Speaking of a media outlet losing its marbles. Kremlin mouthpiece RT has published a weird daydream about a Russian take over and the Ukraine government doing a US Vietnam or Afghanistan type flight from their own capital.
Like that's ever gonna happen. But you can always dream I suppose.
The American exit from Kabul might be taste of the future for officials in Kiev
It may be not to far from the truth, as the russians are reporting that the UK are suffering such shortages because of their support that they are hunting and eating squirrels. / sarc. This is a good video for the tankies just to show what they support. I don't think it will change their thinking but it lays out pretty clearly just what they are.
The key word here being "withdrawal". The war in Afghanistan and Vietnam ended with the invader's withdrawal. Without the invader's withdrawal those wars would still be going. Just as the war in Ukraine will end with the invader's withdrawal, and won't end, until the Russians do withdraw.
Simple as that.
That is utterly pathetic, so much so that it must be some kind of abuse or corruption. Scared if rw backlash?! WTF, it's info that's needed more more than ever.
The BBC are also demoting sports broadcaster and former football star Gary Lineker because he dared to voice criticism of the Conservative government's new policy on asylum seekers.
I tell you what, nothing brings home climate change like driving for 45 minutes to five different stores to get hold of some limes for my cocktail party tonight.
Understandable when your view of women is so much of a sexist stereotype that you think that putting on a frock and doing tampon advertisements makes you a woman.
I think it's worse than that. I think KitchenAid is being utterly cynical in creating content by manufacturing outrage. Most feminist (I would guess) aren't interested in that ad existing – not because its a transwoman fronting it, but because it's so regressive and stereotyped – so it's not like they're taking a valued job or anything.
If that ad had appeared with a famous female influencer – feminists may have criticised the ad on the 'taking us back to the 50s' vibe but really, no-one would have cared much – they've heard it all before – maybe there would be a standard npn-apology for a minor publicity boost.
But with a transperson fronting the ad, the same feminist criticism would be 'anti-trans' and create screeds of column inches and social media discussions while everyone decides what the ad means and what we should be angry about. people will be banned, blocked and hated, academics would write their things.
And KitchenAid will sit back and watch its top 10 trending and take the sales when the furore has died away.
It might be a bit cynical – but generally when I see something prevocative like this these days, I assume it's a deliberate plan to create social media noise.
I must do some researching on it, but it just seems so like the Bannon-type messaging, I think more than just a few unscrupulous marketing departments have taken notes.
"The need for some such agency is, I think, undeniable. The current debate over consultants has revealed how hopelessly, cravenly reliant modern government is on the Deloittes and Chapman Tripps of this world. The state has been hollowed out in recent decades, losing expertise, wisdom and savvy. One of the worst examples came in Kaipara some years back, where, following the grotesque failure of a wastewater project, it became clear the local council was so short-staffed it couldn’t even manage its contracts with private providers – let alone build anything itself."
Only problem is it will take a decade or two to regain the required capabilities….as with most solutions, the best one is not to create the problem in the first place.
Georgia drops foreign agents law after massive protests
By SOPHIKO MEGRELIDZE today
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgia’s parliament voted Friday to drop a foreign agent registration bill after the legislation, which opponents warned could be used to stifle dissent and curtail media freedoms, prompted tens of thousands of protesters to swarm the capital this week.
Lawmakers voted 35-1 against the bill during a session that lasted just four minutes and featured no discussion. The vote came less than a day after Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, said it would withdraw the legislation…
….Protesters in Tbilisi said the bill was inspired by a similar law in Russia that has been used to silence critics. They rallied outside the parliament building despite being met with tear gas and water canons.
Similar to the claim made by supporters of Russian imperialism, that the popular revolt against Russian ally Victor Yanakovych who fled to Moscow, was a Western backed coup.
Russian leader Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy has likened the Foreign Agent Law protests in Georgia, as a Western backed plot.
As another ex-Soviet state is gripped by violent protests, is a Ukraine-style coup on the cards?
RT 9 Mar, 2023 10:38
…internal pressure from a restive minority is backed up by external pressure from the EU and US.
They claim that the government is colluding with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as former Western-favorite Saakashvili languishes in prison. The fact that Moscow’s influence, in this case, is completely fictitious is irrelevant. The Russian issue is too deeply embedded in Georgia’s political consciousness.
