=player_embedded
Looks healthy and well nourished Porridge must be ok
Allegations of torture in Belmarsh. Why did his health suddenly collapse? Allegations of poisoning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=35sO9HErcuM
Two words: David Kelly. I understand a documentary about his "suicide" is being made which will raise many questions about the 'dark actors' he spoke about before his death.
175 years or the death warrant for someone that exposed the deep state of the USA's ( aka CIA / FBI and the neo con Hawks ) military industrial complexes agenda.
Disgusting.
Whats more disgusting is that a little while ago a Mod / blogger on this site tried to relegate that all down to a now disproven Swedish ' rape' charge , – along with all the other fan kids who supported that twisted identity politics apologist for the far right.
How gross.
How vomitous.
Learn well from your elders and superiors, freaks. Learn your history well before you dare to comment and speak.
https://youtu.be/CWiIYW_fBfY?t=3
Devil In Disguise.
There is a new type of constituent on the rise in Global Politics these days. They're not conservative but they're old fashioned. They're not Liberal but they're flashy. They are composed of both sexes, some token races and a broad range of age and economic cohorts. I am, of course, talking about Elvis Impersonators.
When the King of Rock & Roll shrugged off his mortal coil in 1977, there were already a few diehard fans who wanted to be the King more than most. These folk, armed with sequins, bedazzlers and a wide variety of fringed suede rodeo wear; soon made their way onto karaoke stages everywhere as they began to pretend in earnest.
From a paltry few on the fringes of fashion the movement grew. Three impersonators in 1978, 12 in 79, and now, in 2019, 100 million billion Elvis Impersonators and growing bigly.
While this group had been considered a joke amongst establishment politicians, the groups candidate, Donald ‘Jive Turkey’ Trump, took the reins of power in America after threatening to perform a 24 hour rendition of Heartbreak Hotel if he didn't win. Trump's opposition, Hillary 'I left my heart in San Francisco' Clinton's fate was also sealed in a presidential debate when, after calling Trump a petulant pig, he countered with 'You aint nothin' but a hound dog'.
Trump's first decree was to change the title of President to King, and to have stacks of burgers delivered to the White House by a Black Man. This pleased him tremendously. Other initiatives have seen him eradicate all record of Chuck Berry, and to establish laws banning Mexican Elvis Impersonators from America; especially the good ones. Future initiatives include rhinestone studs to replace the stars on the American flag, Karaoke machines with the complete Elvis collection installed in all McDonalds, and 250 Billion dollars put into research for hair replacement therapy.
People all over the world have wrung their hands in earnest 'how did an Elvis Impersonator get power in the White House' simply forgetting the promise of burgers for all, and how he'd combed over the truth. Also, that Hillary was nothin' but a hound dog.
Come on folks I spent a good 15 minutes on that satire bahaa!
I didn't think it was satire !
There hasn't been a lot of discussion on the nature of the new budget. For what it is worth it is a game changer in its approach to setting policy guidelines on government spending. Yet from what I see in NZ its been a huge "Meh!"
However, progressive media overseas are looking not at the details -(which regrettably is the focus of most NZers) – but at the overall intention and direction of the new Wellbeing Budget process.
Here is an article on Vox's Future Perfect to see what I mean.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/6/8/18656710/new-zealand-wellbeing-budget-bhutan-happiness
And shock! horror!
Even the Guardian has an article outlining the new Well-Being Budget process.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/14/new-zealands-world-first-wellbeing-budget-to-focus-on-poverty-and-mental-health
Shock! Horror! that The Guardian would cover, and no doubt like, a safe, middle of the road, hand wringing, non transformational, financially suffocated budget from NZ Labour….have you ever read the Guardian?
Have you actually read what this Well-being budget is about and how it was created? Are you, as well as almost every other NZer, completely unaware that this is a world first – aimed at creating a Budget and therefore Government Policy that addresses the welfare of all New Zealanders – not just the chosen few. Yes even the Guardian has chosen to highlight the significance of this world first attempt at creating a better society.
And yes I do read the Guardian which you obviously don't. You might like to read the article I linked to, to see what it does have to say. I quoted some of it for you.
