Yesterday was the first day of the 2020 sitting year for Parliament. Usual business was suspended for the day to allow Members to remember and share their personal memories of the late Right Honorable Mike Moore. Speeches started with Jacinda Ardern as PM followed by leaders of the other political parties, with other individual MPs then following.
The initial speeches were fairly conservative eulogies with all leaders essentially in agreement over the huge contribution made by Mike Moore, but things loosened up when the other MPs stood to recall their memories.
In particular, Ron Mark started out using notes but quickly dispensed with these and launched into one of the most personal from the heart speeches I ever recall hearing in the House . At the same time it was one of the most humourous recounts of behind the scenes memories of Mark and Moore’s relationship since Mark’s time with the Labour Party when Mark ran unsuccessfully for Labour in the Selwyn electorate. Mark supported his recounting with an impressive number of Labour Party documents and policies attributable to Mike Moore. from his own personal archives.
If you watch nothing else, I urge you to watch Mark’s speech – it is 12 minutes you won’t regret!
The speeches following Mark by Brownlee, Damian O’Connor and Trevor Mallard also carried on with more personal and humourous memories. All in all a great send off for Mike. And impressive in the recognition of Yvonne’s contribution as Mike’s partner in life and politics.
Drat – the Mark video came up properly as a picture but doesn’t now.
I only partly saw on the news last night, a poll saying Ron Mark was by far the most preferred person to take over NZ First if Winston wasn't there. Result surprised me. Did anyone see the whole thing as I missed where the poll was taken. I've always presumed Shane Jones would be the eventual NZF leader.
That's interesting, Jimmy. I did not see that as I rarely watch TV – which News was it on? TVNZ or Newshub?
Re Jones taking over as Leader of NZF eventually, I don't believe that will happen for a number of reasons. I actually discussed this subject in a reply to Dennis Frank on open Mike at 2.1.1.2 http://11 February 2020 at 9:29 am Here is some of that reply (no point in re-inventing the wheel!):
The NZF party of today is a very different animal to the one that existed pre 2008 with Peters spending his time in the wilderness revamping the party into one supported by a much wider age range and range of views to that previously. Both Lprent and I have written here on TS on this many times over recent years.
Sure, Jonesy is a bit of a weak link but the other NZF MPs have been doing a very credible job in their various Ministerial roles and support roles – eg Tracey Martin and Ron Mark as well as Peters himself as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
We don't hear much of Fletcher Tabuteau, but IMO he, rather than Jonesy, is the one who is being groomed as the next leader as reflected in his roles not only as Deputy Leader, but also as understudy to both Peters and Jonesy as Parliamentary Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development.
To add to that, both Tracey Martin and Ron Mark have previously been Deputy Leader of NZF. As I understand it, because other members of Tracey Martin's family have had considerable influence on the Party (eg her mother Ann Martin was President for many years) it was considered better to spread the influence, hence Ron Mark becoming Deputy and he then handed onto Tabuteau.
Re Jones, I cannot provide any links but I seem to recall that Jones himself – both when he was still with Labour and since moving to NZF – has implied that he is not interested in party leadership roles and is more comfortable doing roles like his present one as "Champion of the Regions" and the similar role he undertook under the previous Nat Govt in relation to economic development etc in the Pacific. As I say, I cannot provide links to this but I have a pretty good memory despite older age.
Thanks for the heads-up Jimmy as I have now found the TV3 item and here is the link – another Tova O'Brien special as part of the Newshub poll released the other night.
The results are interesting with Ron Mark indeed coming out well ahead, both generally and with NZF voters.
I don't find that surprising, nor the fact that Fletcher Tabuteau barely rated as he keeps – or is kept – fairly low profile. Nevertheless Tabuteau has been associated with NZF since its inception 25 years ago at about 20 years of age, and at c 45/46 currently, he still has a lot of miles left on the clock. At 66, Mark is 20 years older and thus only seven years younger than Peters and I wonder whether he would really want the job.
I am surprised that Tracey Martin did not rate higher but she did take on a rather poisoned chalice (or challenge) in the form of Oranga Tamariki. I have a lot of respect for her in doing so as it is going to take a lot to turn that nightmare around.
Time will tell – and there is the possiblity that NZF may not make it at the upcoming election although I would be surprised if that actually happens. There are a lot of oldies who know who we have to thank for our Super Gold cards! LOL.
I was watching fom the balcony in parliament yesterday and I agree that Ron Marks contribution stood out – warm, funny, wise and clear. He would make a good NZ First leader, and sooner rather than later I think as I believe from my observations that Winston's health is starting to fail
What about the tens of thousands received by the National machine. Those which are visible paint a picture of influence on a very grand scale. Investigate that?
National have received several millions in total but of course all donations were deliberate and fairly legal.
I've never voted for Peters and NZ First but lets be fair…
National and ACT have been indulging in this kind of fiscal subterfuge for decades. ACT started doing it in the 1990s and National have been doing it even longer. Anyone with any historical political knowledge (which counts out half the current political journos) knows it.
If the media is going to call out NZ First fair enough. But tell the whole story and acknowledge the fact National and ACT do it too. I can't speak for Labour or the Greens but given their donations tend to be much smaller amounts – but more numerous in quantity – I think it is unlikely.
Edit: And if some smarty pants tries to misconstrue my last sentence:
90% of Labour’s donors are not rich people and they donate small amounts (less than $100) but probably do it more frequently.
The original comment was about NZ1st. There seems to be an effort round these parts to minimise Winston's shenanagins.
When NZ 1st say they will review their practices, I call bulldust.
The NZ1st foundation was formed with the guidance of Peter's lawyer. I don't believe for a moment that Peter's isn't aware of what was going on. It sounds pretty legal
The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
This is what corruption looks like in an relatively non corrupt country.
For years we have suspected, but have had no real evidence that government policy on the racing industry was being bought.
The government has provided tax breaks to this morally corrupt industry, that feeds off gambling and animal cruelty.
Winston Peters is the Racing Minister. Can we really trust that he had no idea what was going on with the New Zealand First Foundation as he is claiming, when the Racing Industry that he serves was funneling money into it??
This real-time exercise in realpolitik for RNZ’s board and the Government illustrates where power lies in New Zealand. They only needed to look at the number and demographics of the Concert FM fans.
But given what has been going on at RNZ, all this was as much about a couple of commercially oriented master-of-the-universe egos as it was about creating an alternative network with instant appeal.
If Thompson and co had been more concerned about what they perceive as the problem, they could have quietly worked on a third network and allowed it to evolve and be discovered by the 'demographic' naturally. (Even built on the BRAND "The Wireless")
It ain't over yet. The bloody board either let themselves down too, or were too busy trying to be down with the kuds. When you look at their backgrounds though a majority would seem to be quite comfortable with what's been going on (over a long time)
"If you doubt the variety of young people, cast your mind back to your own class at secondary school, ranging as it did from the thug at the back to the scholar at the front, via the athlete in the middle and the aesthete to one side, plus the dubious creep who later, oh my god, went into local politics. In short, we young people, like you older people, are as various as the pebbles on the beach and any radio station that tries to appeal to all of us will appeal to none of us."
Personally I am not surprised that hierarchy at RNZ has exposed themselves in this way as being so out of touch with their local communities, just look at steady decline of National radio as a serious new source over the past couple of decades, it really is now a just hollow shell of it's former self, are real lightweight.
And now (and under Labour of course) they totally disregard and dismiss one of the very few sources that offers even a breath of high minded culture for free into our communities..fucking Liberals, always so lowbrow, always finding ways to make life just that bit more shitty and crappy….yuk.
IMO that is a very one-sided view of the situation and I am surprised and disappointed at Hickey's take on the situation. This view that only white elitists listen to Concert FM or listen to and participate in classical music is just so closed minded.
It takes no account of the contribution NZ's multicultural and in particular, Maori and Pacifica, communities for example have made to classical music both here in NZ and worldwide.
In opera alone, Maori account for a good proportion of NZ artists who have reached the world stage such as Inia Te Wiata, Keri Te Kanawa, Kawiti Waetford, ManaTe Hapuku, and Phillip Rhodes to name just a few.
In the same field, in more recent years, our Samoan community has also contributed an impressive array of world recognised stars – for example, Moses Mackay, Pene Patu and Amatai Patu both individually and together as Sol3 Mio – our own version of the Three Tenors. Other Samoan NZers on the world opera circuit include Marlena Devoe and Benson Wilson – as is Amina Edris both in her own right and in company with her husband, Pene Patu. Amina is Egyptian-born but raised and trained in opera in NZ.
I could go on – at length – but will leave it at that. Many of the above artists did not come from well off homes – far from it. And they have provided good role models for others to follow in their footsteps – and support for others to do so.
But I am surprised and disappointed at the ignorance and closed mindedness that has emerged, including on here at TS, as the Concert FM issue has emerged.
But I am surprised and disappointed at the ignorance and closed mindedness that has emerged, including on here at TS, as the Concert FM issue has emerged.