A Maidan-style overthrow of the authorities is unlikely; there are no real hardline forces, such as those seen in Kiev, in the opposition. The main front now will be external – EU and US pressure to force Tbilisi to abandon neutrality and the authorities’ ability (or inability) to evade it. Their resources are limited…
what would the russians use to invade georgia ? they are reduced to scrounging from nth korea! for shells ,and are running short of warm bodies. 30 yrs of corruption has hollowed out the russian military .
"History never Repeats I tell myself before I go to sleep." Splitenz
East Germany thrived on snitching lovers, fickle friends and envious schoolkids
Newly unearthed secret files from the former German Democratic Republic reveal how easily we can betray others.
Peter Wensierski
Dec 23, 2015 – 12.15am
Everyone knows about the Stasi and the extent to which it spied on the East German populace. But that was only a small part of the informing that went on. New research shows that snitching was vastly more common than previously thought….
…..they were totally normal citizens of East Germany who betrayed others: neighbours reporting on neighbours, schoolchildren informing on classmates, university students passing along information on other students, managers spying on employees and Communist bosses denouncing party members…..
Mass Backstabbing Spree Over Putin’s War Sweeps Russia
Noor Ibrahim
Sat, March 11, 2023 at 9:52 AM GMT
Many of those jailed after being reported by other citizens were charged under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, a new law signed by Putin last year criminalizing “public actions aimed at discrediting” Russian Armed Forces…..
….cases detailed in the Vrestka investigation include complaints made against Russian citizens for playing a Ukrainian song in the car while driving, drunkenly making pro-Ukrainian statements from a balcony, and criticizing the war in private conversations with friends at a coffee shop. The individuals who made the complaints allegedly include eavesdropping neighbors, coworkers, and janitors.
In many of the cases, according to the outlet, little to no evidence was provided by witnesses who reported the alleged violations.
Developments can move in two very different directions in this geopolitical transformation of the South Caucasus. One features a stalemate in the war in Ukraine, a gradual recovery of Russian strength and a deepening relationship between Moscow and Tehran. The outcome would be to counter the growing influence of Azerbaijan. Russian peacekeepers would reassert control over the Lachin corridor. Iran would begin sales of weapons to Armenia, notably the Shahed-136 drones, and the Zangezur corridor would be stalled. The longer-term investment would be aimed at promoting the north-south transport corridor that has long been favored by Russia and Iran.</em>
The alternative scenario features a defeat for Russia in Ukraine and effective sanctions against Iranian exports of weapons. This would embolden Azerbaijan and Turkey to push through the Zangezur corridor, to further erode Russian influence in the South Caucasus and to shut Iran out of the region. It is worth remembering that during the 44-day war in 2020, Azerbaijan not only shelled targets in Nagorno-Karabakh but also targets inside Armenia proper. It remains in a position to do so again, and Russia may be too weak to prevent it.
The outcome if Turkey and Azerbaijan emerge as winners would be infrastructure investment that is geared toward providing energy from Central Asia and the Caspian basin into Europe. There would be many winners. Turkey is only too happy to become a major energy hub. The European Union has already courted Baku for gas while dialing back criticism of Azeri human rights abuses. And the U.S. would be happy to see Russia pushed out. It does look like the most likely outcome.
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An example of the desire for intensification gone crazy.
Developer in an upmarket inner-city suburb in Auckland wants to redevelop a single site to build 11 town-houses on a known flood plain (heavily flooded during the Jan downpour).
The 'plan' is to build the houses over sacrificial garages (basically designed to flood – though the developer denies this). [my sarcastic single quotes]
He claims that the existing stormwater infrastructure is sufficient – even though it wasn't in Jan this year, and his proposal would cover the whole of the site in concrete – further reducing any capacity for rainfall to be stored in the ground.
The only interest the developer has is in building and selling these for as much profit as possible – he'll wind up the company immediately they are sold, so there will be no way to make him culpable for downstream consequences.
The common sense approach, as I see it, would be to red-sticker this site, and use it for effective flood mitigation landscape planning for drainage of the surrounding area. It might, or might not, be possible to run a kindy on part of the site (the existing use is a daycare centre)
So the developer bought a cheap site next to the creek, and it looks like Council might be going to restrict what can be done with it to a point that there's no way they are going to get their money back.
So, they come up with a plan to maximise return with something that really won't be marketable until people forget about the flood risk to increase the site's value when Council have to step in and buy the property.
