National's reporter Coughlin reports on the Willis grand speech but even he is luke warm in his report. Wishy washy I think.
This week, National finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis delivered her first major speech since taking on the role in March.
Intended as a scene-setter for the Budget, the speech was also meant to set out Willis's vision for the role, often seen as the most important Cabinet post after the job of prime minister.
The speech, delivered to the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce, was focused on restoring "discipline" to government policy and spending – a line National has been rolling out for months.
Willis selling Austerity when as we know National cut govt funding then then use that money to higher in consultants (their cronies ie Jenny Shipley $450,000 for 16 meetings) who propagandise National political policy.
David Clark is releasing the inquiry into the supermarket /retail grocery market Duopoly of Progressive and Foodsfuffs. Hopefully its progressive and not a stuff up like Clark is very capable of. One thing is Why are both Foodsfuffs and Progressive allowed to each hold a 10% stake in their biggest competitor the Warehouse if he doesn't force them to divest and allow the Warehouse to compete Clark will continue to be seen as useless.It looks like the duopoly are preempting this report to make the inquiry look irelavent.If Clark fails he will be on his bike with the rest of Labour in 18 months.
yeah, but a war you can win, and i doubt that those that run these corporations have shame or would even recognise it were they to suffer a bout of shame. So they go to war. 🙂
Kabuki Theatre for the masses, entertainment and a slice of toast while we still have access to wheat.
Yes, maybe you are right, Sabine. 'Shame' may have been the wrong word. 'Fear' that the government might be forced to regulate them, may have been the more likely spur.
As for the so called "Supermarket Price War". In this war a tactical retreat to defend themselves from an all out regulatory assault from the government, (more than any concern for the consumers or suppliers being squeezed by their greed), was probably seen as a wise move at this time.
After their narrow escape from being regulated, and after a period regrouping from their fright, the real war against the New Zealand public will resume.
They are probably betting that a tactical retreat from their usual price gouging, will give them time for the return of a more ‘business friendly’ government in the Beehive, a government that would never ever even ‘consider’ regulating business.
I can not see this or any government regulating the food distribution centres. They do not have the spine nor gumtpion to do so, they rather sponsor charities to hand out food parcels as they have done during the covid lockdown. That is easier for them, and it gives them a bit of 'look we are decent and are doing a nice kind thing for the poor unwashed and hungry dears in our country'.
No argument there, C(hris)T. According to this article consumers do not benefit with duopolies. Instead they work to shut out new players and new services, and to fix prices.
With the electricity market there are more players – they just take turns to be highest costs / lowest cost, as market prices generally continue to rise. Now that is changing however as they complicate charges so that it is difficult for anyone to determine where they will get lowest cost – the Theresa Gattung strategy. Ya gotta love the "Free" market!
David Clark has a penchant for mathematics and systems. He has beaten Woodhouse for the Dunedin seat for a number of elections.
I wonder if Woodhouse/mates of, spotted David Clarke's outings during the lockdown? It would not surprise me, given Woodhouse's lies involvement and even instigation of rumours and bullying. He of the "toilet and photo on the seat,' made up "homeless man", and recipient of leaked personal patient details. The man is a worm, never mind his "dangerous worm farm" fame.
David has kept his head down and his work is already causing the duopoly to lower prices, but it will not be enough, and I look forward to the Report coming out, as David fights Goliath, as no-one else has done before, and he has caused a reaction.
Good piece about fa'afafine and other GNC people in non-Western societies. Of particular note is that this researcher is naming Western LGBTQ+ movements as gender colonisers where they project western gender values and expression onto other cultures. This isn't a new idea, but I think he explained it well.
I also like that it breaks the Western obsession with hormone treatment and surgery, and affirms the idea that if we were actually accepting of gender non-conformity then many people could be who they are without radical medical treatments. This in turn opens the door to one of the ways out of the current sex/gender war. Lots to like here for both sides.
Unlike many trans people in the West who identify as male-to-female, fa’afafine and muxes recognize that they have male bodies and that these are immutable. A tiny number might femininize their bodies with hormones or even more rarely surgery, but no one in their local communities, least of all fa’afafine and muxes themselves, believe that such procedures transform them into females. Given that they do not identify as women and recognize that they are male, dysphoria about sex or gender has traditionally been relatively uncommon in these cultures, my research has shown.
If western societies weren’t so homophobic and gender enforcing, then men who want to dress and behave like stereotpyical women could do so without insisting on having access to women’s spaces and women’s business. Likewise, young women wouldn’t hate being female so much that they prefer to remove their breasts and take masculinising hormones.
The core issue there for men is that they need to make the changes so that GNC males feel comfortable in male spaces. What we have now is a gross abrogation of that responsibility, and instead expecting women to give up rights.
The issues for GNC women are different but also result from societal pressures, these ones based in sexism and misogyny. We are losing ground around women’s rights outside of the gender/sex wars, girls and young women are growing up under intense pressure and few are taking any notice.
Dealing with the single-sex prison estate issue since 2014, successfully:
At the Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail, a separate wing exists for gay, bisexual, and transgender inmates. Since its creation, the unit has gained a reputation as one of the safer, community-oriented units.
But getting in isn't easy. A series of questions, past incarcerations, arrest records, and resources are utilized to determine whether an inmate can be classified for this special unit. If one doesn't pass, it's back to the general population.
The unit, known as the K6G, is home to approximately 360 GBT inmates. It was established in 1985 after the ACLU filed a lawsuit urging for the protection and prevention of assault against LGBT inmates.
Evenhanded intro, although I guess gender ID activists won't like it.
9.05 Kathleen Stock: the professor who lost her career amid toxic gender debate
Kathleen Stock was a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex for 18 years, but quit her post last year amid angry protests over her views on gender and transgender rights. In her book Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, Stock writes on her belief that biological sex is immutable and cannot be changed, therefore people that choose to transition genders are living in “immersive fiction”.
Stock, who describes herself as a gender non-conforming lesbian, says questions about sex and gender are deeply philosophical, but people – including academics – are scared to talk about it due to the toxicity that surrounds the debate.
Xi Jinping's determination to eliminate COVID, is as much a manifestation of a determination to be (seen to be) in control as it is prudent management of the problem being faced in the here and now.
It has echoes of the old regime, where one party state rule came before the economy and society.
It may be the same flaw, in strong man rulers, that led Putin to his aggression in Ukraine.
If so, it may have harmful impact on more than China – first in disruption in the global supply chain and second because of recourse to foreign policy adventurism.
Politicians shouting at each other in parliament what a pack of muppets.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[lprent: If you can’t address anything of relevance to a post – especially on the first comment – then just don’t comment. Otherwise it is just another hypocritical Muppet displaying their lack of skill in a debate. Banned two weeks for wasting the time of everyone reading your comment. ]
"So, is oil really worth $100 a barrel? Another way of looking at it is to compare oil to a horse. A horse laboring a standard 40-hour work week (eight hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year) would have to labor for more than one year to produce the energy in a barrel of oil. Do you think a horse could be fed and maintained for a year for $100? Not likely.
