Perhaps they devolved over the past millennium? Wikipedia says they "invaded from Australia less than 1,000 years ago."
Or perhaps the invasion force was carefully selected to consist of the most vigorous fliers. Churlish folk may theorise that those were assisted by prevailing winds. I'd advise them to beware inadvertent support of the bird-brain theory. Intelligent design of the invasion force seems just as feasible & descendants make take umbrage…
These large rails much prefer to walk & swim rather than fly. Unfortunately this preference gets lots of them killed on the roads.
I'm struck by how very dinosaur-like they are when they walk or run. They look like mini-raptors, and that frontal shield of theirs somehow just adds to the dinosaur resemblance, for me anyway.
They give me the impression that they didn't have to evolve very far along the chain from a mini-raptor to get to their current shape, though of course that might not be true in their DNA record.
By all accounts they’re pretty tough & stringy. The best recipe is said to be to boil them up with potatoes, kumara, watercress, cabbage & beans, in a pot big enuf to also throw an old gumboot in, for 3 hours. At the end of that time, you throw away the pukeko, and eat the gumboot & the veges. 😐
I thought that recipe was for duck and the best recipes also included some orange juice powder such as the old Raro! I would stick to the boot, pukeko and raro and not put in the 'potatoes, kumara, watercress, cabbage & beans (and carrots)'.
You could cook them up separately and for the next day breakfast have them fried up, yum. Your dinner mates will still be eating the leather boot so there will be lots for you to eat.
The keys are lots of aromatics and stock, an earthenware dish with a tight fitting lid and low and slow cooking.
If you have a Rommertopf or Schlemmertopf you are away laughing.
But! But! They are not real!Birds don’t exist and are really drone replicas installed by the U.S. government to spy on Americans. So watch out G make sure they aren't spying on you.
Like all of the vaccinated I am sure Gezza got a full complement of 5G capability and tracking devices……perhaps these communicate with the drone birds to save the long trip to NZ like the Godwits from Russia have to do……wait wait, hang on a minute am I onto something here?
Just scooting down to my Mum's basement to investigate this.
Unsurprisingly, Natrad continues to confuse "sex" and "gender" and quite frankly this morning's wee gloat session over the passing of legislation allowing biological reality to be sidelined and to allow those who feel they were "assigned the wrong sex at birth" to rectify this 'error' with a mere declaration made me gag on my morning glass of water.
Questions. Is "transphobic misogyny" an actual thing? Is it accurate to describe the submissions of gender critical feminists to the select committee as "gaslighting"?
This is quoting Kerekere, hopefully in the above link.
I am busy today trying to get an aluminium framed window to better fit into where a wooden framed used to be in a small building that was seemingly denied the benefit of spirit levels or squares during it's construction some years ago. To celebrate the passing of this legislation I'd wear a frock for this job…but being well over forty years since I've worn such a garment… Hmmm…lots to ponder methinks.
Careful Rosemary I think you need to take advice on what to wear today, the last thing you want is to unknowingly cause a hate crime by wearing/not wearing a pair of trousers.
I was thinking along the lines of a culturally appropriate kilt…but it is much too hot. A lavalava is an option…but modesty would demand a degree of tightness that would make ladder climbing difficult.
They don't conflate sex with gender, they will continue to pretend that sex don't matter Rosemary. Science got burned on the stake, and Gender is all that they have left now.
I've now had coffee and caught again Natrad's continued promotion of this suspension of reality legislation.
I misquoted Kerekere. She said " trans misogyny" not "transphobic misogyny". A difference, but also probably more demanding of debate.
I am interpreting "trans misogyny" as basically meaning that if you don't accept that trans women are women you are a woman hater. Hmmm…making my square window fit the unsquare hole is way easier that getting my head around this. Frock or no frock.
With all due respect Denis, the law you talk of didn't lead to psychopathic murderers not guilty for the crimes they commit.
A psychopath would never meet the criteria for not guilty by reason of insanity.
This law dates back to the 18800's and was for people who had such an abnormal state of mind they could not be held responsible for their actions. So what thss means is someone who is experiencing delusins e.g that someone is going to kill me, and whose ability to reality test is very limited or non existence. In other words that person really believes their delusions. so usually someone with a spychotic depression or schizophrenia although most people with schizophrenia are not dangerous).
Usually both the defence and the prosecution are able to agree that this person needs to be found not guilty on the basis of insanity. I think the young man in Epsom who killed his parents was found NGBROI. These cases are very very sad
Oh, I see. I didn't realise psychopaths are relatively normal compared to psychotic & schizo folk.
Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits.
Denis no problem. People make that mistake all the time. Psychopaths can be very dangerous (or maybe just very good used car salesmen or even politicians) but they are in touch with reality.
The law that treats people who are psychotic at the time of their crimes is a far one. Thee people receive a sentence in a high security forensic hospitl and once their illness is treated have to come to terms with what they have done when unwell.
The vast majority of people with schizophrenia are quite safe. It is a tragic illness. I think they are one of the most marginalized groups in society. Not many people go into to bat for them
Yes funny to talk about gaslighting, which I understand means trying to get someone to doubt their reality (that was in the original movie anyway). Elizabeth who brought in a bill like this. It reminds me of the headline of an item from the UK "Woman charged with indecent exposure for masturbating with her penis out". if that ain't gaslighting I am not sure what is. …………….
Signed: Boy who watched the parade in the Emperors New Clothes.
,ps it was wonderful reading the discussion on Open Mike last night. Weka, Molly, Sabine, Pukish Rogue, Rosemary, Red Logix, Roblogic…….proud of you all. And Sabine your hilarious comment about pro-nnouns and not assuming who was a women in parliament brought. me great joy
I am very serious though. Everyone here should from now on understand that they /them is the way to go.
If they have not declared their identity, they don't have one. And that includes our dear non male leader of the labour party, the non male co-leader and the non – female co- leader of the green party, ditto for maori party, act party and national party.
And just for the record that someone might think that i am trying myself at joking, I am not.
Do not assume gender of anyone unless they have stated theirs and that comes with pronouns.
"A gender neutral or gender inclusive pronoun is a pronoun which does not associate a gender with the individual who is being discussed.
Some languages, such as English, do not have a gender neutral or third gender pronoun available, and this has been criticized, since in many instances, writers, speakers, etc. use “he/his” when referring to a generic individual in the third person. Also, the dichotomy of “he and she” in English does not leave room for other gender identities, which is a source of frustration to the transgender and gender queer communities.
People who are limited by languages which do not include gender neutral pronouns have attempted to create them, in the interest of greater equality." –
I wouldn't give Dr Kerekeres take on things too much time at all.
She seems particularly confused in her PHd thesis where she makes a case for the acceptance of trans people pre-colonial times, but then on page 82 admits there is no evidence for this.
The absurdly revisionist historiography of Māori pseudo-academics like Dr Elizabeth Anne Kerekere is, of course, implicitly taken as holy gospel by the highly paternalistic Pakeha Woke Establishment … a kind of unthinking Noble Savage Romanticisation & Infantalisation of Māori … but these dubious post-modern-influenced narratives don't even remotely cut it among qualified historians … they are purely Presentist … radically re-writing & sanitising Māori history for present-day political purposes.
From attempts to deny the brutal genocide & mass slavery of the Musket Wars to the transformation of pre-Colonial Māori into something resembling a mix of 1960s Flower-Power Hippies & the supposedly ‘unusually-refined sensbilities‘ (LOL) of 21st Century Upper-Middle Pakeha Wokedom.
Sorry, who mentioned Elizabeth Rata & who mentioned Māori Education ?
Perhaps you were replying to someone else ?
As someone who took History through to Post-Grad level – including papers on Historical Methodology & the various Schools of History & a good deal of NZ History – I’m suggesting that activist-Māori pseudo-academics are producing highly dubious, inherently Present-Minded revisionism to buttress contemporary radical Māori political claims.
I was responding to swordfish’s educational background and comments on Maori academia and paternalist woke Pakeha (claims the Labour government is abandoning the white working class).
He has linked to Elizabeth Rata … .
It reminds one of resistance to critical race theory in the USA.
Well, the head of Stonewall says that lesbians who are not interested in having sex with male bodied people who demand that we refer to them as women are "sexual racists". That is why gender identity is a homophobic cult.
Goddess forgive me, but I fell down this bunny hole this morning…earlyish.
…that a trans woman with male genitals is merely a woman with an “unusually shaped vulva,” so no one unprejudiced would make a distinction; and that a woman who is willing to touch a natal woman’s vulva but not a trans woman’s genitals is like a woman who is willing to touch a white woman’s vulva but not a black woman’s.
… But what stands out most is the faith they display in the power of words to override material reality. When a woman is anyone who declares womanhood, the matter of whether that person has genitals that can get an erection, penetrate, impregnate and rape becomes unspeakable. But the genitals themselves do not change.
I had read this before, when it was first published and we were in the early stages on choosing which path we would take on this issue. I had hoped that having the benefit of others' experience of how such legislation could play out in the real world (albeit this particular case is extreme) we would exercise a little caution and include some significant safeguards against such a travesty ever happening here.
I just need to rewrite this for a minute, for the sake of the left wing heterosexual men standing against gender critical feminism who now need to understand that unless they are willing to personally engage with girldick they're transphobic, sexual racist bigots. Wouldn't want them to be surprised by this.
…that a trans woman with male genitals is merely a woman with an “unusually shaped vulva,” so no one unprejudiced would make a distinction; and that a man who is willing to touch a natal woman’s vulva but not a trans woman’s genitals is like a man who is willing to touch a white woman’s vulva but not a black woman’s.
The other option for het men of course is to make the argument for why lesbians should have to engage with girldick but het men shouldn't. Can't wait.
(the Quillette piece is talking about the Yaniv case and beauticians, but we know from lesbians that it applies to sexual relationships as well).
Yes Weka, This might be when we get some cut through, when Het men are accused of be transphobic or trans racist or whatever if they refuse to accept that the women is with a dick isn't a women and they don't want sex with them.
I will wait with bated breath to hear how heterosexual men defend their trans racism.
Your link contains this pearler re Jonathan Yaniv:
Cameron presented evidence to the tribunal that included social-media posts in which Yaniv talked about using women’s public facilities, such as toilets and a gym, and asked for advice on matters of etiquette—such as when it might be appropriate to approach a pre-teen girl to ask for a tampon, or whether it might be okay to accompany such a girl into a stall to show her how to use it. (Yaniv claims that such messages came from hacked accounts, but has provided no proof in this regard.)
I've come to the conclusion that the conflation of 'sex', 'gender' and 'gender identity' is the natural result of someone bullshitting their way through something they don't understand. What they do know is some of the terms, so they throw them into a word soup and hope they are not challenged. Those listening think, hang on, I don't understand, I must be missing something here, but remain quiet because they, too, don't want to seem ignorant.
Kerekere's behaviour during the submission process was appalling. Apparently a group performance because many of the other MPs joined in.
Accusing submitters of 'gaslighting' is the tried and true method of deflecting onto others that which you are doing yourself.
Good luck with the window, Rosemary. I have four old bungalow windows that need to be stripped back and painted before installing them as part of our years long renovation project. I too, will try and find a suitably appropriate 'costume' to acknowledge the significance of the bill.
Kerekere's behaviour during the submission process was appalling. Apparently a group performance because many of the other MPs joined in.
Russell didn't exactly participate in good faith either. Shameful. And as you rightfully point out, the whole pantomime was a textbook display of deflection.
Their granddaughters will not thank them.
Windows…I have three kinds of filler. Skim coat gibstopping compound, quick dry permafill type for the screw and nail holes and the deeper cracks, and a brand new tube of the renovator's best friend…No More Gaps. Despite this I still needed to fashion a long slice of plywood to glue into a seriously wide space. A few coats of paint…
Following on from the above article…"It was revealed Jones spent 6 years in a German prison for sexually abusing a six year old", then became transgender.
For a while I thought the ultimate destination of PoMo would be that we're not allowed to tell the difference between boy and girl anymore. Then I thought maybe we’re not allowed to distinguish between humans and other sentient life and transhumanism would become yesterday’s nonsense flipped into today’s dogma.
But I think I was wrong. "Birds are Not Real" may be intended to be irony – but it's underlying intent is this – words no longer have any meaning.
Grigg – National – “it's just modernising a process that already exists” (an interesting description of moving from a medical status related to anatomy to self-declared gender identity).
And the (it sounds like a nice place) other MP did say gaslighting transphobia and transphobic misogyny. By those she accused of "not submitting accurate information or demonstrating a genuine care for all New Zealanders" – which is the level of gaslighting one can expect from a politician in place of privilege from which to exercise power to suppress dissent (once the hate speech law is about …).
We have been warned – that women can be guilty of misogyny via transphobia, and such is their gaslighting of transphobia.
It is a difficult issue, but expecting everyone to fall into line with an approach taken by government always leads to an abuse of power at some point.
Grigg – National – “it's just modernising a process that already exists” (an interesting description of moving from a medical status related to anatomy to self-declared gender identity).
Words again. We can make them mean whatever we want. The process prior actually involved demonstrating commitment to the change.
Anyone want to lay bets on when the first GCF will see herself up on Charges in NZ?
It is a difficult issue, but expecting everyone to fall into line with an approach taken by government always leads to an abuse of power at some point.
Yep. And if you don't bring people with you they will hate you in the back lash given sufficient cause.
I have a feeling that the long pressured for opening up of the Auckland tourist market is not going to be the cash cow those in the industry, particularly down south, were hoping for. The cancelation list for some of the walks that turn up in our mailbox is quite extensive, not to mention expensive. People are going to be hesitant like when we first opened up to Australia, it then seemed to be mainly Kiwis coming back to see rellies and I think the same will happen with Aucklanders.
I have some Dunedin folk going to visit loved ones in Otago over xmas, and they're actually planning their shopping for groceries and petrol around spots less likely to have Auckland tourists.
I'm starting to think those of us in higher vax rate areas should be welcoming Aucklanders so they don't end up going to Northland or the East Coast where vax rates are low.
But it's a hard ask, given we have almost no community transmission in the South Island. There will be other Christmases.
I'm starting to think those of us in higher vax rate areas should be welcoming Aucklanders so they don't end up going to Northland or the East Coast where vax rates are low.
That's very considerate of you weka, but I suspect some local businesses might be kinda banking on an influx of vaccinated.
A good friend took his fully vaccinated self down to Kaitaia the other day so he could use the Pass he got double jabbed for…being a sociable kind of chap. Lonely he was, as all the usual watering holes were practically bereft of patrons.
Just as well he partied hard last Thursday night… along with half the FFN.
Tbh…I thought there would have been more of the local imbibers fully vaccinated.
Louise Upston has won a significant victory for victims' rights:
Parliament on Wednesday passed the Rights for Victims of Insane Offenders Bill, first introduced into the House by National MP Louise Upston in 2019, which was aimed at providing victims of offenders deemed insane more rights. The bill, which will now become law, changes the court verdict that insane offenders face from “not guilty on account of his or her insanity” to “act proven but not criminally responsible on account of insanity”.
It will also require the victim of the act be notified when a decision has been made to no longer detain the offender, or when the offender has been given unescorted leave from a care facility, and allows the victim to submit on any review of the offender’s detention.
The law has been an ass in deeming psychopathic murderers not guilty of the murders they commit. Everyone knows a murderer actually did it, when the facts prove it. For the law to persist in denial of the facts for decades shows how irrational law is.
And the "National Party bill was passed into law with the help of the Labour Government." Labour deserves our appreciation for their bipartisan consensus decision-making. This collaboration restores faith in our democratic process.
Chris Trotter on the racist response to the roadblocks.
"Why, then, are so many Pakeha so angry? Why, in particular, has the Act Party felt entitled to inflame matters? As someone who was in Parliament when the legislation was being passed, what has prompted the Act Party leader, David Seymour, to declare:
“Labour has snuck a law through Parliament letting iwi run checkpoints. Our weak PM has surrendered basic rights. The Police Commissioner, rather than upholding the law, has given into demands of iwi. Kiwis have a right to move around the country without being stopped by thugs.”
Let’s pick apart this extraordinary statement. Because, astonishingly, just about everything Seymour alleges is false."
