We need immigrants to work here cause Kiwi’s are either too stoned, lazy or sitting on the other side of the road begging while immigrant workers rebuild Christchurch (total misquote but the essence of Hides Bull feces NBR).
I call Bull shit cause once again we have yet another immigrant being exploited by a Kiwi company that won’t employ Kiwi’s – not because of pot, not because of lack of work ethic but cause $$$$.
Judge Inglis said this sort of case was all too common in New Zealand.
“The position Mr Domingo has found himself in is not unique.
“It is clear that it has taken a degree of personal endurance to pursue matters to this point.
“Mr Domingo said that he had felt like ‘giving up’ in terms of seeking compliance with the authority’s awards. These are observations which the Employment Court frequently hears in cases such as this.”
Bill will be here shortly to label you and RNZ xenophobic in due course.
How on earth is anyone allowed to justify importing low skilled labour here, permanent or temporary? Allow the wages to rise to a level that is sustainable for kiwis , expensive kiwi cost of living but international third world wages being payed.
[Mischaracterisation riding the back of smear…or is that the other way around? No matter – it’s really, really stupid to attack the site’s authors. One week ban.] – Bill
What a dreadful place this government has lead us to when it comes to housing. New Zealand now has the most unaffordable housing across a range of measures. New Zealand, once admired for the housing of its citizens, has a government which has watched over a division in society on housing which may never be repaired.
Across five different measures, New Zealand has come out on top of three of the five measures for the most expensive global housing market.
New Zealand has had the highest rise in house prices, costs the most against the average person’s income and now has the biggest difference between house prices and renting prices.
The Economist puts this trend down to “a growing horde of rich foreigners” coming to New Zealand because they see it as a “safe haven”.
High time ownership ( or an equitable interest) in a property in NZ gave you compulsory tax residence-(offshore group) in NZ and you are taxed on your worldwide tax income & assets against which you may offset any taxes paid as a tax resident – (onshore group).
That should tax care of the super problem & a few others too.
What a dreadful place this government has lead us to when it comes to housing.
This government like it that way because it means a few rich people can become even bigger bludgers. If we had equality then people may actually become independent of rich people and then the rich wouldn’t be able to bludge off of everyone else.
I’ve just been over to Frank Macskasy’s page to read his immigration article.
Now I know that John key didn’t take responsibility for anything but there is a picture montage there of newspaper headlines and it’s like “wow” I found the visual impact pretty strong.
Don’t know who owns it or who did it but felt it would make an excellent poster etc and deserves widespread distribution. One picture a thousand words.
and BTW not sure if it can be fixed -but when I click on the usual spot on the feed I normally get Frank’s picture not the article. I’m sure Frank’s good lookin’ but?
For sale: the $5m slum Steve Braunias wanders through the grim …
m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11815645
18 months ago I approached the head tenant of where I pay $250.00 per week for a run down shithole that has a lose tap, poor drainage /guttering issues , and a shower that does not drain properly.
It also has faulty wiring that has pooled at some stage and shorted( blown ) the ceiling light socket.
Several other wall sockets are faulty.
As a result of this weather bomb we are having – I found water pouring in from the wall in the bathroom/toilet area at about half way up the wall.
This pooled into the open plan area where the carpet now is .
I would estimate 1-2 cm’s or more in depth.
The place is a potential electrical deathtrap with water back- pooling in the walls.
I also note as a past painter and decorator the dilapidated paint job and the amateur attempts to fill all the punch holes in the walls and doors.
Two weeks ago I suffered my first heart attack and received a stent in a heart artery. I am still breathless and sometimes exhausted as a result. And I am furious.
It is obvious that the landlord has bought this property as a part of a cheap investment portfolio and intends to pay as little as possible ( nothing ) toward either its livability or its maintenance. It obviously has had NO money spent on bringing it up to standard . It would be around early 1980’s vintage.
Reading the above article in the NZ Herald today has made me feel almost vigilante towards this National govt that has enabled this type of criminal element to get away with this sort of blatant racketeering.
I will approach the head tenant and if he doesn’t grow some balls ASAP I will go to the Tenancy Tribunal on Monday , and force the issue. Another recourse is social media.
A message to both Bill English and Andrew Little.
To Bill English, – I AM NOT SOME ANIMAL OR DOG TO BE TREATED LIKE SHIT.
To Andrew Little. I believe you and Jacinda Adern have it in your power to do something about this sort of state of affairs that has been legitimized by this National govt up and down this country to so many of their fellow countrymen and women.
Stop standing at the gateway umming and ahhing. Get bold and do something.
You have EVERY moral right to do so.
Do that ?… and the people will carry you through the next election and on into govt for the years to come . And you will have the peoples MANDATE to rectify this viscous govts avarice and self serving agenda.
Do nothing?
Then you amply deserve the wrath and the cursing of the voters for your timid inaction.
The place is a potential electrical deathtrap with water back- pooling in the walls.
No, from what you’re saying, it is a death trap – and that’s without the water. The water increases the probability of death.
Reading the above article in the NZ Herald today has made me feel almost vigilante towards this National govt that has enabled this type of criminal element to get away with this sort of blatant racketeering.
This type of stuff has been building up for some time. Decades in fact as the rentiers have realised that being immoral arseholes that endanger peoples lives has no consequences.
The problem with National is that they’ll keep it that way.
The article neglected to mention the army of cockroaches that scuttle round the floors and up the walls at night. Refrigerators (privately owned and kept in tenants’ rooms to keep food safe) are soon invaded by the cockroaches. The place is a hell hole but is better than nothing. A few fortunate tenants have managed to escape and move into HNZ flats. Auckland needs far more flats for single people on low incomes but HNZ do not seem interested in this group.
Yes, I’m aware of that. However, that was recently, this has been going on for 18 months apparently. Thus, there was ample opportunity to move out beforehand.
Moreover, why move into such a dive in the first place?
To make room for my son to complete a certificate and so he could use the room I had to vacate when I was staying at my sisters and brother in- laws after relocating to Auckland to get a security job.
That’s why.
And as for moving into the dive?
Do you have your head up your arse as well?
It may be one step better than sleeping in a fucking car but not much bud.
And why the fucking hell should I have to give you my bloody life story online in full public just to educate a moron like you anyway?
Both your previous comments came across as accusatory. Like WK shouldn’t have rented there in the first place, and should have moved out. Like I said, it’s not hard to imagine circumstances where that’s not easy, or even possible.
Your comments are bizarre actually given there is a well known housing crisis going on.
I’ve lived in millionaires homes when I was younger and I’ve lived a year up in the mountains in the middle of winter in a stone shack outside of Queenstown when I was goldmining in the rivers with a pump , floating dredge and wet- suit and another year in a mountain tent .
Been self employed and owned a half mil dollar property of my own – then lost it all during 2008.
And I reckon I’ve lived more of a life than half these far right wing wannabe pseudo intellectual neo liberal fanatics who comment on this blog site .
And when I saw that article in the NZ Herald this morning , in light of whats been happening to so many New Zealander family’s having to sleep in cars and the like over the past few years – I thought ”FUCK IT !!”… Im going to say something.
Because now this govt and their neo liberal perversions have just got personal.
I’m fortunate that I’ve only got me to worry about.
But at least when you live in the boon docks in a tent or an old abandoned stone shack its free. And you can accept a primitive lifestyle.
But to get shafted and ripped off each and every bloody week just for the privilege of living in a shitty run down dogbox so some blighted little parasitic scum bag can live in comfort and climb up on your shoulders galls me to the bone.
And the fact that pricks like this are being enabled to do so by this shitty, do nothing , hands off incumbent non govt should fill every decent and honest bastard full of rage.
Oh, so you just wanted to make sure that WK didn’t move into a dangerous shelter just so they could bitch about it? 🙄
Your second sentence perfectly describes the point that you still seem to have managed to miss: if the housing system means that some people can only afford to live in dwellings that are hazardous to their health or have no dwelling whatsoever, then that system is broken. And people are trapped living in hovels.
No, I was trying to establish what the actual facts in this case are.
I wasn’t putting their story under a microscope. I merely asked two simple questions.
The point of this was to establish if fiscal constraints was/is the problem preventing WK from moving out.
I’ve seen a number of people complain about the state of their rented dwellings and advocating for a rental warrant while failing to consider that improvements to their dwellings would most likely lead to rent increases, thus forcing/pricing them out. Hence it’s not really the solution.
I find it completely fucked up. I find your faux concern fucked up. I find it nuts that you think the take-home message is “don’t complain, because things might end up worse-off for you if you do”. I find it fucked up that you think people would be anything other than forced to live in circumstances that make them concerned for their lives and feel like they’re treated like animals. I think it’s fucked up that you need to know every fucking detail in order to avoid facing the obvious reasons as to why someone even moved into a place in the first place. I think it’s fucked up that you believe that just one more detail might suddenly make it all WK’s fault and a completely avoidable and solvable situation.
“Actual facts”??? Do you think WK was misleading you in some way? For fuck’s sake.
I wasn’t implying not to complain, I was highlighting why a rental warrant isn’t the best solution.
In WK’s case, being impacted by a rent increase as a result is a potential outcome, it’s not my take-home message for not complaining, it’s merely the reality which comes back to our broken system. And it’s not a system I support. So it’s not my rationale that’s fucked up.
Wk could have moved into the place for numerous reasons, location being one. I didn’t require to know every fucking detail as you put it. In fact WK told me far more than I needed to know, but failed to tell me what I wanted to know.
I’m not blaming WK for their current predicament, just trying to better understand it And no, I don’t think WK was misleading me, however my questions were not answered, therefore we can only speculate on why WK initially moved in, hasn’t moved out and has put up with it for so long.
Moreover, considering what he’s put out there, my questions were reasonable and to be expected.
“To Andrew Little. I believe you and Jacinda Adern have it in your power to do something about this sort of state of affairs that has been legitimized by this National govt up and down this country to so many of their fellow countrymen and women.”
If they are elected into power, they will then have the power to do something.
WILD KATIPO as it is in the bathroom, you have rights.
Phone around find the most expensive plumber you can find. THE MOST Expensive. Then find a sparky in the same camp. Explain to them the situation – the bill goes to the landlord. If you are in Auckland, some of these trades people are only to happy to help.
Book them in to turn up in 24 hours, then inform the landlord what you have done on the ground of health and safety. And that in 24 hours this will be happening. As you will not let the property be damaged on your watch. Only a idiot landlord will not act at this point.
All perfectly legal. And compliant to the residential tenancy act.
This particular landlord would not pay the bill. He has been aware of the conditions for years and makes no effort to improve them. Wants the rent on time though. In Auckland plumbers don’t start the job until they are guaranteed payment.
That why I said try some of the expensive places, and tell them what is going on. You will be quietly surprised. They will get paid, as per the act – via the disputes tribunal and putting debt collectors on them. The big expensive outfits are the only option left, because they know the law, and will get their money.
Small places can’t afford to not get payed. Or fight to get their money. Hence why they won’t do the job.
You don think the govt has a role in safety compliance for housing? Wow.
WK already said what they’re going to do, despite having been seriously ill, did you even read the comment? Got any social conscience or intelligence at all?
And just what can the tenancy tribunal actually do?
Can it charge his landlord with attempted murder?
Can it even fine him?
Can it force him to refurbish the place to a liveable standard?
Or is it like many of these government entities that have been set up over the decades that people are supposed to complain to but have no teeth to force anything?
“I didn’t see the Tenancy Tribuna bit in his post/rant it was all a bit jumbled and hard to read.”
Nice try, but I managed it on a phone while unwell. I think more likely you just rushed through on your way to trolling.
“The point though is unless you raise issues with the appropriate authorities nothing will ever change,.”
Quite. When you have mass problems across the country, the governing party is the appropriate authority. Basically what you are saying is that all responsibility lies with the tenant, irrespective of their ability to go to the Tenancy Tribunal. In which case landlords are free to be as fuckwitted as they like until they caught by a private citizen. Nice.
“And this has been going on for at least 18 months, why hasn’t he been to the tenancy tribunal already.”
Landlords are running a business and selling a service, what they sell should be up to scratch.
The problem is at the moment, there’s a shortage of rentals, a rental WOF would probably remove at least 10% of the rental stock from the market as well as push up already over inflated rental prices.
Once we get the housing situation under control then introduce a rental WOF at the moment I think it will cause more harm than good.
Mouldy walls are covered by weather tightness and ventilation.
Cracked floorBoards? how big is the crack? you just need to duck down to any building supply and get some caulk, fixed for under $10.00
What sort of heating do you expect the landlord to cover?
“Mouldy walls are covered by weather tightness and ventilation.”
I’ve seen rooms that have mould that would pass a weather tight and ventilation test. Are you saying that it should be a weather tightness, ventilation, and mould check? Seems odd, I would put addressing mould as a separate category, especially given it’s potentially such a health risk.
“Cracked floorBoards? how big is the crack?”
Big enough to cause damage to your foot from the rough edge. My point was that you had excluded general repairs, or otherwise dangerous shit.
“What sort of heating do you expect the landlord to cover?”
Fixed heating. So a wood burner or heat pump or other form of electric heating that goes with the house (may as well ban gas on upgrades because of CC).
I’ve seen rooms that have mould that would pass a weather tight and ventilation test. Are you saying that it should be a weather tightness, ventilation, and mould check? Seems odd, I would put addressing mould as a separate category, especially given it’s potentially such a health risk.
What’s causing the mould?
If the walls or roof is leaking no amount of ventilation is going to make a difference, you’re going to have mould issues.
Anything else can be fixed with decent ventilation or educating the tenants.
Fixed heating. So a wood burner or heat pump or another form of electric heating that goes with the house.
To heat a whole house (100-150 m2) with heat pumps you’re looking at 10-15k
The’s the problem if you start to get too overzealous you reach a point where the landlord says fuck it, kicks out the tenants, sells up and there’s one less rental.
Previous occupiers not opening the bathroom window. So the ventilation and weathertightness would pass, but there is existing mould. Mould prevention isn’t the same as mould removal.
“The’s the problem if you start to get too overzealous you reach a point where the landlord says fuck it, kicks out the tenants, sells up and there’s one less rental.”
It’s only a problem if you think the housing market is more important than people’s health and wellbeing. The government can buy houses, get them up to scratch and add them to their HNZ managed rentals.
However I suspect that your point is based on the need to defend landlord profits rather than whether lots of landlords will really get out of the business. If a someone can’t install fixed heating in a house for far less than $15,000 they’re probably not competent to be a landlord.
Maybe the ideal solution would be to get the crap that needs doing up out of the rental / investor market and either demolished or sold off cheaply to first home buyers as a do-up.
This is how a lot of us got our foot on the property ladder in past generations but openings are limited now.
However I suspect that your point is based on the need to defend landlord profits rather than whether lots of landlords will really get out of the business. If a someone can’t install fixed heating in a house for far less than $15,000 they’re probably not competent to be a landlord.
If you’re installing fixed heating to a WOF standard and want to use heat pumps it will cost you 10-15k.
The only other form of electric heating you could use is resistance heating which is just your bar heaters so all you really need to do is provide a power point.
You could install a wood burner for 5k but a lot of tenants don’t want the hassle of having to chop wood also you’ll need a shed to store the wood.
“Maybe the ideal solution would be to get the crap that needs doing up out of the rental / investor market and either demolished or sold off cheaply to first home buyers as a do-up.
This is how a lot of us got our foot on the property ladder in past generations but openings are limited now.”
I think so too. The whole “landlords can’t afford it and will sell” line, apart from basically saying that some people should live in hovels, also misses the opportunity to sort this out once and for all and that it can be sorted out.
Imagine if we applied the same principle to a car WOF 🙄 People can’t afford to get the repairs done in their cars so we let’s not do a WOF system.
He is a past painter and decorator living by himself with a heart condition, probably aggravated by the stress of getting nowhere with the head tenant.
He has earned and deserves respect for the life he gave to his trade and the restraint and patience he has shown.
My guess is he hasn’t been to the Tenancy Tribunal because he is stoical and has the dignity and expectation of good faith in others to try to fix it by a personal approach to the head tenant.
ATM… just feeling a little bit like my blood pressures going through my head. The head tenants been out overnight, I’ll approach him when he returns. If he contacts the landlord and action is taken to avoid bringing in the Tribunal , well and good. If not , I’ll push the issue. Starting Monday. I should be fine by myself and thank you.
