Yeah, Winnie has something, and he at least thinks it is big. He must have proof that Bill was party to the agreement, knew about it and used ministerial limos to ferry people around in Southland to get the agreement done.
Give Winnie a week to allow the furor around the Greens to die and he will nail Bill. He might wait a little longer to see if he can skewer anyone else, or if he sees a way to eek out some more support from it, but it is coming….
Old bill english must be so scared now – likely 2 time loser, sad texts about to come out – oh the shame is coming, no policy, tired weak team of backstabbers and nobodies. More big bangs to come for Bill as he goes down and keeps going down until all his energy is spent – that’ll be early next week
@ScottGN (1) … I agree. Winston needs to step up now, if he’s in possession of the texts. In typical form, he’s treating the issue as a game, which doesn’t do him or NZF any favours.
I watched a recent online video of Winston being questioned about the texts. He would not give a straight answer and when pushed, he began attacking the journalists concerned! It was like a replay of his mentor Muldoon in action, when journalists put the pressure on him! The similarities in response was quite eerie!
However the old cynic in me is thinking maybe Winston could be using the English texts as a form of blackmail (for want of a better word), attempting to see what a Natz (via English) deal will come up with for him, post election.
after the election they’ll be worthless, as will any promises made because of them.
If he has them and they are really bad for blinglish, Winston will expect light treatment from the nats during the campaign. No muckraking from farrar, hoots, or Jizzpaste McSweaty. No seeking out family members. Otherwise, a couple of weeks out, Peters will drop ’em.
She’s probably aiming for a spot on The Nation or Q+A panels as a rent-a-voice
She’s by no means the worst of them but they do engage in binary ‘yes or no’ thinking at times
Well said, Ffloyd. Calculated interruptions which both disrupt the flow of the interviewee and prevent the listener from hearing the reply. Some replies are worthless evasion – but to Susie, any answer is fair game. Unless it is a high-ranking National politician of course.
For the last decade or so I’ve more and more hated being a New Zealander, being on the receiving end of everything my “alleged” Government (and most of the opposition) has to throw at me, their overt hatred for my existence- for the simple reason I’m unable to work due to illness and need a benefit to survive. Yes, you could extend that back 30 years, but the extreme extreme cruelty kicked in more recently.
And of course, one has to admire the success of the divide and conquer campaign of the last 30 years (also revved up more recently) which has led us to now.
My Government openly despises me.
Labour don’t give a damn but they won’t say it out loud. Their actions during their last reign and silence in opposition since make that pretty clear.
A significant group of my fellow compatriates have been somehow brainwashed by politicians and the media into despising me. Maybe not as many as it feels like and it’s just a well coordinated media campaign that makes them sound like they represent the majority, but it still hurts.
I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to say there’s a lot of people here who genuinely couldn’t give two hoots if I died under a bridge. As a beneficiary in NZ, our status on the pecking order is just above an incarcerated prisoner, if not on a par. Of course, we are all now by default guilty of something until proven innocent.
Yesterday for the first time ever I openly cried over what happened to a politician, for the simple reason I never had any reason to give a damn what happened to one before, and the sustained attacks on MT were also attacks on every beneficiary in the country and while we weren’t their target at times we might as well have been. I was close to joining to non-voter ranks, especially after the Greens seemed to go very quite on welfare for a couple of years- I’ve always voted but now fully understand why people give up on the process. When literally no politician will speak out for you then you’re not being represented.
Greens, please don’t push your welfare policy into the background now that the topic’s finally being talked about publicly. In between all the horrible stuff there’s been some reality checks come through in some MSM and the public can’t be allowed to forget.
I’m hearing you Kay and full solidarity on all that.
As far as I can tell the Greens aren’t going to abandon beneficiaries, last night Shaw again committed to *ending poverty* in NZ and positioned the Greens as the only party willing to do that. But I can see that they need now to prove this to supporters and beneficiaries so I hope they do this in the next while.
I hear you Kay, being on the bottom rung of the so called ladder is no fun at all.
I too have been in your situation & feel your frustration with the system.
You will get more compassion under an inclusive Labour Led Govt. than anything that is currently being offered.
I hope u don’t loose faith in the broken system we have to deal with, because voting is the only way to try and change that.Miturea has fallen on her sword sadly, but has done NZ a favour by opening this can of worms.
It won’t go away now.
Don’t give up #letsdothis
Courage Kay, many Labour voters and members like me are sending clear signals about how we feel about the situation sickness beneficiaries and the unemployed find themselves in.
I too, shed tears for Metiria and those she represented.
Yes, REPRESENTED,
This is the role of parliamentarians and those seeking office.
To be representatives.
Humility kindness empathy, and most of all truthfulness have been in short supply.
Paul Goldsmith;s racial comments and entitled view just an example.
Those voters who want change, support the greens, as we want to keep Labour honest and on track not to be Nat Lite.
Kay, all for you and speaking for you as much as possible. You are right, remember that. The nonsense of present nonsense–like Jim Bolger when he was PM for 7 and a half years–is, anything but materially, nothing. What remains is you are right. NZ’s heart is in the under- dog, or nowhere.
Wows. Thanks for the link, appears that even Thiel believed it was a dodgy deal, if he didn’t his lawyers would not have requested that the information to be withheld.
“Thiel avoided usual requirements when then-Minister Nathan Guy invoked a little-used “exceptional circumstances” clause of the Citizenship Act, citing Thiel’s philanthropy and venture-capital investments in this country.”
Also more than hinted at by RNZ. It may have been in response to questions, so the context is needed. But Shaw sounds like he’s trying to be diplomatic and to avoid bening damning of Graham.
He also suggested the door could be open for Dr Graham and Mr Clendon to return, now Mrs Turei had gone.
Mr Clendon had no intention of returning but his understanding was that Dr Graham had been talking to the national executive.
“It’s a matter for the party executive [but] I think it would be very tough for either Dave or Kennedy to come back into caucus at the moment – there’s a lot of raw feeling about the events of Monday.”
He had “tremendous respect” for Dr Graham and his climate change expertise, but there were others who would take on that issue, he said.
I just listened and here is what I heard James Shaw say (my paraphrasing):
– Clendon doesn’t want back in.
– Graham might
– it’s up to the Party to sort that out, and the appropriate staff (national executive) are looking at it.
– Shaw himself can’t see how it would work because of the raw feelings in the caucus from what Graham and Clendon did only a few days ago.
– Graham is hugely experienced on climate change and Shaw has a lot of respect for him
– the party is bigger than any one person
– the party has a number of people very experienced on climate change
The thing to understand about the GP is that the leader doesn’t get to dictate stuff. There are processes to work through and it’s not Shaw’s place to pre-determine what that will be.
My own feeling is that Graham should do what Norman and Hague did and go get himself a kick arse NGO job that allows him to be political on CC. I hope the party say not to having him back because of the betrayal and because of the message it would send to Māori and poor people.
I really wish people would start trusting the Greens more and listen to what they say. I know this is hard, but mostly everything that the MSM say is based on them not really understand the kaupapa.
Trust them to be pragmatic? Always the problem –
pragmatism and idealism. I’m idealistic. I heard all that on the radio and understand the process and role of the leader – no issue with Shaw for me but can’t say the same about even CONSIDERING this decision – the people inspired today will be uninspired tomorrow of that I’m certain.
Well, of course it has to be considered. There’s a process to go through.
And I’m pretty sure that any reasonable process would thoroughly and impartially examine the situation, take into account all relevant factors, and then courteously but firmly tell him to fuck off.
You don’t get to shit on your friends like that and then swan back into the circle when the one you don’t like leaves to have a shower.
“Trust them to be pragmatic? Always the problem –
pragmatism and idealism.”