Here is what Robert Kennedy had to say about our obsession with GDP – the fiscal measure that drove previous Budgets both here and everywhere else in the western world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FAmr1la6w0
looks like the russians were there first on a wellbeing budget.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/57425
Macro…perhaps we, the hoipolloi, the one's who don't get 'it', need some kind Sign from the Coalition.
Something to convince us that they are Serious, that the Mean Business.
That they genuinely Care.
Because all this talk, after three decades of being ground underfoot, is simply not convincing.
The fact that the Guardian thinks it's all very wonderful is not an accolade.
"The fact that the Guardian thinks it's all very wonderful is not an accolade"
So true Rosemary.
"“For me, well-being means people living lives of purpose, balance and meaning to them, and having the capabilities to do so,” said Robertson"
Purpose balance and meaning are great – but we only get to that point once material necessities are taken care of and not under continual threat of loss or removal by the powerful – "the realm of freedom begins where the realm of necessity ends."
"which regrettably is the focus of most NZers"
.. of our media.
All elected MPs are there to further the wellbeing of every NZer. We believe most MPs who say that that is what they are there for.
So how does the behaviour of MPs like Simon Bridges fit into that claim? By all means hold the Government to account but to deny the evidence that the Budget marks a significant shift to improve the wellbeing of we the people, is treasonous in my book. Bullies twist truth, belittle, sneer and demean. Does this sound like what Bridges/Bennett do?
"…but to deny the evidence that the Budget marks a significant shift to improve the wellbeing of we the people, is treasonous in my book. "
What evidence? Surely it is way too soon to be counting the hatchlings?
Methinks calling those of us who are less than orgasmic 'treasonous' is more than a little harsh.
Makes me wonder who is up whom and who's paying.
<i>" deny the evidence that the Budget marks a significant shift to improve the wellbeing of we the people, is treasonous in my book "</i>
I'm with Rosemary on this. Despite the fanfare, the improvements proposed are not significant in terms of investment or effectiveness. As an innovative budget it does not deliver more for those who have waited an awfully long time to be noticed.
We were not told if the "leaked" material was actually part of the Budget. Gordon writes:
So molehills certainly grow. Had Treasury/Robertson front footed this it would have negated Simon's blather wouldn't it?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1906/S00024/the-treasury-debacle-and-nzs-wider-security-problems.htm
This new information is concerning.
Indeed, why didn't Grant Robertson front foot it the next day – or the day after?
It could be because they were receiving conflicting information from more than one source so they decided to go for an inquiry.
Well have to wait and see the outcome now.
Molly and Rosemary I wonder why the commentary on the Wellbeing Budget has been noticed and written about overseas. After all, a small country Budget would usually cause a big yawn or less – unless it was the beginning of some pretty important direction in spite of the relentless naysayers.
Ianmac. Twenty something years ago I was speaking with a child protection social worker from the UK. This social worker had attended a training program on Family Group Conferences.
The model they were rolling out in her area of the Midlands was based on our wonderful Family Group Conference scheme here in New Zealand. "World Beating!!!" "Innovative!!!" "The Answer to Rising Youth Offending!!!".
I don't think she fully believed me when I told the the scheme was largely a flop.
There's the spin, and then there's the reality.
Perhaps some of us live closer to the ground.
Results Ianmac, how are we going to measure the outcomes/outputs?
Fair enough Rosemary. Results trump Rhetoric. I am optimistic about the intent turning into healthy results.
A significant shift? You way funnier than bleepy makky.
https://treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2019-05/b19-at-a-glance.pdf
Regrettably these shifts are obviously insignificant for many commentators here.
Unfortunately, the international coverage is miles away from the reality on the ground.
https://youtu.be/FNCMIjXMK9o?t=1
As I said – NZers such as you, have obsessed about the detail rather than the significance of the way in which this Budge was formulated.
But we can only expect that sort of reaction from naysayers such as yourself who can never find the good and only look for the bad.
The reason being, the importance is generally in the details and the difference it actually makes on the ground.
Macro, I find myself in company with The Chairman more and more these days, – the link he put up is worth watching.
I miss the lack of critique of any policy just because it is produced by the current coalition. It is not just a question of tribal politics, there are New Zealanders who are currently living diminished lives – and who have already waited decades to be noticed and they are still required to wait.
There are fundamental failures in essential services that need innovative and directed change, and none of this is happening.
