Relief and joy thatat the wild boars and their coach and all those incredibly brave rescuers are alive and out of that dam cave. Talk about mission impossible. Wonderful news
Further thoughts on neo-nazi provocateurs and human rights.
I suspect the Freeze Peach group (are they all white men?), are aiming to test the limits of NZ law. Basically, I think the Council will go for citing clause 5 of BORA on justified limitations, plus clause 131 of the Human Rights Act making it illegal to incite racial disharmony. They will put a lot of emphasis on clause 131.
I think the neo-nazis will be arguing that freedom of speech trumps all other human rights – more like US law than European or British law.
I also think the left need to be proactive on this. We need to keep developing and building the argument for all human rights including freedom from abuse harassment, bullying etc – by whatever legal name those things go by.
I think the left needs to build the arguments about why freedom of speech is a good thing, because the neo-nazis have a very superficial take on it – they want to use it to abuse, intimidate and dominate certain sections of society. Basically they want to use it to undermine the access to platforms for speaking out by some sections of society.
And we need to build the argument for a diverse and inclusive society.
Ah, those lovely pro-lifers! There were complaints about them harassing and intimidating students. Basically, they are not known for respecting the right of women to make their own choices.
There is no equivalent to the US first amendment right to free speech in NZ and free speech is not explicitly protected in the common law. That is why we can have censorship laws, and protect intellectual property, or guard against child pornography – all explicit fetters on free speech. The BORA just states “…”Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.”…” which is just a shortened version of Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights –
“…Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers…” No one has denied these rights to Southern and Molyneux by simply refusing them access to council halls.
The thing is, everyone believes in free speech, as long as it is a free speech that suits them. A brief perusal of the record of the “Freeze Peach” group illustrates this. Amongst it’s fearless defenders of free speech we have members who wish to strip the funding of government critics (Eleanor Catton/Jordan Williams), or criminalise those whose methods of non-violent protest they find disagreeable (Flag burning/Stephen Franks) or, via racism, seek to strip an entire people of a voice (Bassett and Brash) only Lindsay Perrigo, a crackpot who lost the plot years ago, has an in extremis belief in free speech, although in practice this seems to consist mainly of supporting the rights of race-baiting fascists like Tommy Robinson.
At the end of the day, the list of names in the free speech coalition just goes to show that all this issue has done is give a bit of oxygen to the fringe dwelling detritus of our civil society.
Carolyn_Nth
Said: quote,
“I think the left needs to build the arguments about why freedom of speech is a good thing,; – we need to build the argument for a diverse and inclusive society.”
Yes we agree; but only as long as everyone is incuded and no-one is omitted.
My reckons is that for New Zealand, the bigger disruption will come from synthetic milk. Once someone comes up with the right blends of proteins, lipids and whatever else that can be produced in vats of engineered yeast, bacteria etc, then it becomes an industrial process that can be scaled up very quickly. Then it’s game over for milk powder.
Replacing the look and texture of a steak or roast is going to be much harder than replacing ground-up meat products. So I reckon the farming for meat industry still has a bit longer to go than dairy.
Yip grinding beef is probably a dying market . Milk maybe but as the owner of triky internal plumbing who can’t take soy or other fake milks .There will be niche a niche milk market . The richer people on the planet will still want real steaks roasts and chops and that is what nz needs to target.
He’s completely lost it – he dug a hole and then fell in it lol what a useless idiot. His strained vocals irritate – thank goodness we never hear much from that waste of space.
“His brain could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides”, all while being one of a few select MPs that “Could go down the Mount Eden sewer and come up cleaner than he went in”
Just wanting to know what happens if nurses do go on strike? Does that mean that what the Govt has offered in good faith is no longer on the table? Do they,in the end walk away with nothing or do they go back into negotiations? Genuine questions.
The nurses have already rejected the offer on the table, so it is off; but the government is saying they cannot do any better. The nurses have decided this is a bluff and are striking to force the government’s hand… probably in throwing out the budget responsibility rules to actually offer more.
Basically the (bare majority of) nurses want a better deal and are happy to strike until they get it… I assume the government will leave what ever deal they end on before the strike on the table so the nurses can come back to it if they want… it will only take a few to change their minds for a union vote to be to go back to the negotiating table with some small demand to save face
The Government’s books are showing the surplus is almost half a billion more than was originally forecast. Moreover, Government debt is also tracking better than expected (see link below). So there is extra fiscal scope for the Government to consider improving wage offers.
“State Highway 36, between Pyes Pa Rd roundabout and Oropi and Haumaha Rd, Ngongotaha, is closed.
One person is dead after a two-vehicle crash between Rotorua and Tauranga on Wednesday morning.”
Emergency services were called to scene of the crash, between a car and a truck, on Pyes Pa Rd in the Omanawa area just before 4am.
Our response here is;…..
The cruel result of National Party policy of encouraging many trucks on our roads, and closing down regional rail at the same time.
So yet another sad result emerges daily it seems now by National Party policy’ of all freight now on trucks as another death occurred today after a car and truck collide, killing the car driver.
So under the ‘National road only policies’ has just cost another life and a cost of almost $5 million (NZTA stats) to our economy.
Reality is setting in now that National are responsible for loss of life and money lost to our economy.
Sad to leave NZ in such a bad state National; – shame on you.
Trying to make political capital out of this seems inappropriate. There never has been a rail route between Rotorua and Tauranga. There was a rail route between Rotorua and Hamilton, which closed down a good two decades ago.
What this accident shows is the importance of improving the quality of New Zealand’s roads, since they will carry the bulk of traffic, both trucks and cars, for many decades to come. Probably the Katikati to Tauranga road and the Warkworth to Whangarei road being the most urgent.
“What this accident shows is the importance of improving the quality of New Zealand’s roads………..”, or alternatively the need for a rail link between Tauranga and Rotorua/Ngongotaha, possibly via one of river valleys near Te Puke Paengaroa.
But then I guess that’d be Muldoonist-like funk big.
You are so correct here, we have got the 10yr costing of all state highway annual repairs and pavement replacement figures from NZTA and shows that since the introduction of the HPMV or (high productivity motor vehicle) was allowed on our highways the average cost of maintainence has doubled in 8yrs.
So now that NZTA are estimating in the latest ” NZ Freight Demands Study” that road freight will incease by 2.5 times by 2035 and at the same time they estimate that rail freight will at the same time also increase by 2.7 times.!!!!
This looks very bleak now, as we are effectively looking down the barrel of a loaded gun now”””
We are certainly in trouble if we dont get the regional rail freight services re-established again the road freight will increase by five times – of todays levels if rail is not available then.
Since rail freight travels on steel wheels less friction no air pollution and 5 to eight times less climate changing emissions, so this is a big gain.
So it is the way of the future and every first world country we are trading with is building more and more rail so should we be doing.
“What this accident shows is the importance of improving the quality of New Zealand’s roads”
It clearly demonstrates the level of irresponsibility shown by National in encouraging heavy traffic on roads not suitable for the purpose. The roads should have been fixed first, not waiting until so many people had lost their lives.
Our road ‘substrate (under road base) is soft and unstale and we have now been adised this by three leading road construction companies that they are not suitable for heavy freight trucks.