No, I meant trust their own words rather than relying on what the MSM interpretations, because IME the Greens are honest in their communication, and if what they say doesn’t make sense there’s usually a good reason for that related to not understanding them on their own terms. And that the MSM and many commentators often end up with interpretations based on really not understanding what the Greens are doing. This is a serious issue for the Greens, a long standing one, I don’t know what the solution is.
I don’t know what the internal processes are, and I think it’s valid for people to be nervous, all I’m suggesting is that people give the Greens the benefit of the doubt about process because they’re good at this stuff, and also, tweet, email, FB, phone them and let them know what you think 😈
Oh how I laughed, reading this on the same day I was pleading with my specialist to write me a letter so the medication I get in Europe would be available to me when I get back to NZ. It’s not that it’s not available in NZ (do not be fobbed off with the “but it’s available” line), it’s that the criteria for approval is too high.
By noting Legatum and the US as envious of the NZ health system, Coleman is not looking beyond his own ideological blinkers when making that statement either.
One point he made that I did agree with is that approvals and access should be Pharmac decisions, not political decisions. From my point of view, both John Key (herceptin) and Andrew Little (keytruda) were both guilty of politicising medicines decisions. It is, however the job of politicians to ensure Pharmac is adequately (and for fairness sake) publicly funded. Coleman should be working on that.
Meanwhile
According to data from Medicines NZ, the country ranks 19th of 20 comparable countries in the OECD when it comes to waiting times for funding all new medicines and innovative treatments, and in some cases funds no medicines for specific cancers.
Which pretty much contradicts Coleman’s claims of a health system that’s the envy of the world – (well, at least the countries NZ likes to compare itself with in all those ‘best of’ lists).
This is an interesting issue. There some research around rural women’s access to breast cancer treatment and the difficult considerations they must weigh up before embarking on a course of treatment, so I can see how important this treatment appears to be, especially for these women but also others. It’s not a surprise that Dr.Erica Whinery Kelly has highlighted Mid-Central DHB .
If the evidence shows a treatment is effective, then of course politicians like Seymour should be asking the question about funding. It seems a no-brainer if IORT is cheaper and just as effective for traditional therapies (a quick look at recent papers suggests funding approval might be a confirmation of appropriate use issue?)
Generally though, as much as I respect the right of politicians to highlight treatment options and the funding of them, it’s the politicians making decisions about treatment that disturbs me (as Key did with making herceptin funding an election promise).
I’d also respect these lobbying politicians much more if they insisted on adequate funding for DHBs and Pharmac – to provide them with the resources to ensure all New Zealanders have equitable and timely access to good and effective treatment options. I doubt Seymour or Coleman are that sort of politician.
Nearly every dairy farm in the Selwyn district would need to be shut down for a polluted lake to meet national water quality standards, Environment Canterbury (ECan) has told the Government.
The resulting $300 million annual loss in the district’s operating surplus would fundamentally change its economic and social fabric, it said.
It would likely lead to a reduction in employment, depopulation, and bankruptcies. They were the findings of a business case analysis prepared by ECan for the Ministry for the Environment and obtained by Stuff. It has not yet been publicly released…
…The lake is expected to become more polluted over time. Its nitrogen load of 3200 tonne is projected to increase to 5600t, partly due to the Central Plains Water irrigation scheme.
ECan hoped to limit the increase to 4800t by 2037 – still an increase of 50 per cent of current levels.
ECan councillor Lan Pham said funding clean-ups was pointless in such a case.
“We’re just throwing our money away if we’re not actually addressing the sources of the pollution.”
The priorities in this report goes all the way back to the 2010 anti-democratic decision by the National Government to sack ECan Councillors and replace them with commissioners. I don’t hold out much hope for Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere unless we change the government.
Yes this needs to be talked about more often, that move at Evan was doctoral to say the least.
The Nats only know one way, that’s Divide and rule!! And they call the other side Communists! Hypocracy !!!
Just read that Bob Jones’s is going to build the tallest wooden office building in the world it’s good to see that some business people are getting on the sustainability train
Did any one watch Hillary Barry read that TXT this morning on Metiria that was a national troll anyone could see that the stories were all fake!!!! to damage the greens image
At Bowalley Road Chris Trotter looks at Metiria’s desire to stand down completely from Parliament. He is thinking apparently that politics is basically the art of achieving the possible. If virtue is achieved by being too pure and idealistic and nothing else can be accepted then politics is getting into dangerous territory and refer to the Jacobins and how their virtuous tide got tarnished by being taken beyond the extremes and flipped back on itself.
So should Metiria step down? She has won many people’s admiration, mine amongst them. The strength of the attack from the self-centred and those hostile to human rights, except theirs, indicates she has pierced the skin of complacent, uncaring, money-mad NZ. She is more than disappointed, and she is drained from holding herself erect while the barrage sweeps round her.
For that reason she shouldn’t go, just go back on the List. Change your mind Metiria. We need you, the Greens have to put little figures on their model landscape, we are needy animals wanting the proper treatment for our condition of die-back too. So don’t whisk Metiria away, she has brought you up to a higher level, which can result you gaining new adherents and bring you to 18% from 8% back to 10-12% with people joining from the ranks of those with nothing to lose and a life to gain.
This is what Chris said in Bowalley: http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/
Thus does History instruct us. That any political movement which abandons the reasonable pursuit of achievable objectives and embraces instead a regime dedicated to the imposition and enforcement of a universal and uncompromising “republic of virtue”, may begin by executing its enemies, but it will end by making enemies of, and executing, its friends. Freedom can never be secured by coercion. Every revolutionary movement which tried has ended up devouring itself.
If the Greens have indeed entered their Jacobin phase, it is likely to be their last.
” if it would turn out he’s a fair weather friend.”
I f you mean a friend of the Green Party I think you would wrong to think of him as a friend, fair weather or foul.
Chris is, and I think has always been, a friend of the Labour Party. He doesn’t give a damn about any other party I would think except so far as they can damage Labour’s enemies.
He is rather fun to read though. Can you imagine any other commentator who would talk about a “sibilant kiss” as he did here.
“Robespierre, himself, was declared an “enemy of the people” and laid open to Madame Guillotine’s sibilant kiss”.
To my mind Chris has a great knowledge of history, and what he has learned from that is what he is most loyal to. (Including good writing. History depends upon good writers!)
Labour cops plenty of his criticism, but others who have small historical knowledge rush to slate him whenever he writes something unfavourable for their particular political clique. He ends up being attacked from all quarters – but I always eagerly click on his articles. And I don’t think he is entirely serious about the Greens being in the Jacobin phase. The analogy is almost ironic.
But it seems applicable at the moment in some ways..
And yet in another recent post he talked up the virtues of remaining true to your core policies even if it meant working from outside parliament
I sometimes think he’s trying too hard to shoehorn his latest reading matter in to current politics
And lets not forget that anti apartheid protestors, anti slavers and suffragettes were all deemed to be either terrorists or dangerous nutters.They didn’t prevail by pandering to the less brave
And we’ll see how the Greens deal with their two dissenters, if I know the Greens it’ll be anything but Jacobinist
Agree. But with Chris I don’t think it is just his latest reading matter. My impression is that he remembers just about all he has read, which few of us can do. He shoehorns when he sees it as relevant.
I think Chris opens his mind to other possibilities than would be considered by a focussed person with the view that their thinking is The One Way. So he tries to present different scenarios. It’s amazing that we all don’t think the same isn’t it. Never mind all will be explained by a clear and well modulated AI voice in the future and disagreement will be futile.
