Am I the only person who thinks a couple of NRL players (Jayden Okunbor and Corey Harawira-Naera) who are young men of 23 and 24 hooking up with a couple of 17 year old schoolgirls is grubby, but hardly the sensational scandal the media is making of it or a career ending act for the players or indeed anyone else's business? Anyone who has been in bar with pro-rugby players out on the rantan can attest to the keen enthusiasm of shoals of young women to get *ahem* better acquainted.
The girls parents are probably (and justifiably) furious, although I doubt the players or the girls feel much regret at their bit of vigorous rutting. AFAIK, no one is suggesting anything non-consensual or illegal occurred (the age difference, after all, is only six years or seven years) and no one has suggested anyone has made a complaint to police.
The bottom IMHO is the thickets of rules around conduct for players who are often not the brightest candles in the chandelier and are definitely not playing in the NRL only because their application for a reflective life of abstemious silence got turned down by their monastery of choice are simply a disaster waiting to happen. They really about protecting the clubs income from the outrage of po faced middle class media moralisers, not protecting young players and young women who clearly don't feel they need much protecting from each other.
Surely it far past the time we accept these guys are not role models – just professional sportsmen who are part of a genetic freak show, a circus act put on for our entertainment, and what they get up to off the paddock is entirely their business as long as they don't break any actual laws?
– If the All Blacks pulled at Dio, which brands including the sponsors, would suffer more?
– If the Black Ferns whisked a 16 year old boy from Otago Boy's High, what would happen to the women's game?
– Why don't we just apply your principle to every high school on the country, and to every sports code, with the principle of: it's legal, they enjoyed it, woo hooo?
– Will the men be able to look after the resulting children?
– Would it make a difference if the men were in their 60s and playing for a Seniors club?
– What about if the men were in their 80s?
Honestly Sanctuary, call me all patriarchal, but I'd recommend you have a daughter and work that scenario through.
– If the All Blacks pulled at Dio, which brands including the sponsors, would suffer more?
Don't know and don't care.
– If the Black Ferns whisked a 16 year old boy from Otago Boy's High, what would happen to the women's game?
Who knows? Lizzie Marvelly would probably be upset.
– Why don't we just apply your principle to every high school on the country, and to every sports code, with the principle of: it's legal, they enjoyed it, woo hooo?
Well… Yes.
– Will the men be able to look after the resulting children?
What children? Are you a Catholic or something?
– Would it make a difference if the men were in their 60s and playing for a Seniors club?
Of course it would, power relationships, grooming etc etc.
– What about if the men were in their 80s?
If an 80 year old is a) still playing rugby and b) has the energy to be able to bag a willing 17 year old school girl I'd be more impressed than outraged.
Honestly Sanctuary, call me all patriarchal, but I'd recommend you have a daughter and work that scenario through.
If it was my daughter I'd be paternally furious at her and furious at them, but their is shite I could actually do about it beyond a scolding and outrage.
Heh, you are possibly the only person that will post such a view on the Standard blogsite Sanctuary, put it that way…
It is not a great spectacle to regularly see contrite, tearful, 99.9% male, sports people sorry for themselves on Monday mornings. Another meth/coke/booze fuelled mayhem session somewhere. “I let everyone down”. Not necessarily “maayte”, not everyone gives one about professional sport or the people that play it and then “play up”. It is part of popular culture regardless though–and it must be said–toxic male culture in NZ and Australia.
Consenting people of age is one thing. But why discourage the Sporting Bodies when they have at long last started doing something at least to encourage better attitudes and behaviour towards women and the issue of consent? Sometimes they cloak it in “code of conduct” type language but it is sure needed. Rugby and League players and associates have made the media so many times when young girls, drunken players and hotel accomodation coincide.
I agree it is great we've moved on from the club snickering and back slapping the players in the club rooms to "WTF were you two idiots thinking???" That is progress.
However, I get annoyed at the idea the young women have no agency in all this – they clearly gave out their numbers and went to some effort and ingenuity to get to their hotel rendezvous. If I was their parents, I'd be pretty pissed off that while I was vetting the suitors at the front door they were sneaking out the back to meet a couple of horny football players. As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Sometimes I wonder if people remember when they were 23 and ridiculously fit. at that age, your dick tends rules your life. These four people don't sound like candidates for Mensa, and I doubt they've signed up to the puritanism that seems to be the flip side of so many middle class liberals.
Like I said, grubby and ill-advised but hardly the end of the world.
Not in the modern world. Everything to do with female sexual expression is embraced and celebrated as empowering and liberating by our media, while anything male, and especially if heterosexual, exists only on a spectrum between grubby and rapey.
This is why it's unwise for men to say anything public to do with sexuality these days. Like Folau, feel free to be bothered about it in private …
Indeed there are two sides on this playing field, but the ref is only allowed to penalise one team. Note that the young women involved face no consequences and remain anonymous, while the young men have been named, shamed and sanctioned by the NRL.
And you know what, I and a great many other people don't care a tinker's cuss (lovely old expression 🙂 ) about this story. And the fact these young women were apparently asking for it makes them no better than the young men.
The media, by highlighting the story, are giving credence to the behaviour and encouraging others to copy them.
Whereas Christine Keeler , a teenager when introduced to Stephen Ward , was portrayed as a slut and a no good prostitute, Virginia Guiffre is portrayed as an innocent victim, helplessly forced to accept quantities of money in return for sexual acts
Neither portrayals reflect the complexities of female experience and agency
Surely it far past the time we accept these guys are not role models – just professional sportsmen who are part of a genetic freak show, a circus act put on for our entertainment, and what they get up to off the paddock is entirely their business as long as they don't break any actual laws?