This mixes two big issues – outright bald racism, and legislated birthright privilege.
Sure, Seymour is out of line in his depiction of the issue – way out of line. And that sort of rhetoric is inflammatory and dangerous in the exact same way as Trump's ongoing bullshit is.
But, we just keep creating a bigger monster by continuing to legislate different rights for different citizens based on their 'race' and birth.
And that is simply not sustainable in any society. Never has been. Never will be. It is what so many of our ancestors sought to escape in coming here, including the polynesians.
Yet we keep doing it.
It is this which the people are up in arms about. This very particular point.
…..
and a little more… now add to those different classes of citizens a couple more different classes of citizens, the vaccine passed and the un-vaccine passed… oh what a messy web…
*…we just keep creating a bigger monster by continuing to legislate different rights for different citizens based on their ‘race’ and birth.
And that is simply not sustainable in any society. Never has been. Never will be. It is what so many of our ancestors sought to escape in coming here, including the polynesians. Yet we keep doing it.
It is this which the people are up in arms about. This very particular point.
…..
The iwi-run checkpoints are one of those Kiwiland issues that I’m conflicted about. Ignoring Seymour’s inflammatory use of the label “thugs” for the moment, I can see how those on both sides of the argument consider their view to be the righteous, and/or the fair one.
Kiwis are used to travelling the length & breadth of this country on state highways, country roads, & city & town streets, completely unimpeded (save for the odd booze checkpoint or speeding ticket). We’ve done it all our lives.
Suddenly they are faced with small numbers of local Māori demanding – and given – the right to stop motorists & refuse them entry to locales where there are very likely not just Maori, but Māori AND Pākehā.
This is unprecedented. You’d have to go back over 100 years, maybe, to find something like this happening. And back then the setller government would likely be sending out armed constabulary and/or troopers to open the roads & punish rebels acting in breach of the (English-based) law of the land.
To those who believe that Māori knowingly signed up to ALL the people in New Zealand having equal rights & protections under the Crown’s law, this looks like giving one select group, based on their ethnicity, the right to restrict other Kiwis from simoly going where they are otherwise allowed to go & to demand documents & evidence, & potentially to turn them around, which other Kiwis have no right to do.
And the other viewpoint, equally understandable to me, is that this is a deafly pandemic that is likely to hit Māori harder than Pākehā because Māori vax rates are so much lower, particularly, still, in more isolated communities.
This group (not ALL Māori I know agree with them) consider that the Treaty grants them special privileges – in the form of continued rangatiratanga in their own nga rohe (which, it does) – and that they therefore have the clear right under Te Tiriti to act to protect their taonga; & their kaumatua, themselves, their tamariki & their rangatahi.
The government & the Police Commissioner have come down on the side of this 2nd group & given legal rights no other Kiwis have to set up checkpoints.
I really think more needed to be done by the government to explain this decision to other Kiwis. I don’t think it’s the wrong decision. I think it’s an understandable & justifiable one. Were I Māori, I would likely fully support it.
But the optics are bad. it looks like it’s been slipped in under the door when no one was looking to those who think we should all be treated equally under NZ law.
A good analysis gezza and if this was all a temporary measure in response to a crisis – I'd be a lot more sympathetic.
But increasingly we're seeing 'unthinkable' measures slipped in with no debate to deal with a crisis – then morphing into something permanent.
This group (not ALL Māori I know agree with them) consider that the Treaty grants them special privileges – in the form of continued rangatiratanga in their own nga rohe (which, it does) – and that they therefore have the clear right under Te Tiriti to act to protect their taonga; & their kaumatua, themselves, their tamariki & their rangatahi.
Yes. I've seen and heard this in action decades ago, in person. During the 80's I went through a phase of my life that meant I got to visit more marae than I can recall to count. It was a fascinating period during which I learned a great deal, and came away with a deep respect for aspects of what I saw. And some tough lessons learned.
I also along the way encountered the Maori separatists who argued that the iwi chief remain the only legitimate owners of the whole of NZ. And in quiet moments would openly express the desire for all the old tribal borders to be permanently restored. There is not a lot of daylight between these COVID borders – and the granting of this wish.
"the old tribal borders to be permanently restored".
What was the date to be used when deciding where the old boundaries were to be set? Prior to 1840 of course there were no permanent boundaries. They were wherever you had currently settled because you had defeated, and probably killed, the previous residents. For example would you give the descendants of Te Rauparaha the land he controlled in 1820 or in 1840?
Whatever you settle on why should those boundaries be "permanent" instead of being subject to further warfare?
Whatever you settle on why should those boundaries be "permanent" instead of being subject to further warfare?
One clue I've learned to pay attention to over the years – people who advocate for radical change in a general way, but without ever telling you the details of what they have in mind are doing this for a reason.
They know damn well you won't like what they have in mind.
The please satisfy my curiosity. What do you think they really had in mind in terms of the permanence of the boundaries?
I am sure they had in mind that all the land in New Zealand was included somewhere in the carve-up. It was only what could happen later that has me intrigued.
It was a long time ago – but I do clearly recall asking "so what about all the non-Maori living in this country?"
The answer was "You will find Maori to be generous hosts – if you pay the rent". Exact quote from a man who is a current member of the Maori Council and carries considerable political clout. I've seen nothing from him in recent times to resile from this view.
I want to emphasise my acquaintance and involvement with these people at that time was explicitly non-political. I really only came across all this by accident.
In Auckland we have iwi fighting one another over mana whenua status. We have iwi who once transversed the isthmus and blew their nose claiming status over iwi with verified and centuries old connections. Maori colonising Maori. Oh the irony.
I personally like the way Maori leadership are standing up here.
They are in poor regions, but choosing to sacrifice massive economic benefit from sorely needed local tourists, for public health for their people. Courageous.
Getting Maori leaders working side by side with Police for common community good is truly excellent.
Nothing particularly PC or woke about this; just solid communitarian work.
Totally agree and hope it continues and strengthens. Blind adherence to some ideologic principal is no argument against this type of courage and compassion
In it's definition it's a theory or system of social organization based on small self-governing communities.
If Maori leadership at town or iwi level are building up their capacity to stand up proudly and take their kaitiaki place, they are going to need the support of Police.
That little legislative tweak Ardern rushed through this week to help with roadblocks is a long, long way from where that relationship was in the Bolger and Clark years.
We will get news reports of grumpies at checkpoints as the holidays start, but the tv optics of Maori leaders with Police will be very powerful.
And how long before every iwi sets up borders to their own little territories? With Police and Army sent to enforce them.
Think of the rapidly extending list of unthinkable dead rats from just five years ago that we've been forced to swallow in the name of 'safety'. And then tell me I'm hyperventilating.
Ten years ago everyone would have agreed that the idea of men pretending to be women and then claiming to compete against them in sports was a complete nonsense.
Ten years ago the idea of Ngaiti Tuhoe turning Te Urewera in to virtual no-go zone was a 'nonsense'.
All too often yesterday’s ‘nonsense’ is flipped on it’s head and becomes today’s normal.
And exactly what is happening at these 'roadblocks'? Who gets to pass and who does not? Who makes the decisions and how are they accountable for them?
At the current Mercer hard checkpoint, oddly I find Maori reps at our checkpoints a softener to the martial power of the cops and the NZDF who are also there.
in te ao maori you are defined by your birth and by your ancestors
Yes it's called whakapapa. On every marae the tangata whenua all know their lineage and exact spot on the tribal pecking order. Maori society is one of the most precisely calibrated class systems ever created.
Oh and they all know who the descendents of their 'slave' class are.
"Ten years ago the idea of Ngaiti Tuhoe turning Te Urewera in to virtual no-go zone was a 'nonsense'."
I'm afraid that it certainly wasn't seen as nonsense long before that. I knew someone who lived in Whakatane all his life and had been a hunter in Te Urewera. I remember him saying as early as 1990 that is was being made very difficult to continue hunting there and that it was impossible to leave a vehicle safely anywhere in the region while doing so.
Anti vaxxers – horrible, disgusting humans who don’t contribute to society and are holding the country to ransom. Can’t use public services or engage meaningfully any longer and will be prevented by government authority from going anywhere
Māori who won’t get vaccinated – Noble indigenous communities entitled to prevent the free movement of people who are overwhelmingly vaccinated. Checkpoints funded With public money and supported by government authority.
watch labour tank in the polls when the photos of traffic jams and stories of grumpy families with screaming toddlers hit the news outlets and hone harawira stands there telling everyone they are racist for not liking it.
Yes it will be powerful … in its disastrous consequences for Labour when the inevitable ten mile traffic jams occur and the holidays of a million people are ruined by tinpot dictators manning checkpoints like it's east germany or something.
Yes Ad, it makes a complete change, and many of us think the equity of this is excellent.
VTO, think, those entitled holiday makers are going there because, the tangata whenua have not despoiled the beaches, and it is possible to have a lovely beach holiday.
We need to admit equity requires we do more to make an even playing field in Health. It appears some marginal staff go to these areas for the very lack of oversight, and little thought was given to travel times and multi trips to vaccinate a whole family. The mobile clinics should have been there staffed by locals from the outset. DHB's have been silos.
I think living by our Treaty obligations is quite hard for some.
Each Christmas I raise a glass of bubbles to "departed Friends and Family". Two friends were Maori who died very early before they got the pension. Marina said to me, as she was dying with cancer, "Live long Trish, raise a glass to me when you are all together." I do that, and to hear Kiri Allen is clear after a year is great, such good news and that is not often the case with that cancer.
We like many will not have our family together because of covid. Those telling themselves it is because Jacinda Ardern is too cautious should work out how many cases we might have without those regulations. So much self serving rubbish is being promoted based on dollars not lives.
Yes we are stressed but nowhere as stressed as those entering their 4th and 5th lock downs with Omicron on the doorstep.
Each day we should look round at family with comorbidities and or age and be ready to count our blessings. Things are not rosy but they could be far far worse, and some of our problems are scabs being removed from partially healed social sores.
We have come through a time of instant gratification, and even "Consumer" is pivoting to gadgets which have long life and can be repaired. Built in obsolescence is not acceptable any more.
We all say "not enough not fast enough", turning to a better way of living is hard and will impact people who thought they had a birth right of easy passage.
To achieve Policy changes the Government has to take the bulk of the people with them. At the moment people are rather fractious, let us hope summer helps.
Thanks Patricia and well put. Its way past time that this kind of partnership was put into practice and good on the govt to have the courage to support this even in the face of the prevalence of post colonial thinking. This is our unique character and its high time we supported those that only have the wellbeing of their communities at heart.
Well now, who is paying for that economic disaster? No matter, just add it to the tab of 16 billion dollars payable by those who will be left working. Ooops, only government employees left also supported by the tax dollar? No matter, add it to the tab.
Besides, it could be argued that a separate state is being advocated by stealth and time as the virus will engage everybody for decades and we are not just paying for it (the irony is not getting lost here) we are setting a precedent. I sometimes feel our politicians are either really naive or actually not finding any fault with this. Mr Hone Harawira knows exactly what he is doing.
Its actually Aucklanders going on holiday who will be exposed not the other way around. But hey, who is a stickler for facts, eh?
That number has been going up by about $1 billion/week during the Auckland shutdown. But not to worry. Grant knows what he is doing doesn't he? Just don't expect any sort of welfare state to be available for your kids.
Alwynger so if we didn't have a strong economic stimulus we may have less debt but no economic activity.
Take away your blood supply and see how you survive.
Same in an economy keeping the economic activity at a much higher level by simulation means you start rebuilding nearer to where your economy was.
Your idea of not borrowing or QE
Would have seen much more damage to our economy.
Maybe your economic ideas come from Charter schools set up at 2× plus the cost of state schools yet fail and the board members defraud tax payers of $400,000 no enquiry because the Nats ans ACT did not allow for accountability.
Argentina tried your formula of following the purist chicago school economics in 1996 to 97 .It has never recovered.
It's more than your simplistic swipe of course we could have had a cash injection for everybody as well as the Banks but we now operate under new Liberal economics.So we have to follow that system. Which political party offers an alternative that gets more than 1200 votes ,None.
If you go back to the 1930's the main reason the 1929 crash went on for 5 years plus was that banks were allowed to fail.
The point is there has been no 'stimulus'…it is a misnomer. There has been life support… but GDP remains below pre pandemic, the bulk of the Gov 'borrowing' remains unused at the RBNZ and the only 'stimulating' done was to the FOMO of property buyers.
And after all this the same issues remain or have been intensified.
The item you referenced was dated 30 June. That is before the current shutdown which is what I was talking about the I said $1 billion/week. You will note that I said "That number has been going up by about $1 billion/week during the Auckland shutdown"
The borrowing does not include that done by Kaianga Ora which was done in such a way that it was excluded from the Crown Accounts.
The New Zealand National Debt at the end of 2019 was $US 69.28 billion. The estimate for the end of 2021 is $US 123.12 billion. That is an increase of $US 53.84 billion which at today's exchange rate is $NZ 80 billion. That is the increase in the national debt in the last 2 years.
We have been borrowing one hell of a lot of money and our children are going to have to pay it back.
The figure is $350 million a week the govts books are in very good order especially compared to all other economies our economy is in the top 3 in the world.
If we had gone down National and ACT'S policy rabbit hole.Of minimal borrowing no QE.
NZs economy would be amongst the worst performing.
Having to recover from a much smaller base of economic activity takes years and even decades like Argentina.
Key Govt managed to borrow circa $60 billion with no…pandemic to deal…with.
20 billion in one year.
'the previous largest amount ever borrowed in a single financial year – which was almost $20 billion in 2011 in the wake of the global financial crisis, when National's Bill English held the reins.'newshub.
Seymour wants to inflame perceptions that police-iwi collaboration is some sort of constitutional outrage and hopes to provoke a few incidents at the Northland soft border that are worthy of media coverage. A total cynic, he wants back in government and a chance to unleash his libertarian dimwittery on all of us.
As someone who expects to pass through that border several times over summer, I have no problem with locals of whatever hue, culture or interest group being part of the police effort to spot check vaccine passes. The last thing I want is inflammatory lunatics like Seymour making the border a place of simmering racial tension.
As a recent ex member of the NZMCA might I just offer a tiny little bit of motorhomer insider information?
The very vastest majority of NZMCA members get around in certified fully self contained motorhomes/caravans/ and god forbid converted Busses.
Therefore, there is absolutely no reason for one member to have to hobnob with another member whilst staying in the vastest majority of the Ass.'s parkover properties. We all do our necessaries in our own vehicles…which…I might add (and Patricia Bremner will confirm this) will each be parked (by Ass's decree) a full 3 meters from it's neighbour. We were practicing social distancing in the Assoc waay before you lot had ever heard of such a thing.
Any hobnobbing is purely voluntary and given the, ahem, older demographic predominating in the Ass. one would hope in all sincerity we they would have the sense to follow the rules.
Just like last year when the Assoc decided to hurl all members out of the parkover properties (that we fucking well own BTW) for Lockdown 1.0 …this makes no sense and many members are seriously pissed off.
The same codgers members who are celebrating this will also be seen at Pak n Spend on Superday doing their weekly shop with all the other masked folk… vaccinated and not. Go figure.
AFAIK The Government has not mandated vaccine passes for accommodation and campgrounds whatever colour traffic light is lit.
probably time for another association to form. NZMCA supporting Labour's proprosed really fucking classist rules around free camping is pissing a lot of people off.
You (and me too) are a bit late to that party. There are a couple of very enthusiastic groups out there…many members who are refugees from the NZMCA. Long before the Covid shit show there has been deep rumblings regarding the reach demanded by NZMCA…to the point of trying to make themselves the 'one source of truth' with the government on freedom camping and self containment.
Yes I thought that strange at the time Rosemary. It seemed a bit draconian. But Nash does not like Motorhomes much at all. How many belong now? We were 18160.
We are were 32726. What a difference in the paint shade when I ceremoniously removed the wings after 13 years. Last I checked the numbers were well into the 100000s. It is a very, very different club to what is was back in the day when you had to be nominated by another member just to join. In the last few years we converted Bus dwellers were treated like the poor relations. Good thing is that their tupperware containers on wheels are much too flash to go the roads we frequented. The latest issue of the Motorcaravanner features a young mum and her son on the cover heralding the Ass. movement towards inclusivity and more family friendliness. Oh the irony that on the day it was posted out they announced the ban on the unvaccinated. Their cover girl and her young son are now excluded. She sent them a video clip of her cutting up her membership card (they want proof of this to qualify for a fees refund).