I live by myself but family is not too far away , so I’m fortunate.
Always was a tradie outdoors type worker , pretty physically strong but this heart business has been a real confidence knocker… so just a bit sort of weepy atm… Id like to say thank you for the moral support from both Draco and weka and yourself. Ive spoken enough about housing here before but now Im REALLY feeling part of it.
Take care matey! Three weeks isn’t very long to recover. Stress if a funny thing, sometimes it’s easier to do something stressful than do nothing about another stressor, but can you also take some time with this?
I’m wondering if there are pathways through the Tribunal process that mean its expedited on the grounds of health or danger.
I dunno , but atm Im taking a back seat and just going to relax… that head pounding feeling isn’t pleasant… so Ill kick back for the rest of the day ,get some sleep then have another go.
@ Wild Katipo … been following your sad situation through this blog. Makes for pretty shocking reading, that circumstances such as yours being allowed to prevail in NZ in the first place to decent Kiwis!
More publicity needs to be drawn to issues such as yours, with some serious scrutiny being done on your living conditions, along with the obscene profits gained from scurrilous landlords, preying on good people such as yourself in need of accommodation! From what you have written, your plight seems pretty appalling to say the least, sub human in fact! You and others like you need advocates to act on your behalf.
I wish you all the best in getting some positive action here. Take very good care of yourself my friend and look after that good heart of yours.
Cheers
Mary
You can not stop paying the rent, you will be evicted.
As it is a breach of the Tenancy act, you give an automatic win in any tribunal hearing to a land lord. NO matter the circumstances which drove you to not pay rent.
You have to pay rent, to even the worst scum sucking leech. Tenants have no power, no matter how reality shows try to tell the lie otherwise.
Ok but that was not my actual experience as a student when landlord made non consented additions and prevented us getting quite enjoyment of flat. But if your the expert I will go with that
It you go to the Tenancy Tribunal, then there is a risk of getting a retaliatory eviction. Plain and simple. If a landlord wants to get rid of you, he will find a way. Despite what landlords moan about, it is actually quite easy to evict a tenant.
Professor James Renwick has been in Northland this week to help raise funds for a climate change sculpture in Kerikeri by the artist Chris Booth.
Professor Renwick said that was increasingly the trend as the climate changes.
“Looking further afield California is a classic example. They’ve had years of severe drought and hardly any snow on the mountains.
“And now, this winter that is just gone, they’ve been absolutely pounded … the dams are bursting and all the rest of it.
“And that’s exactly the picture, you get long periods of severe drought and then when it starts to rain it really hammers down.
Can’t be a great week to be living in NZ’s north – whether it be people living in the open, on streets, in garages, in cars, or with families sharing to small a living space.
She cuts through all the BS that the redevelopment is benefiting local HNZ tenants.
Niki represents a community of people who feel that they have been shunted around as if they are of little consequence. They have stayed defiant because they can see through the rhetoric that the redevelopment of their neighbourhood is about helping the locals and doing up old houses. In fact, the redevelopment is benefitting wealthy developers and property investors who get to dally around with a small bit of social housing on the side so they can justify their land grab.
The plan to redevelop Tāmaki does not have the support of the very people it is supposed to be helping….
…
The National government did not just let the housing crisis happen. Their policy settings have designed the shortage of affordable, state, and social housing. Through its tax policy, this government has encouraged the use of houses for business investment instead of for living in as homes. This has helped put both rents and mortgages out of reach for too many people, in a way this country has not seen before. This is the housing crisis.
This reminds me of another National Party hypocrisy. Bolger’s support for the idea of social capital as somehow linked to the preservation of strong market incentives ie. vote National and you will be enabled to get ahead at the expense of the community.
“For Bolger (1998), social capital does not draw on “old fashioned, discredited socialism” but rather his conviction of the “strength, goodness and commonsense of communities”. He speaks of a change of emphasis from economic capital to social capital: recent economic reforms will preserve strong market incentives, now, apparently, all we need to develop a new approach to social policy which will empower communities to deal with the many social problems facing them.”
There is nothing I can say here…its simply a link to a very interesting point of view about the effects and reality of imprisonment. Though also interesting from a legal point of view, yet to be fully played out in the courts.
Elon Musk sets the cat among the pigeons with an open offer to South Australia for grid scale batteries to cover intermittency problems with South Australia’s high proportion of wind and solar generation. That’s a real in-your-face challenge to the fossil-heads in Canberra.
This role is in a team of proactive and positive staff who enjoy leveraging current and emerging technologies for mission outcomes. The team is a growth area for GCSB with a roadmap of interesting and diverse technical projects for the right applicant to enjoy. The GCSB offers a competitive salary, health insurance and flexible working hours. If you are interested in putting your technical skills towards keeping New Zealand safe and prosperous in an innovative and unconventional technical domain, this is the role you are looking for.
We are looking for someone with experience in Linux systems administration at the RHCSA level or equivalent and one or more of the following areas is required:
Virtualisation administration at the VCP/RHCVA level or equivalent.
Infrastructure provisioning tools such as Puppet, Chef or Ansible.
Network administration at the CCNA level or equivalent.
ICT systems design.
ICT systems security experience.
Not my kind of thing. I prefer to write code rather than running systems.
The only reason that I run this system is because of a favor asked long long ago by some people on the original crew, and because I can treat it as a semi interesting hobby rather than real work. I have always detested it when I have wound up doing the IT department’s work rather than development.
I suspect that whoever they are after is just a flunky to run some of their infrastructure rather than something I’d ever find interesting.
The wonderful Testers who find my bugs for me before the customers do. They are some of my favorite people.
And for the record, and because I have been known to indulge in it on the odd occassion, there was no irony at all on those statements.
Being able to test integrated systems systematically and repeatably is a skill that so few people lack that it rates for me as a talent. I can (and often do) write unit-tests and functional tests pr perform bench testing all day and never find some of the integration flaws and outright bugs these people do.
When you’re putting dozens of hardware and software units together in an integrated system over a wireless system, being able to work on flaws long enough to describe a reproducible condition is freaking hard. Yet some people (unlike me) can do it. That means that I can find and kill the damn thing.
Very interesting Iprent As a mech engineer computer technology to me is really mind blowing. especially the advancement in the design and draughting area’s. From drawing boards and slide rules and modern day 3D drawing programmes.
I have always admired you guys because as an engineer mechanical problems are easy to find. If it rattles, it is too loose, if it gets too hot it’s too tight and if it squeaks it needs a little lubricant. Dead easy not like you guys especially some of the ones I have met who have built programmes so all the mechanical bits work in the right sequence. In your game when you turn the switch on and nothing happens. you always seem to know where to look. without getting zapped or causing major problems, with no indication or signs of the problem.
weka, and your list is why this limited form of democracy is a sick joke.
Bugger the democrats, seriously they put up a hard right conservative, and we are suppose to think that is better?
Seriously trump is bad, but to be frightened to vote conservative is just as evil. This was, and is the whole issue, why vote for the lesser evil, when all you get served is evil? Demand better.
Gosh, I really hope that one day I will feel sufficiently privileged and disconnected from other humans that when it comes to the moment of actually voting, I can opt out of the unpalatable task of choosing the least bad realistic option for the future while adopting a sneering morally superior tone about my cop-out.
Your approach fucks over everybody affected by the appointment of Scott Pruitt to the EPA – ie everyone on this planet.
Your approach fucks over all the people suffering from the increase in hate in the US over the last six months.
Your approach fucks over … the list is very long.
My approach was to support Bernie all the way to the point where he no longer had any chance of winning the nomination. Then I swallowed hard and changed my support to the next least bad realistic alternative. Here in New Zealand, the Greens are the party likely to get into government that is least bad from my perspective. So my approach is I’ll support them, even though I have serious problems with some of their positions.
Who are you going to fuck over in September because no party with a chance of getting into Parliament in New Zealand is pure and moral enough for you?
And will he expect them to thank him for his exemplary display of moral purity? Will they – and it’s always ‘they’ or ‘them’, always someone else – willingly sacrifice their welfare and lives because he tells them it’s for a higher cause?
There’s a point where moral purity becomes sanctimony, and that is the vice of hypocrisy that accommodates other people’s suffering as a mark of one’s supposed virtue.
I’ve friends directly affected by Trump’s actions and they can certainly tell the difference between Clinton and Trump. For at least one friend of mine in the States, it’s no delicate discussion about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or whether its sinful to whistle on a Tuesday, it’s literally life and death for her with her health coverage disappearing and the spike in hate crimes against her community. She’s made it abundantly clear that she’d take great pleasure in making balloon animals with the intestines of people like Adam who refused to vote or wasted their vote on Stein because they wanted to strike a pose.
Yeah, I’ve just had my sister-in-law and niece visiting.
One of them works for a church in a Trump county. She’s got some really sad stories to tell, that have got a lot worse since November.
The other is a doctor whose last several positions were in Trump counties where there were severe opioid addiction problems. She’s currently doctoring in an impoverished area here in NZ, and has decided to lengthen her time here for several years beyond her original plans. Although the fact that she’s spending most of her time being a doctor instead of administering paperwork for insurance purposes has something to do with that.
Who is pure? I’ve never asked for purity, you seem obsessed by it rhinocrates, oddly enough. I’m asking for people to be moral, and act on it.
That aside did you miss that the Democrats lost everything, THEY LOST EVERYTHING! The house, the senate, and the presidency. So the Stein argument is a lie. Try watching somthing other MSNBC.
But sure live in lala land, where people who actually make moral choices are the enemy.
Yeah. Okay, that’s basically endorsing always putting others in charge. And those people that voters put in charge then determine what health policy or other social welfare policy will be brought forward, or not brought forward, or rolled back, or never discussed, based on their approach to and degree of accommodation towards capitalist markets.
Their rule is illegitimate – ie, they can’t justify it. And they always in representative democracies, in parliamentary systems, serve and never fundamentally question financial and business interests – interests that run on deliberate systems of trade and production and distribution that (in case you’ve missed it) have brought us screaming right on up to a cliff edge at a great rate of knots. (resources fucked, peoples’ lives fucked, the climate fucked, eco-systems fucked)
And yet still most advocate that we continue voting until the cows come home in some vain hope that there will one day be worthy leaders determined to do what is right. (There will an occasional exception that will serve to prove the rule, who will be swiftly stomped on and removed to the dead lands beyond the far fringes)
Not voting while seeking to develop parallel organsiational structures for society is entirely legitimate – and certainly more mature than just voting once every three, four or five years and going home ‘to the telly’ after the two minutes of participation as most people are apt to do.
And there are dozens of other legitimate routes of agency implied by those positions sketched out above.
But. How long now before we see the tired old mantra wheeled out? The one that claims that those who do not vote have no right to complain? Talk about defining politics and possibilities in the narrowest and most disempowering (not to mention downright dangerous) terms….
Allowing millions to be fucked over, often with fatal consequences, while knowing that it will happen as a consequence of your position is not a moral choice, it is a narcissistic one.
The people who suffer as a result will not thank you for sacrificing them.
That’s not living in lala land, la la land is a place where there are no consequences and hurt doesn’t matter. Living in reality means realising that there are more important things than keeping your hands lily white.
The opposition of voting versus joining a co-op is nonsensical – some of us can walk and chew gum at the same time.
It is also nonsensical to assume that if one ignores the state of the world as it is like a petulant child, it will magically go away and be replaced by exactly what you wish for. Power abhors a vacuum and if somehow representative democracy could be suddenly swept away, history has shown that what replaces it is usually much, much worse.
… and don’t presume to know what anybody does IRL away from a keyboard.
“… and don’t presume to know what anybody does IRL away from a keyboard.”
Ditto.
rhinocrates I’m not ignoring the world, as in the fact this was a hypothetical question, so I gave a answer to it.
You have point blankly refused to look at reality, the democrat’s have failed across the board. Why? They have failed, and you are ignoring it. It is becasue they are corrupt. That the whole so called establishment left in the USA have given up on working people, any chance you can see that?
Look I’ve got friends who will kill themselves when their health insurance runs out. That is reality, a harsh one. And you going to blame me, for a democratic party with no back bone, and no trust left with working people. You are going to have a go, becasue I say the system is broken. And say we should forget the ballot and fight for our rights. Well. It’s good to know where you stand.
Because here is the hypocrisy – If you buy into democracy, the right win, and they get to do what they want to do. People are going to suffer, that what happens in the system you are defending.
If you don’t get I’m fighting against evil, them you missing the point. and I can’t say too much more.
Adam, ‘fighting against evil’ is good, I don’t deny that you’re doing it, but you’ve become so obsessed with it as a Manichaean battle that you’ve ignored the collateral damage. If you are ‘good’, or label yourself as such, it does not necessarily follow that the consequences of what you do or fail to do are good.
I don’t give a toss about how virtuous you are. I care about the consequences of the kinds of actions or avoidance of action you promote. Right now I see people suffering because people who could have voted against Trump didn’t.
Trump’s win could have been prevented – a third of the electorate stayed at home, being too cool for school. There are direct consequences that were not part of the Democratic platform. Trump campaigned on anti-environmentalism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, homophobia, racism, misogyny and lo and behold, since his election, there has been a sharp rise in hate crimes that he inspired. These were not part of the Democratic Party campaign or policy.
Capitalism may be evil, but it is not the only evil in the world.
I agree that the Democratic party is corrupted, as are left parties worldwide that sold their souls to neoliberalism and called it the ‘centre’ (and don’t falsely assume that I’ve I’ve failed to see that – I’ve been very critical here about the state of the Labour Party). However, Sanders’ incursion at least showed that people aren’t chicken and changes were possible. In the aftermath they may get the kick up the arse that they need. One positive has been the spike in women now intending to run for office. Hopefully they will instigate change. Slowly, yes, but that’s life.
The left parties around the world are in a crisis of identity and integrity. In NZ at least we are able to cast protest votes for potential coalition partners or to at least get a voice in parliament. To hand a victory to the far right by saying they were always going to win is abdication and cowardice dressed up in sanctimony.
That is reality, a harsh one. And you going to blame me, for a democratic party with no back bone
With a disaster of this magnitude, there’s a lot of blame to go around and certainly plenty to spend on both. So what if you don’t get exactly what you want, completely and immediately? That’s no reason to throw your toys out of the cot; that’s a reason to work long and hard.
Two quotes from Voltaire: The perfect is the enemy of the good and The greatest crime is to do nothing because we can only do a little
My approach does not do any fornicating as you put it, it demands action. Not giving away sovereignty blindly to evil people.
You need to answer that question yourself, and you have, you are are willing to forsake morals for political power.
Yeah, not a choice I’m willing to make. Nor am I willing to stand aside, and let us keep falling into the abyss. Morality drives me to say, and act for the better world, not accept evil lithely.
Is it shocking to you that a stark evil is on display? Because you can help change that, and voting is only one part. I’d argue a very very small part, you can, and should do more. A lot more. Rather than get worked up by voting, which at the end of the day in a world dominated by corporations, is fast becoming the public illusion it always was. Try joining with others to improve your local community. Maybe sell your car, do some gardening, or join a Co-Op.
Nope. Voting people into positions of power whereby they could essentially ‘lord it over’ others fucked…well, much more than anything that’s just limited to Standing Rock.
Uh, Bill, there’s the minor matter of a thing called reality. Reality says we’re stuck with operating within the system we have now and for the foreseeable future.
Kidding ourselves that we can ignore or opt out of that simply cedes power to the nastier arseholes. Whereas engaging with reality at least gives us the chance to cede power to the not-quite-as-nasty arseholes that have at least a vague interest in our views and a chance of some overlap of vision for the future.
If that ugly reality of the system we have to work within ever changes, then we’ll have to make our decisions and take actions within that new framework. But it will still be in everyone’s interest to engage with it as it is, rather than pretending that opting out is a better choice.
Sheesh Andre, why don’t you just admit you are a conservative and give up.
Seriously if people thought and acted like you we would not have any democracy, we would not have a end to slavery, we would not have women participating, no rights, nothing, all we’d have is the right to bow our heads, and say “Yes MASSA”
Uh, Bill, there’s the minor matter of a thing called reality. Reality says …
Our current systems of governance persist precisely for as long as we lend them credence. And not a moment longer. They have no life of their own and there is no immutable reality or law of nature determining how we govern that means we have no option but acquiescence.