Human labor is even worse. A fit human adult can sustain about one-tenth of a horsepower, so a human would have to labor more than 10 years to equal a barrel of oil."
It is undeniable that the following year Ardern responded to a question over whether she would resign before introducing a wealth tax by saying: “I won’t allow it to happen as Prime Minister.”
It is undeniable that the following year Ardern responded to a question over whether she would resign before introducing a wealth tax by saying: “I won’t allow it to happen as Prime Minister.”
Jacinda Ardern is rubbishing National's "desperate" wealth tax attacks, promising yet again that Labour will not introduce one if it wins the election.
"I won't allow it to happen as Prime Minister," she told reporters on Wednesday, after National leader Judith Collins continued speculation that Labour would bow to the Greens and introduce a wealth tax.
When energy companies make large profits ,they also pay taxes,
Surging federal tax revenue in April led to the largest monthly budget surplus on record and a dramatically lower deficit through the first seven months of the fiscal year, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates released Monday.
April tax receipts totaled $864 billion, driving a $308 billion surplus last month. Both figures would be the largest since the Treasury Department began keeping records.
Noting that much of the USA’s, and the Wests, military spending is aimed at keeping oil company spending on supplies from oil producing countries, low. Another subsidy.
Middlemen, that is what they are. And throughout history they have proven to be the greediest profit-gougers of all, floating beneath the surface, but always loud in justifying the system that they are exploiting.
Our duopoly supermarkets are NZ's topical example – but the biggest and worst example is the bloody banks and banksters.
Middlemen need to be strictly controlled, but so far no country has succeeded in finding a way to do this. (Except maybe the USSR, but they then set up their own middlemen.)
For those of you who are Christian, I personally think that the best thing Christ ever did was to forget his 'Love your enemies' teachings; to grab a whip, and proceed to throw the bloody fetid, filthy money-changers out of God's temple. So excellent!
I was reading this in the Spinoff (having seen the Canadian story elsewhere):
Just last month, Canada lifted its own “gay blood ban”, prompting the question: is Aotearoa now out of step internationally?
Aotearoa has historically been a leader in the field of blood donation. But maintaining the safety of the blood supply now comes at at the cost of stigmatising a community with an unfortunately rich history of social and policy discrimination.
Which had me thinking of this piece from last year:
Gay and bisexual men will now be able to donate blood but only if they abstain from sex with other men for three months, the New Zealand Blood Service has announced…The change will take effect from December 14.
The same reduction will also apply for people who previously lived in a country known to have a high prevalence of HIV, as well as sex workers and their partners…
New Zealand has low rates of HIV compared with international rates: In 2018 there were only 178 new diagnoses and sexual transmission accounted for most cases.
While the majority of new diagnoses were gay men, the annual number of heterosexual men and women infected with HIV in New Zealand has risen gradually since the mid-1990s.
A lifetime ban on blood donation for men who have sex with other men was introduced in the 1980s amid concerns about HIV.
In 2014, New Zealand reduced blood donor deferral from five years to 12 months for individuals whose circumstances carried a greater probability of transmission of infections through blood transfusion.
There's also the ban on collecting blood from anyone; who lived in the UK, France or Ireland between 1980 and 1996, due to CJD risk. Which is getting to be a fair chunk of the eligible population barred from giving blood ("about 20%") during Pandemics. So this is not simply targeted at gay men. But it is hardly a foolproof system:
As the supply becomes more critical, the risk factors carry less weight, and the balance between the two changes.
Did the pandemic put such a strain on the supply that the balance had changed?
"What if they just lie (or "forget") about it?"
I can understand someone wanting to contribute. I have little patience for those whose desire to do so, is used as an excuse to bypass current restrictions by lying or 'forgetting'. There have been some recent articles about the positive benefits of matching blood by sex. Perhaps a part-answer to this dilemma if blood supply runs short is to match blood donated by gay men to other gay men (or others) who consent to receive it.
Despite being a blood donor in the past, I'm one of the UK cohort now prohibited.
If they determine that the CJD fear no longer has merit, than I'm sure many will return to donating. Until that point, the risk vs supply calculation remains.
There's a quick precis for homosexual men that want to donate, as well as a link to a 2020 report:
Homosexual Men
Your eligibility is determined by your sexual behaviour and history, not by your sexual orientation.
If you are a male who has had oral or anal sex with another man, with or without a condom, you must wait 3 months since your last sexual contact before donating.
This criterion also applies to those who have participated in sex work or have exchanged money for sex, those who have previously lived in a country that presents a high prevalence of HIV, and anyone who has taken a HIV preventative drug such as PrEP or PEP. For full details, please refer to this 2020 report from NZBS and the University of Auckland.
UK NHS changed the criteria last year to ask anyone who participated in anal sex follow up questions. I would assume it is to do with the efficiency of the sperm-blood vector for blood borne disease.
Re: your first reply Molly. The research on; the positive benefits of matching blood by sex, though intriguing, isn't that recent – nor is it that convincing:
The risk of dying was about the same after getting blood from a man or a never-pregnant women, regardless of the recipient’s sex. But every unit of blood that a man got from a woman who had been pregnant raised his chance of dying 13 percent.
The results are “provocative,” said Dr. Ritchard Cable of the American Red Cross, which supplies just over 40 percent of U.S. blood transfusions…
When you test a lot of things, you’re supposed to adjust your math to reduce the chance of an association popping up at random. The researchers didn’t, they acknowledge, prompting what Cable called “lively discussion” by the paper’s reviewers and JAMA editors about whether the statistical analysis passed muster…
The researchers don’t even know what the transfusion recipients died of, let alone “why the [mortality] effect should be limited to … {sic} men under 50,” Middelburg said in an interview. He and his colleagues therefore call their findings “very tentative” in the paper.
However, I don't have the university journal access that I once did; it is certainly possible that other more robust studies have since been published. However, what research is freely available online suggests a peak in the field around 2017, then almost nothing after 2020 (but then most medical researchers have been a bit busy elsewhere these last couple of years).
As regards NZ blood donor's; sexual behaviour and history, I do have to note that is confined to:
Following oral or anal sex with or without a condom with another man (if you are male).
After engaging in sex work (prostitution) or accepting payment in exchange for sex.
If you are a woman, after engaging in sex with a man who has had oral or anal sex with another man
Why is it safer for a women to have oral or anal sex with a man than a man? Condom use is likely higher amongst many sex workers (depending on their circumstances), but they are somehow a greater risk than an amateur women who is into unprotected butt stuff? That a mongamous gay couple can be seen as inherently more risky than any sexually active women or straight man (who aren't sex workers or junkies), seems to mean that gay marriage is not really recognized as equally valid by the NZBS:
Warren Dempsey-Coy, who has been in a monogamous relationship with his husband for more than 30 years, said this might seem like progress but it was not.
