The Prime Minister has set up a semi-secretive digital and media expert group to advise on regulating social media. It took an OIA request by @MatthewHootonNZ to disclose the identity of members of the group.
Jordan Carter, Chief Executive, Internet NZ
Nat Torkington, technologist
Miriyana Alexander, Premium Content Editor, NZME
Rick Shera, Internet and Digital Business Law Partner, Lowndes Jordan
Michael Wallmansberger, cybersecurity professional, independent director; Chair of the CERT NZ Establishment Advisory Board
Victoria Maclennan, Managing Director, MD OptimalBI Ltd; Chair of the Digital Economy and Digital Inclusion Ministerial Advisory Group; Co-Chair, NZRise
John Wesley-Smith, GL Regulatory Affairs, Spark
Lizzie Marvelly, NZ Herald columnist, Villainesse.com co-founder and editor
But the objectives remain secret 'in the public interest'.
1. This is an advisory group. Most politicians could easily be described as extreme technophobes (by my standards). They need advice about what is achievable and desirable.
2. I know several of those listed. I really don’t have any issues. They provide the required bridge between the technical and the political.
3. If there are any problems with implementing their advice, I am pretty sure that they will be entirely aware of exactly how the technical community who have to implement it will view and deal with it.
4. Hooton is technically a useless idiot who specializes in disruption. I’d prefer the people I know on this list to give advice to politicians.
My handy rule of thumb on this sort of thing is to ask 'how might my political adversaries use this power or regulation against me, when they next get the levers of power in their hands?'
Or in this instance, imagine if National had set up a 'semi-secret' committee to propose regulating social media and 'left wing extremism' … for instance.
.. imagine if National had set up a 'semi-secret' committee to propose regulating social media and 'left wing extremism'
To get quick advice after a left-wing terrorist mass murder entangled with social media? Sure, I can imagine that. As Mr George notes, the objectives did not arise from the advisory group.
I'd prefer the consultation was being done a lot more widely and openly.
Withholding any information about the objectives of the group is troubling. Either they are keeping the objectives secret (having considered the public interest), or they have formed the group and started operating with no objectives (and no work programme established). There must be objectives to have prompted the formation of the group.
It's not a broad "consultation" vehicle; it is a dedicated group for specific advice at a particular time.
Government is full of them and they are not a substitute for broader engagement during policy processes. By all means jump up and down if there are resulting law changes without appropriate process.
If there are resulting law changes without appropriate process I think it's far too late.
What if those law changes required full time moderation of The Standard? Or made it illegal to criticise laws that regulate speech in social media?
Best to jump up and down when it might still make a difference. I don't think we should leave it up to a group working on a secret agenda to serve our best interests.
Do you think that policy on the regulation of speech in social media should be formulated in secret? It's not just an advisory group that's involved, it's the Government who set up the group and meet with the group.
And as I understand things the Government can set law.
And as I understand things the Government can set law.
Your understanding is quite flawed.
Parliament can set law. The Legislative council can request changes in regulation. The cabinet can propose legislation to Parliament and regulation to the GG. Even that is subject to scrutiny by various bodies like the soliciter general, various statutory bodies, and eventually the courts.
Plus of course we live in a MMP system. That means coalition agreement.
Any proposal is a compromise. Requiring advice.
The ‘goverment’ is an interesting near fiction.. They can initiate but not control without agreement – what century are you living in?
"The ‘goverment’ is an interesting near fiction.. They can initiate but not control without agreement – what century are you living in?"
Linear time is an irrelevance to the man in the beige safari suit (just as it is, and has become to a good number in that 'gummint'). Much as he'd like to be operating in the 5th Dimension, we've yet to discover Pete's Whurl of Reality
Sorry to say @ Cleeangreen "Jacinda lets have inclusion please" probably won't happen in your (or my) lifetime. You should have had learnings by now that buzz such as 'inclusion' – even 'truth' are subject to an individual's interpretation.
All very nice of course, AND aspirational (going forward).
If Marx were alive today, it wouldn't be a case of religion being the opium of the sheeple, but consumerism and the gorgeous self.
And why not? Like a sex addict would say – what better way to go out than to fuck yourself to death. Bugger all else
It's patently obvious from the group slection what it is about, even Hooton must know even if he pretends otherwise for political stirring reasons – to feed the paranoia of the paranoid.
This is just the group one would form before the Paris meet, it certainly looks like one associated with the take down notice implementation regime for social media the Paris meet will try to agree on (inciting violence, promotion of violence glorification of violence etc).
The Paris meet is narrowly focused and does not include hate speech law, so no reason to get your …
But the objectives remain secret 'in the public interest'.
That, and the fact there are no civil libertarians or free speech advocates on the panel, suggest the government has an agenda of censorship but would prefer not to advertise the fact.
At this point, it would help if we had a credible opposition party, rather than the collection of ruthless, smarmy grifters that is our National Party caucus.
I channelled the EFF, provided lists of similar orgs and people critical of censorship who should be engaged, IDed good speech not to be lost while chasing terrorists, etc.
Most academics have absolutely no experience with the underlying structure of the internet. Why would anyone think that they have much to contribute at a technical level?
And you’d have to be daft to think that anything can be done except at a technical level when it comes to the net.
If you look at the speed used in the legal system with any of the existing tools like the defamation act, privacy act, HDCA, or even the police – then they take years to deal with.
It is hard to see what else could be done with anything like the existing structures. Besides getting anything done would be
And anything else relies upon the technical people to have figured out something that will actually work.
After that is done, then we can use wafflers to fine-tune it.
Nobody is stopping academics and universities to fulfil their legal role acting as critics and conscience of society. One would like to think that the Government does listen to advice from more than one source and that one advisory group would neither have or aim for a monopoly on nor as a filter of genuine proper advice.
Just because I see a red flag doesn’t mean the whole world is a red flag. I can zoom in and out, I can entertain multiple PoVs, I can even attempt integration of multi-level or paradoxical concepts. In very few instances, I will even admit that I don’t know shit. Or I can decide to stare myself blind on the bird shit splatter on the windscreen and drive off the road into a ditch.
There's been some angry reactions from some gun owners recently. A former neighbour weighed in against the PM, and all politicians when I pointed out that all but one MPs had voted for the Act, because friends who had been active on social media and were gun owners got a visit from the police.
Today in the Press we learn of armed police teams raiding the homes of two men who the day after the mosque shootings went and bought AR15 style weapons from Gun City in Christchurch.
They just didn't get that such a response was brought about by their actions. They bought the weapons hoping that existing gun owners would be exempt. ONe said he'd 'always wanted one.' They didn't hand in the weapons having found out the weapons would have to be impounded. They bought the guns in the same city as the massacre one day after.
They got upset because a team of armed police visited a man who bought the same weapon as used in the massacre which killed 51 people, and acted according to the possible threat and danger from a man who had two assault convictions.
As Mrs Mac1 says, " we have some very fragile people in our country."
At least one of them had been mouthing off online about Muslims, the attack's target.
The way NZ police behaved here was standard worldwide procedure, including armed police being posted everywhere. I have no sympathy for these guys whining about their hurt feelings.
And bollocks to it being standard procedure- police don’t raid people who have purchased firearms legally without a reason – and they have provided none in this case.
I have heard mutterings from inside the gun owning fraternity that they know of friends who are buying plastic piping and sealing their automatic weapons in them before burying them in the garden.
I think that the police should carry metal detectors on every such raid and check out the yard.
Man that Slate piece you linked to is one of the most racist things I have read in a long time..holy shit.
" In Peru, he recalls, a doctor reported seeing 50 cases of rape in the preceding five days. All the victims were less than 15 years old."
Yet according toNation Master you are 17% more lightly to be raped in the USA than Peru, in fact it shows that the risk from nearly all crime is higher in the US than Peru
" The abuse of state power turned out to be a human problem, not a colonial one."
Colonialist invade a poor country, completely destroy and disrupt centuries of structure and life for the inhabitants, they eventually get kicked out. and suddenly everything is meant to just go back to how it was before colonization?..seriously, I mean I am no academic, but even I understand that the deep damage caused to these formally colonized societies lays squarely at the feet of their former oppressors.
Uhh, you have any idea of the difference between recorded crime and actual crime is in places with really corrupt authorities? Particularly for a deeply personal crime such as rape, where attempting to pursue justice is much much more likely to result in further victimisation and humiliation than any kind of punishment for the perpetrator?
In your rush to find something to whine about and make yourself feel morally superior, you seem to have totally missed the point of the article. Which is to look at ways to improve things for people living in fucked up parts of the world.
Well of course we all want " to look at ways to improve things for people living in fucked up parts of the world." how that is done and under what context and by whom is also incredibly important, all I was saying is that I found the piece to be extremely condescending to the people of those poor counties, and it's lack of historical context was disturbing.
BTW Andre, When I read statements like…' You can’t just do good. You have to grapple with evil', I of course get instantly suspicious…so I was in no ' rush to find something to whine about and make yourself feel morally superior" so go get fucked with your ad hominem attacks (as you and your pals always fall quickly back to). maybe you should just try displaying a little more critical thinking.
I would have thought the same problem, patriarchal power structure existed in the first world and in the pre colonial "third world". And that, as a result of colonialism one can add institutional racism. Those dealing with both in the first world can bring that knowledge to the third world in their foreign aid programmes.
I wish these assurances were true. They aren’t. Tests do show an IQ deficit, not just for Africans relative to Europeans, but for Europeans relative to Asians. Economic and cultural theories have failed to explain most of the pattern, and there’s strong preliminary evidence that part of it is genetic. It’s time to prepare for the possibility that equality of intelligence, in the sense of racial averages on tests, will turn out not to be true.
William Salatan…racist. Or maybe just lazy and attention grabbing. Or maybe all 3.
In your rush to whine about the person whose name is on the byline, did you miss the actual content of the piece? And that the piece was almost entirely just a summary of content originally produced by Gary Haugen, with a bit of additional info about Haugen and the organisation he heads?
No actually the piece you linked to has the heading and then 'By WILLIAM SALETAN' (Their caps) so it isn't a byline.
Don't you think it is about time you grow up and stop your incessant whining and whinging every time some one points to all the holes in the shit you put up.
When you and Siobhan stop responding to just about everything with a diversionary whine that's unrelated to the content of the comment you're responding to, I'll stop telling you what you're doing is diversionary whining.
Firstly my initial comment WAS about the content of your link, and as far as I can see so was Siobhan’s. so don’t know what your are talking about there.,,just whinging for the sake of it I guess.
Secondly, maybe I will stop critiquing you when you stop putting up links that are dodgy and making comments that I don't agree with, but until then I will comment how ever I see fit, as is the nature of open political forums in case you hadn't noticed
You don't see me getting all sad and defensive on it like you when people constantly critique my links and comments (which they do)…maybe you need to harden up a bit.
So in short, if you can only understand being critiqued as whining then that is your problem not mine.
"Some liberals don’t like to hear this message. They’re uncomfortable with the language of power, punishment, deterrence, and force. They prefer to talk about amnesty, rehabilitation, or demilitarization"
Congratulations on finding one of the very few bits of the piece that's Saletan's content, not a summary of Haugen's views.
Now, do you think you can actually take the very brave step of actually considering Haugen's views about how the lack of a fair justice system is a significant part of continuing poverty? And that concentrating more aid efforts into improving justice systems might have better results than current aid efforts?
Or is it just too big a mental obstacle for you to overcome, purely because he's an evangelical, that someone might actually have developed worthwhile observations from his work helping the impoverished ?
An estimated 60% of Peruvian mothers aged between 12 and16 years old become pregnant as a result of rape. And your reaction to anecdotal reports of appalling levels of sexual violence is but America!.
@joe90, Look all I was trying to say was that the piece that was linked to initially seemed to me to be quite racist in tone, just because someone wants to help in poor third world countries doesn't mean they don't have all kinds of hooks and personal agendas that go along with that 'help’,so when I read this … ' You can’t just do good. You have to grapple with evil' and this 'The abuse of state power turned out to be a human problem, not a colonial one.' in that piece, and then looked up the author who turned out to be involved in some racist controversies, well my alarm bells started ringing…wouldn't yours?
Random morning thought: there should be a word for that really discomfiting feeling you get when someone that's nuttier than pecan pie actually agrees with you.
The Germans probably already have one. Sabine, can you help?
That's a really cool definition Gabby and as always leads to the need for further elucidation. For the benefit of very uncool people like me here is an Urban Dictionary's definition of Dre (the others were so packed with sex-loaded foul-mouthed expletives I passed them by).
an adjective used to describe anything that is cool and/or dope beyond comprehension. Applicable only to those individuals with the highest levels of swag. Derivative of the popular rapper name Dre and thus is most commonly used as an expression by members of hip hop culture. However, it is sometimes used by a select few individuals who wish they had swag…
Maybe. Works for most of the sensation. Bit it doesn't quite convey that additional little hint of feeling maybe your own views need an urgent re-examining, tho.
The scale of procrastination is increasingly evident…
"Emission budgets will be set for five-year periods once we are past 2025 and up to 2035 these will be all set by December 31st, 2021. In setting the targets consideration must be given as to how these targets may be realistically met plus another range of “cover all options” clauses.
If a budget period achieves greater savings than budgeted these can be carried forward into the next period and if a budgeted period falls short of budgeted emissions government may drag back up to 1% (borrow) from the following period."
“So it appears meaningful climate action has been deferred until post the next election”
Even further than that….