IT WAS SHORTLY AFTER MARAMA DAVIDSON’S impassioned appeal to Metiria Turei’s devastated supporters, that the “Avenge Metiria” meme made its first appearance. No one’s entirely sure who started it, but pretty soon it was all over social media. Then the ideas for action started pouring in to the Green Party HQ. Though expressed in a multitude of ways, the message was clear: “If Metiria is to be avenged, then we have to get her supporters to the polls!”
There has been a series of investigation of cops removing kids under care and protection orders.
Some of the video is horrific
AND there has been no reaction in MSM,I have seen.
This needs a wider distribution.
Police show up unannounced, during the night, at the home of a 5-year-old girl’s mother. They have a warrant, issued by a Family Court judge, for the removal of the child, by force if necessary – and it is clear the police are not leaving without her.
The child screams, cries for her mother, and tries to escape the officers by hiding behind a couch. Inevitably, she’s caught, lifted into the air and carried through the living room, kicking and wailing. Her mother films the scene, as the girl’s grandfather pleads with police not to hurt her. One of the officers calls the grandfather an “idiot” and as the girl is taken into the night she screams: “I’m going to vomit”.
Circumstances would suggest the girl was in grievous danger. Why else would three uniformed officers show up in the night and whisk a child into a police car?
Justice Minister Amy Adams says no changes are planned to the law covering Family Court ‘uplift’ warrants where children can be taken from parents by police without notice – even when a child is not at immediate risk.
While she felt judges should decline to order such warrants if they “considered they didn’t have enough information”and said the government was concerned to ensure protections for children are “sufficient and appropriate” she said no improvements were planned to the Care of Children Act.
There will be times that there is a need to remove kids from a nasty situation.
BUT Adams view seems willfully blind. Sort of like that min of health.
Gabby, follow the links. There is a discussion about the family situation.
But dragging a screaming 5 year old away from her mother doesnt seem to be the best way.
If you take time to watch the fifteen minute video in the first linked article, it will give you some background to the situation.
The mother went to put the child on the plane to return them to the custodial parent, but the child reacted so strongly to leaving her mother that Air New Zealand refused to put her on the plane.
The mother contacted the father to say that she was not able to get on the flight, and they would attempt the seven-hour drive to return her the next day.
Due to the ongoing distress of the child, the mother also contacted the child’s lawyer, and the local GP to ensure that the child was well. She also contacted CYFS to make them aware that they had missed the return of the child on the contracted date. They told her they would be in touch.
She also contacted the police. Unbeknownst to her, the decision to get a judge to give an “uplift” warrant had already begun.
She was still awaiting contact from CYFS, when the police arrived to return the child to the father.
The warrant was issued – not because of concern about the wellbeing of the child – but because of the failure to return the child at the appropriate time.
In terms of child trauma, this response is inappropriate.
Why doesn’t the child want to be with the father?
The father must have lied to get this action from the police.
The police obviously didn’t talk to either themselves or to CYFS first. And I’d say that the father bypassed process as well.
By the sounds of things, the mother did everything right.
“Why doesn’t the child want to be with the father?”
I wouldn’t know. I would think that thought lead to the mother making an appointment with the GP to determine that all was OK. Anything else is only further speculation.
“The father must have lied to get this action from the police.”
No. Apparently the system is set up so that failure to comply with a court order for custody or visitation – and in this case it was failure to return the child on the stipulated date – gives automatic heft to a compliance order, which may result in an uplift order enacted by the police.
“The police obviously didn’t talk to either themselves or to CYFS first.”
Even if they did, they would act in accordance with the uplift order. Rightly or wrongly.
“And I’d say that the father bypassed process as well.
I’d say he acted within the system. But the result would have been traumatic for his child. My personal response would be to arrange to pick up the child myself, and have support staff available for pickup but that is a process that requires time, effort and exemplary social department resources.
“By the sounds of things, the mother did everything right.”
And many would agree with you. Myself included. But our concern is for the child’s wellbeing, not compliance with a system that is flawed and often deeply traumatising. It is hard to watch the video of the 14 yr old boy without empathising with his distress. And it is impossible to imagine that his mother would agree with such actions if she was to witness what an uplift order meant for her child. Not if she truly had his wellbeing at heart.
I was asking more in the lines of: There is something seriously wrong here if the child doesn’t want to go back, is anybody looking?
No. Apparently the system is set up so that failure to comply with a court order for custody or visitation – and in this case it was failure to return the child on the stipulated date – gives automatic heft to a compliance order, which may result in an uplift order enacted by the police.
I assume that the only way for the police to know about it is if the father told them and he had been contacted by the mother telling him what was happening and knowing the child would be returned next day. For the police to act as they did and as fast as they did he must have told them that the mother had said that she’s not returning the child at all.
I’d say he acted within the system.
Probably but did he go to the child’s lawyer first? Surely that would be the first thing to do to ensure that communications aren’t bypassing each other.
“I was asking more in the lines of: There is something seriously wrong here if the child doesn’t want to go back, is anybody looking?”
Yes, I understood that. But I also understand that a child can behave quite dramatically to situations that do not warrant further investigations. The mother understandably took the child to a local GP, who found no indication of physical harm (psychological and mental harm is much harder to identify).
I would suggest that a two-day visit to a loving mother and doting grandparents after a long hiatus, may have just passed too quickly for a small child. If the drive to return is seven hours, then it is unlikely it is a frequent occurrence. That is a possible explanation, given no evidence or concern has been identified.
“I assume that the only way for the police to know about it is if the father told them and he had been contacted by the mother telling him what was happening and knowing the child would be returned next day. For the police to act as they did and as fast as they did he must have told them that the mother had said that she’s not returning the child at all.”
The child’s lawyer will not make recommendations to either parent. They are supposed to be completely separate in order to ensure they act in the best interests of the child. I believe that is the response given to the mother when she got in contact with her. The mother herself contacted the police.
The video is worth watching because of the commentary given by the advocate and the professor. They believe that if the judges granting the uplift warrants, and the parents requesting them actually viewed the consequences this situation would not be happening.
The current system for non-compliance makes the use of uplift warrants as a means to ensure compliance a common one.
It seems that the child is just a pawn in a very nasty case of hijacking a child yet it is legal. Here is a case of a law being followed with extreme harm to the child and family instead of the protection it is supposed to provide. Metiria has to diddle her receipts from boarders or flatmates so she can finish her schooling and achieve something in her life but she couldn’t have been spoken of more harshly if she had been a child beater.
If she didn’t have a job and salary would the police not also be likely to come to her home because some timetable set to suit the adults concerned was not adhered to, and the mother did all the right things but still there was police brutality. Children are traumatised for life by one event like this. The whole thing is disgraceful.
I was talking to a health worker tonight who I met while we waited for a pizza. We agreed that NZrs won’t complain and will accept substandard outcomes, don’t stand up for themselves to get right and fair treatment, we are prepared to put up with shoddy everything. At work she finds forms not filled in properly and systems not carried out efficiently.
It seems that the country has been trained to accept third best for citizens. This sort of disgraceful treatment of children is how the National Party consider is right for those who aren’t of the right class, or who have problems. If you do, then the police will thump you somehow, somewhere but if you’re on the right side the problems will just go away.
I have a very good friend, whose daughter was a child placed with her from CYFS.
The siblings who had been removed, spoke once of their memories. The boy has a very traumatic memory of playing with his siblings outside in the sun with the hose and laughing, and hearing a car pull up and the police were there and took the children – still in their togs and wet – away.
The trauma of this incident remained with them all. And although such actions are sometimes necessary, the resources needed to aid them through such unexpected separation is not available.
To remove children is sometimes necessary. But just as important, is appropriate care and support after that removal.
That being said, I don’t think the case above was about removal for the wellbeing of the child. It appears to be something that is unfortunately becoming common as a result of non-compliance of custody orders. The trauma for the child must be immense, and it is hard to see any caring parent wanting their children to go through this for that reason alone.