In part it's a consequence of the way identity politics subsumes all individual interests and capacities. It casts a broad net over whole categories of people and dumps them into big silos with a couple of fat, lazy labels on them.
There is an overwhelming national interest in deplatforming classical music. /sarc.
Its a conclusion you can only reach by choosing not to think about who running ConcertFM benefits, and who running it opresses (e.g nobody).
And frankly the views suggesting its ConcertFM or Skypath are equally dim. What is the suggestion, that some roading contractors should take up radio engineering instead? The two are not economically or fiscally related so NZ should happily invest in both.
Because what you call "identity politics" isn't about dumping labels on people, it's about people choosing how they describe themselves.
My suspicion was that someone was looking at a line item in their budget, they didn't listen to it personally, and they just assumed that its core audience was the stereotypical old/rich/white crowd beloved by hollywood screenwriters.
it's about people choosing how they describe themselves.
And invariably when they do this, they become more than anything else individuals, with a unique mix of heritage, family, experiences, interests and capacities. For example, someone may very well describe themselves as 'Samoan', but in reality this might be only one of many equally important aspects of who they are.
People do not choose one identity, they are a bewildering mix of them. While on the one hand we are social creatures driven to belong, we also value highly our freedom to choose where we belong, when and in which context. Much more nuanced than the crude idioms of identity politics allows for.
"Because what you call "identity politics" isn't about dumping labels on people, it's about people choosing how they describe themselves."
Your saying comment 3 is self descriptive? The problematic kinds of identity politics invariably involve talking in very broad generalisations about a group (or between groups) of which the author is not representative. Also very typically some form of amateur phychology is infered to imply which group is morally superior.
On the other hand cases of people self identifying are so harmless they barely appear worthy of mention (Elizibeth Warren not with-standing).
In this case the people who seem to identify as the down with the youf executive of RNZ seem to be getting the shit, and their beliefs are problematic for people who like listening to Classical Music. There is something pretty fubar with the framing of this in identity politics terms of some elite demographic vs whoever they are opressing by enjoying Classical music on the radio.
If this wasn't characteristic of these IP arguments I wouldn't be making this argument of course, but it is.
Except that the implicit assumption is that only the "elite demographic" listen to classical music, which is an assumption about all the various groups made without listeningto any of those groups to start with. Which has more in common with colonialism than it does with "identity politics".
Colonialism aye. In fact I think the only reason I am having this discussion is because of my unconscious Colonialism. Of course consciously I think its because I think having a discussion based on gross generalisations about caricatures of groups produces nonsense, but in the back there is always some colonialism going on there.
I already did. You responded by trying to start a discussion where you apply amateur phychology (motivated by Colonialism) to a group (ConcertFM audience) to negatively caricature that group. The argument is gibberish but you thus ignored the reasonable concerns over the decision (should RNZ be run like a commercial station?).
Who said anything about "motivated by colonialism"?
I just said that imposing a collection of labels upon others (rather than listening to what labels they might choose for themselves) was more like colonialism that it was like "identity politics".
In all the discussions about "elitist" concert radio listeners, have you seen an actual breakdown of the concertFM audience? Standard market research with self-reported socio-economic data? Because I haven't. Which suggests to me that any description of the concertFM audience is probably:
an assumption
that imposes labels like "elite"
upon the audience
instead of being based on the labels they select for themselves.
What you describe is imposition of labels with no regard for consent. "Identity politics" is about the freedom to honestly choose labels for oneself. From pronouns to any other aspect of identity.
The Pacifika and Maori contribution to classical music – particularly in vocal and choral – has been a revelation in the last 40 years.
It seriously worries me that a massive tradition of local music composition and performance is being proposed to simply be automated onto an AM station. WTF.
Well done to those who organised the petition – it clearly had an immediate effect upon our current Prime Minister .
Thank God for someone like Helen Clark who is giving it right back to them.
Which also reminds me of another NZ composer of worldwide reputation whose compositions range over and blend a number of different genres including electronic with orchestral – Rhian Sheehan.
[Funny that because I have known him most of his life (= wider whanau). LOL]
Rhian features quite often on RNZ National music shows and presumably elsewhere across the spectrum of music radio stations.
For something different, you could always visit your local planetarium, eg Auckland Planetarium/Skydome, as Rhian composes the music for many of the shows featured at many planetariums worldwide – eg I think the latest one is "We are Astronomers" narrated by former Dr Who, David Tarrant or I might be totally out of date.
Here is his Wikipedia entry but if you google his name there are plenty of local media reports on his background, his music compositions and their recognition overseas – eg he composed music for the opening/closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympics amongst many other compositions for worldwide events etc.
And perhaps this interview will give you a little bit of an insight as to why Samoan and other Pacifica New Zealanders feature in our NZ music scene across all genres but particularly the choral genres including those associated with classical music.
I'll pick out the bits I like about Hickey's contribution:
He seemed to be learning in real time this week after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern used an interview on RNZ's Morning Report on Monday to express "frustration" that the planned "gutting" and relegation of Concert FM to a robo-station on AM had been announced before the Government had had to chance to come up with an alternative FM channel.
"I think we obviously didn't explain it clearly enough, and when we were talking about our plan, there was an assumption that it wouldn't be obvious initially that the FM transmission would be affected, and I think that was just a glitch in the communications," (struggling much?)
actually there's too many bits, and maybe I have a bit of a prejudice: liking to watch any wideboy being fed their chips
But there is unfortunately the truthiness in this:
"This real-time exercise in realpolitik for RNZ's board and the Government illustrates where power lies in New Zealand."
Oh how much easier it would be if gummints of whatever stripe, and masters-of the Universe in whatever pick-your-brand-Corp could just be up-front, open and honest.
Bullshit begets more bullshit (on the bright side though, it keeps a few spin meisters in immoral employment)
The politics within RNZ are something to behold – especially since the current reign, from the way people have been 'eased' out (under-appreciated) to the marketeers taking over. I'd say the board royally fucked up putting too much faith in their 'golden boy(s)'.
Thank you. Lisa Owen asks explicitly at 15.52 if the public backlash has prised concessions from the govt including the shelved frequencies. A minute later, Thompson confirms RNZ did not ask for those as part of their plans for a new youth service because there had been 'no signal' they were on offer.
Ministers do not tend to be forgiving about being manipulated..
Aligned with his commercial background, Jim is also a former officer in the New Zealand Army, and was awarded the Sword of Honour in recognition of his distinguished achievements in Officer training.
He currently holds governance roles with the following organisations:
Director of Auckland Transport
Director of Ngāti Awa Group Holdings Limited
Member of the MBIE Risk and Audit Committee
Managing Director of Mather Solutions Limited
Well done Jim! Gorjiss!
We could go through each of the board members such as the next on the list.
Problem is they still fucked up (even though I have a special interest in one of them not coming to grief)
I really don't give a fuck who gets thrown under the bus – put it down to the cistern they operate in. The board, the CEO or his decisions on recruiting a wonder-boy called Willy, but somebody/people should have the decency to resign, or be sacked
Probably though if you really want to be efficient and effective, Thompson and Mcalister should take the fall
This afternoon’s announcement was of an altogether greater magnitude, however. Not only would Concert remain on FM, but its staff would keep their jobs. The restructure plan had been scrapped, and a new strategy for Concert would be drafted.
…
In a statement yesterday, the RNZ board “welcomed the government’s decision to look at freeing up an additional FM transmission frequency and to explore funding options for a multi-media music brand” – a possible hint that a budget boost may be imminent.
The chair of the RNZ board, Jim Mather, said: “We hear that passion for Concert and look forward to completing the consultation process to consider other possible improvements to that service now we have been given the potential of additional FM capacity”.
It was great to see the Salvation Army report with it's set of succinct social indicators.
Since this government doesn't look like it is going to deliver a social indicator report before the election despite structuring their entire budget around it, the Salvation Army one will do nicely.
If I had time I'd do a full post on it so I hope someone else will.
Yesterday I was shown some images out of China that were downright chilling … while I'm reluctant to repeat claims I've no way to verify or source, there is a fear that the CCP is using this event as cover to disappear inconvenient people … and more. There are now 60m people confined to their apartments and no-one knows for how long. In this tense, paranoid atmosphere there is real potential for events to spin out of control.
But the worst part now is that no-one trusts the CCP regime to tell the truth. Not just about the virus from a medical perspective, but with regard to all the other things going on around it. It seems the govts reaction is to double down on the security, censorship and restrictions in an attempt retain control, but this only further undermines the trust that is essential to the social cohesion necessary to get through this.
The Chinese people are going through a very difficult time right now … no matter where they live. A bit of true humanity and kindness will go a long way.
One problem I'm having is the great wall (the fire wall) is blocking vpns which normally get around it. Almost all of the anarchists in China have gone silent. Not a peep – and that is making me more than a little anxious. Have been asking other mates online, and they are repeating pretty much what you are saying RedLogix about the disappearance process.
What worries me many of these anarchists are lifestyle types, who are not really that political. Moreover they like the cultural elements, the music scene and hanging around together. Some good music coming out of chinese underground, been really enjoying the little I get to hear.
