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
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTah3JOZVlA&feature=youtu.be&t=1m24s
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yzeOqV7eKI&t=1s&ab_channel=thejuicemedia
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…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZUlq0lil1w
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