That said, sacrificial floodways are a very long-standing urban design strategy. Live in a flat subdivision and the building platforms are meter or two above the street, probably wouldn't leave your car on the street when there's a big rain coming, that street is probably designed to flood to buffer loads on the stormwater system down stream.
The approach isn't without merit, makes alot of sense to build on piles or above garages getting the living spaces at least 1m above ground would save plenty of heartache.
Well, if that's intended to be the NZ-wide solution to climate change: "just build up" – then it would be really good for the Government to articulate it.
Personally, I think not building in already identified floodplains, especially when they've already been flooded – is a better solution.
And, even better, if the Insurance companies came out and said that new houses built on floodplains will not be insurable for flood/water damage (you can, of course, still insure for fire and theft).
I'd guess that would make the vast majority of the potential high-risk builds uneconomic (banks wouldn't lend if no insurance, and most people wouldn't buy)
ATM, the Council is hamstrung by the current legislation, and the knowledge that developers will take them all the way through the Environment Court in order to get building consent.
We need a country-wide legislative framework to address these climate risk issues.
It is chicken or egg really but if you won't be able to get ordinary home insurance on a dwelling then it matters not whether the house is built on stilts or piles or hung from a slow low hovering helicopter!.
It seems less wasteful to say no and base good planning on geographic features now rather than let people find out yet again that the house they have built/paid mortgage money on is either washed away or flooded and then is not capable of being insured. Why have the second step of having 11 poor homeowners demonstrating ‘yes those flood plain maps were correct, yes the 2023 flood results were demonstrative of 2023 realities?’.
Perhaps 'someone' should buy this land back or allow some sort of tax credit to the developer if it is made a reserve never to be built on. This would need to be fair.
if your house is registered as a boat(why not, tiny houses get round council housing rules by being classified as caravans), then maybe you could get boat insurance? it wont be cheap, boat stands for >bring out another thousand..but if you need insurance for a mortgage, it may be a way around the problem.tiny houses need wheels,towbars and be blocked up, not on solid piles, to be classified as a motor vehicle. what would a house need to be classified as a boat? a life preserver and a name?
Good to see that Helen White has been selected as the Labour candidate in Mt Albert.
Helen has lived in the Electorate for over 30 years and is well known in the area for her work with local organisations. She also has worked as an Employment lawyer – representing working people.
She has great Labour values and obviously has good support from the local Electorate Committee.
Means that there is a very good Labour candidate Camilla Belich who contested the (extremely hard for Labour to win) Epsom electorate last election available for somewhere like (ummm) Auckland Central that Helen White missed on in the last two elections.
Why do I think that this is important?
That 3-way split is a problem in Auckland Central. In 2017, Helen lost it to Nikki Kaye from the Nats by 1581 votes. In 2020 lost it to Chlöe Swarbick by 1068 votes. with the National candidate less than 2000 votes behind.
So Auckland Central is in the position of having a 3-way split in the candidate vote.
But here is the thing for a number person like me. Look at 2017 vs 2020.
Chlöe Swarbick's excellent campaign raised the green candidate vote by about 10,000 votes – and the Green party vote just by about 2800 votes.
This suggest to me that as a campaign, the Greens and Chlöe expended quite a lot of resource in getting a electoral candidate and failed to gain a solid a base in Auckland Central.
Helen White expended effort on gaining party vote – the kind that all parties under MMP actually need.
Ok – some numbers followed by argument..
Green candidate vote in 2020 – 12,631
Green party vote in 2020 – 6,937
Green candidate vote in 2017 – 2,838
Green party vote in 2017 – 4,170
Labour candidate vote in 2020 – 11,563
Labour party vote in 2020 – 16,751
Labour candidate vote in 2017 – 11,617
Labour party vote in 2017 -11,340
National candidate vote in 2020 – 9,775
National party vote in 2020 – 7,680
National candidate vote in 2017 – 13,198
National party vote in 2017 -11,773
As a party, even one that I'm not affiliated with, but who goes into arrangements with my normally preferred party, I get worried by that.
Under MMP, smaller parties that wind up dependent on electoral seat tend to wither and die.
Now I'm sure that the usual party electorate crap that usually goes around electorate seat wins for minor parties will be running around the Greens. That it provided a base for growing the party vote. The problem is that isn't what you see with NZ's now rather large MMP history.
