According to Pete George, this does not constitute a crisis for our democracy.
Bryce Edwards sees it differently.
Nearly 64% of the electorate did NOT vote.
18% of the electorate voted for Bidois.
“But what about the fact that there was a low voter turnout. According to the Electoral Commission, voter turnout is estimated to be 43.7%. This figure is based on the numbers that have voted, as a percentage of those enrolled. However, the Electoral Commission and Statistics New Zealand previously estimated that in Northcote there is an eligible voter population of 54,790 (of which about nine per cent are not enrolled). So, when you take that into account, the 19,900 who voted, make up an even smaller “real” voter turnout – which is well under 40%.
It also means that the vote for each candidate as a proportion of all eligible voters in Northcote is somewhat smaller than it might initially appear, since about 35,000 eligible voters choose not to vote – which somewhat overshadows the 10,147 who voted for the winning candidate.”
Compulsory voting is the solution. Oz have done it for decades and there’s engagement across the demographics as a result.
National rejected that along with pretty much every other suggested reform, my how surprising. Keeps the bastards honest, where that’s practical for some parties, when they know the disaffected are forced to vote.
Like road rules they serve a greater good even if they’re not popular.
This was a by-election at the start of the term of a new government for a seat previously held by the opposition. Of course turnout will be low. There was nothing really at stake. Jumping up and down and trying to call this the death of democracy in NZ is ridiculous.
Does it Draco? This from a stuff article after their 2016 Federal Election:
“A long winter federal election campaign in Australia that clashed with school holidays has resulted in the biggest voter no-show in the country since compulsory voting began in 1925.
More than 1.4 million Australians last month failed to cast a vote for the House of Representatives in what ultimately became a cliff-hanger election. The figure represents more than 9 per cent of 15.7 million eligible voters.
The turnout is the worst since 1922, when voting was optional and just 59 per cent of eligible people cast a lower house vote.”
It’s a political hot potato. As you say, it’s those doing it toughest that are least inclined to vote. Fining those that struggle to keep food up to mouths is popularity suicide. If zero punitive measures against non voters, there’s no point introducing the fresh law.
Yeah ok, I’ve gone and done some more reading on it. I’m not as partisan as I was. I lived in Oz for a long period, it is no hardship to vote. Chasing up non voters appears to be a token effort, 12 people in Darwin taken to court after the last election.
I dread the influx in….”I voted for that chappie with the straight teeth, whatisname? I once saw him in a Crusaders jersey” vox pops.
Chasing up non voters appears to be a token effort, 12 people in Darwin taken to court after the last election.
I suspect that it actually isn’t. Most would be given a warning and to vote next time or else. Many would be given the voting slip and told here and now or else.
You probably just don’t hear about it which is unfortunate.
If you’re not on the electoral roll how do they know who to chase up?
Just because you’re not on the electoral roll doesn’t mean that you can’t be traced. Got a bank account? Pay your taxes? Drive a car?
Yeah, I’m one of the few people who have no difficulty with the government doing data matching to catch criminals. Especially when those criminals are fucking over our democracy.
But also, in order to enrol you have to sign a form. No person can legally be forced to sign any form they don’t wish to sign.
It is a legal requirement to be enrolled. You must sign that form whether you like it or not.
According to Pete George, this does not constitute a crisis for our democracy.
Bryce Edwards sees it differently.
How exactly does Bryce Edwards see it differently, Ed? His piece is actually very noncommittal and empty of firm opinion on the matter at hand.
I think your comment has put a few here on the wrong foot …
You could have made the argument as to why you think the numbers reflect badly on the current state of our representative democracy but you didn’t. Why not?
I am struggling to work out what Andrew Little was thinking in putting about his agenda to dump the three strikes legislation without first getting his political ducks in a row. Is he a political idiot?
Little floats idea, gives Winston the opportunity to make his mark, both postpone the issue for a while and a satisfactory result flies through the House; everybody wins. Meanwhile, the Right enjoy a temporary lift, to no eventual gain. The Coalition Government works, and is seen to be working, as it should.
8.3 and in any case, is your “dogs” reference to the poor autistic man, savaged yesterday by rottweilers near Winton? That’s harsh for this time of the morning, Ruby. For any time really.
That seems an excessively generous interpretation to me.
Occam’s says more like Little, who was a politically inept leader, simple fucked up the politics.
I agree the politics are nowhere near as bad as our aggressively authoritarian political media seem to think, but the Likes of Audrey Young seem very under employed most of the time. Not a lot of substance happens in our politics, so they are reduced to making mountains out of molehills and reporting two flies climbing a wall with breathless urgency.
I just wonder why they don’t occupy their copious spare time writing in depth backgrounders.
“politically inept leader”, even if true, doesn’t translate to inept politician. I suggest that in fact, Little is a good and efficient politician, especially when out of the “leader” spotlight. In this instance we can only speculate, but my view is that he’s not so “inept” as to be unaware of what Winston’s position would invariably have been, and in fact played the game to the satisfaction of all-but-you (and some other posters 🙂
Now this is clearly overblown but Politics is as much about perception than reality and if the perception is a Government that is unstable soon enough it will be.
Headlines, schmedlines – they’re froth, Gosman, eye-catching dross, the don’t mean anything; that you’re enchanted by them is… a shame. Nevermind, there are others who can see past the headlines .
Your believing that illusions are real is … cute. Serious political commenters though, don’t fall for illusions. The Government won’t become “unstable” simply because National declares that to be the case; your confidence in that sort of fickleness marks you as … fickle.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) serious political commentators don’t generally dictate the popularity of political parties. If the perception gains traction that a governing coalition is unstable then people will think is is likely to fall and stop supporting it. Yes this is unfair to a degree but it is political reality.
Three years of parties disagreeing in public (but respectfully) without the government being brought down will show those headlines as stupid.
The media need crises to sell copy. I can understand why the populace might not be used to a government of adults, but they’ll learn what should be the norm rater than the exception.
I was thinking about that possibility except it has had a negative impact on the Government generally. It looks like the political management skills of Little and by extension the PM are flawed. Just listen to the attack by Guyon Espiner on Morning report this morning.
Guyon’s attack was, by accounts I’ve read, a failed one. Little would have been attacked even more vigorously, had his proposal gone ahead un-modified, as you know – Farrar et al would have been shrieking heedlessly; as it is, they’re crowing prematurely. What the media does is of little consequence, pun intended, and a smart operator will play them. Little’s a clever guy and Winston’s not too shabby either.
Little clever? Nah, he’s either stupid or arrogant. Clearly he didn’t have NZF on board with the three strikes policy, and Peters has rescued his plummeting polling at the expense of the hapless Mr Little.
Little should never had floated this idea as essentially a done deal. He could have made out that he was very keen to review the law including and then allowed Winston credit for nixing it.
The whole thing has been a shambles.
Luckily Winston’s going after MSD and Bennett et al plus the shenanigans in Singapore will quickly push it off the news cycle (for now).
But the ongoing government messiness and poor comms etc can only be explained away by Ardern for so long before it starts to become a major liability.
“the ongoing government messiness” is a message constructed and broadcast by the Right. There’s a grain of truth in it, as there would be for any and every “new” coalition Government, but the blue magnifying glass is being held over that small issue as part of National’s programme of denigrating the Government.
I admire your rather generous assessment of the situation Robert and I’d like to be able to agree with you but I can’t.
Three Strikes and law and order issues generally are just too sensitive electorally to be allowed to play out like this has. Apparently there was almost outright panic in Little’s office a week or so ago when the OIA on 3 strikes was released to media and they realised how it was going to go.
Oh well, I can’t argue with “apparently”…
Mind you, to say that “Three Strikes and law and order issues generally are just too sensitive electorally” shows me that any approach would bring problems, so this way, the usual attack lines are blurred and criticism blunted; in fact, the “usual suspects” are crowing with delight; that’s a pretty clever strategy if in fact, Little and Peters colluded. I’d do it the way they have; play some feints and switches and slip the soul through while confusion reigns.
That’s the thing though, apart from the lock-‘em-up-and-throw-away-the -key crowd pleasers any sensible measures on crime and justice are always problematic to put in front of the electorate.
It’s hard to see how giving the Opposition and their pals in the media an even bigger stick with which to beat the government on this is going to blur attack lines and blunt criticism?
Hard to see? Not for me 🙂
Will the Government get a progressive package of law & order reforms through in the near future? Yes, I believe they will. Will there be less noise around it, due to the “moderating” effect of Winston’s recent action? Yes, I believe there will. Clever play? Yes, I still believe so. I don’t take much note of the wailing and gnashing of Righty teeth around this issue.
What is missing throughout this debate, especially in the MSM, is the fact the 3 Strikes is a stupid politically motivated law, a blunt instrument that doesn’t work.
The MSM, if it was being even-handed, should be making the point that Labour and the Greens are right to try to get it repealed rather than treating this as an issue they hope will destroy the coalition.
Well done Andrew Little for sticking to his guns on Morning Report this morning.
An even-handed MSM would do itself out of a job, consequently, it always tips the table one way or the other, to maintain tension. We readers love tension; makes us feel alive!
Recent history would indicate our MSM are incapable of/disinterested in exploring the effects of policy as opposed to ‘political drama’…..and yet ‘we’ persist in our support.
““the ongoing government messiness” is a message constructed and broadcast by the Right.”