It never was the time for these entertainers to be portrayed as role models. It's an embarrassment to the country.
If they're not role models, they wouldn't be sent to visit schools in the first place.
It's alleged they brought the females back to their hotel after reportedly meeting them during an official club visit to the school, 9News reports.
So on the one hand, yeah, it's all ok between "adults", but on the other hand they're not there to get their end away. And then it becomes a commercial decision as to whether that behaviour is acceptable to the wider public who buy sponsors' products:
Adding to the club's woes, $2 million major sponsor, family restaurant chain Rashays, have reportedly pulled the plug on their deal with the club amid public outrage over the scandal.
It's not so much a "me, too" moment as a "just, ewww" moment, but today's professional athletes are brand promotion vehicles, the sport is incidental.
It's a bit like me and my job. My opinions here can conflict, or reflect badly upon, my employer. I figure there's a 30% chance that if I get outed, I'll have to find other work because if I hang around and some tory decided to get their knickers in a twist about me calling nats baby-killers (because some real-name commenters here in the past have indeed said that they employers had been contacted by tories with a grudge), we lose a contract and the oily rag is no longer smelly enough to do our work. Which would suck for the others and the job we do. But that's the situation, which I have to assess with my eyes open – including the idea that I out myself and nobody gives a shit, lol.
On Super Tuesday, Joe Biden broke the narrative that had defined the Democratic primary race. The surprise wasn’t that he won, though that was unexpected. It’s that he won new voters in a high-turnout election — almost every state saw a turnout surge, and a Washington Post analysis suggests Biden won 60 percent of voters who didn’t cast a ballot in 2016.
“We increased turnout,” Biden said in his victory speech. “The turnout turned out for us!”
This is a result that requires some rethinking. Before Super Tuesday, the conventional wisdom was simple. Bernie Sanders was the turnout candidate, and Biden the uninspiring generic Democrat. You could see this in Sanders’s packed rallies, his die-hard social media brigades, his army of individual donors — and in Biden’s inability to match those markers of enthusiasm. If new voters flooded the primary, it would be proof that Sanders’s political revolution was brewing. But if the political revolution failed and turnout stagnated, Biden might slip through. What virtually no one predicted was Biden winning a high-turnout contest. But he did.
Firstly
Biden’s speech patterns offend the media and political pundits. Voters don’t really care.
Secondly
Nonvoters aren’t as ideological as political obsessives
Thirdly
2020 is a referendum on Trump, not on the Democratic agenda
Finally
Democrats have settled on two risky choices
Democrats have a difficult task in 2020. Trump is the incumbent amid, for now, a growing economy. Presidents almost never lose under those conditions. Moreover, Trump has a significant advantage given the country’s electoral geography: It’s entirely possible the Democrat could once again win more votes and lose the Electoral College.
And Democrats are not, in my view, playing it safe. The field has winnowed down to a 77-year-old icon of the Democratic establishment who has trouble expressing himself and a 78-year-old democratic socialist who just had a heart attack. And both of them are crisscrossing the country holding public events amid the outbreak of a virus that’s particularly dangerous for older Americans. There were, in my view, a number of less risky choices in the Democratic field, but voters rejected them.
Of course, Trump is a risky choice for Republicans. Despite the strong economy, he has never broken 50 percent in polling averages. He lost the popular vote in 2016, led Republicans to electoral wipeout in 2018, and got himself impeached in 2019. His White House has been chaotic, he is more rhetorically reckless than Biden, and he is also a septuagenarian in middling physical health.
On Super Tuesday, Biden showed that a campaign that has been singularly uninspiring to the most engaged sliver of the electorate was able to turn out the most voters. Those of us who didn’t see it coming need to rethink our priors.
A 2018 paper by Andrew Hall and Daniel Thompson looked at US House elections between 2006 and 2014 and concluded that moderates performed better. The mechanism here is interesting: The study finds that more extreme candidates do drive turnout, but “extremists appear to activate the opposing party’s base more than their own.” In other words, they drive more countermobilization than mobilization.
So maybe us moderates aren't so despicable after all. While I still support Sander's overall goals, the method of his political implementation has been a failure. At the risk of going full CV, yes it is a lesson far left wing activists have proven very slow to learn.
For the establishment Dems and media this was all about stopping Sanders not beating Trump..nothing more or less.
I means seriously.." Biden’s speech patterns offend the media and political pundits. Voters don’t really care."..really? are you telling us that you seriously think that if Sanders displayed the same oblivious cognitive decline as Biden, that the so called liberal media wouldn't have torn him limb to limb?..
There is a reason why the sanders team ended up saying that Fox gave them a fairer time of it than liberal MSM.
The take away from this is that moderate centrist liberals would rather see the whole fucking planet burn than rock their safe little boats…which is of course unsurprising as their beloved ideology is anchored in selfishness and short termism
How Sanders shrunk his base rather than expanding it:
Running against the establishment is standard populism. But to win with that message, you have to define the enemy narrowly. The more people you denounce as part of the establishment, the more you scare politicians and voters. If you’re proposing single-payer health insurance, for example, the smart move is to stipulate that you’re just targeting insurance companies. Instead, Sanders has threatened the whole medical sector. “We will take on the health care industry,” he vowed at a rally last week. On Monday, he repeated that line to a crowd in St. Louis. On CNN, he blasted the industry for supporting Biden: “The health care industry that is taking out their checkbooks? That is the establishment. We are taking them on.”
