Anyone feel like some sleuthing? I’ve been trying to figure out how rents are calculated in the CPI and hit a bit of a dead end. Reason for asking is the CPI numbers have never looked right to me and I’d like to know which is wrong – my intuition or the CPI
Background;
The CPI index for rents has gone from a base of 1000 in June 2006 to 1240 in June 2016. That’s an increase in rents of 24% over ten years. In inflation terms that’s annual rent inflation of about 2.2%. (That just isn’t believable to me, it’s too low.)
The Household Economic Survey also reports rents and those figures say rents have increased by 39% in only eight years (from 2007 to 2015) That’s annual rent inflation of about 4.2%. (That’s a little more believable.)
This link here explains rented dwellings in the CPI;
What I can’t work out is the bit about state housing. It seems to be saying they’re using income-related rents to calculate rent inflation on state houses and that surely can’t be right. Any clues?
Thanks but not really. It’s how state housing is affecting the CPI that I’m trying to work out. I understand income related rents, I just don’t understand its context in the CPI.
It’s kind of a paradox;
People in state houses pay rent as a (calculated) percentage of their income. If their income doesn’t go up then their rent doesn’t go up either.
Wages & benefits are linked to inflation. If rents don’t go up, because incomes haven’t gone up, then CPI inflation will be lower and therefore wages & benefits won’t go up much either.
I’m idly wondering if the inclusion of state housing is dragging down the CPI figures to paint a misleading picture of rent inflation.
with only around 68000 state rentals the feedback impact on CPI (which is weighted I believe) will be negligible….and thats assuming state rentals are included in the CPI.
Could be Pat, I looked for the weightings and they don’t have it there so I don’t know.
68,000 is 10-15% of the rental stock I believe so it would make a difference even with weightings applied. The thing is, state houses should not be included in the CPI at all and I wonder why they are.
around 12% (assuming 100% occupancy) but if the rents are only increasing in that stock by the rate of CPI then the impact is negligible….the movement in private rentals will be the driving stat for the following rental CPI
State house rents aren’t increasing by the CPI Pat, they’re set by income not inflation. Real inflation on income related rents would be close to zero so that 12% could drag down rent CPI by up to 12%.. if they are using income related rents to calculate the CPI there.
It will not drag it down by 12% absolutely though DH. Pat is right by saying that the State Housing impact is negligible.
Ie state housing rent does not increase at all 0% (12% of market)
Other housing increases by 33% (88% of market)
Yeah you’re right and it’s not enough of an anomaly to explain why the CPI is reporting half the inflation the household income survey is.
The HES report for 2009 says this;
“Results from the Household Economic Survey (Income) (HES (Income)) for the year ended June 2009 show no overall change in average weekly expenditure on housing costs from the previous year, Statistics New Zealand said today. This result was made up of an increase across all households in average weekly property and ground rent payments (up 8.1 percent), offset by decreases in average mortgage principal repayments (down 7.1 percent) and average mortgage interest payments (down 2.8 percent).
For those making rent payments, median (half pay more, half pay less) weekly rent payments increased from $220 in 2007/08 to $241 in 2008/09 (up 9.5 percent). ”
CPI for year ended June 2009 says rent inflation was 1.7%. So how does the HES get 8.1% and the CPI only 1.7% ?
The CPI used to include every house sale in the country – I know because I used to have to count it up and work out the average house price to 7 significant figures ( that was in 1967). There were no adding machines or computers available either. We converted the CPI from Pounds shillings and pence to dollars and cents manually. One electric calculator to the office of 12 was all there was. All done with pencil and paper. Standard deviations worked out to 7 sig figs. And not a word spoken the whole day! Muldoon would ring up and ask what would be the effect on the CPI if he raised the price of bread by 1 penny.
The govt decided (around 2000) to remove house prices from the CPI for the reason that people didn’t buy a house every year. (i.e. they wanted “underlying inflation”) – it also meant that the CPI increase would not be so great so incomes based on CPI increases (i.e. benefits and pensions) would not be affected so much……
OK I’ll wait for the Secret Service to arrest Trump for threatening a confirmed Presidential Candidate. When do you think it will happen, today or tomorrow?
Lanth, Hillary was actually guilty of committing multiple National Security felonies over a long period of time. You equating that to what Trump may or may not have meant in an offhand quip is ludicrous.
is that what the websites you follow are saying – I’m surprised you can regurgitate it with a straight face and pretend it is some original thought or insight from you.
You’re just a modern-day TV watcher – “look it is on the news it must be true” – so gullible – your thinking is in freefall and breaking the laws of physics bubby
Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and National Security Agency, said on the same channel:
“Well, let me say, if someone had have said that outside the hall he’d be in the back of a police wagon now with the secret service questioning him.”
So it seems that it was where he said it is what prevents the police from arresting him. Even so – such dog whistling is highly irresponsible – and can you imagine how he and Rodrigo Duterte would get along?
The finest, truest, leftiest CV still trumpeting away for his finest, truest, leftiest Donald Trump I note. Sounds like there’s something wickedly wrong with your wiring CV. And as to your ‘if this’ and ‘if that’ the Secret Service ‘would do such’…….what master of the universe blow arse is that ? Excuse me for paralleling you with BM and Fisiani.
The problem with you supporting trump Colonial Viper and his oblique use of violence as a political tool is that you would be one of his victims. How long do you have to wait – till you turn around, and there is no one to support you? Think leftist, disabled, gypsies, gays, nonconformists, free thinkers, artist, poets, pacifist, pasifika, and asian. It’s a list because that is what facists do, they go down lists. Till there is no one left to oppose them.
How long will it be before trump comes for the Chinese, especially if he is elected and not doing well at home. How long before internment camps, so american chinese can be protected? How much pressure would it take for the same to happen here?
A fascist is a fascist. And I’m not seeing many left or right disagreeing trump is a fascist.
Yes h.r.c is a bloody awful alternative.
Guess what – you have a choice, Vote Green, and organise.
But supporting a fascist, come on, take a step back and do self interest for one bloody minute. Think of your family and friends who are leftist, disabled, gypsies, gays, nonconformists, free thinkers, artist, poets, pacifist, pasifika, and asian – and ask how long before they go under the economic bus which is fascism.
Because you are showing a serious lack of understanding how fascist economics works.
Go away Adam. Under both Bush’s and continuing under Obama, universities throughout the USA have been rapidly closing down liberal arts, humanities and fine arts programmes, as well as destroying the free press and investigative journalism; don’t presume to lecture me about how far the high finance corporate-government meld has progressed in the USA.
As for Trump coming after the Chinese and after other races, go ahead and buy into the Clinton establishment propaganda. Trump is very clear that he employs and supports LEGAL immigrants in the USA.
The Secret Service is aware of the comments made earlier this afternoon.— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) August 9, 2016
edit:
Katrina Pierson's long-awaited explanation: Trump was saying an assassination "could" happen, not that it "should" happen.— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) August 9, 2016
TRUMP IS RIGHT AGAIN! IF HITLERY OR ANYONE ELSE ATTEMPTS TO REMOVE "WE THE PEOPLES" 2nd Amend RIGHT THEY'RE DEAD. https://t.co/cumvke6JfP— Butch Sargent (@ButchSargent) August 9, 2016
Trump's comment in NC today was a sign telling us to gear up for the civil war NOW instead of later in case #CrookedHillary wins— Art Motte (@Art_Motte) August 9, 2016
“How come Trump hasn’t been arrested by Clinton’s secret service detail then?”
For obvious reasons the threshhold for legal action against someone inciting violence is relatively high. I’m pretty sure Trump and his team know how to pitch dog whistles just below that.
Interesting that you would defend Trump on this, although I guess the elite are legit targets.
I’m not so much defending Trump as much as I am not falling for his year long tactic of trolling the liberal media with an ongoing stream of outrageous bullshit, everything from Megyn Kelly’s periods to this.
I am however totally mystified as to why Trump’s campaign has not changed gears into a serious fullbore general election campaign. As far as I can tell, he is still acting and speaking as if he is still running for the Republican Primaries in Texas and South Dakota.
“I am however totally mystified as to why Trump’s campaign has not changed gears into a serious fullbore general election campaign. As far as I can tell, he is still acting and speaking as if he is still running for the Republican Primaries in Texas and South Dakota.”
He has. This is what his ‘fullbore general election campaign’ looks like.
Hi Lanth, I’m not afraid to back candidates that others see as political losers. And, I still see a clear Trump win come November despite the latest polls having Trump 10 pts behind Hillary 🙂
“I’m not so much defending Trump as much as I am not falling for his year long tactic of trolling the liberal media with an ongoing stream of outrageous bullshit, everything from Megyn Kelly’s periods to this.”
Yeah, nah, I don’t think he is so stupid as to think that some of his constituents won’t hear the ralling cry to fight back. Or maybe he is and truly doesn’t see the potential for people to act on the call. That would make for a great Prez. You can call it trolling if you want, but it’s clear he has no regard for civil order and will undermine it to achieve his aims.
God that’s just sick. I just managed to get through the re-showing of Fahrenheit 9-11 on tv last night.
Even if only one thing about it is true in the film, backing the Saudis in anything let alone armaments is just sick no matter who is doing it as US President.
I support Trump ahead of Clinton because Trump won’t be seeking military confrontation with Russia and China in the Pacific, and because Trump will be shit canning the TPP asap.
You support Clinton because – who the fuck knows. Because she raised way more money from the financial sector and from Saudi ruling interests I guess.
“You support Clinton because – who the fuck knows. ”
Because the next POTUS is likely to appoint 2-3 supreme court justices, and if Trump gets in, he will appoint conservative ones that set back social progress in the US for decades to come.
“Because the next POTUS is likely to appoint 2-3 supreme court justices, and if Trump gets in, he will appoint conservative ones that set back social progress in the US for decades to come.”
So you are prepared to sacrifice the future of the world for…..identity politics?
Must be an amazingly large dead rat.
Everyone just take a look at who has donated millions to the Clinton Foundation in the last 10 years, and who is donating millions to her campaign every day now.
Everyone just take a look at who has donated millions to the Clinton Foundation in the last 10 years.