No, the messiness is surely and simply the result of inexperience combined with incompetence mixed with hubris. From the coalition agreement that gifted a billion dollars to a NZF slush fund, to the election of the Speaker (Labour’s screw up and then cover up), to the disgraceful decision making around oil and gas exploration, through to the incompetence of MIA Ministers such as Curran, Jackson, Davis, Twyford et al, this is a shambolic government mislead by a PM whose previous claim to fame had been working in a fish and chip shop. You were warned.
No, the messiness is natural and unavoidable. It’s the reporting that’s unnatural; the endless whine that you are part of, babayaga, that’s the twitter. Plus, You Have Been Warned!!!
Bomber’s on the money here.
“By publicly dumping a law that was only rhetoric and theatre in the first place (it’s only impacted 20 prisoners) Labour…
gives NZ First oxygen at a time when Labour desperately requires their coalition partners to survive
blunts National’s law and order attack which they will be playing all year with new tough on crime members bills.
Allows the perception to the petty consumers of bitterness that Labour have had to back down on prison reform when the actual process will continue. Liberal twitter and NGOs on twitter will lambast Little and scream at the injustice which will convince the petty consumers of bitterness in muddle Nu Zilind that Labour must have changed their position to outrage the Twitterratti in such a way.
Little loses the battle so he can win the war.”
If thats true its a bit short sighted because from now until the next election National can point to Labour being soft on crime so a vote for NZFirst is a vote for being soft on crime whereas a vote for National is a vote for three strikes
I’m sure he’s like most politicians, a decent, well meaning, reasonably intelligent person.
However your question: “Is he a political idiot?” is an easy question to answer. He’s failed twice to win an electorate seat and was driving Labour to oblivion before he did the smartest thing he’s ever likely to do, politically, and resign so yes, politically speaking, he is an idiot
You call that a beard?
It is just like Mallard’s.
All it is is that the hair from the top of his head has slipped down his face.
The only halfway decent beard any recent MP has had is the one Gareth Hughes showed off.
That added about 10 years to his age and made him look old enough to vote.
Even then he couldn’t compare to some of the early PMs like Seddon, Vogel, Stafford or Weld.
Best I can manage is councillor, Southland Regional Council, 2010 – 2018. I wonder if I’m on my own in being a bearded councillor in NZ? I certainly don’t meet many others.
They do, yes; well, mostly. I was told by my wife’s maiden aunt, way back, that she could “never make love to a man with a beard”. I guessed she meant something more arcane than it seemed by that, but still, I was taken aback. Didn’t stop me though!
“Didn’t stop me though”
How could I let that slip through???
I’m a “share the love” kinda guy. Truth to tell, Maiden Aunt’s comments didn’t deter me from wooing her niece (much more seemly, aye, though not quite the story it was shaping up to be 🙂
Crikey! Is Guyon looking for a bonus? His interview smacks of desperation. Fortunately Jacinda was able to make him sound just that. DESPARATE. She treated him like the bad mannered child that he is and he achieved absolutely nothing with his hectoring,bullying attitude. Maybe he should try a measured professional approach and he might get taken seriously. An excellent, sensible calm and clear attitude from Jacinda with her replies was wonderful to hear. At least one adult in the conversation! Guyon is past his used by date.
Was Guyon ever that “persistent” with Key?
Don’t remember him being so. Guyon was grateful that Key would allow a very sparse minute just before the 8 o’clock news and treated him gently in case he didn’t turn up at all.
Of course he was as persistent with Key and English. You just can’t remember because you obviously thought that any persistent questioning of Key/English was justified as a result of your political bias.
Totally agree. Guyon Espinor is a hectoring bore. I am tired of his style of interviewing. He’s more suited to Fox News.
And as for John Key – for years he refused to be interviewed on Morning Report.
If President Trump gets a good poll bump from the results of this North Korean summit he will be sending a strong signal to Romney and the traditional conservative Republican wing that there is only one Republican nomination for the next Presidential contest – and it’s him.
If the Dems don’t get their house sorted in pretty quick order instead of folding and undercutting each other like they did in the banking reforms, then they will be very hard pressed to beat Trump.
The rest might be a bit too far into the future, but Trump’s massive strength of perpetual chaos, drama, and through that total name-domination in the media is sustaining a very strong base to build from.
@ffloyd….agreed. I loved both Little and Jacinda taking it to Espiner this morning on Morning Report-well worth a listen to anyone who hasn’t heard it.
Both showed themselves to be smart and on top of the issue. I’m still reveling in this government after 9 years of hell.
Our future trade focus should be Asia and we should be part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, hanging off the USA’s coat tails is not going to do us any good in the future, the future trade growth region is Asia.
It’s better to trade with countries that make different stuff. Korea makes real steel and computers, and does not compete with our ag goods. The US, with its weird corn subsidies and mad cow disease doesn’t want our stuff.
Korea makes real steel and computers, and does not compete with our ag goods.
We make steel. Around 1.5 million tonnes of it per year. We export around 1 million tonnes of it. And that doesn’t even take into account all the raw iron sand that we export.
The problem with that scenario is that we will, quite rapidly, run out of iron deposits.
Our focus on farming is depleting our soils as well poisoning our waterways. So, that’s not sustainable either.
Electronics tend to made out of silicon and doping with semi-conductors. We have significant deposits of both of those as well. So, we could easily make our own electronics from our own resources. Just need to develop those deposits and build the factories. Do that and buying our own would be cheaper than importing due to distance and transport costs.
The US, with its weird corn subsidies and mad cow disease doesn’t want our stuff.
Our main agricultural export ATM seems to be dairy. The US is massively over-producing dairy to the point where their farmers are losing money on sale of it. In other words, even if we had an FTA with the US, we wouldn’t be able to export there simply because they can provide it themselves cheaper. And once they get that over-production sorted it’ll still be cheaper to buy US produced milk in the US than to buy NZ milk in the US.
An export led economy is doomed due to the very real physical limitations of available resources.
An economy that uses it’s own resources and recycles them is actually sustainable due to the resources always being available.
In other words, reality makes trade unsustainable.
God. Who gave Armstrong the kiss of life. ANOTHER opinion piece on his intimate knowledge of Jacindas state of mind, this time on Andrew Littles 3strike postponement. Definitely on a Labour sabotage mission.
Is Armstrong working as a psychologist now, just wait till after the baby is born and the post natal depresssion kicks in, Guyon, Richardson, Garner and Armstrong will have a fieldday ?
Armstrong is a devious National Party shill (as opposed to a journalist).
He lost all credibility as a commentator when he demanded Cunliffe’s resignation over a meaningless 10 year old letter. He later admitted he was wrong to do this, but of course he knew that at the time.
Justice! Fair play! Good for Nicky and for future police action. Though it still doesn’t explain why the police were so active for Slater.
“Investigative journalist Nicky Hager has accepted a police apology and payment of “substantial damages” following the unlawful search of his home during the investigation into the hacking that led to the Dirty Politics book.”
Just listening to K Ryan talking to someone? regarding the meeting between dumb and dumber. He says it is just a publicity exercise and won’t achieve anything. Does this mean it will be all about ‘summit and nowt?
“Ms Berryman is commencing immediately with the initial focus of her investigation on the Young Labour camp in February. The review is expected to take between two and three months,” said Nigel Haworth, Labour Party President.
Why should expect to hear anything? t has nothing to do with you. It was a purely internal matter for the Labour Party.
However I will tell you the gist of the enquiry.
Nothing happened.
The stories about it were all fabrications by lying members of neo-Nazi organisations like the National Party.
There were no members of the Party at the affair.
The people who were there all went to bed early and no one saw or heard anything.
The only problems were caused by fifth columnists from the National Party and other Fascist organisations.
But nothing happened.
Nothing further will be said.
It is time to move on.
But nothing happened.
There. I think you would agree that is a pretty fair summary of the matter.
Hopefully the IRD will do an audit on John Key’s affairs and determine whether he paid tax on the NZRail shares which he failed to disclose to the NZ Public, as he may have bought those shares with the intention of selling them (ie speculation) as he was definitely not a long term investor in NZRail, similar to one of the other major shareholders Fay Richwhite ?
I’d like to think that those in power should have automatic audits to make sure they are not profiting from their power. In particular due to the rise of the super rich to being in politics, aka financial trader makes PM aka KEY, the property developer/reality TV star make President aka Trump, the lawyer who makes his own laws aka Rodrigo Duterte…
But the trouble is that interviews aren’t as useful as employers think. Indeed, organizations can still make great (and arguably better) hiring decisions without them. What would happen if we all agreed to scrap job interviews tomorrow, and focused instead on other indicators of career potential? Unthinkable as it may sound, there are at least three important data points that suggest replacing interviews with other, more predictive measures is the way to go.
Most of the attributes interviewers try to evaluate by gut feel–a candidate’s competencies, skills, personality, values, “culture fit,” and so on–are more rigorously inferred from other data like resumes, simulations, tests, and past performance ratings. Interviews certainly create opportunities for candidates to make claims about these qualities, but as I argue in my latest book, there’s little reason to believe them. Indeed, there’s not much overlap between the talents people say they have and the ones they actually possess. (Plus, interviewers often use the idea of “good culture fit” to justify hiring people from their own in-groups.)
In fact, so-called “dark side” personality traits, such as narcissism and psychopathy, are found among people with otherwise strong social skills, at least in short-term interactions, which makes them perform rather well on interviews. In that sense, interviews are just like a first date: Just because someone charms you the first time you meet them doesn’t mean you should marry them. The regrettable fact is that there are parasitic people in just about every organization–those who climb the ladder while sucking up resources and taking credit for others’ work, all at the expense of strong performers who go unrecognized and stagnate in their careers. De-emphasizing job interviews–or ditching them completely–might help alleviate this this problem.