As there is no concrete plan on how to meet these targets….
It is all very well having a target, but without a concrete plan to work towards it, it is meaningless.
I could have a target to be a millionaire in 5 years.
I could even say that I will need to get $200,000 per year to reach my target.
I have a target, I am almost there.
The same with the Zero Carbon Bill, lots of targets lots of deadlines, Zero actual policy on how to meet them.
Meanwhile in the real world, business as usual continues, huge area of Taranaki opened up for oil and gas exploration. Huge coal mine expansion in Huntly Rotowaro open cast. More motorway expansion. Business as usual in all spheres
The purposes of the targets is to require those contesting elections and forming coalition governments to have plans to meet the said targets – though we have yet to see National buy in to confirm it.
The targets themselves are in accord with the OECD international consensus – sans outliers such as Oz and USA and Canada.
the stated purpose of the Bill is to confine to 1.5 degC of warming (but definitely less than 2) as per the Paris accord……and this admin is going to further waste this 3 year term and part of the next (should they get another) before any practical policy is enacted…..on current projections 1.5 will have already been exceeded by then.
This lot could teach the EU a thing or two about can kicking on that performance
Future thinking. Past thinking. Just thinking and trying and being a bit entrepreneurial and not putting it off till many of us thinking oldies will be dead. (How are we all planning for the environmentally appropriate way to be laid to rest?)
I thought of Futuro houses – alien looking double saucered homes on stilts.
I see from Nelson Mail paper that a guy has been sourcing some of these in NZ. Apparently only 100 were made in the 1970's (worldwide?) then the oil crisis, so rare. Nick McQuoid brought one from Northland to Christchurch in 2012 and later sold it to Museum in Tasmania for $280,000!
His latest is at Ohoka, Christchurch, and was a whitebait shelter in South Westland.
Futuro houses were conceived by Matti Suuronen in Finland in 1968 to be used as "portable" ski chalets. The insulated fibreglass structures were designed so the interior could heat up in just 20 minutes.
Grey, about a month ago I saw a lil truck towing a house on a trailer in Thorp St, was super impressed.
It looked like a tall prefab cottage, but what buzzed me out was the vehicle towing it, was one of those landcrusier style trucks, the ones many kiwi's own. It was so cool to watch. They backed it down their drive way and voila, instant house. Must have been lightweight to be able to be moved by such an average vehicle.
Those chalets, awesome, I think there is one at the wreckers on the left driving into Mot next to a phonebox with an alien in it….hmmmm…. going to the tip today, will double check if it is, I wonder if they've seen the article, that would be worth stopping in and sharing with them, might just do that…..thanks for sharing Grey, very cool.
Displaced people in the world 41 million!! Extreme weather displaces more people than conflicts and violence. Norway has a group keeping track.
(Me: Scandinavia for the modern UN! Time for a change of place, practice, hegemony, away from hedgemoney!)
Fog in Auckland stopping ferry sailings and international departures. (This is NZ idea of what displaced people are! We have to up our thinking, I think.)
Greed has overcome both good sense and decency, as the government opens a up huge area for oil and gas exploration on land violently seized from Maori by Colonial authorities
Iwi in Taranaki are upset the government has put their ancestral land up for oil and gas drilling…..
……Former Green Party candidate for Te Tai Hauāuru, Jack McDonald, is gutted with the offer, which covers his own tribal lands.
“It is a slap in the face that this so-called progressive government, which is meant to be taking a new approach to climate change and a new approach to Māori-Crown relations, would actually continue with this approach.”
Greed has overcome both good sense and decency, as the government opens a up huge area for oil and gas exploration on land violently seized from Maori by Colonial authorities
Iwi in Taranaki are upset the government has put their ancestral land up for oil and gas drilling…..
……Former Green Party candidate for Te Tai Hauāuru, Jack McDonald, is gutted with the offer, which covers his own tribal lands.
“It is a slap in the face that this so-called progressive government, which is meant to be taking a new approach to climate change and a new approach to Māori-Crown relations, would actually continue with this approach.”
….The problem – and it’s an existential threat both profound and perverse – is that those who lead us and have power over our shared destiny are ignoring global warming to the point of criminal negligence. Worse than that, their policies, language, patronal obligations and acts of bad faith are poisoning us, training citizens to accept the prospect of inexorable loss, unstoppable chaos, certain doom. Business as usual is robbing people of hope, white-anting the promise of change. That’s not just delinquent, it’s unforgivable…..
The Australian term white-anting comes from the action of termites that hollow out and empty something that looks fine on the surface.
The Zero Carbon Bill is an example of white-anting stopping any real action on climate change, looking substantial, but completely hollowed out of any real action.
The argument made for the Zero Carbon Bill by its supporters, is that we have to seek 'Consensus' with the National Party, otherwise when they get back into power they will repeal any concrete legislation we put in place.
As well as being a defeatist position, the evidence for for this argument is actually extremely weak.
The Nats never repealed the Nuclear Free Legislation. Labour have never repealed the Anadarko Amendment. Phil Goff traveled the Country in a big red bus with "Kill The Bill" (the National Government Bill to increase GST to 15%) before admitting that if he was elected he wouldn't repeal it.
Consensus is not democracy it is an attack on democracy.
As Winston Churchill famously said, Democracy is the worst of all possible systems, except for all those others that have been tried.
Democracy has been described by its detractors as the dictatorship of the majority over the minority.
This is the sound of ideologies crashing, sang Billy Bragg
Consensus is an effort to paper over these differences between ideologies.
And it fits into one of those worst ways Churchill spoke of.
Consensus is not democracy. Consensus is going for the lowest possible denominator to achieve unanimity.
In effect Consensus is an effort to silence and stifle political debate. To suffocate the sound of ideologies clashing.
The tragedy of Consensus politics is that it robs the electorate of making a clear choice between one way forward and another. Consensus politics prevents us hearing the arguments between both ways forward, and for making an informed decision with our vote.
Consensus politics murders democracy in back room deals between politicians.
What consensus politics displays, is a lack of faith in the people.
Consensus politics is a cowardly abrogation of leadership.
Instead of appeasing the National Party politicians what our leaders should do instead is enact the legislation that their conscience and the science demands, and then openly defy the opposition to repeal it if they dare.
“Black/white thinking is a bigger problem than consensus decision-making ever will be.” Sacha
Or are you like the oil and coal companies, scared of the possibility that you may, one day, have to submit to the dictatorship of the majority?
Democracy has its faults, but its better, as Churchill said than all those others that have been tried and that includes the so called the consensus style of politics.
Personally I think that many people are heartily sick of consensus between the two major political parties.
Which delivers no choice, and which sees many turn away from even voting, finding it hard to determine any difference between them.
Maybe you would like to enlarge on that comment Solkta?
In there is a difference of opinion between two parties, (or people), there can be only three possible outcomes. Either one side is right, or the other side is right, or both sides are wrong.
Where is the ground for consensus if both sides disagree?
An international consensus – a co-ordinated effort – is required to deal with a global issue. Whether global social media regulation against incitement/promotion/glorification of violence, money laundering, tax havens, taxation of international cartels, extradition agreements, war crimes, 200 mile economic zones, freedom of the sea, diplomatic immunity, free trade rules (WTO), and global environment concerns.
And where there is an international consensus as to national targets – nations formulate how they meet their obligations. This will include national plans – which can include an internal consensus within which parties contest elections and form coalition agreements. The recent proposal would need to be agreed to by National to become one.
As to being more ambitious than the international community programme, being a fast follower rather than a prevaricator is progress for now. The only way to be effective is by
1. taking the resistance (aka National) along with you.
2. convincing the international community to be bolder.
Subjects; The way forward' /consensus /climate change/well being/ – all in one here folks
11/5/19
Our HB/Gisborne community is still awaiting the Labour coalition promises made to us all in 2016 in the Gisborne Herald.
Three parties all now in Labour coalition had promised restoration of our rail services that the National Government has allowed to become partly washed out in 2012 by a lack of funding for rail maintenance to keep the infrastructure free of damages from any storms.
This service was already under community restoration as industry was wanting more freight services then in 2011 when in december the HBRC had evidence that more freight was wanted to be carried on Gisborne rail in a press release 21st December 2011 entitled “At risk rail can’t cope”.
(links are all provided below"
We are claiming our right to have our rail services restored by this new Labour Coalition Government under the new “well being budget policy .
This promise will see Government reducing carbon emissions and increasing infrastructure under two of the ‘five priorities’ using – Boosting Innovation, & Creating Opportunities .
QUOTE; “Alongside GDP, we will measure ourselves against five key priorities that will make real improvements to the lives of New Zealanders. We’ve used evidence to identify the five areas we can make the greatest difference. Boosting Innovation, Creating Opportunities, Backing Māori & Pasifika, Supporting Mental Health, Improving Child Wellbeing.
Please Government give us in HB/Gisborne back our Gissbone Rail as you are doing already in most other provinces, such as Wairarapa, Tananaki, Canterbury, Otago, Westland, Waikato and Northland. – So we await your response in the new GPS called "wellbeing budget" https://www.labour.org.nz/wellbeingbudget
Yesterday I made brief comment on Micky's post, that I hoped that the National Party continue to oppose the Zero Carbon Bill so as to give the voters at least some chance to decide.
I just think you like your "war" too much. What if National oppose the Bill and win the election?
In my opinion, any party that fought an election campaign against the scientific evidence of climate change and the need to act against it, would be in for the political drubbing of their life.
The evidence is that strong.
The tragedy is that the current consensus strategy will prevent that debate ever being held.
1. propose legislation and see if National oppose it
2. if National do, win in 2020 and force them to reconsider their position.
3. post 2020 gain consensus around the plan.
4. compete in subsequent elections with policies and coalition agreements that specify implementaiton arrangements.
5. within the framework that this plan is in accord with existing international agreements which can be made more progressive should there be consensus around this.
I think it is most likely that National will vote for the Zero Carbon Bill. If certain goals prove too difficult down the track, say the reduction in methane by 2030, adjustments can be made.
After all, it it is highly unlikely Labour will still be the govt then!
The too good to be true back door wheeling and dealing arrangements are inherently unstable and readily detrimental, as the National Party involvement shows.
Why we should never considering privatising our health industry and abandon Pharmac. A small inroad by some private companies providing services for the wealthy, and some limited crossover, but very limited interaction.
Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.
The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That's more an artefact of the way the FDA won't recognise approvals from other countries. Daraprim's generic name is pyrimethamine and it's widely available around the world as a generic for about $1 a dose. But the US market for it is small enough it wasn't worth it for any other company to go through the rigmarole of bringing in a generic.
A thornier problem is simply the unpredictability of private health care costs. Which leads to horrifying stuff like parents with kids that have done something that really does need any emergency room visit, but the risk of a ruinous bill is so high they'll wait with the kid outside in the carpark and hope the kid pulls through so they don't have to go in.
How far the USA has declined or flat-lined. In the 1860s in Semmelweiss' time in Vienna, pregnant mums might hire a horse-drawn cab to circle the hospital to see how they went with the birth because of the high death rate for mothers at the hospital. It was a last resort.
When Semmelweiss carried out a handwashing experiment on young trainee doctors who had been handling cadavers before viewing the birthing mothers, he reduced that death rate. But his methods didn't suit the PTB and they discontinued the practice. The knowledge of those avoidable deaths practically drove him mad and to his death.
What a disgrace that the United States is as low as the 1800s in its unconcern for its citizens. I'll mention Joan Brady here. She wrote a novel Death Comes for Peter Pan based on a paper she had written about defects in the medical services in one of the States. She couldn't get her work published. So she wrote it up as 'faction' .
Review Good Reads by Steve:
High 4. This is a devastating portrait of the iniquities of the medical system in the US. When Alice Wexler is told her husband is dying and that no medical treatment can prevent this outcome, they return to their American homeland. What follows is a tale of her passionate crusade to attain a more promising diagnosis, but as Alice's hopes of her country providing a second chance become shattered`in the face of the harsh realities of the Medicare system, her struggle becomes one of fighting for her husband's right to a dignified end. As she witnesses her husband's deterioration her self-reflection rveals hidden aspects of their relationship, and as any meaningful contact with her partner becomes more and more remote, we are witness to her growing emotional attachment to the one person who provides support. The author cuts through with scalpel-precision the layers of bureaucratic hypocrisy to reveal a health care system where poorly trained staff ensure passivity of patients through over-medication, and where those in such a vagetative state are regarded by those who manage the system, as mere 'product' to keep the coffers full. In the epilogue, Joan Brady reveals that she faced her own such struggle when she returned with her terminally-ill husband to the US. The questions she raises over the allocation of funds and the impersonal operation of the US health-care system, and the call for more discussion of 'mercy killings' contained within its pages brought condemnation across the pond, but this is a wonderful novel which deftly exposes social injustice.
Amsterdam audio – Joan Brady second half of audio on her book Death Comes for Peter Pan.
May 11, 2019
gisborneherald.co.nz
Prime time to expand
by Andrew AshtonPublished: May 11, 2019 11:58AM
Report says container port, restoration of rail can boost growth
A Deloitte report says investing in rail could be more commercially viable if Eastland Port had container port facilities.
The lack of a container port in Gisborne is costing the region $36 million a year and potentially hindering the return of the Gisborne to Wairoa rail line, a report from a top finance firm says.
The second edition of Deloitte’s Shaping Our Slice of Heaven report, entitled Regions of Opportunity, assesses the economic impact of increasing exports in tourism, agribusiness, food processing and advanced manufacturing from Auckland, Waikato, Hawke’s Bay/Gisborne, Wellington and Canterbury from 2019 to 2040.