But again, that isn't usually what happens. What happens is that party vote is across the whole country with relatively minor variants. The party resources get sucked into defending an electorate seat, and eventually they lose both the seat having lost the party vote long before that.
The only known long-term exception has been NZ First who actually became a better party after Winston Peter finally lost Tauranga. They refocused on a national campaign and won seats by list votes. I have a strong suspicion that they will do so this election – despite Shane Jones.
You could argue that Act is working against that. But that is too early to tell. National were so crap after the 2017 and especially during the pandemic that there was a lot of what I call protest votes going from National to Act. The Act candidate usually gets between 5x to 10x the Act party vote they get out in Epsom, The Greens usually get larger party votes than Act does, and they're far more consistent.
In 2017, Act as a party got 0.5% party vote and the Greens got 6.3%. In 2020 Act got 7.6% in mostly protest votes against National. But the Greens got a consistent 7.9%.
It will be going to be interesting to see if Act can pivot from running mostly a single electorate campaign to running a national campaign this election, and if the Greens get sucked into defending and electorate at the expense of their national campaign….
dont know whether the greens have to defend anything. mother nature is waking everybody up to the greens message.crappy weather turns everybody into socialists. I think act will be defending the 5% limit, as nervous nats again, dither and return to default setting. I really think nzfirst is done. they might huff and puff, but its wasted votes .
mother nature is waking everybody up to the greens message.
Sure, Doesn't mean that voters are any more likely to vote Green. In fact, I'd almost bet that it does exactly the opposite. Everyone covered in disasters loves havinga sanctimonious Jeramiah laughing at their misfortune rather than being constructive and useful to the commonweal.
crappy weather turns everybody into socialists
Yes. But frankly the Greens simply aren't that much more socialist than either Labour or National or NZ First when it comes to disaster relief. So you're really just contrasting the Greens (and every other party in parliament) to Act.
I really think nzfirst is done. they might huff and puff, but its wasted votes .
Do you have any idea how many times I have heard that in the last 30 years? And how many times that people relying on that have face planted themselves into a custard pie. To me, a statement like that indicates just indicates a idiot commenting on the demographics of protest politics.
The obstruction part of the Trump documents investigation is centered on Trump’s incomplete compliance with a subpoena in May that demanded the return of any classified-marked documents in his possession, after documents he earlier returned to the National Archives included 200 that were classified.
In June, Corcoran searched Mar-a-Lago and produced about 30 documents with classified markings to the justice department and had another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, sign a certification that attested to compliance with the subpoena “based on the information provided to me”.
But the justice department, according to court filings, developed evidence that more classified-marked documents remained at the resort, as well as “evidence of obstruction”. And when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, they found 101 such documents in a storage room and in Trump’s office.
Given that he'd already been selected as the candidate (with no opposition), this strikes me as a bit late in the piece – though, I suppose, better now than later in the year.
Almost certainly going to gift the Waiariki electorate to TPM's Waititi – who would I think have held it it any case – he seems to have strong electorate support.
I recall a TV piece about Sir Rod Deane and his wife after their late daughter Kristen was finally diagnosed with Rett syndrome. IIRC, Kristen was in her early/mid-teens at the time of filming, tiny, uncommunicative, with a fixed gaze and entirely dependent on her care givers.
Not many things get to me but the plight of that kid and her parents certainly did.
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 ...
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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 ...
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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, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
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 ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
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 ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
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 ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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What the actual fuck? The BBC has lost its marbles. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/mar/10/david-attenborough-bbc-wild-isles-episode-rightwing-backlash-fears
The hunger-to-watch created by the furore will be intense 🙂
It'll be the Tories and the farmers who won't be able to turn away from the screen, so desperate to spot political bias.
Speaking of a media outlet losing its marbles. Kremlin mouthpiece RT has published a weird daydream about a Russian take over and the Ukraine government doing a US Vietnam or Afghanistan type flight from their own capital.
Like that's ever gonna happen. But you can always dream I suppose.
It may be not to far from the truth, as the russians are reporting that the UK are suffering such shortages because of their support that they are hunting and eating squirrels. / sarc. This is a good video for the tankies just to show what they support. I don't think it will change their thinking but it lays out pretty clearly just what they are.
https://youtu.be/sjBXGt8MMoE
Like that's ever gonna happen. But you can always dream I suppose.
They probably said the same thing about the withdrawal from Afghanistan … until it happened.