Look pal, hasn't Coronavirus shown you that scaring people is the easiest thing in the world to do for media, they are the pro's at it, liberal MSM have been 'scaring' the population about Sanders and his policies from the git go..with inevitable results.
It's like all (and that is ALL liberal MSM, not just some) the media tip the scales in one direction, then when that inevitable result happens, they are like…well there you go folks the people have spoken and didn't want this or that, and strangely you and many on this site never acknowledge that fact what so ever?
I can guarantee you this, if Sanders or Corbyn had had just two main stream media outlets that were as biased towards them and their ideology as ALL of the liberal media has been at protecting it's own Liberal ideology and tearing the progressive movement and their ideas down, then we would have seen quite a different story unfold over the past few years.
It's appears quite clear now, as shown by the primary results so far, the majority of registered democrats are voting to keep the dems centre left. If that means the majority in the party are establishment, moderate centrist liberals, then it is what it is, and no crying over the lack of cut through by a minority fringe is going to change anything. The results in Michigan, Missouri, and Mississippi are bluntly telling in the working man has rejected Bernie’s democratic socialism.
And centralist weaklings that post on The Standard, fundamentally do not seem to support the Sanders Campaign policies anyway when it really comes down to it. They scarf down US media punditry like a dog returning to a regurgitated dinner.
Bernie Sanders displays more political courage in one day at 78 than most do for their whole lives. As for electability–he should stay in the contest as long as he likes–he owes the US Ruling Class of which the Democratic Party elites are members of–literally nothing, due to his working class funded campaign. The millions without healthcare and all the rest of it, will see NO change if Biden does somehow escape the Trump mangling machine. I saw a piece today, a Seattle clinic was charging $100-$500 for Corona virus screens for insured patients, $1600 for uninsured! Free in NZ and much of the ‘civilised’ world. That is what the Bernie Campaign is about.
Bernie would not of touched the Democrats with a 40 foot pole if not for the US system–not just FPP which typically leads to two only “official” parties but…State, Federal, Congress, Senate and Electoral College layers that all present unique barriers to a new vision or third and fourth parties trying to get representation for their supporters.
He should persist until substantial policy gains are made, or stand as an independent as a precursor to a full new party for 2024. So often the “real politik” views of what is “possible” posters are mere right opportunism.
People's politics are their own, and if they mainly come from the centre, which in the US (and here) the numbers suggest they do, then that's the actual state of the field in play. Attacking them won't change their minds, though I concede it's easier (even if counter productive) than trying to convince them an unpopular vision is the way forward.
As I've said before, I party vote for the most electable party furthest left from the middle, and Biden wouldn't have been in my top three presidential candidates, but neither of those things change the reality I listed above.
Calling people centrist weaklings because one's politics are fringe and hopes and dreams have died at the ballot box doesn't bother me, but like the momentum led labour party in the UK, you won't win too many battles with it.
And the dead dog that the Dems and liberal MSM have pushed is not only suffering for cognitive decline, when he does open his mouth he spews out about as much bullshit and lies as Trump….well done you stupid selfish centrists, hope you all got a good excuse lined up to tell your grandchildren when you try and explain why the planet is burning around them…..as I have said for years you liberals are more of a threat to any progressive project than the Right, and you all just proved it again…well done.
It was not my intention to put this specifically on you The Al1en. Various others deserve the centrist weakling accolade more.
Elections do not happen in a social vacuum–“righto chaps let the best man win eh what!” is not how it is structured under US billionaire Manufacturing Consent rules by the longest of stretches.
People vote against their own material interests regularly around the world, why? For subjective reasons. Fear. Neo liberal fostered hyper individualism. Hardwired loyalty to what was. Aspiration. Fear of the new. And scariest of all–100 million eligible Americans are so alienated and degraded by social conditions, and excluded by gerrymandering and voter suppression, that they don’t bloody vote at all.
So in recent decades a minority of a minority actually enables a candidate to get to the Electoral College stage even. Of course ultimately the vote is the vote–but it should not be viewed uncritically or without a full analysis.
Don't bother Adrian Thornton – Centrist never listen – it's their one true gift.
Take the positives that from nothing a left has arisen in the USA. That it is getting organised and it has started to move the debate – with what little it had. It's only going to get bigger.
The majority of the scum centerists who dominate the debate now will be dead within a few years, and the ideas taking hold now will be the new normal/centre.
Hi Adam, of course they don't listen, they are just as bound to their free market ideology as the rest of us to our own ideologies, the only difference is that our one is the only one that if implemented has at least a fighting chance at saving the planet and perhaps even making our societies and communities just a little bit nicer while we are at it…but as I have said a thousand times on this site, the Liberal ideology is an extremely selfish one, which guides all their policies and unfortunately for us, it is toward the inevitable cliff…
Looking at ABC news, I found the Edelman Trust Barometer. In its twentieth year, it has collated the results of 34,000 online survey respondents from late last year.
Although, I couldn't find any specific references in the data to NZ, there are quite a few interesting results coming out of the survey, including:
56% agreement with the statement: "Capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world".
There are a number of different perspectives surveyed, including trust and ethics as they relate to business, media and government.
Have been keeping an eye out for that, but impression seems to be that there's maybe less than normal, and movements correspond to the usual short stay. ie The airplane comes in, and then leaves a couple of day later and departs the country.