I miss the lack of critique…
I am beyond 'missing'. I feel bereft. Near weeping I am at the lack of real debate and shocked at the slurs against those of us who are not yet convinced…
Hint…not being 100% convinced this Current Mob are committed to reversing three decades of sociopathic governance doth not a National supporter make.
Do you seriously expect that from a government coalition that relies on a party that went into coalition with the 4th national govt?
Hmm…what was that about lying down with dogs?
I was just saying this morning that a Certain Person must be causing no end of irritation for Ardern and Co.
What was it about…oh, yes, the cameras on fishing boat thing…https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/06/plan-to-protect-maui-dolphin-slammed-by-environmentalists-academics.html
Getting fleas is usually better than being dog tucker.
The results of election2017 are the facts on the ground. I sure can't see any other coalition deal possible from those results that would deliver more funadamental change than what we have.
At least they're making an effort, and minimising NZ1's immigration ideas while supporting the regional growth plans.
Exactly.
So many people seem unable to comprehend the reality perhaps best espoused by Bismarck":
FFS, this centre left bs is tiring. All you ever do is lose voters, you have done that for the last 30 odd years. You keep throwing people to the wolves in the name of political expediency. Your ideological as all hell without accepting you are – and it makes you look alot like those other crazy ideologies.
If the labour party of the early 20th century had acted like you lot, then social democracy would never of happened.
Just a final point, because the blindly obvious needs to be said. You know that quoting Bismark and/or Churchill makes you look like a Tory prick on a left wing website, don't you?
Screw you. I tried the NLP and Alliance. There were others even further left that made even less of an impact. If incrementalism is losing votes, why did none of them take the place of Labour?
That's the shitty thing about democracy – votes win, not theory.
The sooner you realise that, the sooner you'll stop railing against your nearest allies.
This government is not the end in itself. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning – especially if the terminally glum start being able to identify friend from foe.
especially if the terminally glum start being able to identify friend from foe.
Or indeed cease from multiplying their foes 🙂
Evidently, you need help to see. Labour could have (in numerous ways) offered Peters more, allowing him to keep face with his supporters in return for his support for more.
Ah, so the way to getting more left wing policy is the make policy concessions to an inherently conservative party, rather than focusing on the common ground?
Which policy concessions do you recommend Labour and the Greens make to NZ1? Walk back a bit on immigration? In exchange for what?
No. Offering more where there is common ground along with more (such as in the way of funding) where concessions have already been made. Conditional on more NZF support of course.
And one way to fund that (along with raising more revenue for the Government overall) is to vastly increase the tourist levy. From the $35 recently announced to say $200 per adult and a $100 per child. That way, a million visitors (NZ has almost 4 million annually) would generate in excess of $100 million in new Government revenue. That would help buy a lot more of NZF's support.
So your suggestion is that both NZ1 and Labour have a "common ground" in triple-figure tourist levies? Without any data on how that might affect tourism in the regions?
@McF
I know the outdoor community is definitely fed up with the chronic underfunding of DoC, while at the same time watching the tourism industry profit either directly or indirectly from the Conservation Estate.
I've participated in numerous discussions elsewhere that all generally agree that increased levies on tourists is both justified and affordable for most visitors.
Yes it will price some marginal visitors from coming here, and yes there is plenty of scenery elsewhere in the world. What everyone agrees on is that NZ's competitive advantage is in the quality of visitor's experience here and maintaining that is the intelligent way forward.
Yeah, that is probably the case. There's a long haul between that and NZ1 in particular supporting the tourist industry cool off a bit. The transition to package coach tours does keep more of the money away from the regions visited, but tourism is still an employer in a lot of the regions.
There have already been calls to slow our tourism numbers. We have a shortage of hotel rooms and an expected surging increase in visitors.
Therefore, we have scope for numbers to slow and perhaps even fall off a little.
Additionally, although numbers may fall off, the up side is it is likely to lift the quality of visitors which in turn are likely to spend more increasing our tourist income stream.
But of course, I wasn't suggesting research on it not being done. Nevertheless, as you can see, with tourism trending up coupled with NZ reaching maximum capacity, the notion has real potential.
So you actually have nothing then.