Actually, it might be better if there was. Thinking CC here and how we seem to imagine basic laws of physics can be ignored…
Anyway, where did anyone suggest we ignore or opt out of stuff related to governance?
I could vote. And I could simultaneously undermine some very basic assumptions and expectations attached to ‘from on high’ governance by dint of how I arrange my society with others. Or I could not vote.
Adam, slavery ended because people voted for a president that was against slavery, and was willing to go to war over it.
Women’s suffrage happened because people voted in legislators that supported it.
MMP happened because people voted for it.
The common factor in all these things? People voted for it, and won.
Yes, those votes were preceded by lots of hard work by activists that were subject to derision and worse in building the movement. And building the movement is essential. But voting for legislators sympathetic to the movement, or at least less hostile, is equally essential. At least until we move to a system that does away with the legislators.
Sorry about filling your replies tab, Bill. But as far as opting out of governance, in the case of an election like the recent US one, refusing to consider one of the two candidate with a chance of winning and instead going for an option with absolutely no chance, as adam apparently would have done had he been eligible, is effectively opting out.
One Two, all the history and evidence I’ve ever come across suggests that yes, slavery was a big part of what the US Civil War was about. But feel free to tell us what it was about in your alternative history. Probably best to start a fresh comment, though, rather than fill Bill’s replies tab.
Your approach fucks over everybody affected by the appointment of Scott Pruitt to the EPA – ie everyone on this planet.
Your approach fucks over all the people suffering from the increase in hate in the US over the last six months.
Your approach fucks over … the list is very long.
Fuck, yes. “I won’t vote for the lesser of two evils because I have morals” is why the USA is currently enjoying the dubious benefits of a descent into authoritarianism. If your morals involve assisting that process, it’s time to review your morals.
LOL, don’t ever stop Psycho Milt. Your muddled thinking is always good for a laugh.
[lprent: Translated loosely and almost sympathetically: I agree to disagree. ]
Does that mean you wouldn’t vote? Which in this case would be an affirmative for Tr*mp. I understand where you are coming from ethically, I’m just pointing out the pragmatics.
As we have had that choice for some time, and all it brings us is worse and worse people in politics. Pragmatics be damned, why support a steady slow crippling corruption?
So yeah I would not vote, and do what I normally do – get organised.
In our case New Zealand has great laws around Co-Operatives. Why are not people doing this more?
But to rely on the tired old political parties is beyond a sad joke. That is why I’m glad we have MMP, but even that has done far to little to improve the morality of our politicians, as this current government has put on display so often.
“But to rely on the tired old political parties is beyond a sad joke.”
Bill made similar commentary. Problem with that line is that it assumes that voting for the lesser evil (or in my case, the pragmatic choice), equates to relying on them.
Myself, I’ve been pretty up front that I think parliamentary politics is pretty much only good for holding the line while the real work gets done elsewhere. But I (and you) shouldn’t minimise it that much, because they still do some useful things, and that holding the line is the difference between super nasty and less nasty. You seem to believe we still have a choice for not nasty. In CC terms I think we are past that point. Which doesn’t mean we are without hope, but that whatever happens next it’s unlikely to be the revolution.
“In our case New Zealand has great laws around Co-Operatives. Why are not people doing this more?”
When people like yourself, Bill and me can’t work together, it’s probably not reasonable to expect others to who aren’t naturally interesting in that kind of co-operation.
Myself, I’ve been pretty up front that I think parliamentary politics is pretty much only good for holding the line
The status quo constraint,where real democratic contrarian debate is extinguished at all cost.
The illusion of democratic participation is well known,where the minority controls what is debated,where and when.
Galam (2004) for example showed in contrarian dynamics interesting properties arise.
“Applying our results to the European Union leads to the conclusion that it would be rather misleading to initiate large
public debates in most of the involved countries. Indeed, even starting from a huge initial majority of people in favor of the European Union, an open and free debate would lead to the creation of huge majority hostile to the European Union. This provides a strong ground to legitimize the on-going reluctance of most Europe an governments to hold referendum on associated issues.”
The full article is behind a paywall, but the abstract and your excerpt seem to suggest that “contrarian debate” is actually not democratic, as it changes the opinions of the populace rather than merely reporting them.
First point weka, I do work with Bill, mainly in picking his brain stuff. But as I’m a work locally type, and he is down the other end of the country, better to work the way we do.
As for working with you, I’d be happy to do that. I would not say I could not work with you.
What worries me, is so many here have got upset by a hypothetical question. Indeed a couple have gone into the realms of personal attack on a hypothetical not realising that we don’t actually live in the USA.
As I said and people have been deliberately obtuse about the NZ situation, and really don’t like being questioned on their morals.
I just don’t see the point in talking in circles with people who don’t want to listen to new ideas, or ideas which differ from theirs.
Amazon announced this week that it was launching Resistance Radio as a companion program for The Man in the High Castle, an alt-history drama loosely adapted from the Philip K. Dick novel. The pre-recorded radio program is basically a bunch of people talking about how the Third Reich is bad and does bad things. For some, they thought that applied to America’s current president (and/or they didn’t bother actually listening to it). In response, several irate opposers flocked to Amazon’s sponsored #ResistanceRadio hashtag to complain about the station’s “liberal agenda.”
Think about it, as one commenter puts it,
Trump supporter finds radio station talking about how terrible the Reich is, and how they should be opposed, and immediately starts defending the Nazi’s. What in the actual fuck?
Headlined AGAINST MERYL STREEP, the indictment declared, “Meryl Streep’s speechifying at the Golden Globes was the worst thing to happen since Trump’s election.” Hoo-kay.
3.9 Reserve Powers for NZ Council
3.9.1 NZ Council shall be authorised to suspend or cancel a leadership election in exceptional circumstances including, without limitation, the following:
• The death of a candidate;
• The calling of a General Election;
• Where NZ Council considers that the democratic integrity of the election process has been seriously undermined.
According to the Labour Party rules quoted above there does not need to be a leadership election when a general election has been called. This is understandable given that the process takes several weeks. Grant Robertson knows this. He has an opportunity to become leader by a simple majority vote in Caucus. If Labour keep polling badly and Chicken is behind Jacinda in preferred PM I’d predict he would make his move after June 23rd.That would be disastrous for Labour and given that Grant’s ambitions are insatiable he would put his own ambitions above those of Labour. You have been warned.
“Sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, the bill known as HR 1313 would allow for employers participating in “workplace wellness” programs to require their employees go through genetic testing, or risk taking a financial hit.”
Thanks to Private Eye for reminding us that post-truth politics existed in 1710. Back then, it was referred to as 'lying'. pic.twitter.com/KaAzDLAhyR— James Melville (@JamesMelville) March 10, 2017
Thanks to Private Eye for reminding us that post-truth politics existed in 1710. Back then, it was referred to as 'lying'. pic.twitter.com/KaAzDLAhyR
Looks like I might have to cut statcounter (one of our trackers) out of the site. It looks like they may be having some problems.
For a start, we’ve been getting some delays from statcounter over the last month not responding and slowing the page loads down. Something that is frigging irritating bearing in mind that only reason for having a visible tracker is to provide the Open Parachute ranking.
But I also just analyzed their tracking against the back end logs. That was because there was a major discrepancy between google analytics and their measurements. About 35k page views in February. It looks like google is right and statcounter close to 10% down.
I think that either a server dropped off or they started missing something like the mobiles.
But I’ve looked at what has been happening since, and there is still a significiant daily discrepancy between the three measures. Stat counter is down by several thousand page views per day.
There is always a variation on sessions because each tracking site uses different algorithms. Which is why sessions are pretty useless to measure on.
But the human page views have been generally conformant between trackers. There are variations on the page view counting, but that is mainly dependent on the timezone of measurement for a day and if the tracker is executed at the top of the page or at the end. Usually a variation of just a few hundred human page views over a week. Nothing visible anywhere on the statcounter site about a problem. In fact the site seems a bit dead. They have been happy to take our money each month.
That does kind of mean that there are getting to be a dearth of reliable trackers with a public face that something like Open Parachute can use. Sitemeter has completely screwed up several times in the past few years. There are a couple of others, but as each needs considerable testing before I can trust it on a high volume site. And I don’t have the time.
I’ll watch statcounter to the end of the month. If they continue to screw up then I’ll remove their drag on the site. Google analytics does a good job and is what I actually use for most analysis. I can take the money from statcounter and go and buy some services from them, or just look for a couple of paid plugins to enhance the site.
Several of us were having problems with statcounter slowing down page loading so we ended up installing a blocker suggested by BM (uBlock Origin). Dunno if that will cause a discrepancy between the different counters.
However it would have taken an awful lot of you to doing it to cause that level of discrepancy. It also doesn’t explain that whacking great pile of added page views on the 27th.
But yeah, statcounter has been a bit of a nuisance for speed lagging for a while now. Not as bad as sitemeter was before I got rid of it off the site years ago. I’d prefer to just use analytics which is very fast, non-intrusive and gives better stats as well. It is also pretty interesting watching it dodge blockers 🙂
However I decided a while ago that it was a good idea to leave a public track. It gives something for sites to aspire to 😈 What I should do is find out how to give some public access to the stats off that to Ken at Open Parachute. Analytics allows for specific logins to be able to access specific data. Maybe he’d leave off tormenting the flouridephobes for a while and code something to do that.
That report you linked to by AI has been well and truly debunked. They were quite literally making things up, but still, almost every major western outlet ran with uncritical “Oh My Gosh!” headlines for a day or two…mission accomplished.
Stormy Seas: Will Jacinda Ardern's Labour Government stand behind the revolutionary proposals contained in He Puapua – the 20-year plan devised by a government appointed working group to realise the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand?“GETTING AHEAD of the story” is one of the most ...
For several decades under Labour and National-led governments New Zealand has claimed to have an independent (and sometimes autonomous) foreign policy. This foreign policy independence is said to be gained by having a “principled but pragmatic” approach to international relations: principled when possible, pragmatic when necessary. More recently NZ foreign ...
This video produced in Seattle looks at the gender identity curriculum used in schools in the US. A thin veneer of pseudoscience is being used to indoctrinate children with an ideology based on scientific and medical inaccuracies. ...
For once, I have written my submission on a bill with enough time to spare to both enocurage any of you who wants to make a submission to do so as well, and to give you time to spot the typos in mine.Louisa Wall's Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate ...
Judith Collins’ National Party leadership is under more scrutiny, with increased talk in the media of her being replaced by brand new MP Christopher Luxon. For many commentators it’s just a question of “when” rather than “if” Collins is replaced. While others ponder whether Luxon really has what it takes ...
‘Tis the season for unearthing the rarest gems in Tolkien adaptation – which, considering that the fandom has been dominated by Peter Jackson for nigh on two decades, is a positively heart-warming development. It is why I have devoted so much blog space to the obscure and weirdly wonderful ...
Whatever the damage, especially to the British economy, Brexit has done us a service by illustrating the complexity of trade.Brexit is the only example we have of two closely integrated sophisticated economies severing trading ties. The European Union and Britain still do not have tariffs or import quotas between them ...
The Palmerston North City Council has voted for Māori wards: Palmerston North Māori will be guaranteed one or two seats on the city council from 2022, and this time, there is nothing opponents can do about it. The council decided by an 11-5 vote at its monthly meeting this ...
Kids are striking for the climate today, demanding a decent, liveable future. Meanwhile, the National Party, the reliable servant of the farm lobby and other polluting businesses, is calling for action to be delayed: National has written to Climate Change Minister James Shaw calling for him to extend the ...
Today tens of thousands of schoolkids have walked out of school to strike for a future free from climate change. And tens of thousands of older New Zealanders have joined them. Their demands are clear: eliminate fossil fuels, implement 100% renewable energy with a just transition, and support our Pacific ...
The Gods That Failed.We studied the dialecticRead the whole of ‘Capital’So we could follow youSo we could follow youHow we shoutedHow we scrawledPainted slogans on city wallsOn prison wallsProof we had followed youBut, we still didn’t find what we’re looking forAnd we still haven’t found what we’re looking forWhen they ...
Conventional Wisdom? The Republican Right is convinced that to “go woke” is to “go broke”. It simply does not believe sufficient Americans feel strongly enough about social justice to make any kind of boycott remotely effective. Clearly, the Boards of Directors of more and more American corporations disagree. RECENT MOVES by ...
On November 25, 2020 Skeptical Science Inc. became a registered nonprofit organization and on March 17, 2021 our application to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) status was approved. In this blog post, we’ll explain why we went down this path and what will come next. Since its ...
Blowing Hot And Cold: Mike Hosking’s bosses should, perhaps, ask themselves what message Newstalk-ZB (and NZME) is sending to the people of New Zealand if Mike Hosking, their self-appointed “People’s Prosecutor”, is accorded bragging rights for “cancelling” the democratically-elected Prime Minister of New Zealand. Especially when said Prime Minister’s only ...
Ali Boyle, University of CambridgeIf you ask people to list the most intelligent animals, they’ll name a few usual suspects. Chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants are often mentioned, as are crows, dogs and occasionally pigs. Horses don’t usually get a look in. So it might come as a surprise that ...
Selwyn Manning and I dedicated this week’s video podcast to the potential emergence of rival blocs within the transitional process involved in the move from a unipolar to a multipolar international system currently underway. However one characterises the phenomenon–autocracies versus democracies, East versus West, colonial versus post-colonial–the global order is ...
With the rediscovery of the lost Soviet Lord of the Rings, the time has come for the important things in life. Specifically, compiling the Tom Bombadil scenes from the three known screen adaptations that feature him: This is a collection of scenes from:– Sagan om Ringen (1971: ...
Back in February the Climate Change Commission recommended a ban on new coal-fired boilers, and a phase out of existing ones by 2037. And today, the government has said they will implement that policy, and backed it up with funding to help transition some of our large pollution sources: ...
Back in 2014, the police raided and searched journalist Nicky Hager's home over his book Dirty Politics, seizing his journalistic work in an effort to identify his sources to please their political masters in the National party. The raid - and much of the police's related investigative work - was ...
By Professor Tony Blakely, Dr Tim Wilson, Luke Thorburn and Professor Nathan Grills, University of MelbourneA new web tool, COVID-19 Pandemic Trade-offs, allows people to weigh the costs and benefits of different policy responses as Australia rolls out vaccines and considers opening borders.See here for an associated explanatory ...
This evening I was engaging in polite conversation (well, I was polite, anyway) on an RNZ Facebook post about – you guessed it! – the covid19 vaccination program. One of those present offered up a link to a blog post by Joseph Mercola to support a claim he was making ...
by Jordan Levi (Contributed) I don’t remember when I first came across the concept of gender identity, but it was definitely before Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce Jenner) came out as transgender because I’m sure that would’ve confused me way more if it was my first acquaintance with the phenomenon. The ...
The fact that the much vaunted “most advanced, richest Nation on the planet, ever”, that being America, ran into a brick wall in its responses to the problems across the world of late is because, at its heart, of the economic system that we’ve all been largely forced to ...
The EPA has commenced the 2021 “denewing” of new organisms. Their New Organisms team explain what this means, and ask you to put forward your proposals. The places we inhabit are shared with thousands of different kinds of organisms. They’re in the trees, flying in the sky, in our yoghurt, ...
As we roll out the COVID-19 vaccine across NZ there will inevitably be people who experience adverse events after getting their jab. Here are some super important things to keep in mind about adverse events following immunisation. Terminology – words matter Any event that is undesirable and follows administration of ...
Nature Climate Change celebrates 10 years of obfuscation The Nature Publishing Group is distinguished not only by what we're told (most of us must take somebody's word for it) are exceptionally high quality research publications but also by what some might term an outlier, extremist policy on locked-down content. In many ...
How can we stop the Ministry of Health censoring and sanitising vital mental health statistics to make themselves (and Ministers) look good? Legislate for annual reporting: Green Party mental health spokeswoman Chlöe Swarbrick says the Ministry of Health should be legally required to produce a wide range of mental ...