The key word here being "withdrawal". The war in Afghanistan and Vietnam ended with the invader's withdrawal. Without the invader's withdrawal those wars would still be going. Just as the war in Ukraine will end with the invader's withdrawal, and won't end, until the Russians do withdraw.
Simple as that.
That is utterly pathetic, so much so that it must be some kind of abuse or corruption. Scared if rw backlash?! WTF, it's info that's needed more more than ever.
The BBC are also demoting sports broadcaster and former football star Gary Lineker because he dared to voice criticism of the Conservative government's new policy on asylum seekers.
The political right obviously has a lot of power in British media.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64920557
Lineker's tweet compared the Tories to Nazis,
https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/1633111662352891908?s=20
The Beeb has come under blistering attack for its transparent bias and hypocrisy in this matter
https://twitter.com/SkyKaveh/status/1634288030658842641?s=20
Football’s Gary Lineker booted by BBC over refugee policy tweets | Human Rights News | Al Jazeera
Go get a copy of Fear: New Zealands Hostile Underworld of Extremists by Byron Clark.
Very up to date.
I tell you what, nothing brings home climate change like driving for 45 minutes to five different stores to get hold of some limes for my cocktail party tonight.
What does? Wasting so much carbon for something so decadent? I guess you could look at it that way, but I wouldn't feel too guilty about it.
Whooooosh
+100
Pft, you got that right.
Bring on Peak Oil. Can't come soon enough. Had a gutsfull of ICE vehicles.
Last year, my Commodore died (steering, timing chain, transmission: would have cost $7500+ to fix).
Then I got a Mazda, which died in December (turbo shat itself and destroyed the engine, bye bye $19K).
Now I'm borrowing a diesel Peugeot, which decided to crap out on the motorway, losing power steering, ABS, god knows what else.
Dylan Mulvaney is a high profile, recently transitioned trans identified male, TRA, who specialises in promoting stereotypes about women.
Gender identity ideology is regressive and harms women and girls.
https://twitter.com/labelfreebrands/status/1634230676076781568
Understandable when your view of women is so much of a sexist stereotype that you think that putting on a frock and doing tampon advertisements makes you a woman.
Is promoting a women's place is in the kitchen super acceptable now that Dylan is a [hashtag] Kitchen Aid ambassador?
A whole generation of feminist work to fight for women to be accepted as fully-capable humans broken on a marble benchtop.
we can be grateful I guess that he's moved on from tampons 😑
I think it's worse than that. I think KitchenAid is being utterly cynical in creating content by manufacturing outrage. Most feminist (I would guess) aren't interested in that ad existing – not because its a transwoman fronting it, but because it's so regressive and stereotyped – so it's not like they're taking a valued job or anything.
If that ad had appeared with a famous female influencer – feminists may have criticised the ad on the 'taking us back to the 50s' vibe but really, no-one would have cared much – they've heard it all before – maybe there would be a standard npn-apology for a minor publicity boost.
But with a transperson fronting the ad, the same feminist criticism would be 'anti-trans' and create screeds of column inches and social media discussions while everyone decides what the ad means and what we should be angry about. people will be banned, blocked and hated, academics would write their things.
And KitchenAid will sit back and watch its top 10 trending and take the sales when the furore has died away.
Utterly manipulative.
that's a really good analysis, thanks.
It might be a bit cynical – but generally when I see something prevocative like this these days, I assume it's a deliberate plan to create social media noise.
I must do some researching on it, but it just seems so like the Bannon-type messaging, I think more than just a few unscrupulous marketing departments have taken notes.
I'm guessing it's very cost efficient too, getting social media influencers to do the heavy lifting.
MoWD 2.0
"The need for some such agency is, I think, undeniable. The current debate over consultants has revealed how hopelessly, cravenly reliant modern government is on the Deloittes and Chapman Tripps of this world. The state has been hollowed out in recent decades, losing expertise, wisdom and savvy. One of the worst examples came in Kaipara some years back, where, following the grotesque failure of a wastewater project, it became clear the local council was so short-staffed it couldn’t even manage its contracts with private providers – let alone build anything itself."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300827129/max-rashbrooke-reviving-a-modern-ministry-of-works-necessary-to-cope-with-modern-infrastructure-demands
Only problem is it will take a decade or two to regain the required capabilities….as with most solutions, the best one is not to create the problem in the first place.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
best we get on with it now then.
