National MP Chris Penk has written an extraordinary "book" (in reality, an online rant) about the government's response to Covid-19.
He has done a copy and paste from every discredited source he could find (Taxpayers' Union, former ACT MP Muriel Newman, Simon "Sweden" Thornley, Kiwiblog (!) etc).
Too much nonsense to address in detail here, but the main point is that he has directly contradicted his own party leader. On his first day, Todd Muller described Ardern's handling of the crisis as "impressive", because they know they can't win by fighting public opinion at 90%. They really want to talk about something else.
This is not a mistake, it is the usual National tactic of covering all bases.
As long as one of them is saying it, then their party faithful who agree can be relied upon to support them.
In my opinion, the party faithful are pragmatic, they know that what is said in public is for public consumption, what matters is the intention behind. And that is often very different.
National had a smooth machine for so long that many on the left will assume that there must be a "cunning plan", that they always know what they are doing.
It's often true. It isn't right now. This is definitely not the ground Muller wants to fight on.
Isn't Penk another member of the Rapture Right in National? Our big media outlets refuse to cover how much US-inspired fundamentalists have infiltrated the National party – but at the moment the only way to understand how inept they've suddenly become is to recognise the vanguardism of fundamentalist infiltration of the National party. But these people harbour some seriously loony beliefs and like their numbskull American hero in the White House, they get their information from Fox News.
Generally speaking, I strongly support our media’s policy of regarding MPs private lives as off limits. But these evangelicals use their beliefs to inform radical policy positions well outside the mainstream of NZ life, so to to me that makes them open to discussion. After all, if you were an avowed revolutionary Marxist in the Labour caucus the Herald wouldn’t hesitate to tell the world about that. The last thing the country needs is to wake up the day after an election and then discover a 2 seat majority National + ACT government is being controlled by prosperity doctrine fundies who want to remake NZ in the image of Florida, because the MSM didn't think to mention it before the election.
You have brought up a point worrying me Sanctuary. There is evidence of deep conservative Catholicism in our politics, I think that the most prominent person is Bill English. But how far has it gone through National – I think Jim Bolger is one. Whether he was of the excessive level of preachiness or not, they must support each other of the same religion. Also the Exclusive Brethren has revealed itself to be helpful to National as being the best to serve their own interests.
The various cults that have sprung up to make use of the tax-free status of religion are a worry as they undermine the democratic process of elevating individuals value and rights, and progressive moves to think for oneself and develop our own personality and life achievements. It is hard to free oneself from the oppressive control as the cultish religions seek to contain individuals from make their own life, thoughtfully formed and seeking self-realisation and the good values of humanity.
(Note – Gloriavale is very close to Amish style; very narrow and demanding as to personal freedom, and other cults marry their young ones off at say 17 years, and women can not develop wide skills to gain employment or have a career, as children and domestic life take precedence.)
Taking away the tax-free status of churches and treating them as not-for-profit charities would be a big advantage in retaining our democracy and being able to make rational moves to cope with climate change, a better education so we have informed and actively involved citizens in politics. A move to do this would uncover the depth and width that the semi-religious community has permeated our society, with results that do not lead to its well-being.
Ron Mark is even more stupid after 3 yrs in govt he thinks the police shouldn't be armed and their training with arms is substandard after years in opposition questioning the use of police using the AR 4.
Heard of the 501's Ron the gangs are regularly being busted with large caches of guns including assault rifles.
He does have a point as to why an under-trained young constable needs to stand on a street outside a domestic dispute or traffic infringement with a gun that can fire almost a 1000 rounds a minute.
I reckon it should be fairly easy to achieve peacefully. Just instruct the WH staff to ignore it when he presses his buttons summoning snacks and Diet Coke (btw, it's not working). Then after a couple of hours, send in a robot carrying hamberders and diet coke to loiter outside the Oval Office. When he starts coming for the bait, get the robot to lead him into a waiting limo. Sorted.
The chilling moment for me isn't anything like that – I mean the Pentagon heads couldn't have been clearer in the last week that they will protect the constitution faaaaar deeper than they will protect this current White House occupant.
