Why is this almost universally being regarded as a crisis? It's what the bloody planet needs! And I speak as one of those "oldies" who are supposedly going to need support (and who is currently supporting another).
I've been wondering this too. As far as I can tell there are two issues,
some socieites becoming top heavy with elderly and not having enough younger people to look after them and/or pay for their retirement/healthcare
the global economy, blah blah, no-one ever explains this, it's meant to be self evident.
Serious implications for women coming from the 'have more babies because of economics' people. This is why we have to talk about biological sex and women's rights.
I'd love to see an analysis of the issue from degrowth people. I might ask around.I would expect there are other solutions to the elder care problem (assuming it is one)
Not an expert in this area, by any means, but my understanding of the issues is:
If the % of the population consuming superannuation and older-age health care (two of the largest costs on the NZ tax take), gets too far out of sync with the % of the population contributing to the tax take – those costs become unaffordable. Fewer working-age, taxpaying people supporting more retired non-taxpaying people.
The second one is based on a consumer-driven economy. Older people, by and large, consume less. They're past the age of borrowing to finance homes, cars, etc. Past the age of wanting to invest in more high-risk/high return products (they want a nice guaranteed income). Past the age of consuming (buying the latest iphone, etc) Past the age of contributing to the economy, and into the age of taking from it (see point one above). Yes, this is a generalization. But those consumerist behaviours are significant drivers of the economy.
The question is, if we move into a de-growth economy – how do we pay for the current standard of living (pensions, health-care for the elderly)? How do we retain the infrastructure that we currently have (all that solar panels and wind farm infrastructure is entirely dependent on world-wide supply chains, not to mention the high-level computer chips, manufactured almost entirely in Taiwan)? If de-growth is going to look and feel like a medieval village (with equivalent social structures and health-care standards) it's pretty hard to sell it to people as a desirable pathway forwards.
good point point about the importance of consumerism in keeping the economy going. The consumerist society is in the process of taking everyone down 🤷♀️ None of what you describe will survive climate collapse. Plus, the whole consumer driven thing looks like a ponzi scheme, at some point it just ceases to work.
We are a very wealthy country. The reason it looks like we can't afford stuff is because of the economic system we choose. eg one obvious way of paying for things is a wealth tax. But beyond that we have to change our economic system to live within our means. The same mentality that has us in resource overshoot is the same one that thinks that perpetual growth is the only way.
No need to frame it as a medieval village. We're not going to lose all our industrial tech. But it might look more like 1970s travel patterns. Or eating seasonally. How will we cope without fresh tomatoes in winter? There is a collossal amount of waste in global economic food production (food and energy waste) we could make changes there.
I agree with you that look and feel matter, which is why I keep banging on about the stories we tell and why telling stories of how things work out matters a great deal.
Besides, the alternative appears to be forcing women to have babies, or disposing of elders. How attractive will voters find that?
or disposing of elders. How attractive will voters find that?
I've always been rather suspicious of the ACT advocacy for the end-of-life legislation.
It costs a huge amount in health and social care for the few years of life for an elderly and/or seriously unwell person. If you can persuade them that they should die earlier, then the 'state' is better off (in financial terms, setting aside ethics). And, once it's socially accepted, then it becomes easier for the state to withdraw health/social support in the final years (after all, you have a 'choice'). So you only get to live longer, if you can afford to pay for it, yourself.
eg one obvious way of paying for things is a wealth tax.
A wealth tax is only effective in a consumer-driven society. It only re-distributes money within the country – and does nothing to address the need to import from beyond the borders. A wealth tax also won't solve the issue of fewer taxpayers (or wealthy individuals) supporting a larger group of elderly.
Most of NZ's wealth is tied up in property – and the vast majority of it is in people's houses (most people only own one house) – so it's paper wealth, driven by an insane property market.
If we are truly looking at a de-growth economy, then it would be good to have some examples of exactly how it would look. If we're looking at 1970s as a pattern – then landline phones (copper lines and mechanical exchanges); no computers, apart from huge organizations (no fibre optic network, or computer chips – because we can't make them locally); petrol/ethonol-driven transport – and no electronics in cars – so they can be locally repaired (although petrol would have to be imported – if no petrol, then we're back to horse and cart – EVs can't be manufactured locally, so they're right out); very limited health-care (no expensive imported cancer drugs, etc., and limited ongoing chronic health care (e.g. kidney dialysis is probably not going to happen).
If we're going to have exports at all (to purchase any of the things that we can't make locally), then it's almost certainly going to be agricultural (we don't really have anything else that the world wants – certainly not in a de-growth environment).
I find it intriguing that with all the brilliant efforts of Kiwi Olympians that there has been very little in the way of congratulatory talk from the government, it’s not something I would expect from Luxon anyway, as he appears to be of the disposition that praising anyone but himself may diminish his own fragile ego, much like most sociopaths.
I suspect there may be a more sinister side to the silence. I hope it doesn’t happen but I suspect that once the Olympics are all over the next thing we will see is quite severe cuts to sport and recreation funding right up to Olympic level.