I’m sure that there are many managers and business owners who think that they’re great at interviews and yet are probably the most biased and make the worst mistakes because of that bias while they hire people just like them.
You have to wonder how a $6000 fine is going to deter employers after a 3.5 year breach of employing an illegal worker and not paying taxes and of course this is a person who is sponsoring in migrant workers too, for a liquor store.
If you calculate how much is being lost in each case, 3.5 years of someone else not getting a job, the police costs to prosecute, the deportation costs and the justice system and then the guy just gets a fine of $6000 and the loss of business to other stores who employ legal workers paying taxes! Crime sure does pay in this country!
Weird that you can’t get somebody who needs a job locally to work at his store and how the government keeps bringing in low wage workers at the drop of a hat and the government doesn’t understand why poverty is increasing.
Apparently over 60% of people who end up in prison are unemployed… maybe have a think about, rather than building more prisons and having 3 strikes laws and work for dole schemes – actually employ our own citizens in real jobs at 40 hours a week so that they don’t need to turn to crime!
There is no longer an equal playing field in this country both for businesses and workers because there has become a culture of paying for for a fake job to get residency, underpaying for a job or having illegal workers paying no taxes taking jobs.
Even the sex workers are fed up with the illegal workers coming in on student and tourist visas!
You can’t run a country with less and less people paying taxes and ignoring the problem of fake jobs and illegal workers!
Start with the criminal employers who are not paying taxes, probably collecting many benefits like AS and WFF and creating these Ponzi schemes buying up more small and medium businesses and perpetuating the growing problems for other legitimate businesses and workers.
They can’t read well enough, for example, to be able to get a driver’s licence because they can’t do the written tests.
They can’t get a job in today’s society because they can’t read.
When I was young I used to spend the University Summer break working in Wool Stores. You could get a job like that even if you could barely read or write. Being able to pick out the right numbers on the stencil when marking the weight was pretty much all you needed to be able to do.
Those sort of jobs simply don’t exist any more, but there are still people who can’t read well enough to do anything else. That is what is the best thing we can do to get people into jobs and out of prison.
I’m not saying that that is the only reason why this firm doesn’t hire locals. There are always ratbags who will hire immigrants at illegally low wages. It is however indicative of why there are people who can’t get jobs and just drift from one jail sentence to another.
My personal opinion is that the schools should make their absolute priority getting people up to a minimum level of literacy and numeracy before they worry about anything else at all. Cultural topics can wait. If you can’t read you can’t learn anything else anyway.
Agree literacy in prisons is a problem aka anyone illiterate should all be doing the primary school syllabus while in prison. I’m not talking about dinky little online courses, I think there should be full on schools in prisons for the inmates with one teacher per 20 inmates for example.
However once they get out of prison they should have an opportunity to get a job or even better not go to prison because they got a job when they left school/tertiary in the first place…
But my link was about an illegal worker working in a liquor store, I don’t think you need high literacy for that, in fact they seem to use symbols now on tills for products and the tills do all the calculations for the cash customers. So I think that illegal workers are a bad idea, we are just getting worse and worse in NZ, encouraging poor work practises with pathetic sentences and encouraging more of the same.
To give an example the guy who poached some Paua got 12 months in prison, his dive gear confiscated and not allowed to fish for 3 years. Someone who sent a hoax note to Fonterra got 8 years in prison. Grow a bit of cannabis and you could lose your house!
But poor working practises from employers, if they even get caught, actually seem to have a fine below what they made by their illegal actions!
The law should be banning employers caught hiring illegal workers from owning/managing a business for 3 years, let alone allow them to bring more people in as well as a fine of $100,000. They should also have IRD doing full audits to see if any suspicious payments are being made (aka bribes for jobs) and check if they are compliant in other tax matters.
The point is, people need to be doing something if they are unemployed and getting $150 p/w on the dole aint a good prospect and even worse ‘work for the dole at $150’, and a $600 p/w job in a liquor store, although not great, is better than nothing!
So if we are getting employers owning multiple businesses who have people paying for the job, working illegally or getting $2p/h (and there are many cases occurring of that), then it’s cutting someone else’s prospects down to get that job or someone else operating a business that operates within NZ law.
I’m sorry to have derailed your comments with my pet hobby horse.
I got distracted by the comment about prisoners having been unemployed.
Having people who are literate isn’t going to help very much with employers like the one in the case you quote of course. They employ people who will work for very little because otherwise they get deported.
The only real way to deal with such employers is to belt them with truly massive fines. Fines so high that it simply isn’t worth them offending. Then pay at least some of the money out to the people who were employed illegally or on less than the minimum wage. Treat their wealth as being like the money seized from the gangs. It is proceeds of a crime and should be forfeited.
On a different subject I would allow the employment of people who simply cannot produce enough to justify them having to be paid the minimum wage. There used to be sheltered workshops for such people. Sure they were paid very little. It did however give them something they could do. Make their living costs up with a benefit from the state.
alwyn, I would put it to you that the minimum wage is now so low that it is the equivalent of a sheltered workshop wage.
How desperate would you have to be to do hard, physically hurtful labour like picking Kiwifruit for possibly less than $15 an hour? (They jiggle it by paying by the basket, I believe.)
Be honest.
Well, to be honest your first statement is simply wrong.
If you compare the minimum wage to the median wage for a full time worker New Zealand has a very high ratio when compared to similar countries. In 2016, according to the OECD the ratios for a few selected countries was
New Zealand 0.61
Australia 0.54
Germany 0.47
France 0.61
USA 0.35
Canada 0.46
UK 0.41
The numbers for lots of other countries are here. https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=MIN2AVE
I would fail to see how that can be described as “low”.
It is also much greater than would have been a typical wage in a sheltered workshop. They were, until the were forced out of existence by the Clark Government something like a couple of dollars/hour.
The workers didn’t live of that of course. They, or their families got benefits. It gave the people involved something to do each day and gave some meaning to their life.
Would I like to do something like Kiwifruit picking? At my age and physical condition of course not. When I was younger I quite happily spent about 3 months each year labouring and enjoyed it. It is amazing how much muscle you can put on in a few months when away from the student life.
I can’t really discuss the topic with you unless you see that your beliefs about minimum wages in this country are simply wrong, can I?
How can 50% of prisoners be illiterate surely they went to school until they were 15 years old, I thought we had a good education system or have we had teachers just f’ing around ? Sounds like B/S to me ?
@Tamati Tautuhi, sadly I think it is true, I have heard similar, sadly the result of Rogernomics and our ‘new’ educational systems like Tomorrow’s Schools where schools are run more like businesses. Personally I’d like to see our school principals have a more education focus, nowadays they are more like administration managers working our asset depreciation and infrastructure maintenance budgets… because in the old days the ministry took care of all that but now it’s up to the individual schools the burden often falling on principals… which has encouraged a certain type of principal more on the economic side than the educational side..
Of course in the business world, you have a CEO, CIO, CFO and CTO… but school principals are expected to do all that in one role, plus be the educational leaders..and of course the health and safety side.
Quite frankly it’s lucky we even get the results we do get with the weird ideas that have come about. The casualties are the kids who are failing 30% and the syllabus not getting every kid through.
It’s also not just for people who are going the criminal route that these jobs are useful for, I know people with intellectual disabilities who are all working in places like Supermarkets, or people who work in hospitality because they have other issues. The people I know are good workers who have been working for nearly a decade in that type of job. But they are being replaced and forced out of the work force by a growing issue of imported low wage workers, who as well as taking out jobs need more hospitals/schools/roads/houses.
So not only are people at the bottom facing job pressure, they also now have more competition for getting a house to rent and the rest of the country are subsidising these employers who are increasing at an alarming pace around the country. It used to just be Auckland, no more it’s spreading everywhere.
Likewise the quality of tourist experience. Stayed at a formally upmarket hotel taken over by an overseas firm who are buying up hotels around the country. If hardly any staff members, stinky minibar, dirty bathroom, un maintained rooms with bits falling off door, and rat bait packages under the bed in a resort that used to be luxury stay, sound like a good tourist experience, welcome to the ‘new’ New Zealand experience…
@Tamati. I can’t confirm the numbers but I am certainly willing to believe Mike’s comments. Did you read the article at that link?
I once tutored someone in one of our Prisons. That was about 40 years ago. He was, I think, in for selling drugs and he was doing part-time University courses at Massey. Definitely an odd one out. He said that many inmates couldn’t read and he would read their letters to them.
There have always been people like that. It isn’t a new thing or something that Tomorrow’s Schools caused. It just didn’t matter so much when there were lots of manual labour jobs available. When I was at High School we had a lot (around 20%) who arrived at the school for the third form at age 13 who really could not read or write. There were a couple of teachers who spent nearly all their time teaching them to read. You see without that skill they couldn’t learn anything else. Once they had, if ever, achieved that skill they could learn other things.
That was about 60 years ago. At least, as I suggested, in those days you could find work with very low skills. Now you can’t. In fact you may not even be able to get to work if you can’t drive.
If you don’t get the hang of reading early on at school I have been told you will withdraw from learning. You know you aren’t as good as other kids but you don’t want to admit it or to show up as being behind. So you say nothing. Then you stop attending school and things just never improve.
And no, it isn’t just “teachers f”ing off” as you put it. Kids missing school because they can’t keep up can’t be helped if they aren’t there.