To me the issue is that Donald Trump still has a reasonable chance of winning a second term as President, and of retaining a majority of the Senate.
That's the moment that the global standing of the United States starts to disintegrate fast, and after that the glaciers of the United Nations, World Trade Organisation, UNESCO, International Monetary Fund, World Bank et al really start to calve off.
It's not an unreasonable scenario to see a full and irreversible liquefaction of the structures that have sustained our relative peace and prosperity for decades.
That's the kind of stuff that really matters to us weeny countries with no power.
Considering the damage Vulgarmort has already wrought and the accelerating trendlines of all the various craptacles he's initiated, I find it all a bit too much to even contemplate the idea of another four years.
What about this scenario of the cold war type, with added nuclear possibilities between India and Pakistan, which looms as a result of Australia adopting Trump-like attitudes then.
I was contemplating that likely scenario the other day and concluded the best way would be to lock him up inside the White house with no access to anything or anyone beyond its walls. When he finally goes troppo, they can remove him to an undisclosed location where he can remain in solitary confinement for the rest of his natural.
Fun fact: Chris Penk's dad was outed for running a letter writing campaign against assisted dying under a pseudonym and his brother runs the far right Maxim Institute. So yeah, we got a real set of bad eggs here.
Because I can see both sides of this debate. At the moment, my thinking doesn't support voting in favour of this proposal, but I am still thinking about it.
I am sorry to hear that. I watched my father die of aggressive lung cancer, he was a whisp of the strong man I knew as a child at his end. We've all got our own stories. How we interpret them informs how we will vote, I guess. I just hope the debate doesn't become a rancorous culture war.
It will be good if people with vote for euthanasia, controlled by good legal measures to ensure right behaviour all through. All it needs is for people to consider other people's wishes and see that it is wise to have that option. Being kind to other people will be of great importance in getting it through. It should not require unhappy experiences to be the reason. Accepting our human limit of time on this planet, and that it has been much extended by others who have improved health measures and have changed the pattern of earlier death, should enable us to make another rational change so that we can then decide when we want to pass on.
The changes made in the world have enabled longer and usually happier lives, though in NZ Maori have not had that full benefit. Now we could have happier deaths if others would just give us that freedom instead of imprisoning us on the planet when that is no longer our choice, or forcing us to take unpleasant decisions if we are forced to an illegal step and commit suicide. It is not fair or reasonable to refuse others their right to determine when and how they will die.
Right, so where will this end? Shall we bulldoze the Savage memorial because he supported the British Empire? How about Truby King, the founder of Plunket? He was a eugenicist who had fairly strong views on the genetic superiority of the British people – should we demolish his mausoleum? How about Marx, should his grave have hs statue on it? Communism killed millions! Should the British destroy all memorials to Clement Attlee, on the grounds of his appalling behaviour in Britain’s African colonies? What about statues of Winston Churchill? Personally I find the current fashion of vilification of James Cook by the left painfully cartoonish and utterly bereft of context. Should I stand by while monuments to probably the greatest navigator of any age (and an enlightened man by the standards of his time) be puled down by hooting mobs of ignoramuses?
Practically ANY statue in NZ erected in the last 150+ years will upset someone. How about we just not go a route of a ridiculous culture war over inanimate objects, that will only ultimately hurt the progressive cause in NZ?
In literary and historical analysis, presentism is the anachronistic introduction of present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Some modern historians seek to avoid presentism in their work because they consider it a form of cultural bias, and believe it creates a distorted understanding of their subject matter. The practice of presentism is regarded by some as a common fallacy when writing about the past.
But yes … hooting mobs of ignorami will prevail for the moment. City Councillors who appease these calls are probably not fools, they know in private that pulling down old statues is stupid, but most people will do anything for an easy life. When the mob labels you 'racist' people get sacked and cancelled. So down they will come.
Personally I find the current fashion of vilification of James Cook by the left painfully cartoonish
They're not the Left … they're Intersectionals … entirely different kettle of fish.