The chances are that the good ol' ordinary flu is affecting hundreds or even thousands of times as many Chinese in this their winter flu season than this new virus. This is just Christmas for a headline inducing panic-desperate media in all it's dodgy persuasions.
It is also Christmas and all its birthdays for the mad over controlling CCP and with a bit of luck its over reaction may be its downfall.
Humans live more or less in a known equilibrium with influenza; some years it's a bit tricky and evolves into a slightly new form, other years the vaccines work well. But in essence most people have sufficient immunity, and it has a typical lethality rate below 0.1%. It’s serious, but a known adversary we understand.
This new coronavirus is a concern because no-one has any immunity to it; potentially every human alive could become infected; and it's now clear that it's very transmittable. On the current numbers it seem like about 25% of people who become infected go on to develop a serious illness, and of these around 3% will die. Maybe 50m deaths inside the first year. That is much worse than seasonal influenza which typically kills around 0.5m each year.
This virus hits the 'sweet spot', long incubation period, efficient transmission including silent carriers and spreaders, multiple modes of transmission including airborne, a high fraction of serious illnesses that will hit the medical system, and sufficiently lethal to be heavily disruptive socially.
What we know about this bug is concerning already, and this is before it starts mutating on us. If it becomes seasonal, like many other coronavirus's, then all bets are off we would be into unknown territory where anything could happen. At that point the secondary social impacts will start to hurt.
The WHO has asked countries to be "as aggressive as possible" in fighting the newly-named COVID-19 coronavirus.
"If the world doesn't want to wake up and consider the virus as public enemy number one, I don't think we will learn from our lessons," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.
"We are still in containment strategy and should not allow the virus to have a space to have local transmission," he said.
If Angola can contain Ebola I think are chances on this one are pretty good. The point I was making is how this is playing into the hands of the desperate, the media for drama and click bait and the CCP for control of its populace, having them locked away and terrified instead of on the street protesting.
Comparing one disease with another isn't necessarily useful. Already you've compared COVID-19 with influenza which is easily transmitted but with a very low fatality rate, and now with Ebola which is only transmittable via direct body fluid contact and this makes standard medical isolation and practices quite effective, even though it has a scarily high lethality.
Each disease must be treated on it's own terms, on the totality of it's character. This almost looks to be very difficult to contain, and sufficiently lethal to be quite disruptive. An unhappy combination that it would be unwise to ignore.
"This new coronavirus is a concern because no-one has any immunity to it; potentially every human alive could become infected; and it's now clear that it's very transmittable. "
Is that not true of every new iteration of influenza?
It would need an expert to answer this properly, but it's my understanding it's not a binary black and white thing as your question implies, and the degree of novelty matters. Also every individual's immune system has a different history and character.
By contrast COVID-19 is totally novel, no-one has even partial immunity as far as I'm aware. That's why these new variants that have jumped from other species are so very worrisome; they will spread quickly and we have no idea what their potential range of mutations will be.
The super spreader in England was infecting people before he got symptoms and it has a long incubation period. Unless we want to inundate the medical services we want to slow it down as much as possible – hopefully until a vaccine is available.
Yeah.. and the Chinese authorities has put tens of millions of their own citizens under house arrest and is spraying down every city street just for shits and giggles.
No, its for the CCPs rabid desire for control. Plenty of virologists have stated that the spraying is ineffective as such viruses are very unlikely to survive outside or on such surfaces. But the images are good for mind control.
Yeah. Unless there's an insect vector and the spray is insecticide, the spray isn't going to do shit.
But it looks like something is being done.
My disagreement isn't that it's the CCP strengthening its control, I suspect it's more of a desperate holding action for control. The virus is going to be worst in impact, both directly and economically, on China. Hungry and scared people can be bullied only so far before they riot, and not nice like in HK. Stringing people up-style rioting.
Hungry and scared people can be bullied only so far before they riot, and not nice like in HK.
Our Chinese friend is translating material off the net for us that looks very much like the precursor to this. Last week she was not so worried, this week the tone has changed a lot.
We can speculate fruitlessly about the virus, it's behavior and how it might unfold globally. But what I was really wanting to emphasise is that the Chinese people in particular are going through a very difficult and worrisome time. If anyone has the chance to do so, now would be a good time to reach out to anyone Chinese you know. A little kindness at moments like this can go a very long way.
Not really a blame thing. It was simply an observation of when mass spraying might be effective in disease control as opposed to a simple morale-boosting exercise. Development of the Panama Canal being a case in point.
Still there as far as I know – but the French lost tens of thousands of workers to disease in their failed attempts, while the yanks focused on mosquito control (eradication and screens) and managed to significantly reduce their tropical disease fatalities.
The analysis of 22 studies reveals that human coronaviruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus or endemic human coronaviruses (HCoV) can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to 9 days, but can be efficiently inactivated by surface disinfection procedures with 62-71% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite within 1 minute.
There's a massive difference between some level of persistence and that level being enough to realistically infect someone else walking on the same outdoor footpath.
This is a virus where someone went to a corporate workshop and only infected a few of the attendees after hours of close proximity. It's not like measles, where someone walking through the same terminal two hours later has a realistic chance of being infected.
On February 10, 2020, the Department of Justice recommended a seven to nine year sentence for Roger Stone on charges of obstructing a congressional investigation, making false statements to Congress, and witness tampering during the Russia investigation. Trump tweeted that the recommendation was “horrible and very unfair” and shortly after, a senior DOJ official intervened to overrule the front-line prosecutors and announced that they would be recommending a more lenient sentence. Four DOJ prosecutors have resigned from the case since the announcement.
What's the story Joe? Did Bernie pooh in your handbag or something. You seem to be keen to highlight perceive short-comings or cast doubt whenever possible.
The town you cite is the third least populated in New Hampshire. Billy-Bob could've had a BBQ and a significant portion of voters not shown up.
Looks like the big question will be which of Klobuchar, Warren, and Biden break the 15% threshold to be awarded delegates. Right now only Klobuchar is over.
Then the hocus-pocus wing-of-bat 2-eyes-of-newt weirdshit recipes different states have for allocating delegates breaks things up into several different levels, some of which can have an effective threshold greater than 15%.That's how Biden ended up with 6 delegates from Iowa and Klobuchar 1 despite have almost identical vote and SDE%
Plus giving out an effective leader's bonus due to rounding. That's how Buttigieg come out of Iowa with a 14 – 12 delegate lead over Sanders, despite only leading the SDE count by 0.1% (and lagging in the popular vote by 1.6%).
I should probably clarify that a bit more. As I understand it, the 15% threshold for allocating delegates applies at each of the sub-units, not at the state as a whole.
So with New Hampshire awarding 8 delegates from each of its two House districts, if Warren breaks 15% in one of those, she will get one delegate even if she is below 15% for the state as a whole.
That's how Klobuchar got one delegate from Iowa, despite being below 15% for the state as a whole. But Biden squeaked over 15% for Iowa as a whole, so he got allocated delegates from the pool that was determined by statewide vote and ended up with 6 total from Iowa.
With 22% reporting, the NYT have Bernie at 28% of the vote… as with Iowa that's basically half what he got in 2016.
I remain skeptical of Bernies chances, in part because the three big 'obviously moderates' candidates (Mayor Pete, Biden, Klobuchar) combined are currently at more than 50% of the vote. My gut feel remains that, down the campaign stretch as the field shrinks, Sanders will get overtaken by whichever candidate outlasts the others.
Or go a bit further on a national level, the moderates (Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Biden, Bloomberg) add up to around 55%, the liberals (Sanders, Warren, Yang, Gabbard) are just a bit over 40%. Kinda like the Clinton – Sanders split last time around.
Yes, less candidates last time, BUT I can't think of any other examples where a presidential hopeful has entered the primary a second time around and performed significantly worse than their first attempt.
Clinton was the anointed successor to Obama in '16 because she spent 8 years positioning herself as such. McCain ran distant second to Bush in '00, then Romney was second to McCain in '08 and they both were the obvious front runner for the title of next Republican nominee.
In contrast, Sanders seems like the just kind of walked away from the Democratic party apparatus in 2016 (he relinquished membership of the party not long after Trump's election) and left a huge vacuum that all these other candidates are now trying to fill.
I agree about his party membership, but the thing is that more candidates means a lot more pieces of cake. Which means smaller pieces. I don't think the different campaign years can be usefully compared on that basis.
ps: if you could think of such a candidate, you'd be the biggest nerd on a political nerd blog lol
Mike Huckabooboo actually won more delegates and was a very close third in popular vote % behind Romney's second in '08. But withdrew on Feb 1, 2016 after getting negligible support.
His 'firewall' is still the 4th voting state – South Carolina and its majority-minority voter composition. He has led basically every poll conducted in SC, but it's still a high risk strategy because he has already effectively given up on Nevada which is next.
There's a bunch of other articles floating around the intertoobz about Biden losing support among African-Americans, but they all seem to trace back to something from National Review, so …hmmm.