If they were bunkering the airplane would depart pretty quickly to either overseas or parking in NZ. There's nowhere to park them in Queenstown.
Not to say there’s not some one way arrivals on commercial flights though. It’d probably be a while before immigration caught up with someone from US or Europe / UK who didn’t go home after their holiday.
He won 46% of delegates in the last cycle … running against an opponent with no penis.
There's still a lot to be learned from comparing 2016 to 2020, but one thing we can be sure of right now is that Bernie's 2016 near-success was not an indication of enthusiasm for Bernie's ideologies. Biden's positions and history are downright reactionary compared to Hillary's, which should push even more voters Bernie's way if his ideology were a major factor. But this year Bernie is running way behind where he was in 2016.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.
The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus.
Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.
“We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.”
[…]
This came directly from the White House,” one official said.
Let me guess; Republicans are trying to give Kosovo back to Serbia. Or, Serbia is the tRump crime family’s preferred bolt-hole and following the despot’s playbook, they’ve been squirreling their looted billions there.
"Even the previously sluggish Auckland market has fired up again, median prices up 4.3 per cent from $851,000 a year ago to $888,000 last month. That was the highest Auckland price in more than four years."
I thought this government was doing something about getting rid of all the investors in the property market? Guess not….
I thought this government was doing something about getting rid of all the investors in the property market?
Can you provide a link in which the Government has stated this? I think that you are making it up and I get grumpy when people do this, particularly in election year.
"The bright line test – which requires tax to be paid on any gains made from a residential property sale – was first imposed by the National-led Government in 2015.
The Labour-led Government has argued the measures don’t go far enough and that extending the test to five years will help deter property speculators and “may” have of a dampening effect on the housing market."
Yeah…lets get into a real 'woke' online argument…"you stated 'X' so you must provide a link to prove your statement of 'X' exists"
[You made up shit, and you know it. Of course, you cannot provide a link of your BS attribution to the Government because it doesn’t exist, and you know it. You were shit-stirring in the hope that somebody would take the bait. Well, I did. If you had chosen your words differently and more carefully, we would not have this “real ‘woke’ online argument”. Analogy: ‘they tried to hit me’ becomes ‘they tried to kill me’. You can take your “real ‘woke’ online argument” and shit-stir somewhere else. Banned for two weeks – Incognito]
Give up indiana. Many of us already have. IMO at the rate things are going, there will no-one left here by the time of the election – just a hollow echo chamber.
No point in fighting battles ya can't win @veuts. Better to just sit back and snigger at shit you don't feel like pushing uphill. Martyrdom went out of fashion more than my lifetime ago – it was replaced by the 15 minutes of fame aspiration
And just be glad TS is around, and if we comment – we do so as guests.
Besides, Mr Incognito isn't a bad sort of bloke (if he watches his blood pressure and cholesterol levels)
Taji Camp was hit again by 18 rockets and there has a number deaths and wounded soldiers this time. From reports I’ve just read they include UK and US service personal deaths, with number of wounded from these two countries and it’s believed that no NZ or ADF have wounded or kill at this.
It’s time for this NZG to seriously call time on Iraq, as the odds of a NZDF being wounded or kill over in Taji are shorting everyday now and it only a matter of time now.
So, Trump has decided to heap all the blame for the spread of Covid 19 on Europe eh. Good way to cover up for ones own piss poor management of General Health services in the US:
Has the silly bastard thought of isolating the areas in his own country where the virus has reared its ugly head, or am I wrong in thinking that the stupid boofhead has just made a big move to make people think he is powerful and decisive (but far too late)?
It's quite easy to heap blame on the federal government but states have their own government and play the most important part in handling one of these crises. The federal government is there to tidy up the mess once a state is overwhelmed really.
Trump has stopped travellers from Europe. New Zealand is still letting them in, no questions asked, just handing them a pamphlet even if the country they're from has exponential spread of the virus.
Although we may (have to) close our borders too, comparing travellers from Europe to the USA with Europeans to NZ is flawed. This kind of reasoning sounds very much like a me-too kneejerk without taking into account numbers and types of travellers.
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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, ...
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. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
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 ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. 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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March 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 ...
Am I the only person who thinks a couple of NRL players (Jayden Okunbor and Corey Harawira-Naera) who are young men of 23 and 24 hooking up with a couple of 17 year old schoolgirls is grubby, but hardly the sensational scandal the media is making of it or a career ending act for the players or indeed anyone else's business? Anyone who has been in bar with pro-rugby players out on the rantan can attest to the keen enthusiasm of shoals of young women to get *ahem* better acquainted.
The girls parents are probably (and justifiably) furious, although I doubt the players or the girls feel much regret at their bit of vigorous rutting. AFAIK, no one is suggesting anything non-consensual or illegal occurred (the age difference, after all, is only six years or seven years) and no one has suggested anyone has made a complaint to police.
The bottom IMHO is the thickets of rules around conduct for players who are often not the brightest candles in the chandelier and are definitely not playing in the NRL only because their application for a reflective life of abstemious silence got turned down by their monastery of choice are simply a disaster waiting to happen. They really about protecting the clubs income from the outrage of po faced middle class media moralisers, not protecting young players and young women who clearly don't feel they need much protecting from each other.
Surely it far past the time we accept these guys are not role models – just professional sportsmen who are part of a genetic freak show, a circus act put on for our entertainment, and what they get up to off the paddock is entirely their business as long as they don't break any actual laws?
A few minor rhetorical questions:
– Which school would invite that team back again?