Don't worry. He will be effusive and full of praise for them at tomorrow's Post Cabinet Conference then a few months down the track when everybody has forgotten the Olympics, he and Willis will start cutting the funding – with a heavy heart of course and blaming the Labour government in the process.
On past form there'll be some kind of slap-up reception at Parliament for our returning heroines and heroes, with all kinds of photo/selfie ops for members of the government.
Given that the publicly stated position of Hamas is that Israel has no right to exist – then I don't think there would be any change. Palestinian extremists would continue to bombard Israel with rockets (albeit, with now a more robust support infrastructure to supply them). Iran, who also don't recognize the state of Israel, would continue to supply them with arms and support.
Israel would continue to retaliate (with disproportionate effect)
If Hamas (and others) agreed to the terms under which Palestine was established then attacks on Israel would cease. This has been the pattern previously with unsanctioned attacks punished by Hamas themselves. Its also the present pattern in the West Bank, though via collaboration with the Israeli occupation. At some time ahead we should expect the West Bank also to become as hostile to Israel as Gaza, given present encroachment of settlers continues.
The key word there is 'if'. I don't see any prospect of Hamas abandoning their stance against the existence of Israel. It's a key policy plank for them.
I can't find any reported instance of them willing to even discuss the possibility of recognizing Israel at any peace talks.
One: you assume Hamas will win an election without Likud money. Actually that they could win any fair and open election.
Two: That a two state solution is something Palestine's want – in the face of all the lies and bullshit that has come out of Israel since the Oslo Agreement.
Freedom for Palestine is going to have to look very different from any the ideas being pushed by the west.
I just pointed out that Hamas is not – the be all, and end all of power for Palestine's. Which over and over your arguments hinge on
Then I said, that in any solution agreeable to Palestine's, in all probability would not be a western solution. Again, all your assumptions and arguments are based on a western model. Even your clinging to a violent outcome.
Hamas released an amendment to their charter in 2017 which stated they accept a Palestinian state on 1967 borders. That would be a reasonable starting point for eventual settlement. Unfortunately Israel has clearly and consistently refused to make any similar agreement making settlement impossible.
Of course (as you will predictably want to retort) it does not matter at all if Palestinians call their neighbor Israel or the Zionest entity, as long as they can maintain the settlement Israel has its security.
There is also the point the guarantee's required for Israel to stick to any agreement would be considerable and have vastly increased since when this was released.
The question is not whether they will accept a Palestinian state – the question was whether they would recognize an Israeli one. So far, the answer seems to be 'no'.
No, that is not an important question at all. The only relevant question Israel can ask is if a Palestinian state would continue to attack, or would allow attacks to continue, on a potentially unmentionable Israel.
Your talking point is just put there to obstruct progress on a settlement. Israel neither wants a settlement, nor is safety for Israeli’s important to them.
The second is predicated on the first. If they recognize the right of Israel to exist, then they have no moral justification for continued attack.
If they don't recognize Israel – then they will certainly continue to attack.
Nothing to do with international law. If Hamas doesn't recognize Israel as a legitimate state and neighbour – then there is zero chance of any form of peace.
New Zealand makes decisions all the time about which states we recognize – it has nothing to do with international law.
As stated below, the claim that Israel has a "right to exist" is absurd.
Additionally, the creation of the Israeli state was illegitimate. Resolution 181 that partioned Palestine recognised that this could only be done with agreement on both sides. Due to lack of this agreement, and recognition by the UN that there was no authority to force partition, resolution 181 died. At the time, Zionists only owned 7% of Palestinian land. The rest was taken by force of ethnic cleansing. Entire villages were wiped out. Refugees, contrary to international law, were denied the right to return.
Regardless of the illegitimacy of the means by which Israel was established, it exists. This is the present reality. However, the demand by the state of Israel that the Palestinians recognize its “right” not just to exist, but to exist “as a Jewish state” is simply a demand that the Palestinians surrender their rights and accede that the Zionists’ unilateral declaration and ethnic cleansing of Palestine were legitimate
Israel withdraws all settlers and IDF personnel from the occupied territories and lifts the siege on Gaza so that Palestinians may excercise their fundamental right to self determination. This is all as per current international law.
If you are unable to see and understand that there nothing acceptable in genocide, torture, rape, and the targeting of children by the brave snipers of the IDF, I would say that it is you that are the waste of time trying to talk to and that you have absolutely nothing to contribute to a solution.
Well, its difficult to see with blinkers on. Cast them aside and you shall see!
In an enormous concession to Israel, Palestinians have long accepted the two-state solution. The elected representatives of the Palestinian people in Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had since the 70s recognized the state of Israel and accepted the two-state solution to the conf l ict. Despite this, Western media continued through the 90s to report that the PLO rejected this solution and instead wanted to wipe Israel off the map.
T h e pattern has been repeated since Hamas was voted into power in the 2006 Palestinian elections. Although Hamas has for years accepted the reality of the state of Israel and demonstrated a willingness to accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside Israel, it is virtually obligatory for Western mainstream media, even today, to report that Hamas rejects the two-state solution, that it instead seeks “to destroy Israel”.