The report says Gisborne is in a prime position to take advantage of growth industries and highlights the expansion of Eastland Port and the restoration of rail as aspects that can boost the region further.
“Gisborne needs increased connectivity to flourish,” the report states.
“While the Wairoa-Napier rail line has been reopened and road upgrades between Wairoa and Gisborne have been promised, extending the operating rail line up to Gisborne would increase trade efficiency going south from Gisborne.
Whakatane residents are supplied 'E' grade water…the lowest of the low…while New Zealand Government officials woo wealthy investors to a local spring so the investor can potentially bottle 580 million litres of pure, clear water per year.
The runanga has previously said it has concerns about the health of the Awaiti aquifer, from which the water would be drawn, and the consent regime: "At every turn, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa has had to advocate for transparency and accountability by local and central government, namely making the consent hearing public, and the participation of hapū, iwi and community in decisions that affect us."
Whether the legal challenges succeed or fail, the focus on Nongfu Spring has highlighted the ease with which overseas company can access vast quantities of water for little to no cost.
In this case, consent to bottle and export 580m litres of water would cost the company around $2000 a year, the price of a resource consent monitoring fee.
Seriously beggars belief that we're still protesting this shit. If we only consider the plastic used to bottle 580 million litres of water per year then we have a strong indicator that those promoting this madness have not been listening.
That the NZ government is behind this is bordering on treason.
Talk about mitigating climate change and cleaning up our water ways and reducing plastic use….all bullshit.
This is just a fiction made up by malcontents??? Tell me the truth – this isn't really happening right? I think I need another cup of tea, it's enough to drive you to drink. But not pure water. Can someone explain why this is allowed to happen. Is it just no backbone? Is it being left up to local Councils to decide? Is it that central government can't put a stop to treating an essential resource for everything being mined? It would be right to stop it now. And try to claw back what has already been signed up to, even if it costs big money.
Does this come under the CPPPTPA etc? Have we the citizens got no come-back to this dreadful, stupid bit of 'trade’? @$%$&$ *** 👿 😈 😡 😥
When an American conservative is interviewed by Britain’s top political journalist and broadcaster. What he can get away with on American tv, he can’t get away with on British tv. Lol @afneil@BBCPolitics Brilliant.
(unfortunately) I'm a bit of a Ben Shapiro fan boy….
That truly is unfortunate. He's one of the truly wicked opinion-vomiters, and unlike, say, Donald Trump, he lacks even a smattering of rudimentary charm.
Why would you call yourself a "fan boy" of that chump?
Actually, and I really hate to say this, but Shapiro didn't do to badly really, he batted off Neil's questions mostly pretty well, Neil seemed to base the whole interview on just a string of lazy gotcha questions.
Most of the blogs and you tube channels I follow are framing this as a huge fail and an embarrassment for Shapiro, and when you watched their edited clips it sure looks like it, but when you take the time and watch the whole thing, it reads quite differently I think.
It is so easy to believe things when they align with your own ideology, but truth matters. if you start believing your own bullshit you end up losing elections like the Dems in 2016.
Yeah he definitely lost his shit in the end, but in a way I can kind of see why, Neil didn't seem interested in having a discussion with him, he only seemed interested in cornering him with one of his single fire questions, which is a very lazy way to expose Shapiro for the arsehole that he is, in my opinion Neil didn't do a good job in this interview.
For other uses, see Ring Road (disambiguation). "Beltway" redirects here. For the term used in American politics, see Inside the Beltway. "Periférico" redirects here. For Mexico City's beltway, see Anillo Periférico.
The inner ring road of Sheffield, England
A ring road (also known as beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country.
The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducing traffic volumes in the urban centre, such as by offering an alternate route around the city for drivers who do not need to stop in the city core.
Dunedin just needs a bypass. I was actually in an exam years ago when a slinky (lamb carcass) truck on a hot day exploded its load all down the middle of town. The stench was insane (apparently they'd filled the truck fine, but the swellage on a hot day caused overflow).
Most of the double-trailers passing through are going nowhere close to the inner hills areas. There are a couple of trans-shipping depots in southD, lots of logging trucks crunch roads up to Port Chalmers, but the stock trucks are going straight through.
Dangers of 5G – Mark Steele interview notes regarding a claim weapons expert Mark Steele marks that autonomous vehicles are never going to be a reality because of the amount of microwave radiation they emit. What's impossible is having 20-50 of them all together.
BMW did a study that showed autonomous cars interfered with pacemakers. 13:25. Nobody has warned of the danger looking at these cars with binoculars or telescopes – if the laser from the autonomous car catches the sight it will put your eye out
The Greens are not ugly centrists like NZF so they are unlikely to ever be king-makers. Unlike NZF, king-making is not what drives the Greens. Environmental and social concerns drive the Greens.
Yes. And seeing as they've got little from Labour and been forced to swallow a few dead rats, surely it wouldn't take much for National to try and entice them over?
They would only have to offer a little more than Labour has allowed them which hasn't been much. And with going with National, there is less chance of Winston getting in the way.
Personally speaking I'd rather deal with any party before I'd deal with Winston. I get the feeling that National, Labour, the Greens, Maori Party and Act all want to achieve something but Winston only wants whats best for Winston
I don't know if you've been paying attention but the Greens will not and can not 'go with' National because their political ideologies run counter to each other.
It's not going to happen.
Mind you, NZF and the Greens might be closer on policy in some areas than is generally acknowledged. Given your hatred of rail (which is weird for a self-pronounced far left activist) the idea that Winston Peters is driving a big boost for rail will leave you stinging I’m sure.
When stacked up against what Labour has offered them, the reversal and alienation would be minimal, manageable, thus survivable if it was required to secure them power.
Did you miss where the government scrapped new oil exploration and introduced methane targets and refocussed big highway funding to clean public transport?
Remembering you yourself advocate for big highways I'm not surprised you have overlooked these developments.
You think nats would support the climate change stuff, even as it is? Not to mention the fact that the entire Nat philosophy is based on exploitation rather than conservation: environment, resources, people…
Even without the social policy aspect to the Greens (because holistic attitudes cannot be restricted to one narrowly defined area, by definition), it's not a case of concessions on individual policies buying cooperation. Everybody has to be on the same broad page on most of everything else that comes up, and generally treat each other with respect. That's what would require a complete change in the nats for them to realistically have the Greens as an option.
This should be pretty basic stuff to any Green voter.
I’ve been researching female agency in anticolonial resistance and it’s an extremely interesting subject… I’ll be publishing on this in due course but can’t help sharing some pics here… (ongoing thread) #anticolonial#resistance#femaleagency#empire
Here is a guy who should get a good Parkour workout and training. Then make some sculpture of his own that goes outside on public display for our critical judgment, which we are all very good at it in NZ. That will teach him some skills, some planning, some discipline, some understanding of materials, some mentoring, the ability to see a thought from start to finish and outcome. And how vulnerable we all are to others' respect for ourselves and our works.
I think the tridition on single marriage is westernised. Marriage is a
very important to the old Maori thats where te Mokopuna are going to come from.
I don't think that the high devorce rate in NZ is good for anyone but lawyers.
I say that people who are going to marry should look HARD at there potential partners to make sure they are compatible as there are a lot of players out there.
I just a few years ago I new all my neighbours the way of the west goal is to individualised the common tangata easer to use there blind/fool people if they are ALONE. For tangata whenua we have to work together to make a better future for te Mokopuna.
Moden living has to change back to the hapu /familys cooperationing in all aspects of life the Marae way of living is way of the future we will use less resources and that is going to be beneficial for our future shear the tools shareing is caring if we learn that respect is a big thing that needs to be promoted.
I get pissed at accounts who say it better to rent than buy a house.
A whare is the Whanau moanga it gives the Whanau security no one can tell you to leave with out good cause it will help with financial security once you have good equity you can lend money with low interest rates you can use your equity to help the tamariki and Mokopuna get there own house.
I agree with Marama if one is paying rent WHY can't the government and the banks lend money to buy A whare the rent has to be paid or your under the bridge. Rents are higher than a mortgage in a lot of places. Figure that one out.
All the tangata of Papatuanukue need to put huge pressure on all the Papatuanukue ruling class to force them to protect OUR Mokopuna futures first and formost.
Hague climate change judgement could inspire a global civil movement
Dutch ruling could trigger similar cases worldwide with citizens taking their governments to courts to make them act on climate promises Ka kite ano links below.
Social media needs to have boundaries set to stop the haters using it to cause harm to others verbally and physically but let's not compromise free speach in the reaction.
Parlm kernel fire the stuff can self combust if not stored correctly.
Its good that more money for the homeless people to be housed,
Well national has a policy that I will back 2 days more care after our Wahine give birth to Te Mokopuna I think it's a real good policy te Wahine go thru a enormous amount of stress giveing birth to our tamariki it is quite easy for them to slip into depression.
I say that IWIs paying for health insurance for there tangata whenua is on to it yes the crown should be paying for it but we can not Rely on the government this will keep the kaumatua around longer to guide our Mokopuna up there ladders of Life.
I miss it last night Sir Heke Busby passed he will be missed dearly.
I see that the United nations Antonio is in Aotearoa promoting Papatuanukue PEACE Ka pai and championing the mitigatetion against climate change we must respect our future and past tipuna.
The poor common people need help its cool more funding is coming from our government for tangata whenua as we are the majority in those stats of homeless. Kia ora to the Black Ferns Ka kite ano
Chris you do a good job in Auckland caring for OUR homeless tangata.
The Ausse election in on hope you are wrong Jason the Papatuanukue can not afford to have the same government in power that is prow coal.
It is awesome that the protesting the lack of action against climate change around the Papatuanukue is still going strong.
Paul I agree with your words I say no more.
I say white supremacist are a bit of a problem in NZ I see there actions all the time.?
My diet is no additional sugar in prosessed food and a little hear and there and porridge rolled oats gets the digest system working it fulls you up easy as to I notice with te Mokopuna good feed of porridge and toast keeps them happy for 3 hours any other food 2 hours it a super food.
The white supremacist problem if you ignore a sore eventually it gets that big it burst.
Your mother day prize for that Wahine who lost her loved one's recently is cool she will be happy Wahine are the unsung Hero's of OUR society.
You should see how my WiFi and laptop get hacked so easily so be careful about the new technology you put in your whare if your privacy matters to you.
Now is the time to buy second hand electric car. I say our government should be investing in the technology of refurbishment of the battery's of the second hand car market or they will have to quickly try and clean up a mess that is easily foreseeable heaps of dead batterys and cars if the manufacturer won't back their secondhand car the government has to mabe legerslate but NZ is to small to have a impact at that level. Its a no brainer to chase a phenomenon that will sharply reduce our carbon footprint and can save the country billion at the same time a smart investment I say. I know heavy industries need fuel like gas or hydrogen but I say working smarter not harder is what little AOTEAROA has to do to keep up with the phase of change and get the best returns from the changes. The technology can be sold to other that are interested. There are many more poor people in the Papatuanukue than wealthy so the market for refurbishment of batteries is huge Ka kite ano links below.
Equality for all is needed Wahine are treated the less equal of OUR society. Wahine from 3 world countries have it very hard they do most of the heavy lifting in the mahi of providing for there familys. The men get most of any money they get and some waster it. Eco Maori backs Tau toko this micro financing for Wahine.
Gender inequality is a global problem, but it is especially amplified when it comes to the financial opportunities presented to men and women. While there has been a significant improvement in gender equality since women were first allowed to vote,statistically, women are underrepresented in most financial positions: form borrowers to lenders, not to mention regulatory bodies or high-standing positions in banking institutions.
Micro-financing for female borrowers
Micro-financing platforms like AssetStream will allow women with lower social status and lack of work or credit history to start borrowing small sums of money, to jumpstart their finances or even start their own small business Ka kite ano links below
We don't have to invent the wheel to fix our environment. Papatuanukue has already achieved this we just have to find the creature to will help in clearing up the mess and nerture them use mother nature creations to help clean up mess we have made with our Environment. I Back the kicks principles keep it smart and simple.
The big, beautiful Baltic Sea hides a dirty secret in its 377,000km of water.
A number of agricultural spills has turned the Baltic into one of the most polluted seas in the world, due to excess nitrogen and phosphorus lacing its waters.
This process of eutrophicationhas led to the depletion of oxygen and an overgrowth of algae in the body of water, but not all hope is lost Ka kite ano link below
Its cool that the people who can't hear have Maori sign te reo language I will find the time in the near future to master te reo.
The side of the road drug test on the roads would be fine with Eco Maori in a perfect Papatuanukue but from all the data and stories I can see. Tangata whenua will end up with the short end of that STICK.
Its awesome that school fees will be dropped and focused on education Alot of intelligent tamariki would fail or not set the test because of the fees being un payed.
Ma te wa
Antonio the tangata whenua of the Pacific Islands need help in combining climate change.
Its cool that the United nations is Tau toko indigenous culture te reo /language.
I would not be a happy MAN if that happens to my Mokopuna.
A Long Time Ago, In A Parallel Universe Far, Far Away: The political journalist scratched his head in confusion. Only then did he notice the name of the building: ‘The Jacinda Ardern Presidential Library and Public Resource Centre’. Making his way inside to the information desk, he asked the librarian ...