Department of Conservation campgrounds and huts will require passes from December 15, and most holiday parks in the Top 10 group will take only vaccinated campers from varying December dates.
Holiday Parks New Zealand chief executive Fergus Brown estimates about 70 per cent of camping grounds so far have mandated passes, and that the number will climb.
"When Mahuta announced the plan in October, the legislation creating the new entities was set to be introduced to Parliament by the end of the year, but the Government was forced to concede on Thursday it would be delayed."
Another day, another thing banned by the Government.
What's next? Ban democracy because it's dangerous?
Except that's kinda already happening. Rule by experts and elite, a technocratic vision for what's good for us if we weren't just such bad little boys and girls. A democracy that is all kratos and little demos.
The unspoken and underlying principle of the Labour Party is now the people can't be trusted and choice is verboten. The people are dumb, the people are dangerous, unsullied and incompetent. Our morality is superior and for the good of the country, must be imposed. And shush, actual concerns of child poverty or living costs are secondary – what matters is you sit down, shut up, and log off from Facebook if you don't like it.
Except we can't "log off" from life under this Government. It pervades every nook and cranny. This morality and governance is little different to Poland or Hungary in the end analysis. A self-righteous Government defending its crusade for the ''greater good'', the public morality. Almost every democracy that slides into soft Authoritarianism does so under the guise of the greater good, the public good, and often to fight a crisis – imagined or exaggerated. China tells its country the Uyghur are dangerous, they need segregating and re-educating – they could be terrorists you see, and are being feed misinformation about the wonderful CCCP.
Hungary is defending its traditional morality, NZ is imposing its "new"morality, with the help of $55 million slush for the way for media. There is little difference in the end, except a more smiley face here.
I've started accepting the use of "Aotearoa" (even though only about 9% want this to replace "New Zealand") because it reflects the new paradigm of our country: it is inexorably heading towards a new regime of soft Authoritarianism and moral coercion. What's best for you, to hear, say, and do, is what we say – you "freedumb", racist peasant.
[I think you are on the wrong site. Try BFD or Kiwiblog – MS]
He could start with his first sentence and a link to whatever it is he thinks the government has banned so we know what he is talking about. Or even just name it.
Our Poverty Action Plan will completely change the way we support people in New Zealand so when people ask for help, they get it. It overhauls the broken welfare system and guarantees that everyone who needs it, no matter what, has a minimum income they can rely on.
Sign on to our plan to show your support for this bold policy for change.
John Bougen, who funded Reefton’s remarkable revival, is furious with anti vaxxers. He is chair of the local Community Board and also a Buller District Councillor.
Mr Bougen needs to organize a quiz night at the pub…that'll liven things up.
A Sydney Pub quiz has dished out some unwanted prizes: 45 Covid-19 infections.
All of those to be diagnosed with Covid-19 have been fully vaccinated.
Details of the potential super-spreader event emerged a day after NSW Health warned about Christmas parties.
“NSW Health is seeing an increased number of cases over the last couple of days, and what we’ve been observing is increased transmission in larger social venues such as pubs, clubs and party settings,” Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said.
“This is contributing to the increase in cases, and they’re predominantly occurring in vaccinated individuals."
The wheels on the bus are falling off, falling off, falling off….
It's not that the wheels are falling off, it's that we're playing a game of numbers and time. It makes sense in a place with very low death rates and no hospital overrun to work with the efficacy of our responses for the situation we are in now.
What would interest me about that pub cluster is how many are hospitalised and how many die/get long covid.
As a Righty, I found yesterday infuriating. I am referring to the governments communist legislation ( I don't know how else to describe it from MY perspective) to stop future generations of New Zealanders enjoying cigarettes if they so choose. Worse, current smokers will have to accept smokes with less nicotine.
My old socialist aunt who would make many Lefties on this blog look like Parnell woofters, was fond of saying smokes and beer are the working man's perk. I agree, but would add KFC, Dak and P to the mix.
However, it's not Labour raising my ire. That's typical Lefty legislation(?) My problem is with Luxon's response. He said he agrees with it in principle. Say what! Luxon should be shouting and promising such crap legislation will be repealed before morning tea break. As I suspected – the guy is woke.
The second disappointment was HDA. I hold Heather in high regard, but not once did she ask Ayesha Verrall during an interview '' what the hell the government was doing legislating the future choices young New Zealanders can make.''
The problem here is simple – Labour know what they stand for and are prepared to act. National don't know what they are about. National say the right things but always seem to have a wet finger in the air trying to devine which way the winds of political fortune are blowing.
National should forget courting the mushy middle vote and go hardline. Ironically the way this Labour government is acting makes that a possible political goldmine.
Blade, you are yet another Righty who has no idea of what communism means, aren't you? The minute you find something totalitarian or dictatorial, out comes that communist word, even though it is irrelevant.
When did you give up on the process of learning? (Remember – it is meant to be a life-long process.)
He's not "woke", but your penultimate para is closer to the mark.
I look at it this way. Most of us have a view about smoking, and related laws (you might not be surprised to know mine is very different from yours). We don't need to be MPs, or even very interested in politics, to have an opinion about a common issue. It's been around for decades, everything from sports sponsorship to smoking in bars.
Now I would guess that Luxon has a personal view too (he's 51, how could he not?). I have no idea what it is. If he was this "new broom" that he purports to be, he would be saying the same thing now that he said before he entered politics. Saying, in effect: "Here's my opinion, make of it what you will". But he won't.
Winning the leadership didn't change his views on smoking, or anything else. It only changed his willingness to express them. That's the kind of leader he's going to be, and I'm afraid you'll have to get used to it.
National should be decisive, come out and say tobacco is there, it]s a fact of life and take the heavy taxes off tobacco. The prices of cigarettes would plummet and the freedom and choice people will be happy.
Unfortunately, these kits will be of little use to hard working dairy owners who soon may be out of business because Labour are on a power trip. To be fair, these dairy owners are entitled to go straight on the dole.
I think you might be missing the incremental nature of the ban. Someone born in 2007 ie 14 years old today, will never be able to buy cigarettes legally. They will however be able to smoke them. Their aunty or baby sitter or older brother can buy them for them. Happy now?
By the time the 14 year old is 18, a number of elderly relatives will have passed on, but there will still be many many people able to buy cigarettes and give them to the now 18 year old.
By the time they are in their 60s, we will have run out of people legally allowed to buy cigarettes, but I expect by then tobacco companies will have long folded and we will be smoking home grown (much better for us).
Or they can just vape, but fucked if I know why that's not being regulated as well. Disgusting, breathing in other people's artificially scented peppermint lung vapour.
''I think you might be missing the incremental nature of the ban. Someone born in 2007 ie 14 years old today, will never be able to buy cigarettes legally. They will however be able to smoke them. Their aunty or baby sitter or older brother can buy them for them. Happy now?''
No, the point you are missing has nothing to do with smoking, but everything to do with unnecessary restrictive legislation.
You see, both National and Labour are at base level pragmatists. They are not philosophically consistent. You nail that in your final paragraph.
BTW- I smoked for 25 years. Loved every moment of it, especially that smoke after a good evening meal. But I had to give up and cannot now tolerate being around smokers ( vapers are worse). But…I have no desire to legislate against smokers provided they respect my rights which most do.
This drive for compulsion is where I take a different fork in the road to most posters on this blog.
You see, both National and Labour are at base level pragmatists. They are not philosophically consistent. You nail that in your final paragraph.
It's entirely consistent with mainstream public health positioning, which sees smoking as a serious health issue and doesn't believe that vaping is.
As for compulsion, I have my own limits (I'm uneasy with aspects of the vax mandates and the degree to which people are completely fine with it). But from a public health perspective, smoking damages so many people and costs the state, it's not hard to see the rationales.
I prefer the other approach suggested yesterday, make sale illegal and smokers have to register their addiction and be supplied by the state. Although I know from my own experience that being able to choose one's own brand of cigarette is part of the pleasure.
I am intrigued by this particular ban and will wait to see how it is implemented and what the consequences are. But NZ has been successful in previous anti-smoking policy, so this probably fits in with that. It's a fairly classic personal freedom vs collective good social dilemma.
I'd have more of a problem if they were to make the growing of tobacco illegal.
Wouldn't put it past them, remembering that one of the Nat's former rising stars, ex-MP Todd Barclay, was a lobbyist for big tobacco, although his personal views were strongly 'anti-tobacco'. According to this Stuff article, Bishop (current shadow Leader of the House, and Nat Covid-19 response spokesperson) also worked for Philip Morris before entering parliament.
I wonder how many tourists from countries where smoking is still a "normal" thing will want to come to NZ?
Its an addiction and it is a good idea to curtail it. My concern is that if you stamp it out it will be replaced by something else, juvenile curiosity will not go away.
Nah, mate. You forget your chums are becoming more unpopular by the day. And those baubles for the chattering class before the next election will be paid for with printed money. Now, which group in society is in big trouble at the moment. Let's see… oh, it's the middleclass. We don't count the poor because they have little power. They don't own small businesses.. Aren't nurses or doctors in the health sector. Tourism? let's not go there. Wanting to travel overseas, Lol. That's a lot of pissed off people, TV. They represent middle NZ.
But all this is becoming academic. National may only need to turn up at the next election to win. You may have to accept that.
Conspiracy theories abound in USA and edge into NZ.
The USA youth have started a new one, "Birds Aren’t Real." The claim is that birds are really electronic units created by Government to track the people.
In Pittsburgh, Memphis and Los Angeles, massive billboards recently popped up declaring, “Birds Aren’t Real.”
On Instagram and TikTok, Birds Aren’t Real accounts have racked up hundreds of thousands of followers, and YouTube videos about it have gone viral.
What a neat idea. NZers could try this to counter Qnon and others here. "It’s Gen Z’s attempt to upend the rabbit hole with absurdism."
In September, shortly after a restrictive new abortion law went into effect in Texas, Birds Aren’t Real members showed up at a protest held by anti-abortion activists at the University of Cincinnati. Supporters of the new law “had signs with very graphic imagery and were very aggressive in condemning people,” Mr. McIndoe said. “It led to arguments.”
But the Bird Brigade began chanting, “Birds aren’t real.” Their shouts soon overpowered the anti-abortion activists, who left.
MSD is broken, we need a better system that deals in dignity and equality:
More than half a million New Zealanders are in debt to MSD at an average of $3400, but for Māori that average is almost $1000 more.
Auckland Action Against Poverty's Brooke Pao Stanley said people were taking out these loans just to live.
"If you get a food grant then you don't have to pay that back, but everything else if you require support with rent, bills arrears, if your babies need uniforms, stationary, help with car repairs, all of that becomes debt for you," she said.
The repayments are set at the discretion of MSD staff.
Men on average pay back $11.09 a week, while women on average pay $16.33 a week. When split by ethnicity, Pākehā on average pay $12.78 cents weekly and Māori $16.01 per week.
The figures were obtained by Green MP Ricardo Menendez March, who said it reeks of systemic discrimination.
I disagree, there definitely is a narrative of a worsening society but this is as old as society itself. There are gains and there are losses, but until we collectively reject the party that refuses to fix these issues we can expect the status quo of our economy to continue. We aren't powerless.
It suits the status quo for people to become nihilistic.
The change is there if you look for it:
Here’s how our Poverty Action Plan works for all of us:
A Guaranteed Minimum Income of $325 per week for students and people out of work, no matter what.
A Universal Child Benefit for kids under three of $100 per week.
A simplified Family Support Credit of $190 per week for the first child and $120 per week for subsequent children to replace the Working for Families tax credits with a higher abatement threshold and lower abatement rate.
Additional support for single parents through a $110 per week top-up.
Reforming ACC to become the Agency for Comprehensive Care, creating equitable social support for everyone with a work-impairing health condition or disability, with a minimum payment of 80% of the full time minimum wage.
Changes to abatement and relationship rules so people can earn more from paid work before their income support entitlements are reduced.
A 1% wealth tax for those with a net-worth over $1 million.
And two new top income tax brackets for a more progressive tax system which redistributes wealth.
I think to make a general welfare issue that is actually not paying enough to live on a racial issue is dangerous as it diverts the issue and divides the country further. It also gives the ministers to bide time and get nothing done. Like with so many issues needing attention.
Just on a different issue here, can we look at what the money is spend on? Perhaps those gold plated cigarettes? If you have the habit nothing is left to pay any bills. Who are we kidding…
Avoid hitting them if you can but if one won't get out of your way then thats their choice, your choice is to protect yourself and whoever else is in the car.
Not sure that's an ideal decision – if you hit one, some will just jump in the vehicles that work and pursue. And longer term they'll likely track you down anyway, especially if the one you hit gets seriously hurt.
Locking the doors before stopping is always an option, to avoid the quick "jump in" – but that's a captain hindsight thing. Can take a while to get into the groove of locking when you have to slow down (around campus it was just fecking students jumping in unexpectedly).
Looks to me like dude probably did the things with the least likelihood of getting him seriously beaten.
Comes down to the decision of do you want them in your car or not.
Safety in the short term vs long term I guess, not a situation I'd like to find myself in.
'This led to Jury, 45, and his associates walking onto the road in a bid to flag down vehicles. All were dressed in Mongrel Mob regalia and most were drunk.'
Yeah, I was still assuming they're standing in the middle of the road, so reversing seemed more likely. But I wouldn't be stopping either if I could help it.
Women's self defence classes (taught by feminists) in my 20s is a big part of it. Reading Gavin Debecker a bit later on too.
Biggest problem I have atm is that my car windows are manual not electric. Safer if I drive into a river or the harbour though, lol.
Far too often women will ignore their 'gut feeling' because they don't want to be seen of or thought of as unkind or uncaring.
Agree. I once lied to a guy in a pub, who I kind of knew, who wanted a ride just down the road when he heard me say I was about to go home. Small country pub where it would definitely have been considered rude to say no, but it also felt risky to say no to his face, not because he would have done anything there, but it would have told him I was afraid of him and I didn't want him to know.
I told him I had to make a phone call first and I'd let him know when I was leaving and then I walked outside and got in the car and drove away. No fucking way was I getting in a car with that guy. No rational reason other than my hackles were completely up (which is completely rational).
Probably the other thing that instilled this in me was when I was eight I was sitting in the car waiting for mum to come back from a shop. Middle of town, middle of the day. A group of heavy duty Māori men were walking past, don't remember if they were patched. I don't remember what I did, whether I pointed or laughed or just stared, I think I was probably just staring, but one of them strode towards the front of the car and banged really hard on it while staring right at me. Scared the bejezus out of me, made me much more aware of my social surroundings and how I appear to others.
I had a friend who was gang raped by the mob in her late teens, and heard her opinions about gangs clearly enough. I do still believe in helping people in gangs and gangs generally, because the cycle has to be broken, but I don't see that as incompatible with understanding how dangerous they are.
Read that book last year as part of my research. A great book that is cited as source material for many other publications.
The rape story as told by a victim and dismantled by Becker to show all the warning signs the victim missed was exceptional. So many warning signs missed – so many warning signs most women don't realise.
PS – I'm a little sceptical about women's self defense classes. Many of the moves are unrealistic in a surprise attack situation. The same goes for men's self defence.
'I'm a little sceptical about women's self defense classes. Many of the moves are unrealistic in a surprise attack situation. The same goes for men's self defence.'
What the classes are good for though is getting people to think about situational awareness, about not putting themselves in potentially dangerous situations in the first place
feminist self defensive classes being taught in the 80s were a different beast, don't know if they're still going. I won't talk about the details in a mixed group for obvious reasons, but the value in them is to give women the confidence to act and to predict when that might be necessary.
Yes, points taken. However, I forgot to add this which I think is pertinent to some points raised.
I read an article about how Self Defence classes had gained the woman mentioned much more confidence in her ability to protect herself. She said: " I'm far more confident. Last night I walked across the park to my home without fear.''