In fact, in early 2004, shortly before he was assassinated by Israel, Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin said that Hamas could accept a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Hamas has since repeatedly reiterated its willingness to accept a two-state solution.
In early 2005, Hamas issued a document stating its goal of seeking a Palestinian state alongside Israel and recognizing the 1967 borders.
T h e exiled head of the political bureau of Hamas, Khalid Mish’al, wrote in the London Guardian in January 2006 that Hamas was “ready to make a just peace”. He wrote that “We shall never recognize the right of any power to rob us of our land and deny us our national rights…. But if you are willing to accept the principle of a long-term truce, we are prepared to negotiate the terms.”
During the campaigning for the 2006 elections, the top Hamas of f i cial in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Zahar said that Hamas was ready to “accept to establish our independent state on the area occupied [in] ’67”, a tacit recognition of the state of Israel.
T h e elected prime minister from Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said in February 2006 that Hamas accepted “the establishment of a Palestinian state” within the “1967 borders”.
In April 2008, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with Hamas of f i cials and afterward stated that Hamas “would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders” and would “accept the right of Israel to live as a neighbor next door in peace”. It was Hamas’ “ultimate goal to see Israel living in their allocated borders, the 1967 borders, and a contiguous, vital Palestinian state alongside.”
T h at same month Hamas leader Meshal said, “We have of f ered a truce if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, a truce of 10 years as a proof of recognition.”
In 2009, Meshal said that Hamas “has accepted a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders”.
Hamas’ shift in policy away from total rejection of the existence of the state of Israel towards acceptance of the international consensus on a two-state solution to the conf l ict is in no small part a ref l ection of the will of the Palestinian public. A public opinion survey from April of last year, for instance, found that three out of four Palestinians were willing to accept a two state solution
Page 19
The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Collection of Essays by Jeremy R. Hammond
A public opinion survey from April of last year, for instance, found that three out of four Palestinians were willing to accept a two state solution
There are no recent polls with that result.
If a Palestinian state on 1967 borders was imposed tomorrow, most of its residents would oppose the continuance of a state of Israel alongside it.
It is certainly interesting that Hamas ha from time to time stated its willingness to recognise a state of Israel, back in 2000 Arafat and Fatah/PLO would not do so without a right of return for the refugees (maybe the poll results of that time indicate some regret about that and otherwise an attempt of Hamas to remain relevent as a WB government in Gaza exile).
The problem the Israelis would face is that any Palestinian state would devote itself to building a military force to use against them. The Israelis can blockade Gaza to try and minimise the amount of weaponry going in because it's not a country, but they couldn't do that to a Palestinian state.
On the wiki page you use as reference there is a hyperlink for right to exist. If you follow that link you will find it clearly stated that there is no such thing as the right of a state to exist in international law. The very notion is absurd. Individuals have rights not abstract political entities.
From Foreign Policy:
Zionists taking it upon themselves to try to defend Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people frequently level the charge that its critics are attempting to “delegitimize” the self-described “Jewish state”. Israel, they counter, has a “right to exist”. But they are mistaken.
This is not to single out Israel. There is no such thing as a state’s “right to exist”, period. No such right is recognized under international law. Nor could there logically be any such right. The very concept is absurd. Individuals, not abstract political entities, have rights.
Individual rights may also be exercised collectively, but not with prejudice toward the rights of individuals. The relevant right in this context is rather the right to self-determination, which refers to the right of a people to collectively exercise their individual rights through political self-governance. The collective exercise of this right may not violate the individual exercise of it. The only legitimate purpose of government is to protect individual rights, and a government has no legitimacy without the consent of the governed. It is only in this sense that the right to self-determination may be exercised collectively, by a people choosing for themselves how they are to be governed and consenting to that governance.
The right to self-determination, unlike the absurd concept of a state’s “right to exist”, is recognized under international law. It is a right that is explicitly guaranteed, for example, under the Charter of the United Nations, to which the state of Israel is party.
The proper framework for discussion therefore is the right to self-determination, and it is precisely to obfuscate this truth that the propaganda claim that Israel has a “right to exist” is frequently made. It is necessary for Israel’s apologists to so shift the framework for discussion because, in the framework of the right to self-determination, it is obviously Israel that rejects the rights of the Palestinians and not vice versa.
So an argument for assisting the removal of nation state governments that do not allow the people to deny consent (contested elections) or organise their own self government? Iraqi Kurd and Shia?
Thus the Sudentenland and Donbass?
Or are nation state governments able to seek the support of other nations in their defence from internal rebellion? Such as the Russian military, Iranian units and Hezbollah in Syria. Or NATO and Iran backed militias against Islamic State in Iraq.
Of course the UNSC exists for the collective security of nation states (to preserve peace), and the UN has laws preventing the taking of territory by force (since 1949, not applying to Israel, Egypt (Gaza) and Jordan (WB) before that time.
Like most supporters of Zionism, you refuse to acknowledge the lack of rights for political entities and rights only for individuals and collections of individuals.