Just as a quick summary, which of those donors have demanded that South Korea and Japan build their own nuclear weapons?
Even someone who wishes to preserve the status quo (not that Clinton necessarily does) is better than someone whose impulsive idiocy would result in more fingers on nuclear triggers in potential global flashpoints.
Both Japan and South Korea already have nuclear break out times measured in single digit months.
Well, assuming their fuel refining equipment can be easily recalibrated to producing sufficient quantities of weapons-grade materials in that timeframe (and that you’re not just parroting important-sounding jargon that you’ve read on RT), it’s still a fuckload more stable than having a launch time measured in moments.
That’s assuming that NK won’t pre-emptively launch within that timeframe, of course. Because even the mention of nuclear proliferation in that region gives a narrow timeframe before the penalty for diplomatic failure dramatically increases. Trump is the sort of dickhead who goes on a jaunt through downtown Sarajevo in an open-top car. 10 million dead later…
All very interesting CV, but completely irrelevant to South Korea or Japan’s potential nuclear capabilities, the destabilising effects of development of those potential capabilities, and whether you are simply parroting important-sounding words with no real understanding of what they mean.
When you calculated the “nuclear break out times” for Japan and South Korea, were you factoring current stockpiles of various grades of enriched uranium as well as current enrichment capacity?
Tony Schwartz, the guy who wrote [Trump’s book] The Art of the Deal, says Trump never jokes.
“I fear that an unbalanced person hears that in this inflamed environment and, God forbid, thinks that was a threat. I certainly take it as a threat, I really do, and Trump needs to apologise.”
Exactly rhinocrates@11.05am, because Trump is nothing more than a showman. Heaven save us from such nitwits.
And I thought choosing a B grade movie actor was bizarre in times past.
So no comment on the previous hero of the left virtually accusing the DNC of murdering a staffer who leaked the DNC emails? Also, Wikileaks offerring a reward for information leading to his killer?
Selective – much?
Talk about playing the “Reds under the Bed” card! Coupled with his insufferable arrogance saying the Millibands leadership election reforms (one of the few decent things Milliband did for Labour) should be done away with and their should be a return to the Electoral College system of the Blairite New Labour Party.
Apparently he no longer talks to Corbyn except by exchange of texts! A right little Iago (who will knife Owen Smith as Leader within 2 years I would predict).
her supporters are showing their real colours too…Trump may be a loose lips and a loud mouth and a menace …but Hillary and her advisers are f…king scarey
‘Kill Russians and Iranians, threaten Assad,’ says ex-CIA chief backing Clinton
Keiser Report: USA reduced to a one party state of the elites with corporates; bankers and billionaires lining up behind Hillary Clinton
Max Keiser and his partner Stacey Herbert do one of the best political economic shows anywhere, and its available on RT’s youtube channel.
Their latest show is a knock out.
– Warnings in 2007/2008 that opposing banker bailouts for the rich would lead to economic collapse, is now causing political collapse.
– Massive funds have been transferred from savers and pension funds to billionaire speculators.
– The Washington elite from billionaires to military industrial complex and neocon Republicans are all lining up to support Clinton.
– Corporate media a tool of the Washington elite to mock ‘ignorant’, ‘lazy’, ‘red neck’, ‘racists’.
– 16% of the 43M Americans with student debt are in long term default: ignoring letters, phone calls and debt collectors. This is one basis of political revolution.
– Clinton campaign recently raised US$120M from the financial sector. Trump campaign received $19,000.
– Putin now widely blamed for the political, economic and refugee woes of the west similar to Cold War days.
thanks for stereotyping criticising of Republicans, and so patronisingly too! ;-p
She forgot racists. I read an analysis a while back about during the Civil Rights era, the racists left the Democratic Party and joined the Republicans, which consolidated active racism there and changed the culture of the party. That some parts of the non-elite vote for the Republicans for a range of reasons doesn’t mean that the GOP doesn’t have serious bigotry issues.
They’re different bigotry issues though, and we should look at them in the respective parties, not try and pretend they don’t exist or aren’t important.
That’s exactly right. US politics is incredibly polarised. The constant is that the bottom 50% or more of people socioeconomically are totally disenfranchised by the establishment machine, whether that machine is wearing an elephant sticker or a donkey sticker.
And this is of course where Trump gets leverage.
There is a long time to go until November and I am still picking a clear win by Trump.
Does that mean we should not criticise h.r.c? I know some commentators here have fallen for the juvenile rhetoric that a criticism of of h.r.c. – is to support trump.
The politics of fear, is the politics of fear, both trump and h.r.c are engaged in it. If anything both help each other in that game.
We should not play, especially in NZ.
national are going to pull out the fear card at some stage, my guess over the green/labour memorandum, then terrorism of some sort, or some other schmuck lies and finally b.s. — all to put fear into the voting population.
I say vote morally, then fear won’t cloud your vision.
Obama has overseen the largest expansion of the security surveillance state and has just approved another US$1.5B of big corporate made military arms to be sold to the world’s leading misogynist, terrorist exporting, 9/11 facilitating dictatorial state, Saudi Arabia.
Clinton would continue the same track just on neocon steroids.
So keep preaching about fascism, you guys have no idea what it is.
Pull your head in CV I know very well what fascism is, I can list off my family members who died fighting it if you like. Or how about the German and Polish part of my family that was wiped out by the fascists. Or family and friends who lived and died through Franco’s fascist state.
It’s you who has no bloody idea, by supporting a fascist – because trump is one.I know a lot of liberals put proto in front because they can’t bear to think about it. But all my American friends left and right agree trump is a fascist. He want to suspend habeas corpus, and look at his last economic speech – that is handing power to the corporations. He may oppose the TPP but he will push through somthing worse.
Fascism has only one way to make an economy work – war external or internal – and he’s two damn steps away from that. Bombing ISIS to the stone age. Attacking Mexicans.
He is not an isolationist, you’re kidding yourself if you think he is.
And again there is an alternative – organise with americans and encourage them to vote Green and keep building a movement. Which by the way will be crushed if trump gets to power.
Fucking hell Adam, with the US plea bargaining system as it has been misused for over a decade now habeas corpus has been nothing more effective than theatre.
As for war, Killary Clinton is your neocon war master. She destroyed Libya, and cackled about it on TV, and then helped funnel arms to Islamists in Syria to take down Assad. She is in with the regime changing Russia/China sabre rattling neocon crowd up to her eye balls.
Forget it mate, I hope you get your dream, go organise for the US Greens and gift Killary, whom you seem to see as the lesser of two evils, the Oval Office.
Errr I’m pretty sure I didn’t say anything snide or otherwise. Nor did I say anything that could be considered “BS” as I was asking a question, not making a statement.
Ahhh no, I was asking a question because as I am a new commentator I had assumed you were, like most of us, a left winger. Then I saw you stumping for Trump so wanted to know if I had got my initial impression wrong and perhaps you were in fact in the same league as Pukish Rouge or Srylands.
Further, if you had a sincere bone in your body you would have directed your original question towards me and I would have answered you matter of factly.
The establishment left is utterly obsolete and irrelevant now. Only a radical departure from status quo economics will provide us with any genuine hope.
So Trump is the answer? You seriously think Trump will deviate from the current status quo? Please…have you seen his ‘economic’ plan which gives billions of tax breaks to the top earners?
You’re no left winger (or right winger). At least both left and right wingers have principles. Stumping for a misoginistic, racist, pig thick con-man because you hate Clinton with such a passion makes you all things trump is.
I’m sorry, I’m not sure as to what you’re referring to. Thorndon? Labour? Huh?
I’m guessing you also think woman should be punished for having abortions and that the US should build a huge wall to keep the Mexicans out. Is that right, racist?
“Then I saw you stumping for Trump so wanted to know if I had got my initial impression wrong and perhaps you were in fact in the same league as Pukish Rouge or Srylands.”
_________
What? I have never made any comment on Trump. For the record, Trump is a maniac.
i am not talking about the 60’s, i am talking about the current lot of republicans of the year 2016.
Am i that off?
Is Rubio not a forced birther by saying that he would not allow for an abortion should a women carry a baby with microcephaly and not letting a women take this decision with her husband/partner and her doctor?
It’s only a 1 party state, because the Republicans have, over the last 3 decades, deliberately lied to their supporters and kept them like mushrooms. This has culminated in the flawed candidate that their base rabidly support, while the party leaders themselves are aghast.
Not quite correct. What we see is a revolt by the faithful republican voters against the party elite. Trump’s message resonates with the American worker who has seen jobs destroyed by outsourcing to foreign countries. The Republican Party is becoming the “worker’s party” and the Democrats that of the banksters and monied elite. Quite a swap of position on the political spectrum.
The Left has split into “workers and jobs” to Trump and the “identity crowd” to Clinton.
And that’s what the American elites and MSM can’t tolerate.
… while Republican turnout has considerably increased overall from four years ago, there’s no sign of a particularly heavy turnout among “working-class” or lower-income Republicans. On average in states where exit polls were conducted both this year and in the Republican campaign four years ago, 29 percent of GOP voters have had household incomes below $50,000 this year, compared with 31 percent in 2012…
The working class vote being bigoted, reactionary groupthink has a similar ring ‘truthiness’ to it as much of the Brexit analysis
For goodness sake, give people some credit for being able to think about the wider implications of their vote, despite their lack of income, and choose accordingly.
if someone changes their political views over the years, and that can happen, it would behoove that person to leave the party that no longer represents them.
in Shearers case it seems that he is only at the Labour Party in order to pay his bills, this should not be good enough for anyone.
Leave, join National or Act, and get elected again on this platform. IF he can’t do that, I think it is fair of the Leader of the Party to ask to a. tow the line or b. get the heck outta dodge.
Labour is a big tent, and this past Saturday it was nice to see just how big a tent it is during our local little 100 year celebration. A nice cross section of the part of the country we live in. But we don’t need to keep people in that only stay to shit the bed but then refuse to wash the linnen.
It must be the heat here – but I sort of agree with CV.
According to a Westpac study many of the new migrants are international students who are looking to stay after completing their studies.
” The student boom began in late 2013, shortly after visa rules were relaxed to make it easier for foreign students to work. And study has historically been a popular first step on the path to settlement for Indian migrants, most of whom first arrive in New Zealand as international students.”