– If the All Blacks pulled at Dio, which brands including the sponsors, would suffer more?
– If the Black Ferns whisked a 16 year old boy from Otago Boy's High, what would happen to the women's game?
– Why don't we just apply your principle to every high school on the country, and to every sports code, with the principle of: it's legal, they enjoyed it, woo hooo?
– Will the men be able to look after the resulting children?
– Would it make a difference if the men were in their 60s and playing for a Seniors club?
– What about if the men were in their 80s?
Honestly Sanctuary, call me all patriarchal, but I'd recommend you have a daughter and work that scenario through.
Well the answer to your questions are:
Which school would invite that team back again?
Depends if it got into the media I guess.
– If the All Blacks pulled at Dio, which brands including the sponsors, would suffer more?
Don't know and don't care.
– If the Black Ferns whisked a 16 year old boy from Otago Boy's High, what would happen to the women's game?
Who knows? Lizzie Marvelly would probably be upset.
– Why don't we just apply your principle to every high school on the country, and to every sports code, with the principle of: it's legal, they enjoyed it, woo hooo?
Well… Yes.
– Will the men be able to look after the resulting children?
What children? Are you a Catholic or something?
– Would it make a difference if the men were in their 60s and playing for a Seniors club?
Of course it would, power relationships, grooming etc etc.
– What about if the men were in their 80s?
If an 80 year old is a) still playing rugby and b) has the energy to be able to bag a willing 17 year old school girl I'd be more impressed than outraged.
Honestly Sanctuary, call me all patriarchal, but I'd recommend you have a daughter and work that scenario through.
If it was my daughter I'd be paternally furious at her and furious at them, but their is shite I could actually do about it beyond a scolding and outrage.
Think of Folau x 1000
There's plenty you could and should do.
Folau's biggest problem was/is he doesn't know when to shut up in public. He can God bother all he likes in private.
Heh, you are possibly the only person that will post such a view on the Standard blogsite Sanctuary, put it that way…
It is not a great spectacle to regularly see contrite, tearful, 99.9% male, sports people sorry for themselves on Monday mornings. Another meth/coke/booze fuelled mayhem session somewhere. “I let everyone down”. Not necessarily “maayte”, not everyone gives one about professional sport or the people that play it and then “play up”. It is part of popular culture regardless though–and it must be said–toxic male culture in NZ and Australia.
Consenting people of age is one thing. But why discourage the Sporting Bodies when they have at long last started doing something at least to encourage better attitudes and behaviour towards women and the issue of consent? Sometimes they cloak it in “code of conduct” type language but it is sure needed. Rugby and League players and associates have made the media so many times when young girls, drunken players and hotel accomodation coincide.
I agree it is great we've moved on from the club snickering and back slapping the players in the club rooms to "WTF were you two idiots thinking???" That is progress.
However, I get annoyed at the idea the young women have no agency in all this – they clearly gave out their numbers and went to some effort and ingenuity to get to their hotel rendezvous. If I was their parents, I'd be pretty pissed off that while I was vetting the suitors at the front door they were sneaking out the back to meet a couple of horny football players. As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Sometimes I wonder if people remember when they were 23 and ridiculously fit. at that age, your dick tends rules your life. These four people don't sound like candidates for Mensa, and I doubt they've signed up to the puritanism that seems to be the flip side of so many middle class liberals.
Like I said, grubby and ill-advised but hardly the end of the world.
As the saying goes, it takes two to tango.
Not in the modern world. Everything to do with female sexual expression is embraced and celebrated as empowering and liberating by our media, while anything male, and especially if heterosexual, exists only on a spectrum between grubby and rapey.
This is why it's unwise for men to say anything public to do with sexuality these days. Like Folau, feel free to be bothered about it in private …
A great discussion with valid points raised by all who comprehend the playing field from both sides and I think reality was a clear winner.
Indeed there are two sides on this playing field, but the ref is only allowed to penalise one team. Note that the young women involved face no consequences and remain anonymous, while the young men have been named, shamed and sanctioned by the NRL.
And you know what, I and a great many other people don't care a tinker's cuss (lovely old expression 🙂 ) about this story. And the fact these young women were apparently asking for it makes them no better than the young men.
The media, by highlighting the story, are giving credence to the behaviour and encouraging others to copy them.
" these young women were apparently asking for it "
Fuksake. Really Anne?
It sounds like you very much do care about this story in that you can from your high horse declare the women were asking for it.
I expect you aren't going to be looking for sympathy next time you're asking for it
Oh bullshit Brigid. Those young women were there asking for sex with the "horny football players" (Sanctuary at 1.2.1).
It was Sanctuary's take on the story we were responding to. You didn't read the background comments and jumped to the wrong conclusion eh.
Well Red
Social mores change
Whereas Christine Keeler , a teenager when introduced to Stephen Ward , was portrayed as a slut and a no good prostitute, Virginia Guiffre is portrayed as an innocent victim, helplessly forced to accept quantities of money in return for sexual acts
Neither portrayals reflect the complexities of female experience and agency
Perfectly put.
The difference is pretty obvious.
Why do players go to a bar? (as opposed to …) Why do players go to a school?
Surely it far past the time we accept these guys are not role models – just professional sportsmen who are part of a genetic freak show, a circus act put on for our entertainment, and what they get up to off the paddock is entirely their business as long as they don't break any actual laws?
It never was the time for these entertainers to be portrayed as role models. It's an embarrassment to the country.
If they're not role models, they wouldn't be sent to visit schools in the first place.