Also, Israel has no right to self defence in the occupied territories but rather an obligation to protect the civilians in those territories or leave.
The latest ruling by the ICJ is unequivocal. Israel is operating an apartheid system and must withdraw from all territory it now illegally occupies. This includes the abolition and removal of all settler communities.
This in itself will give the required space to implement the 2 state solution.
And of course, no Palestinian organisation would relinquish the right of return. It is after all enshrined in international law.
Depends what you mean by "Palestine." The Palestinians see "Palestine" as Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, so "Palestine" is only free if Israel ceases to exist. The Israelis aren't going to oblige.
For the sake of argument, if the Israelis did oblige and the three territories became a single state of Palestine with an Arab majority, there's the problem that Palestinians have spent 70+ years raising their children to believe they have a religious duty to kill Jews and their collaborators and incentivising them to do it. So, Israelis have in effect already seen what a free Palestine would mean for them, on 7 October last year. It's also why they'll never accept a single-state solution with an Arab majority.
The same problem affects a two-state solution. We've seen what that would be like in Gaza, where Hamas dedicated the entire resources of the territory to creating a force for attacking the Jews and a tunnel-based infrastructure for protecting Hamas (not Gazans in general, just Hamas) from Israeli retaliation. A Palestinian state would do the same thing.
I used to support the idea of "free Palestine" but in the last 20 years the above issues have changed my mind. These days I think western countries should cease funding UNRWA and tell the Arab countries the Palestinians are strictly their problem to deal with.
Sure the 2000 outcome of the Oslo Accord was disappointing, The disengagement (withdrawal from rather than expansion of settlements) approach afterward was a holding pattern for some sort of co-existence (but the security fencing created its own issues).
Then came the PA, in post Oslo Accord mode, allowing Hamas to stand in parliamentary elections – then losing and using the President control of the gun to drive them back to Gaza (they drove the forces of Fatah loyal to Abbas out of Gaza. Since then no elections and Fatah about as popular in the WB as Hamas now is in a ruined Gaza (support for Hamas rising in WB at the same time, resistance without cost being the more popular).
And at the same time, Israel is in its peak nationalism mode, ambition for de facto annexation (hiding behind a security imperative), but this is of a singular gotterdammerung approach, at some point this time will pass and those of it will make way for those choosing a different path.
The UN should provide Palestinian refugees with a UN passport.
Exactly. A huge number of Palestinian Arab Muslims have had their lives ruined or just plain ended due to the insane conviction that the 1948 war is ongoing and will one day end in victory of the Arabs over the Jews. Gaza didn't have to be a shithole, it was a conscious decision by Hamas leadership to make it one.
Bullshit. Doesn’t make any difference because the Israelis don’t care, all they want to do is to steal land and have a slave population under their military finger.
The PA and Fatah gave up that fight long ago. So what has happened in the West Bank?
The IDF keeps allowing settlers to steal land from Palestinians on the flimsiest of legal excuses. The IDF deny existing Palestinian titles going back to the Ottomans by losing paperwork for decades, then deny being able to build on their land because of a lack of title. Then bulldoze and evict so that the unclaimed ‘state’ land can be used for more Israeli state funded settlements.
The West bank runs on a series of ‘security’ checkpoints that open arbitarily and shut without a regular schedule. Exactly what is required to make sure that any local economy by Palestinians is continually disrupted.
Essentially the Israeli government and population are engaged in a slow ongoing unlawful ethnic cleansing of a military occupied area.
Address that rather than putting up a hypocritical straw man argument. All it does is look like you support criminals.
Probably we have Kiwi’s helping fund this Israeli state terrorism. Maybe you?
And a decision supported by all of the surrounding Arab countries. Both because they want a constant festering sore afflicting Israel (cf Iran); and because they don't want a wave of radicalized Palestinian immigrants (cf Egypt)
The misery in Gaza (pre the current war) was overwhelmingly created (deliberately) by Hamas and the supporting governments.
Wow! Its the victims fault they are raped and tortured and their hospitals destroyed! Who would of known! Smotrich even asserts that the moral thing to do is to starve the remaining population! And you think these views just suddenly popped up on Oct 7??!
Oh right. And you're all good with the actual IDF rapists and presumably would have joined in with the riots to free them and clapped and cheered the speeches by the Members of the Knesset proclaiming the right of IDF to shove hot metal, electrified rods into the anus of Palestinians held in Israeli detention centres?
Instructions on eradicating references to climate change, diversity, equity and inclusion, to only talk to conservative media and not to leave paper trails for watchdogs to discover is some chilling shit.
. But Project 2025’s plan to train an army of political appointees who could battle against the so-called deep state government bureaucracy on behalf of a future Trump administration remains on track.
One centerpiece of that program is dozens of never-before-published videos created for Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy. The vast majority of these videos — 23 in all, totaling more than 14 hours of content — were provided to ProPublica and Documented by a person who had access to them.
[…]
“If the American people elect a conservative president, his administration will have to eradicate climate change references from absolutely everywhere,” Kozma says.