Too Much Of Nothing: In many respects it is the power of a free press to keep history’s images vivid and clear that renders it so important to the life of our democracy. It was the Czech writer, Milan Kundera, who said it best: “The struggle of man against power ...
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Yesterday the Greater Wellington Regional Council unanimously declared a climate emergency. They've also set themselves a goal of being carbon neutral by 2030, though this only applies to their direct emissions. Still, its a good step, and as usual it invites the question: where is Parliament? When are we going ...
That's the only way to describe the government's plans for a Parliamentary Budget Office to allow opposition parties to get an independent costing of their policies. When the idea was first floated back in 2016 as an office within Treasury, I thought that wasn't independent enough and argued that it ...
Today is a Member's day, and after the third reading of Hamish Walker's KiwiSaver (Oranga Tamariki Guardians) Amendment Bill, Parliament will be continuing the committee stage of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. The bigots have put up another pile of amendments in an effort to delay or wreck ...
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...
It looks like the government has won over the public on its vehicle feebate scheme:A feebate scheme that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from buyers of higher-emission cars into the pockets of people buying EVs and other more fuel-efficient vehicles has been winning favour with submitters, the Government ...
When people suggest lowering the voting age, others argue that the young are too uneducated or silly to exercise the duties of citizenship. Australian John Quiggin has just blown that argument out of the water:Looking at the array of ignorant and vindictive old men attacking Greta Thunberg and other young ...
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...
Back in May, Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki launched another political party. Despite consisting entirely of followers of their religion, they grandly called it "Coalition New Zealand", in a vain effort to suggest it was something broader. But when they applied for registration, submitters opposed the name, as ...
The following article is excerpted and translated from two articles in recent issues of Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the revolutionary workers group active in France. We don’t necessarily agree with everything in it – for instance, the 1956-62 war for independence involved rather more revolutionary forces than ...
The Pacific is on the front line of climate change, and if we don't cut emissions quickly, some countries are literally going to be underwater. Because of this, small Pacific states had tried to use this week's Pacific Islands Forum meeting to get Pacific countries to agree to ending coal ...
To Limit Another's Rights Is To Limit One's Own: Is it too much to expect senior members of our Government to be capable of explaining that we protect the rights of human-beings precisely because not even the most depraved act can cancel-out the fact that its perpetrator is also a ...
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...
This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
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Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
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The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
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This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
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The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
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Applying New Zealand’s international human rights commitments, particularly those in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can help in resolving the situation at Ihumātao, Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says. ...
Climate campaigners impersonating bank staff have taken to the streets this week to expose ANZ Bank’s sponsorship of the fossil fuel industry. In the series of satirical actions in Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland, the ‘bank staff’ promoted ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty joins the Children’s Commissioner , The Green Party , The New Zealand Drugs Foundation , Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations in the calls for an immediate end to the drug testing benefit sanctions. ...
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Queenstown Lakes District Council’s comments that it has applied for a consent to pollute waterways to avoid 'prosecutions by the Otago Regional Council' are unacceptable,’ Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says. ...
On March 15, the real world impact of online hate became abundantly, horrifically clear. As a shooter opened fire at two Christchurch mosques, the online image board 8chan anticipated, celebrated and amplified his killing spree. ...
Friday, 23 August: Government delegates from around the world, including New Zealand, are meeting in New York for the third of four meetings at the United Nations to agree a Global Oceans Treaty that could help to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030. Greenpeace ...
The excuses about a reportedly unwanted $57,000 payrise for Dunedin City Council CEO Sue Bidrose are laughable, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has launched the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” committing to no more than 2% annual rate hikes over the next Council term, and has written to all Mayoral and Council candidates asking them to sign. The pledge will ...
This Saturday, Pakuranga Hunt Day at the Ellerslie Racecourse will see anti-horse racing protesters demonstrating at the corner of Ascot Avenue and Greenlane East. ...
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere will meet with Pacific Island leaders and community elders today at Puhunui Reserve in South Auckland to commit to a Pasefika Cultural Centre. ...
Cruel and invalid Forced Swim Tests carried out at Victoria University of Wellington, will be exposed at the University Open Day today, so prospective students can be warned about the flawed and unethical research being conducted at the institute. ...
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
A cross political Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing group will be launched on Wednesday 28 August hosted by Sir John Kirwan and Moe Milne (ONZM) who have both been at the forefront of our country’s often difficult conversations about mental ...
Confirmation that the government will be progressing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office is great news for democracy and transparency, Federated Farmers says. ...
At first glance, Simon Bridges’ strident opposition to the government’s proposal to establish an independent office to cost political parties’ election spending plans looks childish and petty. ...
Euthanasia-Free NZ is appalled that Parliament spent so little time debating Part 2 of the End of Life Choice Bill and voted to leave it full of holes. ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
LGNZ will carefully consider the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to assess if it meets the Government’s aim of enabling urban development or simply adds more red tape to the planning process. ...
Statistics out today from the Government show that the gender wage imbalance, or gap, in the average wage is 11.9%, a strong 2 percentage point improvement from 13.9% last year. The gender pay imbalance in the median wage is 9.3%. ...
Newstalk ZB Drive host and Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan is taking on the challenge of keeping 2019 Auckland Mayoral contenders Phil Goff and John Tamihere in line and on point in tonight’s live NZ Herald Newstalk ZB debate. ...
After twenty years Napier residents have endured heavy sleep and health disruptive noise and air pollution from freight trucks gridlock operations to and from the Napier port and other regions. ...
The EMA says much is riding on the board and chief executive of the new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) announced by Infrastructure Minister Hon Shane Jones today, with a difficult task ahead to deliver on its purpose. ...
Combatting internet-related harm is being stymied by inter-industry disagreement and a lack of information about the extent and nature of the problem, a new report says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, J.W. Nevile Fellow in Economics and host of The Airport Economist, UNSW Amid the tributes to former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and the stories of his authenticity, courage and quirky interests – like trains and military history – what ...
Current leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Is Simon Bridges really trying to channel Donald Trump? Or is he taking his cue from Scott Morrison? Or is he looking to emulate Boris Johnson? Whatever the inspiration, there’s been a clear change in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]Michelle Grattan talks about the sad news of the passing of former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer with University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini. They also discuss Scott Morrison’s recent announcement about joining ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel Crowley, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, James Cook University In February, about 600,000 cattle were killed by catastrophic flooding across north Queensland’s Carpentaria Gulf plains. The flood waters rose suddenly, forming a wall of water up to 70km wide. Record depths were ...
Simon Day dined alone at Monique Fiso’s Wellington restaurant Hiakai, and discovered it was the perfect way to appreciate the meaning of this special food. “Would you like a few more minutes with your phone?” the waitress at Hiakai asked sympathetically as I mashed a final goodbye text to my wife ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Willamson, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia’s gender pay gap is diminishing, says a new report, but some contributors to it seem harder to overcome than others. For me, the finding hit close to home. The report, by KPMG for ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and ...
Honey producer Comvita has confirmed a full year net loss of $27.7m with China market access restrictions and tougher regulations locally affecting the company's sales. ...
James Elliott realises John Tamihere's uncosted bridge proposal wasn't actually a metaphor, but a fine example of 'folks is mighty generous with money what they ain’t got'. ...
A new poem by Oamaru-born poet Nick Ascroft.SupermanHalfway up the ascent zigzagging from Royal Terrace to upper Stuart Street carrying four too-heavy grocery bags I begin to understand that I will not make it. My huffing personage – from the fingers, white with the strain, to a face the colour of rhubarb – will ooze into the pavement and roll slowly ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.Sound the alarm, because it’s time for another absolute chaos pod. We’re talking haunted dolls in Waipu, we’re talking giant hands taking over Wellington, we’re talking soft serve cones dipped in powdered Milo. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Press, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania This week, the ABC revealed that the Australian Defence Force wants to roll out military technology in Antarctica. The article raises the issue of what is, or is not, ...
New Zealand teacher aides say their pay reflects an outdated idea of what they do. Elizabeth McLeod hears from four TAs, and one parent, about the classroom realities they face every dayCleaning up poo, defusing violent situations, copping physical and verbal abuse: these are the realities of a teacher aide’s ...
The lanky sidekick from Jono and Ben journeys around New Zealand trying to solve small town problems. Does he succeed?Guy Williams, hardly a shy, retiring type, has been screaming out for his own vehicle for years. A loud, lanky, fearless comic, he’s spent nearly a decade in MediaWorks purgatory, sat ...
Ballot Box.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The nature of New Zealand general election campaigns could be significantly changed with the proposed establishment of an “umpire” to adjudicate over political party manifesto policies. A suggestion has been put forward by the Government for the establishment of a parliamentary watchdog ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Ihumātao Delphine Herbert and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Tainui to buy Ihumātao land – sources Danielle ...
Extinction Rebellion takes a tour of downtown Wellington to point out the coal industry stalwarts and ask why they’re still there in the face of a climate emergency. “There are coal companies in Wellington??”That’s the incredulous response every single time we mention taking the public on a tour of the biggest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel A. Ankeny, Professor of History and Philosophy, and Deputy Dean Research (Faculty of Arts), University of Adelaide The South Australian government recently announced its intention to lift the long-standing statewide moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops, following a statutory six-week consultation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vicki Sentas, Senior Lecturer, UNSW Law, UNSW Being strip searched by the police can be intrusive, humiliating and harmful. Typically, strip searches involve being required to strip naked in front of police officers, who often give the direction to “squat and cough”, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Remond, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Hi, I was just wondering if something’s wrong with me because I’m never happy and never want to do anything and I’m getting really lazy and I really hate school. Thanks – Anonymous ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Zaphir, Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and Online Teacher at Education Queensland’s IMPACT Centre, The University of Queensland From as early as Grade 3 teachers start teaching children how to put across their own points of view. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW It’s four years since then Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned Australia had been heading to “a Greek-style economic future”. He was referring to what he said had been happening under the previous Labor government. When Labor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samia Khatun, Senior Lecturer, SOAS, University of London Some 1,000 kilometres inland from Sydney, over the Blue Mountains, past the trees that drink the tributaries of the Darling River, there stands a little, red mosque. It marks where the desert begins. The ...
Online gambling is growing fast in New Zealand, but critics say new government ideas for regulating websites focus on what's good for the industry, rather than protecting people from harm. ...
An "extreme pro-Beijing" writer has caused controversy in the Chinese community and awkwardness for the Labour Party by standing for political office in Auckland. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Concern about slow progress for major transport projects, smoking researcher under pressure over funding, and hikoi marches from Ihumātao to Ardern’s office.NZTA is struggling to get spending out the door, so the money isn’t flowing through the economy, reports Thomas Coughlan ...
Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard will look at whether people making submissions on proposed law changes should be forced to disclose conflicts of interest. ...
Rugby and league legend Honey Hireme has put all her careers on hold - including her Warriors debut - to take care of her mum, who has terminal cancer. ...
In the ongoing battle to prevent 480 houses being built on ancestral land, a petition with more than 26,000 signatures was delivered to the Prime Minister’s Mt Albert office yesterday. Leonie Hayden was there.Lead by the inimitable Pania Newton, about 100 kaitiaki set off from Ihumātao near Māngere yesterday morning ...
Every scholarship exam and approximately every two external assessments are wrapped in their own single-use plastic bag. We’re asking the NZQA to cut it out, writes year-13 student Sophia HoneyEvery year after an exam, I see the same conversation happen. Friends turn to each other, talk about how difficult that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Even Scott Morrison, with his abundant self-belief, couldn’t have imagined that on Saturday’s first anniversary of his seizing the prime ministership, he’d be winging his way to France for a G7 meeting, where Australia has ...
A group of students, including some Youth MPs, have been banned from Parliament for a year, after singing a waiata in the public gallery in support of the Ihumātao hīkoi. ...
National MP Nick Smith has lodged a serious accusation against Parliament's Speaker calling him "biased" after once again being booted out of the debating chamber. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people again took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against the government – the 11th straight weekend of demonstrations that began in June over a proposed extradition bill. ...