As PR states, situational awareness is where it's at. And this poor woman didn't have it. Just as Social Media has given many folk false expectations, women fighting in the MMA has given woman a false sense of their abilities. These MMA woman train 24/7. They are beasts. They become men in a feminine body
''Feminist self defensive classes being taught in the 80s were a different beast, don't know if they're still going.''
Probably not, but something just as bad is Master Chief Tank Todds course. What those women do to a dildo chilled my blood.
There's a difference between self defence classes being run for women, and those being run by feminists.
Without seeing the article I can't comment on the woman's comment, but obviously if one has to walk through a park at night, then not being afraid is a good thing.
Drive enough hours around the same neighbourhood, having to get out and back in every so often – nobody is perfect at locking the doors, men or women. It's a learned behaviour.
And I'm telling you as someone who's had a lot of co-drivers (mostly women, because of the nature of the job), nobody is perfect at keeping the passenger doors locked – yes, not even women.
So I'm not going to be judging the kidnapped driver for that technical slip-up.
yeah, I wasn't talking about the man in the story, or your work colleagues. I don't drive round with the passenger doors locked. I have taught myself to lock the doors in certain situations and it's kind of automatic now. If I'm in my car and a strange man approaches me in a place with no other people around, I will lock the door and wind down the window enough to ask what he wants. Likewise at home when I've lived on my own, if someone comes to the door at night, I will make sure it's locked before asking who it is.
I agree it's learned behaviour. My reading of the man in the story is that he felt somewhat comfortable stopping in that situation and then it got out of hand.
Whereas I read it as someone who was going about their regular day and was reactively trying to process irregular but escalating behaviour. Some people spend so much time trying to understand the situation that's unfolding that they're always behind the 8-ball. I've done it myself. Binary switching from "boring work drive" to "imminent threat" isn't universal.
I brought up locking doors because it was relevant to the incident being discussed. You always lock your doors, fine. Not everyone has that habit.
yes, that was my point. Many women have learned to make it a regular habit because of our particular vulnerability in society. I don't always lock my doors, but am confident I would have in that situation because I've trained myself to act preemptively defensively. It's not foolproof (as I said above, my current car has manual windows, so if any of the passenger windows were down in that situation, locking the doors wouldn't help much).
The guy seemed pretty resilient, although he could be putting on a brave face for the journo as well.
Cool, so in response to the description of this incident and one possible prevention option, you say you and many women already do that so you wouldn't have had that particular escalation path.
Lol, no, I'm saying that my instinctual response would have been to lock the doors. Whether that de-escalated or escalated the situation is another matter. I'm not so arrogant as to assume I would get to determine how things would play out if I had been in the same situation.
I am saying that women have had to think about this in different ways from men, and some of us have been fortunate to be trained into pre-emptive defensive action.
For instance as a woman, I think my risk in that particular situation is different from a man's and that this influences what are good choices in the moment (such that we have).
And yet some men also do that defensive action, and some women don't.
I find these stories useful because it allows one to consider similar situations, and maybe think about options for getting out of those situations with the least risk.
You might want to turn it into a whole other discussion. Have that discussion with someone else.
If I'm not mistaken you suggested that going along with the situation was probably safer than trying to take action to prevent it. I'm saying that's more true for men than women.
Deleted the last bit of my comment because it doesn’t help any of us to go to that level. But suffice to say I will speak as a feminist any time I want.
Well, yes, you are mistaken. I said going along with things as it developed in that situation was probably safer than pr's idea of just running them over.
I also said locking the doors would have changed that situation, but I'm not going to judge the dude for not thinking of that at the time.
And I said what I was not going to talk about, not what you should talk about. Have the convo with someone else, I don't care who.
Why you would want to start that discussion by replying to someone who apparently "wilfully misinterprets" such things is beyond me, anyway.
See the difference is "just run them over" sounds like you think thats my first and only action, as stated previously it isn't so you're wrong
"if one won't get out of your way then thats their choice" is their choice not mine, my first choice is to 'Avoid hitting them if you can' so again you're wrong
If I'm driving and someone jumps in front of my car then thats not my fault, thats on them thats their choice
Just out of curiosity I'm assuming you attend uni, what are you studying?
And I said what I was not going to talk about, not what you should talk about. Have the convo with someone else, I don't care who.
If you don't want to talk with me (or anyone) then don't. But it's pretty hard here to get people to not reply to conversations.
You said,
You might want to turn it into a whole other discussion. Have that discussion with someone else.
Which I took to mean: don't talk to me about feminist perspectives. I'm saying no, I will bring feminist perspectives into any conversation if it's relevant. Have you stopped and thought about what you are actually saying here? Don't talk to me about feminism
Why you would want to start that discussion by replying to someone who apparently "wilfully misinterprets" such things is beyond me, anyway.
I don't think you are wilfully misinterpreting what I am saying, I think you are telling me as feminist to not talk about feminism when talking to you.
Haven't studied in years. The uni is a major employer in dunners. Lots of folks drop in and out of different roles there.
If I'm driving and someone jumps in front of my car then thats not my fault, thats on them thats their choice
From my understanding, most cars have a pedal in the same general area as the "go faster pedal" that essentially has the opposite role.
If you can reasonably avoid hitting hitting the person by using that other pedal, then maybe a little bit of it would be your fault. Like if you rear-end someone, even though they braked suddenly you shouldn't have been following so close.
See the difference is “just run them over” sounds like you think thats my first and only action, as stated previously it isn’t so you’re wrong
Everything after “but” made it sound like you wouldn’t lose much sleep if folks ignored the bit before “but”.
What I'm saying is that I'm not willing to discuss some specific subjects with specifically you at the moment, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't take comments I make on another subject altogether and warp them through a lens that I'm not willing to touch with a 50foot pole. Because only last night you explictly said I wilfully misinterpreted a position made with that perspective.
I already ignore great swathes of open mike most days. Now I'm supposed to what – ignore replies to my own damned comments because you want to twist them into something else?
I'm not even being a petulant teen and demanding you never reply to my comments ever again, nor am I packing a sad and stomping offline forever. But at the moment, some topics create nothing but friction when I get involved, and I can't be bothered with that hassle right now.
If someone wants to talk about what I'm cool with talking about, great. If they want to twist my comments into another debate, respectfully, my comments were absolutely not about that, and that is a discussion I'm not getting involved in.
I'd appreciate it, pretty please and with sugar on top, if my reply tab didn't get filled up with things I do not care to bother with, because I might miss a reply in a discussion I do want to participate in (be it something of significance that I won't apparently fuck up, or merely some pleasantly meaningless diversion).
The Mob were on the road by the sounds of things. Also sounds like he wasn't initially scared of stopping for them, but only when he realised what they wanted did he become concerned. So maybe he's been around gangs before.
I support the police generally but love is suggesting that I believe the police can do no wrong and shouldn't be questioned so I want Millsy to put up some evidence
I'm being realistic. The cops cannot protect everyone. In some cases they are probably bought off by the gangs (sad, but true). Running over a patched Mongerel Mob member is not a great life choice. Especially if you work somewhere that houses them en masse.
[RL: You made a personal claim about PR who has called you on it. Put up or shut up.]
Also sounds like he wasn't initially scared of stopping for them, but only when he realised what they wanted did he become concerned. So maybe he's been around gangs before.
Odds are from details in the article he's a local and works for a large forestry company, probably in a technical or supervisory role.
I think one of the scam methods with these sites is for randos to set up to receive donations for a legitimate cause (or similar to), then pocket the cash.
This one, fortunately, was set up by a friend of the family who could tell them that the money was raised in a day.
The photograph shows a young person that clearly needs medical help. What it does not show is whether it is a person that was photographed at that stage some time ago and did in fact receive the medical help needed, or what country the person was in, or any other details to demonstrate that it is not a fraud, or even whether there are other reasons why cessation of assistance was appropriate.
The givealittle organisation hopefully does vet requests for assistance. I did not say that it is a fraud, but if the content is true, I am concerned at the cessation of NZ public health assistance for this young person.
The link given by McFlock below indicates that the story is indeed true, and the givealittle page indicates that over $134,000 has now been raised.
It is not as if the results of treatment will have been unknown to medical staff until a sudden event; this case has been ongoing for years. Is it a case of too much bureaucracy? Too rigid budgets with insufficient discretion? Or are there facts that the public is not aware of? A health system that relies on charitable donations for expensive procedures.is not what New Zealanders expect.
This prick showed no remorse. He only became emotional when his uncle turned his back on him. The take away from this is people like him ( and there are many) have no remorse when it comes to killing/harming Europeans. Europeans just don't register on their radar.
There is a very large portion of Maori that would have no problem seeing the back of Europeans. And who's stoking the flames of separatism ? Well, it's the Labour coalition.
“Talley’s is suing Television New Zealand over a series of stories in recent months about allegations of health and safety breaches at some of its worksites.
The company said it has filed proceedings in the High Court at Auckland today, saying the stories were false and defamatory.
After the initial stories went to air in July, Talley’s said it contracted former Police Commissioner Mike Bush to investigate the allegations.
The company said Bush found the assertions in the stories were either taken out of context, overstated or already identified, and action was under way to address them, or they had already been remedied.
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
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 ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
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Pukeko unfolds its wings after grooming.
They have impressive-looking wings and are strong, but rather, shall we say, inelegant fliers.
Perhaps they devolved over the past millennium? Wikipedia says they "invaded from Australia less than 1,000 years ago."
Or perhaps the invasion force was carefully selected to consist of the most vigorous fliers. Churlish folk may theorise that those were assisted by prevailing winds. I'd advise them to beware inadvertent support of the bird-brain theory. Intelligent design of the invasion force seems just as feasible & descendants make take umbrage…
These large rails much prefer to walk & swim rather than fly. Unfortunately this preference gets lots of them killed on the roads.
I'm struck by how very dinosaur-like they are when they walk or run. They look like mini-raptors, and that frontal shield of theirs somehow just adds to the dinosaur resemblance, for me anyway.
They give me the impression that they didn't have to evolve very far along the chain from a mini-raptor to get to their current shape, though of course that might not be true in their DNA record.
Xmas is coming-what do they taste like?
By all accounts they’re pretty tough & stringy. The best recipe is said to be to boil them up with potatoes, kumara, watercress, cabbage & beans, in a pot big enuf to also throw an old gumboot in, for 3 hours. At the end of that time, you throw away the pukeko, and eat the gumboot & the veges. 😐
Sorry, I forgot, you need carrots in there too. 😐
I prefer an old leather boot myself rather than a gumboot – more chewy.
I thought that recipe was for duck and the best recipes also included some orange juice powder such as the old Raro! I would stick to the boot, pukeko and raro and not put in the 'potatoes, kumara, watercress, cabbage & beans (and carrots)'.
You could cook them up separately and for the next day breakfast have them fried up, yum. Your dinner mates will still be eating the leather boot so there will be lots for you to eat.
Years ago I was reliably informed Pukeko could be 'jugged' and tasted good. The whaea that told me this was sincere when talking about the old ways.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugging
The keys are lots of aromatics and stock, an earthenware dish with a tight fitting lid and low and slow cooking.
If you have a Rommertopf or Schlemmertopf you are away laughing.
https://www.kitchenware.nz/romertopf-cookware-kitchenware-superstore.html
But! But! They are not real! Birds don’t exist and are really drone replicas installed by the U.S. government to spy on Americans. So watch out G make sure they aren't spying on you.
Like all of the vaccinated I am sure Gezza got a full complement of 5G capability and tracking devices……perhaps these communicate with the drone birds to save the long trip to NZ like the Godwits from Russia have to do……wait wait, hang on a minute am I onto something here?
Just scooting down to my Mum's basement to investigate this.
@ mary
Here are my new adopted grand-pooklet quads. They will be only a week old (or less). They'll be showing on this site for 3 months, then drop out.
https://streamable.com/vkzgvs
https://streamable.com/xbejh1
https://streamable.com/5ryqvs
https://streamable.com/8pgb8k
https://streamable.com/x54jpz
Cheers Gezza @(1.2) … enjoy your grandie pooklet quads. They are delightful
Unsurprisingly, Natrad continues to confuse "sex" and "gender" and quite frankly this morning's wee gloat session over the passing of legislation allowing biological reality to be sidelined and to allow those who feel they were "assigned the wrong sex at birth" to rectify this 'error' with a mere declaration made me gag on my morning glass of water.
Questions. Is "transphobic misogyny" an actual thing? Is it accurate to describe the submissions of gender critical feminists to the select committee as "gaslighting"?
This is quoting Kerekere, hopefully in the above link.
I am busy today trying to get an aluminium framed window to better fit into where a wooden framed used to be in a small building that was seemingly denied the benefit of spirit levels or squares during it's construction some years ago. To celebrate the passing of this legislation I'd wear a frock for this job…but being well over forty years since I've worn such a garment… Hmmm…lots to ponder methinks.
Careful Rosemary I think you need to take advice on what to wear today, the last thing you want is to unknowingly cause a hate crime by wearing/not wearing a pair of trousers.
Not wearing a pair of trousers isn't a hate crime but might still get you in trouble with the constabulary.
Can confirm that this is true
I was thinking along the lines of a culturally appropriate kilt…but it is much too hot. A lavalava is an option…but modesty would demand a degree of tightness that would make ladder climbing difficult.
It's complicated.
Is it possible to be non-binary on the wardrobe front?
I am inclined to don a kikoi when it gets real hot. It's the East African version of a lava lava .
If an overweight palangi in ethnic attire is non-binary, I'm ticking them boxes.
Knott if you make it into a nappy
It is early days still, but then maybe in a year or several we have something like this, or not.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/jun/10/gender-critical-views-protected-belief-appeal-tribunal-rules-maya-forstater
They don't conflate sex with gender, they will continue to pretend that sex don't matter Rosemary. Science got burned on the stake, and Gender is all that they have left now.
I've now had coffee and caught again Natrad's continued promotion of this suspension of reality legislation.
I misquoted Kerekere. She said " trans misogyny" not "transphobic misogyny". A difference, but also probably more demanding of debate.
I am interpreting "trans misogyny" as basically meaning that if you don't accept that trans women are women you are a woman hater. Hmmm…making my square window fit the unsquare hole is way easier that getting my head around this. Frock or no frock.
With all due respect Denis, the law you talk of didn't lead to psychopathic murderers not guilty for the crimes they commit.
A psychopath would never meet the criteria for not guilty by reason of insanity.
This law dates back to the 18800's and was for people who had such an abnormal state of mind they could not be held responsible for their actions. So what thss means is someone who is experiencing delusins e.g that someone is going to kill me, and whose ability to reality test is very limited or non existence. In other words that person really believes their delusions. so usually someone with a spychotic depression or schizophrenia although most people with schizophrenia are not dangerous).
Usually both the defence and the prosecution are able to agree that this person needs to be found not guilty on the basis of insanity. I think the young man in Epsom who killed his parents was found NGBROI. These cases are very very sad
Oh, I see. I didn't realise psychopaths are relatively normal compared to psychotic & schizo folk.
Trumpian, in contemporary lingo.
Denis no problem. People make that mistake all the time. Psychopaths can be very dangerous (or maybe just very good used car salesmen or even politicians) but they are in touch with reality.
The law that treats people who are psychotic at the time of their crimes is a far one. Thee people receive a sentence in a high security forensic hospitl and once their illness is treated have to come to terms with what they have done when unwell.
The vast majority of people with schizophrenia are quite safe. It is a tragic illness. I think they are one of the most marginalized groups in society. Not many people go into to bat for them
The suspension of reality legislation……..lol lol.
Yes funny to talk about gaslighting, which I understand means trying to get someone to doubt their reality (that was in the original movie anyway). Elizabeth who brought in a bill like this. It reminds me of the headline of an item from the UK "Woman charged with indecent exposure for masturbating with her penis out". if that ain't gaslighting I am not sure what is. …………….
Signed: Boy who watched the parade in the Emperors New Clothes.
,ps it was wonderful reading the discussion on Open Mike last night. Weka, Molly, Sabine, Pukish Rogue, Rosemary, Red Logix, Roblogic…….proud of you all. And Sabine your hilarious comment about pro-nnouns and not assuming who was a women in parliament brought. me great joy
I am very serious though. Everyone here should from now on understand that they /them is the way to go.