In the same video, Kozma calls the idea of gender fluidity “evil.” Another speaker, Katie Sullivan, who was an acting assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice under Trump, takes aim at executive actions by the administration of President Joe Biden that created gender adviser positions throughout the federal government. The goal, Biden wrote in one order, was to “advance equal rights and opportunities, regardless of gender or gender identity.”
Sullivan says, “That position has to be eradicated, as well as all the task forces, the removal of all the equity plans from all the websites, and a complete rework of the language in internal and external policy documents and grant applications.
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
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 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Troy Rawhiti-Connell reviews Kia Tupu Te Ara, a documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of Aotearoa’s groundbreaking metal band. “Two brothers attempt to storm the world of thrash metal with the Māori language, despite the fact they’re both still teenagers,” reads the synopsis of Kent Belcher’s documentary, Kia Tupu Te Ara. ...
Three freelance writers have been awarded grants to work on their ambitious journalism projects. In January, The Spinoff announced the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund, supported by the Auckland Radio Trust (ART). The fund was established to provide much-needed financial and editorial support to talented freelance journalists, empowering them to ...
Visa fee hikes will discourage migration to New Zealand – immigration advisors
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/chinese/524669/visa-fee-hikes-will-discourage-migration-to-new-zealand-immigration-advisors
Good.
And that's not self interest from the advisors is it?
[link fixed by removing tags]
The link fails for me
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/chinese/524669/visa-fee-hikes-will-discourage-migration-to-new-zealand-immigration-advisors
Why is this almost universally being regarded as a crisis? It's what the bloody planet needs! And I speak as one of those "oldies" who are supposedly going to need support (and who is currently supporting another).
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/11/global-birthrates-dropping
I've been wondering this too. As far as I can tell there are two issues,
Serious implications for women coming from the 'have more babies because of economics' people. This is why we have to talk about biological sex and women's rights.
I'd love to see an analysis of the issue from degrowth people. I might ask around.I would expect there are other solutions to the elder care problem (assuming it is one)
Not an expert in this area, by any means, but my understanding of the issues is:
The question is, if we move into a de-growth economy – how do we pay for the current standard of living (pensions, health-care for the elderly)? How do we retain the infrastructure that we currently have (all that solar panels and wind farm infrastructure is entirely dependent on world-wide supply chains, not to mention the high-level computer chips, manufactured almost entirely in Taiwan)? If de-growth is going to look and feel like a medieval village (with equivalent social structures and health-care standards) it's pretty hard to sell it to people as a desirable pathway forwards.
good point point about the importance of consumerism in keeping the economy going. The consumerist society is in the process of taking everyone down 🤷♀️ None of what you describe will survive climate collapse. Plus, the whole consumer driven thing looks like a ponzi scheme, at some point it just ceases to work.
We are a very wealthy country. The reason it looks like we can't afford stuff is because of the economic system we choose. eg one obvious way of paying for things is a wealth tax. But beyond that we have to change our economic system to live within our means. The same mentality that has us in resource overshoot is the same one that thinks that perpetual growth is the only way.
No need to frame it as a medieval village. We're not going to lose all our industrial tech. But it might look more like 1970s travel patterns. Or eating seasonally. How will we cope without fresh tomatoes in winter? There is a collossal amount of waste in global economic food production (food and energy waste) we could make changes there.
I agree with you that look and feel matter, which is why I keep banging on about the stories we tell and why telling stories of how things work out matters a great deal.
Besides, the alternative appears to be forcing women to have babies, or disposing of elders. How attractive will voters find that?
I've always been rather suspicious of the ACT advocacy for the end-of-life legislation.
It costs a huge amount in health and social care for the few years of life for an elderly and/or seriously unwell person. If you can persuade them that they should die earlier, then the 'state' is better off (in financial terms, setting aside ethics). And, once it's socially accepted, then it becomes easier for the state to withdraw health/social support in the final years (after all, you have a 'choice'). So you only get to live longer, if you can afford to pay for it, yourself.
A wealth tax is only effective in a consumer-driven society. It only re-distributes money within the country – and does nothing to address the need to import from beyond the borders. A wealth tax also won't solve the issue of fewer taxpayers (or wealthy individuals) supporting a larger group of elderly.
Most of NZ's wealth is tied up in property – and the vast majority of it is in people's houses (most people only own one house) – so it's paper wealth, driven by an insane property market.
If we are truly looking at a de-growth economy, then it would be good to have some examples of exactly how it would look. If we're looking at 1970s as a pattern – then landline phones (copper lines and mechanical exchanges); no computers, apart from huge organizations (no fibre optic network, or computer chips – because we can't make them locally); petrol/ethonol-driven transport – and no electronics in cars – so they can be locally repaired (although petrol would have to be imported – if no petrol, then we're back to horse and cart – EVs can't be manufactured locally, so they're right out); very limited health-care (no expensive imported cancer drugs, etc., and limited ongoing chronic health care (e.g. kidney dialysis is probably not going to happen).