Interesting Molly.
It is a disgraceful case of a hypocritical government lacking in any integrity making play with being the big I am over a legal decision about a child involving the child and caregivers.
If the police were ordered to pick up stolen property, capture a dog that was of value, they might behave in exactly the way that they did with this poor child.
You give the picture – this from your comment; in this case it was failure to return the child on the stipulated date – gives automatic heft to a compliance order, which may result in an uplift order enacted by the police.
and from you at 12.1.2
The mother went to put the child on the plane to return them to the custodial parent, but the child reacted so strongly to leaving her mother that Air New Zealand refused to put her on the plane.
The mother then did: The mother contacted the father to say that she was not able to get on the flight, and they would attempt the seven-hour drive to return her the next day.
She also did: Due to the ongoing distress of the child, the mother also contacted the child’s lawyer, and the local GP to ensure that the child was well. She also contacted CYFS to make them aware that they had missed the return of the child on the contracted date. They told her they would be in touch.
She also did: She also contacted the police. Unbeknownst to her, the decision to get a judge to give an “uplift” warrant had already begun.
Note: She was still awaiting contact from CYFS, when the police arrived to return the child to the father.
Cold impersonal callous punitive-type law: The warrant was issued – not because of concern about the wellbeing of the child – but because of the failure to return the child at the appropriate time.
In terms of child trauma, this response is inappropriate.
Perhaps we should appeal to the SPCA. (The British version of the SPCA was started before there was an agency for helping children, I think the NSPCC!)
I haven’t watched the video but knowing your reasoned style, you have explained the steps and the whole situation.
It is disgraceful law, with the government making no allowance for the good and kind care of vulnerable children they always say they regard as very important. The law should be changed. And very soon.
And further there should be a panel of citizens who can step in at times like this, and get draconian laws abated, conduct our own enquiry into its performance and ensure it meets all psychological and physical needs of the child and caregivers with the emphasis being on the child’s short term happiness, and then attention given to assist long term happiness.
yes yes the sheep think that the police are the protectors of the public and that they would never break NZ law SORRY THEY ARE JUST LIKE THERE MASTER FOR 9 YEARS
NATIONAL BEND AND BREAK ANY LAW AND SIT BACK AND SAY PROVE IT
@ Carolyn_nth (14) … quite believable really, considering Hosking is part of the despicable msm, the scum which put pressure on Metiria to step down, thereby depriving NZ’s vulnerable of a true champion to speak on their behalf!
This decision by TVNZ proves the intelligence level at the network, must be severely lacking, if Hosking is the best it has to host the debates!
POSTED BY VANESSA COLE 52SC ON AUGUST 10, 2017
Auckland Action Against Poverty would like to send our support to Metiria Turei for making a stand for beneficiaries and unemployed workers facing the cold face of neoliberal capitalism.
“The resignation of Metiria is a symbol that our political parties support the votes and desires of the wealthy over the poor,” says Vanessa Cole, Co-ordinator of Auckland Action Against Poverty.
“The treatment of Metiria by the media and glorified public opinion is emblematic of the way we treat the poor and unemployed in this country.
“The sustained attack on social welfare over the last 40 years enables people to blame the poor for their situation and justifies punitive policies which place people in further financial hardship.
“The wealthy have to justify poverty by blaming the unemployed for unemployment in order to mask the reality that the wealthy profit from poverty.
“Poverty is not an individual behaviour or choice. It is, however, a political and economic choice by the rich who continue to accumulate wealth at the expense of those who actually produce it.
“Sole mothers are workers, underpaid and under-resourced, and we should be outraged that they are being punished by a system which is supposed to protect them.
“People are forced into poverty through low benefit rates, precarious work, inadequate state housing supply and punitive policies imposed by the toxic culture of Work & Income.
“For the unemployed workers who come to see us seeking advocacy, having to choose between food and rent is not a real choice when the threat of eviction is looming over their heads.
“Metiria’s treatment shows what happens to people who break the silence on this war against the poor, and AAAP thank her for taking this stand at great personal cost.
“The struggle for a welfare system which provides enough income and support for people to live with dignity will continue beyond the ballot box.
“This is a war on the poor, and we must stand up and fight back together.”
YES IT IS A WAR ON THE POOR IF YOU ARE WORRIED WERE THE NEXT MEAL IS COMING FROM THEY WILL NOT BOTHER TO VOTE . WHEN LABOR GET ELECTED THEY SHOULD MAKE COMPULSORY TO VOTE THAT WILL CHANGE THINGS AND KEEP THE POLITICIANS LOOKING AFTER THE PEOPLE
Estimated time before all the iron sands off of Taranaki are all gone? 35 years:
Under the Crown Minerals Act, TTRL has obtained a mining licence for 20 years, which expires in 2034. It is seeking a marine consents and marine discharge consents under the EEZ Act, with a duration of 35 years.
This is not a sustainable way to run the economy. We’re extracting the resources as if there’s no end to them despite the fact that we know that there is an to them.
The end result is that we’ll be poor because we’ll no longer have the resources necessary to support us.
So has Kim got nukes and needs to show off one… …Will Trump be rolled… ..did Trump know the right put Penne on the ticket, that’s why Trump is burning Presidential influence so Penne is a lameduck having gained power on Trumps ticket. Kim’s going to blow something up soon and Trump is too weak or so Kim thinks.
Trump should sack Pence, it’s obvious he was the wrong carryon, a president needs someone that isn’t more appealing to congress waiting in the wings. Rookie mistake.
I agree with you Draco we have to change the way we use things at least its starting to happen but it is to slow things will change when National are kicked out
Just in case you wondered where the opposition to all the commie talk about welfare and rivers is, get ready for the next marketing push from National’s funders at Barfoot&Thompson, plus of course the retail banks: People who vote according to property.
“Auckland’s house prices could skyrocket again in one to two years driven in part by the public’s view of property as a money-making asset in a market where stocks are limited.
New academic research suggested recent changes to the loan-to-value ratio restrictions that eased pressure on the market by reducing low-deposit loans would not keep the prices at bay for long.”
Titled Catch Animal Spirits in Auction: Evidence from New Zealand Property Market, it showed house prices had increased more than 50 per cent between 2013 and 2015.
At this late stage in the Electoral cycle we have lost 2 Leaders.
Would it be a hat-trick if the Leader of the National Party was dismasted by Winston’s revelations, or his Deputy Leader having to face DPB revelations and forced to quit?.
Nikki Kaye beaming out from the Herald online. The Good Fairy is bringing us more presents by way of new classrooms in Auckland. Spare me!
The bloody population of the city is going up like crazy and she’s being little Miss Wonderful by simply catering for the growth by providing rooms?! I can see a Damehood just around the corner for services to mankind.
Just picked up this from Checkpoint. Fascinating. It appears both Glenys Dickson and Stuart Davies of Barclay Affair fame are now members of another political party. Would that be NZ First? If so, then it is highly likely Winston Peters does have copies of the 450 texts English sent to Dickson around 18 months ago.
In case you haven’t spotted this from No Right Turn:
Another sign of the decay in transparency under National: the Department of Internal Affairs unlawfully allowed lawyers for foreign vampire capitalist Peter Thiel to veto what was released about him under the OIA: An Official Information Act request by the .. http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2017/08/public-servants-should-work-for-us-not.html
WTF
And there is another piece on a housing warrant of fitness.
I’m too weary to read them but both will push buttons. Ding, ding.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
If Winston has the Barclay texts it might be a good time to stop pussy-footing around…
Winston is the master of drip feed, all in good time.