Open mike 11/05/2019 
A Long Time Ago, In A Parallel Universe Far, Far Away: The political journalist scratched his head in confusion. Only then did he notice the name of the building: ‘The Jacinda Ardern Presidential Library and Public Resource Centre’. Making his way inside to the information desk, he asked the librarian ...5 hours ago
6 hours ago
Nothing from me tody - I'm off to Christchurch to pretend to be other people for a weekend. Normal bloggage should resume on Tuesday. ...7 hours ago
Spark is bracing for a customer backlash as rugby fans all across the country struggle to get a picture on their wireless router. With the Rugby World Cup fast approaching, an elderly Taranaki couple are furious after being told that they still won’t be able to watch the tournament, even ...19 hours ago
Several explosions have been reported across Auckland, as well-meaning environmentalists have already begun purchasing too much petrol Starting from next week, customers will no longer need a car to purchase petrol directly from the pump, a development that two major fuel providers are billing as an opportunity to help fight ...20 hours ago
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ... 22 hours ago
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...2 days ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...3 days ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...3 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...5 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...5 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...7 days ago
1 week ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...1 week ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...1 week ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...1 week ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...1 week ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...1 week ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...1 week ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 1 week ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...1 week ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...2 weeks ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...2 weeks ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...2 weeks ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...2 weeks ago
Heart-warming images of House Speaker Trevor Mallard cradling a baby in Parliament have been welcomed around New Zealand, but the Public Service Association warns most families can only dream of such support in the workplace. ...2 hours ago
Combatting internet-related harm is being stymied by inter-industry disagreement and a lack of information about the extent and nature of the problem, a new report says. ...24 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, J.W. Nevile Fellow in Economics and host of The Airport Economist, UNSW Amid the tributes to former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and the stories of his authenticity, courage and quirky interests – like trains and military history – what ...56 mins ago
1 hour ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]Michelle Grattan talks about the sad news of the passing of former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer with University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini. They also discuss Scott Morrison’s recent announcement about joining ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel Crowley, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, James Cook University In February, about 600,000 cattle were killed by catastrophic flooding across north Queensland’s Carpentaria Gulf plains. The flood waters rose suddenly, forming a wall of water up to 70km wide. Record depths were ...2 hours ago
Simon Day dined alone at Monique Fiso’s Wellington restaurant Hiakai, and discovered it was the perfect way to appreciate the meaning of this special food. “Would you like a few more minutes with your phone?” the waitress at Hiakai asked sympathetically as I mashed a final goodbye text to my wife ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Willamson, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia’s gender pay gap is diminishing, says a new report, but some contributors to it seem harder to overcome than others. For me, the finding hit close to home. The report, by KPMG for ...3 hours ago
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and ...3 hours ago
Honey producer Comvita has confirmed a full year net loss of $27.7m with China market access restrictions and tougher regulations locally affecting the company's sales. ...3 hours ago
James Elliott realises John Tamihere's uncosted bridge proposal wasn't actually a metaphor, but a fine example of 'folks is mighty generous with money what they ain’t got'. ...4 hours ago
Fees for company directors are not keeping pace with their rising workload, according to a new survey. ...6 hours ago
New Zealand teacher aides say their pay reflects an outdated idea of what they do. Elizabeth McLeod hears from four TAs, and one parent, about the classroom realities they face every dayCleaning up poo, defusing violent situations, copping physical and verbal abuse: these are the realities of a teacher aide’s ...6 hours ago
The Warehouse Group has upgraded its full year profit expectations again. ...6 hours ago
New Zealand-owned Kiwibank says it is winning more customers, demonstrated by a strong increase in deposits and lending. ...6 hours ago
A community representative in Auckland says she's been sidelined by her peers after posting photos online with Green and Labour party MPs. ...7 hours ago
Dairy's huge role earning export dollars for New Zealand is facing a threat some say could bring it to its knees. ...8 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vicki Sentas, Senior Lecturer, UNSW Law, UNSW Being strip searched by the police can be intrusive, humiliating and harmful. Typically, strip searches involve being required to strip naked in front of police officers, who often give the direction to “squat and cough”, ...9 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Remond, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Hi, I was just wondering if something’s wrong with me because I’m never happy and never want to do anything and I’m getting really lazy and I really hate school. Thanks – Anonymous ...9 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Zaphir, Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and Online Teacher at Education Queensland’s IMPACT Centre, The University of Queensland From as early as Grade 3 teachers start teaching children how to put across their own points of view. ...9 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW It’s four years since then Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned Australia had been heading to “a Greek-style economic future”. He was referring to what he said had been happening under the previous Labor government. When Labor ...9 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samia Khatun, Senior Lecturer, SOAS, University of London Some 1,000 kilometres inland from Sydney, over the Blue Mountains, past the trees that drink the tributaries of the Darling River, there stands a little, red mosque. It marks where the desert begins. The ...9 hours ago
Online gambling is growing fast in New Zealand, but critics say new government ideas for regulating websites focus on what's good for the industry, rather than protecting people from harm. ...9 hours ago
More than 100,000 Chinese citizens have studied in New Zealand in the past 20 years. ...9 hours ago
An "extreme pro-Beijing" writer has caused controversy in the Chinese community and awkwardness for the Labour Party by standing for political office in Auckland. ...10 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Concern about slow progress for major transport projects, smoking researcher under pressure over funding, and hikoi marches from Ihumātao to Ardern’s office.NZTA is struggling to get spending out the door, so the money isn’t flowing through the economy, reports Thomas Coughlan ...10 hours ago
New Zealand's only national book sales chart, as recorded by Nielsen BookScan New Zealand and described by Steve Braunias. ...11 hours ago
A ban on fossil fuel vehicle imports from 2035 was set to go to Cabinet, before a change of heart. ...12 hours ago
Rugby and league legend Honey Hireme has put all her careers on hold - including her Warriors debut - to take care of her mum, who has terminal cancer. ...12 hours ago
The IPCC's Mark Howden speaks to Eloise Gibson about Aussie farmers' growing acceptance of climate change and his take on NZ’s methane debate. ...12 hours ago
NZ can't spare naval ships to help a US-led mission near Iran - but there's a good chance we don't need them at all. ...12 hours ago
In the ongoing battle to prevent 480 houses being built on ancestral land, a petition with more than 26,000 signatures was delivered to the Prime Minister’s Mt Albert office yesterday. Leonie Hayden was there.Lead by the inimitable Pania Newton, about 100 kaitiaki set off from Ihumātao near Māngere yesterday morning ...12 hours ago
Every scholarship exam and approximately every two external assessments are wrapped in their own single-use plastic bag. We’re asking the NZQA to cut it out, writes year-13 student Sophia HoneyEvery year after an exam, I see the same conversation happen. Friends turn to each other, talk about how difficult that ...12 hours ago
Polls world wide suggest the Holocaust is being forgotten. A NZ survivor is working to make sure it isn't. ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Even Scott Morrison, with his abundant self-belief, couldn’t have imagined that on Saturday’s first anniversary of his seizing the prime ministership, he’d be winging his way to France for a G7 meeting, where Australia has ...18 hours ago
By distorting the climate truth Federated Farmers is making its members complacent about their performance and blind to the threats they face. ...19 hours ago
ANALYSIS: By Camellia Webb-Gannon of the University of Wollongong Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas to force them out, ...20 hours ago
The Prime Minister has set up a semi-secretive digital and media expert group to advise on regulating social media. It took an OIA request by @MatthewHootonNZ to disclose the identity of members of the group.
But the objectives remain secret 'in the public interest'.
https://yournz.org/2019/05/11/digital-and-media-expert-group-advising-on-social-media-regulation-revealed/
Four points.
1. This is an advisory group. Most politicians could easily be described as extreme technophobes (by my standards). They need advice about what is achievable and desirable.
2. I know several of those listed. I really don’t have any issues. They provide the required bridge between the technical and the political.
3. If there are any problems with implementing their advice, I am pretty sure that they will be entirely aware of exactly how the technical community who have to implement it will view and deal with it.
4. Hooton is technically a useless idiot who specializes in disruption. I’d prefer the people I know on this list to give advice to politicians.
My handy rule of thumb on this sort of thing is to ask 'how might my political adversaries use this power or regulation against me, when they next get the levers of power in their hands?'
Or in this instance, imagine if National had set up a 'semi-secret' committee to propose regulating social media and 'left wing extremism' … for instance.
To get quick advice after a left-wing terrorist mass murder entangled with social media? Sure, I can imagine that. As Mr George notes, the objectives did not arise from the advisory group.
I'd prefer the consultation was being done a lot more widely and openly.
Withholding any information about the objectives of the group is troubling. Either they are keeping the objectives secret (having considered the public interest), or they have formed the group and started operating with no objectives (and no work programme established). There must be objectives to have prompted the formation of the group.
It's not a broad "consultation" vehicle; it is a dedicated group for specific advice at a particular time.
Government is full of them and they are not a substitute for broader engagement during policy processes. By all means jump up and down if there are resulting law changes without appropriate process.
If there are resulting law changes without appropriate process I think it's far too late.
What if those law changes required full time moderation of The Standard? Or made it illegal to criticise laws that regulate speech in social media?
Best to jump up and down when it might still make a difference. I don't think we should leave it up to a group working on a secret agenda to serve our best interests.
You are acting as if this advisory group can set law.
Funny. Are you serious?
Do you think that policy on the regulation of speech in social media should be formulated in secret? It's not just an advisory group that's involved, it's the Government who set up the group and meet with the group.
And as I understand things the Government can set law.
Advice is not policy 'formulation'. Govt has a process to set law. Consultation is part of that process.
Your understanding is quite flawed.
Parliament can set law. The Legislative council can request changes in regulation. The cabinet can propose legislation to Parliament and regulation to the GG. Even that is subject to scrutiny by various bodies like the soliciter general, various statutory bodies, and eventually the courts.
Plus of course we live in a MMP system. That means coalition agreement.
Any proposal is a compromise. Requiring advice.
The ‘goverment’ is an interesting near fiction.. They can initiate but not control without agreement – what century are you living in?
🙂
"The ‘goverment’ is an interesting near fiction.. They can initiate but not control without agreement – what century are you living in?"
Linear time is an irrelevance to the man in the beige safari suit (just as it is, and has become to a good number in that 'gummint'). Much as he'd like to be operating in the 5th Dimension, we've yet to discover Pete's Whurl of Reality
"I don't think we should leave it up to a group working on a secret agenda to serve our best interests."
Continue to lobby the government.
I agree Pete.
I’d prefer the consultation was being done a lot more widely and openly.
Jacinda promised us to be included, – she said "her government will bring a kinder warmer inclusive Government"
Jacinda lets have inclusion please.
Sorry to say @ Cleeangreen "Jacinda lets have inclusion please" probably won't happen in your (or my) lifetime. You should have had learnings by now that buzz such as 'inclusion' – even 'truth' are subject to an individual's interpretation.
All very nice of course, AND aspirational (going forward).
If Marx were alive today, it wouldn't be a case of religion being the opium of the sheeple, but consumerism and the gorgeous self.
And why not? Like a sex addict would say – what better way to go out than to fuck yourself to death. Bugger all else
It's patently obvious from the group slection what it is about, even Hooton must know even if he pretends otherwise for political stirring reasons – to feed the paranoia of the paranoid.
This is just the group one would form before the Paris meet, it certainly looks like one associated with the take down notice implementation regime for social media the Paris meet will try to agree on (inciting violence, promotion of violence glorification of violence etc).
The Paris meet is narrowly focused and does not include hate speech law, so no reason to get your …
… doesn't bear thinking about. 🙂
But the objectives remain secret 'in the public interest'.
That, and the fact there are no civil libertarians or free speech advocates on the panel, suggest the government has an agenda of censorship but would prefer not to advertise the fact.
At this point, it would help if we had a credible opposition party, rather than the collection of ruthless, smarmy grifters that is our National Party caucus.
"the fact there are no civil libertarians or free speech advocates on the panel"
Really? From panel member and long-time internet expert Nathan Torkington: https://twitter.com/gnat/status/1126991181554970626
No reason to, as it has nothing to do with censoring free speech, the Paris meet does not even cover hate speech. See my 1123.
Bomber raises a good point
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/05/11/ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm-shouldnt-an-advisory-board-to-the-pm-on-censoring-the-internet-require-some-academics-and-experts-on-civil-rights-and-freedom-of-speech/
It's like you guys know little about either the historically US-liberal culture of internet policy, or about the specific people named here.
And what leads you to assert that?
Relevant knowledge.
Most academics have absolutely no experience with the underlying structure of the internet. Why would anyone think that they have much to contribute at a technical level?
And you’d have to be daft to think that anything can be done except at a technical level when it comes to the net.
If you look at the speed used in the legal system with any of the existing tools like the defamation act, privacy act, HDCA, or even the police – then they take years to deal with.
It is hard to see what else could be done with anything like the existing structures. Besides getting anything done would be
And anything else relies upon the technical people to have figured out something that will actually work.
After that is done, then we can use wafflers to fine-tune it.
Academics can help provide balance in the creation of the policy ideas being tested.
"After that is done, then we can use wafflers to fine-tune it."
It would be preferable to have their input in the initial creation of the policy ideas.
This would publicly demonstrate that safeguards to freedom of speech will be instilled from the outset.
Nobody is stopping academics and universities to fulfil their legal role acting as critics and conscience of society. One would like to think that the Government does listen to advice from more than one source and that one advisory group would neither have or aim for a monopoly on nor as a filter of genuine proper advice.
Yes, one would like to think that. However, thus far, in this instance the Government hasn't shown that.
Just because I see a red flag doesn’t mean the whole world is a red flag. I can zoom in and out, I can entertain multiple PoVs, I can even attempt integration of multi-level or paradoxical concepts. In very few instances, I will even admit that I don’t know shit. Or I can decide to stare myself blind on the bird shit splatter on the windscreen and drive off the road into a ditch.
Hooters is whipping himself into a frenzy over this as well. Tunnel vision narrowing ..
Not really, the group is advising on the take down regime, implementation – not legislative policy on free speech and hate speech.
It is stated the group provides an informal way to test policy ideas.
In this case, merely implementation – practicality of.
If hate speech legislation were proposed it would go through the Select Committee process.
Nevertheless, policy ideas are being drafted and tested.
She didn't ask Sarah Dowie? WTF?
Well, that's just irresponsible and it's clear why Pete George and The Chairman are full-on affronted!
There's been some angry reactions from some gun owners recently. A former neighbour weighed in against the PM, and all politicians when I pointed out that all but one MPs had voted for the Act, because friends who had been active on social media and were gun owners got a visit from the police.
Today in the Press we learn of armed police teams raiding the homes of two men who the day after the mosque shootings went and bought AR15 style weapons from Gun City in Christchurch.
They just didn't get that such a response was brought about by their actions. They bought the weapons hoping that existing gun owners would be exempt. ONe said he'd 'always wanted one.' They didn't hand in the weapons having found out the weapons would have to be impounded. They bought the guns in the same city as the massacre one day after.