“I still see it as discrimination. There is one set of rules for a certain section of people and another for the rest.
“Blood is blood and every donation is screened. I am a gay, married man with no risk of having HIV and yet I would still have to abstain from sex for three months to give blood.
“For me, it is nothing but a slap in the face.”
It seems like the NZBS donation criteria have been cludged together in an ad hoc manner over decades. They really could do with a systematic review to increase consistency across the board.
Thanks for that, re blood donor and sex. I did refer to articles so I knew it wasn't conclusive, but you've provided more details.
You are right about the identification of gay men. I think sexual behaviours have changed fairly recently with anal sex less likely to be solely within the cohort of homosexuals.
I always thought the issue included the possibility of Aids transmission, but also as mentioned the efficiency of the semen to blood vector for any blood borne disease. Regardless of sex/sexual orientation. Which is why the UK asks about sexual behaviour, not orientation. The UK also has a higher number of immigrants/visitors from countries with high levels of Aids so it still makes sense to screen in some form.
I don't understand the 3 month interval myself, as it assumes that any infection is no longer present. I'd have to read the report and see if they explain that interval. The points you make about male and female make sense. The more accurate way would be to screen all donors by testing, but I assume the cost would be prohibitive.
I agree that monogamy limits exposure. Prostitutes, however, have incredibly high levels of exposure. The risk is high there. Given that blood is provided to those with health challenges, this is a balance of risk vs benefit.
Do you think perhaps there's been little considered change because the current measures provide enough supply? ( ie. no immediate pressure to make changes?)
First 20 years. While the real veterans were alive, they remembered at what cost this victory was won, and how the Central Committee and the Cheka reacted to those who won it. Best of all, real veterans are illustrated by the picture "Moloch of War", banned in Sovka. Only psychopaths and necrophiles want to "repeat" this.
Every year on May 9, the slogan “no one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten” strikes me the most. It was invented in the late Soviet years, when there were almost no real war veterans left.
A very moving pic for me personally. While in Russia I saw things very close to this – a man with no legs on an identical trolley – and a homeless boy huddled for warmth around an Eternal Flame just like this one. At -20degC.
Nothing particularly, but I do have an issue with govts looking like they are making policy decisions based on the public that can still afford the internet and care about social media while basing policy on their opinion.
I would have the same issue if they spent $235k on surveying old people's homes. Or teachers.
While I do think that the selection sample is likely less than than the entire population, these 150 (58 + 92, or "nearly 100" as this NZH reprint would have it) analyses of views; already in the public arena from Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other local blogs and forums, were likely representative of some of the concerns of NZers in general.
I have less of a problem with the DPMC attempting to get a feel for the concerns of the general public (or at least those who like to mouth off online) than I would if a government attempted to proceed in total ignorance. If anything, they shouldn't have cheaped out on this, and instead commissioned more robust (and thus expensive) research.
I think the fact that they hire businesses who specialise in social media analysis suggests they're not just looking at random tweets and forming policy from them.
The judges need to get tougher on crime. 39 year old no drivers licence. He will probably pay the pittance of a fine after 28 days and then drive the vehicle home again without a licence! Harden up judges.
Accredited employers? Did you learn nothing from the decades of roiling debacles like slave fishing Khriss? Do not outsource important legal powers like work visas to employers – any that want them cannot be trusted with them. Fund a fully staffed Immigration service properly for Chrissakes.
And $27.76? That's not a skilled worker by any stretch of the imagination. Try $35.00 – and that's a bargain.
Clearly we are returning to the fucking stupid policies of John Key – "Cheap migrant workers? Have as many as you like."
On the concomitant increases in minimum wage and hospo price increases.
The higher prices in restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food coincided with the minimum wage increase, which increased from $20.00 to $21.20 on 1 April. Restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food had the largest monthly increase in over a decade, up 1.4 percent. This was mainly due to higher prices for dine-in lunches, hamburgers, and coffee.
We don't need to get wage inflation down. We need to allow the underpaid to regain fair pay by dropping the percentage nonsense (which always favours the rich and enlarges their margins) by allowing the same flat increase to everybody, including the rich.
If CEO of Air NZ gets $350,000 pay increase, then so do teachers, nurses, social workers and all beneficiaries. Everybody.
A couple of years of that would correct the unequal distribution of wealth that exists now because we have been suckered into believing that the same percentage increase for everyone is fair.
We see that real wages start to increase to somewhat realistic levels ( due to constraints on immigration) and as border controls relax, then we suddenly need more lower paid workers (the consensus across parliament) rental and housing prices increase,the OCR increases again etc …
How very far Labour have come, from being the party that supports workers, to being the Trojan horse for mass unskilled labour in the midst of a housing affordability crisis.
God only knows why hospo and fishing are singled out for even lower wages too – it's not as if they've been creaming it. The fisherfolk were already on the edge of penury from the way the QMS advantaged the larger companies. Bye bye innovation – large companies are run by accountants, not fishermen. They couldn't innovate on a bet.
This has been the most immigration-restrictive government in decades.
Already we have rest home managers that are decreasing the number of beds rather than decrease quality of care.
A great moment to take stock of your life, get out of industries that don't treat you well, re-train and do something in even higher demand and higher wages.
I'm five years from retirement Ad, already overqualified in two industries and haven't had an offer above mw in NZ for three decades. This is what you get when parties sell out their constituents.
get out of industries that don't treat you well
Better that the government, whose wages I ultimately pay, stops making illegal concessions to drive down wages in my chosen profession. Unless you think we should tolerate or normalize corruption?
Ad and I are on your side with this Stuart. You are clearly a capable and competent person with good judgement and highly employable.
Getting kicked in the nuts multiple times by industries that turn out to be shitty employers is no fun – but the ground has shifted. 2022 is the year when fully half the Baby Boomers – the largest post-War generation in most of the world retires. And each one of us takes 40 years of experience and skills with us, resulting in the biggest shortage of skilled labour ever. It is the reason why I have tried to retire three times now and each time been made an offer I cannot refuse.
We moved to Aus for 'five or six years of adventure' right at the end of my working life. And a decade later we are still at it.
That's not my experience. COVID has a strong operational effect, but the RN nurses that come over from Thailand and Philippines usually do their two years to get the full NZ registration, then get poached by the public health system.
Those that are left still get their minimum wage or just over, but get 'requested' to do double shifts and 1 day a week off.
"Already we have rest home managers that are decreasing the number of beds rather than decrease quality of care. "
The quality of care in many homes is quite low. I'd be interested in knowing which managers are doing this, and whether it's based on quality of care or extra costs due to isolation requirements for new inhabitants.
As for the getting out of industries remark… Surely we are past the point of blaming individuals for the regulatory and policy failures of successive governments?
My experience is that rest homes are a totally cost-driven business. The rest homes closing down through skills shortages have been discussed by RNZ this week.
As for transitioning out of failing industries, people have been doing it for decades and it's not anyone's fault. As our export markets change so we have to as well.
