In the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill the nats are trying to sneak through a change to the status of the Waitakere Memorial Park. Right now the ARC has to hold the park as a scenic park and as a memorial. This legal requirement will disappear.
The change is subtle, there is one line on page 163 which says “repeal section 77”.
The nats have previously advocated converting the parkland into a National Park.
Brownlee’s desire to have a “stocktake” of minerals in National Parks is well known.
Do they want to do a “stocktake” in the Waitakere Ranges?
I think you might better ask a couple of questions:
* if this individual is not safe to be out why has he been let out? (I know the legal bit….not sure if it provides adequate protection to the public).
* if he must be let out is he safe anywhere or is it a calculated risk?
I get the feeling corrections are between a rock and a hard place, and to use them for political footbal is not very helpful.
It is never acceptable to release a repeat rapist to such an address, the safety and rights of those at the school and their parents/teachers are paramount.
Corrections and their current boss repeatedly fuck it up and they do it under whoever is the government of the day.
“You am retard !”….this column is in English Mr Retard.
“It is never acceptable to release a repeat rapist to such an address, the safety and rights of those at the school and their parents/teachers are paramount.” At what point do I disagree? I too asked why a dangerous person gets released?
Corrections stuff it up, agreed. Find me a human, or human organisation that does not. If you have a way of ensuring in an absolute sense that humans become infallible patent it right away.
And before you continue your protection of corrections to far – go and have a look at the work history and monumental cock ups that their CEO has been involved in during his time gorging on the public teat.
INCIS…dont swear at me. I could list a whole pile more swear words relating to dubious or failed s/w developments around the government and corporates. And I cant say that I have ever met a senior CEO of these organisations who has been anything other than a fallible human. Then when you get to audit the policies, processes and procedures all becomes very obvious. Yes Corrections needs a bloody big boot, but as they say “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”..all guilty, put them away with the rapist.
Could the first part of the Oprah show yesterday on TV3 which was an interesting piece on city’s around the world. The first 20 mins was on Copenhagen and several interesting facts. Not sure if it can be found on TV3 on Demand or youtube but would be worth a look.
Income Tax 50%
Wealth gap closer togetter
free Health
Free (mostly) Education
Up to 12 months maternity leave, both men and women.
About 50% of population Cycle.
And several other different bits of information.
If i knew how, i would send Goober key a link.
The Standard. Good reliable information in the graphs and reports that is most useful to some of us. Interesting opinons and views from the regular posters, but, is it just me or has moderation of some of the comments sections been a bit light recently-exhibit A- those featuring that whimp ‘Big Bruv’. It is not necessarily a barrel of fun running a blogsite which is why I don’t, so I am only making a suggestion here.
[lprent: The long-term objective (since early 2008) has been to get the commentators to moderate themselves to the local behaviour standards.
That is now generally the case, so the moderation has scaled back to the most nefarious cases. They tend towards get fast permanent bans (eg moon goddess yesterday, Klarkov, PT, etc) when they either do repeated stupid trolling, or sustained innocuous trolling, or in the case of Klarkov because he is a disgusting piece of crap that really needs some treatment.
We also occasionally give people cool-off bans when they overstep the bounds of what is permitted – usually for attacking authors at a personal level. Sometimes that is because both the moderators and the majority of the commentators are sick of seeing the same unproven assertions repeated too many times – and the irritation levels start rising.
And of course there is always IrishBill to add that crucial random element….. 😈
It is hard to believe, but I don’t think that big bruv has ever earned a ban here. He is annoying, inaccurate, and seems to equate slogans with thinking. However he stays within the policy of the site. He has (like redbaiter and others) banned himself a few times, leaving and vowing never to return. Of course that is a bit dangerous to do if you want to come back. You might find that a moderator will help you keep your resolution, as r0b assisted redbaiter on one occassion. ]
Perhaps some blogs are kept as a standard beyond which control is administered. The site has been refreshingly free of snippy pompous fatuous statements from certain people lately. Less lambasting everybody who doesn’t hold their self-righteous views and less dissing those who think and examine policies past and search for better future policies.
Operation titstorm in Australia has been interesting. They downed a couple of Aus government websites yesterday and are continuing today.
The Australian government like all governments has at best a tenuous connection to reality. One of the issues here is that they actually deny that females ejaculate and they want to crack down on small breasted women in pornography because they equate that with child pronography. Ridiculous.