They got upset because a team of armed police visited a man who bought the same weapon as used in the massacre which killed 51 people, and acted according to the possible threat and danger from a man who had two assault convictions.
As Mrs Mac1 says, " we have some very fragile people in our country."
I had some sympathy until i read they bought the guns the day after the raids in ChCh . DUH
did they buy the guns legally?
If so – whats the problem? There is no justification of a raid unless there was evidence they were planning something
There had just been a major terrorist mass murder involving the type of weapon these guys purchased the next day. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/112634121/police-seize-gun-collectors-firearms-in-over-the-top-raid
At least one of them had been mouthing off online about Muslims, the attack's target.
The way NZ police behaved here was standard worldwide procedure, including armed police being posted everywhere. I have no sympathy for these guys whining about their hurt feelings.
”At least one of them had been mouthing off online about Muslims, the attack's target”
there is is no mention of that in the link at all. What’s this guy done that deserved a raid like that ?????
You're right. I'm confusing it with a different story. Leaves the other factor I've already mentioned.
And bollocks to it being standard procedure- police don’t raid people who have purchased firearms legally without a reason – and they have provided none in this case.
It is standard procedure after a terrorist attack. Don't be so wilfully dim.
Well, the plods do tend to turn up armed to the teeth when they visit people possessing firearms, legally or otherwise.
Plus there was a high terror alert.
I have heard mutterings from inside the gun owning fraternity that they know of friends who are buying plastic piping and sealing their automatic weapons in them before burying them in the garden.
I think that the police should carry metal detectors on every such raid and check out the yard.
Some interesting thoughts on how and why building more just law-enforcement systems should get more emphasis in aid to developing countries.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/how-to-fix-poverty-gary-haugen-ijm.html?via=homepage_taps_top
Man that Slate piece you linked to is one of the most racist things I have read in a long time..holy shit.
" In Peru, he recalls, a doctor reported seeing 50 cases of rape in the preceding five days. All the victims were less than 15 years old."
Yet according to Nation Master you are 17% more lightly to be raped in the USA than Peru, in fact it shows that the risk from nearly all crime is higher in the US than Peru
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Peru/United-States/Crime.
Love this little gem….
" The abuse of state power turned out to be a human problem, not a colonial one."
Colonialist invade a poor country, completely destroy and disrupt centuries of structure and life for the inhabitants, they eventually get kicked out. and suddenly everything is meant to just go back to how it was before colonization?..seriously, I mean I am no academic, but even I understand that the deep damage caused to these formally colonized societies lays squarely at the feet of their former oppressors.
Uhh, you have any idea of the difference between recorded crime and actual crime is in places with really corrupt authorities? Particularly for a deeply personal crime such as rape, where attempting to pursue justice is much much more likely to result in further victimisation and humiliation than any kind of punishment for the perpetrator?
In your rush to find something to whine about and make yourself feel morally superior, you seem to have totally missed the point of the article. Which is to look at ways to improve things for people living in fucked up parts of the world.
Well of course we all want " to look at ways to improve things for people living in fucked up parts of the world." how that is done and under what context and by whom is also incredibly important, all I was saying is that I found the piece to be extremely condescending to the people of those poor counties, and it's lack of historical context was disturbing.
BTW Andre, When I read statements like…' You can’t just do good. You have to grapple with evil', I of course get instantly suspicious…so I was in no ' rush to find something to whine about and make yourself feel morally superior" so go get fucked with your ad hominem attacks (as you and your pals always fall quickly back to). maybe you should just try displaying a little more critical thinking.
I would have thought the same problem, patriarchal power structure existed in the first world and in the pre colonial "third world". And that, as a result of colonialism one can add institutional racism. Those dealing with both in the first world can bring that knowledge to the third world in their foreign aid programmes.
I am fairly sure the UN Development agency does.
William Salatan…racist. Or maybe just lazy and attention grabbing. Or maybe all 3.
https://slate.com/technology/2007/11/liberal-creationism.html
https://slate.com/culture/2007/12/a-response-to-liberal-creationism.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20071203013749/http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/546.html
In your rush to whine about the person whose name is on the byline, did you miss the actual content of the piece? And that the piece was almost entirely just a summary of content originally produced by Gary Haugen, with a bit of additional info about Haugen and the organisation he heads?
No actually the piece you linked to has the heading and then 'By WILLIAM SALETAN' (Their caps) so it isn't a byline.
Don't you think it is about time you grow up and stop your incessant whining and whinging every time some one points to all the holes in the shit you put up.
When you and Siobhan stop responding to just about everything with a diversionary whine that's unrelated to the content of the comment you're responding to, I'll stop telling you what you're doing is diversionary whining.
Firstly my initial comment WAS about the content of your link, and as far as I can see so was Siobhan’s. so don’t know what your are talking about there.,,just whinging for the sake of it I guess.
Secondly, maybe I will stop critiquing you when you stop putting up links that are dodgy and making comments that I don't agree with, but until then I will comment how ever I see fit, as is the nature of open political forums in case you hadn't noticed
You don't see me getting all sad and defensive on it like you when people constantly critique my links and comments (which they do)…maybe you need to harden up a bit.
So in short, if you can only understand being critiqued as whining then that is your problem not mine.
"Some liberals don’t like to hear this message. They’re uncomfortable with the language of power, punishment, deterrence, and force. They prefer to talk about amnesty, rehabilitation, or demilitarization"
Like this, most of the article is
By WILLIAM SALETAN
As for Haegen, I'm sure the guy means well, but I try and stay well clear of Evangelicals. too problematic.
.
Congratulations on finding one of the very few bits of the piece that's Saletan's content, not a summary of Haugen's views.
Now, do you think you can actually take the very brave step of actually considering Haugen's views about how the lack of a fair justice system is a significant part of continuing poverty? And that concentrating more aid efforts into improving justice systems might have better results than current aid efforts?
Or is it just too big a mental obstacle for you to overcome, purely because he's an evangelical, that someone might actually have developed worthwhile observations from his work helping the impoverished ?
An estimated 60% of Peruvian mothers aged between 12 and16 years old become pregnant as a result of rape. And your reaction to anecdotal reports of appalling levels of sexual violence is but America!.
FFS.
@joe90, Look all I was trying to say was that the piece that was linked to initially seemed to me to be quite racist in tone, just because someone wants to help in poor third world countries doesn't mean they don't have all kinds of hooks and personal agendas that go along with that 'help’,so when I read this … ' You can’t just do good. You have to grapple with evil' and this 'The abuse of state power turned out to be a human problem, not a colonial one.' in that piece, and then looked up the author who turned out to be involved in some racist controversies, well my alarm bells started ringing…wouldn't yours?
Random morning thought: there should be a word for that really discomfiting feeling you get when someone that's nuttier than pecan pie actually agrees with you.
The Germans probably already have one. Sabine, can you help?
Pfennigfallen dredre.
That's a really cool definition Gabby and as always leads to the need for further elucidation. For the benefit of very uncool people like me here is an Urban Dictionary's definition of Dre (the others were so packed with sex-loaded foul-mouthed expletives I passed them by).
dre
an adjective used to describe anything that is cool and/or dope beyond comprehension. Applicable only to those individuals with the highest levels of swag. Derivative of the popular rapper name Dre and thus is most commonly used as an expression by members of hip hop culture. However, it is sometimes used by a select few individuals who wish they had swag…
Boy 1: bruh, did you see them new Nike Blasers?
Boy 2: you know i did foo, i aint neva seen shoes so dre.
#cool#dope#awesome#boss#prime
by camster82 May 15, 2011
The pfennig must have lodged somewhere on the way down greysy.
Don't they call it The Standard?
Bumboozled
Maybe. Works for most of the sensation. Bit it doesn't quite convey that additional little hint of feeling maybe your own views need an urgent re-examining, tho.
Introprobation
Yeah!
Phew
Discombobulated
Too broad. What I'm talking about is a very specific subset of discombobulated.
The scale of procrastination is increasingly evident…
"Emission budgets will be set for five-year periods once we are past 2025 and up to 2035 these will be all set by December 31st, 2021. In setting the targets consideration must be given as to how these targets may be realistically met plus another range of “cover all options” clauses.
If a budget period achieves greater savings than budgeted these can be carried forward into the next period and if a budgeted period falls short of budgeted emissions government may drag back up to 1% (borrow) from the following period."
https://www.interest.co.nz/rural-news/99610/legal-degree-may-become-necessary-skill-farmers-feel-good-politicians-and
So it appears meaningful climate action has been deferred until post the next election
“So it appears meaningful climate action has been deferred until post the next election”
Even further than that….
As there is no concrete plan on how to meet these targets….
It is all very well having a target, but without a concrete plan to work towards it, it is meaningless.
I could have a target to be a millionaire in 5 years.
I could even say that I will need to get $200,000 per year to reach my target.
I have a target, I am almost there.
The same with the Zero Carbon Bill, lots of targets lots of deadlines, Zero actual policy on how to meet them.
Meanwhile in the real world, business as usual continues, huge area of Taranaki opened up for oil and gas exploration. Huge coal mine expansion in Huntly Rotowaro open cast. More motorway expansion. Business as usual in all spheres
the cognitive dissonance within the coalition is something to behold….how the Greens cope with this humourless farce I cannot fathom.
The purposes of the targets is to require those contesting elections and forming coalition governments to have plans to meet the said targets – though we have yet to see National buy in to confirm it.
The targets themselves are in accord with the OECD international consensus – sans outliers such as Oz and USA and Canada.
the stated purpose of the Bill is to confine to 1.5 degC of warming (but definitely less than 2) as per the Paris accord……and this admin is going to further waste this 3 year term and part of the next (should they get another) before any practical policy is enacted…..on current projections 1.5 will have already been exceeded by then.
This lot could teach the EU a thing or two about can kicking on that performance
Future thinking. Past thinking. Just thinking and trying and being a bit entrepreneurial and not putting it off till many of us thinking oldies will be dead. (How are we all planning for the environmentally appropriate way to be laid to rest?)
I thought of Futuro houses – alien looking double saucered homes on stilts.
I see from Nelson Mail paper that a guy has been sourcing some of these in NZ. Apparently only 100 were made in the 1970's (worldwide?) then the oil crisis, so rare. Nick McQuoid brought one from Northland to Christchurch in 2012 and later sold it to Museum in Tasmania for $280,000!
His latest is at Ohoka, Christchurch, and was a whitebait shelter in South Westland.
Futuro houses were conceived by Matti Suuronen in Finland in 1968 to be used as "portable" ski chalets. The insulated fibreglass structures were designed so the interior could heat up in just 20 minutes.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/houses/112505522/canterbury-entrepreneur-tackles-weird-and-wonderful-restoration-project
Grey, about a month ago I saw a lil truck towing a house on a trailer in Thorp St, was super impressed.
It looked like a tall prefab cottage, but what buzzed me out was the vehicle towing it, was one of those landcrusier style trucks, the ones many kiwi's own. It was so cool to watch. They backed it down their drive way and voila, instant house. Must have been lightweight to be able to be moved by such an average vehicle.
Those chalets, awesome, I think there is one at the wreckers on the left driving into Mot next to a phonebox with an alien in it….hmmmm…. going to the tip today, will double check if it is, I wonder if they've seen the article, that would be worth stopping in and sharing with them, might just do that…..thanks for sharing Grey, very cool.
http://www.breezepod.com/
Newest news from Radionz:
Displaced people in the world 41 million!! Extreme weather displaces more people than conflicts and violence. Norway has a group keeping track.
(Me: Scandinavia for the modern UN! Time for a change of place, practice, hegemony, away from hedgemoney!)
Fog in Auckland stopping ferry sailings and international departures. (This is NZ idea of what displaced people are! We have to up our thinking, I think.)
Greed has overcome both good sense and decency, as the government opens a up huge area for oil and gas exploration on land violently seized from Maori by Colonial authorities
Greed has overcome both good sense and decency, as the government opens a up huge area for oil and gas exploration on land violently seized from Maori by Colonial authorities
Why consensus stinks
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/20/our-leaders-are-ignoring-global-warming-to-the-point-of-criminal-negligence-its-unforgivable
Unforgiveable
The Australian term white-anting comes from the action of termites that hollow out and empty something that looks fine on the surface.
The Zero Carbon Bill is an example of white-anting stopping any real action on climate change, looking substantial, but completely hollowed out of any real action.
The argument made for the Zero Carbon Bill by its supporters, is that we have to seek 'Consensus' with the National Party, otherwise when they get back into power they will repeal any concrete legislation we put in place.
As well as being a defeatist position, the evidence for for this argument is actually extremely weak.
The Nats never repealed the Nuclear Free Legislation. Labour have never repealed the Anadarko Amendment. Phil Goff traveled the Country in a big red bus with "Kill The Bill" (the National Government Bill to increase GST to 15%) before admitting that if he was elected he wouldn't repeal it.
Consensus is not democracy it is an attack on democracy.
As Winston Churchill famously said, Democracy is the worst of all possible systems, except for all those others that have been tried.
Democracy has been described by its detractors as the dictatorship of the majority over the minority.
This is the sound of ideologies crashing, sang Billy Bragg
Consensus is an effort to paper over these differences between ideologies.
And it fits into one of those worst ways Churchill spoke of.
Consensus is not democracy. Consensus is going for the lowest possible denominator to achieve unanimity.
In effect Consensus is an effort to silence and stifle political debate. To suffocate the sound of ideologies clashing.