Rest homes are profitable cost driven businesses with inadequate regulatory oversight and monitoring. Due to this environment the service ranges from 2xcellent to abysmal.
There is a difference between failing industries and industries failing to pay a living wage.
As for transitioning out of failing industries, people have been doing it for decades and it's not anyone's fault.
Sure – government policy is never to blame. The sinking lid that killed the public service as a career path was not the Brownian motion of random collisions but a coldly (some say brutally) calculated move on the part of certain politicians. The decline of the coastal shipping industry, the collapse of multiple fisheries under the inadequate QMS, the failure to develop fisheries and aquaculture as agriculture was once developed by a network of state research and training facilities – these could've happened to anyone.
Anyone whose government repeatedly dropped the ball.
Maybe somewhat, but mostly we change careers because some markets shrink and some expand. There's not a whole bunch the government can do about the decline in printers for printing and rise of digital services, the decline in horse dressage specialists and the rise of cars, the decline of semaphore and the rise of cellphones, the decline of playwrights and the rise of Youtube, the decline of lace collar specialists and the rise of activewear.
Nor anything unions or the state could have done about it.
You can oversubscribe causality to governments pretty easily.
In industries where corrupt government created monopolies, like the QMS, hold sway, shrinkage is the rule.
But although the majority of NZ fisheries companies retrenched throughout the period of dark neoliberal fantasy that prevailed from 1990, there have been successes like Southern Clams. Sustainably designed, not built on slave workers, growing in spite of supposedly adverse market conditions, this is what a fishing sector would look like absent the fatuous nonsense that comes from sector lobbying.
Well it sure wasn't me that implemented the inequitable and unscientific (and coincidentally ineffectual at protecting key species) QMS. That was the government of the day.
It wasn't me that let the foreign charter game devolve from hiring vessels from specialist nations that NZ companies could learn from, to bringing in and normalizing slave ships – a practice that has now extended right across the economy with dirt cheap, completely unskilled, often fraudulently qualified workers, whose only function is to drive down wages in one of the most expensive economies to live in in the world.
It wasn't me that utterly failed to transition the crude extraction fisheries to a sustainable and extendable predominantly aquacultural model. I've put my heart and soul into my vocation, for negligible reward with occasional ridicule from the lazy hacks momentarily floating through the Minister of Fisheries sinecure without achieving anything of value. That too is on them.
I guess you're big on laissez faire "the state can do nothing" – but the state came in and stole the fisheries that were my livelihood, and those of my deceased colleagues. I will never forgive them – but had they a shred of human decency they would apologize to the victims of their overweening arrogance and manifest incompetence.
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The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
By Lagi Keresoma in Apia The Miss Pacific Islands Pageant (MPIP) Committee has finally issued a statement — 5 days after damaging social media attacks following the 2025 Pageant finals hosted by the Solomon Islands last Saturday. The statement yesterday simply said the committee recognised and deeply regretted the distress ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – The New Zealand government and the mainstream media have gone ballistic (thankfully not literally just yet) over the move by the small Pacific nation to sign a strategic partnership with China in Beijing this week. It is the latest in ...
The Chinese have politely told the Kiwis to back off. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters that China and the Cook Islands have had diplomatic relations since 1997 which “should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party”. “New Zealand is rightly furious about it,” a TVNZ Pacific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When parliamentarians left Canberra on Thursday after the fortnight sitting, federal politics had the air of an uneasy waiting game. Waiting for the election date, although the campaign has been running for months. ...
The Health Committee has heard from both the Minister for Mental Health, and from members of the public offering their own lived experience of mental health treatment. ...
The regional imperialist powers, including Australia, New Zealand and France have maintained neo-colonial control over the Southwest Pacific for more than a century, keeping the fragile island nations in a state of dependency with conditions of poverty ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Public transport in Queensland now costs just 50 cents. Yet in the first six months of the trial, it’s been revealed that thousands of commuters were ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Harris Rimmer, Professor, Griffith Law School, Griffith University Two federal politicians from opposing camps reached across the aisle this week to promote a valuable cause – the wellbeing of future Australian generations. Independent MP Sophie Scamps tabled the Wellbeing of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Younger, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Vertebrate Ecology, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania Australia’s Antarctic territory represents the largest sliver of the ice continent. For decades, Australian scientists have headed to one of our three bases – Mawson, ...
A Māori Purposes Bill is an omnibus bill that enables minor, technical, and non-controversial amendments to legislation relating to Māori affairs. This Māori Purposes Bill aims to modernise some legislation relating to Māori Affairs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Campbell, Lecturer, Performing Arts, UniSA Creative, University of South Australia Matt Byrne/STCSA Housework, a new play by Emily Steel, lifts the rock off politics to expose its crawling, ruthless, yet undeniably comic underside. The result is masterful, hilarious and deeply ...
After two years of major damage from storms, a key government unit has made an abrupt change to focus on cyber security over and above natural disasters. ...
Pacific Media Watch Papua New Guinea’s civic space has been rated as “obstructed” by the Civicus Monitor and the country has been criticised for pushing forward with a controversial media law in spite of strong opposition. Among concerns previously documented by the civil rights watchdog are harassment and threats against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Younger, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Vertebrate Ecology, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania Australia’s Antarctic territory represents the largest sliver of the ice continent. For decades, Australian scientists have headed to one of our three bases – Mawson, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Dwyer, Research Director, Energy Futures, University of Technology Sydney 24K-Productions Our cars sit unused most of the time. If you have an electric vehicle, you might leave it charging at home or work after driving it. But there’s another step ...
Everything you missed from day four of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard two hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.Parliament’s Room 3 was the same old, same old on Thursday morning for the fourth Treaty principles bill hearing – brown ...
By Melina Etches of the Cook Islands News A motion of no confidence has been filed against the Prime Minister and his Cabinet following the recent fiasco involving the now-abandoned Cook Islands passport proposal and the comprehensive strategic partnership the country will sign with China this week. Cook Islands United ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Dwyer, Research Director, Energy Futures, University of Technology Sydney 24K-Productions Our cars sit unused most of the time. If you have an electric vehicle, you might leave it charging at home or work after driving it. But there’s another step ...
The December results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2024 (HYEFU 2024), published on 17 December 2024, and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ajay Narendra, Associate Professor of Insect Neuroethology, Macquarie University Pranav Joshi Jumping spiders – one of the largest spider families – get their name from the extraordinary jumps they make to hunt prey, to navigate and also to evade predators. Male ...
Both ministers have confirm they shared a phone call on Thursday morning, with the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement due to expire next month. ...
The final designs for the long-awaited Courtenay Place revamp have been released. Joel MacManus takes a closer look at the details. At an embargoed media briefing on Wednesday, Wellington mayor Tory Whanau and a team of council staff showed journalists a 3D-printed model of Courtenay Place. For about an hour, ...
The Economic Growth Minister is targeting increasing competition in the banking, grocery, and electricity sectors for the government to address this year. ...