Once the Greens are out of the gossipy news cycle, then I suspect Winston will tell us more.
Yesterdays question in Parliament was very telling, it’s far from over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk4y5_wcYcw
At the end of Winston’s questioning of Bill he remarked, “They are going to miss you.” Ominous?
Yeah, Winnie has something, and he at least thinks it is big. He must have proof that Bill was party to the agreement, knew about it and used ministerial limos to ferry people around in Southland to get the agreement done.
Give Winnie a week to allow the furor around the Greens to die and he will nail Bill. He might wait a little longer to see if he can skewer anyone else, or if he sees a way to eek out some more support from it, but it is coming….
Bye bye Bill.
Hello Winston.
Basil Brush falls apart – YouTube
▶ 0:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BjWk6jdxMg
Old bill english must be so scared now – likely 2 time loser, sad texts about to come out – oh the shame is coming, no policy, tired weak team of backstabbers and nobodies. More big bangs to come for Bill as he goes down and keeps going down until all his energy is spent – that’ll be early next week
@ScottGN (1) … I agree. Winston needs to step up now, if he’s in possession of the texts. In typical form, he’s treating the issue as a game, which doesn’t do him or NZF any favours.
I watched a recent online video of Winston being questioned about the texts. He would not give a straight answer and when pushed, he began attacking the journalists concerned! It was like a replay of his mentor Muldoon in action, when journalists put the pressure on him! The similarities in response was quite eerie!
However the old cynic in me is thinking maybe Winston could be using the English texts as a form of blackmail (for want of a better word), attempting to see what a Natz (via English) deal will come up with for him, post election.
after the election they’ll be worthless, as will any promises made because of them.
If he has them and they are really bad for blinglish, Winston will expect light treatment from the nats during the campaign. No muckraking from farrar, hoots, or Jizzpaste McSweaty. No seeking out family members. Otherwise, a couple of weeks out, Peters will drop ’em.
Could anyone be more annoying than Susie Ferguson? Why doesn’t she just answer her own questions and be done with it.
She’s probably aiming for a spot on The Nation or Q+A panels as a rent-a-voice
She’s by no means the worst of them but they do engage in binary ‘yes or no’ thinking at times
Well said, Ffloyd. Calculated interruptions which both disrupt the flow of the interviewee and prevent the listener from hearing the reply. Some replies are worthless evasion – but to Susie, any answer is fair game. Unless it is a high-ranking National politician of course.
Yes yes she annoys the heck out of me for that too
For the last decade or so I’ve more and more hated being a New Zealander, being on the receiving end of everything my “alleged” Government (and most of the opposition) has to throw at me, their overt hatred for my existence- for the simple reason I’m unable to work due to illness and need a benefit to survive. Yes, you could extend that back 30 years, but the extreme extreme cruelty kicked in more recently.
And of course, one has to admire the success of the divide and conquer campaign of the last 30 years (also revved up more recently) which has led us to now.
My Government openly despises me.
Labour don’t give a damn but they won’t say it out loud. Their actions during their last reign and silence in opposition since make that pretty clear.
A significant group of my fellow compatriates have been somehow brainwashed by politicians and the media into despising me. Maybe not as many as it feels like and it’s just a well coordinated media campaign that makes them sound like they represent the majority, but it still hurts.
I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to say there’s a lot of people here who genuinely couldn’t give two hoots if I died under a bridge. As a beneficiary in NZ, our status on the pecking order is just above an incarcerated prisoner, if not on a par. Of course, we are all now by default guilty of something until proven innocent.
Yesterday for the first time ever I openly cried over what happened to a politician, for the simple reason I never had any reason to give a damn what happened to one before, and the sustained attacks on MT were also attacks on every beneficiary in the country and while we weren’t their target at times we might as well have been. I was close to joining to non-voter ranks, especially after the Greens seemed to go very quite on welfare for a couple of years- I’ve always voted but now fully understand why people give up on the process. When literally no politician will speak out for you then you’re not being represented.
Greens, please don’t push your welfare policy into the background now that the topic’s finally being talked about publicly. In between all the horrible stuff there’s been some reality checks come through in some MSM and the public can’t be allowed to forget.
I’m hearing you Kay and full solidarity on all that.
As far as I can tell the Greens aren’t going to abandon beneficiaries, last night Shaw again committed to *ending poverty* in NZ and positioned the Greens as the only party willing to do that. But I can see that they need now to prove this to supporters and beneficiaries so I hope they do this in the next while.
I hear you Kay, being on the bottom rung of the so called ladder is no fun at all.
I too have been in your situation & feel your frustration with the system.
You will get more compassion under an inclusive Labour Led Govt. than anything that is currently being offered.
I hope u don’t loose faith in the broken system we have to deal with, because voting is the only way to try and change that.Miturea has fallen on her sword sadly, but has done NZ a favour by opening this can of worms.
It won’t go away now.
Don’t give up #letsdothis
Have a look at the Green pages on facebook. And take heart.
The leaders and the party are more determined than ever to address both social and environmental progress.
I don’t see anything on the GP FB since Turei’s registration. Where’s Davidson’s live chat last night on FB that some on twitter have mentioned?
Courage Kay, many Labour voters and members like me are sending clear signals about how we feel about the situation sickness beneficiaries and the unemployed find themselves in.
I too, shed tears for Metiria and those she represented.
Yes, REPRESENTED,
This is the role of parliamentarians and those seeking office.
To be representatives.
Humility kindness empathy, and most of all truthfulness have been in short supply.
Paul Goldsmith;s racial comments and entitled view just an example.
Those voters who want change, support the greens, as we want to keep Labour honest and on track not to be Nat Lite.
Kia kaha Kay.
Marama Davidson will be a very strong advocate for welfare reform in the next government. This is not going to go away.
https://thestandard.org.nz/green-mp-marama-davidson-on-keeping-the-faith/
Kay, all for you and speaking for you as much as possible. You are right, remember that. The nonsense of present nonsense–like Jim Bolger when he was PM for 7 and a half years–is, anything but materially, nothing. What remains is you are right. NZ’s heart is in the under- dog, or nowhere.
The scummy behaviour of National doesn’t ever seem to bite them on the bum.
“Citizen Thiel material wrongly withheld at billionaires’ request”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11900954
Wows. Thanks for the link, appears that even Thiel believed it was a dodgy deal, if he didn’t his lawyers would not have requested that the information to be withheld.
“Thiel avoided usual requirements when then-Minister Nathan Guy invoked a little-used “exceptional circumstances” clause of the Citizenship Act, citing Thiel’s philanthropy and venture-capital investments in this country.”
Excellent journalism by Matt Nippert
Will Nathan Guy be around to explain this?
I hope they tell him to fuck right off.
It’s just been hinted on newshub that Kennedy Grahame wants to go back on the greens list.
I hope they tell him to fuck right off.
Could just be fake news to help them with ratings.
nothing would surprise me nowdays – political maneuvering blindsided just about every day at the moment
Newshub that literally made up the news the other night? Probably not the best source of information or political analysis.
Shaw has ruled it out.
I think that Shaw said that it was a decision for the Executive. He appeared neutral.
Also more than hinted at by RNZ. It may have been in response to questions, so the context is needed. But Shaw sounds like he’s trying to be diplomatic and to avoid bening damning of Graham.
RadioNZ reporting this possibility too now in the 9am news bulletin.
Graham should be old enough to realise that things dont work like that,
Hi Cinny (5) … I also heard on RNZ this morning that James Shaw suggested the door is open for Kennedy Graham to return!
What’s going on there?
I am a Green supporter, but after hearing that, I’m having some WTF moments about the party!
I just do not get this either – I am officially worried about this.
I just listened and here is what I heard James Shaw say (my paraphrasing):
– Clendon doesn’t want back in.