Phil your logic here is a bit off and is not supported by what data we have on the subject. Supporters of the big three moderate candiates Pete, Biden, Klobuchar arent just some moderate blob that will roll between the moderate candidates, in fact Biden supporters leading second choice is Bernie, furthmore bernie holds a good share in the second choice for Pete's supporters with a strong third (only three point behind bloomberg's lead).
The fall of Biden seems the most likley to happen soon and that will help Bernie more than Klobuchar or Pete both of whom are too much in the ascendency to consider dropping at the moment. And with warrens poor preformance tonight she might not be running to much longer either again, helping Bernie.
I recall seeing some 2nd preference numbers months ago, but I too would be interested in seeing an update. The older they are the more they might reflect name recognition rather than actual voting intent.
The voting data that we do have from Iowa showed there was very little shift to Bernie on the 2nd-preference from the unviable candidates (and Biden was often unviable at individual caucus sites) so I really don't know how to square the two pieces of intelligence. I still stand by the gut-feel that Bernie probably doesn't have the coalition to reach 50% of delegates outright, but I can easily imagine him having the single largest bloc at the convention.
… and if nobody comes to the convention with more than 50% of the pledged delegates to win it at the first round, then the superdelegates come into play for the subsequent rounds.
When fivethirtyeight looked at it back in December, they found that only about a third of Sanders and Warren supporters picked the other liberal as their second choice.
National just got ticked off by the Advertising Standards Authority for telling porkies in an advert last year and Simon Bridges says they're going to keep on doing it.
I mean, we all knew that National was planning to use outright lies to try to win the election but I didn't expect them to actually tell us in advance!
So IHC's done another survey and nothing's changed. Surprise, surprise.
IHC lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission 12 years ago. What the heck's happened to that? If IHC's behaviour around the sleepover case is anything to go by it'd be surprisng if it'll go anywhere. IHC's too far up the government's backside for that to happen.
Well that will destroy whatever social licence Rio Tinto have in Southland. I can see some interesting inadvertent alliances forming here. Who's going to have the balls, or stupidity, to defend Rio Tinto on in Southland Times, or on Dee Street.
may be indicative of their review result….'well fellas , we've worn out our welcome here…time to find a new mug to host us'…and dont worry, they’ll have their cheque books open
Having worked briefly on a major Rio site I can attest to the insane over-regulation and nit-picking that is endemic everywhere. Just to get a room in the camp I had to initial and sign a 48 page document of rules.
As frustrating as this decision must be for Southlanders, I'll bet the board has a process reason for this delay. The clue is here:
"It’s my understanding from conversations with Stewart that Rio Tinto’s rationale for refusing to take the dross was that it didn’t want any more liabilities on the Tiwai site before the company’s strategic review is completed at the end of March.”
Mr Parry said the original deal struck with all Southland councils, landowners and NZAS to move the dross stored throughout Southland was still in place.
"We remain committed to a solution that removes the material. NZAS has committed to contributing $1.75 million to the costs of safely removing and processing the material."
This looks more like a delay rather than reneging. Right now it's not even clear who the legal owner of this material is and the board's legal advisers may be cautious about accepting liability for it. The sums of money involved are literally petty cash to Rio Tinto, it will be safety and legal issues driving this.
I have to say that working for them was an exercise in demoralising frustration, so none of this surprises me.
Disposal of the dross has been an ongoing issue for the last 30 years at least. It just keeps getting moved around, and called different things every 10 years so people think it's another new problem.
Rio want it anywhere by their place so they don't have to deal with it when they remediate the Tiwai site on closure, which I'd say we will find out about after the review.
This is the same poll (i.e. same respondents) as the party vote poll earlier this week. It's noteworthy that Ardern's 63.3% must include some National voters, and a high percentage of National voters do not think Bridges is performing well.
It sounds geeky but is actually relevant that this is the same poll as the party vote results, because of the polling methodology. I don't have access to the script of course, but the order of questions usually starts with the party vote ("if there were an election tomorrow" etc). So … having answered "National", the respondent then answers Qs about the party leaders, and gives Bridges the thumbs down.
While it is not impossible for a party to win despite a leader with low ratings, it is very rare in modern democracies, with leader-focused campaigns – and hasn't happened in NZ under MMP (Brash 2005 and Clark 1996 came closest).
He certainly has no mates except Seymour who Peters characterised as being ACT's seventh leader- but there's only one vote and if there was a second ACT MP in the caucus, he wouldn't be.
The Opposition finance spokesperson , Paul Goldsmith, was described as the only candidate in democracies who took his own hoardings down before an election rather than putting them up!
Was chatting to a true blue supporter today who told me for the first time in his life he won't be voting national, because of 'that twat bridges'. I almost fell over.
Looking at that poll leader approval rating result, it appears that his view is shared by others.
That's the funny thing – the more Bridges looks like a dropkick, ACT will be a wasted vote. So the sensible tory will vote NZ1 to moderate the next government's policies, which could end up helping NZ1 over the line…
Bear in mind, too, that (as with Colmar Brunton), Reid Research …
(1) Present the Party Vote as a % of Decided voters only …
Whereas:
(2) Leader Performance (like Preferred PM) is presented as a % of All Respondents.
That means that non-Labour voters comprise an even larger slice of those who believe Ardern is Performing Well than might appear to be the case at first sight,
If the Reid Research % Don't Knows are anything close to the latest Colmar Brunton DKs … then that would mean a very large minority of those favourable to Ardern's Performance are non-Lab voters … Nats, Greens, NZFers along with those respondents who haven't made up their mind on the Party Vote.
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
Yesterday was the first day of the 2020 sitting year for Parliament. Usual business was suspended for the day to allow Members to remember and share their personal memories of the late Right Honorable Mike Moore. Speeches started with Jacinda Ardern as PM followed by leaders of the other political parties, with other individual MPs then following.
Here is a link to the 12 speeches
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?keyword=Government+Motion&from=2020-02-11&to=2020-02-11&subject=&person=&stage=
The initial speeches were fairly conservative eulogies with all leaders essentially in agreement over the huge contribution made by Mike Moore, but things loosened up when the other MPs stood to recall their memories.
In particular, Ron Mark started out using notes but quickly dispensed with these and launched into one of the most personal from the heart speeches I ever recall hearing in the House . At the same time it was one of the most humourous recounts of behind the scenes memories of Mark and Moore’s relationship since Mark’s time with the Labour Party when Mark ran unsuccessfully for Labour in the Selwyn electorate. Mark supported his recounting with an impressive number of Labour Party documents and policies attributable to Mike Moore. from his own personal archives.
If you watch nothing else, I urge you to watch Mark’s speech – it is 12 minutes you won’t regret!
https://vimeo.com/390639998
The speeches following Mark by Brownlee, Damian O’Connor and Trevor Mallard also carried on with more personal and humourous memories. All in all a great send off for Mike. And impressive in the recognition of Yvonne’s contribution as Mike’s partner in life and politics.
Drat – the Mark video came up properly as a picture but doesn’t now.
I only partly saw on the news last night, a poll saying Ron Mark was by far the most preferred person to take over NZ First if Winston wasn't there. Result surprised me. Did anyone see the whole thing as I missed where the poll was taken. I've always presumed Shane Jones would be the eventual NZF leader.
That's interesting, Jimmy. I did not see that as I rarely watch TV – which News was it on? TVNZ or Newshub?
Re Jones taking over as Leader of NZF eventually, I don't believe that will happen for a number of reasons. I actually discussed this subject in a reply to Dennis Frank on open Mike at 2.1.1.2 http://11 February 2020 at 9:29 am Here is some of that reply (no point in re-inventing the wheel!):
To add to that, both Tracey Martin and Ron Mark have previously been Deputy Leader of NZF. As I understand it, because other members of Tracey Martin's family have had considerable influence on the Party (eg her mother Ann Martin was President for many years) it was considered better to spread the influence, hence Ron Mark becoming Deputy and he then handed onto Tabuteau.
Re Jones, I cannot provide any links but I seem to recall that Jones himself – both when he was still with Labour and since moving to NZF – has implied that he is not interested in party leadership roles and is more comfortable doing roles like his present one as "Champion of the Regions" and the similar role he undertook under the previous Nat Govt in relation to economic development etc in the Pacific. As I say, I cannot provide links to this but I have a pretty good memory despite older age.
Thanks for that. It was TV3 news I'm pretty sure.
Interesting comments too re: NZF.
Thanks for the heads-up Jimmy as I have now found the TV3 item and here is the link – another Tova O'Brien special as part of the Newshub poll released the other night.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/02/revealed-who-kiwis-think-should-be-nz-first-leader-if-winston-peters-stands-down.html
The results are interesting with Ron Mark indeed coming out well ahead, both generally and with NZF voters.
I don't find that surprising, nor the fact that Fletcher Tabuteau barely rated as he keeps – or is kept – fairly low profile. Nevertheless Tabuteau has been associated with NZF since its inception 25 years ago at about 20 years of age, and at c 45/46 currently, he still has a lot of miles left on the clock. At 66, Mark is 20 years older and thus only seven years younger than Peters and I wonder whether he would really want the job.