Including having no idea whether your suggestion would be palatable to either Labour/Grn or NZ1, let alone all of them.
Not at all. I highlighted one way Labour could have possibly gained more NZF support.
Moreover, seeing as an entry levy has recently been announced, it indicates the three support the notion. Suggesting the potential for increasing it is in the realm of reality.
No. I don't seriously think this government will deliver meaningful changes, which is why I didn't vote Labour last election. With or without NZ First, none of their election promises seem to be effective solutions to my personal areas of concern.
That seems to be borne out by the last twenty months of policy and programmes.
But I will not cheer for substandard measures because of their … Coalition partner, self-imposed budget restrictions, need to get re-elected, rhetoric about wellbeing…
I will applaud along with many others when policy arrives that does help the most marginalised and forgotten.
So what have you applauded in the last couple of years?
Winter energy payments? $60/w for parents of infants? Money to apprenticeships? Healthy rental homes? Removal of "name the father" benefit sanctions? Actually setting child poverty reduction as a targeted priority? Supergold card? First year free tertiary education?
and this
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/mental-health-and-addictions/budget-2019-mental-health-wellbeing-and-addiction-initiatives
I hope that all of you who have responded to The Chairman @ 3.4 understand that he is a concern troll, and, just like the devil, quotes the scriptures for his own purposes. His aim is to spread despondency on the Left, and with your replies you have pretty well given him reason to smile sardonically.
In Vino, veritas.
@In Vino
We know claiming I'm a concern troll puts your mind at ease, saving you from facing the reality I'm from the left.
Nevertheless, what you fail to see in my post at 3.4 is I had nothing to do with the People's Budget and the feelings expressed there.
So while I largely agree with the sentiments expressed, it is Labour's failure to deliver that is behind the growing despondency on the left.
The only despondency on show is from the nat media and you.
And as rim clingers have quite unrealistic expectations and won't ever be satisfied, however left the government is, they're always moping, so nothing in particular to do with this budget.
@ The Al1en,
The only despondency on show is from the nat media and you.
You seriously, and I mean seriously, need to get out more.
You are doing your heroes in the Coalition no favours by this blind and almost insensible defense of their every word, every policy, every move…
Firstly, addressing you in your bubble, they're not my heroes and heroines, they're just who I voted for, and sure there are policies I want which aren't there yet, but considering the make up of the government I fully accept you can't always get what you want when you want it. Compromises have to be made, but it's still better than English's nats ruling the roost, right? Well that's called progress. Next time out, if we vote accordingly, then I’d expect to see more and more.
As far as despondency goes, it's just more of the same from the same people, here and the media. I stand by my above post. There is no groundswell of dissatisfaction against the government, no movement for change, no national debate. Nothing is perfect, not by a long shot, but to claim growing despondency is just malicious.
@The Al1en
As shown numerous times, I'm far from the only one disappointed.
The People's Budget was totally about the recent Budget.
What's come to my attention is there is more and more left commentators (that are largely supportive of Labour) expressing their disappointment.
And while you foolishly write them off as mopers, you forget they are the voices and those working on the front line whose insights help change public opinion and help muster Labour's foot soldiers and voters come election day.
In Vino
Come a bit more often if you can. I don't see IV often enough. What about doubling it to VIII?
How much longer can the Luddite wing of the Green party maintain it's irrational and dogmatic opposition to GE in the face of so much good it can do?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/113270164/better-strategy-to-control-malaria-get-rid-of-the-mosquitoes
The problem with getting rid of the mosquitoes is they are an integral part of the food chain in many ecosystems. So I am a little surprised that Wiles is advocating it.
From memory though, there are organisms that suppress malaria in the mosquito phase. Wohlbachia comes to mind. Those look like better targets for further engineering.
https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
Scientists have identified some ecological niches (pollinators, food) for mosquitos but also believe mosquitos ecological niche would be filled fairly readily. While I am dubious of such claims the fact is mosquitos are an absolute curse to mankind.
It only takes one, non-disease carrying mossy to completely screw up your nights sleep. And I've slapped myself so it hurt a number of times coming out of slumber to target the whining buzz. Yet here in NZ we have it easy, but in many countries these things severely weaken and even kill humans.