– Graham might
– it’s up to the Party to sort that out, and the appropriate staff (national executive) are looking at it.
– Shaw himself can’t see how it would work because of the raw feelings in the caucus from what Graham and Clendon did only a few days ago.
– Graham is hugely experienced on climate change and Shaw has a lot of respect for him
– the party is bigger than any one person
– the party has a number of people very experienced on climate change
The thing to understand about the GP is that the leader doesn’t get to dictate stuff. There are processes to work through and it’s not Shaw’s place to pre-determine what that will be.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/336863/greens-tough-week-entirely-recoverable-shaw Relevant bit starts at 30 secs.
My own feeling is that Graham should do what Norman and Hague did and go get himself a kick arse NGO job that allows him to be political on CC. I hope the party say not to having him back because of the betrayal and because of the message it would send to Māori and poor people.
I really wish people would start trusting the Greens more and listen to what they say. I know this is hard, but mostly everything that the MSM say is based on them not really understand the kaupapa.
Trust them to be pragmatic? Always the problem –
pragmatism and idealism. I’m idealistic. I heard all that on the radio and understand the process and role of the leader – no issue with Shaw for me but can’t say the same about even CONSIDERING this decision – the people inspired today will be uninspired tomorrow of that I’m certain.
I hope the vegreens don’t pack on me now lol
Well, of course it has to be considered. There’s a process to go through.
And I’m pretty sure that any reasonable process would thoroughly and impartially examine the situation, take into account all relevant factors, and then courteously but firmly tell him to fuck off.
You don’t get to shit on your friends like that and then swan back into the circle when the one you don’t like leaves to have a shower.
“Trust them to be pragmatic? Always the problem –
pragmatism and idealism.”
No, I meant trust their own words rather than relying on what the MSM interpretations, because IME the Greens are honest in their communication, and if what they say doesn’t make sense there’s usually a good reason for that related to not understanding them on their own terms. And that the MSM and many commentators often end up with interpretations based on really not understanding what the Greens are doing. This is a serious issue for the Greens, a long standing one, I don’t know what the solution is.
I don’t know what the internal processes are, and I think it’s valid for people to be nervous, all I’m suggesting is that people give the Greens the benefit of the doubt about process because they’re good at this stuff, and also, tweet, email, FB, phone them and let them know what you think 😈
A health system that’s the envy of the world according to Johnathan Coleman, when he spoke to a conglomerate of cancer charities.
Oh how I laughed, reading this on the same day I was pleading with my specialist to write me a letter so the medication I get in Europe would be available to me when I get back to NZ. It’s not that it’s not available in NZ (do not be fobbed off with the “but it’s available” line), it’s that the criteria for approval is too high.
By noting Legatum and the US as envious of the NZ health system, Coleman is not looking beyond his own ideological blinkers when making that statement either.
One point he made that I did agree with is that approvals and access should be Pharmac decisions, not political decisions. From my point of view, both John Key (herceptin) and Andrew Little (keytruda) were both guilty of politicising medicines decisions. It is, however the job of politicians to ensure Pharmac is adequately (and for fairness sake) publicly funded. Coleman should be working on that.
Meanwhile
Which pretty much contradicts Coleman’s claims of a health system that’s the envy of the world – (well, at least the countries NZ likes to compare itself with in all those ‘best of’ lists).
Envy of the neoliberal world. Fify
Probably stumped as to why the US only ranks 31st in life expectancy when it spends so much more on health than any other country.
Some here may not like anyone supporting David Seymour, yet he has become a strong supporter for this Intraoperative Therapy, and Dr.Erica Whinery Kelly should be commended for all her efforts in progressing this form of treatment
This interview is IMO well worth listening to.
http://www.95bfm.com/bcast/david-seymour-presents-an-alternative-treatment-for-breast-cancer-patients
And as a support person for someone who has been treated both by: the traditional 5 week radio therapy treatment and this IORT. I cannot see why both the government and those within the health industry are so opposed to this.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/81143167/calls-for-public-funding-of-new-oneoff-breast-cancer-treatment
This is an interesting issue. There some research around rural women’s access to breast cancer treatment and the difficult considerations they must weigh up before embarking on a course of treatment, so I can see how important this treatment appears to be, especially for these women but also others. It’s not a surprise that Dr.Erica Whinery Kelly has highlighted Mid-Central DHB .
If the evidence shows a treatment is effective, then of course politicians like Seymour should be asking the question about funding. It seems a no-brainer if IORT is cheaper and just as effective for traditional therapies (a quick look at recent papers suggests funding approval might be a confirmation of appropriate use issue?)
Generally though, as much as I respect the right of politicians to highlight treatment options and the funding of them, it’s the politicians making decisions about treatment that disturbs me (as Key did with making herceptin funding an election promise).
I’d also respect these lobbying politicians much more if they insisted on adequate funding for DHBs and Pharmac – to provide them with the resources to ensure all New Zealanders have equitable and timely access to good and effective treatment options. I doubt Seymour or Coleman are that sort of politician.
wow just wow – and they are not good wow’s
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/95610302/improving-lake-to-national-standard-would-have-severe-social-and-economic-consequences
Yep they would let Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere die before doing anything.
I really hope they tell them to fuck right off!
The priorities in this report goes all the way back to the 2010 anti-democratic decision by the National Government to sack ECan Councillors and replace them with commissioners. I don’t hold out much hope for Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere unless we change the government.
Yes this needs to be talked about more often, that move at Evan was doctoral to say the least.
The Nats only know one way, that’s Divide and rule!! And they call the other side Communists! Hypocracy !!!
#letsdothis
Can’t they, like, fine polluting farms? Or even say hey guys stop the polluting?
Then that’s what needs to happen.
Just read that Bob Jones’s is going to build the tallest wooden office building in the world it’s good to see that some business people are getting on the sustainability train
Stephen Mills on Morning Report this morning suggesting there are rumours that Curia’s tracking poll for National has the Greens sliding below 5%?
Did any one watch Hillary Barry read that TXT this morning on Metiria that was a national troll anyone could see that the stories were all fake!!!! to damage the greens image
At Bowalley Road Chris Trotter looks at Metiria’s desire to stand down completely from Parliament. He is thinking apparently that politics is basically the art of achieving the possible. If virtue is achieved by being too pure and idealistic and nothing else can be accepted then politics is getting into dangerous territory and refer to the Jacobins and how their virtuous tide got tarnished by being taken beyond the extremes and flipped back on itself.
So should Metiria step down? She has won many people’s admiration, mine amongst them. The strength of the attack from the self-centred and those hostile to human rights, except theirs, indicates she has pierced the skin of complacent, uncaring, money-mad NZ. She is more than disappointed, and she is drained from holding herself erect while the barrage sweeps round her.
For that reason she shouldn’t go, just go back on the List. Change your mind Metiria. We need you, the Greens have to put little figures on their model landscape, we are needy animals wanting the proper treatment for our condition of die-back too. So don’t whisk Metiria away, she has brought you up to a higher level, which can result you gaining new adherents and bring you to 18% from 8% back to 10-12% with people joining from the ranks of those with nothing to lose and a life to gain.
This is what Chris said in Bowalley:
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/
Thus does History instruct us. That any political movement which abandons the reasonable pursuit of achievable objectives and embraces instead a regime dedicated to the imposition and enforcement of a universal and uncompromising “republic of virtue”, may begin by executing its enemies, but it will end by making enemies of, and executing, its friends. Freedom can never be secured by coercion. Every revolutionary movement which tried has ended up devouring itself.
If the Greens have indeed entered their Jacobin phase, it is likely to be their last.
no idea wtf he is on about, but I’ve been wondering if it would turn out he’s a fair weather friend.