I am surprised that Tracey Martin did not rate higher but she did take on a rather poisoned chalice (or challenge) in the form of Oranga Tamariki. I have a lot of respect for her in doing so as it is going to take a lot to turn that nightmare around.
Time will tell – and there is the possiblity that NZF may not make it at the upcoming election although I would be surprised if that actually happens. There are a lot of oldies who know who we have to thank for our Super Gold cards! LOL.
I was watching fom the balcony in parliament yesterday and I agree that Ron Marks contribution stood out – warm, funny, wise and clear. He would make a good NZ First leader, and sooner rather than later I think as I believe from my observations that Winston's health is starting to fail
And who the heck takes Shane Jones seriously? The guy's a clown.
Horse gambling industry loves donating to Winston First https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/409320/nz-first-foundation-received-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars-from-donors-in-horse-racing-industry
What about the tens of thousands received by the National machine. Those which are visible paint a picture of influence on a very grand scale. Investigate that?
National have received several millions in total but of course all donations were deliberate and fairly legal.
Yep.
I've never voted for Peters and NZ First but lets be fair…
National and ACT have been indulging in this kind of fiscal subterfuge for decades. ACT started doing it in the 1990s and National have been doing it even longer. Anyone with any historical political knowledge (which counts out half the current political journos) knows it.
If the media is going to call out NZ First fair enough. But tell the whole story and acknowledge the fact National and ACT do it too. I can't speak for Labour or the Greens but given their donations tend to be much smaller amounts – but more numerous in quantity – I think it is unlikely.
Edit: And if some smarty pants tries to misconstrue my last sentence:
90% of Labour’s donors are not rich people and they donate small amounts (less than $100) but probably do it more frequently.
Whataboutism?
Yes the nats did that.
The original comment was about NZ1st. There seems to be an effort round these parts to minimise Winston's shenanagins.
When NZ 1st say they will review their practices, I call bulldust.
The NZ1st foundation was formed with the guidance of Peter's lawyer. I don't believe for a moment that Peter's isn't aware of what was going on. It sounds pretty legal
The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
This is what corruption looks like in an relatively non corrupt country.
For years we have suspected, but have had no real evidence that government policy on the racing industry was being bought.
The government has provided tax breaks to this morally corrupt industry, that feeds off gambling and animal cruelty.
Winston Peters is the Racing Minister. Can we really trust that he had no idea what was going on with the New Zealand First Foundation as he is claiming, when the Racing Industry that he serves was funneling money into it??
The whole idea of having a Minister for Racing is about as idiotic as you can get imo. Now we have the proof of what it is all about.
And yes this industry is based on animal cruelty and gambling.
He should at the very least be stood down from that Portfolio pending the investigation.
How on earth can he remain there?
Dodgy as ****
Concert FM hoopla shows whose views count the most https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/02/12/1030591/concert-fms-lesson-in-realpolitik
and then there's this:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018733749/former-prime-minister-helen-clark-on-concert-changes just a few minutes ago.
Both Hickey and Clark have good points to make.
But given what has been going on at RNZ, all this was as much about a couple of commercially oriented master-of-the-universe egos as it was about creating an alternative network with instant appeal.
Joe Bennett – in his normal mischievous way is on Stuff this morning channeling a 'yoof': https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/119415619/dear-rnz-bosses-young-people-arent-an-homogeneous-herd
If Thompson and co had been more concerned about what they perceive as the problem, they could have quietly worked on a third network and allowed it to evolve and be discovered by the 'demographic' naturally. (Even built on the BRAND "The Wireless")
It ain't over yet. The bloody board either let themselves down too, or were too busy trying to be down with the kuds. When you look at their backgrounds though a majority would seem to be quite comfortable with what's been going on (over a long time)
"If you doubt the variety of young people, cast your mind back to your own class at secondary school, ranging as it did from the thug at the back to the scholar at the front, via the athlete in the middle and the aesthete to one side, plus the dubious creep who later, oh my god, went into local politics. In short, we young people, like you older people, are as various as the pebbles on the beach and any radio station that tries to appeal to all of us will appeal to none of us."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/119415619/dear-rnz-bosses-young-people-arent-an-homogeneous-herd
Gotta love Joe Bennet…straight to the point
🙂 Maybe he's done his chips on "The Panel" like Martyn Bradbury did.
I doubt it would bother him much
Personally I am not surprised that hierarchy at RNZ has exposed themselves in this way as being so out of touch with their local communities, just look at steady decline of National radio as a serious new source over the past couple of decades, it really is now a just hollow shell of it's former self, are real lightweight.
And now (and under Labour of course) they totally disregard and dismiss one of the very few sources that offers even a breath of high minded culture for free into our communities..fucking Liberals, always so lowbrow, always finding ways to make life just that bit more shitty and crappy….yuk.
IMO that is a very one-sided view of the situation and I am surprised and disappointed at Hickey's take on the situation. This view that only white elitists listen to Concert FM or listen to and participate in classical music is just so closed minded.
It takes no account of the contribution NZ's multicultural and in particular, Maori and Pacifica, communities for example have made to classical music both here in NZ and worldwide.
In opera alone, Maori account for a good proportion of NZ artists who have reached the world stage such as Inia Te Wiata, Keri Te Kanawa, Kawiti Waetford, ManaTe Hapuku, and Phillip Rhodes to name just a few.
In the same field, in more recent years, our Samoan community has also contributed an impressive array of world recognised stars – for example, Moses Mackay, Pene Patu and Amatai Patu both individually and together as Sol3 Mio – our own version of the Three Tenors. Other Samoan NZers on the world opera circuit include Marlena Devoe and Benson Wilson – as is Amina Edris both in her own right and in company with her husband, Pene Patu. Amina is Egyptian-born but raised and trained in opera in NZ.
I could go on – at length – but will leave it at that. Many of the above artists did not come from well off homes – far from it. And they have provided good role models for others to follow in their footsteps – and support for others to do so.
But I am surprised and disappointed at the ignorance and closed mindedness that has emerged, including on here at TS, as the Concert FM issue has emerged.
But I am surprised and disappointed at the ignorance and closed mindedness that has emerged, including on here at TS, as the Concert FM issue has emerged.
In part it's a consequence of the way identity politics subsumes all individual interests and capacities. It casts a broad net over whole categories of people and dumps them into big silos with a couple of fat, lazy labels on them.
There is an overwhelming national interest in deplatforming classical music. /sarc.
Its a conclusion you can only reach by choosing not to think about who running ConcertFM benefits, and who running it opresses (e.g nobody).
And frankly the views suggesting its ConcertFM or Skypath are equally dim. What is the suggestion, that some roading contractors should take up radio engineering instead? The two are not economically or fiscally related so NZ should happily invest in both.
Funny, I was thinking the opposite.
Because what you call "identity politics" isn't about dumping labels on people, it's about people choosing how they describe themselves.
My suspicion was that someone was looking at a line item in their budget, they didn't listen to it personally, and they just assumed that its core audience was the stereotypical old/rich/white crowd beloved by hollywood screenwriters.
it's about people choosing how they describe themselves.
And invariably when they do this, they become more than anything else individuals, with a unique mix of heritage, family, experiences, interests and capacities. For example, someone may very well describe themselves as 'Samoan', but in reality this might be only one of many equally important aspects of who they are.
People do not choose one identity, they are a bewildering mix of them. While on the one hand we are social creatures driven to belong, we also value highly our freedom to choose where we belong, when and in which context. Much more nuanced than the crude idioms of identity politics allows for.
You described identity politics and then followed that description with a sentence that demonstrates you don't realise what you did.
"Because what you call "identity politics" isn't about dumping labels on people, it's about people choosing how they describe themselves."
Your saying comment 3 is self descriptive? The problematic kinds of identity politics invariably involve talking in very broad generalisations about a group (or between groups) of which the author is not representative. Also very typically some form of amateur phychology is infered to imply which group is morally superior.
On the other hand cases of people self identifying are so harmless they barely appear worthy of mention (Elizibeth Warren not with-standing).
"Let's not treat [people who identify as X] like shit" can be problematic for people who disagree with that statement.
In this case the people who seem to identify as the down with the youf executive of RNZ seem to be getting the shit, and their beliefs are problematic for people who like listening to Classical Music. There is something pretty fubar with the framing of this in identity politics terms of some elite demographic vs whoever they are opressing by enjoying Classical music on the radio.
If this wasn't characteristic of these IP arguments I wouldn't be making this argument of course, but it is.
Except that the implicit assumption is that only the "elite demographic" listen to classical music, which is an assumption about all the various groups made without listening to any of those groups to start with. Which has more in common with colonialism than it does with "identity politics".
Colonialism aye. In fact I think the only reason I am having this discussion is because of my unconscious Colonialism. Of course consciously I think its because I think having a discussion based on gross generalisations about caricatures of groups produces nonsense, but in the back there is always some colonialism going on there.