Perhaps…the penny appears to be dropping
Similar to the claim made by supporters of Russian imperialism, that the popular revolt against Russian ally Victor Yanakovych who fled to Moscow, was a Western backed coup.
Russian leader Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy has likened the Foreign Agent Law protests in Georgia, as a Western backed plot.
The Russian imperialists do not recognise the agency of the people of either Georgia or Ukraine to determine their own destiny.
The real question;
As another ex-Soviet state is gripped by huge protests, is a Ukraine-style invasion on the cards?
what would the russians use to invade georgia ? they are reduced to scrounging from nth korea! for shells ,and are running short of warm bodies. 30 yrs of corruption has hollowed out the russian military .
"History never Repeats I tell myself before I go to sleep." Splitenz
History repeats
Another conflict brewing in the South Caucasus.
https://twitter.com/secretsqrl123/status/1633625836069814272
Scenarios
Developments can move in two very different directions in this geopolitical transformation of the South Caucasus. One features a stalemate in the war in Ukraine, a gradual recovery of Russian strength and a deepening relationship between Moscow and Tehran. The outcome would be to counter the growing influence of Azerbaijan. Russian peacekeepers would reassert control over the Lachin corridor. Iran would begin sales of weapons to Armenia, notably the Shahed-136 drones, and the Zangezur corridor would be stalled. The longer-term investment would be aimed at promoting the north-south transport corridor that has long been favored by Russia and Iran.</em>
The alternative scenario features a defeat for Russia in Ukraine and effective sanctions against Iranian exports of weapons. This would embolden Azerbaijan and Turkey to push through the Zangezur corridor, to further erode Russian influence in the South Caucasus and to shut Iran out of the region. It is worth remembering that during the 44-day war in 2020, Azerbaijan not only shelled targets in Nagorno-Karabakh but also targets inside Armenia proper. It remains in a position to do so again, and Russia may be too weak to prevent it.
The outcome if Turkey and Azerbaijan emerge as winners would be infrastructure investment that is geared toward providing energy from Central Asia and the Caspian basin into Europe. There would be many winners. Turkey is only too happy to become a major energy hub. The European Union has already courted Baku for gas while dialing back criticism of Azeri human rights abuses. And the U.S. would be happy to see Russia pushed out. It does look like the most likely outcome.
https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/geopolitical-transformation-south-caucasus/
good post. pretty much all of those countries hate the russians , and like cockroaches , they never leave ..
But Fifa are considering doing a U-turn on Saudi sponsorship of Women's World Cup …
/
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https://twitter.com/BntanMtyryh/status/1633081923634450433
For the feminists in the room, but also applies more generally to online debate culture and kaupapa.
https://twitter.com/wlaotearoa/status/1634264667093893131
Some people think "being kind" means allowing trans identified males to punch women in the face.
https://twitter.com/RichieHardcore/status/1634352944211726336?s=20
An example of the desire for intensification gone crazy.
Developer in an upmarket inner-city suburb in Auckland wants to redevelop a single site to build 11 town-houses on a known flood plain (heavily flooded during the Jan downpour).
The 'plan' is to build the houses over sacrificial garages (basically designed to flood – though the developer denies this). [my sarcastic single quotes]
He claims that the existing stormwater infrastructure is sufficient – even though it wasn't in Jan this year, and his proposal would cover the whole of the site in concrete – further reducing any capacity for rainfall to be stored in the ground.
The only interest the developer has is in building and selling these for as much profit as possible – he'll wind up the company immediately they are sold, so there will be no way to make him culpable for downstream consequences.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-storms-raise-concerns-about-housing-development-alongside-flood-plain-in-grey-lynn/L7FMD4TPRZHPFFL43UMXYVLICQ/
The common sense approach, as I see it, would be to red-sticker this site, and use it for effective flood mitigation landscape planning for drainage of the surrounding area. It might, or might not, be possible to run a kindy on part of the site (the existing use is a daycare centre)
So the developer bought a cheap site next to the creek, and it looks like Council might be going to restrict what can be done with it to a point that there's no way they are going to get their money back.
So, they come up with a plan to maximise return with something that really won't be marketable until people forget about the flood risk to increase the site's value when Council have to step in and buy the property.
That said, sacrificial floodways are a very long-standing urban design strategy. Live in a flat subdivision and the building platforms are meter or two above the street, probably wouldn't leave your car on the street when there's a big rain coming, that street is probably designed to flood to buffer loads on the stormwater system down stream.