I think a gene drive makes more sense than an engineered fungi (or microbe) because every critter we've ever tried to control with insecticidal compounds has simply grown a resistance to it over time. The more you use bio and chemical pesticides, the greater the chances they will be overcome.
Some folks in the greens resist for the sake of resisting and have little to no scientific or ecological knowledge. Others are extremely sharp, are are not close to the Luddites as you describe. Is it dogmatism or caution that keeps them in opposition to such technology? Science has done itself no favors getting in bed with the corporates of the world. Now, the world is understandably cautious.
The rent a crowd mob really are annoying (and shrill), but sometimes they're the only people protesting and illuminating things of great public interest. Without canaries in the coal mine we'd all be cooked.
Folding and letting industry just get on with anything is a mugs game. At the end of the day public interest and common sense should prevail – but not if there's money to be made – then it's a dollar each way.
I understand that the wild animal seasonal stampede across the vast plains was to get free of the midges. Perhaps we subconsciously are taking a lesson from the wild when some of us (not me) set out on marathons. Perhaps they do serve some practical purpose other than avoiding sitting and thinking about our world and we people and what we personally can do to aid us all in the near future after disasters played like concertinas. Perhaps they will set themselves up as part of a message relay system when the lines go down from Auckland to Wellington.
I doubt it.
Agreed. In the early days of GE technology there were good reasons to be cautious and hold back. That's not the same thing as being stuck in the past forever.
And the same with nuclear power. The first few generations of nuclear energy generation were worth skipping over, but the new molten salt reactors look a lot more promising.
You really think that the precautionary principle on GE, should be abandoned?
So far research funding for GE, is about 100 to 1 balance towards commercial application, compared with research on safety.
I've yet to be convinced that GE, is any better than introducing rabbits.
The first one or two generations of any new technology will always have the most unintended consequences. But GE has been around for quite a few decades now and the world may have problems, but a runaway GE disaster is not one of them.
I'm not advocating that NZ should rush into a wholesale embrace of GE, but the time is past when we can justify keeping the door fully slammed shut either.
Fighting the good fight
"In 1863 Ihumātao was confiscated by the crown as a punishment for supporting the Kīngitanga movement, and Matata-Sipu says since then, the government and council have not done enough to make reparations."
Well the crown should bloody well give it back then. That's the modern day equivalent of taking Fletchers land for supporting National.
The reaction from the streets of Tauranga.
🤣
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/06/poll-most-new-zealanders-think-national-was-wrong-to-leak-treasury-budget-details.html
lol ouch
I'm sure he'll have the lemonade stand going at full production this morning.
I think you mean the 'Kool-Aid stand "
For Gods sake don't drink the Kool-Aid that way means Death. Uh oh, too late.
yep and he'll come out saying that either the polls are a waste of time (until one shows his support increasing) or that he is confident everything is cool. But his pinched lemon pursed lipped grimace (reminiscent of that 5th tequila shot lemon suck you may remember) will slightly lighten as sour lemonaid gets ingested instead.
👏
The Streets of Tauranga.
As I walked out in the streets of Tauranga
As I walked out in Tauranga one day
I saw Simon Bridges dressed in his brown winkle-pickers,
White shirt, blue tie, and brylcreem pomade.
Oh play the drum loudly and not quite in rhythm
To echo my political career up to this date.
Take me to Caucus I'll hand in my papers
I’ll hand in my papers for I’m resigning today!
"I see by your outfit that you're a reporter"
These words he did say as I boldly walked by
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story
Got stabbed in the back and I still don't know why."
"T'was once I was famed as leader of National
And still am as far as the caucus might say
But 5 per cent of voters are all that support me
Five per cent, with David Seymour on a good day.
"Go fetch me a glass of a craft Monteith lager
And a drum kit to beat up a political storm!"
Before I returned his caucus had left him
For champers with Judith and let him forlorn.
"Oh play the drum loudly and not quite in rhythm
To echo my political career up till now.
Take me to Caucus I'll hand in my papers
I'll hand in my papers for I'm resigning, the cow! "
he has one loyal supporter – lol
Oh and I just heard DPF is going to be on the radio with Jesse explaining the difference between the polls – ffs that guy is tainted and not independent imo – use your brains radionz or whatever you’re called.
Radionz-z-z-z…..doh!