So on the one hand, yeah, it's all ok between "adults", but on the other hand they're not there to get their end away. And then it becomes a commercial decision as to whether that behaviour is acceptable to the wider public who buy sponsors' products:
It's not so much a "me, too" moment as a "just, ewww" moment, but today's professional athletes are brand promotion vehicles, the sport is incidental.
It's a bit like me and my job. My opinions here can conflict, or reflect badly upon, my employer. I figure there's a 30% chance that if I get outed, I'll have to find other work because if I hang around and some tory decided to get their knickers in a twist about me calling nats baby-killers (because some real-name commenters here in the past have indeed said that they employers had been contacted by tories with a grudge), we lose a contract and the oily rag is no longer smelly enough to do our work. Which would suck for the others and the job we do. But that's the situation, which I have to assess with my eyes open – including the idea that I out myself and nobody gives a shit, lol.
An insightful examination of Joe Biden's electability, and why even though he stumbles in his speech his appeal is far wider than many give him credit
Firstly
Biden’s speech patterns offend the media and political pundits. Voters don’t really care.
Secondly
Nonvoters aren’t as ideological as political obsessives
Thirdly
2020 is a referendum on Trump, not on the Democratic agenda
Finally
hoo boy
https://twitter.com/reilyseanconn/status/1237713163270979584
https://twitter.com/politico/status/1237743855342161922
If it were not the US we would call winning every single county clear evidence of rigging.
Nothing to see here, move on.
Also from your link:
So maybe us moderates aren't so despicable after all. While I still support Sander's overall goals, the method of his political implementation has been a failure. At the risk of going full CV, yes it is a lesson far left wing activists have proven very slow to learn.
This is an interesting piece remarking on the consequences of the "safe" choice
Biden/Sanders
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/11/joe-biden-democratic-primary-voters-nomination/?comments=1#comments
'
You will give the beige badger a soft-on with talk like that, RL.
That's a very depressing conclusion.
For the establishment Dems and media this was all about stopping Sanders not beating Trump..nothing more or less.
I means seriously.." Biden’s speech patterns offend the media and political pundits. Voters don’t really care."..really? are you telling us that you seriously think that if Sanders displayed the same oblivious cognitive decline as Biden, that the so called liberal media wouldn't have torn him limb to limb?..
There is a reason why the sanders team ended up saying that Fox gave them a fairer time of it than liberal MSM.
The take away from this is that moderate centrist liberals would rather see the whole fucking planet burn than rock their safe little boats…which is of course unsurprising as their beloved ideology is anchored in selfishness and short termism
How Sanders shrunk his base rather than expanding it:
Look pal, hasn't Coronavirus shown you that scaring people is the easiest thing in the world to do for media, they are the pro's at it, liberal MSM have been 'scaring' the population about Sanders and his policies from the git go..with inevitable results.
It's like all (and that is ALL liberal MSM, not just some) the media tip the scales in one direction, then when that inevitable result happens, they are like…well there you go folks the people have spoken and didn't want this or that, and strangely you and many on this site never acknowledge that fact what so ever?
I can guarantee you this, if Sanders or Corbyn had had just two main stream media outlets that were as biased towards them and their ideology as ALL of the liberal media has been at protecting it's own Liberal ideology and tearing the progressive movement and their ideas down, then we would have seen quite a different story unfold over the past few years.
It's appears quite clear now, as shown by the primary results so far, the majority of registered democrats are voting to keep the dems centre left. If that means the majority in the party are establishment, moderate centrist liberals, then it is what it is, and no crying over the lack of cut through by a minority fringe is going to change anything. The results in Michigan, Missouri, and Mississippi are bluntly telling in the working man has rejected Bernie’s democratic socialism.
The message thus reads: Don’t turn the dems left.
And centralist weaklings that post on The Standard, fundamentally do not seem to support the Sanders Campaign policies anyway when it really comes down to it. They scarf down US media punditry like a dog returning to a regurgitated dinner.
Bernie Sanders displays more political courage in one day at 78 than most do for their whole lives. As for electability–he should stay in the contest as long as he likes–he owes the US Ruling Class of which the Democratic Party elites are members of–literally nothing, due to his working class funded campaign. The millions without healthcare and all the rest of it, will see NO change if Biden does somehow escape the Trump mangling machine. I saw a piece today, a Seattle clinic was charging $100-$500 for Corona virus screens for insured patients, $1600 for uninsured! Free in NZ and much of the ‘civilised’ world. That is what the Bernie Campaign is about.
Bernie would not of touched the Democrats with a 40 foot pole if not for the US system–not just FPP which typically leads to two only “official” parties but…State, Federal, Congress, Senate and Electoral College layers that all present unique barriers to a new vision or third and fourth parties trying to get representation for their supporters.
He should persist until substantial policy gains are made, or stand as an independent as a precursor to a full new party for 2024. So often the “real politik” views of what is “possible” posters are mere right opportunism.
People's politics are their own, and if they mainly come from the centre, which in the US (and here) the numbers suggest they do, then that's the actual state of the field in play. Attacking them won't change their minds, though I concede it's easier (even if counter productive) than trying to convince them an unpopular vision is the way forward.
As I've said before, I party vote for the most electable party furthest left from the middle, and Biden wouldn't have been in my top three presidential candidates, but neither of those things change the reality I listed above.
Calling people centrist weaklings because one's politics are fringe and hopes and dreams have died at the ballot box doesn't bother me, but like the momentum led labour party in the UK, you won't win too many battles with it.