The tragedy of Consensus politics is that it robs the electorate of making a clear choice between one way forward and another. Consensus politics prevents us hearing the arguments between both ways forward, and for making an informed decision with our vote.
Consensus politics murders democracy in back room deals between politicians.
What consensus politics displays, is a lack of faith in the people.
Consensus politics is a cowardly abrogation of leadership.
Instead of appeasing the National Party politicians what our leaders should do instead is enact the legislation that their conscience and the science demands, and then openly defy the opposition to repeal it if they dare.
This is what is called leadership.
"Consensus politics prevents us hearing the arguments between both ways forward"
Black/white thinking is a bigger problem than consensus decision-making ever will be.
“Black/white thinking is a bigger problem than consensus decision-making ever will be.” Sacha
Or are you like the oil and coal companies, scared of the possibility that you may, one day, have to submit to the dictatorship of the majority?
Democracy has its faults, but its better, as Churchill said than all those others that have been tried and that includes the so called the consensus style of politics.
Personally I think that many people are heartily sick of consensus between the two major political parties.
Which delivers no choice, and which sees many turn away from even voting, finding it hard to determine any difference between them.
Democracy can include consensus.
Really?
Maybe you would like to enlarge on that comment Solkta?
In there is a difference of opinion between two parties, (or people), there can be only three possible outcomes. Either one side is right, or the other side is right, or both sides are wrong.
Where is the ground for consensus if both sides disagree?
An international consensus – a co-ordinated effort – is required to deal with a global issue. Whether global social media regulation against incitement/promotion/glorification of violence, money laundering, tax havens, taxation of international cartels, extradition agreements, war crimes, 200 mile economic zones, freedom of the sea, diplomatic immunity, free trade rules (WTO), and global environment concerns.
And where there is an international consensus as to national targets – nations formulate how they meet their obligations. This will include national plans – which can include an internal consensus within which parties contest elections and form coalition agreements. The recent proposal would need to be agreed to by National to become one.
As to being more ambitious than the international community programme, being a fast follower rather than a prevaricator is progress for now. The only way to be effective is by
1. taking the resistance (aka National) along with you.
2. convincing the international community to be bolder.
Subjects; The way forward' /consensus /climate change/well being/ – all in one here folks
11/5/19
Our HB/Gisborne community is still awaiting the Labour coalition promises made to us all in 2016 in the Gisborne Herald.
Three parties all now in Labour coalition had promised restoration of our rail services that the National Government has allowed to become partly washed out in 2012 by a lack of funding for rail maintenance to keep the infrastructure free of damages from any storms.
This service was already under community restoration as industry was wanting more freight services then in 2011 when in december the HBRC had evidence that more freight was wanted to be carried on Gisborne rail in a press release 21st December 2011 entitled “At risk rail can’t cope”.
(links are all provided below"
We are claiming our right to have our rail services restored by this new Labour Coalition Government under the new “well being budget policy .
https://www.labour.org.nz/wellbeingbudget
This promise will see Government reducing carbon emissions and increasing infrastructure under two of the ‘five priorities’ using – Boosting Innovation, & Creating Opportunities .
QUOTE; “Alongside GDP, we will measure ourselves against five key priorities that will make real improvements to the lives of New Zealanders. We’ve used evidence to identify the five areas we can make the greatest difference. Boosting Innovation, Creating Opportunities, Backing Māori & Pasifika, Supporting Mental Health, Improving Child Wellbeing.
Please Government give us in HB/Gisborne back our Gissbone Rail as you are doing already in most other provinces, such as Wairarapa, Tananaki, Canterbury, Otago, Westland, Waikato and Northland. – So we await your response in the new GPS called "wellbeing budget" https://www.labour.org.nz/wellbeingbudget
http://www.scoop.co.nz/…/PA1302/S00183/kiwirail-admits-lack-of-maintenance-led-to-wash-out.htm
http://gisborneherald.co.nz/localnews/2535803-135/three-parties-say-fix-rail
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/6170590/At-risk-rail-line-can-t-cope-with-demand
Cleangreen did you hear Winston today? A big boost for Rail in the budget.
Yesterday I made brief comment on Micky's post, that I hoped that the National Party continue to oppose the Zero Carbon Bill so as to give the voters at least some chance to decide.
To which Solkta replied:
In my opinion, any party that fought an election campaign against the scientific evidence of climate change and the need to act against it, would be in for the political drubbing of their life.
The evidence is that strong.
The tragedy is that the current consensus strategy will prevent that debate ever being held.
The coalition's approach is to
1. propose legislation and see if National oppose it
2. if National do, win in 2020 and force them to reconsider their position.
3. post 2020 gain consensus around the plan.
4. compete in subsequent elections with policies and coalition agreements that specify implementaiton arrangements.
5. within the framework that this plan is in accord with existing international agreements which can be made more progressive should there be consensus around this.
I think it is most likely that National will vote for the Zero Carbon Bill. If certain goals prove too difficult down the track, say the reduction in methane by 2030, adjustments can be made.
After all, it it is highly unlikely Labour will still be the govt then!
Certainly not if they keep odious company like the Gnats.
That's not like you to be so open about how the nats decide policy. You must've had had a few wines, and was only 5 o'clock.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/112321733/chinese-water-giant-nongfu-spring-had-a-rocky-road-to-setting-up-in-new-zealand
More national government filth revealed.
See also at #16.
The too good to be true back door wheeling and dealing arrangements are inherently unstable and readily detrimental, as the National Party involvement shows.
Why we should never considering privatising our health industry and abandon Pharmac. A small inroad by some private companies providing services for the wealthy, and some limited crossover, but very limited interaction.
Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.
The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sept 20, 2015
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html
That's more an artefact of the way the FDA won't recognise approvals from other countries. Daraprim's generic name is pyrimethamine and it's widely available around the world as a generic for about $1 a dose. But the US market for it is small enough it wasn't worth it for any other company to go through the rigmarole of bringing in a generic.
A thornier problem is simply the unpredictability of private health care costs. Which leads to horrifying stuff like parents with kids that have done something that really does need any emergency room visit, but the risk of a ruinous bill is so high they'll wait with the kid outside in the carpark and hope the kid pulls through so they don't have to go in.
https://www.vox.com/health-care/2019/5/10/18526696/health-care-costs-er-emergency-room
How far the USA has declined or flat-lined. In the 1860s in Semmelweiss' time in Vienna, pregnant mums might hire a horse-drawn cab to circle the hospital to see how they went with the birth because of the high death rate for mothers at the hospital. It was a last resort.
When Semmelweiss carried out a handwashing experiment on young trainee doctors who had been handling cadavers before viewing the birthing mothers, he reduced that death rate. But his methods didn't suit the PTB and they discontinued the practice. The knowledge of those avoidable deaths practically drove him mad and to his death.
What a disgrace that the United States is as low as the 1800s in its unconcern for its citizens. I'll mention Joan Brady here. She wrote a novel Death Comes for Peter Pan based on a paper she had written about defects in the medical services in one of the States. She couldn't get her work published. So she wrote it up as 'faction' .
Review Good Reads by Steve:
High 4. This is a devastating portrait of the iniquities of the medical system in the US. When Alice Wexler is told her husband is dying and that no medical treatment can prevent this outcome, they return to their American homeland. What follows is a tale of her passionate crusade to attain a more promising diagnosis, but as Alice's hopes of her country providing a second chance become shattered`in the face of the harsh realities of the Medicare system, her struggle becomes one of fighting for her husband's right to a dignified end. As she witnesses her husband's deterioration her self-reflection rveals hidden aspects of their relationship, and as any meaningful contact with her partner becomes more and more remote, we are witness to her growing emotional attachment to the one person who provides support. The author cuts through with scalpel-precision the layers of bureaucratic hypocrisy to reveal a health care system where poorly trained staff ensure passivity of patients through over-medication, and where those in such a vagetative state are regarded by those who manage the system, as mere 'product' to keep the coffers full. In the epilogue, Joan Brady reveals that she faced her own such struggle when she returned with her terminally-ill husband to the US. The questions she raises over the allocation of funds and the impersonal operation of the US health-care system, and the call for more discussion of 'mercy killings' contained within its pages brought condemnation across the pond, but this is a wonderful novel which deftly exposes social injustice.
Amsterdam audio – Joan Brady second half of audio on her book Death Comes for Peter Pan.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS-I-hfiIEM
and – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
Use of rail will reduce over use of truck freight emissions.
http://gisborneherald.co.nz/localnews/4077328-135/prime-time-to-expand
May 11, 2019
gisborneherald.co.nz
Prime time to expand
by Andrew AshtonPublished: May 11, 2019 11:58AM
Report says container port, restoration of rail can boost growth
A Deloitte report says investing in rail could be more commercially viable if Eastland Port had container port facilities.
The lack of a container port in Gisborne is costing the region $36 million a year and potentially hindering the return of the Gisborne to Wairoa rail line, a report from a top finance firm says.
The second edition of Deloitte’s Shaping Our Slice of Heaven report, entitled Regions of Opportunity, assesses the economic impact of increasing exports in tourism, agribusiness, food processing and advanced manufacturing from Auckland, Waikato, Hawke’s Bay/Gisborne, Wellington and Canterbury from 2019 to 2040.
The report says Gisborne is in a prime position to take advantage of growth industries and highlights the expansion of Eastland Port and the restoration of rail as aspects that can boost the region further.
“Gisborne needs increased connectivity to flourish,” the report states.
“While the Wairoa-Napier rail line has been reopened and road upgrades between Wairoa and Gisborne have been promised, extending the operating rail line up to Gisborne would increase trade efficiency going south from Gisborne.
The infamous District Judge Michael Snow in his pomp
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/apr/11/assange-branded-a-narcissist-by-judge-who-found-him-guilty
Whakatane residents are supplied 'E' grade water…the lowest of the low…while New Zealand Government officials woo wealthy investors to a local spring so the investor can potentially bottle 580 million litres of pure, clear water per year.
The runanga has previously said it has concerns about the health of the Awaiti aquifer, from which the water would be drawn, and the consent regime: "At every turn, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa has had to advocate for transparency and accountability by local and central government, namely making the consent hearing public, and the participation of hapū, iwi and community in decisions that affect us."
Whether the legal challenges succeed or fail, the focus on Nongfu Spring has highlighted the ease with which overseas company can access vast quantities of water for little to no cost.
In this case, consent to bottle and export 580m litres of water would cost the company around $2000 a year, the price of a resource consent monitoring fee.
Seriously beggars belief that we're still protesting this shit. If we only consider the plastic used to bottle 580 million litres of water per year then we have a strong indicator that those promoting this madness have not been listening.
That the NZ government is behind this is bordering on treason.
Talk about mitigating climate change and cleaning up our water ways and reducing plastic use….all bullshit.
This is just a fiction made up by malcontents??? Tell me the truth – this isn't really happening right? I think I need another cup of tea, it's enough to drive you to drink. But not pure water. Can someone explain why this is allowed to happen. Is it just no backbone? Is it being left up to local Councils to decide? Is it that central government can't put a stop to treating an essential resource for everything being mined? It would be right to stop it now. And try to claw back what has already been signed up to, even if it costs big money.
Does this come under the CPPPTPA etc? Have we the citizens got no come-back to this dreadful, stupid bit of 'trade’? @$%$&$ *** 👿 😈 😡 😥
Does this come under the CPPPTPA etc?
Which this Current Mob broke land speed records to sign…with the ink barely dry on the Coalition Agreement.
Or the China (F?)TA…which the Previous Labour Government tripped over their feet to sign?
Treason. Traitors.
heh
I'll have to wait until I get home to watch this (unfortunately) I'm a bit of a Ben Shapiro fan boy
(unfortunately) I'm a bit of a Ben Shapiro fan boy….
That truly is unfortunate. He's one of the truly wicked opinion-vomiters, and unlike, say, Donald Trump, he lacks even a smattering of rudimentary charm.
Why would you call yourself a "fan boy" of that chump?
Facts don't care about your feelings
Actually, and I really hate to say this, but Shapiro didn't do to badly really, he batted off Neil's questions mostly pretty well, Neil seemed to base the whole interview on just a string of lazy gotcha questions.
Most of the blogs and you tube channels I follow are framing this as a huge fail and an embarrassment for Shapiro, and when you watched their edited clips it sure looks like it, but when you take the time and watch the whole thing, it reads quite differently I think.
It is so easy to believe things when they align with your own ideology, but truth matters. if you start believing your own bullshit you end up losing elections like the Dems in 2016.
Shapiro couldn't cope when the interviewer ignored his babbling and demanded he answer the question. He folded and took his ball home.
Yeah he definitely lost his shit in the end, but in a way I can kind of see why, Neil didn't seem interested in having a discussion with him, he only seemed interested in cornering him with one of his single fire questions, which is a very lazy way to expose Shapiro for the arsehole that he is, in my opinion Neil didn't do a good job in this interview.
Wag the Dog. When all else fails, start a war
Today another truck fire in the city caught fire and burnt completely out surrounded by residential traffic in the close proximity of homes.
We need ‘US style’ ‘ring road’ heavy truck routes around our NZ cities not through the middle of them like this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_road Ring road – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Ring Road (disambiguation). "Beltway" redirects here. For the term used in American politics, see Inside the Beltway. "Periférico" redirects here. For Mexico City's beltway, see Anillo Periférico.
The inner ring road of Sheffield, England
A ring road (also known as beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country.