Sink or swim. Homes built to weather floods exist in the Netherlands, Australia, US Gulf states and other places. Why not here?
The approach isn't without merit, makes alot of sense to build on piles or above garages getting the living spaces at least 1m above ground would save plenty of heartache.
Well, if that's intended to be the NZ-wide solution to climate change: "just build up" – then it would be really good for the Government to articulate it.
Personally, I think not building in already identified floodplains, especially when they've already been flooded – is a better solution.
And, even better, if the Insurance companies came out and said that new houses built on floodplains will not be insurable for flood/water damage (you can, of course, still insure for fire and theft).
I'd guess that would make the vast majority of the potential high-risk builds uneconomic (banks wouldn't lend if no insurance, and most people wouldn't buy)
ATM, the Council is hamstrung by the current legislation, and the knowledge that developers will take them all the way through the Environment Court in order to get building consent.
We need a country-wide legislative framework to address these climate risk issues.
Belladonna this is fine stuff.
It is chicken or egg really but if you won't be able to get ordinary home insurance on a dwelling then it matters not whether the house is built on stilts or piles or hung from a slow low hovering helicopter!.
It seems less wasteful to say no and base good planning on geographic features now rather than let people find out yet again that the house they have built/paid mortgage money on is either washed away or flooded and then is not capable of being insured. Why have the second step of having 11 poor homeowners demonstrating ‘yes those flood plain maps were correct, yes the 2023 flood results were demonstrative of 2023 realities?’.
Perhaps 'someone' should buy this land back or allow some sort of tax credit to the developer if it is made a reserve never to be built on. This would need to be fair.
if your house is registered as a boat(why not, tiny houses get round council housing rules by being classified as caravans), then maybe you could get boat insurance? it wont be cheap, boat stands for >bring out another thousand..but if you need insurance for a mortgage, it may be a way around the problem.tiny houses need wheels,towbars and be blocked up, not on solid piles, to be classified as a motor vehicle. what would a house need to be classified as a boat? a life preserver and a name?
Well, to satisfy insurers and bank managers (who aren't as thick as you seem to imagine) – it would actually need to be a boat.
If the site has insurance issues (and consequently finance issues ) there is only one 'someone'…joe public.
At what point does Joe public say, 'nah'?
The first Australasian Let Women Speak event is about to start in Sydney at 2pm NZT. It should be livestreamed here,
https://www.youtube.com/@KellieJayKeen/streams
NZ events are on the 25th and 26th March (Ak, Wgtn).
https://www.standingforwomen.com/events
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDSe3ot5EmE
grassroots feminism ^^^
how can there be women's rights if women include men?
That is it at it's simplest!
Especially when those men & their actions pay scant regard to the hard-won rights of women.
Good to see that Helen White has been selected as the Labour candidate in Mt Albert.
Helen has lived in the Electorate for over 30 years and is well known in the area for her work with local organisations. She also has worked as an Employment lawyer – representing working people.
She has great Labour values and obviously has good support from the local Electorate Committee.
Means that there is a very good Labour candidate Camilla Belich who contested the (extremely hard for Labour to win) Epsom electorate last election available for somewhere like (ummm) Auckland Central that Helen White missed on in the last two elections.
Why do I think that this is important?
That 3-way split is a problem in Auckland Central. In 2017, Helen lost it to Nikki Kaye from the Nats by 1581 votes. In 2020 lost it to Chlöe Swarbick by 1068 votes. with the National candidate less than 2000 votes behind.
So Auckland Central is in the position of having a 3-way split in the candidate vote.
But here is the thing for a number person like me. Look at 2017 vs 2020.
Chlöe Swarbick's excellent campaign raised the green candidate vote by about 10,000 votes – and the Green party vote just by about 2800 votes.
This suggest to me that as a campaign, the Greens and Chlöe expended quite a lot of resource in getting a electoral candidate and failed to gain a solid a base in Auckland Central.
Helen White expended effort on gaining party vote – the kind that all parties under MMP actually need.
Ok – some numbers followed by argument..