I tried to ring 018 just before. I think the teacher unions are in hock to Big Business and have a cunning plan to drive down literacy standards so that when Kiwis can’t read, write, spell or speak correctly, we won’t know if we are talking to a NZ or 3rd world call centre.
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has maintained an assassination list of U.S. citizens for the last eight year and has actually assassinated Americans, according to January 27 Washington Post story.
Replace the term “al-Qaeda” with “Communist” and we see its just the same old schtick politicians have used for the last 60 years to mask the real intentions of their industrialist puppet masters.
So far as the list of citizens that can be killed is concerned, the scary thing is the deliberately flexible definition of who qualifies for inclusion:
whether the individual in question is “deemed to be a continuing threat to U.S. persons or interests.
Well, JK and NACT aren’t doing anything to create in the country but they are going to do stuff that will lower wages.
Mr Key said other changes would include “strict reapplication rules to prevent people languishing on an unemployment benefit for more than a short period between jobs”.
“After that, they will be required to actively look for a job, to go to any job interview they are referred to, and to accept any offer of suitable employment, whether fulltime, part-time, temporary or seasonal.
Why is it that the people who can’t lower their costs (mostly because their costs are increasing in line with inflation or, in the case of food, at a rate higher than inflation) are the ones that have to take the pay cuts?
Nice wee campaign building in Britain to bring in a Tobin Tax. Bill Nighy features in a Richard Curtis promo, which explains the concept in a way even righties can understand.
Iprent – in the interests of my sanity, as fragile as it is, would you mind please taking your little friend under your wing and tucking him away in the creche so as to monitor his comments for adherence to policy – specifically, are the comments on topic, do they add anything to the general discourse, are they even remotely amusing etc etc etc . . . Please. Pretty please.
If that means me I’m going to try harder.
I comment on a post and get attacked so I retaliate I will not retaliate in future. Please can you do something about the abuse towards me. It is usually off-topic.
Why would I get getting a pop up box saying: A user name and password are being requested by http://thestandard.org.nz. The site says: “Preview Site” ???
Sorry I expect that you got caught while I was shunting the caches around.
www3 is the preview of the new site. We’ve been running it side-by-side with the primary site during final testing so we can test the changes on the same database. I was fixing a couple errors.
But as you found out – www3 requires a login and password 😈
My daily news diet is not what it once was.It was the TV news that lost me first. Too infantilising, too breathless, too frustrating.The Herald was next. You could look past the reactionary framing while it was being a decent newspaper of record, but once Shayne Currie began unleashing all ...
Hit the road Jack and don't you come backNo more, no more, no more, no moreHit the road Jack and don't you come back no moreWhat you say?Songwriters: Percy MayfieldMorena,I keep many of my posts, like this one, paywall-free so that everyone can read them.However, please consider supporting me as ...
This might be the longest delay between reading (or in this case re-reading) a work, and actually writing a review of it I have ever managed. Indeed, when I last read these books in December 2022, I was not planning on writing anything about them… but as A Phuulish Fellow ...
Kia Ora,I try to keep most my posts without a paywall for public interest journalism purposes. However, if you can afford to, please consider supporting me as a paid subscriber and/or supporting over at Ko-Fi. That will help me to continue, and to keep spending time on the work. Embarrassingly, ...
There was a time when Google was the best thing in my world. I was an early adopter of their AdWords program and boy did I like what it did for my business. It put rocket fuel in it, is what it did. For every dollar I spent, those ads ...
A while back I was engaged in an unpleasant exchange with a leader of the most well-known NZ anti-vax group and several like-minded trolls. I had responded to a racist meme on social media in which a rightwing podcaster in the US interviewed one of the leaders of the Proud ...
Hi,If you’ve been reading Webworm for a while, you’ll be familiar with Anna Wilding. Between 2020 and 2021 I looked at how the New Zealander had managed to weasel her way into countless news stories over the years, often with very little proof any of it had actually happened. When ...
It's a long white cloud for you, baby; staying together alwaysSummertime in AotearoaWhere the sunshine kisses the water, we will find it alwaysSummertime in AotearoaYeah, it′s SummertimeIt's SummertimeWriters: Codi Wehi Ngatai, Moresby Kainuku, Pipiwharauroa Campbell, Taulutoa Michael Schuster, Rebekah Jane Brady, Te Naawe Jordan Muturangi Tupe, Thomas Edward Scrase.Many of ...