If we're going to have exports at all (to purchase any of the things that we can't make locally), then it's almost certainly going to be agricultural (we don't really have anything else that the world wants – certainly not in a de-growth environment).
Not many that are working – Japan has tried sending people back to work
https://thediplomat.com/2023/01/surviving-old-age-is-getting-harder-in-japan/
Another option in Japan has been crime – with some elderly people committing crimes to get the care they need in prison.
https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47033704
Korea is doing the same with more elderly in work
https://menafn.com/1108499038/South-Koreas-Economically-Active-Elderly-People-Hit-Record-High-In-2024
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/biz/2024/07/602_378782.html
those aren't solutions though. They're the expected response from neoliberal states who don't know what to do because of TINA.
It's a worry 'ant it.
as if we didn't have enough to worry about.
I find it intriguing that with all the brilliant efforts of Kiwi Olympians that there has been very little in the way of congratulatory talk from the government, it’s not something I would expect from Luxon anyway, as he appears to be of the disposition that praising anyone but himself may diminish his own fragile ego, much like most sociopaths.
I suspect there may be a more sinister side to the silence. I hope it doesn’t happen but I suspect that once the Olympics are all over the next thing we will see is quite severe cuts to sport and recreation funding right up to Olympic level.
Don't worry. He will be effusive and full of praise for them at tomorrow's Post Cabinet Conference then a few months down the track when everybody has forgotten the Olympics, he and Willis will start cutting the funding – with a heavy heart of course and blaming the Labour government in the process.
Thats about the timeline I thought.
Luxon's social media team have been busy on his Facebook page about NZ Olympic results.
On past form there'll be some kind of slap-up reception at Parliament for our returning heroines and heroes, with all kinds of photo/selfie ops for members of the government.
Serious question.
What would happen to Israel if Palestine was free?
Would they seek to exist?
Would we take refugees?
Would the Palestine people let them be?
What actually happens if Palestine is free?
Serious answers please.
Israel is a nuclear armed state to suggest that it would cease to exist if Palestinians were allowed their own state is laughable.
Given that the publicly stated position of Hamas is that Israel has no right to exist – then I don't think there would be any change. Palestinian extremists would continue to bombard Israel with rockets (albeit, with now a more robust support infrastructure to supply them). Iran, who also don't recognize the state of Israel, would continue to supply them with arms and support.
Israel would continue to retaliate (with disproportionate effect)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimacy_of_the_State_of_Israel
If Hamas (and others) agreed to the terms under which Palestine was established then attacks on Israel would cease. This has been the pattern previously with unsanctioned attacks punished by Hamas themselves. Its also the present pattern in the West Bank, though via collaboration with the Israeli occupation. At some time ahead we should expect the West Bank also to become as hostile to Israel as Gaza, given present encroachment of settlers continues.
The key word there is 'if'. I don't see any prospect of Hamas abandoning their stance against the existence of Israel. It's a key policy plank for them.
I can't find any reported instance of them willing to even discuss the possibility of recognizing Israel at any peace talks.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-gaza-war-f756cc054732eb3f7e0c49a9987560a0
Two glaring flaws in your argument.
One: you assume Hamas will win an election without Likud money. Actually that they could win any fair and open election.
Two: That a two state solution is something Palestine's want – in the face of all the lies and bullshit that has come out of Israel since the Oslo Agreement.
Freedom for Palestine is going to have to look very different from any the ideas being pushed by the west.
Not my argument.
I don't envisage any peaceful solution – because of the entrenched attitudes on both sides. If you do, then elucidate.
Lets try rephrasing it so you get what I said.
I just pointed out that Hamas is not – the be all, and end all of power for Palestine's. Which over and over your arguments hinge on
Then I said, that in any solution agreeable to Palestine's, in all probability would not be a western solution. Again, all your assumptions and arguments are based on a western model. Even your clinging to a violent outcome.
Hamas violently took power in Gaza – they weren't elected. What makes you think that things would be any different in a Palestinian state?
Perhaps you can point to a non-violent outcome in internal Jewish-Arab relations anywhere in the Middle East.
Yeah right…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Palestinian_legislative_election
Hamas released an amendment to their charter in 2017 which stated they accept a Palestinian state on 1967 borders. That would be a reasonable starting point for eventual settlement. Unfortunately Israel has clearly and consistently refused to make any similar agreement making settlement impossible.
Of course (as you will predictably want to retort) it does not matter at all if Palestinians call their neighbor Israel or the Zionest entity, as long as they can maintain the settlement Israel has its security.
There is also the point the guarantee's required for Israel to stick to any agreement would be considerable and have vastly increased since when this was released.
The question is not whether they will accept a Palestinian state – the question was whether they would recognize an Israeli one. So far, the answer seems to be 'no'.
No, that is not an important question at all. The only relevant question Israel can ask is if a Palestinian state would continue to attack, or would allow attacks to continue, on a potentially unmentionable Israel.
Your talking point is just put there to obstruct progress on a settlement. Israel neither wants a settlement, nor is safety for Israeli’s important to them.