On the other hand I think there are far too many things in the curriculum that could be ignored as long as this skill isn’t there. It might be a good thing to learn about all sorts of topics but they should be left until the three R’s are at some minimal level.
Good comment, alwyn (just for a change..)
Some time ago during my time as a teacher of languages I remember a very interesting lecture/article by some linguistic guru who claimed by some research or stats or who-knows-what that even in the best utopian country with the finest possible education system, a minimum of 8% (it could have been 1 in 8) in any population will inevitably remain functionally illiterate.
It is just the way humans are born.
So while some prisoners may be capable of becoming literate, it may well be that many will remain the way they are despite our efforts.
To my mind we need to reinstitute well-paid jobs for such people.
My surprising choice for an example of such nature is – rubbish collection!
In the good old days: a gang of 5 or so people with one truck. One drives; one or two stand up on rear, catch the bins lifted or thrown upwards to them, empty the bin into the truck, then toss the empty bin back down to the several runners, who place it back on the footpath upside-down. (A popular member of the old Waikato Rugby team used to do that job because it helped him keep fit for rugby.)
A radio would be blaring pop music on the back of the truck, the guys would be calling out to one another (including to driver) to maintain coordinated effort.
My toddler daughter would hear the parade coming, rush to the front window: the guys on the back of the truck used to look out for this, and would wave and grin, causing little toddler to wave back energetically. They seemed to love waving to little kids. They were cheerful enough to smile!
Lamentably, there is no such thing any more. Automated trucks, max of two people; no music; one might get fit by stepping on and off running board to toss bags (PLASTIC!!) of rubbish into the rear… The worst I saw was in Auckland where one sad-looking guy drove the truck that had mechanised arms to pick up wheely-bins and replace them (emptied out) back on the footpath. He looked bloody miserable. Probably paid far less than those earlier guys.
This disaster must apply to many other jobs as well. Fewer people less happy, being paid less money. I would not have minded working with those guys back when I was young. I would hate to work in modern rubbish collection.
This is how the Market leads us to bad places: mechanisation that is not well-guided is the enemy of human society. (The Luddites were right!)
The economy makes a good servant to society, but a very poor master.
And we have RWNJs still stupid enough to want the economy and the market to rule….
So weird though that although those jobs are apparently going, NZ seems to have so many ‘unskilled’ jobs on it’s ‘skilled’ migrant list… our productivity has been stagnant for years and our migrants are even lower qualified and less skilled than 5 years ago and so many lobby groups jumping up and down about how there are so many shortages of labour because apparently Kiwis are not suitable anymore. What a strategy for the future, sarc.
Posted an article a few days ago where an offshore hotel being built wanted 100’s of workers bought into Auckland on $20 p/h as decorators.
$20 p/h was the rate for a painter/decorater about 28 years ago!!! There are plenty of painter/decorators in Northland, but do you really think it is worth someone’s while to come to Auckland for a pay rate that comes from circa 1990 and is impossible to live on once you have a family ????
How the fuck can local construction survive when you are getting this under cutting?
Careful, dear alwyn – you have almost agreed with me.
What is the way ahead? They say that further automation is going to cut even more jobs. Would a sensible society not be concerned to see that its members were usefully and reasonably happily occupied, and use automation only as required to meet those needs, and improve the economy without social damage??
Instead we have a greedy group who use automation to maximise their profits, without caring that they create one hell-hole of a society.
A recipe for massive disaster.
Your thoughts? (As The Chairman was so fond of demanding..)
Even better he is a “Polynesian Jew” playing Adolf Hitler, the imaginary friend of a young German lad whose mum is active in the Resistance (and Scarlett Johansson to boot!).
Simon No Bridges says Winston should concentrate on governing the country rather than taking out vendettas against Senior Government Officials and MP’s.
What the clown needs to realize is it is a separate issue to NZF, the Coalition or the governing of the country. These people deliberately released Winston’s personal information into the public arena, to smear him and influence the outcome of the 2017 General Election. Dirty Politics Paper 102
If people are not brought to account by the judicial system these things will keep happening.
We had blatant fraud and corruption with the collapse of the BNZ which was covered up by the NZ Government and the NZ Judiciary in the Winebox Enquiry. Hence we have systemic failures of companies here in NZ ever since then, as “white collar crime” is considered a legitimate business activity here in NZ. However stealing pinky bars from the local petrol station will get you locked up for a good length of time.
It sends a message to the crooks “if you are going to commit fraud here in NZ do it for a reasonable sum of money ? ” Doug Graham would be a classic case and example.
The Standard used to be, Worthwhile. But now that it is infested with Trolls it is so dull and childlike. It iooks and acts like a toddler with a dirty bottom.
Observer; The Standard is still worthwhile and then some. Those folk you “name” are our “creative tension providers” – without them, we are soft. Harden up, enjoy the creative stress!
You just have to scroll, or scribe past them, throw them the odd lure or live bait when you want a bit of entertainment, as it doesn’t take them long to come up the berley trail, just don’t feed them too much as they can chew up a lot of precious time and bait.
Report: We had good early activity by two trolls Gossie was up early and I am not sure who the other one was, today we have had good troll activity throughout the day, and it is highly likely we will get the Pick 6 today b4 12.00am, yesterday we didn’t get the last leg b4 12.00am but we got 5 legs in. So far today we have had activity from, Gossie, Mullet Head, James, Puckish Rogue & Baby Gaga. I will post the results later once we have analysed all the days trolling activity across T/S.
As I have suggested they should set up there own Blog Site and go all out, I guess they are over here undercover from Kiwi Blog & Whale Oil websites to keep themselves entertained ?
And how do we classify contributors? Who could decide whether a certain genuinely concerned Leftie (who often makes comments that look so) is in fact not what he seems?
Watched Question Time today. Bridges all geared up to smash Andrew Little but crashed out having to face Winston “On behalf Of the PM.”
Winston was at his best. Succinct. Amusing. And made Simon look like a very very silly little boy. Winston will be great as Acting PM.
Apologize to the ambulance service people it’s not like Eco Maori rings a ambulance every day. I was informed that the service is busy and the time was 40 min. The last time I had a ambulance rang was a hcoptter I did not wait I got my son to take me to hospital.
Ka kite ano
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New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
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The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
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Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
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ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
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Trump and Kim will meet accompanied only by interpreters.
On the agenda: real estate and money laundering opportunities, bribe management, meth and human trafficking arrangements, contract killing.
According to Pete George, this does not constitute a crisis for our democracy.
Bryce Edwards sees it differently.
Nearly 64% of the electorate did NOT vote.
18% of the electorate voted for Bidois.
“But what about the fact that there was a low voter turnout. According to the Electoral Commission, voter turnout is estimated to be 43.7%. This figure is based on the numbers that have voted, as a percentage of those enrolled. However, the Electoral Commission and Statistics New Zealand previously estimated that in Northcote there is an eligible voter population of 54,790 (of which about nine per cent are not enrolled). So, when you take that into account, the 19,900 who voted, make up an even smaller “real” voter turnout – which is well under 40%.
It also means that the vote for each candidate as a proportion of all eligible voters in Northcote is somewhat smaller than it might initially appear, since about 35,000 eligible voters choose not to vote – which somewhat overshadows the 10,147 who voted for the winning candidate.”
http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2018/06/northcote-voter-turnout-lower-than.html
Compulsory voting is the solution. Oz have done it for decades and there’s engagement across the demographics as a result.
National rejected that along with pretty much every other suggested reform, my how surprising. Keeps the bastards honest, where that’s practical for some parties, when they know the disaffected are forced to vote.
Like road rules they serve a greater good even if they’re not popular.
Stv returns mayors in places like wellington with as little as 22% of the actual vote and as little as 11% of the enrolled vote.
No one screamed constitutional crises when the dippiest dipper ever, Celia wade brown, was voted in
Farrar and his cronies certainly did. But then, they’re constantly screaming.
I ignore broken records like Farrar. Our views align in some areas but his messaging is wrong
Some of your views align with “broken record” Farrar?
Which ones?
What a lot of silly nonsense.
Think of it as like an opinion poll, but instead of say 300 giving their view, its 19,000
In other words , THE RESULT WOULD BE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THOUGH EVERYONE VOTED.
The idea that 19,000 vote and we dont know what ALL the actual voters think is seriously nutty thinking
Bryce Edwards needs a good telling off
Probably not actually. The people who vote tend to be more right-wing and rich compared to those who don’t.
This was a by-election at the start of the term of a new government for a seat previously held by the opposition. Of course turnout will be low. There was nothing really at stake. Jumping up and down and trying to call this the death of democracy in NZ is ridiculous.
As I say, we need compulsory voting. Voluntary voting simply isn’t working.
Australia shows that compulsory voting works far better.
Does it Draco? This from a stuff article after their 2016 Federal Election:
“A long winter federal election campaign in Australia that clashed with school holidays has resulted in the biggest voter no-show in the country since compulsory voting began in 1925.
More than 1.4 million Australians last month failed to cast a vote for the House of Representatives in what ultimately became a cliff-hanger election. The figure represents more than 9 per cent of 15.7 million eligible voters.
The turnout is the worst since 1922, when voting was optional and just 59 per cent of eligible people cast a lower house vote.”
It’s a political hot potato. As you say, it’s those doing it toughest that are least inclined to vote. Fining those that struggle to keep food up to mouths is popularity suicide. If zero punitive measures against non voters, there’s no point introducing the fresh law.