Last year, 292 people died unnecessarily on our roads. That is the lowest result in over a decade and only the fourth time in the last 70 years we’ve seen fewer than 300 deaths in a calendar year. Yet, while it is 292 people too many, with each death being ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob HensonFlames from the Palisades Fire burn a building at Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The fast-moving wildfire had destroyed thousands of structures and ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Regulatory Standards Bill, as I understand it, seeks to bind parliament to a specific range of law-making.For example, it seems to ensure primacy of individual rights over that of community, environment, te Tiriti ...
Happy New Year!I had a lovely break, thanks very much for asking: friends, family, sunshine, books, podcasts, refreshing swims, barbecues, bike rides. So good to step away from the firehose for a while, to have less Trump and Seymour in your day. Who needs the Luxons in their risible PJs ...
Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the Auckland City Centre Advisory Panel and a director of Greater Auckland In 2003, after much argument, including the election of a Mayor in 2001 who ran on stopping it, Britomart train station in downtown Auckland opened. A mere 1km twin track terminating branch ...
For the first time in a decade, a New Zealand Prime Minister is heading to the Middle East. The trip is more than just a courtesy call. New Zealand PMs frequently change planes in Dubai en route to destinations elsewhere. But Christopher Luxon’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 5, 2025 thru Sat, January 11, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The decade between 1952 and the early 1960s was the peak period for the style of music we now call doo wop, after which it got dissolved into soul music, girl groups, and within pop music in general. Basically, doo wop was a form of small group harmonising with a ...
The future teaches you to be aloneThe present to be afraid and coldSo if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists…And if you tolerate thisThen your children will be nextSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Do you remember at school, studying the rise ...
When National won the New Zealand election in 2023, one of the first to congratulate Luxon was tech-billionaire and entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk.And last year, after Luxon posted a video about a trip to Malaysia, Musk came forward again to heap praise on Christopher:So it was perhaps par for the ...
Hi,Today’s Webworm features a new short film from documentary maker Giorgio Angelini. It’s about Luigi Mangione — but it’s also, really, about everything in America right now.Bear with me.Shortly after I sent out my last missive from the fires on Wednesday, one broke out a little too close to home ...
So soon just after you've goneMy senses sharpenBut it always takes so damn longBefore I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smokeDrifting in our roomSo easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisperWith a careless memorySongwriters: Andy Taylor / John Taylor / ...
Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest?Nine of Trump’s closest advisers are billionaires. Their total net worth is in excess of $US375b (providing there is not a share-market crash). In contrast, the total net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet was about $6b. (Joe Biden’s Cabinet ...
Welcome back to our weekly roundup. We hope you had a good break (if you had one). Here’s a few of the stories that caught our attention over the last few weeks. This holiday period on Greater Auckland Since our last roundup we’ve: Taken a look back at ...
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partnerSometimes I feel like my only friendIs the city I live in, The City of AngelsLonely as I am together we crySong: Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Flea, John Frusciante.A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area. ...
Open access notablesLarge emissions of CO2 and CH4 due to active-layer warming in Arctic tundra, Torn et al., Nature Communications:Climate warming may accelerate decomposition of Arctic soil carbon, but few controlled experiments have manipulated the entire active layer. To determine surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Over the holidays, there was a rising tide of calls for people to submit on National's repulsive, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, along with a wave of advice and examples of what to say. And it looks like people rose to the occasion, with over 300,000 ...
The lie is my expenseThe scope of my desireThe Party blessed me with its futureAnd I protect it with fireI am the Nina The Pinta The Santa MariaThe noose and the rapistAnd the fields overseerThe agents of orangeThe priests of HiroshimaThe cost of my desire…Sleep now in the fireSongwriters: Brad ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkGlobal surface temperatures have risen around 1.3C since the preindustrial (1850-1900) period as a result of human activity.1 However, this aggregate number masks a lot of underlying factors that contribute to global surface temperature changes over time.These include CO2, which is the primary ...
There are times when movement around us seems to slow down. And the faster things get, the slower it all appears.And so it is with the whirlwind of early year political activity.They are harbingers for what is to come:Video: Wayne Wright Jnr, funder of Sean Plunket, talk growing power and ...
Hi,Right now the power is out, so I’m just relying on the laptop battery and tethering to my phone’s 5G which is dropping in and out. We’ll see how we go.First up — I’m fine. I can’t see any flames out the window. I live in the greater Hollywood area ...