The second is predicated on the first. If they recognize the right of Israel to exist, then they have no moral justification for continued attack.
If they don't recognize Israel – then they will certainly continue to attack.
That is incorrect and your fundamental failure to understand international law. There is no such thing as a state's right to exist.
Nothing to do with international law. If Hamas doesn't recognize Israel as a legitimate state and neighbour – then there is zero chance of any form of peace.
New Zealand makes decisions all the time about which states we recognize – it has nothing to do with international law.
Your talking point it tired and invalid, cross it out and move onto the next one.
OK. Clearly you have no interest in actual debate.
Moving on.
As stated below, the claim that Israel has a "right to exist" is absurd.
Additionally, the creation of the Israeli state was illegitimate. Resolution 181 that partioned Palestine recognised that this could only be done with agreement on both sides. Due to lack of this agreement, and recognition by the UN that there was no authority to force partition, resolution 181 died. At the time, Zionists only owned 7% of Palestinian land. The rest was taken by force of ethnic cleansing. Entire villages were wiped out. Refugees, contrary to international law, were denied the right to return.
From the same reference as below.
Well. In that case, what is your solution to the current Israeli population? Or do we just switch from one kind of guerrilla warfare to another….
How does your argument of international standards hold up against any other country? Azerbaijan/Armenia, for example.
Israel withdraws all settlers and IDF personnel from the occupied territories and lifts the siege on Gaza so that Palestinians may excercise their fundamental right to self determination. This is all as per current international law.
If you are unable to see and understand that there nothing acceptable in genocide, torture, rape, and the targeting of children by the brave snipers of the IDF, I would say that it is you that are the waste of time trying to talk to and that you have absolutely nothing to contribute to a solution.
Well, its difficult to see with blinkers on. Cast them aside and you shall see!
Page 19
The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Collection of Essays by Jeremy R. Hammond
There are no recent polls with that result.
If a Palestinian state on 1967 borders was imposed tomorrow, most of its residents would oppose the continuance of a state of Israel alongside it.
It is certainly interesting that Hamas ha from time to time stated its willingness to recognise a state of Israel, back in 2000 Arafat and Fatah/PLO would not do so without a right of return for the refugees (maybe the poll results of that time indicate some regret about that and otherwise an attempt of Hamas to remain relevent as a WB government in Gaza exile).
Cast your own blinkers aside.
Here's a selection of recent quotes from Hamas leaders (admittedly from an anti-Hamas site – but the quotes are legitimately sourced)
https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/hamas-its-own-words
The problem the Israelis would face is that any Palestinian state would devote itself to building a military force to use against them. The Israelis can blockade Gaza to try and minimise the amount of weaponry going in because it's not a country, but they couldn't do that to a Palestinian state.
On the wiki page you use as reference there is a hyperlink for right to exist. If you follow that link you will find it clearly stated that there is no such thing as the right of a state to exist in international law. The very notion is absurd. Individuals have rights not abstract political entities.
From Foreign Policy:
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2019/03/15/why-israel-has-no-right-to-exist/
So an argument for assisting the removal of nation state governments that do not allow the people to deny consent (contested elections) or organise their own self government? Iraqi Kurd and Shia?
Thus the Sudentenland and Donbass?
Or are nation state governments able to seek the support of other nations in their defence from internal rebellion? Such as the Russian military, Iranian units and Hezbollah in Syria. Or NATO and Iran backed militias against Islamic State in Iraq.
Of course the UNSC exists for the collective security of nation states (to preserve peace), and the UN has laws preventing the taking of territory by force (since 1949, not applying to Israel, Egypt (Gaza) and Jordan (WB) before that time.
Like most supporters of Zionism, you refuse to acknowledge the lack of rights for political entities and rights only for individuals and collections of individuals.
Also, Israel has no right to self defence in the occupied territories but rather an obligation to protect the civilians in those territories or leave.
The latest ruling by the ICJ is unequivocal. Israel is operating an apartheid system and must withdraw from all territory it now illegally occupies. This includes the abolition and removal of all settler communities.
This in itself will give the required space to implement the 2 state solution.
And of course, no Palestinian organisation would relinquish the right of return. It is after all enshrined in international law.
The UN recognises the legal existence of the state of Israel. And thus so do its institutions.
What if Israel said it would withdraw from Gaza, when Russia left Ukraine.
Homeless Palestinians and this …
Is there a requirement to allow Palestinian refugees (descendants of) the right of return into the recognised territory of the state of Israel?
And are Arab nations required to allow Jews (descendants of) to return to where they went after the state of Israel was established?
Please supply a link. Your statement is ludicrous.
Depends what you mean by "Palestine." The Palestinians see "Palestine" as Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, so "Palestine" is only free if Israel ceases to exist. The Israelis aren't going to oblige.
For the sake of argument, if the Israelis did oblige and the three territories became a single state of Palestine with an Arab majority, there's the problem that Palestinians have spent 70+ years raising their children to believe they have a religious duty to kill Jews and their collaborators and incentivising them to do it. So, Israelis have in effect already seen what a free Palestine would mean for them, on 7 October last year. It's also why they'll never accept a single-state solution with an Arab majority.