And the dead dog that the Dems and liberal MSM have pushed is not only suffering for cognitive decline, when he does open his mouth he spews out about as much bullshit and lies as Trump….well done you stupid selfish centrists, hope you all got a good excuse lined up to tell your grandchildren when you try and explain why the planet is burning around them…..as I have said for years you liberals are more of a threat to any progressive project than the Right, and you all just proved it again…well done.
Ultimately "the dead dog that the Dems and liberal MSM have pushed is" the one the voters seem to have chosen.
If only you had the numbers to match your rhetoric.
It was not my intention to put this specifically on you The Al1en. Various others deserve the centrist weakling accolade more.
Elections do not happen in a social vacuum–“righto chaps let the best man win eh what!” is not how it is structured under US billionaire Manufacturing Consent rules by the longest of stretches.
People vote against their own material interests regularly around the world, why? For subjective reasons. Fear. Neo liberal fostered hyper individualism. Hardwired loyalty to what was. Aspiration. Fear of the new. And scariest of all–100 million eligible Americans are so alienated and degraded by social conditions, and excluded by gerrymandering and voter suppression, that they don’t bloody vote at all.
So in recent decades a minority of a minority actually enables a candidate to get to the Electoral College stage even. Of course ultimately the vote is the vote–but it should not be viewed uncritically or without a full analysis.
Don't bother Adrian Thornton – Centrist never listen – it's their one true gift.
Take the positives that from nothing a left has arisen in the USA. That it is getting organised and it has started to move the debate – with what little it had. It's only going to get bigger.
The majority of the
scumcenterists who dominate the debate now will be dead within a few years, and the ideas taking hold now will be the new normal/centre.Hi Adam, of course they don't listen, they are just as bound to their free market ideology as the rest of us to our own ideologies, the only difference is that our one is the only one that if implemented has at least a fighting chance at saving the planet and perhaps even making our societies and communities just a little bit nicer while we are at it…but as I have said a thousand times on this site, the Liberal ideology is an extremely selfish one, which guides all their policies and unfortunately for us, it is toward the inevitable cliff…
So the liberal MSM have an agenda, but Fox (does it still have like 80% of the us news audience) does not?
Let me apply your cynical lens to Fox: there's a reason Fox preferred dolt45 to face Sanders than a moderate Dem.
Looking at ABC news, I found the Edelman Trust Barometer. In its twentieth year, it has collated the results of 34,000 online survey respondents from late last year.
Although, I couldn't find any specific references in the data to NZ, there are quite a few interesting results coming out of the survey, including:
56% agreement with the statement: "Capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world".
There are a number of different perspectives surveyed, including trust and ethics as they relate to business, media and government.
The World Health Organization has officially declared that dogs cannot get the coronavirus, freeing them from quarantine.
We can now all breathe easy knowing that WHO let the dogs out.
🤣🤣🤣
Earned me a barrage of abuse in the office.
From those poor people ( probably woman)that just cant see the quality of a masterful dad joke when they here it .
Brilliant !
lol…snap
brilliant!
More private jets than usual spotted at Queenstown airport?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/disease-dodging-worried-wealthy-jet-off-to-disaster-bunkers
Have been keeping an eye out for that, but impression seems to be that there's maybe less than normal, and movements correspond to the usual short stay. ie The airplane comes in, and then leaves a couple of day later and departs the country.
If they were bunkering the airplane would depart pretty quickly to either overseas or parking in NZ. There's nowhere to park them in Queenstown.
Not to say there’s not some one way arrivals on commercial flights though. It’d probably be a while before immigration caught up with someone from US or Europe / UK who didn’t go home after their holiday.
Completing the circle and going full CV.
//
https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1236493831622791175
https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1237557622301011968
He won 46% of delegates in the last cycle … running against an opponent with no penis.
There's still a lot to be learned from comparing 2016 to 2020, but one thing we can be sure of right now is that Bernie's 2016 near-success was not an indication of enthusiasm for Bernie's ideologies. Biden's positions and history are downright reactionary compared to Hillary's, which should push even more voters Bernie's way if his ideology were a major factor. But this year Bernie is running way behind where he was in 2016.
https://www.salon.com/2020/03/11/why-is-bernie-losing-because-hes-not-running-against-a-woman/
They botched it, and now the cover-up.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.
The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus.
Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.
“We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.”
[…]
This came directly from the White House,” one official said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-secrecy-exclusive/exclusive-white-house-told-federal-health-agency-to-classify-coronavirus-deliberations-sources-idUSKBN20Y2LM
[headdesk]
1: they're not bringing in critical experts because security;
2: the White House is the biggest security problem they have.
Let me guess; Republicans are trying to give Kosovo back to Serbia. Or, Serbia is the tRump crime family’s preferred bolt-hole and following the despot’s playbook, they’ve been squirreling their looted billions there.
(thread)
https://twitter.com/cjcmichel/status/1237484725264056329
Curiouser and curiouser…
https://twitter.com/AmoneyResists/status/1237229165352493056
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12315950
"Even the previously sluggish Auckland market has fired up again, median prices up 4.3 per cent from $851,000 a year ago to $888,000 last month. That was the highest Auckland price in more than four years."
I thought this government was doing something about getting rid of all the investors in the property market? Guess not….
Can you provide a link in which the Government has stated this? I think that you are making it up and I get grumpy when people do this, particularly in election year.
"The bright line test – which requires tax to be paid on any gains made from a residential property sale – was first imposed by the National-led Government in 2015.