2024 was a tough year for working Kiwis. But together we’ve been able to fight back for a just and fair New Zealand and in 2025 we need to keep standing up for what’s right and having our voices heard. That starts with our Mood of the Workforce Survey. It’s your ...
Time is never time at allYou can never ever leaveWithout leaving a piece of youthAnd our lives are forever changedWe will never be the sameThe more you change, the less you feelSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan.Babinden - Baba’s DayToday, January 8th, 2025, is Babinden, “The Day of the baba” or “The ...
..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...
Everything is good and brownI'm here againWith a sunshine smile upon my faceMy friends are close at handAnd all my inhibitions have disappeared without a traceI'm glad, oh, that I found oohSomebody who I can rely onSongwriter: Jay KayGood morning, all you lovely people. Today, I’ve got nothing except a ...
Welcome to 2025. After wrapping up 2024, here’s a look at some of the things we can expect to see this year along with a few predictions. Council and Elections Elections One of the biggest things this year will be local body elections in October. Will Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Canadians can take a while to get angry – but when they finally do, watch out. Canada has been falling out of love with Justin Trudeau for years, and his exit has to be the least surprising news event of the New Year. On recent polling, Trudeau’s Liberal party has ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Much like 2023, many climate and energy records were broken in 2024. It was Earth’s hottest year on record by a wide margin, breaking the previous record that was set just last year by an even larger margin. Human-caused climate-warming pollution and ...
Submissions on National's racist, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are due tomorrow! So today, after a good long holiday from all that bullshit, I finally got my shit together to submit on it. As I noted here, people should write their own submissions in their own ...
Ooh, baby (ooh, baby)It's making me crazy (it's making me crazy)Every time I look around (look around)Every time I look around (every time I look around)Every time I look aroundIt's in my faceSongwriters: Alan Leo Jansson / Paul Lawrence L. Fuemana.Today, I’ll be talking about rich, middle-aged men who’ve made ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 29, 2024 thru Sat, January 4, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Hi,The thing that stood out at me while shopping for Christmas presents in New Zealand was how hard it was to avoid Zuru products. Toy manufacturer Zuru is a bit like Netflix, in that it has so much data on what people want they can flood the market with so ...
And when a child is born into this worldIt has no conceptOf the tone of skin it's living inAnd there's a million voicesAnd there's a million voicesTo tell you what you should be thinkingSong by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour.The moment you see that face, you can hear her voice; ...
While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky. When ranking our prime ministers, retired professor of history Erik Olssen commented that ‘neither Holland nor Nash was especially effective as prime minister – even his private secretary thought ...
Baby, be the class clownI'll be the beauty queen in tearsIt's a new art form, showin' people how little we care (yeah)We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fearLet's go down to the tennis court and talk it up like, yeah (yeah)Songwriters: Joel Little / Ella Yelich O ...
Open access notables Why Misinformation Must Not Be Ignored, Ecker et al., American Psychologist:Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of the claim that misinformation is not a significant societal problem. We argue that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as suggesting ...
What I’ve Been Doing: I buried a close family member.What I’ve Been Watching: Andor, Jack Reacher, Xmas movies.What I’ve Been Reflecting On: The Usefulness of Writing and the Worthiness of Doing So — especially as things become more transparent on their own.I also hate competing on any day, and if ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by John Wihbey. A version of this article first appeared on Yale Climate Connections on Nov. 11, 2008. (Image credits: The White House, Jonathan Cutrer / CC BY 2.0; President Jimmy Carter, Trikosko/Library of Congress; Solar dedication, Bill Fitz-Patrick / Jimmy Carter Library; Solar ...
Morena folks,We’re having a good break, recharging the batteries. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday period. I’m not feeling terribly inspired by much at the moment, I’m afraid—not from a writing point of view, anyway.So, today, we’re travelling back in time. You’ll have to imagine the wavy lines and sci-fi sound ...
Completed reads for 2024: Oration on the Dignity of Man, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola A Platonic Discourse Upon Love, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Of Being and Unity, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola The Life of Pico della Mirandola, by Giovanni Francesco Pico Three Letters Written by Pico ...
Welcome to 2025, Aotearoa. Well… what can one really say? 2024 was a story of a bad beginning, an infernal middle and an indescribably farcical end. But to chart a course for a real future, it does pay to know where we’ve been… so we know where we need ...