Here’s a few short interesting developments or discussions I’ve seen recently. Loosely bundled together in a theme of “values.” Irregular labour Is the private sector the best provider and facilitator of “gig work”? That’s challenged in a New Yorker profile of Wingham Rowan, an English social entrepreneur. For many years ...
In 1997 the Law Commission reviewed the OIA. In the process, they identified a problem: decisions to transfer a request could not be investigated by the Ombudsman under the Act. They also identified a workaround: transfer decisions by agencies subject to the Ombudsmen Act could be investigated under that Act, ...
The area of mental health has been a key strength for Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Government over the last few years. They campaigned strongly in 2017 on fixing up the dysfunctional system, and initially they made some vital strides forward in reforming the sector. An in-depth inquiry was instigated ...
By Jamie Stewart, Federated Mountain ClubsFederated Mountain Clubs (FMC), founded in 1931, represents 96 clubs, 22,000 members and 300,000 people that regularly recreate in the New Zealand backcountry. This article first appeared in the June 2020 issue of Backcountry magazine and is reproduced with permission. (Read the original article). ...
Stuff had an appalling story on Sunday about the Ministry of Health's attempts to hide unflattering mental health statistics and sanitise a regular report. The report came out last week, and showed a massive increase in the use of "seclusion", a practice which has been condemned by the UN Committee ...
Another unpleasant surprise at Tiwai Point: in addition to the declared stockpiles of toxic waste, they may have tens of thousands of tons secretly buried in the early 1990's to avoid the RMA: Investigators are looking into claims highly toxic waste has been buried in unmapped sites at Tiwai ...
This morning the government is deciding on the start-date for a trans-Tasman travel bubble. Note the way that that's phrased: the existence of such a bubble is taken as a given, and the only question is how to implement it. Obviously, we're going to have to re-open the borders eventually, ...
Qualified To Give - And Take - Advice: Most Labour MPs are self-conscious members of the meritocracy, meaning they have succeeded where the vast majority of their fellow citizens have failed. The primary political obligation, understood by all members of the First Labour Government, was to listen to the people. ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD A critical global shipping node – Egypt’s Suez Canal – was reopened on Monday, March 29, six days after being shut down when the 400-meter-long container ship Ever Given became lodged in the canal. A statement by the Suez ...
Red, red whines.That’s all you’ll hear.Not like those glory daysWhen we would cheer. Red, red whines.If it were up to us,We'd make a proper jobOf transforming the world. We would beMore than kind.Offer so much more than spin.Makes us sadWhen we findThere’s so much you won’t begin. Red, red whines.Now ...
Worlds Apart: According to the report of the British Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities: “family structure and social class had a bigger impact than race on how people’s lives turned out”. These are not the sort of findings that New Zealand fighters against "White Supremacy" and "Colonisation" are eager ...
Caitlin Clark, Colorado State UniversityWhether baked as chips into a cookie, melted into a sweet warm drink or molded into the shape of a smiling bunny, chocolate is one of the world’s most universally consumed foods. Even the biggest chocolate lovers, though, might not recognize what this ancient food ...
Since December 2020, I have been working my way through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s corpus of Sherlock Holmes stories, in order of publication. As of today I have managed to finish this adventure ...
Listing of articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 28, 2021 through Sat, Apr 3, 2021 The three apparently most popular posts on our Facebook page this week were John Cook's 23 Ways to Mislead (and how to spot them), Stanton Glantz' blog post ...
The Inward Journey: Indeed, this would appear to constitute the essence of the Gospel of Mary. That the teachings of the Christ are not to be read as a promise of victory over Death; but as an invitation to explore ever more fearlessly the manifold mysteries of Life.THE EASTER STORY is ...
It has never ceased to surprise me that those who profit at the expense of others are so unaware of the harm suffered by those they exploit, and are so convinced that they have a right to do the exploiting and that their profit is a proper and justifiable reward ...
The government’s recent housing package may work; will it do enough?Trick Question: Does New Zealand have a capital gains tax on housing? If you ask the Prime Minister she will say not. It is true that her government is increasing the scope of the ‘bright-line test’ on non-family homes to ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Kristen Pope Trees and other plants have been critical in helping to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. But newly published scientific findings suggest the clock may be running on vegetation’s forever continuing at the same carbon sink efficiency rate currently ...
Today is the goodest of Fridays. What better way to celebrate a day off work when everything is closed to honour one of the greatest minds ever to nestle his parliamentary buttocks one of those gigantic green seats in the debating chamber. Ladies and gentlement I give you… Mr David ...
Below, for those interested, I copy my submission on the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification (Urgent Interim Classification of Publications and Prevention of Online Harm) Amendment Bill.This is the government bill aiming to create a mandatory Internet filter. The bill is largely unnecessary, but in parts not as bad as people ...
Matt Parker, University of PortsmouthYou’ve probably heard that fish have a three-second memory, or that they’re incapable of feeling pain. Neither of these statements is true, but it’s telling that these misconceptions don’t crop up for other vertebrates. Perhaps it’s because fish appear so different from us. They don’t ...
So, corporate pillager Ron Brierley has plead guilty to possession of child pornography, and there are obvious calls for him to be stripped of his feudal honour (awarded in the 80's for services to his own banak balance). When faced with such calls in the past, the government has hidden ...
Rage, Rage, And The Crying Of The Right: Retributive populism is founded on the principle that the past was better than the present: and that unless there is a strong and unapologetic reassertion of the values and policies that dignified the past, then the nation’s steady decline will persist into ...
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It might just be me, but there are few things more exciting than the rediscovery of art previously thought lost. Even if it isn’t particularly great art, there is still the thrill of notching up a victory for human knowledge against the inevitable sands of time. There is a ...
Autotomy. There’s a word you don’t see every day – but those familiar with lizards may well have seen the result. For autotomy is the scientific name for what I suppose we could also call “self-amputation”: the process whereby an animal deliberately sheds a part of its body (a tail, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Ben Santer, and Richard Richels Governing from the White House by executive actions – whether by executive orders or variations thereon – has its pluses and minuses. Executive orders, for instance, can help get past rigid partisan opposition and ...
Massey's Cossacks: New Zealand's employer class didn't need the services of a Pinkerton Detective Agency – strike-breakers par excellence in the service of US industrial titans like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Not when the strapping sons of Waikato and Wairarapa cockies could be quietly trained and organised by ...
Gregory Moore, The University of MelbourneIt’s official: Australians endured the coldest, wettest summer in at least five years thanks to La Niña, a climate phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean. Before we knew it, autumn rolled in bringing more rain. Tragically, it led to widespread flooding across New South Wales, ...
by Orla Ní Chomhraí In 1946 George Orwell wrote: “Fifteen years ago, when one defended the freedom of the intellect, one had to defend it against Conservatives, against Catholics, and to some extent — for they were not of great importance in England — against Fascists. Today one has to ...
SATIRE by Remy Beethey/them, demigender, queer, white priv. In a stunning and brave turn the Court Theatre in Christchurch has decided to completely change how it casts plays. The awakening came when Christchurch’s Court Theatre got called out by queer activist, agender Rosemary Mitford-Taylor after casting a cis actor to play ...
The government shifts blame for its own failings onto landlords South Auckland councillor Efeso Collins remarked early this month that Jacinda Ardern had abandoned the collegiality of “the team of five million” and entered her “post-kindness phase” after she blamed South Aucklanders for sparking an unpopular week-long lockdown. Casting ...
Dr Leah Grout, Dr Jennifer Summers, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick WilsonWhile succeeding very well with its elimination strategy, NZ still does not have optimal border control. We find since July 2020 there have been 13 identified border failures and at least 6 internal MIQ facility ...
Small businesses are not only the heart of our economy – they’re also the heart of our communities. They provide important goods and services, as well as great employment opportunities. They know and love their locals. And after a tough year, they need our support! ...
Green Party spokesperson for Pacific Peoples Teanau Tuiono MP, supports the demand from Pasifika communities fighting for climate action as their homelands are more at risk in the Pacific region. ...
The Green Party supports the six demands for climate action put forward by School Strike for Climate NZ, who are striking across the country today. ...
The Ministry of Justice Māori victimisation report, released today, reinforces what we already know about the impact of systemic racism in Aotearoa and that urgent action is needed. ...
Ricardo Menéndez March’s Members Bill to ensure that disabled New Zealanders do not face discrimination for having a disability assist dog was today pulled from the biscuit tin to be debated in Parliament. ...
More than one million people will be better off from today, thanks to our Government’s changes to the minimum wage, main benefits and superannuation. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to do more for New Zealanders who continue to miss out, as main benefits are set to rise by less than $8 a week tomorrow, Thursday 1 April (at the start of the financial year). ...
Sunday 28th March 70 Rongomaiwahine descendants welcomed members of the Green Party’s Māori Caucus, Te Mātāwaka, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere and Teanau Tuiono, to discuss concerns about RocketLab’s operations on the Mahia Peninsula. ...
The new homes enabled through additional borrowing capacity for Kāinga Ora announced by Government today must have a Te Tiriti o Waitangi lens, having Māori take the lead in developing homes ...
The Construction Skills Action Plan has delivered early on its overall target of supporting an additional 4,000 people into construction-related education and employment, says Minister for Building and Construction Poto Williams. Since the Plan was launched in 2018, more than 9,300 people have taken up education or employment opportunities in ...
An innovative new Youth Justice residence designed in partnership with Māori will provide prevention, healing, and rehabilitation services for both young people and their whānau, Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Whakatakapokai is located in South Auckland and will provide care and support for up to 15 rangatahi remanded or ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today expressed New Zealand’s sorrow at the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. “Our thoughts are with Her Majesty The Queen at this profoundly sad time. On behalf of the New Zealand people and the Government, I would like to express ...
We, the Home Affairs, Interior, Security and Immigration Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (the ‘Five Countries’) met via video conference on 7/8 April 2021, just over a year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Guided by our shared ...
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni has today announced the opening of the first round of Ngā Puninga Toi ā-Ahurea me ngā Kaupapa Cultural Installations and Events. “Creating jobs and helping the arts sector rebuild and recover continues to be a key part of the Government’s COVID-19 response,” Carmel ...
Interim legislation that is already proving to keep people safer from drugs will be made permanent, Health Minister Andrew Little says. Research by Victoria University, on behalf of the Ministry of Health, shows that the Government’s decision in December to make it legal for drug-checking services to operate at festivals ...
Public consultation launched on ways to improve behaviour and reduce damage Tighter rules proposed for either camping vehicles or camping locations Increased penalties proposed, such as $1,000 fines or vehicle confiscation Rental companies may be required to collect fines from campers who hire vehicles Public feedback is sought on proposals ...
The Government is continuing to support Air New Zealand while aviation markets stabilise and the world moves towards more normal border operations. The Crown loan facility made available to Air New Zealand in March 2020 has been extended to a debt facility of up to $1.5 billion (an additional $600 ...
Christchurch’s Richmond suburb will soon have a new community hub, following the gifting of a red-zoned property by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to the Richmond Community Gardens Trust. The Minister for Land Information, Damien O’Connor said that LINZ, on behalf of the Crown, will gift a Vogel Street house ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the reopening of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ (MPP) Languages Funding in 2021 will make sure there is a future for Pacific languages. “Language is the key to the wellbeing for Pacific people. It affirms our identity as Pasifika and ...
It is a pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you Cameron for the introduction and thank you for ERANZ for also hosting this event. Last week in fact, we had one of the largest gatherings in our sector, Downstream 2021. I have heard from my officials that the discussion on ...
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods has today announced the 16 projects that will together get $3.9 million through the 2021 round of Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund, further strengthening the Government’s commitment to Māori knowledge in science and innovation. “We received 78 proposals - the highest ...
The Government is delivering on a key election commitment to tackle climate change, by banning new low and medium temperature coal-fired boilers and partnering with the private sector to help it transition away from fossil fuels. This is the first major announcement to follow the release of the Climate Commission’s ...
Six projects, collectively valued at over $70 million are delivering new schools, classrooms and refurbished buildings across Central Otago and are helping to ease the pressure of growing rolls in the area, says Education Minister Chris Hipkins. The National Education Growth Plan is making sure that sufficient capacity in the ...
Two more schools are now complete as part of the Christchurch Schools Rebuild Programme, with work about to get under way on another, says Education Minister Chris Hipkins. Te Ara Koropiko – West Spreydon School will welcome students to their new buildings for the start of Term 2. The newly ...
The Government is acting to ensure decisions on responding to the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic are informed by the best available scientific evidence and strategic public health advice. “New Zealand has worked towards an elimination strategy which has been successful in keeping our people safe and our economy ...
Six Māori scholars have been awarded Ngārimu VC and the 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial scholarships for 2021, Associate Education Minister and Ngārimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The prestigious Manakura Award was also presented for the first time since 2018. “These awards are a tribute to the heroes of the 28th ...
New Zealand’s aerospace industry is getting a boost through the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), to grow the capability of the sector and potentially lead to joint space missions, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods has announced. 12 New Zealand organisations have been chosen to work with world-leading experts at ...
The Government is backing more initiatives to boost New Zealand’s food and fibre sector workforce, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “The Government and the food and fibres sector have been working hard to fill critical workforce needs. We've committed to getting 10,000 more Kiwis into the sector over the ...
Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the Social Security (Subsequent Child Policy Removal) Amendment Bill in the House this evening. “Tonight’s first reading is another step on the way to removing excessive sanctions and obligations for people receiving a Main Benefit,” says ...
The Government has taken a significant step towards delivering on its commitment to improve the legislation around mental health as recommended by He Ara Oranga – the report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction, Health Minister Andrew Little says. The Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment ...
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has welcomed the Local Government (Rating of Whenua Māori) Amendment Bill passing its third reading today. “After nearly 100 years of a system that was not fit for Māori and did not reflect the partnership we have come to expect between Māori and the Crown, ...
New Zealand’s successful management of COVID means quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia will start on Monday 19 April, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the conditions for starting to open up quarantine free travel with Australia have ...
Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little welcomed ngā uri o Ngāti Hinerangi to Parliament today to witness the third reading of their Treaty settlement legislation, the Ngāti Hinerangi Claims Settlement Bill. “I want to acknowledge ngā uri o Ngāti Hinerangi and the Crown negotiations teams for working tirelessly ...
Minister of Police Poto Williams has announced the members of the Ministers Arms Advisory Group, established to ensure balanced advice to Government on firearms that is independent of Police. “The Ministers Arms Advisory Group is an important part of delivering on the Government’s commitment to ensure we maintain the balance ...
Kiri Allan, Minister of Conservation and Emergency Management will undertake a leave of absence while she undergoes medical treatment for cervical cancer, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “I consider Kiri not just a colleague, but a friend. This news has been devastating. But I also know that Kiri is ...
Excellent progress has been made at the new prison development at Waikeria, which will boost mental health services and improve rehabilitation opportunities for people in prison, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. Kelvin Davis was onsite at the new build to meet with staff and see the construction first-hand, following a ...
To reduce the trauma of road crashes caused by drug impaired drivers, an Independent Expert Panel on Drug Driving has proposed criminal limits and blood infringement thresholds for 25 impairing drugs, Minister of Police Poto Williams and Transport Minister Michael Wood announced today. The Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill ...
Temporary COVID-19 immigration powers will be extended to May 2023, providing continued flexibility to support migrants, manage the border, and help industries facing labour shortages, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi announced today. “Over the past year, we have had to make rapid decisions to vary visa conditions, extend expiry dates, and ...
Temporary COVID-19 immigration powers will be extended to May 2023, providing continued flexibility to support migrants, manage the border, and help industries facing labour shortages, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi announced today. “Over the past year, we have had to make rapid decisions to vary visa conditions, extend expiry dates, and ...
The Government is expanding its Pregnancy and Parenting Programme so more women and whānau can access specialist support to minimise harm from alcohol and other drugs, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “We know these supports help improve wellbeing and have helped to reduce addiction, reduced risk for children, and helped ...
*** Please check against delivery *** It’s an honour to be here in Rūātoki today, a rohe with such a proud and dynamic history of resilience, excellence and mana. Tūhoe moumou kai, moumou taonga, moumou tangata ki te pō. The Ahuwhenua Trophy competition is the legacy of a seed planted ...