Yes it does.
9% compared to more than 50%.
Or even in general elections where we’re seeing less than 80% turnout.
You also seem to have missed this line in the bit you quoted:
Seems that Australians are actually quite happy with compulsory voting.
And yet our governments keep doing it to beneficiaries.
All it takes is good advertising before each election and the number fined will be minimal.
Yeah ok, I’ve gone and done some more reading on it. I’m not as partisan as I was. I lived in Oz for a long period, it is no hardship to vote. Chasing up non voters appears to be a token effort, 12 people in Darwin taken to court after the last election.
I dread the influx in….”I voted for that chappie with the straight teeth, whatisname? I once saw him in a Crusaders jersey” vox pops.
I suspect that it actually isn’t. Most would be given a warning and to vote next time or else. Many would be given the voting slip and told here and now or else.
You probably just don’t hear about it which is unfortunate.
If you’re not on the electoral roll how do they know who to chase up?
But also, in order to enrol you have to sign a form. No person can legally be forced to sign any form they don’t wish to sign.
Just because you’re not on the electoral roll doesn’t mean that you can’t be traced. Got a bank account? Pay your taxes? Drive a car?
Yeah, I’m one of the few people who have no difficulty with the government doing data matching to catch criminals. Especially when those criminals are fucking over our democracy.
It is a legal requirement to be enrolled. You must sign that form whether you like it or not.
How exactly does Bryce Edwards see it differently, Ed? His piece is actually very noncommittal and empty of firm opinion on the matter at hand.
I think your comment has put a few here on the wrong foot …
You could have made the argument as to why you think the numbers reflect badly on the current state of our representative democracy but you didn’t. Why not?
Nanny state?
More like angry drunken big bully Brother State.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/359376/woman-has-benefit-wrongly-suspended-for-second-time
I am struggling to work out what Andrew Little was thinking in putting about his agenda to dump the three strikes legislation without first getting his political ducks in a row. Is he a political idiot?
Little floats idea, gives Winston the opportunity to make his mark, both postpone the issue for a while and a satisfactory result flies through the House; everybody wins. Meanwhile, the Right enjoy a temporary lift, to no eventual gain. The Coalition Government works, and is seen to be working, as it should.
Spin Spin Spin RG, just like a Council does when it imposes 8% rates increases. Your man was fed to the dogs, not unexpected.
8.3 and in any case, is your “dogs” reference to the poor autistic man, savaged yesterday by rottweilers near Winton? That’s harsh for this time of the morning, Ruby. For any time really.
That seems an excessively generous interpretation to me.
Occam’s says more like Little, who was a politically inept leader, simple fucked up the politics.
I agree the politics are nowhere near as bad as our aggressively authoritarian political media seem to think, but the Likes of Audrey Young seem very under employed most of the time. Not a lot of substance happens in our politics, so they are reduced to making mountains out of molehills and reporting two flies climbing a wall with breathless urgency.
I just wonder why they don’t occupy their copious spare time writing in depth backgrounders.
“politically inept leader”, even if true, doesn’t translate to inept politician. I suggest that in fact, Little is a good and efficient politician, especially when out of the “leader” spotlight. In this instance we can only speculate, but my view is that he’s not so “inept” as to be unaware of what Winston’s position would invariably have been, and in fact played the game to the satisfaction of all-but-you (and some other posters 🙂
Except his actions are generating headlines like this:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/12/new-zealand-coalition-under-strain-as-jacinda-ardern-prepares-for-maternity-leave
Now this is clearly overblown but Politics is as much about perception than reality and if the perception is a Government that is unstable soon enough it will be.
Headlines, schmedlines – they’re froth, Gosman, eye-catching dross, the don’t mean anything; that you’re enchanted by them is… a shame. Nevermind, there are others who can see past the headlines .
Your believing that illusions are real is … cute. Serious political commenters though, don’t fall for illusions. The Government won’t become “unstable” simply because National declares that to be the case; your confidence in that sort of fickleness marks you as … fickle.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) serious political commentators don’t generally dictate the popularity of political parties. If the perception gains traction that a governing coalition is unstable then people will think is is likely to fall and stop supporting it. Yes this is unfair to a degree but it is political reality.
So?
Three years of parties disagreeing in public (but respectfully) without the government being brought down will show those headlines as stupid.
The media need crises to sell copy. I can understand why the populace might not be used to a government of adults, but they’ll learn what should be the norm rater than the exception.
I was thinking about that possibility except it has had a negative impact on the Government generally. It looks like the political management skills of Little and by extension the PM are flawed. Just listen to the attack by Guyon Espiner on Morning report this morning.
Guyon’s attack was, by accounts I’ve read, a failed one. Little would have been attacked even more vigorously, had his proposal gone ahead un-modified, as you know – Farrar et al would have been shrieking heedlessly; as it is, they’re crowing prematurely. What the media does is of little consequence, pun intended, and a smart operator will play them. Little’s a clever guy and Winston’s not too shabby either.
Little clever? Nah, he’s either stupid or arrogant. Clearly he didn’t have NZF on board with the three strikes policy, and Peters has rescued his plummeting polling at the expense of the hapless Mr Little.
Yours is a simplistic world view, Baba Yaga. Sophisticated ideas must make you feel dizzy, yes?
The proposed repeal of the 3 strikes law was not sophisticated. It was stupid.
No it wasn’t; you’re like a cuckoo clock, babayaga; same phrase, over and over cuckoo, cuckoo!
Is Baby Gaga trolling again today or is he being sensible today, Gossie and Mullet Head are going stupid again ?
Little should never had floated this idea as essentially a done deal. He could have made out that he was very keen to review the law including and then allowed Winston credit for nixing it.
The whole thing has been a shambles.
Luckily Winston’s going after MSD and Bennett et al plus the shenanigans in Singapore will quickly push it off the news cycle (for now).
But the ongoing government messiness and poor comms etc can only be explained away by Ardern for so long before it starts to become a major liability.
“the ongoing government messiness” is a message constructed and broadcast by the Right. There’s a grain of truth in it, as there would be for any and every “new” coalition Government, but the blue magnifying glass is being held over that small issue as part of National’s programme of denigrating the Government.
I admire your rather generous assessment of the situation Robert and I’d like to be able to agree with you but I can’t.
Three Strikes and law and order issues generally are just too sensitive electorally to be allowed to play out like this has. Apparently there was almost outright panic in Little’s office a week or so ago when the OIA on 3 strikes was released to media and they realised how it was going to go.
Oh well, I can’t argue with “apparently”…
Mind you, to say that “Three Strikes and law and order issues generally are just too sensitive electorally” shows me that any approach would bring problems, so this way, the usual attack lines are blurred and criticism blunted; in fact, the “usual suspects” are crowing with delight; that’s a pretty clever strategy if in fact, Little and Peters colluded. I’d do it the way they have; play some feints and switches and slip the soul through while confusion reigns.
That’s the thing though, apart from the lock-‘em-up-and-throw-away-the -key crowd pleasers any sensible measures on crime and justice are always problematic to put in front of the electorate.
It’s hard to see how giving the Opposition and their pals in the media an even bigger stick with which to beat the government on this is going to blur attack lines and blunt criticism?
Hard to see? Not for me 🙂
Will the Government get a progressive package of law & order reforms through in the near future? Yes, I believe they will. Will there be less noise around it, due to the “moderating” effect of Winston’s recent action? Yes, I believe there will. Clever play? Yes, I still believe so. I don’t take much note of the wailing and gnashing of Righty teeth around this issue.
Well I hope you’re right Robert. Otherwise the future is a correctional facility on every bloody street corner.
I hope I am also, ScottGN. I think Andrew Little’s bright and will serve us well.
What is missing throughout this debate, especially in the MSM, is the fact the 3 Strikes is a stupid politically motivated law, a blunt instrument that doesn’t work.
The MSM, if it was being even-handed, should be making the point that Labour and the Greens are right to try to get it repealed rather than treating this as an issue they hope will destroy the coalition.
Well done Andrew Little for sticking to his guns on Morning Report this morning.
An even-handed MSM would do itself out of a job, consequently, it always tips the table one way or the other, to maintain tension. We readers love tension; makes us feel alive!
I guess we have to accept the msm controls the government and the electorate.
What are we going to do about?
Recent history would indicate our MSM are incapable of/disinterested in exploring the effects of policy as opposed to ‘political drama’…..and yet ‘we’ persist in our support.
Their version of ‘reality TV’?
““the ongoing government messiness” is a message constructed and broadcast by the Right.”
No, the messiness is surely and simply the result of inexperience combined with incompetence mixed with hubris. From the coalition agreement that gifted a billion dollars to a NZF slush fund, to the election of the Speaker (Labour’s screw up and then cover up), to the disgraceful decision making around oil and gas exploration, through to the incompetence of MIA Ministers such as Curran, Jackson, Davis, Twyford et al, this is a shambolic government mislead by a PM whose previous claim to fame had been working in a fish and chip shop. You were warned.
No, the messiness is natural and unavoidable. It’s the reporting that’s unnatural; the endless whine that you are part of, babayaga, that’s the twitter. Plus, You Have Been Warned!!!
Bomber’s on the money here.
“By publicly dumping a law that was only rhetoric and theatre in the first place (it’s only impacted 20 prisoners) Labour…
gives NZ First oxygen at a time when Labour desperately requires their coalition partners to survive
blunts National’s law and order attack which they will be playing all year with new tough on crime members bills.