Everyone can see for themselves how long the new pavement resaling of our highways now actually lasts for, and I am confident in saying that six months the surfaces will have valleys along them where the heavy trucks tyre weight is placed upon thiose road surfaces, and can anyone notice when the rail corrects in those valleys along the road that body of weater acts like a river of water that our car tyres now glide along in them causing loss of road grip and possible loss of steering, so this causes the roads to now become dangerous for light vehicles now hence the light vehicles are prone to lossing their steering ability in some cases now.
No matter what they do to say the roads are safe, the fact is now that they are not designed for the weight and volumes of heavy larger freight trucks on our roads.
I think our future will feature something like unmanned freight haulers that can be programmed to stand idle and solar/plug re-charge through the day and drive through the night. Pull over to left and slow when headlights play on their rears, slow to 30 kph through towns etc.
Across the Aussie outback, trains rock. In a country of braided rivers, soaring peaks, rocky coastlines and frequent earthquakes, not so much.
I think our future will feature something like unmanned freight haulers that can be programmed to stand idle and solar/plug re-charge through the day and drive through the night. Pull over to left and slow when headlights play on their rears, slow to 30 kph through towns etc.
Cheaper, easier and probably better to just put in rail.
A lot of talk regarding free speech round here as of late. I have wanted to throw I my 2c but have nbeen traveling the last few weeks so didn’t have a chance but now I have some down time in a hotel (far too hot to hike today at 41 degrees in the Utah desert) I’ll make a comment.
As far as I am aware freedom of speech is only guaranteed in the public sphere by the government – I.e the government has no power to quell freedom of speech (mostly it is upheld in order to be able to freely and publicaly criticise the government) but it does not extend to the private sphere (which is why there is no freedom of speech guaranteed here, on FBook, kiwiblog etc).
Hence if someone wants to refuse to make a cake for a homosexual couple or invite holocaust deniers to speak at a private event they can do so.
My position is that if the maker of a cake wants to deny Maori, lesbians, Christians or whomever then by all means let them – we retain the right to publicly shame them. Drag it into the sunlight and kill it.
“Time for a beer”.
Are you able to buy the real thing in Utah these days?
It used to be that Supermarkets were only allowed to sell 3.2% beer and were not allowed to sell any wine or any spirits.
To get anything else you had to go to State run liquor stores, few and far between, and undergo an interrogation before you could get it. Rather like proving you were a drug addict if they didn’t like the look of you.
It was nearly as bad as in Countries like Saudi Arabia.
A message to extremists who decide to defend Trump by any means when investigations finally threaten his presidency.
Just in: President Trump has pardoned Dwight and Steven Hammond, father and son who were convicted in 2012 for arson. They were convicted for setting fires that spread to land managed by the Bureau of Land Management.— NPR (@NPR) July 10, 2018
That was part of the run up to the 2016 armed occupation of the headquarters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, led by Ammon Bundy and his brother Ryan — sons of rancher Cliven Bundy who had an armed standoff in Nevada in 2014.— NPR (@NPR) July 10, 2018
Over the past two decades, the liberal order has been struck multiple blows: radical Islamic terrorism and the resultant war on terror; the rise of China and the 2008 collapse of the global financial system.
All have tested the resilience of the West and the resolve to defend liberal values.
Now liberalism is in retreat; globalism appears exhausted and cosmopolitanism is looked on as the vanity of the elites.
We are witnessing a blowback: anger at inequality; resentment of immigration; loss of faith in institutions.
Or we’re witnessing the stoking of resentment because the 1% realise that the 99% have twigged to the fact that all of these ills are of their, the 1%’s, making.
And those feeding the fire, tRump, Bannon, Farage, assorted local loons, and well educated well off Western children who enrich themselves through their vile notoriety, etc, are wealthy elites who’ve now put a bob each way on us, the 99%.
The economically correct response for other countries to US tariffs is not to respond in kind and continue with unilateral trade liberalisation, while litigating the US measures at the WTO.
HHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA
The reason why we ended up with bi-lateral FTAs was because the WTO was seen as going too slow and being ineffective.
And then there’s the point that free-trade, as it stands, has nothing to do with free-trade but forcing trade even when it’s against a nations willingness to trade and against their interests. If a nation chooses not to trade then that is actually an action of free-trade.
The US and other countries putting up tariffs is free-trade. Forcing them to lower tariffs or to remove them completely is not free-trade but forced trade which I’m pretty sure that we supposed to oppose because it removes a nation’s freedom to choose, their freedom to govern themselves.
If we truly wanted free-trade we’d be dropping all of the FTAs and the WTO and the IMF and the WB who all support and impose these FTAs and simply putting in place standards that other nations have to meet. Those standards would be, effectively, what our own businesses have to conform to.
Those standards would be, effectively, what our own businesses have to conform to.
Agree with you on that. It’s deeply wrong that local businesses have to compete against imported products (and increasingly services) that don’t have to meet the same costly standards.
The entire WTO process had ground pretty much to an impotent halt. If Trump succeeds in kicking the stalled beast into the ditch he may actually achieve something. Won’t be pretty though.
Trump is bluffing imo.
The initial $32 billion in tariffs and the threat of $500 billion to come is a ploy to gain some/any concessions.
Trump is managing to alienate supposedly close allies in Canada and Europe and if his fortress mentality is genuine, the U.S will be the net loser.
Realistically the only card the U.S has going for it,is military muscle.
@Blazer … I’m assuming you are replying to my comment above. It works much better if you want to do that, to use the “Reply” button. It makes it clearer who you are talking to and makes the thread a lot easier to read.
The truth about the Census stuff-up is starting to emerge. https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/update-on-release-of-2018-census-data
Removing the spin we find that what has happened can be summed up as.
“We fucked it up. We can’t fix it. We are therefore going to fudge it”
When can we expect the resignations of the people responsible?
The Minister, the Government Statistician and the person responsible for the organisation should resign, or be sacked, NOW.
Any reaction from those people who hummed the chorus that everything was under control and “The countries in the very best of hands” now? An admission that you were wrong would be a good start.
This Census is needed for, among other things, coming up with the electoral boundaries for the next election and the number of Maori seats. Watch the gerrymandering that will be attempted now.
An all fired up Nick Smith was interviewed on this by Espiner this morning .
Espiner sliced and diced him as he tried to lay the blame on the co-alition.
I know quite well what the timetable was, and when the current CoL took over
They had four and a half months to check over what was going to happen, and plenty of time to correct the procedure.
Didn’t Shaw ever bother to look at what was going on in the only significant thing he was responsible for?
However look at the lies they spun after the Census. A fortnight after the election they claimed
“We expect at least a 70 percent online response and combined with paper forms, the total response rate is anticipated to be well above 90 percent and on a par with previous censuses,” 2018 Census general manager Denise McGregor said.”
Well previous censuses were closer to 98% and I certainly wouldn’t say that 90% is “well above 90%” would you? https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/census-on-track-for-70-percent-online
Shaw had plenty of time to decide whether he thought the concentration on on-line with no back up made sense. They went ahead with it and he has to carry the can.
Because something as big as the census is planned and done within a 6 month time frame, right? All the big decisions on how to run it would have been made around early march, right?
Also my read is “the census is fucked, but that is what happens these days, we can fudge it to make it ok because we knew it would be fucked so we have thought about how to fudge it so it is still basically usable”
The question is, “How bad is a 90% return rate in a census for a country of our size?”
You ask
“How bad is a 90% return rate in a census for a country of our size”
Can I suggest that you look at the opinion of a Professor of Statistics, this one at the University of Auckland.