The economic recovery from COVID-19 continues to be reflected in the Government’s books, which are again better than expected. The Crown accounts for the eight months to the end of February 2021 showed both OBEGAL and the operating balance remain better than forecast in the Half Year Economic and Fiscal ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson and Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash have welcomed confirmation New Zealand will host the opening ceremony and match, and one of the semi-finals, of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023. Grant Robertson says matches will be held in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin, ...
Changes to the minimum wage, main benefit levels and superannuation rates that come into force today will raise the incomes for around 1.4 million New Zealanders. “This Government is committed to raising the incomes for all New Zealanders as part of laying the foundations for a better future,” Minister for ...
The New Dunedin Hospital – Whakatuputupu has been approved for consideration under the fast track consenting legislation. The decision by Environment Minister David Parker signifies the importance of the project to the health of the people of Otago-Southland and to the economy of the region. “This project ticks all the ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood is getting Auckland light rail back on track with the announcement of an establishment unit to progress this important city-shaping project and engage with Aucklanders. Michael Wood said the previous process didn’t involve Aucklanders enough. ...
The Minister of Tourism is to re-open a government fund that supports councils to build infrastructure for visitors, with a specific focus on regions hardest hit by the loss of overseas tourists. “Round Five of the Tourism Infrastructure Fund will open for applications next month,” said Stuart Nash. It ...
A Governance Group of eight experts has been appointed to lead the next phase of work on a potential new public media entity, Minister for Broadcasting and Media Kris Faafoi announced today. “The Governance Group will oversee the development of a business case to consider the viability of a new ...
Minister for Māori Development Willie Jackson today helped launch a new fund to provide direct financial support for tamariki and rangatahi Māori throughout the South Island who is experiencing financial hardship and missing out on physical activity opportunities. “Through Te Kīwai Fund, we can offer more opportunities for Māori to ...
The current government needs to instigate far stricter controls on foreigners buying up New Zealand’s countryside says the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations as well as keeping the New Zealand public informed of the extent of outsiders buying ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Click here to subscribe to Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup and New Zealand Politics Daily. Today’s contentCovid: India travel ban Sandeep Singh (RNZ): Indian travel ban leaves Kiwis stateless Audrey ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alice Gorman, Associate Professor in Archaeology and Space Studies, Flinders University Sixty years ago, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in space when he completed his historic orbit of Earth on April 12, 1961. Out of respect for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University Among many surprising things about 2020 was how a novel coronavirus drove an equally novel upending of Australia’s political orthodoxy. The hackneyed election straightener, “it’s the economy, stupid”, got shoved aside for a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Last week’s Essential poll, conducted March 24-28 from a sample of 1,100, showed a striking difference by gender over approval of Scott Morrison. With men, Morrison’s approval since February ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Ha, Associate, Grattan Institute The big question facing Australia’s National Electricity Market is how to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 without disrupted energy supplies or skyrocketing prices. Some say coal-fired power will be needed. Others say 100% renewable electricity is the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Apisalome Movono, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, Massey University In the world of research and scholarship, being published in academic journals is crucial to both the advancement of knowledge and the careers of those involved. In particular, the peer review process that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Spears, Director: Wellbeing Research Group, Centre for Research in Education School of Education, University of South Australia In an online petition launched by Chanel Contos in February, thousands of women have now disclosed instances of sexual harrassment and assault when at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University In this series we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.The Chichu Art Museum is located on the tiny island of ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for April 12, bringing you the latest news throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nzThe Spinoff can’t exist without our members. If you want to help us stay curious and keep our team across New Zealand’s breaking stories, please donate today. 8.00am: ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Change looms in Samoa after knife-edge election, another border worker has tested positive for Covid-19, and dozens of organisations call for Misuse of Drugs Act to be scrapped.The balance of power could be shifting in an important country in our ...
Business & Investing: Fear levels are down and optimism up in the US markets, Plus: Kiwi cancer diagnostic company Pacific Edge boosted by approval from US insurer ...
Just because you don't have to know the origin of your food doesn't mean you shouldn’t. Veronica Rotman provides a guide on what decisions we can make at the supermarket to avoid harming the oceans. Fifty years ago, we understood the ocean to be an infinite bowl of sashimi and snapper. The ...
We devote much of this week to the Charlotte Grimshaw memoir that everyone is talking about. Today: an excerpt from The Mirror BookIt was those banal, mundane life events that changed everything for me. My marriage blew up, I found myself alone, and in the aftermath I lost some ...
One of the most capped Black Sticks players in history, Sam Charlton, is seeing her hockey career through fresh eyes. It wouldn’t have been a shock had Sam Charlton decided to wind up her Black Sticks career a few months ago. So much has happened in the 251-test defender’s life since the ...
The nationwide rallies of students and other New Zealanders are showing the Government there's a mandate for climate action and changing the strikers themselves. ...
Decision-makers faced with environmental issues now have an artificial intelligence tool to make the science more accessible than ever Jim McLeod first used aerial images to see what was happening in the bush in 1995. “You could probably make out a house on it, but nothing smaller,” said the Waikato Regional ...
“A flood of stories about the likely impacts of new interest deductibility rules has necessitated a new website to hear them all,” says ACT Housing spokesperson Brooke van Velden. “Labour’s interest deductibility changes represent a stealth ...
Watching from the other side of the Tasman as housing back home goes from bad to worse, Paul Davies has one thing to say to his fellow New Zealanders: where the bloody hell are ya?It’s impossible to ignore the headlines. They keep revolving but seldom evolving. Derelict houses selling for ...
Instagram was once a place for holiday snaps and influencers’ brunch pics. These days, accounts galore are dedicated to drug dealing – and they’re advertising to the masses.Dealing drugs online is not new. The dark web has been a hive of illicit content for years: hosting child pornography, as a ...
Pokémon Go it’s not. But from swirly success icons and live stats to a flashlight option, Andrew Chen explains what’s changed, and why.Lastweek, theMinistryofHealthreleased a newversionofthe NZ Covid Tracerapp. After a lotofpublicdebate and discussionin ...
The temporary halt on travel from India to New Zealand is unprecedented. But so is the state of Covid-19 in India, writes Siouxsie Wiles.As of yesterday, travellers from India are prohibited from entering Aotearoa New Zealand. The ban is temporary and due to be lifted at the end of April. ...
The spotlight on anti-Asian attacks in America is spilling over to New Zealand, and has highlighted the fact that such sentiments lurk beneath the surface here too The rise of Asian hate crimes is growing in America, with the White House introducing new measures to stop it. New Zealand may ...
Comment: The Government’s much-touted Kāinga Ora First Home Loan scheme is all-but-useless in many parts of the country because unrealistic house price caps mean buyers can’t find a house cheap enough to qualify. It’s nuts. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Household Finances, Grattan Institute The idea that young Australians should be able to dip into their super to help buy their first home keeps going round and round. The most recent iteration put forward by the Coalition’s Tim ...
This week MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi was invited to attend a community hui at Hurungaterangi Marae in Ngapuna, Rotorua - where locals spoke of the physical and psychological suffering they are experiencing, caused by faulty sewerage plant ...
Dunedin writer Victor resumes his Sunday odes to public figures. Today: Mike HoskingThe Hosky and Cindy Show I want you on my show. And then I do not. I’ve fired you again. You’ve had your shot. You cancelled yourself. You’re on the shelf. But now ...
Sex is life in acclaimed Waikato writer Tracey Slaughter’s latest short story collection. Of course it’s there in Slaughter’s stories about affairs. In those pieces sex thumps and pants and dominates, it goes so hard it knocks grit off the ceiling and onto the bed, it sets fire to a marriage, ...
Bathroom, kitchen, sitting room, bookshelves, friends, memories – Linda Burgess ponders the decluttering of life. Made possible thanks to the support of Creative New ZealandOriginal illustrations by Gary Venn Go to the second drawer down in your bathroom. Open it. In it are countless small bottles of shampoo and skin cream ...
Analysis by Bryce Edwards. Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Judith Collins’ National Party leadership is under more scrutiny, with increased talk in the media of her being replaced by brand new MP Christopher Luxon. For many commentators it’s just a question of “when” rather than “if” Collins is replaced. While ...
Kiwi Seafarers continue to feel shortchanged by the New Zealand Government. On the 1st of December 2020 the UN general Assembly called for all Seafarers to be designated as Key Workers . International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Kitack ...
Revelations that foreign affairs officials have approved the sale of military equipment to a host of human-rights-abusing countries, including Israel, is an outrage. In recent years foreign affairs has been dominated by trade priorities with concerns ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Quilty, Senior Staff Specialist, Alice Springs Hospital. Honorary, Australian National University A sizeable chunk of Northern Territory’s doctors are thinking about leaving the territory because of climate change, our new research shows. Our study, just published in The Lancet Planetary Health, ...
With the trans-Tasman bubble on the way, Auckland Airport has undertaken the unique challenge of splitting one airport into two. Matthew Scott went along to see what the parallel worlds look like. Birdsong is piped into an empty hallway. A message to nobody plays on the intercom. Luxury stores ...
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners is today marking the death of their patron, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Phillip had been patron of the College for 47 years, since he formally handed over ...
"People are walking up the hill, as we walk down, with their hands on their hips, their faces red, or looking directly at the path, not game enough to look up to see how far they’ve got to go": a portrait of a relationship set in a Dunedin landmark, by ...
It was with great sadness that I received notification from Buckingham Palace that His Royal Highness Prince Philip has died at Windsor Castle. The death of His Royal Highness is a great loss to Her Majesty the Queen, the members of the Royal Family ...
The Royal Commonwealth Society expresses its deepest condolences on the passing of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The Royal Commonwealth Society expresses its deepest sympathy and condolences to our Patron, Her Majesty ...
9 April 2021 Monarchy New Zealand today expresses its sadness at the passing of Queen of New Zealand’s consort, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip Prince Philip died aged 99. Prince Philip is the longest-serving consort in New Zealand’s history. ...
"On behalf of ACT, I would like to express sincere condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family. "Prince Philip will be remembered for his long dedication to public service. He has selflessly contributed to a long period of stability ...
Critic's Chair: Guy Somerset salutes Losing Alice, a compelling eight-part psychological thriller showing on Apple TV+ Who doesn’t like a compliment, a bit of flattery? But, unless you happen to be Donald J Trump, when the flattery spills over into sycophancy you tend to get suspicious. Alice Ginor (Ayelet Zurer) ...
WATCH: Silver Ferns shooter Monica Falkner talks about the pain of losing her dad, then fighting back from injury in part three of Pure As. Monica Falkner knows her dad, David, would have shed tears watching her finally play for the Silver Ferns against England last year - after five harrowing ...
Rampant house prices mean saving money for a deposit on a home is becoming increasingly fruitless. But just how long does it take in today’s market compared to a few years ago?Of all the essential and obscure pecuniary concepts that we learn throughout life, saving is one of those things ...
From the trauma of loss, Jean Sergent built a stage production that offers an invitation to others to embrace the radical possibility that things can get better.I’ve always been interested in death and dying – not the mechanics of it, but the social conditions. How death is prepared for, announced, ...
For almost three years, Onzo’s black and yellow fleet littered New Zealand’s streets with an accessible and affordable two-wheel option. Then it vanished, leaving behind a trail of angry and perplexed customers. Auckland’s first dockless bike-share scheme has disappeared in much the same way it first arrived – quietly, mysteriously and ...
Ardent disciple of mountain, valley, river and sky, Brian Turner is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated poets. Michelle Langstone travelled to his central Otago home to meet and hear the man who commands the language of the landscape.The landscape starts speaking to you from the turnoff on to the ...
George Driver heads to the end of the Earth to spend his birthday alone in New Zealand’s forgotten city.“Don’t go to Invercargill.”I’d spent most of my life a couple of hours’ drive from Invercargill. But every time I considered going I was confronted with this advice: “Don’t go, it’s not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Jeffrey, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Southern Cross University Trees are the Earth’s lungs – it’s well understood they drawdown and lock up vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But emerging research is showing trees can also emit methane, and it’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Last week, people were falling over themselves to get vaccination appointments and had to be told, by their doctors and their government, to be patient. Patience is still needed — indeed, more than ever — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A week ago, people were falling over themselves to get vaccination appointments and had to be told, by their doctors and their government, to be patient. Patience is still needed — indeed, more than ever ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, La Trobe University Last night, the federal government announced substantially revised plans for the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia. Due to concerns about the vaccine’s possible links to a rare blood-clotting disorder, and following advice from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Aigner, PhD candidate Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy, Australian National University On Saturday at the Adelaide Festival there will a public showing of Australian Atomic Confessions, a documentary I co-directed about the tragic and long-lasting effects of the atomic weapons testing ...
The Human Rights Commission is calling for more information on the justification behind the temporary suspension of travel from India. “Temporarily banning New Zealanders from returning home from India is a significant limitation on their freedom ...
The Chinese developers who caused an environmental disaster on an idyllic Fijian island have been found guilty on two counts of undertaking unauthorised developments in relation to a planned 370-bure resort and casino. The Suva Magistrates Court delivered its verdict against Freesoul Real Estate today, after the ruling date was pushed out twice with no ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of South Australia Australia’s vaccine rollout is in chaos. The news last night the AstraZeneca vaccine, the only one Australia has guaranteed supply of, would not be recommended for people under 50 due to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jan Golembiewski, Researcher, University of Technology Sydney The Royal Commission into Aged Care left organisations that provide housing for aged care wondering how they will put its recommendations into effect. Most of these recommendations relate to the models of care and levels ...
Our Beehive bulletin The Government’s ban on new low and medium temperature coal-fired boilers and partnering with the private sector to help it transition away from fossil fuels perhaps ranked as the most important Beehive announcement yesterday. It was the first major announcement to follow the release of the Climate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nikki Turner, Professor, University of Auckland From next week, unvaccinated staff working at managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities will be moved to low-risk jobs, following a case of a worker who missed vaccination appointments and then tested positive for COVID-19. The ...
The proposed Regulatory Standards Bill has been welcomed by Energy Resources Aotearoa as a useful tool in developing better public policy. The Bill was drawn from the members ballot at Parliament on Thursday. "This should help deliver better policy ...
Division and social discord has undermined Covid-19 responses in other western nations. We must do everything we can to prevent that taking seed here, writes Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman. The Ministry of Health has done a stellar job in keeping us all safe. I have no doubt that the latest ...
We need immigrants to work here cause Kiwi’s are either too stoned, lazy or sitting on the other side of the road begging while immigrant workers rebuild Christchurch (total misquote but the essence of Hides Bull feces NBR).
I call Bull shit cause once again we have yet another immigrant being exploited by a Kiwi company that won’t employ Kiwi’s – not because of pot, not because of lack of work ethic but cause $$$$.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/326339/food-company-fined-a-further-$11k-over-immigrant's-wages
Judge Inglis said this sort of case was all too common in New Zealand.
“The position Mr Domingo has found himself in is not unique.
“It is clear that it has taken a degree of personal endurance to pursue matters to this point.
“Mr Domingo said that he had felt like ‘giving up’ in terms of seeking compliance with the authority’s awards. These are observations which the Employment Court frequently hears in cases such as this.”
Our journey to the bottom continues
Bill will be here shortly to label you and RNZ xenophobic in due course.
How on earth is anyone allowed to justify importing low skilled labour here, permanent or temporary? Allow the wages to rise to a level that is sustainable for kiwis , expensive kiwi cost of living but international third world wages being payed.
[Mischaracterisation riding the back of smear…or is that the other way around? No matter – it’s really, really stupid to attack the site’s authors. One week ban.] – Bill
What a dreadful place this government has lead us to when it comes to housing. New Zealand now has the most unaffordable housing across a range of measures. New Zealand, once admired for the housing of its citizens, has a government which has watched over a division in society on housing which may never be repaired.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2017/03/new-zealand-housing-most-unaffordable-in-the-world-the-economist.html
High time ownership ( or an equitable interest) in a property in NZ gave you compulsory tax residence-(offshore group) in NZ and you are taxed on your worldwide tax income & assets against which you may offset any taxes paid as a tax resident – (onshore group).
That should tax care of the super problem & a few others too.
This government like it that way because it means a few rich people can become even bigger bludgers. If we had equality then people may actually become independent of rich people and then the rich wouldn’t be able to bludge off of everyone else.
Good thought’s – I think we should all do some serious bludging off the rich to get to the equality model.