You have to wonder how many are genuine students and how many are using the “student” status to come in under the wire.
90% cut sounds about right – for a net of about 6-10,000 (with about 2000 of those places for refugees). Harsh but necessary.
This. Yet Blinglish today continues his line that student return home after studying.
It’s now well known that foreign ‘students’ are using our lax laws as a back door into the country for their families so why won’t the opposition call him on this bullshit?
Fuck you is what I say. I am a leftie and I am against cutting immigration numbers – although I would drastically change the criteria to be able to immigrate AND I think that refugee numbers should double and double again.
And guess what colonic biter I KNOW a lot of lefties and most nzers disagree with me on all or some of those points.
YOU have no issues – what a laugh – you are a nobody who gleans his massive insight via videos – clap. clap. clap.
You are a bullshit artist and not even very good at that
[Marty, I think the phrase ‘do not feed the troll’ is appropriate here. CV is a sad, bitter person with obvious anger issues towards pretty much the entire human race. However, ‘Fuck you’ isn’t the best response and comes pretty close to pointless abuse, which is not acceptable. The rest of your comment is spot on. TRP]
Really? In that case, feel free to tell me straight up your view on this weka.
Are too many immigrants part of the problem that Auckland is facing?
IMO the answer is yes – and I think Winston’s proposals to reduce immigration numbers by 90% plus are one way to sort this out.
So what say you?
I can’t comment on Auckland because I don’t know enough about it, but I’d guess yes that immigration is an issue. I know it certainly is in the South Island (worker visas being the main problem, but also permanent immigration from the UK and the US on good exchange rates and higher wages having bumped up land prices).
No idea what the reduction in numbers should be (90% seems over the top, and it depends on what kind of immigration we are talking about). I’d like to see big changes to the immigration criteria.
So in general, I’d say I’m a leftie who says immigrants aren’t the problem, but our immigration policy most definitely is. The only regular commenters I’ve seen who argue for open borders are marty and Bill. I would say that many commenters here are concerned about the impacts of the current immigration policy. Both Labour and the Greens have talked this year about reducing numbers.
That btw is not a new position from me, and I’ve said similar on ts in the past.
I was a little surprised to see the Australian government suspend aid so fast after this matter was announced. Reminds me of the effective blacklisting of CORSO internationally for their work in the Philippines during the leftist uprisings of the late 1970s when they were accused of supporting insurrection. Cheap unsubstantiated shots that continue to enable the status quo of suffering.
I am a strong Israel supporter, but I cannot for the life of me see what the point is of shutting out the last remaining dogged aid organizations who are still in there making a positive difference to suffering people.
Subsequent to the elimination of terror from Gaza, it will become part of sovereign Israel and will be populated by Jews. This will also serve to ease the housing crisis in Israel.
“For the past four years, Tel Aviv based civil rights center Shurat HaDin has been warning that funds provided to Gaza by the world’s largest evangelical charity World Vision were being utilized for terrorism, the organization said in a statement Thursday, following the indictment by Israel of Mohammed El Halabi, a Hamas terrorist and senior WV employee who is accused of transferring as much as $50 million in charity funds to support Hamas terrorist activities.”
“In 2012, Shurat HaDin notified the Australian government that its aid money administrated by World Vision was being transferred to front charities of Palestinian terror groups in Gaza. Both the Australian government and WV rejected Shurat HaDin’s warning.”
“In 2015, Shurat HaDin again cautioned the Australian government that WV was operating as an active arm of the PFLP and other terror groups. WV chief executive Tim Costello vehemently denied the charges and claimed that WV had “no interest in supporting terrorism.”
hmmmmmmm,
Quote” World Vision’s cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately US$22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to US$50 million being diverted hard to reconcile. Mohammad El Halabi was the manager of our Gaza operations only since October 2014; before that time he managed only portions of the Gaza budget. World Vision’s accountability processes cap the amount individuals in management positions at his level to a signing authority of US$15,000.
” Quote end.
Well World Visions donations are about to dry up to a trickle I’d suggest
Oh, please – like the people likely to give a shit about this would have been happy to give money for aid to Gaza anyway. If anything will dry up World Vision’s donations from right-wingers, it’s the news that they’ve been helping people in Gaza.
The default assumption SHOULD be that it IS happening with onus on the developers/controllers/auditors of the electronic vote systems to prove that it is impossible
Far as I can tell there is years worth of experts breaking into and manipulating these systems, and little evidence from the companies or federal agencies to prove its not
The Minister of Education in the House today used the expression “best and brightest” when talking about those she wants to get into teaching.
The Minister of Education in the House today in talking about choices teachers made in doing what they do in schools said they (teachers) were professionals. The implication was that they would know best what needed to be done, and when and how..
The “best and brightest” have initiative and intelligence. She actually wants brainless cretins who will do the cretinous things she comes up with without question. Doing that automatically means they are not the “best and brightest.”
If they were professionals she would give them some credit, real credit, and trust, instead of another feigned fit of “teachers I love you, look NZ community, I love teachers and have faith in them.”
The Minister of Education shows the characteristics of a lying weasel.
ACT David Seymour position is that teachers are only concerned for themselves and not the children. Weird. My experience is that teachers are very non- militant. And have to be pretty riled to act. So to hold stop work meetings is a danger sign.
I agree.
The thing is Hekia Parata can determine that 3+4= 8, ask the teachers what 3+4 is, they say 7, she says they’re wrong but she says consulted them.
Then people say (like you), “They had their say, she listened to them, but she didn’t agree with their utterance, so she;s carrying on.”
Teachers have their their say but their voices are only heard to a very small point after the “real stuff” is heard. The important voices are those that pollsters report on. Her boss’ voice is important. The important voices to him are those of people like David Farrar. What teachers say about teaching and learning and education is pretty irrelevant.
if she wants the best and brightest, she has to pay them what they’re worth, and treat them like the rockstars they are.
Being a teacher should be limited to the cream of the crop of students; all too often people go into teaching because there’s nothing else they can productively do.
“all too often people go into teaching because there’s nothing else they can productively do.” – utter bullshit, there are a million other easier ways to earn a living than to teach children, it really is a calling not something you can phone in.
Treating them like the rockstars they are shouldn’t just be a demand of Parata and her political cobbers. It should apply to posters on here and other places who treat teachers with utter contempt, have no respect for them their experience or their willingness to do the crappy job that they have no interest in taking on*. A job which is vital to society.
*Not interested in taking it on but they want to do it from the sidelines with their remote controls beamed at the unfortunate ones who do take it up.
“The Government is refusing to make public a letter to Prime Minister John Key from the Saudi sheikh at the centre of a controversial farm deal.
The missive is mentioned in a May 2010 dispatch from diplomats in Riyadh. It was among hundreds of pages of official documents released by Foreign Minister Murray McCully earlier this week.
Fairfax Media asked Key’s office to release a copy of the letter. But a spokesman for McCully said it was withheld, citing various provisions of the Official Information Act.
These were “to avoid prejudicing the international relations of the New Zealand Government…to protect individuals’ privacy…[and] to protect the supply of confidential information by a third party.”
The Government has been under pressure for months to explain why it spent more than $11 million setting up a farm in the Saudi Arabian desert in a deal with Hamood Al Ali Al Khalaf.”
With the hopelessly out-of-date electronic vote capturing equipment used in the USA for elections, this mans services will come in handy for the biggest wallet.
John Noonan, a former nuclear launch officer and adviser to former GOP candidate Jeb Bush, painted a frightening picture of what might to happen if Trump were handed the nuclear codes; the president alone has final say over a nuclear launch.
“These duties are simply too grave to entrust to a man who has exhibited sociopathic and chronically narcissistic behavior throughout his checkered career,” he wrote in a Los Angeles Times op-ed published Tuesday.
When a former nuclear launch officer (whatever that is) describes someone using words like, ‘sociopathic’ & ‘chronically narcissistic’, words straight out of DSM-5 you know he’s inferring that the person is mentally ill.
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ...
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...
Some time during the night we went over the 850,000 views mark. We might have had our millionth view by the end of this year – certainly by early next year. Most of the people involved in Redline spent years and years producing various small left-wing papers and selling them ...
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messagesfrom different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Safe harbour for directors; Virgin Australia shuts NZ base; Z Energy cancels dividend and talks to banks; Serko bounces on cost cutsSafe harbour: Company directors might be sleeping a little easier now that the Government has provided clarity around the issue of reckless trading or trading while insolvent. The ...
Covid 19 coronavirus: Foreign Minister Winston Peters says up to 100,000 foreign nationals may be heading home; and pressure on Government to bring forward capital projects as part of infrastructure injection. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Debate over leaving lockdown fires up, how the tax system could change after Covid-19, and concerns as cyclone bears down on Vanuatu.Over the last few days, a debate has started to fire up about leaving level four restrictions, and restarting some ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Queenstown author Jane Bloomfield on a writing compeition which unlocks kids' imaginations during the lockdown. Encouraging young minds to roam wild is what drives myself and nine other children’s authors to run the online story-writing competition, Fabostory. With the current lockdown in place, we invite writers aged 7–13 to unlock ...
After 15 years on the world pro tennis circuit, Marina Erakovic is chasing a new dream in sports medicine and mentoring young tennis stars. Marina Erakovic can’t run anymore. She didn’t really like it anyway, but still, it’s a measure of the toll a 15-year career at the highest level of tennis has ...
Newsroom wanted to find out why so many small shops still don’t want us to use paywave. And the answer hasn’t changed - bank fees. Suddenly, surfaces are scary. Door handles, taps, light switches, lift buttons, eftpos machines. These days they aren't just useful inanimate objects we touch without a ...
Should all New Zealanders wear face masks in public to reduce the spread of Covid-19? Farah Hancock looks at the science. The success of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in keeping Covid-19 levels low has seen a call for widespread mask-wearing. In the United States, the message from officials has ...
The Global Financial Crisis badly hurt the employment prospects of young people about to enter the workforce. Roger Smyth writes that Covid-19 will have a deeper impact, and the Government needs to respond better this time. Recessions hit the young hardest. Employers stop recruiting. Those without qualifications and those without experience end ...