“Indications of a 4.5% drop in response were “very serious”, said Thomas Lumley, professor of statistics at the University of Auckland. “The point of the census is that it’s complete, and it’s what you benchmark everything else to. Ninety per cent is really not good.” https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/10-07-2018/drop-in-census-response-rate-prompts-stats-nz-to-rely-on-other-data-to-plug-gaps/
I am not sure where that 94.5% number comes from. I think that the spin is showing as they used to claim more like 98% in a New Zealand Census.
Not sure why National is concerned about a Census stuff-up.
You don’t really need to know anything about what’s happening in the country if the only tool in your tool-box is tax cuts.
Because tax cuts solve all problems under all conditions – as we all know.
So spare me all that data and planning crap – just roll out the tax cuts. /sarc
I guess we can just continue to use the historical electorate boundaries for ever as well.
After all nobody has moved to Auckland in the last 50 years have they?
If there was an opportunity for gerrymandering I am sure National would take it, e.g. huge urban electorates and small, blue-voting rural ones. But MMP has sort of killed the opportunities for gerrymandering – maybe another reason why National is so keen to get rid of it? So it’s academic Alwyn – all that matters is tax cuts. Census schmensus!
You know after three days of the debate dominated by the authoritarian left, any chance we could have some more voices for the anti-authoritarian left make some noise? Just a test to see if any of you are still out there?
This is the path to ‘idiocracy’…paved by those who can’t adequately manage their own mind…while believing they can have the ‘right’ to manage the minds of other human beings…
“National MP Nicky Wagner apologises for calling Deborah Russell a ‘bitch’ in heated debate.”
There we are then. It was just in the heat of debate.
But I thought it was midway through a speech?
“Whether human beings survive this century and the next, whether other lifeforms can live alongside us: more than anything, this depends on the way we eat. We can cut our consumption of everything else almost to zero and still we will drive living systems to collapse, unless we change our diets.
All the evidence now points in one direction: the crucial shift is from an animal- to a plant-based diet. A paper published last week in Science reveals that while some kinds of meat and dairy production are more damaging than others, all are more harmful to the living world than growing plant protein. It shows that animal farming takes up 83% of the world’s agricultural land, but delivers only 18% of our calories. A plant-based diet cuts the use of land by 76% and halves the greenhouse gases and other pollution that are caused by food production.”
yep generally 200,000 years is the figure – consider this – the dinosaurs owned the planet for 170 million years and we think they mooched around eating grass and leaves – I don’t think so – they could have had 1000 civilizations over that time and gone to the stars and back.
I assume by “plant based” you mean vegan and that you are still not prepared to actually think through this stuff. How could, for example, running a modest number of chickens grazing around an orchard be “more harmful to the living world” than growing just fruit?
Yes the assumption always is that you don’t write or think for yourself.
I read the article and there was no mention of chickens or Permaculture. Perhaps just for once you could try thinking and attempt to answer my question:
How could, for example, running a modest number of chickens grazing around an orchard be “more harmful to the living world” than growing just fruit?
Did you not notice that I was the one engaging and Ed was the one quoting somebody else and then refusing to back up that up with his own words? The two of you are the same, full of shit.
I don’t have anything against people choosing to be vegan for personal reasons, and according to the definition of most contributors here i live on a “plant based diet”. What i object to is how the two of you conflate environmentalism and animal rights and make dishonest claims.
I’ll give you another chance to “engage”:
How could, for example, running a modest number of chickens grazing around an orchard be “more harmful to the living world” than growing just fruit?
Are you thick. Ed was quoting Monbiot presumably because he agrees with him. If he agrees with him then surely he would understand his argument?
If he is presenting someone else’s argument then yes he is obliged to back up that argument with his own words.
Do you think Monbiot is God or at least a god? Do you have any ability to think for yourself? Do you not understand how factory plant farming is fucking the environment?
Chickens are pretty hard on insects, as are weka. I’m not sure chickens are more beneficial to a forest garden/woodland orchard than not-chickens. In fact, I favour not having them scratching about. Can you convince me otherwise, solkta?
I see what you mean. I don’t/won’t/haven’t sprayed my orchard – it’s so well served by helpful organisms and elements I don’t need to. There are a lot of birds visiting my garden day and night. Chickens are a bit superfluous and quite foreign (the same could be said of me 🙂
I’m now buying “pasture grazed eggs”, rather than the so called “free range” version, from a guy at the Whangarei Growers Market. He uses a mobile hen house so that the hens don’t spend to long in one location. He wants to extend this concept and have these on many orchards. This is the kind of transition we should be looking at rather than the mindless ‘continue with factory farming but ban animals’ nonsense we get from Ed.
Apparently these judgesmay issue subpoenas, rule on proffers of evidence, regulate the course of the hearing, so of course tRump wants to be able to sack them if he doesn’t agree with their decisions.
BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump@WhiteHouse releases Executive Order to end competitive selection process for Administrative Law Judges, making them political appointees who can be fired at will.— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) July 10, 2018
Sarah Palin is calling on Sacha Baron Cohen to donate all the profits from his upcoming Showtime series to military veterans’ groups after saying she was duped into an interview with the comedian when he pretended to be a wounded warrior.
Free speech for fascists. (Not so much for everyone else).
So according to you Bill, the right to free speech should be extended to the extreme Right Wing and fascists.
And they should never have sought to shut them down.
To reiterate. Free speech is a principle. And it’s not contingent upon people talking the way you want them to talk, nor saying things the way you like to hear them.
Bill
But not so much to the Left Wing, Eh Bill?
Case in point:
Silencing the singer
Jenny
11 February 2017 at 2:10 pm
Below this post is the revolutionary Syrian song; “Time for you to go Bashar”
In which, is the line;
“You create thieves every day, Shaleesh, Rami and Mahar”
The “Rami” that the song refers to is Rami Makhlouf, Basha Assad’s cousin. And the richest man in Syria….
….Compounding their robbery and oppression of the Syrian people, to preserve their beleagured positions as the rulers of Syria, Rami Makhlouf and Basha Assad are responsible for monstrous crimes against humanity.
One of the heroes murdered by the regime was the man whose voice is on this recording, whose body was found in the river with his tongue cut out.
[Sick and tired of you habitually posting mostly irrelevant comment upon comment on the bottom of threads that mention Syria in any way. I’m banning you for the weekend so I don’t have to keep an eye out, and I’ll ban you for a very long time if you ever pull this bullshit again.] – Bill
Peter Swift
11 February 2017 at 2:58 pm
That’s a shame as I thought Jenny had provided an on topic example of a hero standing up against an oppressive regime, putting himself very much in harms way for doing the right thing.
Bill
11 February 2017 at 3:43 pm
Oh, I fully believe that Syrian civilians were subjected to chemical agents and that gas canisters and water heaters were packed with both explosives and chemicals before being ‘lobbed’ into civilian areas (eg -western districts of Aleppo). I think we disagree on who the perpetrators are or were and what would constitute a reasonable motive (and the absence or presence of such a motive) for employing such a tactic.
But that aside – well, it’s not ‘aside’ so much as in a similar vein – maybe ask yourself this. Would it be at all likely for a collaborator to have their throat cut by the likes of AQ? Would it be more or less likely for someone singing songs to have their throat cut by security agencies?