The Labour-led Government has argued the measures don’t go far enough and that extending the test to five years will help deter property speculators and “may” have of a dampening effect on the housing market."
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/92868/tuesday-night-bill-which-will-see-bright-lines-test-extended-two-years-five-passed
Close, but no cigar. It doesn’t state what you asserted. It still looks like you were making it up.
Try again.
Yeah…lets get into a real 'woke' online argument…"you stated 'X' so you must provide a link to prove your statement of 'X' exists"
[You made up shit, and you know it. Of course, you cannot provide a link of your BS attribution to the Government because it doesn’t exist, and you know it. You were shit-stirring in the hope that somebody would take the bait. Well, I did. If you had chosen your words differently and more carefully, we would not have this “real ‘woke’ online argument”. Analogy: ‘they tried to hit me’ becomes ‘they tried to kill me’. You can take your “real ‘woke’ online argument” and shit-stir somewhere else. Banned for two weeks – Incognito]
Give up indiana. Many of us already have. IMO at the rate things are going, there will no-one left here by the time of the election – just a hollow echo chamber.
Look on the bright side, Weinstein just got 23 years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-sentencing.html?fbclid=IwAR3mEgf0NUXhXPcNCHiwHe98mrH5_uiqTDX5JEYAZUsm1VxGoDipDBCSRa8
That is a bright side. He might do real time after all.
I love how every time the court announces against him he has to go straight to hospital.
Straight to a private hospital, for Igotcaughtbeingaprapistits.
lol
🙂
No point in fighting battles ya can't win @veuts. Better to just sit back and snigger at shit you don't feel like pushing uphill. Martyrdom went out of fashion more than my lifetime ago – it was replaced by the 15 minutes of fame aspiration
And just be glad TS is around, and if we comment – we do so as guests.
Besides, Mr Incognito isn't a bad sort of bloke (if he watches his blood pressure and cholesterol levels)
See my Moderation note @ 12:50 PM.
Taji Camp was hit again by 18 rockets and there has a number deaths and wounded soldiers this time. From reports I’ve just read they include UK and US service personal deaths, with number of wounded from these two countries and it’s believed that no NZ or ADF have wounded or kill at this.
It’s time for this NZG to seriously call time on Iraq, as the odds of a NZDF being wounded or kill over in Taji are shorting everyday now and it only a matter of time now.
https://twitter.com/MidEastWitness/status/1237871621647392771?s=20
But, but ISIS.
Oh wait, we beat ISIS and trump ordered the pull out of US troops. But, wait no ISIS just had thousands released with the Turkish invasion of Syria.
But, but, they wouldn't attack western troops sneak attacks would they.
Oh wait, sorry the russians did it.
I'd say we may need all our armed forces back here to help with essential services in a matter of weeks.
"weeks" is a fuzzy word that could mean before the end of March or sometime in 2021.
Given no new cases in 4 or 5 days, if we shut travel with the US in time we could be good for at least the first bit of that range.
So, Trump has decided to heap all the blame for the spread of Covid 19 on Europe eh. Good way to cover up for ones own piss poor management of General Health services in the US:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/411566/all-travel-from-europe-to-us-suspended-for-30-days
UK excluded, but they’re not a part of Europe any longer, obviously.
All about the trade, and Chumpy's own interests.
Has the silly bastard thought of isolating the areas in his own country where the virus has reared its ugly head, or am I wrong in thinking that the stupid boofhead has just made a big move to make people think he is powerful and decisive (but far too late)?
no…you are quite correct
ditto
Not surprising, yet still depressing.
Apparently all Trump owned golf courses, being so exclusive, are immune from Covid 19. Maybe that is why he spent all last week-end at Mar-a-Lago
It's quite easy to heap blame on the federal government but states have their own government and play the most important part in handling one of these crises. The federal government is there to tidy up the mess once a state is overwhelmed really.
Trump has stopped travellers from Europe. New Zealand is still letting them in, no questions asked, just handing them a pamphlet even if the country they're from has exponential spread of the virus.
You know how many tests the CDC has done over the past 2 days?
https://twitter.com/KagroX/status/1237930627699224578?s=20
Although we may (have to) close our borders too, comparing travellers from Europe to the USA with Europeans to NZ is flawed. This kind of reasoning sounds very much like a me-too kneejerk without taking into account numbers and types of travellers.
Oh the irony.
https://www.thecanary.co/us/us-analysis/2020/03/11/us-activists-call-for-election-monitors-as-elitist-joe-biden-keeps-advancing/
Kia Ora Newshub.
Paddy the Christchurch desaster is 12 months ago it seems like yesterday. The haters are fools.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Its good to see more putea invested in the regions 36 million.
Turanginui A Kiwa has got Awsome beaches.
Makatu beaches are good to.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
Its good to see China helping Italy.
Mite be time to plan online voting.
White supremecy has no place in the Papatuanuku.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
The effects of the virus are wide reaching.
The Kapa Haka comp in Tu Whare Toa looks good.
Chess is a good game to learn how to learn strategies of life.
Ka kite Ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora Newshub.
Skypeing will become the new norm for business meetings.
It looks like good weather in Hamilton today 27 degrees.
I know exactly what I was doing 12 months ago at first I thought it was a hokes Aotearoa is still a awesome country.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Yes religion does not teach hate.
Aohai is a great healer for tamariki.
Having fishing competition that all the tamariki can be involved in is cool on the Rangatiki Awa
Ka kite Ano