March 16, 2020 is a day that any share market investor is likely to remember for a long time. That’s the day that the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index that tracks the top 30 companies listed on US stock exchanges, lost 2997 points, nearly 13 percent of its value. ...
The University of Otago's Patrick Boudreau explains how 'adventure psychology' can help you cope with self-isolation Imagine being halfway up a sheer vertical face of rock. Gripping ledges smaller than the width of your iPhone with the tips of your fingers and edge of your toes. If the rock gives ...
Scientists hope to seek evidence of the coronavirus, or its absence, in wastewater. Mirjam Guesgen explains.The fight against Covid-19 is headed for the sewers, with New Zealand scientists hoping to analyse wastewater samples for signs of the coronavirus.Tests would allow health authorities to see whether New Zealand’s elimination strategy has ...
Since the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment relaxed the rules around the supply of essential non-food items last week, more businesses are announcing that their online stores are up and running. Some things, however, are not what leaps to mind as ‘essential’.Under the new policy allowing essential non-food items ...
By Jane Patterson, political editor of RNZ News Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it’s too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. At today’s media briefing, Ardern was reluctant to draw too many conclusions from ...
By Stefan Armbruster of SBS News in Brisbane Refugees and asylum seekers in Brisbane have begun daily protests urging for their release after doctors and human rights lawyers flagged fears that a repurposed hotel could become a coronavirus infection hotspot. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UN Human ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. ...
Sam Brooks, a lifelong Studio Ghibli fan, presents a guide to the Japanese studio’s animated films, including which ones to show your kids when.Just heard ‘Let It Go’ for the billionth time? Sick of those class-traitor dogs that make up the cast of Paw Patrol? Look no further than the ...
Alan Simmons co-leader of the NZ Outdoors Party says tensions are at breaking point around New Zealand. “I cannot keep up with the calls and messages from New Zealanders who are extremely stressed, distressed and frustrated by dramatic changes imposed ...
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass.Well, we’ve all said we wish we had more time to read and now we’ve got what we wished for. Jenna, Kiran and Louisa delve into some book news (that’s not too heavy for ...
The prime minister says she expects the health minister to continue doing his job, including media interviews, after he broke the lockdown rules last week to go mountain biking. ...
There have been calls for major institutions like Auckland Art Gallery to do better in identifying queer or queer-associated artists. New Auckland Art Gallery director Kirsten Paisley believes it’s ‘a conversation that needs to happen’. Writer Samuel Te Kani digs into the complications below the surface of the erasures of ...
Ardern says the role of planning for moving out of lockdown is not the Government's alone Businesses should plan how they will operate in an environment where intensive contact tracing would be needed post-lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The Government was working on additional guidance for the move to Level 3 ...
Netflix’s four-part series Unorthodox traces a woman’s escape from a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. Emily Writes considers the lessons we can all learn from her journey. There was a moment watching Netflix’s miniseries Unorthodox when I felt like I was actually in Berlin, where much of the show is ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
By RNZ Pacific The number of people with Covid-19 in the Pacific continues to climb with French Polynesia hitting 40 cases, Guam now over 90 and the US state of Hawai’i suffering its third coronavirus death. In the past day, another person tested positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia. ...
We needed a reasonable period of time to allow the recent surging wave of highly geared first home buyers to get financially comfortable. We didn’t get it, writes David Hargreaves of interest.co.nz.You know, I was really beginning to think (as well as hope) that we might just get away with it.By ‘it’ ...
Being stuck inside all day might be wearing you and your kids down, but there’s never been a better time to encourage them to pick up their musical instrument and get stuck into writing songs. Mike Chunn from Play It Strange explains how. Mums and dads and households with teenage children. ...
Siouxsie Wiles on the vitriolic correspondence she’s received since the Covid-19 outbreak struck, and the realities of communicating evidence.I recently received an email and text from someone telling me they are planning to email my boss, the University of Auckland vice chancellor. They are going to ask for me to ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, five of New Zealand’s best writers chronicle the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Fiona Farrell.There’s a sign sticky-taped to the bakery window. Closed Until Further Notice. Stay Safe NZ and Be Kind. We will get through this!We all know where the words ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes.It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes.And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...
On Friday night, the government quietly laid down some lockdown rules via a legal order under the Health Act. Law professor Andrew Geddis explains what it means for all of us (including David Clark). As the first week of level four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was ...
The health and wellbeing of people working and being held inside our prisons needs to be a priority, writes JustSpeak director Tania Sawicki Mead. Kelvin Davis’s interview on The Hui last weekend made it clear that precautions taken by Corrections to stop the spread of Covid-19 will create an unprecedented restriction ...
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes.Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks.When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Open mike 10/08/2016 
Open mike is your post.
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...13 hours ago
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ... 15 hours ago
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...19 hours ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...21 hours ago
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...21 hours ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...1 day ago
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messages from different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...2 days ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...2 days ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...3 days ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...3 days ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...3 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...3 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...5 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 5 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...5 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...5 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...7 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...14 hours ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...3 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...3 days ago
Safe harbour for directors; Virgin Australia shuts NZ base; Z Energy cancels dividend and talks to banks; Serko bounces on cost cuts Safe harbour: Company directors might be sleeping a little easier now that the Government has provided clarity around the issue of reckless trading or trading while insolvent. The ...8 mins ago
Covid 19 coronavirus: Foreign Minister Winston Peters says up to 100,000 foreign nationals may be heading home; and pressure on Government to bring forward capital projects as part of infrastructure injection. ...13 mins ago
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Debate over leaving lockdown fires up, how the tax system could change after Covid-19, and concerns as cyclone bears down on Vanuatu.Over the last few days, a debate has started to fire up about leaving level four restrictions, and restarting some ...23 mins ago
Queenstown author Jane Bloomfield on a writing compeition which unlocks kids' imaginations during the lockdown. Encouraging young minds to roam wild is what drives myself and nine other children’s authors to run the online story-writing competition, Fabostory. With the current lockdown in place, we invite writers aged 7–13 to unlock ...1 hour ago
After 15 years on the world pro tennis circuit, Marina Erakovic is chasing a new dream in sports medicine and mentoring young tennis stars. Marina Erakovic can’t run anymore. She didn’t really like it anyway, but still, it’s a measure of the toll a 15-year career at the highest level of tennis has ...2 hours ago
Newsroom wanted to find out why so many small shops still don’t want us to use paywave. And the answer hasn’t changed - bank fees. Suddenly, surfaces are scary. Door handles, taps, light switches, lift buttons, eftpos machines. These days they aren't just useful inanimate objects we touch without a ...2 hours ago
Should all New Zealanders wear face masks in public to reduce the spread of Covid-19? Farah Hancock looks at the science. The success of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in keeping Covid-19 levels low has seen a call for widespread mask-wearing. In the United States, the message from officials has ...2 hours ago
The Global Financial Crisis badly hurt the employment prospects of young people about to enter the workforce. Roger Smyth writes that Covid-19 will have a deeper impact, and the Government needs to respond better this time. Recessions hit the young hardest. Employers stop recruiting. Those without qualifications and those without experience end ...2 hours ago
March 16, 2020 is a day that any share market investor is likely to remember for a long time. That’s the day that the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index that tracks the top 30 companies listed on US stock exchanges, lost 2997 points, nearly 13 percent of its value. ...2 hours ago
The University of Otago's Patrick Boudreau explains how 'adventure psychology' can help you cope with self-isolation Imagine being halfway up a sheer vertical face of rock. Gripping ledges smaller than the width of your iPhone with the tips of your fingers and edge of your toes. If the rock gives ...2 hours ago
By Jane Patterson, political editor of RNZ News Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it’s too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. At today’s media briefing, Ardern was reluctant to draw too many conclusions from ...11 hours ago
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. ...13 hours ago
Alan Simmons co-leader of the NZ Outdoors Party says tensions are at breaking point around New Zealand. “I cannot keep up with the calls and messages from New Zealanders who are extremely stressed, distressed and frustrated by dramatic changes imposed ...15 hours ago
Ardern says the role of planning for moving out of lockdown is not the Government's alone Businesses should plan how they will operate in an environment where intensive contact tracing would be needed post-lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The Government was working on additional guidance for the move to Level 3 ...17 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...18 hours ago
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...1 day ago
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...1 day ago
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...1 day ago
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes. It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes. And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...1 day ago
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes. Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks. When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...2 days ago
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...2 days ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...2 days ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...2 days ago
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Looks like Canada has some of the same issues as us.
Out of control house prices.
Capital flight from China.
https://news.vice.com/article/canada-is-seizing-more-suspect-money-from-chinese-travellers-than-ever-before
Anyone feel like some sleuthing? I’ve been trying to figure out how rents are calculated in the CPI and hit a bit of a dead end. Reason for asking is the CPI numbers have never looked right to me and I’d like to know which is wrong – my intuition or the CPI
Background;
The CPI index for rents has gone from a base of 1000 in June 2006 to 1240 in June 2016. That’s an increase in rents of 24% over ten years. In inflation terms that’s annual rent inflation of about 2.2%. (That just isn’t believable to me, it’s too low.)
The Household Economic Survey also reports rents and those figures say rents have increased by 39% in only eight years (from 2007 to 2015) That’s annual rent inflation of about 4.2%. (That’s a little more believable.)
This link here explains rented dwellings in the CPI;
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/economic_indicators/CPI_inflation/rented-dwellings-in-the-cpi.aspx
What I can’t work out is the bit about state housing. It seems to be saying they’re using income-related rents to calculate rent inflation on state houses and that surely can’t be right. Any clues?
Source data here;
http://www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/Browse%20for%20stats/HouseholdEconomicSurvey/HOTPYeJun15/hesi-yejun15-tables.xls
http://www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/Browse%20for%20stats/ConsumersPriceIndex/HOTPJun16qtr/cpi-jun16-all-tables.xls
Will this help?
Housing Restructuring (Income-Related Rents) Amendment Act 2000
See Section 46: Calculating income-related rents, but it’s a swamp of clauses.
Thanks but not really. It’s how state housing is affecting the CPI that I’m trying to work out. I understand income related rents, I just don’t understand its context in the CPI.