"She said the public know that Bridges was "capable and he is intelligent and is incredibly hard-working".
That's ridonkulous. Funny though.
Is anyone else lost for words that the Herald pays Hoskings to write this "Ardern's D-Day snub a glib insult to D Day" though it goes hand in hand with the day by day reckonings if she attends something it is to grab favour and headlines and if not it's a glib insult.
That aside and I suppose people will decide, assuming they even see it as such or even an issue, but blatant "glib dismissal" is, for me, written all over the Opposition "leader's" face with his thick-skinned denial that a huge number of NZers from all quarters are not buying into him, his leadership or his most recent political offering.
Hosking's rants are the sign of a desperate man and this one is no different.
I'll tell you what is an insult – that suit jacket.
I live in Tauranga and am quite shocked that people are now talking publically, normally it's what's wrong with everyone else.
I bet Bill English has a bit of chuckle to himself most days, a bit of a "dish eaten cold".
The Scum of National
I had hoped that following their recent Theft of Documents – Without Permission – and distributing them nation wide – Simon Bridges and Mrs Bennett would realise their stupidity, get out of their National gutter, and follow the Laws that ban Theft and promote ethics.
Instead, they have utterly ridiculed the 2019 Budget which has been built on new structures. WellBeing Budget – for All. The Finances are allotted to achieve the highly innovative structures.
Mr Bridges and Mrs Bennett immediately started their propaganda declaring there is nothing for the Middle Class. They will get nothing.! Liars.
How low do those two Politicians go !
The Coaltion Government must develop well spoken Advocates and send them through Aotearoa to make sure all of New Zealand knows the Truth.
They are the opposition, I recall labour where also more than adept at barking at every passing car Just accept not every one has jumped onto the Jacinda train
"barking at every passing car" & how effective was that for Labour? & they were disparaged for doing it too, National haven't learned a thing, what's the saying about the definition of stupidity is repeating the same thing & expecting a different result? That's National bouncing off that same wall…long may it last.
The words of the song from Midnight Oil regarding civil freedoms – pertaining even to Julian Assange and his plight against overwhelming state collusion and bullying , our wildlife brethren and the environment we share , still ring true today.
Then it was Bush and Blair and their odious lies on 'weapons of mass destruction' and Bush Sr's One World Govt fetish… today its that same hack of globalists trying to silence one of our greatest exposer's of Deep State secrecy ,… Julian Assange.
https://youtu.be/qspbF5owcZk?t=2https://youtu.be/qspbF5owcZk?t=2https://youtu.be/qspbF5owcZk?t=2https://youtu.be/qspbF5owcZk?t=2vv
Smoking weed again OT?
On the Meth again, old son?
Jacinda & Simon: Preferred PM Comparisons
https://sub-zero-politics.blogspot.com/2019/06/jacinda-simon-preferred-pm-comparisons.html
Thanks for all that work Swordfish.
Thanks, great work as usual. Bolger really was an unpopular plonker wasn't he. Had forgotten about that particular excrement.
Thing is , your taking stats from a time when NZ didn't have any opposition to Douglas's neo liberalism. Or Bolgers, or Richardsons, or Shipleys , or Clarkes or any of the other scumbags who followed Douglas.
And we have yet to see any viable opposition to neo liberalism to date.
Therefore the whole argument is slanted in favor of the incremental diatribe of that of ideology. Therefore it is bogus. Proves nothing. And that is why we have had a Teachers strike. And in future, there will be more as more Union leaders acquiesce to their members instead of Labour party fishead's and demand realistic wages and conditions.
Don't blame me. – I'm just the messenger .
And personally ?
I don't give a rats shit what anyone of you thinks. And why ?, – because I don't give a rats arse about being tribal. I could just as soon see Labour take a dive as well as National , so long as the working people of NZ get a fair deal , – which they haven't over the last 35 years of bullshit neo liberal incrementalism.
From Nicki Hager , author of the book 'Dirty Politics' to the Afghanistan incident to which John Key was signatory for the go – ahead , and Wayne Mapp was the Minister of Defense , and the subsequent Police raiding of his ( Hagers ) home to Martyn Bradbury's 'behind closed doors evidence' against him by the NZ Police,… to the illegal warrant and arrest and detainment of Kim Dotcom and the illegal impounding of his assets designed to deny him moneys to finance his defense, – in order to pander to the then ratification of the Hollywood Motion Picture industry's TTPA's copyright laws before Congress which have no jurisdiction in NZ ,…
How can we ever expect to see Julian Assange receive a fair trial if we cannot even stand up against corruption on our own shores?