The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducing traffic volumes in the urban centre, such as by offering an alternate route around the city for drivers who do not need to stop in the city core.
Wake up useless NZTA!!!!
Dunedin just needs a bypass. I was actually in an exam years ago when a slinky (lamb carcass) truck on a hot day exploded its load all down the middle of town. The stench was insane (apparently they'd filled the truck fine, but the swellage on a hot day caused overflow).
Most of the double-trailers passing through are going nowhere close to the inner hills areas. There are a couple of trans-shipping depots in southD, lots of logging trucks crunch roads up to Port Chalmers, but the stock trucks are going straight through.
I think you mean just need to bypass Dunedin 🙂
Depends entirely on who wants to avoid who 🙂
Dangers of 5G – Mark Steele interview notes regarding a claim weapons expert Mark Steele marks that autonomous vehicles are never going to be a reality because of the amount of microwave radiation they emit. What's impossible is having 20-50 of them all together.
BMW did a study that showed autonomous cars interfered with pacemakers. 13:25. Nobody has warned of the danger looking at these cars with binoculars or telescopes – if the laser from the autonomous car catches the sight it will put your eye out
Get your protection products here:
http://www.lessemf.com/personal.html
But we need 5G – self-driving flying cars are coming (in 5 years, apparently) – how ‘cool’.
That will keep the shareholders happy, going forward…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/euthanasia-debate/112559499/cancer-snuck-up-on-me-now-i-deserve-to-die-peacefully
It is often touted the Greens need more votes to implement change.
But would it really make a difference?
They still won't have king maker leverage.
They've shown they'd prefer to be in the tent than out. So no leverage there.
Thus, they would still be the smaller partner of Labour that prefers not to rock the boat.
The Greens are not ugly centrists like NZF so they are unlikely to ever be king-makers. Unlike NZF, king-making is not what drives the Greens. Environmental and social concerns drive the Greens.
Yes. And seeing as they've got little from Labour and been forced to swallow a few dead rats, surely it wouldn't take much for National to try and entice them over?
They would only have to offer a little more than Labour has allowed them which hasn't been much. And with going with National, there is less chance of Winston getting in the way.
Personally speaking I'd rather deal with any party before I'd deal with Winston. I get the feeling that National, Labour, the Greens, Maori Party and Act all want to achieve something but Winston only wants whats best for Winston
The sooner he's gone the better
He has his benefits and his experience will be a great loss.
He has his perks and his experience will not be missed
No one packs a hall like Winston, so I say he will be missed.
By greying lamington-seekers, sure.
Greying lamington-seekers are voters too, and motivated voters at that!
I don't know if you've been paying attention but the Greens will not and can not 'go with' National because their political ideologies run counter to each other.
It's not going to happen.
Mind you, NZF and the Greens might be closer on policy in some areas than is generally acknowledged. Given your hatred of rail (which is weird for a self-pronounced far left activist) the idea that Winston Peters is driving a big boost for rail will leave you stinging I’m sure.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/112648672/deputy-pm-winston-peters-signals-budget-boost-for-railways
I wasn't advocating they go with National, just pointing out it wouldn't take much for National to out offer Labour.
I fully support trains. My comment in that other thread was merely a reference to the timetable (one each way a day) which is vastly insufficient.
And yes, NZF and the Greens are closer on policy in some areas than is generally acknowledged.
Just a complete reversal of their policies and an alienation of their corporate and rural support.
When stacked up against what Labour has offered them, the reversal and alienation would be minimal, manageable, thus survivable if it was required to secure them power.
Yep, more mining, dirty dairying and big highways would be just what Green voters were seeking. You're a genius!
Labour haven't offered much less in that respect. There is still more mining, dirty dairying and big highways.
Remove Winston from the equation and we'll see about that.
Did you miss where the government scrapped new oil exploration and introduced methane targets and refocussed big highway funding to clean public transport?
Remembering you yourself advocate for big highways I'm not surprised you have overlooked these developments.
@Muttonbird
Did you miss how Labour has fallen short on most of that, hence they aren't that apart from National when one looks deeper than the soundbites.
And we will still require highways going forward for environmentally friendly vehicles.
No Mate, that's what they government has actually done. Things National would have the guts for.
No, on the part of National.
You think nats would support the climate change stuff, even as it is? Not to mention the fact that the entire Nat philosophy is based on exploitation rather than conservation: environment, resources, people…
Even without the social policy aspect to the Greens (because holistic attitudes cannot be restricted to one narrowly defined area, by definition), it's not a case of concessions on individual policies buying cooperation. Everybody has to be on the same broad page on most of everything else that comes up, and generally treat each other with respect. That's what would require a complete change in the nats for them to realistically have the Greens as an option.
This should be pretty basic stuff to any Green voter.
The Chairman is an ACT voter.
Hell no!
Everything comment you make suggests so I'm afraid.
No.
or Chairman of "Sustainable New Zealand"
They most likely will with methane further reduced And as it has no teeth, it won't really be such a big one to swallow. Despite the current noise.
National can act respectably and professionally when required And have worked with the Greens before.
lol rubbish – you're just another wanker sending the kids to hell cos you can't be bothered changing your cushy lifestyle. You are a gnat supporter.
Not for confidence and supply. Especially come budget time.
As the the great politician M.E. Atloaf once said “I’d do anything for power, but I won’t do that!”.
Yep, Greens would be like a bat out o hell.
I feel there is a rap base here. Alienation, exploration, exploitation, equation, conservation, commendation – chacha.
Well, well well, here is Mr Green the party activist toying with the idea of a Nat-Green coalition. Never saw that one coming lol.
Thread.
https://tttthreads.com/thread/1120756675210817538.html
RIP Pua
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/112648625/pua-magasiva-found-dead
Only 38. We need to look after our creatives. RIP.
Here is a guy who should get a good Parkour workout and training. Then make some sculpture of his own that goes outside on public display for our critical judgment, which we are all very good at it in NZ. That will teach him some skills, some planning, some discipline, some understanding of materials, some mentoring, the ability to see a thought from start to finish and outcome. And how vulnerable we all are to others' respect for ourselves and our works.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/384071/man-who-broke-wellington-s-len-lye-sculpture-sentenced-to-community-work
Watched Chernobyl.
Fuck.
Kia ora R&R.
I think the tridition on single marriage is westernised. Marriage is a
very important to the old Maori thats where te Mokopuna are going to come from.
I don't think that the high devorce rate in NZ is good for anyone but lawyers.
I say that people who are going to marry should look HARD at there potential partners to make sure they are compatible as there are a lot of players out there.
I would not use a dating website.
Ka kite ano P.S chose your partners wisely
Kia ora R&R on Maori Tv.
I just a few years ago I new all my neighbours the way of the west goal is to individualised the common tangata easer to use there blind/fool people if they are ALONE. For tangata whenua we have to work together to make a better future for te Mokopuna.
Moden living has to change back to the hapu /familys cooperationing in all aspects of life the Marae way of living is way of the future we will use less resources and that is going to be beneficial for our future shear the tools shareing is caring if we learn that respect is a big thing that needs to be promoted.
I get pissed at accounts who say it better to rent than buy a house.
A whare is the Whanau moanga it gives the Whanau security no one can tell you to leave with out good cause it will help with financial security once you have good equity you can lend money with low interest rates you can use your equity to help the tamariki and Mokopuna get there own house.
I agree with Marama if one is paying rent WHY can't the government and the banks lend money to buy A whare the rent has to be paid or your under the bridge. Rents are higher than a mortgage in a lot of places. Figure that one out.
Ka kite ano
I Back the call for IWI leaders to declare Human Caused Climate change a national emergency in Aotearoa as in my view on our REALITY it is.
Iwi leaders say New Zealand should declare an environment and climate emergency, as the British parliament did last week Ka kite ano links below
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/388691/we-have-to-react-with-speed-iwi-leaders-on-climate-change
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
All the tangata of Papatuanukue need to put huge pressure on all the Papatuanukue ruling class to force them to protect OUR Mokopuna futures first and formost.
Hague climate change judgement could inspire a global civil movement
Dutch ruling could trigger similar cases worldwide with citizens taking their governments to courts to make them act on climate promises Ka kite ano links below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/24/hague-climate-change-judgement-could-inspire-a-global-civil-movement
Kia ora Newshub.
Social media needs to have boundaries set to stop the haters using it to cause harm to others verbally and physically but let's not compromise free speach in the reaction.
Parlm kernel fire the stuff can self combust if not stored correctly.
Its good that more money for the homeless people to be housed,
Well national has a policy that I will back 2 days more care after our Wahine give birth to Te Mokopuna I think it's a real good policy te Wahine go thru a enormous amount of stress giveing birth to our tamariki it is quite easy for them to slip into depression.
I say that IWIs paying for health insurance for there tangata whenua is on to it yes the crown should be paying for it but we can not Rely on the government this will keep the kaumatua around longer to guide our Mokopuna up there ladders of Life.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Te ao Maori News.
I miss it last night Sir Heke Busby passed he will be missed dearly.
I see that the United nations Antonio is in Aotearoa promoting Papatuanukue PEACE Ka pai and championing the mitigatetion against climate change we must respect our future and past tipuna.
The poor common people need help its cool more funding is coming from our government for tangata whenua as we are the majority in those stats of homeless. Kia ora to the Black Ferns Ka kite ano
Kia ora The AM Show.
Chris you do a good job in Auckland caring for OUR homeless tangata.
The Ausse election in on hope you are wrong Jason the Papatuanukue can not afford to have the same government in power that is prow coal.
It is awesome that the protesting the lack of action against climate change around the Papatuanukue is still going strong.
Paul I agree with your words I say no more.
I say white supremacist are a bit of a problem in NZ I see there actions all the time.?
My diet is no additional sugar in prosessed food and a little hear and there and porridge rolled oats gets the digest system working it fulls you up easy as to I notice with te Mokopuna good feed of porridge and toast keeps them happy for 3 hours any other food 2 hours it a super food.
The white supremacist problem if you ignore a sore eventually it gets that big it burst.
Your mother day prize for that Wahine who lost her loved one's recently is cool she will be happy Wahine are the unsung Hero's of OUR society.
You should see how my WiFi and laptop get hacked so easily so be careful about the new technology you put in your whare if your privacy matters to you.
Ka kite ano
Now is the time to buy second hand electric car. I say our government should be investing in the technology of refurbishment of the battery's of the second hand car market or they will have to quickly try and clean up a mess that is easily foreseeable heaps of dead batterys and cars if the manufacturer won't back their secondhand car the government has to mabe legerslate but NZ is to small to have a impact at that level. Its a no brainer to chase a phenomenon that will sharply reduce our carbon footprint and can save the country billion at the same time a smart investment I say. I know heavy industries need fuel like gas or hydrogen but I say working smarter not harder is what little AOTEAROA has to do to keep up with the phase of change and get the best returns from the changes. The technology can be sold to other that are interested. There are many more poor people in the Papatuanukue than wealthy so the market for refurbishment of batteries is huge Ka kite ano links below.
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Equality for all is needed Wahine are treated the less equal of OUR society. Wahine from 3 world countries have it very hard they do most of the heavy lifting in the mahi of providing for there familys. The men get most of any money they get and some waster it. Eco Maori backs Tau toko this micro financing for Wahine.
Gender inequality is a global problem, but it is especially amplified when it comes to the financial opportunities presented to men and women. While there has been a significant improvement in gender equality since women were first allowed to vote,statistically, women are underrepresented in most financial positions: form borrowers to lenders, not to mention regulatory bodies or high-standing positions in banking institutions.
Micro-financing for female borrowers
Micro-financing platforms like AssetStream will allow women with lower social status and lack of work or credit history to start borrowing small sums of money, to jumpstart their finances or even start their own small business Ka kite ano links below
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cryptopolitan.com/implications-of-greater-gender-equality-through-microfinance/amp/
We don't have to invent the wheel to fix our environment. Papatuanukue has already achieved this we just have to find the creature to will help in clearing up the mess and nerture them use mother nature creations to help clean up mess we have made with our Environment. I Back the kicks principles keep it smart and simple.
The big, beautiful Baltic Sea hides a dirty secret in its 377,000km of water.
A number of agricultural spills has turned the Baltic into one of the most polluted seas in the world, due to excess nitrogen and phosphorus lacing its waters.
This process of eutrophicationhas led to the depletion of oxygen and an overgrowth of algae in the body of water, but not all hope is lost Ka kite ano link below
https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/09/pollution-fighting-mussels
Kia ora Newshub.
I say that the gumman would have had others helping him he was just the minupulate puppet.
I say it's dumb Fonterra selling Tip Top you know how to win monuply not selling ASSETS.??????.
What's the point of a study on unreported unproven crime it will be similar everywhere
Drones delivery orgain/kidneys is a sign of the Times technology is cool in the correct HANDS.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Te ao Maori News.
Sir Heke will have a huge tangi
Its cool that the people who can't hear have Maori sign te reo language I will find the time in the near future to master te reo.
The side of the road drug test on the roads would be fine with Eco Maori in a perfect Papatuanukue but from all the data and stories I can see. Tangata whenua will end up with the short end of that STICK.
Its awesome that school fees will be dropped and focused on education Alot of intelligent tamariki would fail or not set the test because of the fees being un payed.
Ma te wa
Antonio the tangata whenua of the Pacific Islands need help in combining climate change.
Its cool that the United nations is Tau toko indigenous culture te reo /language.
I would not be a happy MAN if that happens to my Mokopuna.
Ka kite ano