Ecomatters Bike Hub has helped 30,000 Aucklanders start cycling. Shanti Mathias rides over to understand the impact of these community bike workshops.When An Na moved with her husband and two kids to Auckland in 2022, it took a while to start learning their way around. “We started taking our ...
Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Labour leader Chris Hipkins is on the war path – the path being the overthrowing of Act leader David Seymour, and hopefully ...
Callaghan Innovation told 63 workers their roles were being made redundant, including 16 commercialisation roles, 14 scientists and engineers, 6 Māori Innovation roles, and others working in data, digital, product design, risk and audit, marketing, government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Sheedy, Professor – Risk governance, culture, remuneration, Macquarie University This week the corporate regulator is taking on executives and directors of Star Entertainment in the Federal Court, in a landmark case for Australian corporate governance. ASIC will allege that despite multiple ...
National's reporter Coughlin reports on the Willis grand speech but even he is luke warm in his report. Wishy washy I think.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/nicola-willis-on-her-first-big-speech-and-when-to-expect-tax-cuts/JF63KYTWO7QYXOH2OHKOZ3FSXI/
Willis selling Austerity when as we know National cut govt funding then then use that money to higher in consultants (their cronies ie Jenny Shipley $450,000 for 16 meetings) who propagandise National political policy.
David Clark is releasing the inquiry into the supermarket /retail grocery market Duopoly of Progressive and Foodsfuffs. Hopefully its progressive and not a stuff up like Clark is very capable of. One thing is Why are both Foodsfuffs and Progressive allowed to each hold a 10% stake in their biggest competitor the Warehouse if he doesn't force them to divest and allow the Warehouse to compete Clark will continue to be seen as useless.It looks like the duopoly are preempting this report to make the inquiry look irelavent.If Clark fails he will be on his bike with the rest of Labour in 18 months.
This mornings headlines
"Supermarkets in price war"
Words matter,
Everyone hates war. War is a bad thing.
What's the message here?
Maybe the headlines should read;
Supermarket duopoly shamed into lowering prices.
yeah, but a war you can win, and i doubt that those that run these corporations have shame or would even recognise it were they to suffer a bout of shame. So they go to war. 🙂
Kabuki Theatre for the masses, entertainment and a slice of toast while we still have access to wheat.
Yes, maybe you are right, Sabine. 'Shame' may have been the wrong word. 'Fear' that the government might be forced to regulate them, may have been the more likely spur.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128595659/supermarket-competition-government-looking-at-regulatory-backstop
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/annual-food-price-rise-confirms-need-rein-supermarkets%E2%80%99-super-profits
https://www.interest.co.nz/business/115727/government-has-indicated-it-might-consider-being-more-prescriptive-controlling
As for the so called "Supermarket Price War". In this war a tactical retreat to defend themselves from an all out regulatory assault from the government, (more than any concern for the consumers or suppliers being squeezed by their greed), was probably seen as a wise move at this time.
After their narrow escape from being regulated, and after a period regrouping from their fright, the real war against the New Zealand public will resume.
They are probably betting that a tactical retreat from their usual price gouging, will give them time for the return of a more ‘business friendly’ government in the Beehive, a government that would never ever even ‘consider’ regulating business.
I can not see this or any government regulating the food distribution centres. They do not have the spine nor gumtpion to do so, they rather sponsor charities to hand out food parcels as they have done during the covid lockdown. That is easier for them, and it gives them a bit of 'look we are decent and are doing a nice kind thing for the poor unwashed and hungry dears in our country'.
Call me Mr Conspiracy Theory, but the biggest issue with duopolies is how easy it is to collude together with pricing levels.
No argument there, C(hris)T. According to this article consumers do not benefit with duopolies. Instead they work to shut out new players and new services, and to fix prices.
https://sendpulse.com/support/glossary/duopoly
With the electricity market there are more players – they just take turns to be highest costs / lowest cost, as market prices generally continue to rise. Now that is changing however as they complicate charges so that it is difficult for anyone to determine where they will get lowest cost – the Theresa Gattung strategy. Ya gotta love the "Free" market!
Maybe the Warehouse muscling in on the duopoly will change a bit?
David Clark has a penchant for mathematics and systems. He has beaten Woodhouse for the Dunedin seat for a number of elections.
I wonder if Woodhouse/mates of, spotted David Clarke's outings during the lockdown? It would not surprise me, given Woodhouse's lies involvement and even instigation of rumours and bullying. He of the "toilet and photo on the seat,' made up "homeless man", and recipient of leaked personal patient details. The man is a worm, never mind his "dangerous worm farm" fame.
David has kept his head down and his work is already causing the duopoly to lower prices, but it will not be enough, and I look forward to the Report coming out, as David fights Goliath, as no-one else has done before, and he has caused a reaction.
A new resource for people concerned about the new ideology in schools.
https://www.resistgendereducation.nz
Good piece about fa'afafine and other GNC people in non-Western societies. Of particular note is that this researcher is naming Western LGBTQ+ movements as gender colonisers where they project western gender values and expression onto other cultures. This isn't a new idea, but I think he explained it well.
I also like that it breaks the Western obsession with hormone treatment and surgery, and affirms the idea that if we were actually accepting of gender non-conformity then many people could be who they are without radical medical treatments. This in turn opens the door to one of the ways out of the current sex/gender war. Lots to like here for both sides.
https://www.newsweek.com/stop-imposing-western-lgbtq-identities-non-western-cultures-its-gender-colonialism-opinion-1705785
If western societies weren’t so homophobic and gender enforcing, then men who want to dress and behave like stereotpyical women could do so without insisting on having access to women’s spaces and women’s business. Likewise, young women wouldn’t hate being female so much that they prefer to remove their breasts and take masculinising hormones.
The core issue there for men is that they need to make the changes so that GNC males feel comfortable in male spaces. What we have now is a gross abrogation of that responsibility, and instead expecting women to give up rights.
The issues for GNC women are different but also result from societal pressures, these ones based in sexism and misogyny. We are losing ground around women’s rights outside of the gender/sex wars, girls and young women are growing up under intense pressure and few are taking any notice.
You may have missed this example when I posted a couple of days ago, weka.
Dealing with the single-sex prison estate issue since 2014, successfully:
Video included in the link:
https://www.kcet.org/shows/socal-connected/clip/life-behind-bars-for-gbt-inmates-at-the-k6g
I saw that, very cool. Another good opening for solutions.
The inmates seem comfortable with it.
Proud too, in some respects.
just came across this, and thought about your comment here.
https://twitter.com/LavenderAndFire/status/1465753034307387398/photo/1
nice one. Particularly like the bit at the end about sex and sex/gender system.
weka and all the others here must listen Nat Rad,Kill Hill will be speaking for an hour to Kathleen Stock(Saturday morning)9-10
oh excellent? Let's hope KH pays attention and doesn't go into major interruption mode. Ask the hard questions, but less of the stupid ones.