Welcome to the official half-way point of the 2020s. Anyway, as per my New Years tradition, here’s where A Phuulish Fellow’s blog traffic came from in 2024: United States United Kingdom New Zealand Canada Sweden Australia Germany Spain Brazil Finland The top four are the same as 2023, ...
Completed reads for December: Be A Wolf!, by Brian Strickland The Magic Flute [libretto], by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder The Invisible Eye, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Owl’s Ear, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Waters of Death, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Spider, by Hanns Heinz Ewers Who Knows?, by Guy de Maupassant ...
Well, it’s the last day of the year, so it’s time for a quick wrap-up of the most important things that happened in 2024 for urbanism and transport in our city. A huge thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and supported us in our mission to make ...
Leave your office, run past your funeralLeave your home, car, leave your pulpitJoin us in the streets where weJoin us in the streets where weDon't belong, don't belongHere under the starsThrowing light…Song: Jeffery BuckleyToday, I’ll discuss the standout politicians of the last 12 months. Each party will receive three awards, ...
Hi,A lot’s happened this year in the world of Webworm, and as 2024 comes to an end I thought I’d look back at a few of the things that popped. Maybe you missed them, or you might want to revisit some of these essay and podcast episodes over your break ...
Hi,I wanted to share this piece by film editor Dan Kircher about what cinema has been up to in 2024.Dan edited my documentary Mister Organ, as well as this year’s excellent crowd-pleasing Bookworm.Dan adores movies. He gets the language of cinema, he knows what he loves, and writes accordingly. And ...
Without delving into personal details but in order to give readers a sense of the year that was, I thought I would offer the study in contrasts that are Xmas 2023 and Xmas 2024: Xmas 2023 in Starship Children’s Hospital (after third of four surgeries). Even opening presents was an ...
Heavy disclaimer: Alpha/beta/omega dynamics is a popular trope that’s used in a wide range of stories and my thoughts on it do not apply to all cases. I’m most familiar with it through the lens of male-focused fanfic, typically m/m but sometimes also featuring m/f and that’s the situation I’m ...
Hi,Webworm has been pretty heavy this year — mainly because the world is pretty heavy. But as we sprint (or limp, you choose) through the final days of 2024, I wanted to keep Webworm a little lighter.So today I wanted to look at one of the biggest and weirdest elements ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 22, 2024 thru Sat, December 28, 2024. This week's roundup is the second one published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, ...
We’ll have a climate change ChristmasFrom now until foreverWarming our hearts and mindsAnd planet all togetherSpirits high and oceans higherChestnuts roast on wildfiresIf coal is on your wishlistMerry Climate Change ChristmasSong by Ian McConnellReindeer emissions are not something I’d thought about in terms of climate change. I guess some significant ...
KP continues to putt-putt along as a tiny niche blog that offers a NZ perspective on international affairs with a few observations about NZ domestic politics thrown in. In 2024 there was also some personal posts given that my son was in the last four months of a nine month ...
I can see very wellThere's a boat on the reef with a broken backAnd I can see it very wellThere's a joke and I know it very wellIt's one of those that I told you long agoTake my word I'm a madman, don't you knowSongwriters: Bernie Taupin / Elton JohnIt ...
.Acknowledgement: Tim PrebbleThanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work..With each passing day of bad headlines, squandering tax revenue to enrich the rich, deep cuts to our social services and a government struggling to keep the lipstick on its neo-liberal pig ...
This is from the 36th Parallel social media account (as brief food for thought). We know that Trump is ahistorical at best but he seems to think that he is Teddy Roosevelt and can use the threat of invoking the Monroe Doctrine and “Big Stick” gunboat diplomacy against Panama and ...
Don't you cry tonightI still love you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightDon't you cry tonightThere's a heaven above you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightSong: Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so”, said possibly the greatest philosopher ever to walk this earth, Douglas Adams.We have entered the ...
The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...
Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...
Work is set to get underway on a new bus station at Westgate this week. A contract has been awarded to HEB Construction to start a package of enabling works to get the site ready in advance of main construction beginning in mid-2025, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“A new Westgate ...
Minister for Children and for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour is encouraging people to use the resources available to them to get help, and to report instances of family and sexual violence amongst their friends, families, and loved ones who are in need. “The death of a ...
Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says people with diabetes and other painful conditions will benefit from a significant new qualification to boost training in foot care. “It sounds simple, but quality and regular foot and nail care is vital in preventing potentially serious complications from diabetes, like blisters or sores, which can take a long time to heal ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour is pleased to see Pharmac continue to increase availability of medicines for Kiwis with the government’s largest ever investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the government,” says Mr Seymour. “When this government assumed ...
Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora e mua - Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead. Māori recipients in the New Year 2025 Honours list show comprehensive dedication to improving communities across the motu that ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is wishing all New Zealanders a great holiday season as Kiwis prepare for gatherings with friends and families to see in the New Year. It is a great time of year to remind everyone to stay fire safe over the summer. “I know ...
From 1 January 2025, first-time tertiary learners will have access to a new Fees Free entitlement of up to $12,000 for their final year of provider-based study or final two years of work-based learning, Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Targeting funding to the final year of study ...
“As we head into one of the busiest times of the year for Police, and family violence and sexual violence response services, it’s a good time to remind everyone what to do if they experience violence or are worried about others,” Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence ...
I’ve already broken most of my resolutions, and it’s only January. How do I salvage my clean slate? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nz Dear Hera,It’s only 6 days into the new year, and I’m already ready for 2026. I made five resolutions and have already broken ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate, UNSW Beach Safety Research Group + School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney byvalet/Shutterstock Australia is considered a nation of beach lovers. But with all this water surrounding us, drownings remain tragically common. At least 55 people have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Sergii Gnatiuk/Shutterstock Over the past two years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has captivated public attention. This year signals the beginning of a new phase: the rise of AI agents. AI ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dorina Pojani, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Queensland shisu_ka/Shutterstock A wide range of voices in the Australian media have been sounding the alarm about the phenomenon of “forever-renting”. This describes a situation in which individuals or families ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liz Giuffre, Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology Sydney Originally known as 2JJ, or Double Jay, when it launched in Sydney at 11am on January 19 1975, Triple J has since become the national youth network. The station now encompasses broadcast ...
Currently, under 18s are legally allowed to buy Lotto tickets. That’s about to change, explains The Bulletin’s Stewart Sowman-Lund. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The anonymised database is crucial to the government's social investment approach to funding programmes - but was incapable of doing so without extra investment. ...
Opinion: As I reflect on the tumultuous year that has passed and look forward to the year ahead, I wonder what it will hold.For me I can’t look past the middle of February right now as that is when my dissertation must be submitted, hopefully completing my master’s degree. It ...
Opinion: 2025 is a critical year for Aotearoa New Zealand’s natural world. With the entire environmental management system slated for reform, it’s the most important year in decades. If the hot-headed excesses of last year’s law-making continue, it will lead to terrible long-term outcomes. But if sense prevails, we could ...
An anticipated move to tax charities’ business operations would reduce charitable activity and may cause businesses to leave New Zealand, a lawyer warns. In a push to find new sources of revenue the Government is looking at implementing a charity tax, which would see the business arm of companies such as ...
As parliamentary staff start to read through thousands of submissions on the Treaty principles bill, Shanti Mathias explores how submitting became the go-to way to engage with politics – and asks whether it makes a difference. While the exact number is currently being confirmed, it seems almost certain that submissions ...
A plan about ferries, highly anticipated select committee hearings and a new deputy prime minister are all on the cards for Aotearoa in the 2025 political year. Here’s a rundown of what to expect and when to expect it. The ‘brace for impact, it’s coming soon’ bitsThe political calendar ...
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Summer reissue: Six months on from the tale of a homeless man making street coffee, Lyric Waiwiri-Smith reflects on the story that became a hit, and then a punchline. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read ...
Summer reissue: Over 10,000 school students in New Zealand learn outside of school, but that doesn’t mean they’re always learning at home. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Manisha Caleb, Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics, University of Sydney Artist’s impression of ASKAP J1839-0756.James Josephides When some of the biggest stars reach the end of their lives, they explode in spectacular supernovas and leave behind incredibly dense cores called neutron stars. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Walker-Munro, Senior Lecturer (Law), Southern Cross University Elon Musk is no stranger to news headlines. His purchase of Twitter and subsequent decision to rebrand the platform as X has seen it called “a true black mirror of the most worrying parts ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Port Vila The electoral commission in Vanuatu is trying its best to clear up some confusion with the voting process for tomorrow’s snap election. Principal Electoral Officer Guilain Malessas said this is due to the tight turnaround to deliver this election after Parliament ...