If they have not declared their identity, they don't have one. And that includes our dear non male leader of the labour party, the non male co-leader and the non – female co- leader of the green party, ditto for maori party, act party and national party.
And just for the record that someone might think that i am trying myself at joking, I am not.
Do not assume gender of anyone unless they have stated theirs and that comes with pronouns.
I only have one pronoun, it is 'My Lord and Master'
That's how I want everyone to address me
Will do PR. (lord/master). From the boy in the Emperors new Clothes who now identifies as a women (piss/take)
Thats a great start now if you can convince my wife…
Mrs Rogue, by name and nature. I admire that she doesn't automatically fall into line.
Shes a good woman, strong and stroppy
I am 100% sure Mrs R is a good woman and strong and stroppy rules
You sound like you are serious.
Have you/are you declaring yours and what is the setting for declarations?
Just on social media for now, its all you need to do in this day and age
Sorry, Pucky, but pronouns are words that stand in place of a noun.
Lord and Master are both nouns, not pronouns. Permission declined.
In Vino,
The word pronoun no longer means what you think. (Par for the course).
PR doesn't have to use the dinosaur meaning of the word pronoun to create his own in the interest of "greater equality."
University of Wisconsin explains:
Always knew In Vino was a bigot
Yeah…it's a growing demographic, which I may or may not be a part of. If only I could see around my big head)
Still not using your pronouns though, PR.
But I identify as Lord and Master
i am not, use they them and get over it.
I wouldn't give Dr Kerekeres take on things too much time at all.
She seems particularly confused in her PHd thesis where she makes a case for the acceptance of trans people pre-colonial times, but then on page 82 admits there is no evidence for this.
.
The absurdly revisionist historiography of Māori pseudo-academics like Dr Elizabeth Anne Kerekere is, of course, implicitly taken as holy gospel by the highly paternalistic Pakeha Woke Establishment … a kind of unthinking Noble Savage Romanticisation & Infantalisation of Māori … but these dubious post-modern-influenced narratives don't even remotely cut it among qualified historians … they are purely Presentist … radically re-writing & sanitising Māori history for present-day political purposes.
From attempts to deny the brutal genocide & mass slavery of the Musket Wars to the transformation of pre-Colonial Māori into something resembling a mix of 1960s Flower-Power Hippies & the supposedly ‘unusually-refined sensbilities‘ (LOL) of 21st Century Upper-Middle Pakeha Wokedom.
.
Elizabeth Rata is of course the expert on Maori education.
.
.
Sorry, who mentioned Elizabeth Rata & who mentioned Māori Education ?
Perhaps you were replying to someone else ?
As someone who took History through to Post-Grad level – including papers on Historical Methodology & the various Schools of History & a good deal of NZ History – I’m suggesting that activist-Māori pseudo-academics are producing highly dubious, inherently Present-Minded revisionism to buttress contemporary radical Māori political claims.
Elizabeth Rata is a pakeha
.
I know.
I was responding to swordfish’s educational background and comments on Maori academia and paternalist woke Pakeha (claims the Labour government is abandoning the white working class).
He has linked to Elizabeth Rata … .
It reminds one of resistance to critical race theory in the USA.
.
Swordfish I respect and accept your assessemnt of this
Probably a presumption from Samoan culture (which may have developed post any cultural connection).
Well, the head of Stonewall says that lesbians who are not interested in having sex with male bodied people who demand that we refer to them as women are "sexual racists". That is why gender identity is a homophobic cult.
"sexual racists"
Goddess forgive me, but I fell down this bunny hole this morning…earlyish.
…that a trans woman with male genitals is merely a woman with an “unusually shaped vulva,” so no one unprejudiced would make a distinction; and that a woman who is willing to touch a natal woman’s vulva but not a trans woman’s genitals is like a woman who is willing to touch a white woman’s vulva but not a black woman’s.
… But what stands out most is the faith they display in the power of words to override material reality. When a woman is anyone who declares womanhood, the matter of whether that person has genitals that can get an erection, penetrate, impregnate and rape becomes unspeakable. But the genitals themselves do not change.
I had read this before, when it was first published and we were in the early stages on choosing which path we would take on this issue. I had hoped that having the benefit of others' experience of how such legislation could play out in the real world (albeit this particular case is extreme) we would exercise a little caution and include some significant safeguards against such a travesty ever happening here.
I just need to rewrite this for a minute, for the sake of the left wing heterosexual men standing against gender critical feminism who now need to understand that unless they are willing to personally engage with girldick they're transphobic, sexual racist bigots. Wouldn't want them to be surprised by this.
The other option for het men of course is to make the argument for why lesbians should have to engage with girldick but het men shouldn't. Can't wait.
(the Quillette piece is talking about the Yaniv case and beauticians, but we know from lesbians that it applies to sexual relationships as well).
Yes Weka, This might be when we get some cut through, when Het men are accused of be transphobic or trans racist or whatever if they refuse to accept that the women is with a dick isn't a women and they don't want sex with them.
I will wait with bated breath to hear how heterosexual men defend their trans racism.
Misogyny, harassment and extortion in one 'unholy package', still attached to the groin of Yaniv.
Some of those women closed their single income source due to this.
Your link contains this pearler re Jonathan Yaniv:
And for a look at those 'not gonna happen' misuse of self-id by non-dysphoric bad actors, a blank video.
For the rest of us, a sample of what has happened in the ladies.
https://youtu.be/zwUe7-4-_TY
I get the feeling that the lefties who support this never think about things like this.
some don't know (probably many). Others do and make some pretty interesting arguments in support of it. Others refuse to look.
'Others refuse to look'
– Yeah basically this
"Sexual racists". Do these people ever listen to themselves
The worlds going nuts, Rosemary.
I've come to the conclusion that the conflation of 'sex', 'gender' and 'gender identity' is the natural result of someone bullshitting their way through something they don't understand. What they do know is some of the terms, so they throw them into a word soup and hope they are not challenged. Those listening think, hang on, I don't understand, I must be missing something here, but remain quiet because they, too, don't want to seem ignorant.
Kerekere's behaviour during the submission process was appalling. Apparently a group performance because many of the other MPs joined in.
Accusing submitters of 'gaslighting' is the tried and true method of deflecting onto others that which you are doing yourself.
Good luck with the window, Rosemary. I have four old bungalow windows that need to be stripped back and painted before installing them as part of our years long renovation project. I too, will try and find a suitably appropriate 'costume' to acknowledge the significance of the bill.
Kerekere's behaviour during the submission process was appalling. Apparently a group performance because many of the other MPs joined in.
Russell didn't exactly participate in good faith either. Shameful. And as you rightfully point out, the whole pantomime was a textbook display of deflection.
Their granddaughters will not thank them.
Windows…I have three kinds of filler. Skim coat gibstopping compound, quick dry permafill type for the screw and nail holes and the deeper cracks, and a brand new tube of the renovator's best friend…No More Gaps. Despite this I still needed to fashion a long slice of plywood to glue into a seriously wide space. A few coats of paint…
https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/courts-law/lisa-jones-sexually-assaulted-female-stranger-she-followed-in-melbourne/news-story/1d1330396c4aae18638e725a7a8a6a2e
And I have been jesting, but this……………….
Following on from the above article…"It was revealed Jones spent 6 years in a German prison for sexually abusing a six year old", then became transgender.
I wonder which prison Jones will be housed in?
For a while I thought the ultimate destination of PoMo would be that we're not allowed to tell the difference between boy and girl anymore. Then I thought maybe we’re not allowed to distinguish between humans and other sentient life and transhumanism would become yesterday’s nonsense flipped into today’s dogma.
But I think I was wrong. "Birds are Not Real" may be intended to be irony – but it's underlying intent is this – words no longer have any meaning.
A onesie even has a hood to keep the dust off your head.
The pertinent quotes
Grigg – National – “it's just modernising a process that already exists” (an interesting description of moving from a medical status related to anatomy to self-declared gender identity).
And the (it sounds like a nice place) other MP did say gaslighting transphobia and transphobic misogyny. By those she accused of "not submitting accurate information or demonstrating a genuine care for all New Zealanders" – which is the level of gaslighting one can expect from a politician in place of privilege from which to exercise power to suppress dissent (once the hate speech law is about …).
We have been warned – that women can be guilty of misogyny via transphobia, and such is their gaslighting of transphobia.
It is a difficult issue, but expecting everyone to fall into line with an approach taken by government always leads to an abuse of power at some point.
Grigg – National – “it's just modernising a process that already exists” (an interesting description of moving from a medical status related to anatomy to self-declared gender identity).
Words again. We can make them mean whatever we want. The process prior actually involved demonstrating commitment to the change.
Anyone want to lay bets on when the first GCF will see herself up on Charges in NZ?
Yep. And if you don't bring people with you they will hate you in the back lash given sufficient cause.
I have a feeling that the long pressured for opening up of the Auckland tourist market is not going to be the cash cow those in the industry, particularly down south, were hoping for. The cancelation list for some of the walks that turn up in our mailbox is quite extensive, not to mention expensive. People are going to be hesitant like when we first opened up to Australia, it then seemed to be mainly Kiwis coming back to see rellies and I think the same will happen with Aucklanders.
Not just Aucklanders.
I have some Dunedin folk going to visit loved ones in Otago over xmas, and they're actually planning their shopping for groceries and petrol around spots less likely to have Auckland tourists.
I'm starting to think those of us in higher vax rate areas should be welcoming Aucklanders so they don't end up going to Northland or the East Coast where vax rates are low.
But it's a hard ask, given we have almost no community transmission in the South Island. There will be other Christmases.
I'm starting to think those of us in higher vax rate areas should be welcoming Aucklanders so they don't end up going to Northland or the East Coast where vax rates are low.
That's very considerate of you weka, but I suspect some local businesses might be kinda banking on an influx of vaccinated.
A good friend took his fully vaccinated self down to Kaitaia the other day so he could use the Pass he got double jabbed for…being a sociable kind of chap. Lonely he was, as all the usual watering holes were practically bereft of patrons.
Just as well he partied hard last Thursday night… along with half the FFN.
Tbh…I thought there would have been more of the local imbibers fully vaccinated.
it's certainly going to be interesting to see how the summer plays out on a number of fronts.
Louise Upston has won a significant victory for victims' rights:
The law has been an ass in deeming psychopathic murderers not guilty of the murders they commit. Everyone knows a murderer actually did it, when the facts prove it. For the law to persist in denial of the facts for decades shows how irrational law is.
And the "National Party bill was passed into law with the help of the Labour Government." Labour deserves our appreciation for their bipartisan consensus decision-making. This collaboration restores faith in our democratic process.
That's a really nice way to start the day
Good result. Good to see cooperation on something so needed.
Good spotting Dennis.
That sounds like a good thing.
Opps Denis I reply to your link about your comment.
I hadn't realised the current lack of unicorns was due to a previous episode of climate-change denial…
Noah's saying, "Last chance" but the ramp has already been raised.
Noah became a drunkard once the rain stopped and the floodwaters receded.
Probably felt bad about that unicorn thing.
I'm a bit more concerned with what happened later after the rains stopped
Its almost like they landed in Southland
It's a theory scholars have argued over for centuries and still nobody knows for sure.
(I certainly made a good job of camouflaging that ark of mine!)
Not good enough.
It can still be seen at Waipapa Point.
Dammit!
Chris Trotter on the racist response to the roadblocks.
"Why, then, are so many Pakeha so angry? Why, in particular, has the Act Party felt entitled to inflame matters? As someone who was in Parliament when the legislation was being passed, what has prompted the Act Party leader, David Seymour, to declare:
“Labour has snuck a law through Parliament letting iwi run checkpoints. Our weak PM has surrendered basic rights. The Police Commissioner, rather than upholding the law, has given into demands of iwi. Kiwis have a right to move around the country without being stopped by thugs.”
Let’s pick apart this extraordinary statement. Because, astonishingly, just about everything Seymour alleges is false."
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2021/12/keeping-out-virus-of-racism.html
This mixes two big issues – outright bald racism, and legislated birthright privilege.
Sure, Seymour is out of line in his depiction of the issue – way out of line. And that sort of rhetoric is inflammatory and dangerous in the exact same way as Trump's ongoing bullshit is.
But, we just keep creating a bigger monster by continuing to legislate different rights for different citizens based on their 'race' and birth.
And that is simply not sustainable in any society. Never has been. Never will be. It is what so many of our ancestors sought to escape in coming here, including the polynesians.
Yet we keep doing it.
It is this which the people are up in arms about. This very particular point.
…..
and a little more… now add to those different classes of citizens a couple more different classes of citizens, the vaccine passed and the un-vaccine passed… oh what a messy web…
*…we just keep creating a bigger monster by continuing to legislate different rights for different citizens based on their ‘race’ and birth.
And that is simply not sustainable in any society. Never has been. Never will be. It is what so many of our ancestors sought to escape in coming here, including the polynesians. Yet we keep doing it.
It is this which the people are up in arms about. This very particular point.
…..
The iwi-run checkpoints are one of those Kiwiland issues that I’m conflicted about. Ignoring Seymour’s inflammatory use of the label “thugs” for the moment, I can see how those on both sides of the argument consider their view to be the righteous, and/or the fair one.
Kiwis are used to travelling the length & breadth of this country on state highways, country roads, & city & town streets, completely unimpeded (save for the odd booze checkpoint or speeding ticket). We’ve done it all our lives.
Suddenly they are faced with small numbers of local Māori demanding – and given – the right to stop motorists & refuse them entry to locales where there are very likely not just Maori, but Māori AND Pākehā.
This is unprecedented. You’d have to go back over 100 years, maybe, to find something like this happening. And back then the setller government would likely be sending out armed constabulary and/or troopers to open the roads & punish rebels acting in breach of the (English-based) law of the land.
To those who believe that Māori knowingly signed up to ALL the people in New Zealand having equal rights & protections under the Crown’s law, this looks like giving one select group, based on their ethnicity, the right to restrict other Kiwis from simoly going where they are otherwise allowed to go & to demand documents & evidence, & potentially to turn them around, which other Kiwis have no right to do.
And the other viewpoint, equally understandable to me, is that this is a deafly pandemic that is likely to hit Māori harder than Pākehā because Māori vax rates are so much lower, particularly, still, in more isolated communities.
This group (not ALL Māori I know agree with them) consider that the Treaty grants them special privileges – in the form of continued rangatiratanga in their own nga rohe (which, it does) – and that they therefore have the clear right under Te Tiriti to act to protect their taonga; & their kaumatua, themselves, their tamariki & their rangatahi.
The government & the Police Commissioner have come down on the side of this 2nd group & given legal rights no other Kiwis have to set up checkpoints.
I really think more needed to be done by the government to explain this decision to other Kiwis. I don’t think it’s the wrong decision. I think it’s an understandable & justifiable one. Were I Māori, I would likely fully support it.
But the optics are bad. it looks like it’s been slipped in under the door when no one was looking to those who think we should all be treated equally under NZ law.
Yep, well put gezza.. while I have great sympathy for the relevant iwi, the optics and the reality are terrible.
This, together with the 3-waters, is a massive vote loser for labour for all of those reasons.
I fear for the next election
A good analysis gezza and if this was all a temporary measure in response to a crisis – I'd be a lot more sympathetic.
But increasingly we're seeing 'unthinkable' measures slipped in with no debate to deal with a crisis – then morphing into something permanent.
This group (not ALL Māori I know agree with them) consider that the Treaty grants them special privileges – in the form of continued rangatiratanga in their own nga rohe (which, it does) – and that they therefore have the clear right under Te Tiriti to act to protect their taonga; & their kaumatua, themselves, their tamariki & their rangatahi.
Yes. I've seen and heard this in action decades ago, in person. During the 80's I went through a phase of my life that meant I got to visit more marae than I can recall to count. It was a fascinating period during which I learned a great deal, and came away with a deep respect for aspects of what I saw. And some tough lessons learned.
I also along the way encountered the Maori separatists who argued that the iwi chief remain the only legitimate owners of the whole of NZ. And in quiet moments would openly express the desire for all the old tribal borders to be permanently restored. There is not a lot of daylight between these COVID borders – and the granting of this wish.
"the old tribal borders to be permanently restored".