It’s kind of a paradox;
People in state houses pay rent as a (calculated) percentage of their income. If their income doesn’t go up then their rent doesn’t go up either.
Wages & benefits are linked to inflation. If rents don’t go up, because incomes haven’t gone up, then CPI inflation will be lower and therefore wages & benefits won’t go up much either.
I’m idly wondering if the inclusion of state housing is dragging down the CPI figures to paint a misleading picture of rent inflation.
with only around 68000 state rentals the feedback impact on CPI (which is weighted I believe) will be negligible….and thats assuming state rentals are included in the CPI.
Could be Pat, I looked for the weightings and they don’t have it there so I don’t know.
68,000 is 10-15% of the rental stock I believe so it would make a difference even with weightings applied. The thing is, state houses should not be included in the CPI at all and I wonder why they are.
around 12% (assuming 100% occupancy) but if the rents are only increasing in that stock by the rate of CPI then the impact is negligible….the movement in private rentals will be the driving stat for the following rental CPI
State house rents aren’t increasing by the CPI Pat, they’re set by income not inflation. Real inflation on income related rents would be close to zero so that 12% could drag down rent CPI by up to 12%.. if they are using income related rents to calculate the CPI there.
It will not drag it down by 12% absolutely though DH. Pat is right by saying that the State Housing impact is negligible.
Ie state housing rent does not increase at all 0% (12% of market)
Other housing increases by 33% (88% of market)
Overall increase in rent CPI = 29.04%
Yeah you’re right and it’s not enough of an anomaly to explain why the CPI is reporting half the inflation the household income survey is.
The HES report for 2009 says this;
“Results from the Household Economic Survey (Income) (HES (Income)) for the year ended June 2009 show no overall change in average weekly expenditure on housing costs from the previous year, Statistics New Zealand said today. This result was made up of an increase across all households in average weekly property and ground rent payments (up 8.1 percent), offset by decreases in average mortgage principal repayments (down 7.1 percent) and average mortgage interest payments (down 2.8 percent).
For those making rent payments, median (half pay more, half pay less) weekly rent payments increased from $220 in 2007/08 to $241 in 2008/09 (up 9.5 percent). ”
CPI for year ended June 2009 says rent inflation was 1.7%. So how does the HES get 8.1% and the CPI only 1.7% ?
SNAFU, probably. It’s still worth asking the question. An OIA request for the formula?
The CPI used to include every house sale in the country – I know because I used to have to count it up and work out the average house price to 7 significant figures ( that was in 1967). There were no adding machines or computers available either. We converted the CPI from Pounds shillings and pence to dollars and cents manually. One electric calculator to the office of 12 was all there was. All done with pencil and paper. Standard deviations worked out to 7 sig figs. And not a word spoken the whole day! Muldoon would ring up and ask what would be the effect on the CPI if he raised the price of bread by 1 penny.
The govt decided (around 2000) to remove house prices from the CPI for the reason that people didn’t buy a house every year. (i.e. they wanted “underlying inflation”) – it also meant that the CPI increase would not be so great so incomes based on CPI increases (i.e. benefits and pensions) would not be affected so much……
well of course shooting the opponent is always an option.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-clinton-shoot_us_57aa2f6de4b0ba7ed23dd652?vvtsl5nxgzmyujtt9
Ahhh, the hysterical, irrational left.
If it was truly believed that Trump was inciting violence against Clinton, his own Secret Service detail would arrest him and take him down.
yes the hysterically irrational left indeed
https://twitter.com/LEBassett/status/763110016152928258
frankly i think it is time that you go into your time out corner and start thinking about what you are actually standing for.
OK I’ll wait for the Secret Service to arrest Trump for threatening a confirmed Presidential Candidate. When do you think it will happen, today or tomorrow?
Yes Mummy, whatever you say.
Haven’t we already established that the elites aren’t treated the same way as the peasants, eg Hillary got away with her email system without charge?
If it’s good enough for HIllary to avoid a charge, then surely it’s good enough for Trump.
Good point Lanthanide.
Lanth, Hillary was actually guilty of committing multiple National Security felonies over a long period of time. You equating that to what Trump may or may not have meant in an offhand quip is ludicrous.
And Adam, you’re smarter than that.
sooooo – as a billionaire committing a more minor offence, wouldn’t trump be less likely to be arrested than Clinton?
“Hillary was actually guilty of committing multiple National Security felonies over a long period of time”
when does she get out of jail – oh that’s right…
And then there’s Hillary taking vast $$$$$ from Russians and Saudis when she was Sec State signing off on Russian and Saudi business deals.
Pretty sure there are national security implications all through that.
yep. Incitement to kill a candidate seems trivial compared to all that. Not a chance the secret service will arrest him.
“Pretty sure there are national security implications all through that.”
yeahnah
your ‘pretty sure’ ain’t sure or even near sure – just a guess from an outsider reading the net.
hey marty mars, turn your brain back on: if the Sec State is receiving massive monetary sums from foreign donors she is totally compromised.
is that what the websites you follow are saying – I’m surprised you can regurgitate it with a straight face and pretend it is some original thought or insight from you.
You’re just a modern-day TV watcher – “look it is on the news it must be true” – so gullible – your thinking is in freefall and breaking the laws of physics bubby
So it seems that it was where he said it is what prevents the police from arresting him. Even so – such dog whistling is highly irresponsible – and can you imagine how he and Rodrigo Duterte would get along?
The finest, truest, leftiest CV still trumpeting away for his finest, truest, leftiest Donald Trump I note. Sounds like there’s something wickedly wrong with your wiring CV. And as to your ‘if this’ and ‘if that’ the Secret Service ‘would do such’…….what master of the universe blow arse is that ? Excuse me for paralleling you with BM and Fisiani.
Not interested in having your approval North. Sneer away.
The problem with you supporting trump Colonial Viper and his oblique use of violence as a political tool is that you would be one of his victims. How long do you have to wait – till you turn around, and there is no one to support you? Think leftist, disabled, gypsies, gays, nonconformists, free thinkers, artist, poets, pacifist, pasifika, and asian. It’s a list because that is what facists do, they go down lists. Till there is no one left to oppose them.
How long will it be before trump comes for the Chinese, especially if he is elected and not doing well at home. How long before internment camps, so american chinese can be protected? How much pressure would it take for the same to happen here?
A fascist is a fascist. And I’m not seeing many left or right disagreeing trump is a fascist.
Yes h.r.c is a bloody awful alternative.
Guess what – you have a choice, Vote Green, and organise.
But supporting a fascist, come on, take a step back and do self interest for one bloody minute. Think of your family and friends who are leftist, disabled, gypsies, gays, nonconformists, free thinkers, artist, poets, pacifist, pasifika, and asian – and ask how long before they go under the economic bus which is fascism.
Because you are showing a serious lack of understanding how fascist economics works.
Go away Adam. Under both Bush’s and continuing under Obama, universities throughout the USA have been rapidly closing down liberal arts, humanities and fine arts programmes, as well as destroying the free press and investigative journalism; don’t presume to lecture me about how far the high finance corporate-government meld has progressed in the USA.
As for Trump coming after the Chinese and after other races, go ahead and buy into the Clinton establishment propaganda. Trump is very clear that he employs and supports LEGAL immigrants in the USA.
Pretty clear statement from the Donny. No doubt he’ll run like a coward from it when he is cornered.
How come Trump hasn’t been arrested by Clinton’s secret service detail then?
So he didn’t say it – shit this is fucken big – hope the MiB are onto it.
edit:
The Secret Service is also aware of what Trump had for lunch. Will be waiting for the arrest.
Compulsive liar isn’t sure because he hasn’t heard this question….backpedals….
This is what the Trumpkins heard –
edit: they’re fucking lapping it up
https://storify.com/5thCircAppeals/on-trump-just-joking
“How come Trump hasn’t been arrested by Clinton’s secret service detail then?”
For obvious reasons the threshhold for legal action against someone inciting violence is relatively high. I’m pretty sure Trump and his team know how to pitch dog whistles just below that.
Interesting that you would defend Trump on this, although I guess the elite are legit targets.
I’m not so much defending Trump as much as I am not falling for his year long tactic of trolling the liberal media with an ongoing stream of outrageous bullshit, everything from Megyn Kelly’s periods to this.
I am however totally mystified as to why Trump’s campaign has not changed gears into a serious fullbore general election campaign. As far as I can tell, he is still acting and speaking as if he is still running for the Republican Primaries in Texas and South Dakota.
“I am however totally mystified as to why Trump’s campaign has not changed gears into a serious fullbore general election campaign. As far as I can tell, he is still acting and speaking as if he is still running for the Republican Primaries in Texas and South Dakota.”
He has. This is what his ‘fullbore general election campaign’ looks like.
Just now realising that you’re backing a dud?
Hi Lanth, I’m not afraid to back candidates that others see as political losers. And, I still see a clear Trump win come November despite the latest polls having Trump 10 pts behind Hillary 🙂
So you’re unskewing the polls?
The outrageous bullshit comes from trump – he keeps saying stuff – he wont stop either cos he is terrific at listening to his own viice.
“I’m not so much defending Trump as much as I am not falling for his year long tactic of trolling the liberal media with an ongoing stream of outrageous bullshit, everything from Megyn Kelly’s periods to this.”
Yeah, nah, I don’t think he is so stupid as to think that some of his constituents won’t hear the ralling cry to fight back. Or maybe he is and truly doesn’t see the potential for people to act on the call. That would make for a great Prez. You can call it trolling if you want, but it’s clear he has no regard for civil order and will undermine it to achieve his aims.
Obama has just approved the sale of $1.5B in armaments to misogynist Islamic extremist terror exporting dictatorial Saudi Arabia.
Thats the real way you keep law and order in the world.
God that’s just sick. I just managed to get through the re-showing of Fahrenheit 9-11 on tv last night.
Even if only one thing about it is true in the film, backing the Saudis in anything let alone armaments is just sick no matter who is doing it as US President.
Come on now, they gave the Clintons $US100m. They only gotb what they paid for!
Saudis have been either the biggest or second biggest donors to the Clinton Foundation over the years.
Neither main US party comes out clean in their dealings with the Saudis, over many decades.
nice deflection from Trump’s latest offence. Nobody noticed. Fuck you’re awesome.