[Fuck off with your thoroughly dishonest bullshit Jenny. If you’re going to cut and paste replies from me, then cut and paste the correct ones and don’t fucking well cherry pick stuff out of context. This is going to Open Mike, and I’d be counting myself lucky that’s the only consequence. It would be a very bad idea to have me waste any more of my fucking time checking up on you.] – Bill
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Naturally of course this site won’t allow any right of informed reply. So that this false narrative can be amplified and enlarged on, by propagandists and liars, covering up for the genocide being committed by the Assad regime.
[lprent: I am happy to hand out actual bans when people request them. Do you want me to heed your current pleas like this one? Our “arbitrary” rules are there to keep our work levels down and to stop idiotic commentators imposing extra work on us.
Of course we could impose systems that such “Free Speech” luminaries like “No Right Turn” uses (he doesn’t allow any comments) or Chris Trotter who personally approves or discards every comment or… Well if you look around the blogging world in NZ – you will find that we are about the only site with a substantive pile of comments (currently just over 1.4 million comments in nearly 11 years) that allows anything close to the ideal of “free speech”. It takes a lot of extra work and effort to do that – something that you clearly don’t respect.
If I hear one more outburst from you complaining about the degree of freedom we allow to comment on this site, then you won’t ever have it here again. ]
Even if, as is arguably the case, she’s a raging fucking hypocrite around free speech, and an obnoxious individual expressing lamentable, thoughtless or spiteful ideas, her right to speak freely ought to be defended.
Bill
Yet defending the Syrian people from slander and lies is not.
[lprent: Of course you being an disrespectful arrogant fuckwit who chews up our personal time having to moderate your irrelevant shit on our posts is irrelevant in your world view? All “free speech” is constrained by resources when someone tries to impose extra work on others. In the case of this site we provide general topic areas like Open Mike for you to raise the “free speech” topics. Use those rather than what you appear to be doing in trying to strain our credibility about irrelevant comments in our posts.
I have now killed several of your comments complaining about “censorship” This has wasted some of my work time. Do much more and I will permanently ban you for deliberately wasting my time. ]
I notice Bill that you have surreptitiously blocked me from the site. Interesting that you have claimed the opposite. That there has been no “consequence” other than having my comment moved to ‘Open Mike’. This is obviously a lie. But a dirty one. By deceitfully hiding the fact that you have banned me, you give readers the false impression that I have nothing to say in the face of face of your support of the rights of fascists. Or on your support for the monstrous regime in Syria. The truth of course is the opposite. It is you who cannot defend your views openly, or have them challenged in any open forum.
You have also not notified the length of this ban, or if it is permanent.
If you could let me know. I would appreciate it.
Cheers J.
[lprent: It isn’t a ‘ban’. It is a simple moderation because you have apparently been posting comments into posts which have very dubious relevance. That means one of the moderators has to release it if they think it is relevant to the post, when they feel like it, and when they have some spare time to respond to the whining.
Basically if you don’t like it, then don’t try framing off topic crap into our posts. We’re the people who determine if it is relevant to our posts – you have OpenMike. Those are the site rules.
Of course we could just simply ban you if you want to be an authoritarian dimwit and keep trying to impose extra work on us. But evidently Bill must think that you are able to be trained into respecting our time and effort. ]
Good Morning The Am Show I ts awesome to see that te tangata are getting more ta moko and learning our Maori Culture and te reo .
I was doing voluntary work yesterday morning so had no time for my post .
Dancan many thanks to the Big Business CEO that are joining together to fight human caused climate change ka pai .
Loyd the atmosphere in Britain looks like everyone is getting a sore face lol .
Rotorua is a beautiful place lots of Maori cultured tangata not much traffic friendly people its a good place for the mokopunas to be raised.
Yes there are a lot of homeless people in Rotorua there are homeless people throughout Aoteraroa when I was younger there was one homeless person I won’t say his name but people of Gisborne will know who I’m talking about.
Its good to see the Rotorua council is working with others to try and house the homeless people . Ka kite ano
You mean by “checking up”, censoring of course. Not because I broke any arbitrary rules, but because you disagree with my views. And you don’t want to give them a hearing. So much for free speech is a “principle”. Only when applied to fascists it seems.
[lprent: Authors have the right to decide what is relevant to their posts. You have OpenMike. Use it or leave. ]
It amazes ECO MAORI how much time the sandflys wasted on there stupid harresment of me I get a strange – – – – when ever they are around.
ECO MAORI knows exactly what going on.
I suppose I’m making know friends with my words who cares the big picture to me is a brilliant future for
OUR Mokopunas what I said about the assistant Commissioner is not personal I not we can not have bullies running things as in the end we will end up like – – – – – fuck that link is Below https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU Ka kite ano
Good evening Newshub Eco Maori has stayed out of our nurses strike but Now I have to have my say on what I see happening everyone cannot work out why our good Nurses have not settled on the DHB offers .
I say that the national party is the reason the Nurses won’t settle this dispute after all Papatuanuku was not built in a day so Ladies give our new Coalition Goverment some time to sort the mess out that national caused and behind OUR backs is using the Nurses to attack Our new Coalition Government. I know one will say that labour joined the protests when they were not in Government my point is that national is hiding behind the seens pulling the strings this is how right neo liberal people behave why don’t they just come out and say they are supporting the Nurses strike they caused this mess .
Paddy many thanks for the story on 10/80 poision being dumped by Dock contractors in our native bushes I would like a total ban on 10/80 poision and that money payed to the common people in a tail bounty to control our native predator critters this could be used to educate te tangata about our rear wild life and hopefully they will respect our native wild life .
I back that wahine that 24 hour care should stay operating in Nelson we need to start more of these around Papatuanuku . I have said before that a lot of the mokopunas that take there lives are the brights stars they see the big picture and don’t like what they see with a bit of care and love these mokopunas will benefit our society greatly
My friend could see the big picture to . Ka kite ano P.S Temuera Morrison there’s that Maori cultured humor ka pai
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
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New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
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Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
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Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
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Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
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Promising replacement for Boris:
http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2018/07/09/mr-bean-appointed-as-new-uk-brexit-secretary/
13 Miracles!!!
*happy sniff*
@ AsleepWhileWalking (2) … Indeed we have witnessed an incredible miracle, against all the odds. Proves no mission is impossible.
I take my hat off and bow to those rescuers, who risked everything to save the boys.
RIP to the Thai navy seal who lost his life in the rescue process.
i am in awe of the coach who until they were found managed to keep these boys alive and in good spirits.
Yes, a bit of good news in the current dreary daily muck.
And they lived happily ever after, is my wish to all involved. And i lot of love to the family who lost the navy seal.
Relief and joy thatat the wild boars and their coach and all those incredibly brave rescuers are alive and out of that dam cave. Talk about mission impossible. Wonderful news
A real international rescue effort, well done to everyone involved
Further thoughts on neo-nazi provocateurs and human rights.
I suspect the Freeze Peach group (are they all white men?), are aiming to test the limits of NZ law. Basically, I think the Council will go for citing clause 5 of BORA on justified limitations, plus clause 131 of the Human Rights Act making it illegal to incite racial disharmony. They will put a lot of emphasis on clause 131.
I think the neo-nazis will be arguing that freedom of speech trumps all other human rights – more like US law than European or British law.