Now tell us how you feel about "identity politics".
I already did. You responded by trying to start a discussion where you apply amateur phychology (motivated by Colonialism) to a group (ConcertFM audience) to negatively caricature that group. The argument is gibberish but you thus ignored the reasonable concerns over the decision (should RNZ be run like a commercial station?).
Who said anything about "motivated by colonialism"?
I just said that imposing a collection of labels upon others (rather than listening to what labels they might choose for themselves) was more like colonialism that it was like "identity politics".
In all the discussions about "elitist" concert radio listeners, have you seen an actual breakdown of the concertFM audience? Standard market research with self-reported socio-economic data? Because I haven't. Which suggests to me that any description of the concertFM audience is probably:
instead of being based on the labels they select for themselves.
What you describe is imposition of labels with no regard for consent. "Identity politics" is about the freedom to honestly choose labels for oneself. From pronouns to any other aspect of identity.
Fully agree with you 100%.
The Pacifika and Maori contribution to classical music – particularly in vocal and choral – has been a revelation in the last 40 years.
It seriously worries me that a massive tradition of local music composition and performance is being proposed to simply be automated onto an AM station. WTF.
Well done to those who organised the petition – it clearly had an immediate effect upon our current Prime Minister .
Thank God for someone like Helen Clark who is giving it right back to them.
Same question – who are some of those composers for us to be aware of?
Go to ConcertFM while you still can and find out.
Or go to your nearest arts festival.
They are played and discussed at both.
Educate yourself.
If it's a 'massive tradition', I'd expect to already know more than Lilburn and Psathas.
Like I said, tune in more and you'll learn.
The facilities are there for you to do so.
Where do I tune in to hear more local electronica compositions?
GeorgeFM apparently – and googling electronica music NZ will give you masses of links to actual events etc.
GeorgeFM is awesome on Sundays. During the week not so much.
https://www.georgefm.co.nz/home/shows/george-weekends.html
When listened to online via a good USB DAC (digital to analogue converter) it sounds better than CD quality.
(CDs ripped to FLAC (lossless format) also sound better than a CD played directly)
Which also reminds me of another NZ composer of worldwide reputation whose compositions range over and blend a number of different genres including electronic with orchestral – Rhian Sheehan.
[Funny that because I have known him most of his life (= wider whanau). LOL]
Rhian features quite often on RNZ National music shows and presumably elsewhere across the spectrum of music radio stations.
For something different, you could always visit your local planetarium, eg Auckland Planetarium/Skydome, as Rhian composes the music for many of the shows featured at many planetariums worldwide – eg I think the latest one is "We are Astronomers" narrated by former Dr Who, David Tarrant or I might be totally out of date.
Rhian features quite often on RNZ National music shows and presumably elsewhere across the spectrum of music radio stations.
Student radio, that's all. Love his work.
Oh, and Gareth Farr.
That's a good list of performers. Which composers would you say are contributing to New Zealand's musical culture?
As Ad said, go educate yourself. There is plenty out there including on Google
So here are one or two snippets to get you started:
NZ Samoan Composer – Opeloge Ah Sam
https://www.creativenz.govt.nz/news/passionate-composer-and-performer-awarded-samoa-artist-in-residency
NZ Composer of Greek origin – Peter Psathas
Here is his Wikipedia entry but if you google his name there are plenty of local media reports on his background, his music compositions and their recognition overseas – eg he composed music for the opening/closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympics amongst many other compositions for worldwide events etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Psathas
Here is another link that lists quite a few "Samoan Voice" composers etc
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/visit/whats-on/war-memorial/first-world-war-centenary/wwi-samoa-voices-from-the-pacific/artist-biographies
And perhaps this interview will give you a little bit of an insight as to why Samoan and other Pacifica New Zealanders feature in our NZ music scene across all genres but particularly the choral genres including those associated with classical music.
https://e-tangata.co.nz/arts/igelese-ete-from-just-a-bunch-of-chords-to-moana-and-beyond/
I'll pick out the bits I like about Hickey's contribution:
He seemed to be learning in real time this week after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern used an interview on RNZ's Morning Report on Monday to express "frustration" that the planned "gutting" and relegation of Concert FM to a robo-station on AM had been announced before the Government had had to chance to come up with an alternative FM channel.
"I think we obviously didn't explain it clearly enough, and when we were talking about our plan, there was an assumption that it wouldn't be obvious initially that the FM transmission would be affected, and I think that was just a glitch in the communications," (struggling much?)
actually there's too many bits, and maybe I have a bit of a prejudice: liking to watch any wideboy being fed their chips
But there is unfortunately the truthiness in this:
"This real-time exercise in realpolitik for RNZ's board and the Government illustrates where power lies in New Zealand."
Oh how much easier it would be if gummints of whatever stripe, and masters-of the Universe in whatever pick-your-brand-Corp could just be up-front, open and honest.
Bullshit begets more bullshit (on the bright side though, it keeps a few spin meisters in immoral employment)
I haven't followed closely. Did the board fuck up, or where they playing the government?
The politics within RNZ are something to behold – especially since the current reign, from the way people have been 'eased' out (under-appreciated) to the marketeers taking over. I'd say the board royally fucked up putting too much faith in their 'golden boy(s)'.
Nobody has said. Jim Mather in particular seems too savvy to make such a stuff-up.
Board signed off Dec…around 17 minute mark
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018733670
Thank you. Lisa Owen asks explicitly at 15.52 if the public backlash has prised concessions from the govt including the shelved frequencies. A minute later, Thompson confirms RNZ did not ask for those as part of their plans for a new youth service because there had been 'no signal' they were on offer.
Ministers do not tend to be forgiving about being manipulated..
I doubt any Ministers were manipulated somehow
Savvy as he may be:
Aligned with his commercial background, Jim is also a former officer in the New Zealand Army, and was awarded the Sword of Honour in recognition of his distinguished achievements in Officer training.
He currently holds governance roles with the following organisations:
Well done Jim! Gorjiss!
We could go through each of the board members such as the next on the list.
Problem is they still fucked up (even though I have a special interest in one of them not coming to grief)
I really don't give a fuck who gets thrown under the bus – put it down to the cistern they operate in. The board, the CEO or his decisions on recruiting a wonder-boy called Willy, but somebody/people should have the decency to resign, or be sacked
Probably though if you really want to be efficient and effective, Thompson and Mcalister should take the fall
Both.
Toby Manhire ponders that question in light of today's developments: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/12-02-2020/a-crescendo-just-crushed-the-concert-restructure-so-what-next-for-rnz/
It was great to see the Salvation Army report with it's set of succinct social indicators.
Since this government doesn't look like it is going to deliver a social indicator report before the election despite structuring their entire budget around it, the Salvation Army one will do nicely.
If I had time I'd do a full post on it so I hope someone else will.
Link to report: https://www.salvationarmy.org.nz/article/bring-everyone-together
Yesterday I was shown some images out of China that were downright chilling … while I'm reluctant to repeat claims I've no way to verify or source, there is a fear that the CCP is using this event as cover to disappear inconvenient people … and more. There are now 60m people confined to their apartments and no-one knows for how long. In this tense, paranoid atmosphere there is real potential for events to spin out of control.
But the worst part now is that no-one trusts the CCP regime to tell the truth. Not just about the virus from a medical perspective, but with regard to all the other things going on around it. It seems the govts reaction is to double down on the security, censorship and restrictions in an attempt retain control, but this only further undermines the trust that is essential to the social cohesion necessary to get through this.
The Chinese people are going through a very difficult time right now … no matter where they live. A bit of true humanity and kindness will go a long way.
One problem I'm having is the great wall (the fire wall) is blocking vpns which normally get around it. Almost all of the anarchists in China have gone silent. Not a peep – and that is making me more than a little anxious. Have been asking other mates online, and they are repeating pretty much what you are saying RedLogix about the disappearance process.
What worries me many of these anarchists are lifestyle types, who are not really that political. Moreover they like the cultural elements, the music scene and hanging around together. Some good music coming out of chinese underground, been really enjoying the little I get to hear.
The chances are that the good ol' ordinary flu is affecting hundreds or even thousands of times as many Chinese in this their winter flu season than this new virus. This is just Christmas for a headline inducing panic-desperate media in all it's dodgy persuasions.
It is also Christmas and all its birthdays for the mad over controlling CCP and with a bit of luck its over reaction may be its downfall.
Humans live more or less in a known equilibrium with influenza; some years it's a bit tricky and evolves into a slightly new form, other years the vaccines work well. But in essence most people have sufficient immunity, and it has a typical lethality rate below 0.1%. It’s serious, but a known adversary we understand.
This new coronavirus is a concern because no-one has any immunity to it; potentially every human alive could become infected; and it's now clear that it's very transmittable. On the current numbers it seem like about 25% of people who become infected go on to develop a serious illness, and of these around 3% will die. Maybe 50m deaths inside the first year. That is much worse than seasonal influenza which typically kills around 0.5m each year.