Evenhanded intro, although I guess gender ID activists won't like it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
Lets hope,we will see where she stands,KH had been my here hero.
I don't have too much hope, KH didn't stop Judith Butler's torrent of nonsense. KH is not as sharp and critical as she once would have been
Yes,maybe that is middle age spread,if I was too be kind.
Xi Jinping's determination to eliminate COVID, is as much a manifestation of a determination to be (seen to be) in control as it is prudent management of the problem being faced in the here and now.
It has echoes of the old regime, where one party state rule came before the economy and society.
It may be the same flaw, in strong man rulers, that led Putin to his aggression in Ukraine.
If so, it may have harmful impact on more than China – first in disruption in the global supply chain and second because of recourse to foreign policy adventurism.
Politicians shouting at each other in parliament what a pack of muppets.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[lprent: If you can’t address anything of relevance to a post – especially on the first comment – then just don’t comment. Otherwise it is just another hypocritical Muppet displaying their lack of skill in a debate. Banned two weeks for wasting the time of everyone reading your comment. ]
Kindly desist from denigrating The Muppets
Higherstandard.. well a really valuable comment
shows real depth/sarc POOR standard more like.
"So, is oil really worth $100 a barrel? Another way of looking at it is to compare oil to a horse. A horse laboring a standard 40-hour work week (eight hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year) would have to labor for more than one year to produce the energy in a barrel of oil. Do you think a horse could be fed and maintained for a year for $100? Not likely.
Human labor is even worse. A fit human adult can sustain about one-tenth of a horsepower, so a human would have to labor more than 10 years to equal a barrel of oil."
https://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-xpm-2011-05-24-mc-barrel-oil-explainit-20110524-story.html
Work and energy…..how do we value those in our society who do the work?
We may be discovering we are rewarding the wrong things.
"how do we value those in our society who do the work?"
We could start by taxing wealth, not work!
Big oil could bring US gas prices down but won’t – so hit it with a windfall tax | Robert Reich | The Guardian
Oil prices have nothing to do with costs.
Oil & gas firms’ profits set to smash records reaching $834 billion in 2022, Rystad says – Offshore Energy (offshore-energy.biz)
Indeed most of the worlds current inflation is due to excessive profit taking, not rising costs.
"After Ardern ruled out a capital gains tax in 2019, I checked Ardern’s position, given it was inevitable the issue of tax reform would resurface.
The message from her office then was that, no, Ardern had not ruled out an inheritance tax or any other alternative form of wealth tax during her tenure.
It is undeniable that the following year Ardern responded to a question over whether she would resign before introducing a wealth tax by saying: “I won’t allow it to happen as Prime Minister.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/128553951/now-it-has-lit-the-fuse-labour-may-as-well-get-to-the-point-on-tax
Then why not link to this?
Pardon?
The opinion writer said it's undeniable that Ardern ruled out a wealth tax, but then didn't point to where she said that.
Jacinda Ardern is rubbishing National's "desperate" wealth tax attacks, promising yet again that Labour will not introduce one if it wins the election.
"I won't allow it to happen as Prime Minister," she told reporters on Wednesday, after National leader Judith Collins continued speculation that Labour would bow to the Greens and introduce a wealth tax.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/nz-election-2020-jacinda-ardern-rubbishes-desperate-wealth-tax-attacks-i-won-t-allow-it-to-happen-as-prime-minister.html
ta. Looks like pre-election positioning. Will be interesting to see how she manages any shift that Labour make on this now.
When energy companies make large profits ,they also pay taxes,
https://rollcall.com/2022/05/09/tax-revenue-boom-fuels-steep-budget-deficit-decline/
Which in the US means a smaller budget deficit.
https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1524519193009430528?cxt=HHwWgIC9iZ-Il6gqAAAA
Sure they do?
Effective Tax Rates for Oil and Gas Companies (taxpayer.net)
Then there are the direct and indirect subsidies they receive. https://e360.yale.edu/digest/fossil-fuels-received-5-9-trillion-in-subsidies-in-2020-report-finds
Noting that much of the USA’s, and the Wests, military spending is aimed at keeping oil company spending on supplies from oil producing countries, low. Another subsidy.
Tour de France cyclist David Lopez generated 262 watts continuous during a hill climb stage.
The sums ain't pretty.
https://www.velonews.com/events/tour-de-france/pro-power-analysis-stages-18-19-at-the-tour-de-france/
Finance is the name of the game these days.
Unearned income ,the rewards of modern monetary policy.
Finance dosnt produce anything.
The pay's not bad…though!
Middlemen, that is what they are. And throughout history they have proven to be the greediest profit-gougers of all, floating beneath the surface, but always loud in justifying the system that they are exploiting.
Our duopoly supermarkets are NZ's topical example – but the biggest and worst example is the bloody banks and banksters.
Middlemen need to be strictly controlled, but so far no country has succeeded in finding a way to do this. (Except maybe the USSR, but they then set up their own middlemen.)
For those of you who are Christian, I personally think that the best thing Christ ever did was to forget his 'Love your enemies' teachings; to grab a whip, and proceed to throw the bloody fetid, filthy money-changers out of God's temple. So excellent!
Middlemen..
I was reading this in the Spinoff (having seen the Canadian story elsewhere):
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/11-05-2022/overturning-the-gay-blood-ban-isnt-as-simple-and-straightforward-as-it-seems
Which had me thinking of this piece from last year:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300183173/blood-donation-rule-change-will-allow-more-gay-bisexual-men-to-give
There's also the ban on collecting blood from anyone; who lived in the UK, France or Ireland between 1980 and 1996, due to CJD risk. Which is getting to be a fair chunk of the eligible population barred from giving blood ("about 20%") during Pandemics. So this is not simply targeted at gay men. But it is hardly a foolproof system:
What if they just lie (or "forget") about it?
I would consider it a risk vs supply scenario.
As the supply becomes more critical, the risk factors carry less weight, and the balance between the two changes.
Did the pandemic put such a strain on the supply that the balance had changed?
"What if they just lie (or "forget") about it?"
I can understand someone wanting to contribute. I have little patience for those whose desire to do so, is used as an excuse to bypass current restrictions by lying or 'forgetting'. There have been some recent articles about the positive benefits of matching blood by sex. Perhaps a part-answer to this dilemma if blood supply runs short is to match blood donated by gay men to other gay men (or others) who consent to receive it.
Despite being a blood donor in the past, I'm one of the UK cohort now prohibited.
If they determine that the CJD fear no longer has merit, than I'm sure many will return to donating. Until that point, the risk vs supply calculation remains.
Actually the NZ Blood Service site is a great informative source, with eligibility criteria plainly laid out.
https://www.nzblood.co.nz/become-a-donor/am-i-eligible/detailed-eligibility-criteria/#:~:text=Your%20eligibility%20is%20determined%20by,last%20sexual%20contact%20before%20donating.