0oh but you know that Trump will save the world and of course not do anything like it.
and here, have a pony
I support Trump ahead of Clinton because Trump won’t be seeking military confrontation with Russia and China in the Pacific, and because Trump will be shit canning the TPP asap.
You support Clinton because – who the fuck knows. Because she raised way more money from the financial sector and from Saudi ruling interests I guess.
“You support Clinton because – who the fuck knows. ”
Because the next POTUS is likely to appoint 2-3 supreme court justices, and if Trump gets in, he will appoint conservative ones that set back social progress in the US for decades to come.
“Because the next POTUS is likely to appoint 2-3 supreme court justices, and if Trump gets in, he will appoint conservative ones that set back social progress in the US for decades to come.”
So you are prepared to sacrifice the future of the world for…..identity politics?
Must be an amazingly large dead rat.
Because she doesn’t see nuclear proliferation as a substitute for US military expenditure.
Because she knows the difference between bombing a city and nuking it.
Because she doesn’t think “I’ve been very successful” is a “sacrifice” comparable to having a child die in military service.
Because she can see the problem with government databases of everyone who is of a particular religion.
Everyone just take a look at who has donated millions to the Clinton Foundation in the last 10 years, and who is donating millions to her campaign every day now.
Just as a quick summary, which of those donors have demanded that South Korea and Japan build their own nuclear weapons?
Even someone who wishes to preserve the status quo (not that Clinton necessarily does) is better than someone whose impulsive idiocy would result in more fingers on nuclear triggers in potential global flashpoints.
Get real. Both Japan and South Korea already have nuclear break out times measured in single digit months.
Well, assuming their fuel refining equipment can be easily recalibrated to producing sufficient quantities of weapons-grade materials in that timeframe (and that you’re not just parroting important-sounding jargon that you’ve read on RT), it’s still a fuckload more stable than having a launch time measured in moments.
That’s assuming that NK won’t pre-emptively launch within that timeframe, of course. Because even the mention of nuclear proliferation in that region gives a narrow timeframe before the penalty for diplomatic failure dramatically increases. Trump is the sort of dickhead who goes on a jaunt through downtown Sarajevo in an open-top car. 10 million dead later…
NATO and the US wanted Yugoslavia dismembered and ‘balkanized’ in their determination to move western military bases eastwards. They got their wish.
You can say thank you to Bill Clinton.
Here is a link to RT’s youtube page. RT is youtube’s most popular news channel by far.
https://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday
RT is as trustworthy as Fox
All very interesting CV, but completely irrelevant to South Korea or Japan’s potential nuclear capabilities, the destabilising effects of development of those potential capabilities, and whether you are simply parroting important-sounding words with no real understanding of what they mean.
When you calculated the “nuclear break out times” for Japan and South Korea, were you factoring current stockpiles of various grades of enriched uranium as well as current enrichment capacity?
Just in time for the new air offensive in Yemen.
France has also just signed a deal for €1 billion with Kuwait for 30 Airbus Caracal Helicopters.
Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia with the most advanced, most expensive military technology on the planet.
Yet, notice how the Sauds have failed to lock Yemen down…those Yemeni tribesmen are like the Fremen from Arrakis.
@CV
Yes – some of the Gulf States are withdrawing forces from the Coalition. It doesn’t get a lot of attention in the West but it is a nasty little war.
I should also add the UK is up to it’s neck supplying weapons to the Saudis – £3.3 billion last year and £500 million in Q1 so far this year.
http://oneworld.org/2016/07/27/uk-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-top-33bn-in-year-of-yemen-bombing/
Blair was (is) a big champion of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
This is doubly interesting as Saudi Arabia is the very well funded base of wahhabi extremism.
Tony Schwartz, the guy who wrote [Trump’s book] The Art of the Deal, says Trump never jokes.
“I fear that an unbalanced person hears that in this inflamed environment and, God forbid, thinks that was a threat. I certainly take it as a threat, I really do, and Trump needs to apologise.”
Trump’s perfectly aware that he’s shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theatre.
Exactly rhinocrates@11.05am, because Trump is nothing more than a showman. Heaven save us from such nitwits.
And I thought choosing a B grade movie actor was bizarre in times past.
Speaking of murder
http://christiantimesnewspaper.com/breaking-murdered-dnc-staffer-was-wikileaks-source-assange-admits-in-interview/
i would like to know when Assange will leak Trumps Tax Returns. 🙂
So no comment on the previous hero of the left virtually accusing the DNC of murdering a staffer who leaked the DNC emails? Also, Wikileaks offerring a reward for information leading to his killer?
Selective – much?
Geeezus. Recently, a prominent anti-Clinton former UN official was found dead with his throat crushed in a “gym training accident.”
Now Clinton (or her team on her behalf) are murdering people.
No offence, but you’re fucked in the head right?
One death is a random. Two deaths is a coincidence.
all the journalists and opposition politicians dropping dead in Russia must be bloody bad luck…
Russia has an extremely vibrant pro-Kremlin and anti-Kremlin news media and mass media.
However these days, even the anti-Putin crowd has to admit that the west has it in for Russia.
What McFlock said.
I’m sure RT is telling you about how rosy it is to be in opposition in Russia at the moment.
Putin and May discuss normalising future relations.
https://www.rt.com/news/355335-putin-may-meeting-relations/
You might as well cite Fox News. RT is pure propaganda
Boris Johnson’s sister reveals his history as a Kibbutz volunteer
https://www.rt.com/uk/355223-boris-johnson-kibbutz-israel/
UK Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson says the party membership has been taken over by pro-Corbyn revolutionary Trotskyites who do not wish Labour well.
https://www.rt.com/uk/355279-watson-labour-trotsky-corbyn/
@ CV re Watson
I read his comments in The Guardian yesterday.
Talk about playing the “Reds under the Bed” card! Coupled with his insufferable arrogance saying the Millibands leadership election reforms (one of the few decent things Milliband did for Labour) should be done away with and their should be a return to the Electoral College system of the Blairite New Labour Party.
Apparently he no longer talks to Corbyn except by exchange of texts! A right little Iago (who will knife Owen Smith as Leader within 2 years I would predict).
Now that you mention it
http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/another-clinton-associate-found-dead-bill-hillarys-body-count-increases/
her supporters are showing their real colours too…Trump may be a loose lips and a loud mouth and a menace …but Hillary and her advisers are f…king scarey
‘Kill Russians and Iranians, threaten Assad,’ says ex-CIA chief backing Clinton
https://www.rt.com/usa/355291-morrell-kill-russians-clinton/
and from Zero Hedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-05/lead-attorney-anti-clinton-dnc-fraud-case-mysteriously-found-dead
Why we say TPPA No Way
Court rules for Chevron against Ecuadorians in $9bn rainforest damage case
https://www.rt.com/usa/355161-court-chevron-ecudorians-rainforest/
Also on that link a video with
Gulf of Mexico suffers third oil spill in two weeks
+100 save nz…exactly why we need to oppose the TPPA!
Lucky this poor tourist did not get his wallet stollen in Australia… no one would care in Nauru…
Chinese tourist who lost wallet in Germany ends up in refugee shelter
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/08/chinese-tourist-who-lost-wallet-in-germany-ends-up-in-refugee-shelter
oh my goodness the poor man. When it comes to bureaucracy only France is better then Germany.
Keiser Report: USA reduced to a one party state of the elites with corporates; bankers and billionaires lining up behind Hillary Clinton
Max Keiser and his partner Stacey Herbert do one of the best political economic shows anywhere, and its available on RT’s youtube channel.
Their latest show is a knock out.
– Warnings in 2007/2008 that opposing banker bailouts for the rich would lead to economic collapse, is now causing political collapse.
– Massive funds have been transferred from savers and pension funds to billionaire speculators.
– The Washington elite from billionaires to military industrial complex and neocon Republicans are all lining up to support Clinton.
– Corporate media a tool of the Washington elite to mock ‘ignorant’, ‘lazy’, ‘red neck’, ‘racists’.
– 16% of the 43M Americans with student debt are in long term default: ignoring letters, phone calls and debt collectors. This is one basis of political revolution.
– Clinton campaign recently raised US$120M from the financial sector. Trump campaign received $19,000.
– Putin now widely blamed for the political, economic and refugee woes of the west similar to Cold War days.
nothing to do with the republicans turning into a party of fuckwits, forced birthers, anti science and religious nuts.
ey, nothing to do at all…..never saw that one coming ey?
Hi Sabine, thanks for expressing the hatefulness and disdain of the elite well educated intellectual classes.
thanks for stereotyping criticising of Republicans, and so patronisingly too! ;-p
She forgot racists. I read an analysis a while back about during the Civil Rights era, the racists left the Democratic Party and joined the Republicans, which consolidated active racism there and changed the culture of the party. That some parts of the non-elite vote for the Republicans for a range of reasons doesn’t mean that the GOP doesn’t have serious bigotry issues.
I doubt they are any more serious than the bigotry issues of the Democrats and their billionaire hedgefund backers.
They’re different bigotry issues though, and we should look at them in the respective parties, not try and pretend they don’t exist or aren’t important.
That’s exactly right. US politics is incredibly polarised. The constant is that the bottom 50% or more of people socioeconomically are totally disenfranchised by the establishment machine, whether that machine is wearing an elephant sticker or a donkey sticker.
And this is of course where Trump gets leverage.
There is a long time to go until November and I am still picking a clear win by Trump.
And in the meantime the lefties you despise will keep naming bigotry because it’s the right thing to do.
Of course we should pull up bigotry weka.
Does that mean we should not criticise h.r.c? I know some commentators here have fallen for the juvenile rhetoric that a criticism of of h.r.c. – is to support trump.
The politics of fear, is the politics of fear, both trump and h.r.c are engaged in it. If anything both help each other in that game.
We should not play, especially in NZ.
national are going to pull out the fear card at some stage, my guess over the green/labour memorandum, then terrorism of some sort, or some other schmuck lies and finally b.s. — all to put fear into the voting population.
I say vote morally, then fear won’t cloud your vision.
I guess the problem that you have there adam is that CV would actually vote for Trump.