” if it would turn out he’s a fair weather friend.”
I f you mean a friend of the Green Party I think you would wrong to think of him as a friend, fair weather or foul.
Chris is, and I think has always been, a friend of the Labour Party. He doesn’t give a damn about any other party I would think except so far as they can damage Labour’s enemies.
He is rather fun to read though. Can you imagine any other commentator who would talk about a “sibilant kiss” as he did here.
“Robespierre, himself, was declared an “enemy of the people” and laid open to Madame Guillotine’s sibilant kiss”.
To my mind Chris has a great knowledge of history, and what he has learned from that is what he is most loyal to. (Including good writing. History depends upon good writers!)
Labour cops plenty of his criticism, but others who have small historical knowledge rush to slate him whenever he writes something unfavourable for their particular political clique. He ends up being attacked from all quarters – but I always eagerly click on his articles. And I don’t think he is entirely serious about the Greens being in the Jacobin phase. The analogy is almost ironic.
But it seems applicable at the moment in some ways..
Chris has dark moments when his analysis suffers – he penned an anti-Corbyn piece a couple of months back – he’d bought the negative media mood.
And yet in another recent post he talked up the virtues of remaining true to your core policies even if it meant working from outside parliament
I sometimes think he’s trying too hard to shoehorn his latest reading matter in to current politics
And lets not forget that anti apartheid protestors, anti slavers and suffragettes were all deemed to be either terrorists or dangerous nutters.They didn’t prevail by pandering to the less brave
And we’ll see how the Greens deal with their two dissenters, if I know the Greens it’ll be anything but Jacobinist
Agree. But with Chris I don’t think it is just his latest reading matter. My impression is that he remembers just about all he has read, which few of us can do. He shoehorns when he sees it as relevant.
I think Chris opens his mind to other possibilities than would be considered by a focussed person with the view that their thinking is The One Way. So he tries to present different scenarios. It’s amazing that we all don’t think the same isn’t it. Never mind all will be explained by a clear and well modulated AI voice in the future and disagreement will be futile.
If I weren’t so old as to be unable to wait much, I would say that I can hardly wait. But I agree with your first two sentences.
Then there’s this little flight of inspiring fantasy on The Daily Blog today.
There has been a series of investigation of cops removing kids under care and protection orders.
Some of the video is horrific
AND there has been no reaction in MSM,I have seen.
This needs a wider distribution.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/08/07/41459/taken-by-the-state
Hard to say. Can you give any background on the family situation?
Gabby, follow the links. There is a discussion about the family situation.
But dragging a screaming 5 year old away from her mother doesnt seem to be the best way.
If you take time to watch the fifteen minute video in the first linked article, it will give you some background to the situation.
The mother went to put the child on the plane to return them to the custodial parent, but the child reacted so strongly to leaving her mother that Air New Zealand refused to put her on the plane.
The mother contacted the father to say that she was not able to get on the flight, and they would attempt the seven-hour drive to return her the next day.
Due to the ongoing distress of the child, the mother also contacted the child’s lawyer, and the local GP to ensure that the child was well. She also contacted CYFS to make them aware that they had missed the return of the child on the contracted date. They told her they would be in touch.
She also contacted the police. Unbeknownst to her, the decision to get a judge to give an “uplift” warrant had already begun.
She was still awaiting contact from CYFS, when the police arrived to return the child to the father.
The warrant was issued – not because of concern about the wellbeing of the child – but because of the failure to return the child at the appropriate time.
In terms of child trauma, this response is inappropriate.
Why doesn’t the child want to be with the father?
The father must have lied to get this action from the police.
The police obviously didn’t talk to either themselves or to CYFS first. And I’d say that the father bypassed process as well.
By the sounds of things, the mother did everything right.
AND YET Adams says no problem!!!!
“Why doesn’t the child want to be with the father?”
I wouldn’t know. I would think that thought lead to the mother making an appointment with the GP to determine that all was OK. Anything else is only further speculation.
“The father must have lied to get this action from the police.”
No. Apparently the system is set up so that failure to comply with a court order for custody or visitation – and in this case it was failure to return the child on the stipulated date – gives automatic heft to a compliance order, which may result in an uplift order enacted by the police.
“The police obviously didn’t talk to either themselves or to CYFS first.”
Even if they did, they would act in accordance with the uplift order. Rightly or wrongly.
“And I’d say that the father bypassed process as well.
I’d say he acted within the system. But the result would have been traumatic for his child. My personal response would be to arrange to pick up the child myself, and have support staff available for pickup but that is a process that requires time, effort and exemplary social department resources.
“By the sounds of things, the mother did everything right.”
And many would agree with you. Myself included. But our concern is for the child’s wellbeing, not compliance with a system that is flawed and often deeply traumatising. It is hard to watch the video of the 14 yr old boy without empathising with his distress. And it is impossible to imagine that his mother would agree with such actions if she was to witness what an uplift order meant for her child. Not if she truly had his wellbeing at heart.
I was asking more in the lines of: There is something seriously wrong here if the child doesn’t want to go back, is anybody looking?
I assume that the only way for the police to know about it is if the father told them and he had been contacted by the mother telling him what was happening and knowing the child would be returned next day. For the police to act as they did and as fast as they did he must have told them that the mother had said that she’s not returning the child at all.
Probably but did he go to the child’s lawyer first? Surely that would be the first thing to do to ensure that communications aren’t bypassing each other.
“I was asking more in the lines of: There is something seriously wrong here if the child doesn’t want to go back, is anybody looking?”
Yes, I understood that. But I also understand that a child can behave quite dramatically to situations that do not warrant further investigations. The mother understandably took the child to a local GP, who found no indication of physical harm (psychological and mental harm is much harder to identify).
I would suggest that a two-day visit to a loving mother and doting grandparents after a long hiatus, may have just passed too quickly for a small child. If the drive to return is seven hours, then it is unlikely it is a frequent occurrence. That is a possible explanation, given no evidence or concern has been identified.
“I assume that the only way for the police to know about it is if the father told them and he had been contacted by the mother telling him what was happening and knowing the child would be returned next day. For the police to act as they did and as fast as they did he must have told them that the mother had said that she’s not returning the child at all.”
The child’s lawyer will not make recommendations to either parent. They are supposed to be completely separate in order to ensure they act in the best interests of the child. I believe that is the response given to the mother when she got in contact with her. The mother herself contacted the police.
The video is worth watching because of the commentary given by the advocate and the professor. They believe that if the judges granting the uplift warrants, and the parents requesting them actually viewed the consequences this situation would not be happening.
The current system for non-compliance makes the use of uplift warrants as a means to ensure compliance a common one.
It seems that the child is just a pawn in a very nasty case of hijacking a child yet it is legal. Here is a case of a law being followed with extreme harm to the child and family instead of the protection it is supposed to provide. Metiria has to diddle her receipts from boarders or flatmates so she can finish her schooling and achieve something in her life but she couldn’t have been spoken of more harshly if she had been a child beater.
If she didn’t have a job and salary would the police not also be likely to come to her home because some timetable set to suit the adults concerned was not adhered to, and the mother did all the right things but still there was police brutality. Children are traumatised for life by one event like this. The whole thing is disgraceful.
I was talking to a health worker tonight who I met while we waited for a pizza. We agreed that NZrs won’t complain and will accept substandard outcomes, don’t stand up for themselves to get right and fair treatment, we are prepared to put up with shoddy everything. At work she finds forms not filled in properly and systems not carried out efficiently.
It seems that the country has been trained to accept third best for citizens. This sort of disgraceful treatment of children is how the National Party consider is right for those who aren’t of the right class, or who have problems. If you do, then the police will thump you somehow, somewhere but if you’re on the right side the problems will just go away.