I’ve just been over to Frank Macskasy’s page to read his immigration article.
Now I know that John key didn’t take responsibility for anything but there is a picture montage there of newspaper headlines and it’s like “wow” I found the visual impact pretty strong.
Don’t know who owns it or who did it but felt it would make an excellent poster etc and deserves widespread distribution. One picture a thousand words.
and BTW not sure if it can be fixed -but when I click on the usual spot on the feed I normally get Frank’s picture not the article. I’m sure Frank’s good lookin’ but?
Tenants pay $200-plus to share ‘slum’ with rats – Business – NZ Herald …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11815660
For sale: the $5m slum Steve Braunias wanders through the grim …
m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11815645
18 months ago I approached the head tenant of where I pay $250.00 per week for a run down shithole that has a lose tap, poor drainage /guttering issues , and a shower that does not drain properly.
It also has faulty wiring that has pooled at some stage and shorted( blown ) the ceiling light socket.
Several other wall sockets are faulty.
As a result of this weather bomb we are having – I found water pouring in from the wall in the bathroom/toilet area at about half way up the wall.
This pooled into the open plan area where the carpet now is .
I would estimate 1-2 cm’s or more in depth.
The place is a potential electrical deathtrap with water back- pooling in the walls.
I also note as a past painter and decorator the dilapidated paint job and the amateur attempts to fill all the punch holes in the walls and doors.
Two weeks ago I suffered my first heart attack and received a stent in a heart artery. I am still breathless and sometimes exhausted as a result. And I am furious.
It is obvious that the landlord has bought this property as a part of a cheap investment portfolio and intends to pay as little as possible ( nothing ) toward either its livability or its maintenance. It obviously has had NO money spent on bringing it up to standard . It would be around early 1980’s vintage.
Reading the above article in the NZ Herald today has made me feel almost vigilante towards this National govt that has enabled this type of criminal element to get away with this sort of blatant racketeering.
I will approach the head tenant and if he doesn’t grow some balls ASAP I will go to the Tenancy Tribunal on Monday , and force the issue. Another recourse is social media.
A message to both Bill English and Andrew Little.
To Bill English, – I AM NOT SOME ANIMAL OR DOG TO BE TREATED LIKE SHIT.
To Andrew Little. I believe you and Jacinda Adern have it in your power to do something about this sort of state of affairs that has been legitimized by this National govt up and down this country to so many of their fellow countrymen and women.
Stop standing at the gateway umming and ahhing. Get bold and do something.
You have EVERY moral right to do so.
Do that ?… and the people will carry you through the next election and on into govt for the years to come . And you will have the peoples MANDATE to rectify this viscous govts avarice and self serving agenda.
Do nothing?
Then you amply deserve the wrath and the cursing of the voters for your timid inaction.
No, from what you’re saying, it is a death trap – and that’s without the water. The water increases the probability of death.
This type of stuff has been building up for some time. Decades in fact as the rentiers have realised that being immoral arseholes that endanger peoples lives has no consequences.
The problem with National is that they’ll keep it that way.
The article neglected to mention the army of cockroaches that scuttle round the floors and up the walls at night. Refrigerators (privately owned and kept in tenants’ rooms to keep food safe) are soon invaded by the cockroaches. The place is a hell hole but is better than nothing. A few fortunate tenants have managed to escape and move into HNZ flats. Auckland needs far more flats for single people on low incomes but HNZ do not seem interested in this group.
@ WILD KATIPO
Here’s a thought, if the place is such a dive, why not move out?
They’ve just had a heart attack, the stress and effort of moving house is probably not a good idea.
But even if they hadn’t, I can think of plenty of circumstances that make moving hard.
Yes, I’m aware of that. However, that was recently, this has been going on for 18 months apparently. Thus, there was ample opportunity to move out beforehand.
Moreover, why move into such a dive in the first place?
To make room for my son to complete a certificate and so he could use the room I had to vacate when I was staying at my sisters and brother in- laws after relocating to Auckland to get a security job.
That’s why.
And as for moving into the dive?
Do you have your head up your arse as well?
It may be one step better than sleeping in a fucking car but not much bud.
And why the fucking hell should I have to give you my bloody life story online in full public just to educate a moron like you anyway?
I have no need to hear your life story, thanks.
I was merely trying to ascertain why you initially moved into such a dive and why you haven’t moved out?
People generally move into dives because they are far cheaper to rent. And rents tend to reflect the standard and location of the property.
Both your previous comments came across as accusatory. Like WK shouldn’t have rented there in the first place, and should have moved out. Like I said, it’s not hard to imagine circumstances where that’s not easy, or even possible.
Your comments are bizarre actually given there is a well known housing crisis going on.
We can all speculate on their situation. I was merely trying to ascertain the facts in this case. Nothing bizarre or accusatory about it.
WK – Do you mind if I put your original comment up as a guest post tomorrow?
Go for your life.
I’ve lived in millionaires homes when I was younger and I’ve lived a year up in the mountains in the middle of winter in a stone shack outside of Queenstown when I was goldmining in the rivers with a pump , floating dredge and wet- suit and another year in a mountain tent .
Been self employed and owned a half mil dollar property of my own – then lost it all during 2008.
And I reckon I’ve lived more of a life than half these far right wing wannabe pseudo intellectual neo liberal fanatics who comment on this blog site .
And when I saw that article in the NZ Herald this morning , in light of whats been happening to so many New Zealander family’s having to sleep in cars and the like over the past few years – I thought ”FUCK IT !!”… Im going to say something.
Because now this govt and their neo liberal perversions have just got personal.
I’m fortunate that I’ve only got me to worry about.
But at least when you live in the boon docks in a tent or an old abandoned stone shack its free. And you can accept a primitive lifestyle.
But to get shafted and ripped off each and every bloody week just for the privilege of living in a shitty run down dogbox so some blighted little parasitic scum bag can live in comfort and climb up on your shoulders galls me to the bone.
And the fact that pricks like this are being enabled to do so by this shitty, do nothing , hands off incumbent non govt should fill every decent and honest bastard full of rage.
But then we’d all need bloody stents. 🙁
Hope your luck turns for the better soon.
Already got mine. Keeps me alive.
An individual’s ability to choose is proportionate to their net worth.
That’s a rule that applies to far too many things in society, and you obviously have no idea just how fundamental it is.
I understand that. I was merely trying to establish if this was a factor in this case.
If WK moved into this flat because of fiscal constraints, having it repaired may result in a rent increase. Which may force/price WK out.
Oh, so you just wanted to make sure that WK didn’t move into a dangerous shelter just so they could bitch about it? 🙄
Your second sentence perfectly describes the point that you still seem to have managed to miss: if the housing system means that some people can only afford to live in dwellings that are hazardous to their health or have no dwelling whatsoever, then that system is broken. And people are trapped living in hovels.
“Your second sentence perfectly describes the point that you still seem to have managed to miss”
Not at all. I agree the current system is failing some.
So you were merely trying to establish that the system was failing WK, as opposed to what?
What benefit do you or anyone get putting WK’s story under a microscope? What’s your point?
No, I was trying to establish what the actual facts in this case are.
I wasn’t putting their story under a microscope. I merely asked two simple questions.
The point of this was to establish if fiscal constraints was/is the problem preventing WK from moving out.
I’ve seen a number of people complain about the state of their rented dwellings and advocating for a rental warrant while failing to consider that improvements to their dwellings would most likely lead to rent increases, thus forcing/pricing them out. Hence it’s not really the solution.
What the actual facts are? As opposed to what you’ve already been told?
Your concern about possible future increases in rent is touching /sarc
“What the actual facts are? As opposed to what you’ve already been told?”
Yes, that’s correct. WK didn’t divulge why they didn’t just move out.
“Your concern about possible future increases in rent is touching /sarc”
You may find it funny and something to mock, but it’s a potential reality, thus a genuine concern.
No, I don’t find it funny.
I find it completely fucked up. I find your faux concern fucked up. I find it nuts that you think the take-home message is “don’t complain, because things might end up worse-off for you if you do”. I find it fucked up that you think people would be anything other than forced to live in circumstances that make them concerned for their lives and feel like they’re treated like animals. I think it’s fucked up that you need to know every fucking detail in order to avoid facing the obvious reasons as to why someone even moved into a place in the first place. I think it’s fucked up that you believe that just one more detail might suddenly make it all WK’s fault and a completely avoidable and solvable situation.
“Actual facts”??? Do you think WK was misleading you in some way? For fuck’s sake.
Certainly doesn’t seem likely. In fact it simply seems likely.
Once again, my concern is genuine.
Clearly you’ve misunderstood my comment above.
I wasn’t implying not to complain, I was highlighting why a rental warrant isn’t the best solution.
In WK’s case, being impacted by a rent increase as a result is a potential outcome, it’s not my take-home message for not complaining, it’s merely the reality which comes back to our broken system. And it’s not a system I support. So it’s not my rationale that’s fucked up.
Wk could have moved into the place for numerous reasons, location being one. I didn’t require to know every fucking detail as you put it. In fact WK told me far more than I needed to know, but failed to tell me what I wanted to know.
I’m not blaming WK for their current predicament, just trying to better understand it And no, I don’t think WK was misleading me, however my questions were not answered, therefore we can only speculate on why WK initially moved in, hasn’t moved out and has put up with it for so long.
Moreover, considering what he’s put out there, my questions were reasonable and to be expected.
List three reasons that someone would stay for a year and a half in a shit-hole that puts them in fear of their health. Other than money.
“To Andrew Little. I believe you and Jacinda Adern have it in your power to do something about this sort of state of affairs that has been legitimized by this National govt up and down this country to so many of their fellow countrymen and women.”
If they are elected into power, they will then have the power to do something.
What do you want Little to do about it?
WILD KATIPO as it is in the bathroom, you have rights.
Phone around find the most expensive plumber you can find. THE MOST Expensive. Then find a sparky in the same camp. Explain to them the situation – the bill goes to the landlord. If you are in Auckland, some of these trades people are only to happy to help.
Book them in to turn up in 24 hours, then inform the landlord what you have done on the ground of health and safety. And that in 24 hours this will be happening. As you will not let the property be damaged on your watch. Only a idiot landlord will not act at this point.
All perfectly legal. And compliant to the residential tenancy act.
This particular landlord would not pay the bill. He has been aware of the conditions for years and makes no effort to improve them. Wants the rent on time though. In Auckland plumbers don’t start the job until they are guaranteed payment.
That why I said try some of the expensive places, and tell them what is going on. You will be quietly surprised. They will get paid, as per the act – via the disputes tribunal and putting debt collectors on them. The big expensive outfits are the only option left, because they know the law, and will get their money.
Small places can’t afford to not get payed. Or fight to get their money. Hence why they won’t do the job.
Hey WK.
If you need an assist in whatever you want to do I’d be happy to provide some.
As you may have noticed, I really don’t like lazy dipshits, and deficient and grasping landlords are high in that list.
Besides, we bearers of the stent could do to help our new brethren.
Emailing is in the contact page. Happy to make time.
it sounds like your landlord is breaking all sorts of rules, Unless YOU get off your arse and complain, though, nothing will change,
It’s up to YOU , not Bill English or anyone else.
https://tenancy.govt.nz/maintenance-and-inspections/
You don think the govt has a role in safety compliance for housing? Wow.
WK already said what they’re going to do, despite having been seriously ill, did you even read the comment? Got any social conscience or intelligence at all?
I didn’t see the Tenancy Tribuna bit in his post/rant it was all a bit jumbled and hard to read.
The point though is unless you raise issues with the appropriate authorities nothing will ever change,.
And this has been going on for at least 18 months, why hasn’t he been to the tenancy tribunal already.
Your snide flamebait reveals your character.
And just what can the tenancy tribunal actually do?
Can it charge his landlord with attempted murder?
Can it even fine him?
Can it force him to refurbish the place to a liveable standard?
Or is it like many of these government entities that have been set up over the decades that people are supposed to complain to but have no teeth to force anything?
“I didn’t see the Tenancy Tribuna bit in his post/rant it was all a bit jumbled and hard to read.”
Nice try, but I managed it on a phone while unwell. I think more likely you just rushed through on your way to trolling.
“The point though is unless you raise issues with the appropriate authorities nothing will ever change,.”
Quite. When you have mass problems across the country, the governing party is the appropriate authority. Basically what you are saying is that all responsibility lies with the tenant, irrespective of their ability to go to the Tenancy Tribunal. In which case landlords are free to be as fuckwitted as they like until they caught by a private citizen. Nice.
“And this has been going on for at least 18 months, why hasn’t he been to the tenancy tribunal already.”
Have you ever been to the Tribunal BM?
I’m actually all for a rental WOF.
Landlords are running a business and selling a service, what they sell should be up to scratch.
The problem is at the moment, there’s a shortage of rentals, a rental WOF would probably remove at least 10% of the rental stock from the market as well as push up already over inflated rental prices.
Once we get the housing situation under control then introduce a rental WOF at the moment I think it will cause more harm than good.
Ok, so not actually the fault of the person who just had a heart attack.
“Once we get the housing situation under control”
Oh good, you’re voting on the left this year then. Because National have admitted they don’t know what to do.
+1
Any rental WOF needs to be well designed and implemented though
I wasn’t much impressed by the one previously proposed
You mean the one that was already trialled? What was wrong with it?
From memory, it went too far beyond health and safety issues.
A.
Such as?
WOF should cover
– Electrics
– Water quality.
– Insulation ceilings/floor
– Weather tightness
– Waste water/toilets
– Locks
– Extraction fans kitchen/Bathroom
– Smoke alarms.
– Stairs and railings if multistory
Maybe heating.
Everything else is excessive
maybe heating, lol. You don’t live in the SI do you.
Ok, so cracks in the floorboards, mouldy walls, that sort of thing are not to be covered because that would be excessive?
Mouldy walls are covered by weather tightness and ventilation.
Cracked floorBoards? how big is the crack? you just need to duck down to any building supply and get some caulk, fixed for under $10.00
What sort of heating do you expect the landlord to cover?
“Mouldy walls are covered by weather tightness and ventilation.”
I’ve seen rooms that have mould that would pass a weather tight and ventilation test. Are you saying that it should be a weather tightness, ventilation, and mould check? Seems odd, I would put addressing mould as a separate category, especially given it’s potentially such a health risk.
“Cracked floorBoards? how big is the crack?”
Big enough to cause damage to your foot from the rough edge. My point was that you had excluded general repairs, or otherwise dangerous shit.
“What sort of heating do you expect the landlord to cover?”
Fixed heating. So a wood burner or heat pump or other form of electric heating that goes with the house (may as well ban gas on upgrades because of CC).
I’ve seen rooms that have mould that would pass a weather tight and ventilation test. Are you saying that it should be a weather tightness, ventilation, and mould check? Seems odd, I would put addressing mould as a separate category, especially given it’s potentially such a health risk.
What’s causing the mould?
If the walls or roof is leaking no amount of ventilation is going to make a difference, you’re going to have mould issues.
Anything else can be fixed with decent ventilation or educating the tenants.
Fixed heating. So a wood burner or heat pump or another form of electric heating that goes with the house.
To heat a whole house (100-150 m2) with heat pumps you’re looking at 10-15k
The’s the problem if you start to get too overzealous you reach a point where the landlord says fuck it, kicks out the tenants, sells up and there’s one less rental.
Previous occupiers not opening the bathroom window. So the ventilation and weathertightness would pass, but there is existing mould. Mould prevention isn’t the same as mould removal.
“The’s the problem if you start to get too overzealous you reach a point where the landlord says fuck it, kicks out the tenants, sells up and there’s one less rental.”
It’s only a problem if you think the housing market is more important than people’s health and wellbeing. The government can buy houses, get them up to scratch and add them to their HNZ managed rentals.
However I suspect that your point is based on the need to defend landlord profits rather than whether lots of landlords will really get out of the business. If a someone can’t install fixed heating in a house for far less than $15,000 they’re probably not competent to be a landlord.
Maybe the ideal solution would be to get the crap that needs doing up out of the rental / investor market and either demolished or sold off cheaply to first home buyers as a do-up.
This is how a lot of us got our foot on the property ladder in past generations but openings are limited now.