I also think the left need to be proactive on this. We need to keep developing and building the argument for all human rights including freedom from abuse harassment, bullying etc – by whatever legal name those things go by.
I think the left needs to build the arguments about why freedom of speech is a good thing, because the neo-nazis have a very superficial take on it – they want to use it to abuse, intimidate and dominate certain sections of society. Basically they want to use it to undermine the access to platforms for speaking out by some sections of society.
And we need to build the argument for a diverse and inclusive society.
Diverse and inclusive just like the pro-life group that was shut down by the left at Auckland University
Ah, those lovely pro-lifers! There were complaints about them harassing and intimidating students. Basically, they are not known for respecting the right of women to make their own choices.
Except that it has not been shut down so you may want to back up your assertions with a link.
ProLife is still active and in existence at the Auckland University as far as I can tell: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/on-campus/life-on-campus/clubs-societies/club-categories/social-responsibility/prolife-auckland.html
There is no equivalent to the US first amendment right to free speech in NZ and free speech is not explicitly protected in the common law. That is why we can have censorship laws, and protect intellectual property, or guard against child pornography – all explicit fetters on free speech. The BORA just states “…”Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.”…” which is just a shortened version of Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights –
“…Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers…” No one has denied these rights to Southern and Molyneux by simply refusing them access to council halls.
The thing is, everyone believes in free speech, as long as it is a free speech that suits them. A brief perusal of the record of the “Freeze Peach” group illustrates this. Amongst it’s fearless defenders of free speech we have members who wish to strip the funding of government critics (Eleanor Catton/Jordan Williams), or criminalise those whose methods of non-violent protest they find disagreeable (Flag burning/Stephen Franks) or, via racism, seek to strip an entire people of a voice (Bassett and Brash) only Lindsay Perrigo, a crackpot who lost the plot years ago, has an in extremis belief in free speech, although in practice this seems to consist mainly of supporting the rights of race-baiting fascists like Tommy Robinson.
At the end of the day, the list of names in the free speech coalition just goes to show that all this issue has done is give a bit of oxygen to the fringe dwelling detritus of our civil society.
Carolyn_Nth
Said: quote,
“I think the left needs to build the arguments about why freedom of speech is a good thing,; – we need to build the argument for a diverse and inclusive society.”
Yes we agree; but only as long as everyone is incuded and no-one is omitted.
“leave no stone un-turned”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/105349445/fake-meat-disrupting-our-industry-one-burger-at-a-time
The winds of change are blowing’.
My reckons is that for New Zealand, the bigger disruption will come from synthetic milk. Once someone comes up with the right blends of proteins, lipids and whatever else that can be produced in vats of engineered yeast, bacteria etc, then it becomes an industrial process that can be scaled up very quickly. Then it’s game over for milk powder.
https://sciblogs.co.nz/griffins-gadgets/2017/10/13/fonterras-blindspot-synthetic-milk/
Replacing the look and texture of a steak or roast is going to be much harder than replacing ground-up meat products. So I reckon the farming for meat industry still has a bit longer to go than dairy.
Yip grinding beef is probably a dying market . Milk maybe but as the owner of triky internal plumbing who can’t take soy or other fake milks .There will be niche a niche milk market . The richer people on the planet will still want real steaks roasts and chops and that is what nz needs to target.
it’s gonna be really funny and interesting to read the list of ingredients.
I bet Monsanto and their I’ll are lining up to make a killing of low cost nutrient poor pap burgers
Nick Smith on RNZ talking like he knows stuff.lol
He’s a renowned expert on swimming in and paddling up shit creeks.
He’s completely lost it – he dug a hole and then fell in it lol what a useless idiot. His strained vocals irritate – thank goodness we never hear much from that waste of space.
“His brain could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides”, all while being one of a few select MPs that “Could go down the Mount Eden sewer and come up cleaner than he went in”
Just wanting to know what happens if nurses do go on strike? Does that mean that what the Govt has offered in good faith is no longer on the table? Do they,in the end walk away with nothing or do they go back into negotiations? Genuine questions.
The nurses have already rejected the offer on the table, so it is off; but the government is saying they cannot do any better. The nurses have decided this is a bluff and are striking to force the government’s hand… probably in throwing out the budget responsibility rules to actually offer more.
Basically the (bare majority of) nurses want a better deal and are happy to strike until they get it… I assume the government will leave what ever deal they end on before the strike on the table so the nurses can come back to it if they want… it will only take a few to change their minds for a union vote to be to go back to the negotiating table with some small demand to save face
The Government’s books are showing the surplus is almost half a billion more than was originally forecast. Moreover, Government debt is also tracking better than expected (see link below). So there is extra fiscal scope for the Government to consider improving wage offers.
So the tax cuts were affordable?
Not considering the amount of under-funding we (the Government/taxpayers) now have to play catch up on.
No.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/105391429/one-dead-after-crash-in-the-bay-of-plenty
11/7/18.
“State Highway 36, between Pyes Pa Rd roundabout and Oropi and Haumaha Rd, Ngongotaha, is closed.
One person is dead after a two-vehicle crash between Rotorua and Tauranga on Wednesday morning.”
Emergency services were called to scene of the crash, between a car and a truck, on Pyes Pa Rd in the Omanawa area just before 4am.
Our response here is;…..
The cruel result of National Party policy of encouraging many trucks on our roads, and closing down regional rail at the same time.
So yet another sad result emerges daily it seems now by National Party policy’ of all freight now on trucks as another death occurred today after a car and truck collide, killing the car driver.
So under the ‘National road only policies’ has just cost another life and a cost of almost $5 million (NZTA stats) to our economy.
Reality is setting in now that National are responsible for loss of life and money lost to our economy.
Sad to leave NZ in such a bad state National; – shame on you.
Trying to make political capital out of this seems inappropriate. There never has been a rail route between Rotorua and Tauranga. There was a rail route between Rotorua and Hamilton, which closed down a good two decades ago.
What this accident shows is the importance of improving the quality of New Zealand’s roads, since they will carry the bulk of traffic, both trucks and cars, for many decades to come. Probably the Katikati to Tauranga road and the Warkworth to Whangarei road being the most urgent.
“What this accident shows is the importance of improving the quality of New Zealand’s roads………..”, or alternatively the need for a rail link between Tauranga and Rotorua/Ngongotaha, possibly via one of river valleys near Te Puke Paengaroa.
But then I guess that’d be Muldoonist-like funk big.
roads that will be trashed again in a heartbeat by heavy transport.
roads that then will need to be upgraded or fixed every 6 month or so.
what fine pork barrel for the heavy transport industry and the road industry.
As the old saying goes, if there is no profit for private industry and their lackeys in parliament it must be socialism.
Sabine;
You are so correct here, we have got the 10yr costing of all state highway annual repairs and pavement replacement figures from NZTA and shows that since the introduction of the HPMV or (high productivity motor vehicle) was allowed on our highways the average cost of maintainence has doubled in 8yrs.
So now that NZTA are estimating in the latest ” NZ Freight Demands Study” that road freight will incease by 2.5 times by 2035 and at the same time they estimate that rail freight will at the same time also increase by 2.7 times.!!!!
This looks very bleak now, as we are effectively looking down the barrel of a loaded gun now”””
We are certainly in trouble if we dont get the regional rail freight services re-established again the road freight will increase by five times – of todays levels if rail is not available then.
Since rail freight travels on steel wheels less friction no air pollution and 5 to eight times less climate changing emissions, so this is a big gain.