I wouldn’t see myself or Sabine (who responded in this thread) as saying that Clinton is above criticism. That’s would just be weird.
I did not mean you or Sabine by my comment, not my intent.
I agree on C.V though he needs to get his head around what a fascist is. Which trump is.
He also needs to realise any totalitarian be they left or right is somthing to be opposed, not voted for.
Obama has overseen the largest expansion of the security surveillance state and has just approved another US$1.5B of big corporate made military arms to be sold to the world’s leading misogynist, terrorist exporting, 9/11 facilitating dictatorial state, Saudi Arabia.
Clinton would continue the same track just on neocon steroids.
So keep preaching about fascism, you guys have no idea what it is.
Pull your head in CV I know very well what fascism is, I can list off my family members who died fighting it if you like. Or how about the German and Polish part of my family that was wiped out by the fascists. Or family and friends who lived and died through Franco’s fascist state.
It’s you who has no bloody idea, by supporting a fascist – because trump is one.I know a lot of liberals put proto in front because they can’t bear to think about it. But all my American friends left and right agree trump is a fascist. He want to suspend habeas corpus, and look at his last economic speech – that is handing power to the corporations. He may oppose the TPP but he will push through somthing worse.
Fascism has only one way to make an economy work – war external or internal – and he’s two damn steps away from that. Bombing ISIS to the stone age. Attacking Mexicans.
He is not an isolationist, you’re kidding yourself if you think he is.
And again there is an alternative – organise with americans and encourage them to vote Green and keep building a movement. Which by the way will be crushed if trump gets to power.
tautoko that adam, thanks for the context.
Fucking hell Adam, with the US plea bargaining system as it has been misused for over a decade now habeas corpus has been nothing more effective than theatre.
As for war, Killary Clinton is your neocon war master. She destroyed Libya, and cackled about it on TV, and then helped funnel arms to Islamists in Syria to take down Assad. She is in with the regime changing Russia/China sabre rattling neocon crowd up to her eye balls.
Forget it mate, I hope you get your dream, go organise for the US Greens and gift Killary, whom you seem to see as the lesser of two evils, the Oval Office.
Come on CV you know I’m no fan of h.r.c. but must see trump is not an option either.
h.r.c is evil and terrible, trump is evil and terrible for the love of God man. It’s two evils and I won’t support either.
I’m worried you seem to think it is OK to support one of them.
to quote Jeff Davies “well, civilisation it’s had a good run…”
Wait, Viper is actually a Trump supporter? Really? Wow. I thought s/he was a leftie.
I’m definitely not a warmongering bankster paid for neocon Clinton supporter like you appear to be.
Wow. Really?
Not liking Trump =/= supporting Clinton.
I have never made a supporting comment about Clinton anywhere. What do you base my “support” of Clinton on?
Are you so thin-skinned regarding your support of Trump that you sneer “Boo! Clinton Shill!” to anyone who questions it?
Just returning your snide BS with the same mate, don’t take it personally.
Errr I’m pretty sure I didn’t say anything snide or otherwise. Nor did I say anything that could be considered “BS” as I was asking a question, not making a statement.
You weren’t asking a question. You were being a smartarse.
Ahhh no, I was asking a question because as I am a new commentator I had assumed you were, like most of us, a left winger. Then I saw you stumping for Trump so wanted to know if I had got my initial impression wrong and perhaps you were in fact in the same league as Pukish Rouge or Srylands.
Jesus man, you are thin-skinned.
Yeah, a snide shit, as I thought.
Unbelievable
Further, if you had a sincere bone in your body you would have directed your original question towards me and I would have answered you matter of factly.
The establishment left is utterly obsolete and irrelevant now. Only a radical departure from status quo economics will provide us with any genuine hope.
So Trump is the answer? You seriously think Trump will deviate from the current status quo? Please…have you seen his ‘economic’ plan which gives billions of tax breaks to the top earners?
You’re no left winger (or right winger). At least both left and right wingers have principles. Stumping for a misoginistic, racist, pig thick con-man because you hate Clinton with such a passion makes you all things trump is.
Begone stupid fellow. You’re wasting everyone’s time.
Insincere and snide. With a foul mouthed mind as well. Read you right up front.
From now on I can only assume you’re as racist nd misoginistic as Trump.
Poor form.
Ahhh, a Thorndon Bubble type.
Sorry, you’ve lost me, racist
Use your Thorndon Bubble Labourite sneers all you want.
[Adding Thorndon Bubble to the spam filter. Abusive language is not welcome here. Lift your game CV. TRP]
I’m sorry, I’m not sure as to what you’re referring to. Thorndon? Labour? Huh?
I’m guessing you also think woman should be punished for having abortions and that the US should build a huge wall to keep the Mexicans out. Is that right, racist?
*Shrug* Keep it up. I figured you out from your very first comment.
Completely lost me I’m afraid. Racist.
Wow! I’m really glad that I’ve stopped drinking and take my fluoxetine these days!
“Then I saw you stumping for Trump so wanted to know if I had got my initial impression wrong and perhaps you were in fact in the same league as Pukish Rouge or Srylands.”
_________
What? I have never made any comment on Trump. For the record, Trump is a maniac.
I ask that you withdraw and apologise.
I meant it as in “not left wing” rather than “pro Trump”
i am not talking about the 60’s, i am talking about the current lot of republicans of the year 2016.
Am i that off?
Is Rubio not a forced birther by saying that he would not allow for an abortion should a women carry a baby with microcephaly and not letting a women take this decision with her husband/partner and her doctor?
Is Pence who introduces himself as a ‘Christian’ not anti-science and a religious nut when refusing to do the simplest thing in order to prevent a health crisis in the State that he runs?
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/under-pences-leadership-response-to-heroin-epidemic-criticized-as-ineffective-226759
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/07/marco-rubio-zika-virus-abortions-florida
is kasich not someone who fits the description of a bit of a sexits?
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/22/politics/john-kasich-women-kitchen/
or cruz? Not a bit of a wanker here with this statement?
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2016/04/25/cruz-indicates-trans-women-should-only-use-bathroom-at-home/
i don’t think i am out of order when saying that the republican party has only itself to blame for the issues it currently has.
Sabine is completely correct.
It’s only a 1 party state, because the Republicans have, over the last 3 decades, deliberately lied to their supporters and kept them like mushrooms. This has culminated in the flawed candidate that their base rabidly support, while the party leaders themselves are aghast.
They’re reaping their own whirlwind.
Not quite correct. What we see is a revolt by the faithful republican voters against the party elite. Trump’s message resonates with the American worker who has seen jobs destroyed by outsourcing to foreign countries. The Republican Party is becoming the “worker’s party” and the Democrats that of the banksters and monied elite. Quite a swap of position on the political spectrum.
The Left has split into “workers and jobs” to Trump and the “identity crowd” to Clinton.
And that’s what the American elites and MSM can’t tolerate.
Yeah, nah.
Well, yes, it appears so.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/a-republican-workers-party-w433295
Thanks grumpy, that summarises it nicely.
and yet…
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-working-class-support/?ex_cid=story-twitter
The working class vote being bigoted, reactionary groupthink has a similar ring ‘truthiness’ to it as much of the Brexit analysis
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/07/north-poor-brexit-myths
For goodness sake, give people some credit for being able to think about the wider implications of their vote, despite their lack of income, and choose accordingly.
thanx CV…must watch!
welcome welcome
Are you now or have you ever been a right winger!
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/labour-mps-forbidden-from-associating-with-right-ring-wellington-mayoral-candidate/
Comrade Little says NO to any right wing fraternization.
There is a whole post on that, /leggett-in-parkins-pocket/
and it’s called party discipline somthing both you and BM have criticised labour for not having.
Apart from Shearer attending that is 😉
Which puts a bit of a kibosh on you first argument 🙂
No surprise there. Shearer has ‘crossed the floor’ once already this year.
Labours a broad church remember…or is it! 🙂
that is a really stupid comment.
if someone changes their political views over the years, and that can happen, it would behoove that person to leave the party that no longer represents them.
in Shearers case it seems that he is only at the Labour Party in order to pay his bills, this should not be good enough for anyone.
Leave, join National or Act, and get elected again on this platform. IF he can’t do that, I think it is fair of the Leader of the Party to ask to a. tow the line or b. get the heck outta dodge.
Labour is a big tent, and this past Saturday it was nice to see just how big a tent it is during our local little 100 year celebration. A nice cross section of the part of the country we live in. But we don’t need to keep people in that only stay to shit the bed but then refuse to wash the linnen.
Oh please theres any number of politicians, both left and right, that are just hanging on for a paycheck
yes, and they should all be told to go and retire, irrespective of party affiliation.
Well on that I do agree
he could leave the Labour Party and join National or Act. No biggie. Free choice and shit.
The membership might not be particularly impressed with his use of their franchise.
Naah that’s ok you can keep him 🙂
He ain’t one of mine.
This looks promising.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/labours-plan-to-wipe-student-debt-2016081010#axzz4GsOdPvez
Jesus! This, a day after a Reid poll showed that 60% of people think too many are coming in.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/310591/nz-visa-numbers-reach-'staggering'-record-high
Immigrants aren’t the problem so the lefties keep saying on this site.
I’m with Winston, time to chop back immigration numbers by at least 90%.
Really??
No problem at all?
https://news.vice.com/article/canada-is-seizing-more-suspect-money-from-chinese-travellers-than-ever-before
That’s what I’m saying. We need to severely cut back immigration, as well as banning foreign ownership of NZ property. Including existing ownership.
It must be the heat here – but I sort of agree with CV.
According to a Westpac study many of the new migrants are international students who are looking to stay after completing their studies.
” The student boom began in late 2013, shortly after visa rules were relaxed to make it easier for foreign students to work. And study has historically been a popular first step on the path to settlement for Indian migrants, most of whom first arrive in New Zealand as international students.”
You have to wonder how many are genuine students and how many are using the “student” status to come in under the wire.
90% cut sounds about right – for a net of about 6-10,000 (with about 2000 of those places for refugees). Harsh but necessary.
This. Yet Blinglish today continues his line that student return home after studying.