There's a quick precis for homosexual men that want to donate, as well as a link to a 2020 report:
UK NHS changed the criteria last year to ask anyone who participated in anal sex follow up questions. I would assume it is to do with the efficiency of the sperm-blood vector for blood borne disease.
https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/news/landmark-change-to-blood-donation-eligibility-rules-on-today-s-world-blood-donor-day/#:~:text=Anyone%20who%20has%20had%20anal,for%20gonorrhoea%20will%20be%20deferred.
Re: your first reply Molly. The research on; the positive benefits of matching blood by sex, though intriguing, isn't that recent – nor is it that convincing:
https://www.statnews.com/2017/10/17/blood-transfusions-pregnant-women/
However, I don't have the university journal access that I once did; it is certainly possible that other more robust studies have since been published. However, what research is freely available online suggests a peak in the field around 2017, then almost nothing after 2020 (but then most medical researchers have been a bit busy elsewhere these last couple of years).
As regards NZ blood donor's; sexual behaviour and history, I do have to note that is confined to:
Why is it safer for a women to have oral or anal sex with a man than a man? Condom use is likely higher amongst many sex workers (depending on their circumstances), but they are somehow a greater risk than an amateur women who is into unprotected butt stuff? That a mongamous gay couple can be seen as inherently more risky than any sexually active women or straight man (who aren't sex workers or junkies), seems to mean that gay marriage is not really recognized as equally valid by the NZBS:
It seems like the NZBS donation criteria have been cludged together in an ad hoc manner over decades. They really could do with a systematic review to increase consistency across the board.
Thanks for that, re blood donor and sex. I did refer to articles so I knew it wasn't conclusive, but you've provided more details.
You are right about the identification of gay men. I think sexual behaviours have changed fairly recently with anal sex less likely to be solely within the cohort of homosexuals.
I always thought the issue included the possibility of Aids transmission, but also as mentioned the efficiency of the semen to blood vector for any blood borne disease. Regardless of sex/sexual orientation. Which is why the UK asks about sexual behaviour, not orientation. The UK also has a higher number of immigrants/visitors from countries with high levels of Aids so it still makes sense to screen in some form.
I don't understand the 3 month interval myself, as it assumes that any infection is no longer present. I'd have to read the report and see if they explain that interval. The points you make about male and female make sense. The more accurate way would be to screen all donors by testing, but I assume the cost would be prohibitive.
I agree that monogamy limits exposure. Prostitutes, however, have incredibly high levels of exposure. The risk is high there. Given that blood is provided to those with health challenges, this is a balance of risk vs benefit.
Do you think perhaps there's been little considered change because the current measures provide enough supply? ( ie. no immediate pressure to make changes?)
How crazy are the neo-cons – very…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-us-show-it-can-win-a-nuclear-war-russia-putin-ukraine-nato-sarmat-missile-testing-warning-11651067733
Sorry pay wall, the have a bit where by you can listern to it. But essentially, they want the US to fight and win a nuclear war with Russia.
Yeah right.
I parse it as the author saying that a nuclear war should never be fought but if Russia were to start one, the US should be prepared to win.
But hey, cite away, dude.
https://archive.ph/6uQ1s
So your saying a neo-con saying MAD is fine, is fine with you dude?
You get a nuclear war is a exchange of nuclear weapons? And this was my point.
This fool is arguing for such an exchange. In the fact he wants to remove second strike ability, thus leaving Russia with no option but first strike.
Thus leaving the caged idiot Putin who has penchant for shooting first, only one option to shoot first with – nukes.
Neo-con logic at it's finest.
Anyone who thinks there will be a 'winner' in a nuclear war is crazier than the participants.
The illustrations. Fuck.
First 20 years. While the real veterans were alive, they remembered at what cost this victory was won, and how the Central Committee and the Cheka reacted to those who won it. Best of all, real veterans are illustrated by the picture "Moloch of War", banned in Sovka. Only psychopaths and necrophiles want to "repeat" this.
https://twitter.com/KermlinRussia/status/1524151152568422401
Every year on May 9, the slogan “no one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten” strikes me the most. It was invented in the late Soviet years, when there were almost no real war veterans left.
But what really happened in the Stalin years.
google translate
A very moving pic for me personally. While in Russia I saw things very close to this – a man with no legs on an identical trolley – and a homeless boy huddled for warmth around an Eternal Flame just like this one. At -20degC.
Maybe you should visit the home of the Cherokee and the land of the debt slave.
Check it out 40 million on food stamps….homelessness in San Fran,Detroit,NY ..in fact most big cities is mind blowing.
Trying to get a min wage of $15 an hour atm.
As for medical care!!
You couldn't make this stuff up.
"Govt spent $235k on social media 'listening reports"
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/govt-spent-235k-social-media-listening-reports
what's the problem specifically?
Nothing particularly, but I do have an issue with govts looking like they are making policy decisions based on the public that can still afford the internet and care about social media while basing policy on their opinion.
I would have the same issue if they spent $235k on surveying old people's homes. Or teachers.
Yes they really do listen, in all kinds of useful aggregate ways, to help inform policy.
So they should.
$235,000 / 5,000,000 = 5 cents per Aotearoan.
While I do think that the selection sample is likely less than than the entire population, these 150 (58 + 92, or "nearly 100" as this NZH reprint would have it) analyses of views; already in the public arena from Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other local blogs and forums, were likely representative of some of the concerns of NZers in general.
I have less of a problem with the DPMC attempting to get a feel for the concerns of the general public (or at least those who like to mouth off online) than I would if a government attempted to proceed in total ignorance. If anything, they shouldn't have cheaped out on this, and instead commissioned more robust (and thus expensive) research.
The ombudsman, aged care commissioner and ERO.
While I have a certain agreement with your view. It depends on which social media "THEY CHOSE" to listen to.
Everyone thinks they are are doing things right if they just look at comments saying they are doing things right.
There are millions of websites, and it can be easy to tend to stick to those that everyone one agrees with you on.
Not that I know which they look at, so this point might be a stretch. If so I apologise.
I think the fact that they hire businesses who specialise in social media analysis suggests they're not just looking at random tweets and forming policy from them.
The judges need to get tougher on crime. 39 year old no drivers licence. He will probably pay the pittance of a fine after 28 days and then drive the vehicle home again without a licence! Harden up judges.
Forbidden to drive: Man who has never had a licence caught driving – again | Stuff.co.nz
What – no post on Faafoi's folly?
The reforms include introducing a medium wage – $27.76 – for most Accredited Employer Work Visas and for Foreign Fishing Visas. https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/05/12/faafoi-defends-immigration-reforms-from-hospo-criticism/
Accredited employers? Did you learn nothing from the decades of roiling debacles like slave fishing Khriss? Do not outsource important legal powers like work visas to employers – any that want them cannot be trusted with them. Fund a fully staffed Immigration service properly for Chrissakes.
And $27.76? That's not a skilled worker by any stretch of the imagination. Try $35.00 – and that's a bargain.