So it is the way of the future and every first world country we are trading with is building more and more rail so should we be doing.
“What this accident shows is the importance of improving the quality of New Zealand’s roads”
It clearly demonstrates the level of irresponsibility shown by National in encouraging heavy traffic on roads not suitable for the purpose. The roads should have been fixed first, not waiting until so many people had lost their lives.
Jan this is correct.
Our road ‘substrate (under road base) is soft and unstale and we have now been adised this by three leading road construction companies that they are not suitable for heavy freight trucks.
Everyone can see for themselves how long the new pavement resaling of our highways now actually lasts for, and I am confident in saying that six months the surfaces will have valleys along them where the heavy trucks tyre weight is placed upon thiose road surfaces, and can anyone notice when the rail corrects in those valleys along the road that body of weater acts like a river of water that our car tyres now glide along in them causing loss of road grip and possible loss of steering, so this causes the roads to now become dangerous for light vehicles now hence the light vehicles are prone to lossing their steering ability in some cases now.
No matter what they do to say the roads are safe, the fact is now that they are not designed for the weight and volumes of heavy larger freight trucks on our roads.
I think our future will feature something like unmanned freight haulers that can be programmed to stand idle and solar/plug re-charge through the day and drive through the night. Pull over to left and slow when headlights play on their rears, slow to 30 kph through towns etc.
Across the Aussie outback, trains rock. In a country of braided rivers, soaring peaks, rocky coastlines and frequent earthquakes, not so much.
Cheaper, easier and probably better to just put in rail.
A lot of talk regarding free speech round here as of late. I have wanted to throw I my 2c but have nbeen traveling the last few weeks so didn’t have a chance but now I have some down time in a hotel (far too hot to hike today at 41 degrees in the Utah desert) I’ll make a comment.
As far as I am aware freedom of speech is only guaranteed in the public sphere by the government – I.e the government has no power to quell freedom of speech (mostly it is upheld in order to be able to freely and publicaly criticise the government) but it does not extend to the private sphere (which is why there is no freedom of speech guaranteed here, on FBook, kiwiblog etc).
Hence if someone wants to refuse to make a cake for a homosexual couple or invite holocaust deniers to speak at a private event they can do so.
My position is that if the maker of a cake wants to deny Maori, lesbians, Christians or whomever then by all means let them – we retain the right to publicly shame them. Drag it into the sunlight and kill it.
Time for beer
“Time for a beer”.
Are you able to buy the real thing in Utah these days?
It used to be that Supermarkets were only allowed to sell 3.2% beer and were not allowed to sell any wine or any spirits.
To get anything else you had to go to State run liquor stores, few and far between, and undergo an interrogation before you could get it. Rather like proving you were a drug addict if they didn’t like the look of you.
It was nearly as bad as in Countries like Saudi Arabia.
It seems to have been a little more liberalized these days
A message to extremists who decide to defend Trump by any means when investigations finally threaten his presidency.
A good read on the upcoming US/China trade war and it’s implications in this part of the world:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-11/donald-trump-us-china-trade-war/9971560
Possible costs to the US, state by state.
https://www.uschamber.com/tariffs
As with any war it will be expensive; but that won’t be the primary consideration. Here’s another good abc article:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-17/donald-trump-singapore-summit-showed-potential-hope-disaster/9877812
Or we’re witnessing the stoking of resentment because the 1% realise that the 99% have twigged to the fact that all of these ills are of their, the 1%’s, making.
And those feeding the fire, tRump, Bannon, Farage, assorted local loons, and well educated well off Western children who enrich themselves through their vile notoriety, etc, are wealthy elites who’ve now put a bob each way on us, the 99%.
https://medium.com/heckin-doggo/the-weaponisation-of-the-working-class-adfeae345ce7
HHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA
The reason why we ended up with bi-lateral FTAs was because the WTO was seen as going too slow and being ineffective.
And then there’s the point that free-trade, as it stands, has nothing to do with free-trade but forcing trade even when it’s against a nations willingness to trade and against their interests. If a nation chooses not to trade then that is actually an action of free-trade.
The US and other countries putting up tariffs is free-trade. Forcing them to lower tariffs or to remove them completely is not free-trade but forced trade which I’m pretty sure that we supposed to oppose because it removes a nation’s freedom to choose, their freedom to govern themselves.
If we truly wanted free-trade we’d be dropping all of the FTAs and the WTO and the IMF and the WB who all support and impose these FTAs and simply putting in place standards that other nations have to meet. Those standards would be, effectively, what our own businesses have to conform to.
Those standards would be, effectively, what our own businesses have to conform to.
Agree with you on that. It’s deeply wrong that local businesses have to compete against imported products (and increasingly services) that don’t have to meet the same costly standards.
The entire WTO process had ground pretty much to an impotent halt. If Trump succeeds in kicking the stalled beast into the ditch he may actually achieve something. Won’t be pretty though.
Trump is bluffing imo.
The initial $32 billion in tariffs and the threat of $500 billion to come is a ploy to gain some/any concessions.
Trump is managing to alienate supposedly close allies in Canada and Europe and if his fortress mentality is genuine, the U.S will be the net loser.
Realistically the only card the U.S has going for it,is military muscle.
@Blazer … I’m assuming you are replying to my comment above. It works much better if you want to do that, to use the “Reply” button. It makes it clearer who you are talking to and makes the thread a lot easier to read.
Cheers
You do understand that the US build up their highly diverse economy behind high tariff walls right?
Yes. The USA, which was at it’s most prosperous when less than 5% of their economy was due to over seas trade.
The truth about the Census stuff-up is starting to emerge.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/update-on-release-of-2018-census-data
Removing the spin we find that what has happened can be summed up as.
“We fucked it up. We can’t fix it. We are therefore going to fudge it”
When can we expect the resignations of the people responsible?
The Minister, the Government Statistician and the person responsible for the organisation should resign, or be sacked, NOW.
Any reaction from those people who hummed the chorus that everything was under control and “The countries in the very best of hands” now? An admission that you were wrong would be a good start.
This Census is needed for, among other things, coming up with the electoral boundaries for the next election and the number of Maori seats. Watch the gerrymandering that will be attempted now.
An all fired up Nick Smith was interviewed on this by Espiner this morning .
Espiner sliced and diced him as he tried to lay the blame on the co-alition.
You realise Alwyn that the planning came out of the National Government? And the process was left for the current Government to clean up – again.
I know quite well what the timetable was, and when the current CoL took over
They had four and a half months to check over what was going to happen, and plenty of time to correct the procedure.
Didn’t Shaw ever bother to look at what was going on in the only significant thing he was responsible for?
However look at the lies they spun after the Census. A fortnight after the election they claimed
“We expect at least a 70 percent online response and combined with paper forms, the total response rate is anticipated to be well above 90 percent and on a par with previous censuses,” 2018 Census general manager Denise McGregor said.”
Well previous censuses were closer to 98% and I certainly wouldn’t say that 90% is “well above 90%” would you?
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/census-on-track-for-70-percent-online
I would really love to know where the 94.5% for earlier censuses comes from though.
After all, from the 2013 census we were told
“Results from the 2013 Post-enumeration Survey show that the 2013 Census counted 97.6 percent of New Zealand residents in the country on census night,”
http://archive.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/population/census_counts/PostEnumerationSurvey_MR13.aspx
Have a look at what experts think of their performance
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/10-07-2018/drop-in-census-response-rate-prompts-stats-nz-to-rely-on-other-data-to-plug-gaps/
Then weep.