It’s now well known that foreign ‘students’ are using our lax laws as a back door into the country for their families so why won’t the opposition call him on this bullshit?
I have no issues with increasing refugee numbers by 1000 to 2000 for every 10,000 standard immigrant numbers slashed.
Fuck you is what I say. I am a leftie and I am against cutting immigration numbers – although I would drastically change the criteria to be able to immigrate AND I think that refugee numbers should double and double again.
And guess what colonic biter I KNOW a lot of lefties and most nzers disagree with me on all or some of those points.
YOU have no issues – what a laugh – you are a nobody who gleans his massive insight via videos – clap. clap. clap.
You are a bullshit artist and not even very good at that
[Marty, I think the phrase ‘do not feed the troll’ is appropriate here. CV is a sad, bitter person with obvious anger issues towards pretty much the entire human race. However, ‘Fuck you’ isn’t the best response and comes pretty close to pointless abuse, which is not acceptable. The rest of your comment is spot on. TRP]
I would be happy with your tightening up immigration criteria, as long as the end result is a massive slashing of immigration numbers.
???
I don’t want to reduce immigration numbers but would like to adjust the criteria for being an immigrant.
Oh look, TRP’s moderation of personal abuse itself includes personal abuse. So classy.
[Challenging moderation. Take a week off. TRP]
“Immigrants aren’t the problem so the lefties keep saying on this site.”
Enough with the lies CV, you’re way past what is ok here.
Really? In that case, feel free to tell me straight up your view on this weka.
Are too many immigrants part of the problem that Auckland is facing?
IMO the answer is yes – and I think Winston’s proposals to reduce immigration numbers by 90% plus are one way to sort this out.
So what say you?
I agree with you and Winston CV…but not weka
Really? In that case, feel free to tell me straight up your view on this weka.
Are too many immigrants part of the problem that Auckland is facing?
IMO the answer is yes – and I think Winston’s proposals to reduce immigration numbers by 90% plus are one way to sort this out.
So what say you?
I can’t comment on Auckland because I don’t know enough about it, but I’d guess yes that immigration is an issue. I know it certainly is in the South Island (worker visas being the main problem, but also permanent immigration from the UK and the US on good exchange rates and higher wages having bumped up land prices).
No idea what the reduction in numbers should be (90% seems over the top, and it depends on what kind of immigration we are talking about). I’d like to see big changes to the immigration criteria.
So in general, I’d say I’m a leftie who says immigrants aren’t the problem, but our immigration policy most definitely is. The only regular commenters I’ve seen who argue for open borders are marty and Bill. I would say that many commenters here are concerned about the impacts of the current immigration policy. Both Labour and the Greens have talked this year about reducing numbers.
That btw is not a new position from me, and I’ve said similar on ts in the past.
http://www.wvi.org/pressrelease/update-statement-world-vision-international-ceo-wake-staff-arrest
Well, well , well
Surprise surprise, Hamas have their very own sayanim.
/
I was a little surprised to see the Australian government suspend aid so fast after this matter was announced. Reminds me of the effective blacklisting of CORSO internationally for their work in the Philippines during the leftist uprisings of the late 1970s when they were accused of supporting insurrection. Cheap unsubstantiated shots that continue to enable the status quo of suffering.
I am a strong Israel supporter, but I cannot for the life of me see what the point is of shutting out the last remaining dogged aid organizations who are still in there making a positive difference to suffering people.
Moshe Feiglin, former Likud MKN –
Subsequent to the elimination of terror from Gaza, it will become part of sovereign Israel and will be populated by Jews. This will also serve to ease the housing crisis in Israel.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15326
I’m going to go with embarrassment causing the Aussies to suspend aid so quickly
https://donaldelley.wordpress.com/2016/08/05/the-jewish-press-world-vision-rejected-our-warnings-about-funding-hamas-terrorism/
“For the past four years, Tel Aviv based civil rights center Shurat HaDin has been warning that funds provided to Gaza by the world’s largest evangelical charity World Vision were being utilized for terrorism, the organization said in a statement Thursday, following the indictment by Israel of Mohammed El Halabi, a Hamas terrorist and senior WV employee who is accused of transferring as much as $50 million in charity funds to support Hamas terrorist activities.”
“In 2012, Shurat HaDin notified the Australian government that its aid money administrated by World Vision was being transferred to front charities of Palestinian terror groups in Gaza. Both the Australian government and WV rejected Shurat HaDin’s warning.”
“In 2015, Shurat HaDin again cautioned the Australian government that WV was operating as an active arm of the PFLP and other terror groups. WV chief executive Tim Costello vehemently denied the charges and claimed that WV had “no interest in supporting terrorism.”
history, repeating itself my be the answer
Australian authorities were no doubt already well briefed before the allegations were made public.
hmmmmmmm,
Quote” World Vision’s cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately US$22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to US$50 million being diverted hard to reconcile. Mohammad El Halabi was the manager of our Gaza operations only since October 2014; before that time he managed only portions of the Gaza budget. World Vision’s accountability processes cap the amount individuals in management positions at his level to a signing authority of US$15,000.
” Quote end.
oh well
Well World Visions donations are about to dry up to a trickle I’d suggest
nothing else to add?
hmm, i might just have to donate.
If you want to donate and you specifically want to donate to World Vision then maybe wait and see what happens with the allegations
Or donate to another charity instead
nah, after all i am donating in your name 🙂
Hey its your money and you can spend it any way you like
Well World Visions donations are about to dry up to a trickle I’d suggest
Oh, please – like the people likely to give a shit about this would have been happy to give money for aid to Gaza anyway. If anything will dry up World Vision’s donations from right-wingers, it’s the news that they’ve been helping people in Gaza.
http://blackboxvoting.org/fraction-magic-1/
Everything is rigged!
The woman writing that claims to be in possession of the source code. If so, she should release it.
Since she has failed to do so, I can’t take her claims seriously.
The default assumption SHOULD be that it IS happening with onus on the developers/controllers/auditors of the electronic vote systems to prove that it is impossible
Far as I can tell there is years worth of experts breaking into and manipulating these systems, and little evidence from the companies or federal agencies to prove its not
The Minister of Education in the House today used the expression “best and brightest” when talking about those she wants to get into teaching.
The Minister of Education in the House today in talking about choices teachers made in doing what they do in schools said they (teachers) were professionals. The implication was that they would know best what needed to be done, and when and how..
The “best and brightest” have initiative and intelligence. She actually wants brainless cretins who will do the cretinous things she comes up with without question. Doing that automatically means they are not the “best and brightest.”
If they were professionals she would give them some credit, real credit, and trust, instead of another feigned fit of “teachers I love you, look NZ community, I love teachers and have faith in them.”
The Minister of Education shows the characteristics of a lying weasel.
Since when did teachers not have their say or their voice heard, this does not mean you need to agree with their every utterance
ACT David Seymour position is that teachers are only concerned for themselves and not the children. Weird. My experience is that teachers are very non- militant. And have to be pretty riled to act. So to hold stop work meetings is a danger sign.
I agree.
The thing is Hekia Parata can determine that 3+4= 8, ask the teachers what 3+4 is, they say 7, she says they’re wrong but she says consulted them.
Then people say (like you), “They had their say, she listened to them, but she didn’t agree with their utterance, so she;s carrying on.”
Teachers have their their say but their voices are only heard to a very small point after the “real stuff” is heard. The important voices are those that pollsters report on. Her boss’ voice is important. The important voices to him are those of people like David Farrar. What teachers say about teaching and learning and education is pretty irrelevant.
Agree? You have difficulty understanding them.
if she wants the best and brightest, she has to pay them what they’re worth, and treat them like the rockstars they are.
Being a teacher should be limited to the cream of the crop of students; all too often people go into teaching because there’s nothing else they can productively do.
What’s the point of hiring the cream of the crop to implement notional standards and high-stakes testing?
Yeah, so the minister would need to treat them like the rockstars they are.
“all too often people go into teaching because there’s nothing else they can productively do.” – utter bullshit, there are a million other easier ways to earn a living than to teach children, it really is a calling not something you can phone in.
And yet there are a lot of bad teachers out there.
[citation needed]
50% of MPs are below average too.
Treating them like the rockstars they are shouldn’t just be a demand of Parata and her political cobbers. It should apply to posters on here and other places who treat teachers with utter contempt, have no respect for them their experience or their willingness to do the crappy job that they have no interest in taking on*. A job which is vital to society.
*Not interested in taking it on but they want to do it from the sidelines with their remote controls beamed at the unfortunate ones who do take it up.
nothing to see here, really,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/sheep/70904289/government-withholds-letter-from-saudi-sheikh
“The Government is refusing to make public a letter to Prime Minister John Key from the Saudi sheikh at the centre of a controversial farm deal.
The missive is mentioned in a May 2010 dispatch from diplomats in Riyadh. It was among hundreds of pages of official documents released by Foreign Minister Murray McCully earlier this week.
Fairfax Media asked Key’s office to release a copy of the letter. But a spokesman for McCully said it was withheld, citing various provisions of the Official Information Act.
These were “to avoid prejudicing the international relations of the New Zealand Government…to protect individuals’ privacy…[and] to protect the supply of confidential information by a third party.”
The Government has been under pressure for months to explain why it spent more than $11 million setting up a farm in the Saudi Arabian desert in a deal with Hamood Al Ali Al Khalaf.”
An article critical of Govt hidden away in farming news, lovely.
Fairfax Media is owned by a billionaire.
What do you expect?
Bypass the MSM.
With the hopelessly out-of-date electronic vote capturing equipment used in the USA for elections, this mans services will come in handy for the biggest wallet.
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-how-to-hack-an-election/
John Noonan, a former nuclear launch officer and adviser to former GOP candidate Jeb Bush, painted a frightening picture of what might to happen if Trump were handed the nuclear codes; the president alone has final say over a nuclear launch.
“These duties are simply too grave to entrust to a man who has exhibited sociopathic and chronically narcissistic behavior throughout his checkered career,” he wrote in a Los Angeles Times op-ed published Tuesday.
When a former nuclear launch officer (whatever that is) describes someone using words like, ‘sociopathic’ & ‘chronically narcissistic’, words straight out of DSM-5 you know he’s inferring that the person is mentally ill.