Green candidate vote in 2020 – 12,631
Green party vote in 2020 – 6,937
Green candidate vote in 2017 – 2,838
Green party vote in 2017 – 4,170
Labour candidate vote in 2020 – 11,563
Labour party vote in 2020 – 16,751
Labour candidate vote in 2017 – 11,617
Labour party vote in 2017 -11,340
National candidate vote in 2020 – 9,775
National party vote in 2020 – 7,680
National candidate vote in 2017 – 13,198
National party vote in 2017 -11,773
As a party, even one that I'm not affiliated with, but who goes into arrangements with my normally preferred party, I get worried by that.
Under MMP, smaller parties that wind up dependent on electoral seat tend to wither and die.
Now I'm sure that the usual party electorate crap that usually goes around electorate seat wins for minor parties will be running around the Greens. That it provided a base for growing the party vote. The problem is that isn't what you see with NZ's now rather large MMP history.
But again, that isn't usually what happens. What happens is that party vote is across the whole country with relatively minor variants. The party resources get sucked into defending an electorate seat, and eventually they lose both the seat having lost the party vote long before that.
The only known long-term exception has been NZ First who actually became a better party after Winston Peter finally lost Tauranga. They refocused on a national campaign and won seats by list votes. I have a strong suspicion that they will do so this election – despite Shane Jones.
You could argue that Act is working against that. But that is too early to tell. National were so crap after the 2017 and especially during the pandemic that there was a lot of what I call protest votes going from National to Act. The Act candidate usually gets between 5x to 10x the Act party vote they get out in Epsom, The Greens usually get larger party votes than Act does, and they're far more consistent.
In 2017, Act as a party got 0.5% party vote and the Greens got 6.3%. In 2020 Act got 7.6% in mostly protest votes against National. But the Greens got a consistent 7.9%.
It will be going to be interesting to see if Act can pivot from running mostly a single electorate campaign to running a national campaign this election, and if the Greens get sucked into defending and electorate at the expense of their national campaign….
I'll write a post after the election. 😈
dont know whether the greens have to defend anything. mother nature is waking everybody up to the greens message.crappy weather turns everybody into socialists. I think act will be defending the 5% limit, as nervous nats again, dither and return to default setting. I really think nzfirst is done. they might huff and puff, but its wasted votes .
Sure, Doesn't mean that voters are any more likely to vote Green. In fact, I'd almost bet that it does exactly the opposite. Everyone covered in disasters loves havinga sanctimonious Jeramiah laughing at their misfortune rather than being constructive and useful to the commonweal.
Yes. But frankly the Greens simply aren't that much more socialist than either Labour or National or NZ First when it comes to disaster relief. So you're really just contrasting the Greens (and every other party in parliament) to Act.
Do you have any idea how many times I have heard that in the last 30 years? And how many times that people relying on that have face planted themselves into a custard pie. To me, a statement like that indicates just indicates a idiot commenting on the demographics of protest politics.
It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.
https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1634024541554110465
The obstruction part of the Trump documents investigation is centered on Trump’s incomplete compliance with a subpoena in May that demanded the return of any classified-marked documents in his possession, after documents he earlier returned to the National Archives included 200 that were classified.
In June, Corcoran searched Mar-a-Lago and produced about 30 documents with classified markings to the justice department and had another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, sign a certification that attested to compliance with the subpoena “based on the information provided to me”.
But the justice department, according to court filings, developed evidence that more classified-marked documents remained at the resort, as well as “evidence of obstruction”. And when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, they found 101 such documents in a storage room and in Trump’s office.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/09/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-papers-grand-jury
Tamati Coffey announces that he will not stand in 2023.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/labour-waiariki-mp-tamati-coffey-to-retire-from-politics-at-upcoming-election/NFBKNFDX6FAGPE3CVPCCLO5IO4/
Given that he'd already been selected as the candidate (with no opposition), this strikes me as a bit late in the piece – though, I suppose, better now than later in the year.
Almost certainly going to gift the Waiariki electorate to TPM's Waititi – who would I think have held it it any case – he seems to have strong electorate support.
A huge congratulations to Professor Dame Margaret Brimble for achieving FDA approval for the drug. Culmination of a professional lifetime.
And very rare for New Zealand.
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2023/03/11/margaret-brimble-trofinetide-wins-FDA-approval.html
I recall a TV piece about Sir Rod Deane and his wife after their late daughter Kristen was finally diagnosed with Rett syndrome. IIRC, Kristen was in her early/mid-teens at the time of filming, tiny, uncommunicative, with a fixed gaze and entirely dependent on her care givers.
Not many things get to me but the plight of that kid and her parents certainly did.