Allows the perception to the petty consumers of bitterness that Labour have had to back down on prison reform when the actual process will continue. Liberal twitter and NGOs on twitter will lambast Little and scream at the injustice which will convince the petty consumers of bitterness in muddle Nu Zilind that Labour must have changed their position to outrage the Twitterratti in such a way.
Little loses the battle so he can win the war.”
If thats true its a bit short sighted because from now until the next election National can point to Labour being soft on crime so a vote for NZFirst is a vote for being soft on crime whereas a vote for National is a vote for three strikes
I’m sure he’s like most politicians, a decent, well meaning, reasonably intelligent person.
However your question: “Is he a political idiot?” is an easy question to answer. He’s failed twice to win an electorate seat and was driving Labour to oblivion before he did the smartest thing he’s ever likely to do, politically, and resign so yes, politically speaking, he is an idiot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6wBcwj59F4
However he is rocking a decent beard so thats something in his favour
You call that a beard?
It is just like Mallard’s.
All it is is that the hair from the top of his head has slipped down his face.
The only halfway decent beard any recent MP has had is the one Gareth Hughes showed off.
That added about 10 years to his age and made him look old enough to vote.
Even then he couldn’t compare to some of the early PMs like Seddon, Vogel, Stafford or Weld.
You call that a beard?
https://robertwoodlander.blogspot.com/2018/05/coming-clean.html
I am impressed. You could have been PM, or was it Premier, in 1860’s New Zealand.
Best I can manage is councillor, Southland Regional Council, 2010 – 2018. I wonder if I’m on my own in being a bearded councillor in NZ? I certainly don’t meet many others.
That’s a beard that commands respect!
I thank you, but respectfully suggest you talk with my wife who holds a slightly different view 🙂
Secretly all women like men with beards and I read it in Oblivious Male Monthly so it must be true
They do, yes; well, mostly. I was told by my wife’s maiden aunt, way back, that she could “never make love to a man with a beard”. I guessed she meant something more arcane than it seemed by that, but still, I was taken aback. Didn’t stop me though!
You made love to your wife’s maiden aunt? That’s a pretty ballsy move I gotta say. 🙂
“Didn’t stop me though”
How could I let that slip through???
I’m a “share the love” kinda guy. Truth to tell, Maiden Aunt’s comments didn’t deter me from wooing her niece (much more seemly, aye, though not quite the story it was shaping up to be 🙂
Kym Koloni NZF stood as an Independent Candidate and got 95 votes, not looking good for NZF down the track ?
Not looking good for Kym.
NZF might have to start looking for a new candidate for Northcote if they are going to contest the seat in the 2020 Election ?
Crikey! Is Guyon looking for a bonus? His interview smacks of desperation. Fortunately Jacinda was able to make him sound just that. DESPARATE. She treated him like the bad mannered child that he is and he achieved absolutely nothing with his hectoring,bullying attitude. Maybe he should try a measured professional approach and he might get taken seriously. An excellent, sensible calm and clear attitude from Jacinda with her replies was wonderful to hear. At least one adult in the conversation! Guyon is past his used by date.
+1
Agree +100% the guy is a joke.
Was Guyon ever that “persistent” with Key?
Don’t remember him being so. Guyon was grateful that Key would allow a very sparse minute just before the 8 o’clock news and treated him gently in case he didn’t turn up at all.
Of course he was as persistent with Key and English. You just can’t remember because you obviously thought that any persistent questioning of Key/English was justified as a result of your political bias.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/75031554/Theres-a-place-for-hard-nosed-interviews-but-not-aggression
Crikey iannie, you forgot the previslabagummnt, previslabagummnt, previslabagummnt, previslabagummnt, previslabagummnt, exchange already?
Totally agree. Guyon Espinor is a hectoring bore. I am tired of his style of interviewing. He’s more suited to Fox News.
And as for John Key – for years he refused to be interviewed on Morning Report.
Did you not follow the link I provided?
“Guyon Espinor is a hectoring bore. ”
QFT
If President Trump gets a good poll bump from the results of this North Korean summit he will be sending a strong signal to Romney and the traditional conservative Republican wing that there is only one Republican nomination for the next Presidential contest – and it’s him.
If the Dems don’t get their house sorted in pretty quick order instead of folding and undercutting each other like they did in the banking reforms, then they will be very hard pressed to beat Trump.
The rest might be a bit too far into the future, but Trump’s massive strength of perpetual chaos, drama, and through that total name-domination in the media is sustaining a very strong base to build from.
Yahoo! Go Andrew Little. Guyon needs to give up. He’s looking like an amateur. Three strikes AND OUT! He should stick to reporting on weather.
@ffloyd….agreed. I loved both Little and Jacinda taking it to Espiner this morning on Morning Report-well worth a listen to anyone who hasn’t heard it.
Both showed themselves to be smart and on top of the issue. I’m still reveling in this government after 9 years of hell.
Sniggering Gyno did seem a little taken aback when Andy bit back.
Why? What was the issue with the way he approached the topic this morning?
Our future trade focus should be Asia and we should be part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, hanging off the USA’s coat tails is not going to do us any good in the future, the future trade growth region is Asia.
Forget about the USA let them do their own thing.
Our future trade focus should be on minimising trade. That’s hard though and does require developing our economy and our society.
It’s better to trade with countries that make different stuff. Korea makes real steel and computers, and does not compete with our ag goods. The US, with its weird corn subsidies and mad cow disease doesn’t want our stuff.
Except that that’s a load of bollocks.
Dubious Assumptions on Comparative Advantage
Loss from Trade
We make steel. Around 1.5 million tonnes of it per year. We export around 1 million tonnes of it. And that doesn’t even take into account all the raw iron sand that we export.
The problem with that scenario is that we will, quite rapidly, run out of iron deposits.
Our focus on farming is depleting our soils as well poisoning our waterways. So, that’s not sustainable either.
Electronics tend to made out of silicon and doping with semi-conductors. We have significant deposits of both of those as well. So, we could easily make our own electronics from our own resources. Just need to develop those deposits and build the factories. Do that and buying our own would be cheaper than importing due to distance and transport costs.
Our main agricultural export ATM seems to be dairy. The US is massively over-producing dairy to the point where their farmers are losing money on sale of it. In other words, even if we had an FTA with the US, we wouldn’t be able to export there simply because they can provide it themselves cheaper. And once they get that over-production sorted it’ll still be cheaper to buy US produced milk in the US than to buy NZ milk in the US.
An export led economy is doomed due to the very real physical limitations of available resources.
An economy that uses it’s own resources and recycles them is actually sustainable due to the resources always being available.
In other words, reality makes trade unsustainable.
God. Who gave Armstrong the kiss of life. ANOTHER opinion piece on his intimate knowledge of Jacindas state of mind, this time on Andrew Littles 3strike postponement. Definitely on a Labour sabotage mission.
Is Armstrong working as a psychologist now, just wait till after the baby is born and the post natal depresssion kicks in, Guyon, Richardson, Garner and Armstrong will have a fieldday ?
Armstrong is a devious National Party shill (as opposed to a journalist).
He lost all credibility as a commentator when he demanded Cunliffe’s resignation over a meaningless 10 year old letter. He later admitted he was wrong to do this, but of course he knew that at the time.
Pretty sure you think that about much of the media given your comments in the past.
Yes, Armstrong, Cunliffe, the old, meaningless letter – nadir.
Has the old fossil Armstrong crawled out of his grave ?
Fossils can crawl?
Yikes!
There’s some HUGE fossils out there.
And some of them in graves, I read!
Justice! Fair play! Good for Nicky and for future police action. Though it still doesn’t explain why the police were so active for Slater.
“Investigative journalist Nicky Hager has accepted a police apology and payment of “substantial damages” following the unlawful search of his home during the investigation into the hacking that led to the Dirty Politics book.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12068928
Nicky Hagar getting a big pay out from the NZ Police +100%
Some very strange behaviour by the NZ Police under the previous National Government ?
Just listening to K Ryan talking to someone? regarding the meeting between dumb and dumber. He says it is just a publicity exercise and won’t achieve anything. Does this mean it will be all about ‘summit and nowt?
Nah its all about someone and newit ?
So about time we heard something about this:
https://www.labour.org.nz/maria_berryman_review
“Ms Berryman is commencing immediately with the initial focus of her investigation on the Young Labour camp in February. The review is expected to take between two and three months,” said Nigel Haworth, Labour Party President.
Why should expect to hear anything? t has nothing to do with you. It was a purely internal matter for the Labour Party.
However I will tell you the gist of the enquiry.
Nothing happened.
The stories about it were all fabrications by lying members of neo-Nazi organisations like the National Party.
There were no members of the Party at the affair.
The people who were there all went to bed early and no one saw or heard anything.
The only problems were caused by fifth columnists from the National Party and other Fascist organisations.
But nothing happened.
Nothing further will be said.
It is time to move on.
But nothing happened.
There. I think you would agree that is a pretty fair summary of the matter.
Being that the media seem to have forgotten about it as well its hard to see how the left think theres a bias against them
Also: Pony Tail
Orangutan fights off a bulldozer to protect its home
Once again a darling of many a hard core lefty has turned in to an authoritarian douchebag and is messing his country up.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/11/nicaragua-university-protest-daniel-ortega-occupation
Hopefully the IRD will do an audit on John Key’s affairs and determine whether he paid tax on the NZRail shares which he failed to disclose to the NZ Public, as he may have bought those shares with the intention of selling them (ie speculation) as he was definitely not a long term investor in NZRail, similar to one of the other major shareholders Fay Richwhite ?