However I suspect that your point is based on the need to defend landlord profits rather than whether lots of landlords will really get out of the business. If a someone can’t install fixed heating in a house for far less than $15,000 they’re probably not competent to be a landlord.
If you’re installing fixed heating to a WOF standard and want to use heat pumps it will cost you 10-15k.
The only other form of electric heating you could use is resistance heating which is just your bar heaters so all you really need to do is provide a power point.
You could install a wood burner for 5k but a lot of tenants don’t want the hassle of having to chop wood also you’ll need a shed to store the wood.
“If you’re installing fixed heating to a WOF standard and want to use heat pumps it will cost you 10-15k.”
What’s the standard?
“You could install a wood burner for 5k but a lot of tenants don’t want the hassle of having to chop wood also you’ll need a shed to store the wood”
Most firewood merchants cut wood to size now, no need for chopping. I’ve stored firewood under a tarp many times.
“Maybe the ideal solution would be to get the crap that needs doing up out of the rental / investor market and either demolished or sold off cheaply to first home buyers as a do-up.
This is how a lot of us got our foot on the property ladder in past generations but openings are limited now.”
I think so too. The whole “landlords can’t afford it and will sell” line, apart from basically saying that some people should live in hovels, also misses the opportunity to sort this out once and for all and that it can be sorted out.
Imagine if we applied the same principle to a car WOF 🙄 People can’t afford to get the repairs done in their cars so we let’s not do a WOF system.
Crook today Weka? Sympathies
He is a past painter and decorator living by himself with a heart condition, probably aggravated by the stress of getting nowhere with the head tenant.
He has earned and deserves respect for the life he gave to his trade and the restraint and patience he has shown.
My guess is he hasn’t been to the Tenancy Tribunal because he is stoical and has the dignity and expectation of good faith in others to try to fix it by a personal approach to the head tenant.
And once he goes to the Tenancy Tribunal he’ll be kicked out for some trumped up reason or other. Boarders don’t have many rights.
it sounds like your landlord is breaking all sorts of rules,
That’s right. He is.
And has been enabled by the same sort greedy governance that created the exploitative housing crisis in the first place.
Is there a WARRANT OF FITNESS for New Zealand housing ?
No.
Have I gotten ‘OFF MY BACKSIDE ‘ ?
Yes. I have mentioned this 18 months ago.
Is the accommodation dangerous?
Yes.
Should I have had to ‘ GET OFF MY BACKSIDE’ in the first place?
No.
If there were adequate laws and safety standards in place in this country governing rental accommodation – this should never have had to happen.
And do I have current health issues that might prevent me form ‘ GETTING OFF MY BACKSIDE’ and being Mr Fucking Action Man ?
Yes.
Especially if you regard a heart attack and hospitalization two weeks ago as a health issue.
So stick it up your arse BM , you odious bastard.
Im in no mood for ignorant pricks like you just currently.
+111
+1000 WK
BM takes the dickhead of the day award, and so early in the morning.
Katipo
Do you need help from someone on here in your approach to the Tenancy Tribunal?
A.
ATM… just feeling a little bit like my blood pressures going through my head. The head tenants been out overnight, I’ll approach him when he returns. If he contacts the landlord and action is taken to avoid bringing in the Tribunal , well and good. If not , I’ll push the issue. Starting Monday. I should be fine by myself and thank you.
I live by myself but family is not too far away , so I’m fortunate.
Always was a tradie outdoors type worker , pretty physically strong but this heart business has been a real confidence knocker… so just a bit sort of weepy atm… Id like to say thank you for the moral support from both Draco and weka and yourself. Ive spoken enough about housing here before but now Im REALLY feeling part of it.
So ironic L0L !
Cheers people
🙂
Take care matey! Three weeks isn’t very long to recover. Stress if a funny thing, sometimes it’s easier to do something stressful than do nothing about another stressor, but can you also take some time with this?
I’m wondering if there are pathways through the Tribunal process that mean its expedited on the grounds of health or danger.
I dunno , but atm Im taking a back seat and just going to relax… that head pounding feeling isn’t pleasant… so Ill kick back for the rest of the day ,get some sleep then have another go.
cheers.
Sorry to read this. Wishing you a good recovery.
@ Wild Katipo … been following your sad situation through this blog. Makes for pretty shocking reading, that circumstances such as yours being allowed to prevail in NZ in the first place to decent Kiwis!
More publicity needs to be drawn to issues such as yours, with some serious scrutiny being done on your living conditions, along with the obscene profits gained from scurrilous landlords, preying on good people such as yourself in need of accommodation! From what you have written, your plight seems pretty appalling to say the least, sub human in fact! You and others like you need advocates to act on your behalf.
I wish you all the best in getting some positive action here. Take very good care of yourself my friend and look after that good heart of yours.
Cheers
Mary
well said.
so very well said.
Sorry to hear your plight
If your not getting what your paying for stop paying your rent or partial pay , let him do all the work re getting you to tenancy tribunal
Red, stop offering advise that breaks the law.
You can not stop paying the rent, you will be evicted.
As it is a breach of the Tenancy act, you give an automatic win in any tribunal hearing to a land lord. NO matter the circumstances which drove you to not pay rent.
You have to pay rent, to even the worst scum sucking leech. Tenants have no power, no matter how reality shows try to tell the lie otherwise.
Ok but that was not my actual experience as a student when landlord made non consented additions and prevented us getting quite enjoyment of flat. But if your the expert I will go with that
How long ago were you a student? The law has changed. You can read the act and regulation if you like, but this is a better explanation.
https://tenancy.govt.nz/starting-a-tenancy/new-to-tenancy/key-rights-and-responsibilities/
It you go to the Tenancy Tribunal, then there is a risk of getting a retaliatory eviction. Plain and simple. If a landlord wants to get rid of you, he will find a way. Despite what landlords moan about, it is actually quite easy to evict a tenant.
On RNZ website: “Northern storm due in part to climate change – professor”
Can’t be a great week to be living in NZ’s north – whether it be people living in the open, on streets, in garages, in cars, or with families sharing to small a living space.
Marama Davidson on the privatisation of state housing in Glen Innes:
She cuts through all the BS that the redevelopment is benefiting local HNZ tenants.
This reminds me of another National Party hypocrisy. Bolger’s support for the idea of social capital as somehow linked to the preservation of strong market incentives ie. vote National and you will be enabled to get ahead at the expense of the community.
“For Bolger (1998), social capital does not draw on “old fashioned, discredited socialism” but rather his conviction of the “strength, goodness and commonsense of communities”. He speaks of a change of emphasis from economic capital to social capital: recent economic reforms will preserve strong market incentives, now, apparently, all we need to develop a new approach to social policy which will empower communities to deal with the many social problems facing them.”
http://www.amat.org.nz/Neoliberalism.pdf
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/90189659/witness-jailed-for-refusing-to-answer-questions-gets-new-insights-in-prison
There is nothing I can say here…its simply a link to a very interesting point of view about the effects and reality of imprisonment. Though also interesting from a legal point of view, yet to be fully played out in the courts.
Elon Musk sets the cat among the pigeons with an open offer to South Australia for grid scale batteries to cover intermittency problems with South Australia’s high proportion of wind and solar generation. That’s a real in-your-face challenge to the fossil-heads in Canberra.
https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/03/elon-musk-on-batteries-for-australia-installed-in-100-days-or-it-is-free/
I’m curious as to what the named IT tools are in this advert for a Linux admin person at NZ’s 5Eyes operation (applications close 31 March 2017):
What about it Lpent.
Could be interesting.
Not my kind of thing. I prefer to write code rather than running systems.
The only reason that I run this system is because of a favor asked long long ago by some people on the original crew, and because I can treat it as a semi interesting hobby rather than real work. I have always detested it when I have wound up doing the IT department’s work rather than development.
I suspect that whoever they are after is just a flunky to run some of their infrastructure rather than something I’d ever find interesting.
It is a generic role listing for an administrator/systems/network engineer
The tools listed are ‘out of the box’, and the level indicated for the role would be lower intermediate to intermediate
Face value
Indeed. I find it bad enough running a vSphere cluster for the testing crew. And at least I have skin in that. They’re often testing my code.
Thanks, Lynn and One Two.
They’re often testing my code.
You mean intermediate level admin people at your work? Not GCSB admin people?
Nope – definitely not. Nor the IT people.
The wonderful Testers who find my bugs for me before the customers do. They are some of my favorite people.
And for the record, and because I have been known to indulge in it on the odd occassion, there was no irony at all on those statements.
Being able to test integrated systems systematically and repeatably is a skill that so few people lack that it rates for me as a talent. I can (and often do) write unit-tests and functional tests pr perform bench testing all day and never find some of the integration flaws and outright bugs these people do.
When you’re putting dozens of hardware and software units together in an integrated system over a wireless system, being able to work on flaws long enough to describe a reproducible condition is freaking hard. Yet some people (unlike me) can do it. That means that I can find and kill the damn thing.
Very interesting Iprent As a mech engineer computer technology to me is really mind blowing. especially the advancement in the design and draughting area’s. From drawing boards and slide rules and modern day 3D drawing programmes.
I have always admired you guys because as an engineer mechanical problems are easy to find. If it rattles, it is too loose, if it gets too hot it’s too tight and if it squeaks it needs a little lubricant. Dead easy not like you guys especially some of the ones I have met who have built programmes so all the mechanical bits work in the right sequence. In your game when you turn the switch on and nothing happens. you always seem to know where to look. without getting zapped or causing major problems, with no indication or signs of the problem.
Amazon bestsellers list,led by Reasons To Vote For Democrats: A Comprehensive Guide
https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/ref=sv_b_2
Someone should sell stamps and stamping pads with various words that people can print into the book themselves. Old school, but retro, very trendy.
Fascism
Tr*mp
President Bannon
weka, and your list is why this limited form of democracy is a sick joke.
Bugger the democrats, seriously they put up a hard right conservative, and we are suppose to think that is better?
Seriously trump is bad, but to be frightened to vote conservative is just as evil. This was, and is the whole issue, why vote for the lesser evil, when all you get served is evil? Demand better.
Of course.
If the election were to be held over, and you had a vote, and the choice was Tr*mp and co, or Clinton, who would you vote for?
I don’t vote for evil.
To vote for evil, is morally bankrupt.
h.r.c and trump are both evil, different faces of it, but both are equally lacking in a moral compass, and a innate sense of goodness.
It’s like asking someone if they want their leg cut off at the knee, or at the hip, it is just degrees of nasty.
Gosh, I really hope that one day I will feel sufficiently privileged and disconnected from other humans that when it comes to the moment of actually voting, I can opt out of the unpalatable task of choosing the least bad realistic option for the future while adopting a sneering morally superior tone about my cop-out.
You could try morals Andre. It’s not about sneering, it’s about demanding better.
I’d point out your approach got us to trump.
Your approach fucks over the Standing Rock tribe.
Your approach fucks over everybody affected by the appointment of Scott Pruitt to the EPA – ie everyone on this planet.
Your approach fucks over all the people suffering from the increase in hate in the US over the last six months.
Your approach fucks over … the list is very long.
My approach was to support Bernie all the way to the point where he no longer had any chance of winning the nomination. Then I swallowed hard and changed my support to the next least bad realistic alternative. Here in New Zealand, the Greens are the party likely to get into government that is least bad from my perspective. So my approach is I’ll support them, even though I have serious problems with some of their positions.
Who are you going to fuck over in September because no party with a chance of getting into Parliament in New Zealand is pure and moral enough for you?
And will he expect them to thank him for his exemplary display of moral purity? Will they – and it’s always ‘they’ or ‘them’, always someone else – willingly sacrifice their welfare and lives because he tells them it’s for a higher cause?
There’s a point where moral purity becomes sanctimony, and that is the vice of hypocrisy that accommodates other people’s suffering as a mark of one’s supposed virtue.
I’ve friends directly affected by Trump’s actions and they can certainly tell the difference between Clinton and Trump. For at least one friend of mine in the States, it’s no delicate discussion about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or whether its sinful to whistle on a Tuesday, it’s literally life and death for her with her health coverage disappearing and the spike in hate crimes against her community. She’s made it abundantly clear that she’d take great pleasure in making balloon animals with the intestines of people like Adam who refused to vote or wasted their vote on Stein because they wanted to strike a pose.
Yeah, I’ve just had my sister-in-law and niece visiting.
One of them works for a church in a Trump county. She’s got some really sad stories to tell, that have got a lot worse since November.
The other is a doctor whose last several positions were in Trump counties where there were severe opioid addiction problems. She’s currently doctoring in an impoverished area here in NZ, and has decided to lengthen her time here for several years beyond her original plans. Although the fact that she’s spending most of her time being a doctor instead of administering paperwork for insurance purposes has something to do with that.
Who is pure? I’ve never asked for purity, you seem obsessed by it rhinocrates, oddly enough. I’m asking for people to be moral, and act on it.
That aside did you miss that the Democrats lost everything, THEY LOST EVERYTHING! The house, the senate, and the presidency. So the Stein argument is a lie. Try watching somthing other MSNBC.
But sure live in lala land, where people who actually make moral choices are the enemy.
Yeah. Okay, that’s basically endorsing always putting others in charge. And those people that voters put in charge then determine what health policy or other social welfare policy will be brought forward, or not brought forward, or rolled back, or never discussed, based on their approach to and degree of accommodation towards capitalist markets.
Their rule is illegitimate – ie, they can’t justify it. And they always in representative democracies, in parliamentary systems, serve and never fundamentally question financial and business interests – interests that run on deliberate systems of trade and production and distribution that (in case you’ve missed it) have brought us screaming right on up to a cliff edge at a great rate of knots. (resources fucked, peoples’ lives fucked, the climate fucked, eco-systems fucked)
And yet still most advocate that we continue voting until the cows come home in some vain hope that there will one day be worthy leaders determined to do what is right. (There will an occasional exception that will serve to prove the rule, who will be swiftly stomped on and removed to the dead lands beyond the far fringes)
Not voting while seeking to develop parallel organsiational structures for society is entirely legitimate – and certainly more mature than just voting once every three, four or five years and going home ‘to the telly’ after the two minutes of participation as most people are apt to do.
And there are dozens of other legitimate routes of agency implied by those positions sketched out above.
But. How long now before we see the tired old mantra wheeled out? The one that claims that those who do not vote have no right to complain? Talk about defining politics and possibilities in the narrowest and most disempowering (not to mention downright dangerous) terms….
Allowing millions to be fucked over, often with fatal consequences, while knowing that it will happen as a consequence of your position is not a moral choice, it is a narcissistic one.
The people who suffer as a result will not thank you for sacrificing them.
That’s not living in lala land, la la land is a place where there are no consequences and hurt doesn’t matter. Living in reality means realising that there are more important things than keeping your hands lily white.
The opposition of voting versus joining a co-op is nonsensical – some of us can walk and chew gum at the same time.
It is also nonsensical to assume that if one ignores the state of the world as it is like a petulant child, it will magically go away and be replaced by exactly what you wish for. Power abhors a vacuum and if somehow representative democracy could be suddenly swept away, history has shown that what replaces it is usually much, much worse.
… and don’t presume to know what anybody does IRL away from a keyboard.
“… and don’t presume to know what anybody does IRL away from a keyboard.”
Ditto.
rhinocrates I’m not ignoring the world, as in the fact this was a hypothetical question, so I gave a answer to it.
You have point blankly refused to look at reality, the democrat’s have failed across the board. Why? They have failed, and you are ignoring it. It is becasue they are corrupt. That the whole so called establishment left in the USA have given up on working people, any chance you can see that?
Look I’ve got friends who will kill themselves when their health insurance runs out. That is reality, a harsh one. And you going to blame me, for a democratic party with no back bone, and no trust left with working people. You are going to have a go, becasue I say the system is broken. And say we should forget the ballot and fight for our rights. Well. It’s good to know where you stand.
Because here is the hypocrisy – If you buy into democracy, the right win, and they get to do what they want to do. People are going to suffer, that what happens in the system you are defending.
If you don’t get I’m fighting against evil, them you missing the point. and I can’t say too much more.
Adam, ‘fighting against evil’ is good, I don’t deny that you’re doing it, but you’ve become so obsessed with it as a Manichaean battle that you’ve ignored the collateral damage. If you are ‘good’, or label yourself as such, it does not necessarily follow that the consequences of what you do or fail to do are good.