How can we sleep when our beds are burning?
Shame on NZ.
Just to say I have put up an extensive comment on How to Get There which is in moderation at present because there were quite a few links. But then come and see –
on tree planting in Africa – the Green Wall, and
A NZr Wendy Campbell Purdie who did wonders with tree planting and disbelieving governments, and
Algeria and Morocco about their tree planting in the past and now
and Moroccos solar array and
the many women who have been involved in tree planting schemes on the planet and
An idea by environmental scientists on how to create a different sort of boundary between USA and Mexico.
And remember that How to Get There is a living document' it is just not fish'n'chips wrapper thrown away after the day, it is the actual fish and chips! There to take a bite of whatever is on offer and lots of good things over the weeks.
Perhaps we could go a long way by taking notice of this article by Christine Rose over at the Daily Blog ,… long term campaigner and environmentalist…
$17million camera programme good for fishing sector not for dolphins …
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/…/17million-camera-programme-good-for-fishing-sector-n…
And btw… this site seems to have turned to shit a little bit as of late… no offense but its a little crappy with posting or pasting atm… anyways we humans are slow learners it seems at times… me included , so its nothing personal. And that's why again, … the posting of Midnight Oil. In the words of Led Zeppelin, … the 'Song Remains The Same'…
Midnight Oil – Beds Are Burning – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejorQVy3m8E
WK I know you are a bit wild and a force of nature commenter but please don't throw ordure around just saying. If there is something with the site that you want improved say so – don't say it's shit.
So specifically is it difficult for you to put up links, vids etc? If so state the problem, ask others for advice, and we can all learn – very helpful if it gets explained on site. List the problems will you so we don't get too much creativity of description.
No , its not the site ,- its great ,… its more the techco side that's cumbersome.
I use Google , and the pasting thingy is crap.
I'd also thank you to not distract from the 'issues' at hand and attempt to relegate them to a mere mechanical technological deflection because you are comfortable with the format. Other than that , no problems from what you posted.
The issue lies with the spell checker and the post / paste thingy.
Thanking you.
Who says I'm comfortable with the format? I just realise that lprent is a sort of wizard who puts a lot of his spare time into keeping this show going. So I have been schtum for a long time about the search engine, just a wee mention FTTT, and now I am happy to have that.
If something else doesn't work out I find a way around it, or swear, or do what you did and ask. I just don't say the shebang is shit, as I try to adopt the 'substance over style' approach.
The spell checker I find now, if I go into edit, is so littered with those terms for a space @&sb sort of thing, which get underlined in red, that I can't see any wrong spellings. That's my moan. Also if anyone wants to know how to get rid of unwanted links in pasted material I have found a way. But I am in Firefox and am told that I should be updating. So maybe it's only me.
Is that… what ha…ppened to your punctuation katty…
Kia ora The Am Show.
Its cool that Canada has banned single use plastic bags and cutlery by 2021 .I will write a post on Canadas indigenous people today.
I agree there is a huge gap in the rural and provincial NZ I say a cottage industry set up around our Marae.
Its very good that New Zealand is pulling our troops out of Iraq.
I try not to use cash as for me when I use cash I spend to much.
48 % is not the Majority of people like the other person said the people need to be informed of the TRUTH about weed so people can make good informed decision & discussion on weed.
With what happened in Murrupara its because there are no jobs that's why I have been advocating for Marae based cottage industry's and other ways for people to earn a income the forestry industry is not delivering what was promised to the East Coast. Consist Mahi is good for the Wairua. If te tangata tried to get mahi in town there are no whare/houses
Happy birthday young fella Mark that looks like a nice cake.
Ka kite ano
It's sad to see Louis the last Canadian tangata whenua /people of the land coders in world war 2 pass it even sadder than him and his pears didn't get recognized for the great contribution they made that helped shape our society today.
Condolences to his whanau/family for their losses.