What was the date to be used when deciding where the old boundaries were to be set? Prior to 1840 of course there were no permanent boundaries. They were wherever you had currently settled because you had defeated, and probably killed, the previous residents. For example would you give the descendants of Te Rauparaha the land he controlled in 1820 or in 1840?
Whatever you settle on why should those boundaries be "permanent" instead of being subject to further warfare?
Whatever you settle on why should those boundaries be "permanent" instead of being subject to further warfare?
One clue I've learned to pay attention to over the years – people who advocate for radical change in a general way, but without ever telling you the details of what they have in mind are doing this for a reason.
They know damn well you won't like what they have in mind.
The please satisfy my curiosity. What do you think they really had in mind in terms of the permanence of the boundaries?
I am sure they had in mind that all the land in New Zealand was included somewhere in the carve-up. It was only what could happen later that has me intrigued.
It was a long time ago – but I do clearly recall asking "so what about all the non-Maori living in this country?"
The answer was "You will find Maori to be generous hosts – if you pay the rent". Exact quote from a man who is a current member of the Maori Council and carries considerable political clout. I've seen nothing from him in recent times to resile from this view.
I want to emphasise my acquaintance and involvement with these people at that time was explicitly non-political. I really only came across all this by accident.
In Auckland we have iwi fighting one another over mana whenua status. We have iwi who once transversed the isthmus and blew their nose claiming status over iwi with verified and centuries old connections. Maori colonising Maori. Oh the irony.
I personally like the way Maori leadership are standing up here.
They are in poor regions, but choosing to sacrifice massive economic benefit from sorely needed local tourists, for public health for their people. Courageous.
Getting Maori leaders working side by side with Police for common community good is truly excellent.
Nothing particularly PC or woke about this; just solid communitarian work.
Is "communitarian" going to be the public policy buzzword of 2022?
Totally agree and hope it continues and strengthens. Blind adherence to some ideologic principal is no argument against this type of courage and compassion
I agree with Ad here, but am a little puzzled by his/your use of "communitarian" – are you able to expand/specify?
A euphemism for communism?
In it's definition it's a theory or system of social organization based on small self-governing communities.
If Maori leadership at town or iwi level are building up their capacity to stand up proudly and take their kaitiaki place, they are going to need the support of Police.
That little legislative tweak Ardern rushed through this week to help with roadblocks is a long, long way from where that relationship was in the Bolger and Clark years.
We will get news reports of grumpies at checkpoints as the holidays start, but the tv optics of Maori leaders with Police will be very powerful.
Agreed.
Well the great escape of the petri dishes from Ak for the 15th is cancelled.
https://climatereanalyzer.org/wx/fcst/?mdl_id=gfs&dm_id=ausnz-ced&wm_id=prcp-mslp-gph500
Tawhirimatea will decide the outcome.
And how long before every iwi sets up borders to their own little territories? With Police and Army sent to enforce them.
Think of the rapidly extending list of unthinkable dead rats from just five years ago that we've been forced to swallow in the name of 'safety'. And then tell me I'm hyperventilating.
Nonsense!
Why?
Ten years ago everyone would have agreed that the idea of men pretending to be women and then claiming to compete against them in sports was a complete nonsense.
Ten years ago the idea of Ngaiti Tuhoe turning Te Urewera in to virtual no-go zone was a 'nonsense'.
All too often yesterday’s ‘nonsense’ is flipped on it’s head and becomes today’s normal.
And exactly what is happening at these 'roadblocks'? Who gets to pass and who does not? Who makes the decisions and how are they accountable for them?
The NZPolice have the handcuff and charge powers.
Iwi are there for support.
At the current Mercer hard checkpoint, oddly I find Maori reps at our checkpoints a softener to the martial power of the cops and the NZDF who are also there.
The NZPolice have the handcuff and charge powers. Iwi are there for support.
So exactly who has created these checkpoints? And who is accountable for the decisions made to pass or not?
it depends on your birth red…
like so much else today…
………
and some tangential,,, in te ao maori you are defined by your birth and by your ancestors
which is the antithesis of the pakeha approach
the complete antithesis
whereby jack is as good as his master and your birth and your ancestors are shunned as a defining component of your being
this clash isn't even acknowledged today – te ao maori and te ao pakeha are at complete and total odds in this most basic of human arenas…
(sorry, gone off track a bit, but it relates)
in te ao maori you are defined by your birth and by your ancestors
Yes it's called whakapapa. On every marae the tangata whenua all know their lineage and exact spot on the tribal pecking order. Maori society is one of the most precisely calibrated class systems ever created.
Oh and they all know who the descendents of their 'slave' class are.
"Ten years ago the idea of Ngaiti Tuhoe turning Te Urewera in to virtual no-go zone was a 'nonsense'."
I'm afraid that it certainly wasn't seen as nonsense long before that. I knew someone who lived in Whakatane all his life and had been a hunter in Te Urewera. I remember him saying as early as 1990 that is was being made very difficult to continue hunting there and that it was impossible to leave a vehicle safely anywhere in the region while doing so.
Anti vaxxers – horrible, disgusting humans who don’t contribute to society and are holding the country to ransom. Can’t use public services or engage meaningfully any longer and will be prevented by government authority from going anywhere
Māori who won’t get vaccinated – Noble indigenous communities entitled to prevent the free movement of people who are overwhelmingly vaccinated. Checkpoints funded With public money and supported by government authority.
watch labour tank in the polls when the photos of traffic jams and stories of grumpy families with screaming toddlers hit the news outlets and hone harawira stands there telling everyone they are racist for not liking it.
Well done – I had to read it twice to get the irony.
Yes it will be powerful … in its disastrous consequences for Labour when the inevitable ten mile traffic jams occur and the holidays of a million people are ruined by tinpot dictators manning checkpoints like it's east germany or something.
Yes Ad, it makes a complete change, and many of us think the equity of this is excellent.
VTO, think, those entitled holiday makers are going there because, the tangata whenua have not despoiled the beaches, and it is possible to have a lovely beach holiday.
We need to admit equity requires we do more to make an even playing field in Health. It appears some marginal staff go to these areas for the very lack of oversight, and little thought was given to travel times and multi trips to vaccinate a whole family. The mobile clinics should have been there staffed by locals from the outset. DHB's have been silos.
I think living by our Treaty obligations is quite hard for some.
Each Christmas I raise a glass of bubbles to "departed Friends and Family". Two friends were Maori who died very early before they got the pension. Marina said to me, as she was dying with cancer, "Live long Trish, raise a glass to me when you are all together." I do that, and to hear Kiri Allen is clear after a year is great, such good news and that is not often the case with that cancer.
We like many will not have our family together because of covid. Those telling themselves it is because Jacinda Ardern is too cautious should work out how many cases we might have without those regulations. So much self serving rubbish is being promoted based on dollars not lives.
Yes we are stressed but nowhere as stressed as those entering their 4th and 5th lock downs with Omicron on the doorstep.
Each day we should look round at family with comorbidities and or age and be ready to count our blessings. Things are not rosy but they could be far far worse, and some of our problems are scabs being removed from partially healed social sores.
We have come through a time of instant gratification, and even "Consumer" is pivoting to gadgets which have long life and can be repaired. Built in obsolescence is not acceptable any more.
We all say "not enough not fast enough", turning to a better way of living is hard and will impact people who thought they had a birth right of easy passage.
To achieve Policy changes the Government has to take the bulk of the people with them. At the moment people are rather fractious, let us hope summer helps.
Thanks Patricia and well put. Its way past time that this kind of partnership was put into practice and good on the govt to have the courage to support this even in the face of the prevalence of post colonial thinking. This is our unique character and its high time we supported those that only have the wellbeing of their communities at heart.
Thanks Subliminal.
Like most things 'communitarianism' is in the eye of the beholder….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communitarianism
Take your pick.
Well now, who is paying for that economic disaster? No matter, just add it to the tab of 16 billion dollars payable by those who will be left working. Ooops, only government employees left also supported by the tax dollar? No matter, add it to the tab.
Besides, it could be argued that a separate state is being advocated by stealth and time as the virus will engage everybody for decades and we are not just paying for it (the irony is not getting lost here) we are setting a precedent. I sometimes feel our politicians are either really naive or actually not finding any fault with this. Mr Hone Harawira knows exactly what he is doing.
Its actually Aucklanders going on holiday who will be exposed not the other way around. But hey, who is a stickler for facts, eh?
We are all paying for it.
Currently about $60b in the hole for future generations to pay off.
That number has been going up by about $1 billion/week during the Auckland shutdown. But not to worry. Grant knows what he is doing doesn't he? Just don't expect any sort of welfare state to be available for your kids.
Alwynger so if we didn't have a strong economic stimulus we may have less debt but no economic activity.
Take away your blood supply and see how you survive.
Same in an economy keeping the economic activity at a much higher level by simulation means you start rebuilding nearer to where your economy was.
Your idea of not borrowing or QE
Would have seen much more damage to our economy.
Maybe your economic ideas come from Charter schools set up at 2× plus the cost of state schools yet fail and the board members defraud tax payers of $400,000 no enquiry because the Nats ans ACT did not allow for accountability.
Argentina tried your formula of following the purist chicago school economics in 1996 to 97 .It has never recovered.
What economic stimulus?
You mean the billions borrowed to speculate on the RE market?
It's more than your simplistic swipe of course we could have had a cash injection for everybody as well as the Banks but we now operate under new Liberal economics.So we have to follow that system. Which political party offers an alternative that gets more than 1200 votes ,None.
If you go back to the 1930's the main reason the 1929 crash went on for 5 years plus was that banks were allowed to fail.
The point is there has been no 'stimulus'…it is a misnomer. There has been life support… but GDP remains below pre pandemic, the bulk of the Gov 'borrowing' remains unused at the RBNZ and the only 'stimulating' done was to the FOMO of property buyers.
And after all this the same issues remain or have been intensified.
Pat $30billion of QE spent $60 billion of stimulation has been spent .
The GDP of NZ was one of only 3 countries not to shrink in the Pandemic.
GDP
https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/gdp
"Expenditure incurred against appropriations created as a result of the response to COVID-19
We have released data on the appropriated amounts and actual expenditure incurred in respect of COVID-19 related appropriations. See Cumulative expenditure for these appropriations to 30 June 2021 totals $22.1 billion."
https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/budgets/covid-19-funding-allocation-expenditure
@Pat 4.36pm
Just two items you may care to include (or not).
The item you referenced was dated 30 June. That is before the current shutdown which is what I was talking about the I said $1 billion/week. You will note that I said "That number has been going up by about $1 billion/week during the Auckland shutdown"
The borrowing does not include that done by Kaianga Ora which was done in such a way that it was excluded from the Crown Accounts.
The New Zealand National Debt at the end of 2019 was $US 69.28 billion. The estimate for the end of 2021 is $US 123.12 billion. That is an increase of $US 53.84 billion which at today's exchange rate is $NZ 80 billion. That is the increase in the national debt in the last 2 years.
We have been borrowing one hell of a lot of money and our children are going to have to pay it back.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/531824/national-debt-of-new-zealand/
@Tricledrown at 4.21pm
That is simply not true. Have a look at the link Pat gave at 4.36 pm.
The NZ GDP has dropped in each of the last 2 years. (At least it is estimated to have dropped this year as the year hasn't (quite) finished)
The figure is $350 million a week the govts books are in very good order especially compared to all other economies our economy is in the top 3 in the world.
If we had gone down National and ACT'S policy rabbit hole.Of minimal borrowing no QE.
NZs economy would be amongst the worst performing.
Having to recover from a much smaller base of economic activity takes years and even decades like Argentina.
If that was a billion a week the debt levels would be much higher.
Total debt IMF figures in NZ dollars $102 billion $50 billion less than your statista estimates.
When you compare pats with yours there is a massive discrepancy.
Pats figures are only relative to some time before June 30 when the reporting period finished.
Then QE is not included and returns a profit for tax payers hence over all borrowing Cost's are well down.
Since the Second round more money has been spent reading through treasury out of the $60 billion only $5.1 hasn't been spent.
5 months have past since the full treasury report .
According to the IMF our govt debt is at approx $102 billion 30.1% of gdp.
Lower much lower than the worst case scenario.
It is a waste of time trying to debate with you when you do not give the source of the numbers you put down. If you want to debate put down links to where you say your claimed data is reported. Otherwise I think we are entitled to believe you just made the numbers up.
Even Treasury admit that the NZ Govt debt was $103.3 billion on 1 April 2021
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/04/government-debt-now-exceeds-100-billion-more-than-70-percent-on-pre-covid-19.html
Key Govt managed to borrow circa $60 billion with no…pandemic to deal…with.
20 billion in one year.
'the previous largest amount ever borrowed in a single financial year – which was almost $20 billion in 2011 in the wake of the global financial crisis, when National's Bill English held the reins.'newshub.
Seymour wants to inflame perceptions that police-iwi collaboration is some sort of constitutional outrage and hopes to provoke a few incidents at the Northland soft border that are worthy of media coverage. A total cynic, he wants back in government and a chance to unleash his libertarian dimwittery on all of us.
As someone who expects to pass through that border several times over summer, I have no problem with locals of whatever hue, culture or interest group being part of the police effort to spot check vaccine passes. The last thing I want is inflammatory lunatics like Seymour making the border a place of simmering racial tension.
Tide turning in the US.
https://twitter.com/tomdinki/status/1469016330821111815
That is brilliant.
good on them
fucking brilliant.
Choosing a camping ground.
https://twitter.com/angew/status/1469027557957795841
"negging" – that's a significant word.
As a recent ex member of the NZMCA might I just offer a tiny little bit of motorhomer insider information?
The very vastest majority of NZMCA members get around in certified fully self contained motorhomes/caravans/ and god forbid converted Busses.
Therefore, there is absolutely no reason for one member to have to hobnob with another member whilst staying in the vastest majority of the Ass.'s parkover properties. We all do our necessaries in our own vehicles…which…I might add (and Patricia Bremner will confirm this) will each be parked (by Ass's decree) a full 3 meters from it's neighbour. We were practicing social distancing in the Assoc waay before you lot had ever heard of such a thing.
Any hobnobbing is purely voluntary and given the, ahem, older demographic predominating in the Ass. one would hope in all sincerity
wethey would have the sense to follow the rules.Just like last year when the Assoc decided to hurl all members out of the parkover properties (that we fucking well own BTW) for Lockdown 1.0 …this makes no sense and many members are seriously pissed off.
The same
codgersmembers who are celebrating this will also be seen at Pak n Spend on Superday doing their weekly shop with all the other masked folk… vaccinated and not. Go figure.AFAIK The Government has not mandated vaccine passes for accommodation and campgrounds whatever colour traffic light is lit.
https://www.business.govt.nz/covid-19/covid-19-protection-framework/accommodation-services/
probably time for another association to form. NZMCA supporting Labour's proprosed really fucking classist rules around free camping is pissing a lot of people off.
You (and me too) are a bit late to that party. There are a couple of very enthusiastic groups out there…many members who are refugees from the NZMCA. Long before the Covid shit show there has been deep rumblings regarding the reach demanded by NZMCA…to the point of trying to make themselves the 'one source of truth' with the government on freedom camping and self containment.
Had its day.
Are the $200K motorhome crowd still happy with them or are they going off them too?
Yes I thought that strange at the time Rosemary. It seemed a bit draconian. But Nash does not like Motorhomes much at all. How many belong now? We were 18160.
We
arewere 32726. What a difference in the paint shade when I ceremoniously removed the wings after 13 years. Last I checked the numbers were well into the 100000s. It is a very, very different club to what is was back in the day when you had to be nominated by another member just to join. In the last few years we converted Bus dwellers were treated like the poor relations. Good thing is that their tupperware containers on wheels are much too flash to go the roads we frequented. The latest issue of the Motorcaravanner features a young mum and her son on the cover heralding the Ass. movement towards inclusivity and more family friendliness. Oh the irony that on the day it was posted out they announced the ban on the unvaccinated. Their cover girl and her young son are now excluded. She sent them a video clip of her cutting up her membership card (they want proof of this to qualify for a fees refund).Hidihi campers!