Shaw had plenty of time to decide whether he thought the concentration on on-line with no back up made sense. They went ahead with it and he has to carry the can.
Because something as big as the census is planned and done within a 6 month time frame, right? All the big decisions on how to run it would have been made around early march, right?
Also my read is “the census is fucked, but that is what happens these days, we can fudge it to make it ok because we knew it would be fucked so we have thought about how to fudge it so it is still basically usable”
The question is, “How bad is a 90% return rate in a census for a country of our size?”
You ask
“How bad is a 90% return rate in a census for a country of our size”
Can I suggest that you look at the opinion of a Professor of Statistics, this one at the University of Auckland.
“Indications of a 4.5% drop in response were “very serious”, said Thomas Lumley, professor of statistics at the University of Auckland. “The point of the census is that it’s complete, and it’s what you benchmark everything else to. Ninety per cent is really not good.”
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/10-07-2018/drop-in-census-response-rate-prompts-stats-nz-to-rely-on-other-data-to-plug-gaps/
I am not sure where that 94.5% number comes from. I think that the spin is showing as they used to claim more like 98% in a New Zealand Census.
Not sure why National is concerned about a Census stuff-up.
You don’t really need to know anything about what’s happening in the country if the only tool in your tool-box is tax cuts.
Because tax cuts solve all problems under all conditions – as we all know.
So spare me all that data and planning crap – just roll out the tax cuts. /sarc
I guess we can just continue to use the historical electorate boundaries for ever as well.
After all nobody has moved to Auckland in the last 50 years have they?
If there was an opportunity for gerrymandering I am sure National would take it, e.g. huge urban electorates and small, blue-voting rural ones. But MMP has sort of killed the opportunities for gerrymandering – maybe another reason why National is so keen to get rid of it? So it’s academic Alwyn – all that matters is tax cuts. Census schmensus!
The voices of those hated by the haters.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/life-style/105395245/impact-of-being-told-no-cake-for-you–why-discrimination-matters
Could also check out Nanette on Netflix
https://i.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/105263840/hannah-gadsbys-netflix-special-nanette-is-unlike-any-comedy-youve-seen
You know after three days of the debate dominated by the authoritarian left, any chance we could have some more voices for the anti-authoritarian left make some noise? Just a test to see if any of you are still out there?
how dare us the authoritarian left be intolerant of the intolerance of the authoritarian right.
good grief, what is this world coming too. People wanting rights to not only get married, but to do so with a cake!!!! Oh my oh my oh my.
Yes, Adam…Do not be surprised…
This is the path to ‘idiocracy’…paved by those who can’t adequately manage their own mind…while believing they can have the ‘right’ to manage the minds of other human beings…
Fundamental and elementary failure…
Trickle down economics, the best explanation in years.
Authorised by the Department for Distributing Breadcrumbs to the Proles
🙂
Teehee.
Yeah that made me giggle too.
“National MP Nicky Wagner apologises for calling Deborah Russell a ‘bitch’ in heated debate.”
There we are then. It was just in the heat of debate.
But I thought it was midway through a speech?
George Monbiot nails it.
“Whether human beings survive this century and the next, whether other lifeforms can live alongside us: more than anything, this depends on the way we eat. We can cut our consumption of everything else almost to zero and still we will drive living systems to collapse, unless we change our diets.
All the evidence now points in one direction: the crucial shift is from an animal- to a plant-based diet. A paper published last week in Science reveals that while some kinds of meat and dairy production are more damaging than others, all are more harmful to the living world than growing plant protein. It shows that animal farming takes up 83% of the world’s agricultural land, but delivers only 18% of our calories. A plant-based diet cuts the use of land by 76% and halves the greenhouse gases and other pollution that are caused by food production.”
https://t.co/EMuTldQtdy?amp=1
“Whether human beings survive this century and the next…”
How many centuries have humans been in existence?
Not many. Only a few thousand.
You know that the first humans considered to be like us date back 200,000 years right?
Depending on how you are defining “humans” of course but as a distinct species we have been around somewhat more than a few thousand years
Question – “How many centuries have humans been in existence?”
Answer – “Only a few thousand [centuries].”
200,000 years = two thousand centuries, so you’re both right.
Depends what you define as human.
(after adding gasoline, I walk away)
Yes, i’m not sure if we are there yet.
True:
The story of human evolution in Africa is undergoing a major rewrite
yep generally 200,000 years is the figure – consider this – the dinosaurs owned the planet for 170 million years and we think they mooched around eating grass and leaves – I don’t think so – they could have had 1000 civilizations over that time and gone to the stars and back.
I assume by “plant based” you mean vegan and that you are still not prepared to actually think through this stuff. How could, for example, running a modest number of chickens grazing around an orchard be “more harmful to the living world” than growing just fruit?
These were not my words, but George Monbiot’s.
Did you read the article and the research underpinning the information?
Thought not….
Yes the assumption always is that you don’t write or think for yourself.
I read the article and there was no mention of chickens or Permaculture. Perhaps just for once you could try thinking and attempt to answer my question:
How could, for example, running a modest number of chickens grazing around an orchard be “more harmful to the living world” than growing just fruit?
Indeed another pointless attack by solkta. Obviously has something against the plant based diet, or just doesn’t want to engage.
Did you not notice that I was the one engaging and Ed was the one quoting somebody else and then refusing to back up that up with his own words? The two of you are the same, full of shit.
I don’t have anything against people choosing to be vegan for personal reasons, and according to the definition of most contributors here i live on a “plant based diet”. What i object to is how the two of you conflate environmentalism and animal rights and make dishonest claims.
I’ll give you another chance to “engage”:
How could, for example, running a modest number of chickens grazing around an orchard be “more harmful to the living world” than growing just fruit?
Ed was quoting Monbiot, he doesn’t have to, nor can he back up someone else’s point of view.
If my take on Monbiot’s writings are correct, focus on the “plant-based” and ignore the chickens for now. You may be over complicating things.
Are you thick. Ed was quoting Monbiot presumably because he agrees with him. If he agrees with him then surely he would understand his argument?
If he is presenting someone else’s argument then yes he is obliged to back up that argument with his own words.
Do you think Monbiot is God or at least a god? Do you have any ability to think for yourself? Do you not understand how factory plant farming is fucking the environment?
Just because…
I thought solkta’s question was fair. I too would like to hear Ed’s view about chickens.
Chickens are pretty hard on insects, as are weka. I’m not sure chickens are more beneficial to a forest garden/woodland orchard than not-chickens. In fact, I favour not having them scratching about. Can you convince me otherwise, solkta?
Probably not if you have made your mind up on what works for you.
If we are talking about as an alternative to spraying the rows like most orchards then yes.
I see what you mean. I don’t/won’t/haven’t sprayed my orchard – it’s so well served by helpful organisms and elements I don’t need to. There are a lot of birds visiting my garden day and night. Chickens are a bit superfluous and quite foreign (the same could be said of me 🙂
but don’t you like eggs?
I’m now buying “pasture grazed eggs”, rather than the so called “free range” version, from a guy at the Whangarei Growers Market. He uses a mobile hen house so that the hens don’t spend to long in one location. He wants to extend this concept and have these on many orchards. This is the kind of transition we should be looking at rather than the mindless ‘continue with factory farming but ban animals’ nonsense we get from Ed.