Last of the Mohawk code talkers dies after finally being hailed a war hero
Second world war efforts of Louis Levi Oakes and other indigenous peoples stayed secret coders.
In the dense jungle battlefields of the south Pacific, Louis Levi Oakes was a target. Often flanked by bodyguards as he carried a large field pack with a tangle of transmission lines, the men surrounding Oakes were assigned to protect a valuable asset – his language
A Mohawk soldier from a territory straddling the US and Canada, Oakes was the last surviving member of a secretive group of second world war soldiers who used their native language to confound and frustrate enemy forces.
On 28 May he died at his home, surrounded by family. He was 94.
Known as the Mohawk code talkers, Oakes and 16 others from the Mohawk nation of Akwesasne were part of a broader – but clandestine – facet of the allied war effort. Because critical communications were vulnerable to interception, the military recruited indigenous speakers to transmit sensitive messages. As many as 500 speakers of indigenous languages were recruited into the US military to work as code talkers, including Navajo, Tlingit, Lakota, Meskwaki, Cree and Comanche, all of whom were sworn to secrecy.
The code they used, drawn from 33 different languages, confused both the Germans and Japanese, who failed to break the code.
But the classified nature of their work kept Oakes and others silent for generations ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/03/last-of-mohawk-code-talkers-dies-after-finally-hailed-war-hero
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/5Yj4j_lZMBo
Its good to see the next generation are treating ALCOHOL like it should be. Take with caution better still don't take at all.
Alcohol causes many problems to our society the people in glass houses throw stones at other natural relaxation thing meanwhile they ignore the problem associated with their relaxation of choice. The one giving to us from God doesn't do no we near a much damage to our society's as Alcohol.
People are sick of drinking. Investors are betting on the 'sober curious
hey are part of larger trend. People are paying greater attention to their mental health and wellness, and many Americans are specifically looking to reduce their alcohol intake. People of all ages are drinking less beer, while millennials are drinking less overall. And Silicon Valley is taking note, with tech companies reevaluating their alcohol policies and investors looking to capitalize on people who prefer not to drink.
"It's such a part of the culture, especially here in San Francisco that I would go out for dinner and have two to three drinks everyday," Silicon Valley entrepreneur Justin Kan, the CEO of law-tech startup Atrium, told CNN Business. He said he has seen a shift recently within his tech circle. "I was at a dinner with a lot of tech people last night and probably half the people weren't drinking."
Kan announced last month, in a post on Twitter, that he was giving up alcohol. He called drinking an unhealthy habit that had gotten in the way of his experiencing life. It wasn't exactly unusual for Kan to share personal details about himself: He once livestreamed his life through the startup he co-founded in 2007 called Justin.tv, which ultimately became Twitch, the popular live streaming platform for gamers now owned by Amazon.
The same day he tweeted, Kan launched a group on chat app Telegram to connect with others who were similarly deciding to get sober from alcohol. He didn't expect that more than 1,000 people would join ka kite ano link below.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/08/tech/alcohol-alternative-sober-curious/index.html
Kia ora Newshub.
,,I ,, Our young men need to learn to respect our Wahine.
The Americas Cup will put Aotearoa on the Papatuanuku map .
All the up grades to the Auckland harbor will ad value to the waterfront and a legacy.
Costco welcome to Aotearoa the duopoly of our super markets have been creaming people for way too long $60 to join the club is not to much to pay to access the shop ka pai.
I don't think Grant Robinson should step down from his Minister of finance national is just spraying wai into tawhirimate.
That guy in Australia who ran over and killed 6 people in a shopping mall looks like the police miss a the sign of his irrational behavior .
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori news.
Yes with AirNew Zealand accepting ta moko shows that the world is starting to learn how great tangata whenua O Aotearoa cultural Art is ka pai.
I think Orange tamariki should keep the mokopuna with the mother for the first six months at least the number of tamariki being up lifted is a shame it is cool that our government has invested more money into helping the vaunrable people of all cultures but Maori and Pacific tamariki end up in sips the most.
Our Maori Wardens do a great job in our community's ka pai
It is very cool that our government is investigating our climate change risk so that we can mitigate a plan for the future changes advancing fast to our environment.
Thanks to the Auckland council for putting climate change in all their plans for the community developments
Ka kite ano