This virus hits the 'sweet spot', long incubation period, efficient transmission including silent carriers and spreaders, multiple modes of transmission including airborne, a high fraction of serious illnesses that will hit the medical system, and sufficiently lethal to be heavily disruptive socially.
What we know about this bug is concerning already, and this is before it starts mutating on us. If it becomes seasonal, like many other coronavirus's, then all bets are off we would be into unknown territory where anything could happen. At that point the secondary social impacts will start to hurt.
WHO wakes up.
The WHO has asked countries to be "as aggressive as possible" in fighting the newly-named COVID-19 coronavirus.
"If the world doesn't want to wake up and consider the virus as public enemy number one, I don't think we will learn from our lessons," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.
"We are still in containment strategy and should not allow the virus to have a space to have local transmission," he said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/china-coronavirus-outbreak-latest-updates-200211012218330.html
Large scale infection of health workers.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050077/least-500-wuhan-medical-staff-infected-coronavirus
If Angola can contain Ebola I think are chances on this one are pretty good. The point I was making is how this is playing into the hands of the desperate, the media for drama and click bait and the CCP for control of its populace, having them locked away and terrified instead of on the street protesting.
Comparing one disease with another isn't necessarily useful. Already you've compared COVID-19 with influenza which is easily transmitted but with a very low fatality rate, and now with Ebola which is only transmittable via direct body fluid contact and this makes standard medical isolation and practices quite effective, even though it has a scarily high lethality.
Each disease must be treated on it's own terms, on the totality of it's character. This almost looks to be very difficult to contain, and sufficiently lethal to be quite disruptive. An unhappy combination that it would be unwise to ignore.
"This new coronavirus is a concern because no-one has any immunity to it; potentially every human alive could become infected; and it's now clear that it's very transmittable. "
Is that not true of every new iteration of influenza?
It would need an expert to answer this properly, but it's my understanding it's not a binary black and white thing as your question implies, and the degree of novelty matters. Also every individual's immune system has a different history and character.
By contrast COVID-19 is totally novel, no-one has even partial immunity as far as I'm aware. That's why these new variants that have jumped from other species are so very worrisome; they will spread quickly and we have no idea what their potential range of mutations will be.
The super spreader in England was infecting people before he got symptoms and it has a long incubation period. Unless we want to inundate the medical services we want to slow it down as much as possible – hopefully until a vaccine is available.
Following comments on another story I see that he has recovered. Sorry no link was just screenshot in comments.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/uknews/10942974/coronavirus-drug-dealer-prisoner-uk-jail-outbreak/
But this development does not sound good . Overcrowded prisons and virus sounds recipe for disaster.
Yeah.. and the Chinese authorities has put tens of millions of their own citizens under house arrest and is spraying down every city street just for shits and giggles.
No, its for the CCPs rabid desire for control. Plenty of virologists have stated that the spraying is ineffective as such viruses are very unlikely to survive outside or on such surfaces. But the images are good for mind control.
Yeah. Unless there's an insect vector and the spray is insecticide, the spray isn't going to do shit.
But it looks like something is being done.
My disagreement isn't that it's the CCP strengthening its control, I suspect it's more of a desperate holding action for control. The virus is going to be worst in impact, both directly and economically, on China. Hungry and scared people can be bullied only so far before they riot, and not nice like in HK. Stringing people up-style rioting.
Hungry and scared people can be bullied only so far before they riot, and not nice like in HK.
Our Chinese friend is translating material off the net for us that looks very much like the precursor to this. Last week she was not so worried, this week the tone has changed a lot.
We can speculate fruitlessly about the virus, it's behavior and how it might unfold globally. But what I was really wanting to emphasise is that the Chinese people in particular are going through a very difficult and worrisome time. If anyone has the chance to do so, now would be a good time to reach out to anyone Chinese you know. A little kindness at moments like this can go a very long way.
An insect vector??
Really!
Blame the fleas (or rats, while not insects, they are definitely loathsome, yes?)
Not really a blame thing. It was simply an observation of when mass spraying might be effective in disease control as opposed to a simple morale-boosting exercise. Development of the Panama Canal being a case in point.
How's the canal faring just now, do you know?
It's so busy that the biggest issue facing it is draining the lake that's the high point of the canal.
Still there as far as I know – but the French lost tens of thousands of workers to disease in their failed attempts, while the yanks focused on mosquito control (eradication and screens) and managed to significantly reduce their tropical disease fatalities.
https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(20)30046-3/fulltext
There's a massive difference between some level of persistence and that level being enough to realistically infect someone else walking on the same outdoor footpath.
This is a virus where someone went to a corporate workshop and only infected a few of the attendees after hours of close proximity. It's not like measles, where someone walking through the same terminal two hours later has a realistic chance of being infected.
I will just leave this here.
that didn't display, but the URL inside the tag was like 3 pages long. I've deleted it. Try a link instead.
You also got caught in the spam filter, which might have been that URL, or you may have a typo in your email address.
What you're just leaving here is the sentence: "I will just leave this here."
Brilliant piece of conceptual art.
4’33”
I hadn't heard this before. Still reeling.
Stuff/Marlborough Express- Thomas Coughlan:
Can't find a link but for Bridges is this a sort of squirmy half U-turn?
Ruling them out…unless it suits me not to…I'm ruling them out. For now. Unless it suits me not to. To get power. Otherwise, ruled out. 100%.
That clear?
Fucker's gone full despot.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1227352806992072704
On February 10, 2020, the Department of Justice recommended a seven to nine year sentence for Roger Stone on charges of obstructing a congressional investigation, making false statements to Congress, and witness tampering during the Russia investigation. Trump tweeted that the recommendation was “horrible and very unfair” and shortly after, a senior DOJ official intervened to overrule the front-line prosecutors and announced that they would be recommending a more lenient sentence. Four DOJ prosecutors have resigned from the case since the announcement.
https://www.citizensforethics.org/foia/doj-roger-stone-reduced-sentencing/
Thread.
https://twitter.com/Stonekettle/status/1008502343594373120
[…]
https://twitter.com/Stonekettle/status/1227379680719888384
They have uniforms.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1227249776162418695
And then there were ??
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1227397210574381056
Pity, as he was one of the more interesting candidates.
New Hampshire should be a comfortable win for Bernie.
Perhaps.
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1227393878879350784
What's the story Joe? Did Bernie pooh in your handbag or something. You seem to be keen to highlight perceive short-comings or cast doubt whenever possible.
The town you cite is the third least populated in New Hampshire. Billy-Bob could've had a BBQ and a significant portion of voters not shown up.
Not even that – Carroll county is 3rd smallest, with 47k people. The town in question has only 4k of that 47k.
It's a non-random sample of 4000 people, probably only 3,000 votes. Maybe bernie farted while visiting it, or they got pissed he didn't visit at all.
I think it's still 10, since Bennet has dropped out as well.
Early indications form NH – Bernie gets a good start with 14% counted.
Looks like the big question will be which of Klobuchar, Warren, and Biden break the 15% threshold to be awarded delegates. Right now only Klobuchar is over.
I thought the threshold was only for caucus states?
It's for all states.
Then the hocus-pocus wing-of-bat 2-eyes-of-newt weirdshit recipes different states have for allocating delegates breaks things up into several different levels, some of which can have an effective threshold greater than 15%.That's how Biden ended up with 6 delegates from Iowa and Klobuchar 1 despite have almost identical vote and SDE%
Plus giving out an effective leader's bonus due to rounding. That's how Buttigieg come out of Iowa with a 14 – 12 delegate lead over Sanders, despite only leading the SDE count by 0.1% (and lagging in the popular vote by 1.6%).
https://www.270towin.com/content/thresholds-for-delegate-allocation-2020-democratic-primary-and-caucus
https://www.thegreenpapers.com/P20/NH-D
https://www.thegreenpapers.com/P20/IA-D
Thanks for that.
I should probably clarify that a bit more. As I understand it, the 15% threshold for allocating delegates applies at each of the sub-units, not at the state as a whole.
So with New Hampshire awarding 8 delegates from each of its two House districts, if Warren breaks 15% in one of those, she will get one delegate even if she is below 15% for the state as a whole.
That's how Klobuchar got one delegate from Iowa, despite being below 15% for the state as a whole. But Biden squeaked over 15% for Iowa as a whole, so he got allocated delegates from the pool that was determined by statewide vote and ended up with 6 total from Iowa.
With 22% reporting, the NYT have Bernie at 28% of the vote… as with Iowa that's basically half what he got in 2016.
I remain skeptical of Bernies chances, in part because the three big 'obviously moderates' candidates (Mayor Pete, Biden, Klobuchar) combined are currently at more than 50% of the vote. My gut feel remains that, down the campaign stretch as the field shrinks, Sanders will get overtaken by whichever candidate outlasts the others.
Or go a bit further on a national level, the moderates (Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Biden, Bloomberg) add up to around 55%, the liberals (Sanders, Warren, Yang, Gabbard) are just a bit over 40%. Kinda like the Clinton – Sanders split last time around.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/national/
Again, only 2 significant candidates in 2016, vs half a dozen in 2020.