Clearly we are returning to the fucking stupid policies of John Key – "Cheap migrant workers? Have as many as you like."
Hospo and tourism are 25$
Bad way to get wage inflation down.
Why would you want wage inflation down? And just how far below the CPI is it presently?
On the concomitant increases in minimum wage and hospo price increases.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/annual-food-price-increase-remains-high-at-6-4-percent
And if signwriters thought they were in for a business uptake,they are wrong stickers are the new black.
We don't need to get wage inflation down. We need to allow the underpaid to regain fair pay by dropping the percentage nonsense (which always favours the rich and enlarges their margins) by allowing the same flat increase to everybody, including the rich.
If CEO of Air NZ gets $350,000 pay increase, then so do teachers, nurses, social workers and all beneficiaries. Everybody.
A couple of years of that would correct the unequal distribution of wealth that exists now because we have been suckered into believing that the same percentage increase for everyone is fair.
It is not, and the results are now obvious.
We see that real wages start to increase to somewhat realistic levels ( due to constraints on immigration) and as border controls relax, then we suddenly need more lower paid workers (the consensus across parliament) rental and housing prices increase,the OCR increases again etc …
How very far Labour have come, from being the party that supports workers, to being the Trojan horse for mass unskilled labour in the midst of a housing affordability crisis.
God only knows why hospo and fishing are singled out for even lower wages too – it's not as if they've been creaming it. The fisherfolk were already on the edge of penury from the way the QMS advantaged the larger companies. Bye bye innovation – large companies are run by accountants, not fishermen. They couldn't innovate on a bet.
This has been the most immigration-restrictive government in decades.
Already we have rest home managers that are decreasing the number of beds rather than decrease quality of care.
A great moment to take stock of your life, get out of industries that don't treat you well, re-train and do something in even higher demand and higher wages.
I'm five years from retirement Ad, already overqualified in two industries and haven't had an offer above mw in NZ for three decades. This is what you get when parties sell out their constituents.
get out of industries that don't treat you well
Better that the government, whose wages I ultimately pay, stops making illegal concessions to drive down wages in my chosen profession. Unless you think we should tolerate or normalize corruption?
Ad and I are on your side with this Stuart. You are clearly a capable and competent person with good judgement and highly employable.
Getting kicked in the nuts multiple times by industries that turn out to be shitty employers is no fun – but the ground has shifted. 2022 is the year when fully half the Baby Boomers – the largest post-War generation in most of the world retires. And each one of us takes 40 years of experience and skills with us, resulting in the biggest shortage of skilled labour ever. It is the reason why I have tried to retire three times now and each time been made an offer I cannot refuse.
We moved to Aus for 'five or six years of adventure' right at the end of my working life. And a decade later we are still at it.
Rest home nurses are paid more then the minimum wage restrictions.Covid is reducing the bed numbers more then staffing shortages.
That's not my experience. COVID has a strong operational effect, but the RN nurses that come over from Thailand and Philippines usually do their two years to get the full NZ registration, then get poached by the public health system.
Those that are left still get their minimum wage or just over, but get 'requested' to do double shifts and 1 day a week off.
".Covid is reducing the bed numbers more then staffing shortages."
Do you mean the number of bed available have reduced or the number of beds occupied?
the number of beds occupied.
Thats contrary to what I have heard….there is a dearth of available places and staffing is apparently the main cause.
Only since covid,the so called regional skills list from Immigration (2019) is beyond the pale ( written from central casting for sure)
Northland skill shortage.
Recreation,Hospitality and Tourism
Jockey (Trackwork Rider)
Outdoor Adventure Guide
(Skydive Tandem Master)
Snowsport Instructor
(including Technicians)
https://skillshortages.immigration.govt.nz/assets/uploads/immediate-skill-shortage-list.pdf
"Already we have rest home managers that are decreasing the number of beds rather than decrease quality of care. "
The quality of care in many homes is quite low. I'd be interested in knowing which managers are doing this, and whether it's based on quality of care or extra costs due to isolation requirements for new inhabitants.
As for the getting out of industries remark… Surely we are past the point of blaming individuals for the regulatory and policy failures of successive governments?
My experience is that rest homes are a totally cost-driven business. The rest homes closing down through skills shortages have been discussed by RNZ this week.
As for transitioning out of failing industries, people have been doing it for decades and it's not anyone's fault. As our export markets change so we have to as well.
Rest homes are profitable cost driven businesses with inadequate regulatory oversight and monitoring. Due to this environment the service ranges from 2xcellent to abysmal.
There is a difference between failing industries and industries failing to pay a living wage.
As for transitioning out of failing industries, people have been doing it for decades and it's not anyone's fault.
Sure – government policy is never to blame. The sinking lid that killed the public service as a career path was not the Brownian motion of random collisions but a coldly (some say brutally) calculated move on the part of certain politicians. The decline of the coastal shipping industry, the collapse of multiple fisheries under the inadequate QMS, the failure to develop fisheries and aquaculture as agriculture was once developed by a network of state research and training facilities – these could've happened to anyone.
Anyone whose government repeatedly dropped the ball.
Maybe somewhat, but mostly we change careers because some markets shrink and some expand. There's not a whole bunch the government can do about the decline in printers for printing and rise of digital services, the decline in horse dressage specialists and the rise of cars, the decline of semaphore and the rise of cellphones, the decline of playwrights and the rise of Youtube, the decline of lace collar specialists and the rise of activewear.
Nor anything unions or the state could have done about it.
You can oversubscribe causality to governments pretty easily.
some markets shrink and some expand
In industries where corrupt government created monopolies, like the QMS, hold sway, shrinkage is the rule.
But although the majority of NZ fisheries companies retrenched throughout the period of dark neoliberal fantasy that prevailed from 1990, there have been successes like Southern Clams. Sustainably designed, not built on slave workers, growing in spite of supposedly adverse market conditions, this is what a fishing sector would look like absent the fatuous nonsense that comes from sector lobbying.
Well it sure wasn't me that implemented the inequitable and unscientific (and coincidentally ineffectual at protecting key species) QMS. That was the government of the day.
It wasn't me that let the foreign charter game devolve from hiring vessels from specialist nations that NZ companies could learn from, to bringing in and normalizing slave ships – a practice that has now extended right across the economy with dirt cheap, completely unskilled, often fraudulently qualified workers, whose only function is to drive down wages in one of the most expensive economies to live in in the world.
It wasn't me that utterly failed to transition the crude extraction fisheries to a sustainable and extendable predominantly aquacultural model. I've put my heart and soul into my vocation, for negligible reward with occasional ridicule from the lazy hacks momentarily floating through the Minister of Fisheries sinecure without achieving anything of value. That too is on them.
I guess you're big on laissez faire "the state can do nothing" – but the state came in and stole the fisheries that were my livelihood, and those of my deceased colleagues. I will never forgive them – but had they a shred of human decency they would apologize to the victims of their overweening arrogance and manifest incompetence.