You do come up with interesting conspiracy theories there. Interesting or wacky. Take your pick.
I’d like to think that those in power should have automatic audits to make sure they are not profiting from their power. In particular due to the rise of the super rich to being in politics, aka financial trader makes PM aka KEY, the property developer/reality TV star make President aka Trump, the lawyer who makes his own laws aka Rodrigo Duterte…
What if we killed the job interview?
I’m sure that there are many managers and business owners who think that they’re great at interviews and yet are probably the most biased and make the worst mistakes because of that bias while they hire people just like them.
You have to wonder how a $6000 fine is going to deter employers after a 3.5 year breach of employing an illegal worker and not paying taxes and of course this is a person who is sponsoring in migrant workers too, for a liquor store.
If you calculate how much is being lost in each case, 3.5 years of someone else not getting a job, the police costs to prosecute, the deportation costs and the justice system and then the guy just gets a fine of $6000 and the loss of business to other stores who employ legal workers paying taxes! Crime sure does pay in this country!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12069066
Weird that you can’t get somebody who needs a job locally to work at his store and how the government keeps bringing in low wage workers at the drop of a hat and the government doesn’t understand why poverty is increasing.
Apparently over 60% of people who end up in prison are unemployed… maybe have a think about, rather than building more prisons and having 3 strikes laws and work for dole schemes – actually employ our own citizens in real jobs at 40 hours a week so that they don’t need to turn to crime!
There is no longer an equal playing field in this country both for businesses and workers because there has become a culture of paying for for a fake job to get residency, underpaying for a job or having illegal workers paying no taxes taking jobs.
Even the sex workers are fed up with the illegal workers coming in on student and tourist visas!
You can’t run a country with less and less people paying taxes and ignoring the problem of fake jobs and illegal workers!
Start with the criminal employers who are not paying taxes, probably collecting many benefits like AS and WFF and creating these Ponzi schemes buying up more small and medium businesses and perpetuating the growing problems for other legitimate businesses and workers.
If Mike Williams’ numbers are correct, and he is CEO of the Howard League, much of the real problem is that more than 50% of prisoners are functionally illiterate. That is the number he gives in this link although I have seen other estimates of it being as high as 70%.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/80836726/mike-williams-and-the-howard-league-gives-prisoners-a-second-chance
They can’t read well enough, for example, to be able to get a driver’s licence because they can’t do the written tests.
They can’t get a job in today’s society because they can’t read.
When I was young I used to spend the University Summer break working in Wool Stores. You could get a job like that even if you could barely read or write. Being able to pick out the right numbers on the stencil when marking the weight was pretty much all you needed to be able to do.
Those sort of jobs simply don’t exist any more, but there are still people who can’t read well enough to do anything else. That is what is the best thing we can do to get people into jobs and out of prison.
I’m not saying that that is the only reason why this firm doesn’t hire locals. There are always ratbags who will hire immigrants at illegally low wages. It is however indicative of why there are people who can’t get jobs and just drift from one jail sentence to another.
My personal opinion is that the schools should make their absolute priority getting people up to a minimum level of literacy and numeracy before they worry about anything else at all. Cultural topics can wait. If you can’t read you can’t learn anything else anyway.
Agree literacy in prisons is a problem aka anyone illiterate should all be doing the primary school syllabus while in prison. I’m not talking about dinky little online courses, I think there should be full on schools in prisons for the inmates with one teacher per 20 inmates for example.
However once they get out of prison they should have an opportunity to get a job or even better not go to prison because they got a job when they left school/tertiary in the first place…
But my link was about an illegal worker working in a liquor store, I don’t think you need high literacy for that, in fact they seem to use symbols now on tills for products and the tills do all the calculations for the cash customers. So I think that illegal workers are a bad idea, we are just getting worse and worse in NZ, encouraging poor work practises with pathetic sentences and encouraging more of the same.
To give an example the guy who poached some Paua got 12 months in prison, his dive gear confiscated and not allowed to fish for 3 years. Someone who sent a hoax note to Fonterra got 8 years in prison. Grow a bit of cannabis and you could lose your house!
But poor working practises from employers, if they even get caught, actually seem to have a fine below what they made by their illegal actions!
The law should be banning employers caught hiring illegal workers from owning/managing a business for 3 years, let alone allow them to bring more people in as well as a fine of $100,000. They should also have IRD doing full audits to see if any suspicious payments are being made (aka bribes for jobs) and check if they are compliant in other tax matters.
The point is, people need to be doing something if they are unemployed and getting $150 p/w on the dole aint a good prospect and even worse ‘work for the dole at $150’, and a $600 p/w job in a liquor store, although not great, is better than nothing!
So if we are getting employers owning multiple businesses who have people paying for the job, working illegally or getting $2p/h (and there are many cases occurring of that), then it’s cutting someone else’s prospects down to get that job or someone else operating a business that operates within NZ law.
I’m sorry to have derailed your comments with my pet hobby horse.
I got distracted by the comment about prisoners having been unemployed.
Having people who are literate isn’t going to help very much with employers like the one in the case you quote of course. They employ people who will work for very little because otherwise they get deported.
The only real way to deal with such employers is to belt them with truly massive fines. Fines so high that it simply isn’t worth them offending. Then pay at least some of the money out to the people who were employed illegally or on less than the minimum wage. Treat their wealth as being like the money seized from the gangs. It is proceeds of a crime and should be forfeited.
On a different subject I would allow the employment of people who simply cannot produce enough to justify them having to be paid the minimum wage. There used to be sheltered workshops for such people. Sure they were paid very little. It did however give them something they could do. Make their living costs up with a benefit from the state.
alwyn, I would put it to you that the minimum wage is now so low that it is the equivalent of a sheltered workshop wage.
How desperate would you have to be to do hard, physically hurtful labour like picking Kiwifruit for possibly less than $15 an hour? (They jiggle it by paying by the basket, I believe.)
Be honest.
Well, to be honest your first statement is simply wrong.
If you compare the minimum wage to the median wage for a full time worker New Zealand has a very high ratio when compared to similar countries. In 2016, according to the OECD the ratios for a few selected countries was
New Zealand 0.61
Australia 0.54
Germany 0.47
France 0.61
USA 0.35
Canada 0.46
UK 0.41
The numbers for lots of other countries are here.
https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=MIN2AVE
I would fail to see how that can be described as “low”.
It is also much greater than would have been a typical wage in a sheltered workshop. They were, until the were forced out of existence by the Clark Government something like a couple of dollars/hour.
The workers didn’t live of that of course. They, or their families got benefits. It gave the people involved something to do each day and gave some meaning to their life.
Would I like to do something like Kiwifruit picking? At my age and physical condition of course not. When I was younger I quite happily spent about 3 months each year labouring and enjoyed it. It is amazing how much muscle you can put on in a few months when away from the student life.
I can’t really discuss the topic with you unless you see that your beliefs about minimum wages in this country are simply wrong, can I?
How can 50% of prisoners be illiterate surely they went to school until they were 15 years old, I thought we had a good education system or have we had teachers just f’ing around ? Sounds like B/S to me ?
@Tamati Tautuhi, sadly I think it is true, I have heard similar, sadly the result of Rogernomics and our ‘new’ educational systems like Tomorrow’s Schools where schools are run more like businesses. Personally I’d like to see our school principals have a more education focus, nowadays they are more like administration managers working our asset depreciation and infrastructure maintenance budgets… because in the old days the ministry took care of all that but now it’s up to the individual schools the burden often falling on principals… which has encouraged a certain type of principal more on the economic side than the educational side..
Of course in the business world, you have a CEO, CIO, CFO and CTO… but school principals are expected to do all that in one role, plus be the educational leaders..and of course the health and safety side.
Quite frankly it’s lucky we even get the results we do get with the weird ideas that have come about. The casualties are the kids who are failing 30% and the syllabus not getting every kid through.
It’s also not just for people who are going the criminal route that these jobs are useful for, I know people with intellectual disabilities who are all working in places like Supermarkets, or people who work in hospitality because they have other issues. The people I know are good workers who have been working for nearly a decade in that type of job. But they are being replaced and forced out of the work force by a growing issue of imported low wage workers, who as well as taking out jobs need more hospitals/schools/roads/houses.
So not only are people at the bottom facing job pressure, they also now have more competition for getting a house to rent and the rest of the country are subsidising these employers who are increasing at an alarming pace around the country. It used to just be Auckland, no more it’s spreading everywhere.
Likewise the quality of tourist experience. Stayed at a formally upmarket hotel taken over by an overseas firm who are buying up hotels around the country. If hardly any staff members, stinky minibar, dirty bathroom, un maintained rooms with bits falling off door, and rat bait packages under the bed in a resort that used to be luxury stay, sound like a good tourist experience, welcome to the ‘new’ New Zealand experience…
@Tamati. I can’t confirm the numbers but I am certainly willing to believe Mike’s comments. Did you read the article at that link?
I once tutored someone in one of our Prisons. That was about 40 years ago. He was, I think, in for selling drugs and he was doing part-time University courses at Massey. Definitely an odd one out. He said that many inmates couldn’t read and he would read their letters to them.
There have always been people like that. It isn’t a new thing or something that Tomorrow’s Schools caused. It just didn’t matter so much when there were lots of manual labour jobs available. When I was at High School we had a lot (around 20%) who arrived at the school for the third form at age 13 who really could not read or write. There were a couple of teachers who spent nearly all their time teaching them to read. You see without that skill they couldn’t learn anything else. Once they had, if ever, achieved that skill they could learn other things.