Biden is looking done at the moment. Bernie looks good, but the mayor and Warren are also still in the race.
Yes, less candidates last time, BUT I can't think of any other examples where a presidential hopeful has entered the primary a second time around and performed significantly worse than their first attempt.
Clinton was the anointed successor to Obama in '16 because she spent 8 years positioning herself as such. McCain ran distant second to Bush in '00, then Romney was second to McCain in '08 and they both were the obvious front runner for the title of next Republican nominee.
In contrast, Sanders seems like the just kind of walked away from the Democratic party apparatus in 2016 (he relinquished membership of the party not long after Trump's election) and left a huge vacuum that all these other candidates are now trying to fill.
I agree about his party membership, but the thing is that more candidates means a lot more pieces of cake. Which means smaller pieces. I don't think the different campaign years can be usefully compared on that basis.
ps: if you could think of such a candidate, you'd be the biggest nerd on a political nerd blog lol
Mike Huckabooboo actually won more delegates and was a very close third in popular vote % behind Romney's second in '08. But withdrew on Feb 1, 2016 after getting negligible support.
How many nerd points do I get?
you get to roll the 20-sided die to find out
Re: Biden.
His 'firewall' is still the 4th voting state – South Carolina and its majority-minority voter composition. He has led basically every poll conducted in SC, but it's still a high risk strategy because he has already effectively given up on Nevada which is next.
Fivethirtyeight's average still has Biden in the polling lead for South Carolina, but his trendline has done a BASE jump.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/south-carolina/
AP news has a piece on Biden's SC firewall starting to crumble.
https://apnews.com/3cbd9aca529f3f1b1385318b082bb049
There's a bunch of other articles floating around the intertoobz about Biden losing support among African-Americans, but they all seem to trace back to something from National Review, so …hmmm.
Phil your logic here is a bit off and is not supported by what data we have on the subject. Supporters of the big three moderate candiates Pete, Biden, Klobuchar arent just some moderate blob that will roll between the moderate candidates, in fact Biden supporters leading second choice is Bernie, furthmore bernie holds a good share in the second choice for Pete's supporters with a strong third (only three point behind bloomberg's lead).
The fall of Biden seems the most likley to happen soon and that will help Bernie more than Klobuchar or Pete both of whom are too much in the ascendency to consider dropping at the moment. And with warrens poor preformance tonight she might not be running to much longer either again, helping Bernie.
It would be good to see Warren drop out and have a large chunk of her supporters move to Bernie, but I suspect she will limp on for quite a while yet…
Have you links for the second choice voting that you mention? I would to see those stats.
I recall seeing some 2nd preference numbers months ago, but I too would be interested in seeing an update. The older they are the more they might reflect name recognition rather than actual voting intent.
The voting data that we do have from Iowa showed there was very little shift to Bernie on the 2nd-preference from the unviable candidates (and Biden was often unviable at individual caucus sites) so I really don't know how to square the two pieces of intelligence. I still stand by the gut-feel that Bernie probably doesn't have the coalition to reach 50% of delegates outright, but I can easily imagine him having the single largest bloc at the convention.
… and if nobody comes to the convention with more than 50% of the pledged delegates to win it at the first round, then the superdelegates come into play for the subsequent rounds.
When fivethirtyeight looked at it back in December, they found that only about a third of Sanders and Warren supporters picked the other liberal as their second choice.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/voters-second-choice-candidates-show-a-race-that-is-still-fluid/
I'm quite surprised no one is talking about this:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/409298/bridges-says-national-won-t-tone-down-ads-after-asa-ruling
National just got ticked off by the Advertising Standards Authority for telling porkies in an advert last year and Simon Bridges says they're going to keep on doing it.
I mean, we all knew that National was planning to use outright lies to try to win the election but I didn't expect them to actually tell us in advance!
inorite – who is dumb enough to tell the truth about lying? lol
Brief audio clip behind each static picture – note again in the second one the word 'believe' being used:
https://twitter.com/antihobbes/status/1227354837521584131
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/409346/survey-paints-grim-picture-of-schooling-for-children-with-disabilities
So IHC's done another survey and nothing's changed. Surprise, surprise.
IHC lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission 12 years ago. What the heck's happened to that? If IHC's behaviour around the sleepover case is anything to go by it'd be surprisng if it'll go anywhere. IHC's too far up the government's backside for that to happen.
"Gore district mayor Tracy Hicks was forthright in his condemnation of NZAS and Rio Tinto.
"I've had a gutsful of their shilly-shallying.
"We have been working with Rio Tinto for the last three years and have bent over backwards to keep them engaged.
"All they do is thumb their nose at us and the people of Mataura." "
Fuckers
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/devastated-anger-deal-move-toxic-chemicals-falls-over
Well that will destroy whatever social licence Rio Tinto have in Southland. I can see some interesting inadvertent alliances forming here. Who's going to have the balls, or stupidity, to defend Rio Tinto on in Southland Times, or on Dee Street.
"Fuckers"
x 1000
About time someone grew a pair and told Rio Tinto to depart these shores.
Which territorial authority is in charge here?
Paging Mr. Guyton.
may be indicative of their review result….'well fellas , we've worn out our welcome here…time to find a new mug to host us'…and dont worry, they’ll have their cheque books open
Having worked briefly on a major Rio site I can attest to the insane over-regulation and nit-picking that is endemic everywhere. Just to get a room in the camp I had to initial and sign a 48 page document of rules.
As frustrating as this decision must be for Southlanders, I'll bet the board has a process reason for this delay. The clue is here:
This looks more like a delay rather than reneging. Right now it's not even clear who the legal owner of this material is and the board's legal advisers may be cautious about accepting liability for it. The sums of money involved are literally petty cash to Rio Tinto, it will be safety and legal issues driving this.
I have to say that working for them was an exercise in demoralising frustration, so none of this surprises me.
Disposal of the dross has been an ongoing issue for the last 30 years at least. It just keeps getting moved around, and called different things every 10 years so people think it's another new problem.
Rio want it anywhere by their place so they don't have to deal with it when they remediate the Tiwai site on closure, which I'd say we will find out about after the review.
"Shilly-shallying"???
That's the best old Tracy can do?
Bending over backwards….what a silly tactic.
Approval ratings for Ardern and Bridges
This is the same poll (i.e. same respondents) as the party vote poll earlier this week. It's noteworthy that Ardern's 63.3% must include some National voters, and a high percentage of National voters do not think Bridges is performing well.
It sounds geeky but is actually relevant that this is the same poll as the party vote results, because of the polling methodology. I don't have access to the script of course, but the order of questions usually starts with the party vote ("if there were an election tomorrow" etc). So … having answered "National", the respondent then answers Qs about the party leaders, and gives Bridges the thumbs down.
While it is not impossible for a party to win despite a leader with low ratings, it is very rare in modern democracies, with leader-focused campaigns – and hasn't happened in NZ under MMP (Brash 2005 and Clark 1996 came closest).
Winston said in his speech today that Bridges is at minus 32% on the +- scale.
He also asked Bridges if he had a Warrant to practice Law? No answer.
Bridges will rue his stance versus NZF.
He certainly has no mates except Seymour who Peters characterised as being ACT's seventh leader- but there's only one vote and if there was a second ACT MP in the caucus, he wouldn't be.
The Opposition finance spokesperson , Paul Goldsmith, was described as the only candidate in democracies who took his own hoardings down before an election rather than putting them up!
Electoral chicanery we should not forget.
Is he implying that the lad has let his practising registration lapse? So all the chest-thumping about being a thrusting lawyer is but a fond memory..
Was chatting to a true blue supporter today who told me for the first time in his life he won't be voting national, because of 'that twat bridges'. I almost fell over.
Looking at that poll leader approval rating result, it appears that his view is shared by others.
Who will they vote for I wonder – or just not vote?
Winston said in the House musingly, "Since the popular vote was over 70% for Jacinda, there must have been a fair few National voting for Jacinda?"
Uncooked, I did ask who else he wouldn't be voting for and the reply was, NZ First or act.
Another person then entered the room so our conservation ended.
Will ask him after the election who he ended up voting for, he knows I support red and green.
Ianmac 🙂 I'd say Winnie is 100% correct with that comment.
That's the funny thing – the more Bridges looks like a dropkick, ACT will be a wasted vote. So the sensible tory will vote NZ1 to moderate the next government's policies, which could end up helping NZ1 over the line…
Bear in mind, too, that (as with Colmar Brunton), Reid Research …
(1) Present the Party Vote as a % of Decided voters only …
Whereas:
(2) Leader Performance (like Preferred PM) is presented as a % of All Respondents.
That means that non-Labour voters comprise an even larger slice of those who believe Ardern is Performing Well than might appear to be the case at first sight,
If the Reid Research % Don't Knows are anything close to the latest Colmar Brunton DKs … then that would mean a very large minority of those favourable to Ardern's Performance are non-Lab voters … Nats, Greens, NZFers along with those respondents who haven't made up their mind on the Party Vote.