More on campground responses to Covid threat. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127228499/more-campgrounds-ban-unvaccinated-campers-but-experts-fear-a-summer-spread
Merry Christmas
"The Government has delayed the next stage of its controversial Three Waters reforms until next year"
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/controversial-three-waters-reforms-delayed-until-next-year/BME5RUNDIH4NANKB2G3K2OX52Q/
What, like, a couple-a-weeks-and-a-bit?
(disclaimer: I'm a supporter of the 3 Waters proposal).
"When Mahuta announced the plan in October, the legislation creating the new entities was set to be introduced to Parliament by the end of the year, but the Government was forced to concede on Thursday it would be delayed."
Never look a gift horse in the mouth
I never do.
Who, in their right mind, would gift some one – a horse!!
White elephant, maybe, but – a horse??
A lamb or a tree Robert, now that would be useful. My thumbs up below was in support of 3 waters.
I wouldn't say no if someone gifted me a horse.
There is a saying in the TB breeding industry….find someone you don't like and give them a….broodmare'.
Same Robert.
Holidays beckon and no one wants to work?
Another day, another thing banned by the Government.
What's next? Ban democracy because it's dangerous?
Except that's kinda already happening. Rule by experts and elite, a technocratic vision for what's good for us if we weren't just such bad little boys and girls. A democracy that is all kratos and little demos.
The unspoken and underlying principle of the Labour Party is now the people can't be trusted and choice is verboten. The people are dumb, the people are dangerous, unsullied and incompetent. Our morality is superior and for the good of the country, must be imposed. And shush, actual concerns of child poverty or living costs are secondary – what matters is you sit down, shut up, and log off from Facebook if you don't like it.
Except we can't "log off" from life under this Government. It pervades every nook and cranny. This morality and governance is little different to Poland or Hungary in the end analysis. A self-righteous Government defending its crusade for the ''greater good'', the public morality. Almost every democracy that slides into soft Authoritarianism does so under the guise of the greater good, the public good, and often to fight a crisis – imagined or exaggerated. China tells its country the Uyghur are dangerous, they need segregating and re-educating – they could be terrorists you see, and are being feed misinformation about the wonderful CCCP.
Hungary is defending its traditional morality, NZ is imposing its "new"morality, with the help of $55 million slush for the way for media. There is little difference in the end, except a more smiley face here.
I've started accepting the use of "Aotearoa" (even though only about 9% want this to replace "New Zealand") because it reflects the new paradigm of our country: it is inexorably heading towards a new regime of soft Authoritarianism and moral coercion. What's best for you, to hear, say, and do, is what we say – you "freedumb", racist peasant.
[I think you are on the wrong site. Try BFD or Kiwiblog – MS]
Christ on a bike Gordon insert an actual fact somewhere.
An actual credible link or two would stop you looking like an unhinged nutjob.
He could start with his first sentence and a link to whatever it is he thinks the government has banned so we know what he is talking about. Or even just name it.
https://www.greens.org.nz/support_our_poverty_action_plan
Have a read of the Poverty Action Plan and sign the petition to support rebuilding our welfare system in a way that doesn't involve two tiers.
John Bougen, who funded Reefton’s remarkable revival, is furious with anti vaxxers. He is chair of the local Community Board and also a Buller District Councillor.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-democracy-reporting/300474317/antivaxers-creating-an-appalling-state-of-affairs-in-reefton-community-board-chairman-says
A Buller District Councillor, "furious with anti vaxxers"?
Will wonders never cease??
Mr Bougen needs to organize a quiz night at the pub…that'll liven things up.
A Sydney Pub quiz has dished out some unwanted prizes: 45 Covid-19 infections.
All of those to be diagnosed with Covid-19 have been fully vaccinated.
Details of the potential super-spreader event emerged a day after NSW Health warned about Christmas parties.
“NSW Health is seeing an increased number of cases over the last couple of days, and what we’ve been observing is increased transmission in larger social venues such as pubs, clubs and party settings,” Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said.
“This is contributing to the increase in cases, and they’re predominantly occurring in vaccinated individuals."
The wheels on the bus are falling off, falling off, falling off….
Astra Zeneca is less efficient. Perhaps they were older folk in need of their booster?
Meanwhile in NZ,
https://twitter.com/covid19nz/status/1468771112150614023
It's not that the wheels are falling off, it's that we're playing a game of numbers and time. It makes sense in a place with very low death rates and no hospital overrun to work with the efficacy of our responses for the situation we are in now.
What would interest me about that pub cluster is how many are hospitalised and how many die/get long covid.
https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/media-releases/89-eligible-people-now-fully-vaccinated-95-community-cases-2-deaths-56-people-hospital-4-icu
Vaccination status of current hospitalisations (Northern Region wards only): Unvaccinated or not eligible (30 cases / 57%);
partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (12 cases / 23%);
fully vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (9 cases/ 17%);
unknown (2 cases / 4%)
yes, the vaccinated people are a much lower % of hospitalisations in an area where most people are vaccinated (nearly 80%).
It would be also nice to have unvaccinated and not eligible separated as they are two distinct categories.
Simpson's Paradox Rosemary.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/126883892/covid19-how-raw-vaccine-and-case-data-can-be-very-misleading
As a Righty, I found yesterday infuriating. I am referring to the governments communist legislation ( I don't know how else to describe it from MY perspective) to stop future generations of New Zealanders enjoying cigarettes if they so choose. Worse, current smokers will have to accept smokes with less nicotine.
My old socialist aunt who would make many Lefties on this blog look like Parnell woofters, was fond of saying smokes and beer are the working man's perk. I agree, but would add KFC, Dak and P to the mix.
However, it's not Labour raising my ire. That's typical Lefty legislation(?) My problem is with Luxon's response. He said he agrees with it in principle. Say what! Luxon should be shouting and promising such crap legislation will be repealed before morning tea break. As I suspected – the guy is woke.
The second disappointment was HDA. I hold Heather in high regard, but not once did she ask Ayesha Verrall during an interview '' what the hell the government was doing legislating the future choices young New Zealanders can make.''
The problem here is simple – Labour know what they stand for and are prepared to act. National don't know what they are about. National say the right things but always seem to have a wet finger in the air trying to devine which way the winds of political fortune are blowing.
National should forget courting the mushy middle vote and go hardline. Ironically the way this Labour government is acting makes that a possible political goldmine.
Oh, grow up, Blade!
(Kindly meant 🙂
Parnell?
" I hold Heather in high regard"
You what??
I hold Heather in high regard. Don't tell me you are in Jessica and Tova's fan club?
Hold on… Jesse and Kanoa's fan club? Oh, I give up.
" Don't tell me you are…"
I won't.
You hold "Heather" in "high regard"?
Why???
Blade, you are yet another Righty who has no idea of what communism means, aren't you? The minute you find something totalitarian or dictatorial, out comes that communist word, even though it is irrelevant.
When did you give up on the process of learning? (Remember – it is meant to be a life-long process.)
You should read my comment again. I'm always open to suggestions.
He's not "woke", but your penultimate para is closer to the mark.
I look at it this way. Most of us have a view about smoking, and related laws (you might not be surprised to know mine is very different from yours). We don't need to be MPs, or even very interested in politics, to have an opinion about a common issue. It's been around for decades, everything from sports sponsorship to smoking in bars.
Now I would guess that Luxon has a personal view too (he's 51, how could he not?). I have no idea what it is. If he was this "new broom" that he purports to be, he would be saying the same thing now that he said before he entered politics. Saying, in effect: "Here's my opinion, make of it what you will". But he won't.
Winning the leadership didn't change his views on smoking, or anything else. It only changed his willingness to express them. That's the kind of leader he's going to be, and I'm afraid you'll have to get used to it.
At 51, he's a new broom?
Sure. He swept Judith under the carpet.
She swept herself and from there, she can nip at Luxon's ankles until he bleeds 🙂
at the very least…a 'Higher bRoom'!
National should be decisive, come out and say tobacco is there, it]s a fact of life and take the heavy taxes off tobacco. The prices of cigarettes would plummet and the freedom and choice people will be happy.
Yeah mate and they should lead back in petrol to!
Cigarettes – soon to be worth more than gold in Aotearoa. Everyone will be in on the action. Gee, thanks Labour. You gormless control freaks.
Folks, get this kit before they are BANNED!
https://www.gentlemenscorner.co.nz/gcgrowyourowntobacco.html
Unfortunately, these kits will be of little use to hard working dairy owners who soon may be out of business because Labour are on a power trip. To be fair, these dairy owners are entitled to go straight on the dole.
I think you might be missing the incremental nature of the ban. Someone born in 2007 ie 14 years old today, will never be able to buy cigarettes legally. They will however be able to smoke them. Their aunty or baby sitter or older brother can buy them for them. Happy now?
By the time the 14 year old is 18, a number of elderly relatives will have passed on, but there will still be many many people able to buy cigarettes and give them to the now 18 year old.
By the time they are in their 60s, we will have run out of people legally allowed to buy cigarettes, but I expect by then tobacco companies will have long folded and we will be smoking home grown (much better for us).
Or they can just vape, but fucked if I know why that's not being regulated as well. Disgusting, breathing in other people's artificially scented peppermint lung vapour.
''I think you might be missing the incremental nature of the ban. Someone born in 2007 ie 14 years old today, will never be able to buy cigarettes legally. They will however be able to smoke them. Their aunty or baby sitter or older brother can buy them for them. Happy now?''
No, the point you are missing has nothing to do with smoking, but everything to do with unnecessary restrictive legislation.
You see, both National and Labour are at base level pragmatists. They are not philosophically consistent. You nail that in your final paragraph.
BTW- I smoked for 25 years. Loved every moment of it, especially that smoke after a good evening meal. But I had to give up and cannot now tolerate being around smokers ( vapers are worse). But…I have no desire to legislate against smokers provided they respect my rights which most do.
This drive for compulsion is where I take a different fork in the road to most posters on this blog.
It's entirely consistent with mainstream public health positioning, which sees smoking as a serious health issue and doesn't believe that vaping is.
As for compulsion, I have my own limits (I'm uneasy with aspects of the vax mandates and the degree to which people are completely fine with it). But from a public health perspective, smoking damages so many people and costs the state, it's not hard to see the rationales.
I prefer the other approach suggested yesterday, make sale illegal and smokers have to register their addiction and be supplied by the state. Although I know from my own experience that being able to choose one's own brand of cigarette is part of the pleasure.
I am intrigued by this particular ban and will wait to see how it is implemented and what the consequences are. But NZ has been successful in previous anti-smoking policy, so this probably fits in with that. It's a fairly classic personal freedom vs collective good social dilemma.
I'd have more of a problem if they were to make the growing of tobacco illegal.
Wouldn't put it past them, remembering that one of the Nat's former rising stars, ex-MP Todd Barclay, was a lobbyist for big tobacco, although his personal views were strongly 'anti-tobacco'. According to this Stuff article, Bishop (current shadow Leader of the House, and Nat Covid-19 response spokesperson) also worked for Philip Morris before entering parliament.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9988402/Who-is-Nationals-Todd-Barclay
I wonder how many tourists from countries where smoking is still a "normal" thing will want to come to NZ?
Its an addiction and it is a good idea to curtail it. My concern is that if you stamp it out it will be replaced by something else, juvenile curiosity will not go away.
If we stamp out smoking tobacco, goodness only knows what those feckless yoofs will take up!!
Wool carding?
Egg-spinning?
Why, when I was a boy….
Can't wait to get rid of booze.
Nah, mate. You forget your chums are becoming more unpopular by the day. And those baubles for the chattering class before the next election will be paid for with printed money. Now, which group in society is in big trouble at the moment. Let's see… oh, it's the middleclass. We don't count the poor because they have little power. They don't own small businesses.. Aren't nurses or doctors in the health sector. Tourism? let's not go there. Wanting to travel overseas, Lol. That's a lot of pissed off people, TV. They represent middle NZ.
But all this is becoming academic. National may only need to turn up at the next election to win. You may have to accept that.
Looks like Act is your reluctant new home.
At the next opinion poll, make sure you support them into the 20% realm.
"My old socialist aunt who would make many Lefties on this blog look like Parnell woofters"
Hang on, I am presently domiciled in Parnell! (it's a relative's house, I could never afford it)
Authoritarian is probably the better term. National probably see Luxon's job as to stay centrist and leave the right wing libertarian vote to go ACT.
Conspiracy theories abound in USA and edge into NZ.
The USA youth have started a new one, "Birds Aren’t Real." The claim is that birds are really electronic units created by Government to track the people.
What a neat idea. NZers could try this to counter Qnon and others here. "It’s Gen Z’s attempt to upend the rabbit hole with absurdism."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/technology/birds-arent-real-gen-z-misinformation.html
Further from the link ianmac posted above
I don't think it will…fly.
https://youtu.be/4-OrVQaqkg0
I like country and shes quite attractive but that song is…something else.
MSD is broken, we need a better system that deals in dignity and equality:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/457626/maori-beneficiaries-facing-higher-weekly-debt-repayments-to-msd
Beneficiaries generally lack financial literacy and continue to be preyed on by resellers and loan sharking.
Some ethnic groups still have the $100 loan =$20 a week ,interest ,until paid off=never.
Seen a woman with a stack of eftpos cards at the ATM…
Clamping down on those shopping trucks helps,but alot of car and household goods dealers still rip beneficiaries off shamelessly.
Our governmental support system shouldn't behave like predatory lenders with discriminatory repayment rates.
All roads lead to the usury of the embedded rentier …society,that continues to get…worse.
I disagree, there definitely is a narrative of a worsening society but this is as old as society itself. There are gains and there are losses, but until we collectively reject the party that refuses to fix these issues we can expect the status quo of our economy to continue. We aren't powerless.
So you don't agree that property/the rentier society is where unequal outcomes originate?
What are the gains from a rentier society?
I disagree that society continues to get…worse.
The gains are the moves against the continuation of said rentier society. The contradictions society has accepted can and are being re-examined.
News to me.
It suits the status quo for people to become nihilistic.
The change is there if you look for it:
https://www.greens.org.nz/support_our_poverty_action_plan
There is: Renters United!
And: Income-Related Rents 4 ALL
And: ONE Union
And their: UTU for Workers campaign
Beneficiaries generally lack adequate income to live on and have to resort to whatever way they can to pay rent and buy food/clothing.
Whose cards were they?
The people who she loaned money to.
She would draw their money out…keep her interest and hand the rest over.
When they paid off the loan…they get their card back.
yeah, that's fucked up.
I think to make a general welfare issue that is actually not paying enough to live on a racial issue is dangerous as it diverts the issue and divides the country further. It also gives the ministers to bide time and get nothing done. Like with so many issues needing attention.
Just on a different issue here, can we look at what the money is spend on? Perhaps those gold plated cigarettes? If you have the habit nothing is left to pay any bills. Who are we kidding…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/127219114/at-least-27-years-in-jail-for-eli-epiha-who-murdered-constable-matthew-hunt
my apologies for yesterday. this is more like it
Its a start
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/127243264/terrified-motorist-commandeered-by-mongrel-mob-to-tow-brokendown-car
I don't like victim blaming and maybe there was a good reason but why did you stop?
Yep, I would have kept going, even if it was in reverse.
Yep dont't stop, keep going.
Avoid hitting them if you can but if one won't get out of your way then thats their choice, your choice is to protect yourself and whoever else is in the car.
Not sure that's an ideal decision – if you hit one, some will just jump in the vehicles that work and pursue. And longer term they'll likely track you down anyway, especially if the one you hit gets seriously hurt.
Locking the doors before stopping is always an option, to avoid the quick "jump in" – but that's a captain hindsight thing. Can take a while to get into the groove of locking when you have to slow down (around campus it was just fecking students jumping in unexpectedly).
Looks to me like dude probably did the things with the least likelihood of getting him seriously beaten.
Comes down to the decision of do you want them in your car or not.
Safety in the short term vs long term I guess, not a situation I'd like to find myself in.
'This led to Jury, 45, and his associates walking onto the road in a bid to flag down vehicles. All were dressed in Mongrel Mob regalia and most were drunk.'
So others drove off but he stopped
Maybe they just got better at blocking the road.
Maybe the other drivers assessed the situation more quickly, or had doors that were already locked.
But hitting them will only piss off their mates.
Yeah, last thing anyone needs is a Mongerel Mob price on their head.
Thats in the future, what about right there and then.