Hens in the under storeys of orchards beats egg farms every time, Imo. Vegans though, have found alternatives to the egg for baking etc.
All good but a plant based diet taste like crap so no thanks
You must be eating the wrong plants then.
Or the wrong parts of them; it’s the corn kernels we eat, Bewildered, not the cob!
You might be eating crap beeweee. It would explain that grin.
You could learn to cook.
Apparently these judges may issue subpoenas, rule on proffers of evidence, regulate the course of the hearing, so of course tRump wants to be able to sack them if he doesn’t agree with their decisions.
l’etat c’est moi, bitches.
Johnny Foreigner and his quaint little ways.
This should be good.
Sarah Palin is calling on Sacha Baron Cohen to donate all the profits from his upcoming Showtime series to military veterans’ groups after saying she was duped into an interview with the comedian when he pretended to be a wounded warrior.
http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/396358-sarah-palin-says-she-was-duped-into-interview-with-sacha-baron-cohen
Free speech for fascists. (Not so much for everyone else).
So according to you Bill, the right to free speech should be extended to the extreme Right Wing and fascists.
But not so much to the Left Wing, Eh Bill?
Case in point:
Silencing the singer
[Fuck off with your thoroughly dishonest bullshit Jenny. If you’re going to cut and paste replies from me, then cut and paste the correct ones and don’t fucking well cherry pick stuff out of context. This is going to Open Mike, and I’d be counting myself lucky that’s the only consequence. It would be a very bad idea to have me waste any more of my fucking time checking up on you.] – Bill
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1571751,00.html
SYRIA in Bush’s crosshairs -2006
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/washington/23diplo.html
US plan seeks to wedge Syria from Iran – 2006
Pretty slim stuff there, O.T.
Naturally of course this site won’t allow any right of informed reply. So that this false narrative can be amplified and enlarged on, by propagandists and liars, covering up for the genocide being committed by the Assad regime.
[lprent: I am happy to hand out actual bans when people request them. Do you want me to heed your current pleas like this one? Our “arbitrary” rules are there to keep our work levels down and to stop idiotic commentators imposing extra work on us.
Of course we could impose systems that such “Free Speech” luminaries like “No Right Turn” uses (he doesn’t allow any comments) or Chris Trotter who personally approves or discards every comment or… Well if you look around the blogging world in NZ – you will find that we are about the only site with a substantive pile of comments (currently just over 1.4 million comments in nearly 11 years) that allows anything close to the ideal of “free speech”. It takes a lot of extra work and effort to do that – something that you clearly don’t respect.
If I hear one more outburst from you complaining about the degree of freedom we allow to comment on this site, then you won’t ever have it here again. ]
Yet defending the Syrian people from slander and lies is not.
[lprent: Of course you being an disrespectful arrogant fuckwit who chews up our personal time having to moderate your irrelevant shit on our posts is irrelevant in your world view? All “free speech” is constrained by resources when someone tries to impose extra work on others. In the case of this site we provide general topic areas like Open Mike for you to raise the “free speech” topics. Use those rather than what you appear to be doing in trying to strain our credibility about irrelevant comments in our posts.
I have now killed several of your comments complaining about “censorship” This has wasted some of my work time. Do much more and I will permanently ban you for deliberately wasting my time. ]
I notice Bill that you have surreptitiously blocked me from the site. Interesting that you have claimed the opposite. That there has been no “consequence” other than having my comment moved to ‘Open Mike’. This is obviously a lie. But a dirty one. By deceitfully hiding the fact that you have banned me, you give readers the false impression that I have nothing to say in the face of face of your support of the rights of fascists. Or on your support for the monstrous regime in Syria. The truth of course is the opposite. It is you who cannot defend your views openly, or have them challenged in any open forum.
You have also not notified the length of this ban, or if it is permanent.
If you could let me know. I would appreciate it.
Cheers J.
[lprent: It isn’t a ‘ban’. It is a simple moderation because you have apparently been posting comments into posts which have very dubious relevance. That means one of the moderators has to release it if they think it is relevant to the post, when they feel like it, and when they have some spare time to respond to the whining.
Basically if you don’t like it, then don’t try framing off topic crap into our posts. We’re the people who determine if it is relevant to our posts – you have OpenMike. Those are the site rules.
Of course we could just simply ban you if you want to be an authoritarian dimwit and keep trying to impose extra work on us. But evidently Bill must think that you are able to be trained into respecting our time and effort. ]
Very few have moved there that’s why over the past 10 years there hasn’t been a housing crisis there.
Good Morning The Am Show I ts awesome to see that te tangata are getting more ta moko and learning our Maori Culture and te reo .
I was doing voluntary work yesterday morning so had no time for my post .
Dancan many thanks to the Big Business CEO that are joining together to fight human caused climate change ka pai .
Loyd the atmosphere in Britain looks like everyone is getting a sore face lol .
Rotorua is a beautiful place lots of Maori cultured tangata not much traffic friendly people its a good place for the mokopunas to be raised.
Yes there are a lot of homeless people in Rotorua there are homeless people throughout Aoteraroa when I was younger there was one homeless person I won’t say his name but people of Gisborne will know who I’m talking about.
Its good to see the Rotorua council is working with others to try and house the homeless people . Ka kite ano
You mean by “checking up”, censoring of course. Not because I broke any arbitrary rules, but because you disagree with my views. And you don’t want to give them a hearing. So much for free speech is a “principle”. Only when applied to fascists it seems.
[lprent: Authors have the right to decide what is relevant to their posts. You have OpenMike. Use it or leave. ]
It amazes ECO MAORI how much time the sandflys wasted on there stupid harresment of me I get a strange – – – – when ever they are around.
ECO MAORI knows exactly what going on.
I suppose I’m making know friends with my words who cares the big picture to me is a brilliant future for
OUR Mokopunas what I said about the assistant Commissioner is not personal I not we can not have bullies running things as in the end we will end up like – – – – – fuck that link is Below
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU Ka kite ano
Good evening Newshub Eco Maori has stayed out of our nurses strike but Now I have to have my say on what I see happening everyone cannot work out why our good Nurses have not settled on the DHB offers .
I say that the national party is the reason the Nurses won’t settle this dispute after all Papatuanuku was not built in a day so Ladies give our new Coalition Goverment some time to sort the mess out that national caused and behind OUR backs is using the Nurses to attack Our new Coalition Government. I know one will say that labour joined the protests when they were not in Government my point is that national is hiding behind the seens pulling the strings this is how right neo liberal people behave why don’t they just come out and say they are supporting the Nurses strike they caused this mess .
Paddy many thanks for the story on 10/80 poision being dumped by Dock contractors in our native bushes I would like a total ban on 10/80 poision and that money payed to the common people in a tail bounty to control our native predator critters this could be used to educate te tangata about our rear wild life and hopefully they will respect our native wild life .
I back that wahine that 24 hour care should stay operating in Nelson we need to start more of these around Papatuanuku . I have said before that a lot of the mokopunas that take there lives are the brights stars they see the big picture and don’t like what they see with a bit of care and love these mokopunas will benefit our society greatly
My friend could see the big picture to . Ka kite ano P.S Temuera Morrison there’s that Maori cultured humor ka pai