That was about 60 years ago. At least, as I suggested, in those days you could find work with very low skills. Now you can’t. In fact you may not even be able to get to work if you can’t drive.
If you don’t get the hang of reading early on at school I have been told you will withdraw from learning. You know you aren’t as good as other kids but you don’t want to admit it or to show up as being behind. So you say nothing. Then you stop attending school and things just never improve.
And no, it isn’t just “teachers f”ing off” as you put it. Kids missing school because they can’t keep up can’t be helped if they aren’t there.
On the other hand I think there are far too many things in the curriculum that could be ignored as long as this skill isn’t there. It might be a good thing to learn about all sorts of topics but they should be left until the three R’s are at some minimal level.
Good comment, alwyn (just for a change..)
Some time ago during my time as a teacher of languages I remember a very interesting lecture/article by some linguistic guru who claimed by some research or stats or who-knows-what that even in the best utopian country with the finest possible education system, a minimum of 8% (it could have been 1 in 8) in any population will inevitably remain functionally illiterate.
It is just the way humans are born.
So while some prisoners may be capable of becoming literate, it may well be that many will remain the way they are despite our efforts.
To my mind we need to reinstitute well-paid jobs for such people.
My surprising choice for an example of such nature is – rubbish collection!
In the good old days: a gang of 5 or so people with one truck. One drives; one or two stand up on rear, catch the bins lifted or thrown upwards to them, empty the bin into the truck, then toss the empty bin back down to the several runners, who place it back on the footpath upside-down. (A popular member of the old Waikato Rugby team used to do that job because it helped him keep fit for rugby.)
A radio would be blaring pop music on the back of the truck, the guys would be calling out to one another (including to driver) to maintain coordinated effort.
My toddler daughter would hear the parade coming, rush to the front window: the guys on the back of the truck used to look out for this, and would wave and grin, causing little toddler to wave back energetically. They seemed to love waving to little kids. They were cheerful enough to smile!
Lamentably, there is no such thing any more. Automated trucks, max of two people; no music; one might get fit by stepping on and off running board to toss bags (PLASTIC!!) of rubbish into the rear… The worst I saw was in Auckland where one sad-looking guy drove the truck that had mechanised arms to pick up wheely-bins and replace them (emptied out) back on the footpath. He looked bloody miserable. Probably paid far less than those earlier guys.
This disaster must apply to many other jobs as well. Fewer people less happy, being paid less money. I would not have minded working with those guys back when I was young. I would hate to work in modern rubbish collection.
This is how the Market leads us to bad places: mechanisation that is not well-guided is the enemy of human society. (The Luddites were right!)
The economy makes a good servant to society, but a very poor master.
And we have RWNJs still stupid enough to want the economy and the market to rule….
“A popular member of the old Waikato Rugby team used to do that job because it helped him keep fit for rugby”
He wasn’t the only one. Jerry Collins did the same thing in Porirua, even when he was a very well paid All Black. In the off season I believe but still.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/69363078/no-passengers-jerry-collins-earned-his-stripes-as-a-wellington-garbo
So weird though that although those jobs are apparently going, NZ seems to have so many ‘unskilled’ jobs on it’s ‘skilled’ migrant list… our productivity has been stagnant for years and our migrants are even lower qualified and less skilled than 5 years ago and so many lobby groups jumping up and down about how there are so many shortages of labour because apparently Kiwis are not suitable anymore. What a strategy for the future, sarc.
Posted an article a few days ago where an offshore hotel being built wanted 100’s of workers bought into Auckland on $20 p/h as decorators.
$20 p/h was the rate for a painter/decorater about 28 years ago!!! There are plenty of painter/decorators in Northland, but do you really think it is worth someone’s while to come to Auckland for a pay rate that comes from circa 1990 and is impossible to live on once you have a family ????
How the fuck can local construction survive when you are getting this under cutting?
Careful, dear alwyn – you have almost agreed with me.
What is the way ahead? They say that further automation is going to cut even more jobs. Would a sensible society not be concerned to see that its members were usefully and reasonably happily occupied, and use automation only as required to meet those needs, and improve the economy without social damage??
Instead we have a greedy group who use automation to maximise their profits, without caring that they create one hell-hole of a society.
A recipe for massive disaster.
Your thoughts? (As The Chairman was so fond of demanding..)
Prepare for much gnashing of teeth, keening and wailing from the left:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/104640010/live-donald-trump-and-kim-jong-un-meet-for-the-better-or-worse-of-the-world
That’s the chewing of popcorn, not the gnashing of teeth puckers.
Taika Waititi’s new film about to be released Jojo Rabbit where he is acting as Adolph Hitler, it should be entertaining.
Even better he is a “Polynesian Jew” playing Adolf Hitler, the imaginary friend of a young German lad whose mum is active in the Resistance (and Scarlett Johansson to boot!).
Never realised he was a Polynesian Jew ?
Were did you get that info from is it his mothers or fathers side ?
Should be a good watch.
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/06/jojo-rabbit-taika-waititi-adolf-hitler-photo-1201973380/
He says it in in the second Tweet. Possibly just Taika-speak though…
Must be on the mothers side of the family, interesting that will confuse the critics, mind you he likes to maximize the entertainment and confusion.
Taika Waititi is an amazing film director.
Amen to that.
Thorough verbal referencing conducted after interviewing is the key to making good hiring decisions, and psychometric testing can help too
Simon No Bridges says Winston should concentrate on governing the country rather than taking out vendettas against Senior Government Officials and MP’s.
What the clown needs to realize is it is a separate issue to NZF, the Coalition or the governing of the country. These people deliberately released Winston’s personal information into the public arena, to smear him and influence the outcome of the 2017 General Election. Dirty Politics Paper 102
If people are not brought to account by the judicial system these things will keep happening.
We had blatant fraud and corruption with the collapse of the BNZ which was covered up by the NZ Government and the NZ Judiciary in the Winebox Enquiry. Hence we have systemic failures of companies here in NZ ever since then, as “white collar crime” is considered a legitimate business activity here in NZ. However stealing pinky bars from the local petrol station will get you locked up for a good length of time.
It sends a message to the crooks “if you are going to commit fraud here in NZ do it for a reasonable sum of money ? ” Doug Graham would be a classic case and example.
I’m sure Slick Britches will have been careful to leave no traces of any advice to Pullya.
To Whom it May Concern
The Standard used to be, Worthwhile. But now that it is infested with Trolls it is so dull and childlike. It iooks and acts like a toddler with a dirty bottom.
Gosman, James, baba yaga. Graffiti Inc.
Observer; The Standard is still worthwhile and then some. Those folk you “name” are our “creative tension providers” – without them, we are soft. Harden up, enjoy the creative stress!
You just have to scroll, or scribe past them, throw them the odd lure or live bait when you want a bit of entertainment, as it doesn’t take them long to come up the berley trail, just don’t feed them too much as they can chew up a lot of precious time and bait.
Berley = chum – I like your style, Tamati.
12/06/16 The Standard Pick Six Troll Competition
Report: We had good early activity by two trolls Gossie was up early and I am not sure who the other one was, today we have had good troll activity throughout the day, and it is highly likely we will get the Pick 6 today b4 12.00am, yesterday we didn’t get the last leg b4 12.00am but we got 5 legs in. So far today we have had activity from, Gossie, Mullet Head, James, Puckish Rogue & Baby Gaga. I will post the results later once we have analysed all the days trolling activity across T/S.
As I have suggested they should set up there own Blog Site and go all out, I guess they are over here undercover from Kiwi Blog & Whale Oil websites to keep themselves entertained ?
“Baby Gaga” is good. What can you do with “James”?
Janus? A Roman god, after all.
*Cough cough* Feeling a bit left out here, wheres the love?
Has Baby Gaga and James both been trolling today or just James ?
And how do we classify contributors? Who could decide whether a certain genuinely concerned Leftie (who often makes comments that look so) is in fact not what he seems?
No James. A James-free day. James has not darkened our door. James has been absent (for years 🙂
James? You mean James ‘The Mad Butcher’ James?
Ha!
* Grunts: Eat! MEAT!
Watched Question Time today. Bridges all geared up to smash Andrew Little but crashed out having to face Winston “On behalf Of the PM.”
Winston was at his best. Succinct. Amusing. And made Simon look like a very very silly little boy. Winston will be great as Acting PM.
Q1 https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=200714
PS Has Simon sorted out his hair stylist?
Lovely. Paula Bennett looks scorched .
He will have to put a lot more brylecream on if he is going to be slippery enough to out smart Winston.
By the looks of it, Paula and Simon share the same hair stylist. That style suits them well; it makes Paula look older and Simon look younger.
Little bit of synergy there between the two of them lol.
both just as slimy.
I think “slick” is the word you were looking for 😉
You know the country is in trouble when a dentist launches a petition to stop DIY dentistry
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018648930/petition-launched-as-diy-dentistry-grows
Winston, cat; what’s his name, (Opposition leader) mouse. Bennett took a slamming from Mallard. All’s well in the world.
Winston is having the.time.of.his.life.
Poor National. Stuffed!
Apologize to the ambulance service people it’s not like Eco Maori rings a ambulance every day. I was informed that the service is busy and the time was 40 min. The last time I had a ambulance rang was a hcoptter I did not wait I got my son to take me to hospital.
Ka kite ano