Right there and then, you might get out of it with a lot of fear and a demanded tow to their destination.
Given the choice of shit flavour to eat, I'll do the tow rather than looking over my shoulder in the future.
You do you.
If they were flagging down traffic with guns, fair call. But dickheads in the road, you kinda need to stop for them.
as a woman I would totally have locked all the doors before stopping, wouldn't even have had to think about that.
I guess next move is to try and back up, and if that fails, dial 111.
If you find yourself in that situation please never stop.
You stop you'll be surrounded, drive forward you'll hit someone, reverse you'll hit someone
Then they can easily break a window or something
Yeah, I was still assuming they're standing in the middle of the road, so reversing seemed more likely. But I wouldn't be stopping either if I could help it.
Good.
Far too often women will ignore their 'gut feeling' because they don't want to be seen of or thought of as unkind or uncaring.
F**k that shit, protect yourself first and foremost
(I know you know this but this is for anyone else reading this that doesn't get it)
Totally.
When faced with an unknown threat you have to survive it moment to moment. It's no use worrying about what might happen tomorrow if you're dead today.
Exactly
Women's self defence classes (taught by feminists) in my 20s is a big part of it. Reading Gavin Debecker a bit later on too.
Biggest problem I have atm is that my car windows are manual not electric. Safer if I drive into a river or the harbour though, lol.
Agree. I once lied to a guy in a pub, who I kind of knew, who wanted a ride just down the road when he heard me say I was about to go home. Small country pub where it would definitely have been considered rude to say no, but it also felt risky to say no to his face, not because he would have done anything there, but it would have told him I was afraid of him and I didn't want him to know.
I told him I had to make a phone call first and I'd let him know when I was leaving and then I walked outside and got in the car and drove away. No fucking way was I getting in a car with that guy. No rational reason other than my hackles were completely up (which is completely rational).
Probably the other thing that instilled this in me was when I was eight I was sitting in the car waiting for mum to come back from a shop. Middle of town, middle of the day. A group of heavy duty Māori men were walking past, don't remember if they were patched. I don't remember what I did, whether I pointed or laughed or just stared, I think I was probably just staring, but one of them strode towards the front of the car and banged really hard on it while staring right at me. Scared the bejezus out of me, made me much more aware of my social surroundings and how I appear to others.
I had a friend who was gang raped by the mob in her late teens, and heard her opinions about gangs clearly enough. I do still believe in helping people in gangs and gangs generally, because the cycle has to be broken, but I don't see that as incompatible with understanding how dangerous they are.
Good (and informative) story, I just hope it didn't stir up bad feelings for you.
Cheers
nah, all good. It's useful to be able to reflect on why I learned the things I did.
Gavin de Becker – ''How Dangerous Men Think''
Read that book last year as part of my research. A great book that is cited as source material for many other publications.
The rape story as told by a victim and dismantled by Becker to show all the warning signs the victim missed was exceptional. So many warning signs missed – so many warning signs most women don't realise.
PS – I'm a little sceptical about women's self defense classes. Many of the moves are unrealistic in a surprise attack situation. The same goes for men's self defence.
Oops. The Gift Of Fear by Gavin de Becker.
How Dangerous Men Think by Brent Sanders ( ex Kiwi cop)
'I'm a little sceptical about women's self defense classes. Many of the moves are unrealistic in a surprise attack situation. The same goes for men's self defence.'
What the classes are good for though is getting people to think about situational awareness, about not putting themselves in potentially dangerous situations in the first place
Sort of like what Weka is talking about
feminist self defensive classes being taught in the 80s were a different beast, don't know if they're still going. I won't talk about the details in a mixed group for obvious reasons, but the value in them is to give women the confidence to act and to predict when that might be necessary.
Yes, points taken. However, I forgot to add this which I think is pertinent to some points raised.
I read an article about how Self Defence classes had gained the woman mentioned much more confidence in her ability to protect herself. She said: " I'm far more confident. Last night I walked across the park to my home without fear.''
As PR states, situational awareness is where it's at. And this poor woman didn't have it. Just as Social Media has given many folk false expectations, women fighting in the MMA has given woman a false sense of their abilities. These MMA woman train 24/7. They are beasts. They become men in a feminine body
''Feminist self defensive classes being taught in the 80s were a different beast, don't know if they're still going.''
Probably not, but something just as bad is Master Chief Tank Todds course. What those women do to a dildo chilled my blood.
Dunedin School of Combat for the win!
She said: " I'm far more confident. Last night I walked across the park to my home without fear.''
Yeah this, is the park the safest way home, if not then why go that way, why put yourself in that situation.
two things.
There's a difference between self defence classes being run for women, and those being run by feminists.
Without seeing the article I can't comment on the woman's comment, but obviously if one has to walk through a park at night, then not being afraid is a good thing.
That was my point, PR. Too many crap courses that will get people killed.
I agree with you. Over confidence can be a very bad thing.
Drive enough hours around the same neighbourhood, having to get out and back in every so often – nobody is perfect at locking the doors, men or women. It's a learned behaviour.
I'm telling you I've already learned it. As a woman.
And I'm telling you as someone who's had a lot of co-drivers (mostly women, because of the nature of the job), nobody is perfect at keeping the passenger doors locked – yes, not even women.
So I'm not going to be judging the kidnapped driver for that technical slip-up.
yeah, I wasn't talking about the man in the story, or your work colleagues. I don't drive round with the passenger doors locked. I have taught myself to lock the doors in certain situations and it's kind of automatic now. If I'm in my car and a strange man approaches me in a place with no other people around, I will lock the door and wind down the window enough to ask what he wants. Likewise at home when I've lived on my own, if someone comes to the door at night, I will make sure it's locked before asking who it is.
I agree it's learned behaviour. My reading of the man in the story is that he felt somewhat comfortable stopping in that situation and then it got out of hand.
Whereas I read it as someone who was going about their regular day and was reactively trying to process irregular but escalating behaviour. Some people spend so much time trying to understand the situation that's unfolding that they're always behind the 8-ball. I've done it myself. Binary switching from "boring work drive" to "imminent threat" isn't universal.
I brought up locking doors because it was relevant to the incident being discussed. You always lock your doors, fine. Not everyone has that habit.
yes, that was my point. Many women have learned to make it a regular habit because of our particular vulnerability in society. I don't always lock my doors, but am confident I would have in that situation because I've trained myself to act preemptively defensively. It's not foolproof (as I said above, my current car has manual windows, so if any of the passenger windows were down in that situation, locking the doors wouldn't help much).
The guy seemed pretty resilient, although he could be putting on a brave face for the journo as well.
Cool, so in response to the description of this incident and one possible prevention option, you say you and many women already do that so you wouldn't have had that particular escalation path.
Lol, no, I'm saying that my instinctual response would have been to lock the doors. Whether that de-escalated or escalated the situation is another matter. I'm not so arrogant as to assume I would get to determine how things would play out if I had been in the same situation.
I am saying that women have had to think about this in different ways from men, and some of us have been fortunate to be trained into pre-emptive defensive action.
For instance as a woman, I think my risk in that particular situation is different from a man's and that this influences what are good choices in the moment (such that we have).
And yet some men also do that defensive action, and some women don't.
I find these stories useful because it allows one to consider similar situations, and maybe think about options for getting out of those situations with the least risk.
You might want to turn it into a whole other discussion. Have that discussion with someone else.
If I'm not mistaken you suggested that going along with the situation was probably safer than trying to take action to prevent it. I'm saying that's more true for men than women.
Deleted the last bit of my comment because it doesn’t help any of us to go to that level. But suffice to say I will speak as a feminist any time I want.
Well, yes, you are mistaken. I said going along with things as it developed in that situation was probably safer than pr's idea of just running them over.
I also said locking the doors would have changed that situation, but I'm not going to judge the dude for not thinking of that at the time.
And I said what I was not going to talk about, not what you should talk about. Have the convo with someone else, I don't care who.
Why you would want to start that discussion by replying to someone who apparently "wilfully misinterprets" such things is beyond me, anyway.
'idea of just running them over.'
Seriously, you miss the part where I said 'Avoid hitting them if you can'?
…" but if one won't get out of your way then thats their choice, your choice is to protect yourself and whoever else is in the car."
You know what they say about everything before the word "but".
Theres a big difference between avoid them if you can and just run them over
I'm sure even you might be able to see that
bugger all difference between "just run them over" and "if one won't get out of your way then thats their choice", though
Again you are wrong
See the difference is "just run them over" sounds like you think thats my first and only action, as stated previously it isn't so you're wrong
"if one won't get out of your way then thats their choice" is their choice not mine, my first choice is to 'Avoid hitting them if you can' so again you're wrong
If I'm driving and someone jumps in front of my car then thats not my fault, thats on them thats their choice
Just out of curiosity I'm assuming you attend uni, what are you studying?
If you don't want to talk with me (or anyone) then don't. But it's pretty hard here to get people to not reply to conversations.
You said,
Which I took to mean: don't talk to me about feminist perspectives. I'm saying no, I will bring feminist perspectives into any conversation if it's relevant. Have you stopped and thought about what you are actually saying here? Don't talk to me about feminism
I don't think you are wilfully misinterpreting what I am saying, I think you are telling me as feminist to not talk about feminism when talking to you.
Haven't studied in years. The uni is a major employer in dunners. Lots of folks drop in and out of different roles there.
From my understanding, most cars have a pedal in the same general area as the "go faster pedal" that essentially has the opposite role.
If you can reasonably avoid hitting hitting the person by using that other pedal, then maybe a little bit of it would be your fault. Like if you rear-end someone, even though they braked suddenly you shouldn't have been following so close.
Everything after “but” made it sound like you wouldn’t lose much sleep if folks ignored the bit before “but”.
Can you apply for a refund?
@weka
What I'm saying is that I'm not willing to discuss some specific subjects with specifically you at the moment, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't take comments I make on another subject altogether and warp them through a lens that I'm not willing to touch with a 50foot pole. Because only last night you explictly said I wilfully misinterpreted a position made with that perspective.
I already ignore great swathes of open mike most days. Now I'm supposed to what – ignore replies to my own damned comments because you want to twist them into something else?
I'm not even being a petulant teen and demanding you never reply to my comments ever again, nor am I packing a sad and stomping offline forever. But at the moment, some topics create nothing but friction when I get involved, and I can't be bothered with that hassle right now.
If someone wants to talk about what I'm cool with talking about, great. If they want to twist my comments into another debate, respectfully, my comments were absolutely not about that, and that is a discussion I'm not getting involved in.
I'd appreciate it, pretty please and with sugar on top, if my reply tab didn't get filled up with things I do not care to bother with, because I might miss a reply in a discussion I do want to participate in (be it something of significance that I won't apparently fuck up, or merely some pleasantly meaningless diversion).
for my quals? lol pretty funny.
It would be even funnier if I hadn't narrowly missed out on fuckall fees, BUT at the moment I'm still getting student loan deductions.
See how the word "but" worked there? I learnified that in a communications paper I studied /sarc
Going off your postings on here I can see why you added the sarc tag
The Mob were on the road by the sounds of things. Also sounds like he wasn't initially scared of stopping for them, but only when he realised what they wanted did he become concerned. So maybe he's been around gangs before.
Or maybe hes been led to believe they aren't as bad as people say, that they're just like the Rotarians or lions club
lol, I doubt it.
Bet he won't be stopping again in the future
Would you have run them over then?
I will not stop for gangs trying to pull me over because my safety is more important than theirs
if they were standing in the middle of the road, what would you do?
I'd take all reasonable steps to avoid the person, without stopping.
Despite Pucky's love for the boys in blue, they cannot, (and sometimes, will not) protect him from a Mongerel Mob hit.
Link, evidence or apology please
Link, evidence or apology please for what?
'Despite Pucky's love for the boys in blue'
I support the police generally but love is suggesting that I believe the police can do no wrong and shouldn't be questioned so I want Millsy to put up some evidence
I'm being realistic. The cops cannot protect everyone. In some cases they are probably bought off by the gangs (sad, but true). Running over a patched Mongerel Mob member is not a great life choice. Especially if you work somewhere that houses them en masse.
[RL: You made a personal claim about PR who has called you on it. Put up or shut up.]
Still waiting for the link, evidence or apology Millsy
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the+boys+in+blue
https://www.healthline.com/health/being-in-love
Partners who love each other are not allowed to provide evidence in a court case because
a – they do not believe that the other can do any wrong.
b – marriage is a sacrament
c – they may be involved in a conspiracy
d –
To be honest, I wouldnt stop for anyone, even if they here Lions club or Rotarians. You never know what might happen,
Smartest thing you've ever said
To be fair, there isn't a lot of competition.
Also sounds like he wasn't initially scared of stopping for them, but only when he realised what they wanted did he become concerned. So maybe he's been around gangs before.
Odds are from details in the article he's a local and works for a large forestry company, probably in a technical or supervisory role.
I have been invited to contribute towards a worthwhile cause:
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-brittany-get-surgery
How did we get to this! Who has authority to refuse treatment in a public hospital – let alone refuse to complete treatment already started!
On the other hand, perhaps we do not have the whole story – do these sites vet carefully all the projects seeking donations that get posted?
Did you look at that photograph? You are surely not suggesting in that last sentence that she may not really need the operation?
I think one of the scam methods with these sites is for randos to set up to receive donations for a legitimate cause (or similar to), then pocket the cash.
This one, fortunately, was set up by a friend of the family who could tell them that the money was raised in a day.
So that life-changing problem solved. The wider problem is why they had to adopt american methods of healthcare funding in the first place.
The photograph shows a young person that clearly needs medical help. What it does not show is whether it is a person that was photographed at that stage some time ago and did in fact receive the medical help needed, or what country the person was in, or any other details to demonstrate that it is not a fraud, or even whether there are other reasons why cessation of assistance was appropriate.
The givealittle organisation hopefully does vet requests for assistance. I did not say that it is a fraud, but if the content is true, I am concerned at the cessation of NZ public health assistance for this young person.
The link given by McFlock below indicates that the story is indeed true, and the givealittle page indicates that over $134,000 has now been raised.
It is not as if the results of treatment will have been unknown to medical staff until a sudden event; this case has been ongoing for years. Is it a case of too much bureaucracy? Too rigid budgets with insufficient discretion? Or are there facts that the public is not aware of? A health system that relies on charitable donations for expensive procedures.is not what New Zealanders expect.
Two deaths from covid. That's terrible for the families. It takes the total deaths in New Zealand to 44 (I think.)
As a contrast, Alabama, the state closest in population to NZ, has a 7 day average of 9 and their total deaths are 16, 203.
No doubt some morons somewhere can gather and spew their lunatic ravings about how the Government has totally mishandled things.
This prick showed no remorse. He only became emotional when his uncle turned his back on him. The take away from this is people like him ( and there are many) have no remorse when it comes to killing/harming Europeans. Europeans just don't register on their radar.
There is a very large portion of Maori that would have no problem seeing the back of Europeans. And who's stoking the flames of separatism ? Well, it's the Labour coalition.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/127219114/at-least-27-years-in-jail-for-eli-epiha-who-murdered-constable-matthew-hunt
The takeaway? For you it seems to be that Epiha would not have shot a brown skinned cop. Now is that racism in him? Or racism in you?
Oh, he would have shot a Browny, no doubt. But a special hatred is saved for white folk in my opinion.
Look and learn. I know hundreds – repeat hundreds- who want out.
https://www.maorirangersecuritydivision.com/
I’m 7/8 Irish heritage, 1/8 Norwegian heritage, Ngati Pākehā thru & thru, 3rd generation native to Kiwiland.
Do you mind me asking your ancestors’ ethnicity, Blade?
Roughly half Scots/ English. Half Maori with a dash of Spanish.
Whoops. 😮
“Talley’s is suing Television New Zealand over a series of stories in recent months about allegations of health and safety breaches at some of its worksites.
The company said it has filed proceedings in the High Court at Auckland today, saying the stories were false and defamatory.
After the initial stories went to air in July, Talley’s said it contracted former Police Commissioner Mike Bush to investigate the allegations.
The company said Bush found the assertions in the stories were either taken out of context, overstated or already identified, and action was under way to address them, or they had already been remedied.
TVNZ has refused to comment.”