I have a very good friend, whose daughter was a child placed with her from CYFS.
The siblings who had been removed, spoke once of their memories. The boy has a very traumatic memory of playing with his siblings outside in the sun with the hose and laughing, and hearing a car pull up and the police were there and took the children – still in their togs and wet – away.
The trauma of this incident remained with them all. And although such actions are sometimes necessary, the resources needed to aid them through such unexpected separation is not available.
To remove children is sometimes necessary. But just as important, is appropriate care and support after that removal.
That being said, I don’t think the case above was about removal for the wellbeing of the child. It appears to be something that is unfortunately becoming common as a result of non-compliance of custody orders. The trauma for the child must be immense, and it is hard to see any caring parent wanting their children to go through this for that reason alone.
Interesting Molly.
It is a disgraceful case of a hypocritical government lacking in any integrity making play with being the big I am over a legal decision about a child involving the child and caregivers.
If the police were ordered to pick up stolen property, capture a dog that was of value, they might behave in exactly the way that they did with this poor child.
You give the picture – this from your comment;
in this case it was failure to return the child on the stipulated date – gives automatic heft to a compliance order, which may result in an uplift order enacted by the police.
and from you at 12.1.2
The mother went to put the child on the plane to return them to the custodial parent, but the child reacted so strongly to leaving her mother that Air New Zealand refused to put her on the plane.
The mother then did: The mother contacted the father to say that she was not able to get on the flight, and they would attempt the seven-hour drive to return her the next day.
She also did: Due to the ongoing distress of the child, the mother also contacted the child’s lawyer, and the local GP to ensure that the child was well. She also contacted CYFS to make them aware that they had missed the return of the child on the contracted date. They told her they would be in touch.
She also did: She also contacted the police. Unbeknownst to her, the decision to get a judge to give an “uplift” warrant had already begun.
Note: She was still awaiting contact from CYFS, when the police arrived to return the child to the father.
Cold impersonal callous punitive-type law: The warrant was issued – not because of concern about the wellbeing of the child – but because of the failure to return the child at the appropriate time.
In terms of child trauma, this response is inappropriate.
Perhaps we should appeal to the SPCA. (The British version of the SPCA was started before there was an agency for helping children, I think the NSPCC!)
I haven’t watched the video but knowing your reasoned style, you have explained the steps and the whole situation.
It is disgraceful law, with the government making no allowance for the good and kind care of vulnerable children they always say they regard as very important. The law should be changed. And very soon.
And further there should be a panel of citizens who can step in at times like this, and get draconian laws abated, conduct our own enquiry into its performance and ensure it meets all psychological and physical needs of the child and caregivers with the emphasis being on the child’s short term happiness, and then attention given to assist long term happiness.
yes yes the sheep think that the police are the protectors of the public and that they would never break NZ law SORRY THEY ARE JUST LIKE THERE MASTER FOR 9 YEARS
NATIONAL BEND AND BREAK ANY LAW AND SIT BACK AND SAY PROVE IT
UNBELIEVABLE!
Hosking to present TVNZ election debate again – up on Stuff in the last half hour.
Predictable and intersting to see if he tempers his nat fanboy approach hedging his bets for potential new paymasters
@ Carolyn_nth (14) … quite believable really, considering Hosking is part of the despicable msm, the scum which put pressure on Metiria to step down, thereby depriving NZ’s vulnerable of a true champion to speak on their behalf!
This decision by TVNZ proves the intelligence level at the network, must be severely lacking, if Hosking is the best it has to host the debates!
Labour and the Greens should just say “No. We will not participate in such a debate.” and favour the other channel’s debates instead.
Meanwhile, behind the Whitehouse….
Statement from Auckland Action Against Poverty, which I agree with:
YES IT IS A WAR ON THE POOR IF YOU ARE WORRIED WERE THE NEXT MEAL IS COMING FROM THEY WILL NOT BOTHER TO VOTE . WHEN LABOR GET ELECTED THEY SHOULD MAKE COMPULSORY TO VOTE THAT WILL CHANGE THINGS AND KEEP THE POLITICIANS LOOKING AFTER THE PEOPLE
Hey mate, just a heads up if you write in capital letters you will probably cop a ban from moderators for “shouting text” on this blog.
Estimated time before all the iron sands off of Taranaki are all gone? 35 years:
This is not a sustainable way to run the economy. We’re extracting the resources as if there’s no end to them despite the fact that we know that there is an to them.
The end result is that we’ll be poor because we’ll no longer have the resources necessary to support us.
So has Kim got nukes and needs to show off one… …Will Trump be rolled… ..did Trump know the right put Penne on the ticket, that’s why Trump is burning Presidential influence so Penne is a lameduck having gained power on Trumps ticket. Kim’s going to blow something up soon and Trump is too weak or so Kim thinks.
Trump’s mullah declares a holy war against the nation’s enemy.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2017/08/09/robert_jeffress_says_god_approves_trump_taking_out_kim_jong_un.html
Trump should sack Pence, it’s obvious he was the wrong carryon, a president needs someone that isn’t more appealing to congress waiting in the wings. Rookie mistake.
I agree with you Draco we have to change the way we use things at least its starting to happen but it is to slow things will change when National are kicked out
Just in case you wondered where the opposition to all the commie talk about welfare and rivers is, get ready for the next marketing push from National’s funders at Barfoot&Thompson, plus of course the retail banks: People who vote according to property.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11901728
“Auckland’s house prices could skyrocket again in one to two years driven in part by the public’s view of property as a money-making asset in a market where stocks are limited.
New academic research suggested recent changes to the loan-to-value ratio restrictions that eased pressure on the market by reducing low-deposit loans would not keep the prices at bay for long.”
Titled Catch Animal Spirits in Auction: Evidence from New Zealand Property Market, it showed house prices had increased more than 50 per cent between 2013 and 2015.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1540-6229.12206/full
This election isn’t going to be about welfare.
It’s going to be about whether National can scare enough people that under Labour they will lose great chunks of their equity in property.
Simon Bridges in the House proving again his parents spelt Slimin’ wrong.
At this late stage in the Electoral cycle we have lost 2 Leaders.
Would it be a hat-trick if the Leader of the National Party was dismasted by Winston’s revelations, or his Deputy Leader having to face DPB revelations and forced to quit?.
Nikki Kaye beaming out from the Herald online. The Good Fairy is bringing us more presents by way of new classrooms in Auckland. Spare me!
The bloody population of the city is going up like crazy and she’s being little Miss Wonderful by simply catering for the growth by providing rooms?! I can see a Damehood just around the corner for services to mankind.
Where is Daily Review!
Just picked up this from Checkpoint. Fascinating. It appears both Glenys Dickson and Stuart Davies of Barclay Affair fame are now members of another political party. Would that be NZ First? If so, then it is highly likely Winston Peters does have copies of the 450 texts English sent to Dickson around 18 months ago.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/201854299/pm-staying-quiet-on-450-texts-to-todd-barclay-s-staff-member
The segment begins at 4:28 mins.
It’s up now 🙂 Feel free to copy your comment across.
In case you haven’t spotted this from No Right Turn:
Another sign of the decay in transparency under National: the Department of Internal Affairs unlawfully allowed lawyers for foreign vampire capitalist Peter Thiel to veto what was released about him under the OIA: An Official Information Act request by the ..
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2017/08/public-servants-should-work-for-us-not.html
WTF
And there is another piece on a housing warrant of fitness.
I’m too weary to read them but both will push buttons. Ding, ding.
sectarian war in Saudi Arabia
http://www.dw.com/en/is-saudi-arabia-waging-war-on-its-shia-minority/a-40045513