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In the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill the nats are trying to sneak through a change to the status of the Waitakere Memorial Park. Right now the ARC has to hold the park as a scenic park and as a memorial. This legal requirement will disappear.
The change is subtle, there is one line on page 163 which says “repeal section 77”.
The nats have previously advocated converting the parkland into a National Park.
Brownlee’s desire to have a “stocktake” of minerals in National Parks is well known.
Do they want to do a “stocktake” in the Waitakere Ranges?
Interesting wee thingie:
http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2007/06/the-inescapable.html
you can put me down as favouring the ritual slaughter of either “deep economic integration” or “the nation state”.
I don’t really care which.
Hold the beastie down and I’ll do a wee ritual thingy on both those gullets.
The corrections department earning their wages again.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3313787/Double-rapist-to-move-in-near-schools
Retards.
I think you might better ask a couple of questions:
* if this individual is not safe to be out why has he been let out? (I know the legal bit….not sure if it provides adequate protection to the public).
* if he must be let out is he safe anywhere or is it a calculated risk?
I get the feeling corrections are between a rock and a hard place, and to use them for political footbal is not very helpful.
You am retard !
It is never acceptable to release a repeat rapist to such an address, the safety and rights of those at the school and their parents/teachers are paramount.
Corrections and their current boss repeatedly fuck it up and they do it under whoever is the government of the day.
“You am retard !”….this column is in English Mr Retard.
“It is never acceptable to release a repeat rapist to such an address, the safety and rights of those at the school and their parents/teachers are paramount.” At what point do I disagree? I too asked why a dangerous person gets released?
Corrections stuff it up, agreed. Find me a human, or human organisation that does not. If you have a way of ensuring in an absolute sense that humans become infallible patent it right away.
You am also humourless !
And before you continue your protection of corrections to far – go and have a look at the work history and monumental cock ups that their CEO has been involved in during his time gorging on the public teat.
Start with INCIS.
INCIS…dont swear at me. I could list a whole pile more swear words relating to dubious or failed s/w developments around the government and corporates. And I cant say that I have ever met a senior CEO of these organisations who has been anything other than a fallible human. Then when you get to audit the policies, processes and procedures all becomes very obvious. Yes Corrections needs a bloody big boot, but as they say “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”..all guilty, put them away with the rapist.
Could the first part of the Oprah show yesterday on TV3 which was an interesting piece on city’s around the world. The first 20 mins was on Copenhagen and several interesting facts. Not sure if it can be found on TV3 on Demand or youtube but would be worth a look.
Income Tax 50%
Wealth gap closer togetter
free Health
Free (mostly) Education
Up to 12 months maternity leave, both men and women.
About 50% of population Cycle.
And several other different bits of information.
If i knew how, i would send Goober key a link.
What on earth did Peter smoke at Jeanette’s farewell party last night?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3313865/We-need-new-anthem-and-I-ll-write-it-says-Sharples
Madness of King George.
“What on earth did Peter smoke at Jeanette’s farewell party last night?”
There were people smoking?
can’t say I saw that, or for that matter Sharples
The Standard. Good reliable information in the graphs and reports that is most useful to some of us. Interesting opinons and views from the regular posters, but, is it just me or has moderation of some of the comments sections been a bit light recently-exhibit A- those featuring that whimp ‘Big Bruv’. It is not necessarily a barrel of fun running a blogsite which is why I don’t, so I am only making a suggestion here.
[lprent: The long-term objective (since early 2008) has been to get the commentators to moderate themselves to the local behaviour standards.
That is now generally the case, so the moderation has scaled back to the most nefarious cases. They tend towards get fast permanent bans (eg moon goddess yesterday, Klarkov, PT, etc) when they either do repeated stupid trolling, or sustained innocuous trolling, or in the case of Klarkov because he is a disgusting piece of crap that really needs some treatment.
We also occasionally give people cool-off bans when they overstep the bounds of what is permitted – usually for attacking authors at a personal level. Sometimes that is because both the moderators and the majority of the commentators are sick of seeing the same unproven assertions repeated too many times – and the irritation levels start rising.