The same problem affects a two-state solution. We've seen what that would be like in Gaza, where Hamas dedicated the entire resources of the territory to creating a force for attacking the Jews and a tunnel-based infrastructure for protecting Hamas (not Gazans in general, just Hamas) from Israeli retaliation. A Palestinian state would do the same thing.
I used to support the idea of "free Palestine" but in the last 20 years the above issues have changed my mind. These days I think western countries should cease funding UNRWA and tell the Arab countries the Palestinians are strictly their problem to deal with.
Sure the 2000 outcome of the Oslo Accord was disappointing, The disengagement (withdrawal from rather than expansion of settlements) approach afterward was a holding pattern for some sort of co-existence (but the security fencing created its own issues).
Then came the PA, in post Oslo Accord mode, allowing Hamas to stand in parliamentary elections – then losing and using the President control of the gun to drive them back to Gaza (they drove the forces of Fatah loyal to Abbas out of Gaza. Since then no elections and Fatah about as popular in the WB as Hamas now is in a ruined Gaza (support for Hamas rising in WB at the same time, resistance without cost being the more popular).
And at the same time, Israel is in its peak nationalism mode, ambition for de facto annexation (hiding behind a security imperative), but this is of a singular gotterdammerung approach, at some point this time will pass and those of it will make way for those choosing a different path.
The UN should provide Palestinian refugees with a UN passport.
The resources that went into building those tunnels could have helped a lot of people live better lives I'd have thought.
Better lives in prison (Gaza), or under occupation (West Bank)?
Precisely
Exactly. A huge number of Palestinian Arab Muslims have had their lives ruined or just plain ended due to the insane conviction that the 1948 war is ongoing and will one day end in victory of the Arabs over the Jews. Gaza didn't have to be a shithole, it was a conscious decision by Hamas leadership to make it one.
Bullshit. Doesn’t make any difference because the Israelis don’t care, all they want to do is to steal land and have a slave population under their military finger.
The PA and Fatah gave up that fight long ago. So what has happened in the West Bank?
The IDF keeps allowing settlers to steal land from Palestinians on the flimsiest of legal excuses. The IDF deny existing Palestinian titles going back to the Ottomans by losing paperwork for decades, then deny being able to build on their land because of a lack of title. Then bulldoze and evict so that the unclaimed ‘state’ land can be used for more Israeli state funded settlements.
The West bank runs on a series of ‘security’ checkpoints that open arbitarily and shut without a regular schedule. Exactly what is required to make sure that any local economy by Palestinians is continually disrupted.
Essentially the Israeli government and population are engaged in a slow ongoing unlawful ethnic cleansing of a military occupied area.
Address that rather than putting up a hypocritical straw man argument. All it does is look like you support criminals.
Probably we have Kiwi’s helping fund this Israeli state terrorism. Maybe you?
And a decision supported by all of the surrounding Arab countries. Both because they want a constant festering sore afflicting Israel (cf Iran); and because they don't want a wave of radicalized Palestinian immigrants (cf Egypt)
The misery in Gaza (pre the current war) was overwhelmingly created (deliberately) by Hamas and the supporting governments.
Wow! Its the victims fault they are raped and tortured and their hospitals destroyed! Who would of known! Smotrich even asserts that the moral thing to do is to starve the remaining population! And you think these views just suddenly popped up on Oct 7??!
It's the fault of the Arab countries that they failed to allow migration.
Oh right. And you're all good with the actual IDF rapists and presumably would have joined in with the riots to free them and clapped and cheered the speeches by the Members of the Knesset proclaiming the right of IDF to shove hot metal, electrified rods into the anus of Palestinians held in Israeli detention centres?
No, Sunshine. I'm pointing out the moral failure of the Arab countries, not condoning the moral failure of the Israelis.
wakanda forever! …lol…
Instructions on eradicating references to climate change, diversity, equity and inclusion, to only talk to conservative media and not to leave paper trails for watchdogs to discover is some chilling shit.
. But Project 2025’s plan to train an army of political appointees who could battle against the so-called deep state government bureaucracy on behalf of a future Trump administration remains on track.
One centerpiece of that program is dozens of never-before-published videos created for Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy. The vast majority of these videos — 23 in all, totaling more than 14 hours of content — were provided to ProPublica and Documented by a person who had access to them.
[…]
“If the American people elect a conservative president, his administration will have to eradicate climate change references from absolutely everywhere,” Kozma says.
In the same video, Kozma calls the idea of gender fluidity “evil.” Another speaker, Katie Sullivan, who was an acting assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice under Trump, takes aim at executive actions by the administration of President Joe Biden that created gender adviser positions throughout the federal government. The goal, Biden wrote in one order, was to “advance equal rights and opportunities, regardless of gender or gender identity.”
Sullivan says, “That position has to be eradicated, as well as all the task forces, the removal of all the equity plans from all the websites, and a complete rework of the language in internal and external policy documents and grant applications.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election