I don’t give a toss about how virtuous you are. I care about the consequences of the kinds of actions or avoidance of action you promote. Right now I see people suffering because people who could have voted against Trump didn’t.
Trump’s win could have been prevented – a third of the electorate stayed at home, being too cool for school. There are direct consequences that were not part of the Democratic platform. Trump campaigned on anti-environmentalism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, homophobia, racism, misogyny and lo and behold, since his election, there has been a sharp rise in hate crimes that he inspired. These were not part of the Democratic Party campaign or policy.
Capitalism may be evil, but it is not the only evil in the world.
I agree that the Democratic party is corrupted, as are left parties worldwide that sold their souls to neoliberalism and called it the ‘centre’ (and don’t falsely assume that I’ve I’ve failed to see that – I’ve been very critical here about the state of the Labour Party). However, Sanders’ incursion at least showed that people aren’t chicken and changes were possible. In the aftermath they may get the kick up the arse that they need. One positive has been the spike in women now intending to run for office. Hopefully they will instigate change. Slowly, yes, but that’s life.
The left parties around the world are in a crisis of identity and integrity. In NZ at least we are able to cast protest votes for potential coalition partners or to at least get a voice in parliament. To hand a victory to the far right by saying they were always going to win is abdication and cowardice dressed up in sanctimony.
That is reality, a harsh one. And you going to blame me, for a democratic party with no back bone
With a disaster of this magnitude, there’s a lot of blame to go around and certainly plenty to spend on both. So what if you don’t get exactly what you want, completely and immediately? That’s no reason to throw your toys out of the cot; that’s a reason to work long and hard.
Two quotes from Voltaire: The perfect is the enemy of the good and The greatest crime is to do nothing because we can only do a little
My approach does not do any fornicating as you put it, it demands action. Not giving away sovereignty blindly to evil people.
You need to answer that question yourself, and you have, you are are willing to forsake morals for political power.
Yeah, not a choice I’m willing to make. Nor am I willing to stand aside, and let us keep falling into the abyss. Morality drives me to say, and act for the better world, not accept evil lithely.
Is it shocking to you that a stark evil is on display? Because you can help change that, and voting is only one part. I’d argue a very very small part, you can, and should do more. A lot more. Rather than get worked up by voting, which at the end of the day in a world dominated by corporations, is fast becoming the public illusion it always was. Try joining with others to improve your local community. Maybe sell your car, do some gardening, or join a Co-Op.
Your approach fucks over the Standing Rock tribe
Nope. Voting people into positions of power whereby they could essentially ‘lord it over’ others fucked…well, much more than anything that’s just limited to Standing Rock.
Uh, Bill, there’s the minor matter of a thing called reality. Reality says we’re stuck with operating within the system we have now and for the foreseeable future.
Kidding ourselves that we can ignore or opt out of that simply cedes power to the nastier arseholes. Whereas engaging with reality at least gives us the chance to cede power to the not-quite-as-nasty arseholes that have at least a vague interest in our views and a chance of some overlap of vision for the future.
If that ugly reality of the system we have to work within ever changes, then we’ll have to make our decisions and take actions within that new framework. But it will still be in everyone’s interest to engage with it as it is, rather than pretending that opting out is a better choice.
Sheesh Andre, why don’t you just admit you are a conservative and give up.
Seriously if people thought and acted like you we would not have any democracy, we would not have a end to slavery, we would not have women participating, no rights, nothing, all we’d have is the right to bow our heads, and say “Yes MASSA”
Uh, Bill, there’s the minor matter of a thing called reality. Reality says …
Our current systems of governance persist precisely for as long as we lend them credence. And not a moment longer. They have no life of their own and there is no immutable reality or law of nature determining how we govern that means we have no option but acquiescence.
Actually, it might be better if there was. Thinking CC here and how we seem to imagine basic laws of physics can be ignored…
Anyway, where did anyone suggest we ignore or opt out of stuff related to governance?
I could vote. And I could simultaneously undermine some very basic assumptions and expectations attached to ‘from on high’ governance by dint of how I arrange my society with others. Or I could not vote.
Adam, slavery ended because people voted for a president that was against slavery, and was willing to go to war over it.
Women’s suffrage happened because people voted in legislators that supported it.
MMP happened because people voted for it.
The common factor in all these things? People voted for it, and won.
Yes, those votes were preceded by lots of hard work by activists that were subject to derision and worse in building the movement. And building the movement is essential. But voting for legislators sympathetic to the movement, or at least less hostile, is equally essential. At least until we move to a system that does away with the legislators.
Sorry about filling your replies tab, Bill. But as far as opting out of governance, in the case of an election like the recent US one, refusing to consider one of the two candidate with a chance of winning and instead going for an option with absolutely no chance, as adam apparently would have done had he been eligible, is effectively opting out.
Do you believe the civil war was about slavery, Andre?
One Two, all the history and evidence I’ve ever come across suggests that yes, slavery was a big part of what the US Civil War was about. But feel free to tell us what it was about in your alternative history. Probably best to start a fresh comment, though, rather than fill Bill’s replies tab.
Wow Andre you just didn’t read what I said.
Just a couple of points.
One I did not say women suffrage, so where you dragged that from I’m not sure.
And two, how did we get the vote? Do you know, how did we win rights?
I think you need to stop assuming Andre, and start reading – just a suggestion.
Being wedded to belief systems leads to actions spawned, which paint individuals and groups into boxes…
Ego then ensures the box remain closed, and emotion takes over by lashing out at others with differing opinions
Non-judgment is beyond infinite sensations
Your approach fucks over the Standing Rock tribe.
Your approach fucks over everybody affected by the appointment of Scott Pruitt to the EPA – ie everyone on this planet.
Your approach fucks over all the people suffering from the increase in hate in the US over the last six months.
Your approach fucks over … the list is very long.
Fuck, yes. “I won’t vote for the lesser of two evils because I have morals” is why the USA is currently enjoying the dubious benefits of a descent into authoritarianism. If your morals involve assisting that process, it’s time to review your morals.
LOL, don’t ever stop Psycho Milt. Your muddled thinking is always good for a laugh.
[lprent: Translated loosely and almost sympathetically: I agree to disagree. ]
Does that mean you wouldn’t vote? Which in this case would be an affirmative for Tr*mp. I understand where you are coming from ethically, I’m just pointing out the pragmatics.
As we have had that choice for some time, and all it brings us is worse and worse people in politics. Pragmatics be damned, why support a steady slow crippling corruption?
So yeah I would not vote, and do what I normally do – get organised.
In our case New Zealand has great laws around Co-Operatives. Why are not people doing this more?
But to rely on the tired old political parties is beyond a sad joke. That is why I’m glad we have MMP, but even that has done far to little to improve the morality of our politicians, as this current government has put on display so often.
“But to rely on the tired old political parties is beyond a sad joke.”
Bill made similar commentary. Problem with that line is that it assumes that voting for the lesser evil (or in my case, the pragmatic choice), equates to relying on them.
Myself, I’ve been pretty up front that I think parliamentary politics is pretty much only good for holding the line while the real work gets done elsewhere. But I (and you) shouldn’t minimise it that much, because they still do some useful things, and that holding the line is the difference between super nasty and less nasty. You seem to believe we still have a choice for not nasty. In CC terms I think we are past that point. Which doesn’t mean we are without hope, but that whatever happens next it’s unlikely to be the revolution.
“In our case New Zealand has great laws around Co-Operatives. Why are not people doing this more?”
When people like yourself, Bill and me can’t work together, it’s probably not reasonable to expect others to who aren’t naturally interesting in that kind of co-operation.
Myself, I’ve been pretty up front that I think parliamentary politics is pretty much only good for holding the line
The status quo constraint,where real democratic contrarian debate is extinguished at all cost.
The illusion of democratic participation is well known,where the minority controls what is debated,where and when.
Galam (2004) for example showed in contrarian dynamics interesting properties arise.
“Applying our results to the European Union leads to the conclusion that it would be rather misleading to initiate large
public debates in most of the involved countries. Indeed, even starting from a huge initial majority of people in favor of the European Union, an open and free debate would lead to the creation of huge majority hostile to the European Union. This provides a strong ground to legitimize the on-going reluctance of most Europe an governments to hold referendum on associated issues.”
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437103009695
The full article is behind a paywall, but the abstract and your excerpt seem to suggest that “contrarian debate” is actually not democratic, as it changes the opinions of the populace rather than merely reporting them.
Sorry I linked to the companion paper rather then the one quoted from.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437104000330
http://home.iscte-iul.pt/~jmal/mcc/SergeGalam/Serge_Galam_Physica_A.pdf
Counter intuitive paradoxes prevail.
First point weka, I do work with Bill, mainly in picking his brain stuff. But as I’m a work locally type, and he is down the other end of the country, better to work the way we do.
As for working with you, I’d be happy to do that. I would not say I could not work with you.
What worries me, is so many here have got upset by a hypothetical question. Indeed a couple have gone into the realms of personal attack on a hypothetical not realising that we don’t actually live in the USA.
As I said and people have been deliberately obtuse about the NZ situation, and really don’t like being questioned on their morals.
I just don’t see the point in talking in circles with people who don’t want to listen to new ideas, or ideas which differ from theirs.
There’s ‘stupid’, ‘fucking idiot’ and then there’s ‘Trump supporter,’ which adds an extra slice of odiousness.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/trump-supporters-get-mad-because-they-think-the-man-in-1793159888?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
Amazon announced this week that it was launching Resistance Radio as a companion program for The Man in the High Castle, an alt-history drama loosely adapted from the Philip K. Dick novel. The pre-recorded radio program is basically a bunch of people talking about how the Third Reich is bad and does bad things. For some, they thought that applied to America’s current president (and/or they didn’t bother actually listening to it). In response, several irate opposers flocked to Amazon’s sponsored #ResistanceRadio hashtag to complain about the station’s “liberal agenda.”
Think about it, as one commenter puts it,
Trump supporter finds radio station talking about how terrible the Reich is, and how they should be opposed, and immediately starts defending the Nazi’s. What in the actual fuck?
FFS: If that wasn’t so pathetic, it’d be scary.
There there’s this brand of pathetic that enables Trump too:
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/why-the-alt-left-is-a-problem
Headlined AGAINST MERYL STREEP, the indictment declared, “Meryl Streep’s speechifying at the Golden Globes was the worst thing to happen since Trump’s election.” Hoo-kay.
https://medium.com/@sammystyle77/the-nihilistic-purity-of-the-far-left-will-kill-us-all-54169b25e3a8#.nvt4434in
Has there been a pandemic of stupid self-absorption?
Hard on the heels of yesterday’s I don’t remember what I was doing inside that building…..
3.9 Reserve Powers for NZ Council
3.9.1 NZ Council shall be authorised to suspend or cancel a leadership election in exceptional circumstances including, without limitation, the following:
• The death of a candidate;
• The calling of a General Election;
• Where NZ Council considers that the democratic integrity of the election process has been seriously undermined.
According to the Labour Party rules quoted above there does not need to be a leadership election when a general election has been called. This is understandable given that the process takes several weeks. Grant Robertson knows this. He has an opportunity to become leader by a simple majority vote in Caucus. If Labour keep polling badly and Chicken is behind Jacinda in preferred PM I’d predict he would make his move after June 23rd.That would be disastrous for Labour and given that Grant’s ambitions are insatiable he would put his own ambitions above those of Labour. You have been warned.
Gattaca, here we come.
“Sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, the bill known as HR 1313 would allow for employers participating in “workplace wellness” programs to require their employees go through genetic testing, or risk taking a financial hit.”
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/10/house-committee-passes-bill-that-could-allow-employers-to-require-genetic-testing/
heh
Umm musing…
Looks like I might have to cut statcounter (one of our trackers) out of the site. It looks like they may be having some problems.
For a start, we’ve been getting some delays from statcounter over the last month not responding and slowing the page loads down. Something that is frigging irritating bearing in mind that only reason for having a visible tracker is to provide the Open Parachute ranking.
But I also just analyzed their tracking against the back end logs. That was because there was a major discrepancy between google analytics and their measurements. About 35k page views in February. It looks like google is right and statcounter close to 10% down.
And that was after statcounter dropped 43k page views into the count on Feb 27 – something that looks like a database scan and fix job.
They did something similar to The Daily Blog earlier in the month.
I think that either a server dropped off or they started missing something like the mobiles.
But I’ve looked at what has been happening since, and there is still a significiant daily discrepancy between the three measures. Stat counter is down by several thousand page views per day.
There is always a variation on sessions because each tracking site uses different algorithms. Which is why sessions are pretty useless to measure on.
But the human page views have been generally conformant between trackers. There are variations on the page view counting, but that is mainly dependent on the timezone of measurement for a day and if the tracker is executed at the top of the page or at the end. Usually a variation of just a few hundred human page views over a week. Nothing visible anywhere on the statcounter site about a problem. In fact the site seems a bit dead. They have been happy to take our money each month.
That does kind of mean that there are getting to be a dearth of reliable trackers with a public face that something like Open Parachute can use. Sitemeter has completely screwed up several times in the past few years. There are a couple of others, but as each needs considerable testing before I can trust it on a high volume site. And I don’t have the time.
I’ll watch statcounter to the end of the month. If they continue to screw up then I’ll remove their drag on the site. Google analytics does a good job and is what I actually use for most analysis. I can take the money from statcounter and go and buy some services from them, or just look for a couple of paid plugins to enhance the site.
Several of us were having problems with statcounter slowing down page loading so we ended up installing a blocker suggested by BM (uBlock Origin). Dunno if that will cause a discrepancy between the different counters.
It would 🙂
However it would have taken an awful lot of you to doing it to cause that level of discrepancy. It also doesn’t explain that whacking great pile of added page views on the 27th.
But yeah, statcounter has been a bit of a nuisance for speed lagging for a while now. Not as bad as sitemeter was before I got rid of it off the site years ago. I’d prefer to just use analytics which is very fast, non-intrusive and gives better stats as well. It is also pretty interesting watching it dodge blockers 🙂
However I decided a while ago that it was a good idea to leave a public track. It gives something for sites to aspire to 😈 What I should do is find out how to give some public access to the stats off that to Ken at Open Parachute. Analytics allows for specific logins to be able to access specific data. Maybe he’d leave off tormenting the flouridephobes for a while and code something to do that.
at the risk of interupting the adults while they are talking…i also started blocking stat counter too.
Okay… You are rapidly convincing me that I shouldn’t maintain statcounter.
It’s coming up to Saturday morning east coast USA time. Brace yourselves for another twitter eruption.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-tweets-saturday-jared-kushner-ivanka-shabbat-235902
Solved.
http://api.theweek.com/sites/default/files/twittercollar.jpg?resize=600×600
OMG. Mr Bradbury must have had a Damascus moment!
Suddenly it’s no longer boomers that are responsible for all our ills or for inter-generation warfare. It’s neoliberalism!
LOL.
Funny how the Kurds are just ignored, Turkey is loving our looking the other way.
https://washingtonhatti.com/2017/02/25/korukoy-a-kurdish-city-in-turkeys-seast-has-been-under-siege-for-14-days/
http://stockholmcf.org/hdps-baydemir-takes-military-blockade-in-korukoy-to-parliaments-agenda/
https://libcom.org/news/turkey-torture-murder-state-kurdish-village-koruk%C3%B6y-09032017
So not only are we accepting torture as normal, which it is not. It is morally bankrupt.
We seem to now accept without much question the labeling of ordinary citizens as terrorists, and terrorising them.
But not half as much as Bashar.
/
Who are these people ignoring Syria?
I’d say you just making stuff up.
Here the Trorygraph since the 28th of Feb, on Syria.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/syria/
Al Jazeera is pretty much the same in amount of content. Actually probably a bit more.
That report you linked to by AI has been well and truly debunked. They were quite literally making things up, but still, almost every major western outlet ran with uncritical “Oh My Gosh!” headlines for a day or two…mission accomplished.
…Turkey is loving our looking the other way.
There isn’t much the NZ Army could do anyway, but there is one great power still willing to help out: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/09/us-troops-arrival-syria-intensifies-struggle-for-influence.
TL;DW – the more polarised the electorate gets the greater the chance frog is boiled and the baby goes out with the bath water.