And of course there is always IrishBill to add that crucial random element….. 😈
It is hard to believe, but I don’t think that big bruv has ever earned a ban here. He is annoying, inaccurate, and seems to equate slogans with thinking. However he stays within the policy of the site. He has (like redbaiter and others) banned himself a few times, leaving and vowing never to return. Of course that is a bit dangerous to do if you want to come back. You might find that a moderator will help you keep your resolution, as r0b assisted redbaiter on one occassion. ]
http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_sapolsky_the_uniqueness_of_humans.html
Perhaps some blogs are kept as a standard beyond which control is administered. The site has been refreshingly free of snippy pompous fatuous statements from certain people lately. Less lambasting everybody who doesn’t hold their self-righteous views and less dissing those who think and examine policies past and search for better future policies.
Operation titstorm in Australia has been interesting. They downed a couple of Aus government websites yesterday and are continuing today.
The Australian government like all governments has at best a tenuous connection to reality. One of the issues here is that they actually deny that females ejaculate and they want to crack down on small breasted women in pornography because they equate that with child pronography. Ridiculous.
Govt sites buckle as Operation Titstorm launches DDoS attack
I tried to ring 018 just before. I think the teacher unions are in hock to Big Business and have a cunning plan to drive down literacy standards so that when Kiwis can’t read, write, spell or speak correctly, we won’t know if we are talking to a NZ or 3rd world call centre.
Um, you were talking to a 3rd world call centre, grumpy. The 018 service is now based in the Phillipines.
@grumpy
A little racism never goes astray?
CIA Has Program to Assassinate U.S. Citizens
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has maintained an assassination list of U.S. citizens for the last eight year and has actually assassinated Americans, according to January 27 Washington Post story.
Replace the term “al-Qaeda” with “Communist” and we see its just the same old schtick politicians have used for the last 60 years to mask the real intentions of their industrialist puppet masters.
So far as the list of citizens that can be killed is concerned, the scary thing is the deliberately flexible definition of who qualifies for inclusion:
By this definition, the CIA itself would qualify.
Well, JK and NACT aren’t doing anything to create in the country but they are going to do stuff that will lower wages.
Why is it that the people who can’t lower their costs (mostly because their costs are increasing in line with inflation or, in the case of food, at a rate higher than inflation) are the ones that have to take the pay cuts?
Gareth Renowden dissects more climate change denial from Rodney Hide – http://sciblogs.co.nz/hot-topic/2010/02/10/the-annotated-rodney-hide-treating-parliament-with-contempt/
“How far can a Minister of the Crown go in misrepresenting the facts of a matter before he is guilty of misleading the House?”
And now a case in Hamilton where a multiple rape accused has his name released but not his ethnicity and appearance (which remain suppressed).
WTF is going on???
Whale will get onto it.
Yeah, Whale will get onto it alright. When he’s double bunking with the rapist he can ask him all about it.
We’ll see…
Nice wee campaign building in Britain to bring in a Tobin Tax. Bill Nighy features in a Richard Curtis promo, which explains the concept in a way even righties can understand.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/09/tobin-tax-nighy-curtis-film
Iprent – in the interests of my sanity, as fragile as it is, would you mind please taking your little friend under your wing and tucking him away in the creche so as to monitor his comments for adherence to policy – specifically, are the comments on topic, do they add anything to the general discourse, are they even remotely amusing etc etc etc . . . Please. Pretty please.
If that means me I’m going to try harder.
I comment on a post and get attacked so I retaliate I will not retaliate in future. Please can you do something about the abuse towards me. It is usually off-topic.
Alright troll, let’s start by seeing if you can resist replying to this comment.
Why would I get getting a pop up box saying: A user name and password are being requested by http://thestandard.org.nz. The site says: “Preview Site” ???
Sorry I expect that you got caught while I was shunting the caches around.
www3 is the preview of the new site. We’ve been running it side-by-side with the primary site during final testing so we can test the changes on the same database. I was fixing a couple errors.
But as you found out – www3 requires a login and password 😈
Should be OK now.
Still happening
Still happening to me too. Can’t get the spam image to come up – which I’ve solved by logging in for a change – but the edit function is no go.
Turned the cache off on the new site.
Ummm. What is going wrong – there is crossover going on that shouldn’t happen. Doesn’t on my home system
Finally fixed it. The config file had some new things that caused a problem.
Nope. Still happening to me every time I navigate to a page. If I press cancel on the password box twice I get to the page.
Still happening… When will this be over?
Probably when the new site goes online. Soonish.
It is pretty tricky running wordpress in a side-by-side mode.
Gonna be lonely here today with the anti-spam image not working 🙂
Turned the anti-spam off. It didn’t like the migration of the plugins directory. I’ll look at that tonight. Manual spam cleaning today