I see the Woke as a small but highly influential Cult centred within segments of both the New Middle Professional Class & the Upper-Middle Class (amazing just how many are descended from old Establishment families … Auckland Business Elites & South Island Rural Gentry) … attempting to hi-jack the Left … by massively downplaying the centrality of socio-economic disparity while simultaneously comandeering traditional Left moral concerns … racism & so on … then grossly distorting & weaponizing those concerns (with the help of their Gurus like Bishop DiAngelo …. or does she call herself Archbishop now ?) – some are dogmatic true-believers, others are the bully-boys we know all too well on NZ social media … focussed in large part on pursuing their own power & self-interest … albeit assiduously dressed up with this thin veneer of (LOL) "self-less Altruism".
Bad Actors playing Saints. Personal power & prestige enhancement.
Cook conflicts me. Probably more than a bit because I'm the son of a Yorkshireman 🙂
He was a great sailor and navigator, and advanced human knowledge (not just European – the actual observation of the transit of venus was a pretty difficult technical task given the optics of the day). But he was also responsible for a lot of bad shit. but then he was also quite progressive for the day, and I did hear a thing on RNZ ages ago that reckoned his behaviour on the third voyage showed all the signs of mental exhaustion and breakdown. So… complicated. Certainly not "good", but not fucking NB Forrest.
Churchill is a more extreme cause of ambivalence – a complete colonialist prick who gassed civilians and viewed hunting down Irish rebels almost as a game. But without him, Hitler could well have won.
No reason why he shouldn't be celebrated in his own place of birth though .
Maybe the important thing when looking at a statue of Cook could be , because of him my forebears came to NZ and could have a better life.At the expense of my other forebears.(referring to myself.)We all have a problematic history we need to be aware of
If we determine to visit the punishment for the sins of the fathers on generations of the sons, then everything gets torn down. Or at the very least, nothing is immune to the force of that argument.
And as can be easily seen, all cultures have problematic, traumatic history, there is probably no human alive who doesn't have some ancestors who benefited from invasion, slavery and genocide.
But the phrase "Black Lives Matter" is an overloaded message carrying multiple layers of meaning. One of which is it's really only the sins of white people that matter. Everyone else is excused.
I mean, we could just have pretty thorough discussions about whether we have lots of statues to fathers who sinned, but keep pushing that barrow. Not even NASCAR agrees with you.
Police officers are too often overarmed, undertrained, and low on empathy. Some police officers are surely racist and act like it. But it does not follow that white cops routinely kill black people in tense situations out of racist animus. This scenario may seem plausible—I believed it until only a few years ago. But there are times when facts are counterintuitive, and it is important to get the facts right and to analyze them with clear eyes and a clear mind (the enlightening work of criminologist and ex-cop Peter Moskos is helpful in this regard). Rhetoric has a way of straying from reality, and to get where we all want to go, it is reality that we must address.
No, the actual term "whataboutism" and its equally witless variant "whataboutery" appeared in the last three and a half years. It was, and is still, used as a strategy—a failed strategy— to derail those people impertinent enough to point out that Democrats, especially those in the Clinton/Schumer/Pelosi faction that controls the party, have a history of racism and militarism and voter suppression as vile as the Republicans, and that the United States has not even the slightest moral right to criticise any country for interference in elections of another jurisdiction.
The tu quoque diversion tactic is as old as the hills. The desperate and unconvincing "whataboutery" word is as old as…. Russiagate. And just as intellectually rigorous.
By the way, fifty years ago, a young Bill Clinton was indeed in sight—if you were at Oxford University, where the Rhodes “Scholar”—to use that word in the most generous and indulgent sense possible—-was a forlorn and by all accounts horribly unsuccessful suitor to dozens of young English women.
58% of deaths are white, yet non-Hispanic whites comprise 53% of the population.
37% of deaths are black, yet non-Hispanic blacks comprise 14% of the population.
This is the basis for the BLM claim that racist police kill blacks at a rate 2 -3 times higher than whites.
Yet obviously this is a dubious claim. People do not come into contact with the police at random, especially not in contexts of homicide and/or armed violence when police are very likely to respond with deadly force:
According to the US Department of Justice, African Americans accounted for 52.5% of all homicide offenders from 1980 to 2008, with Whites 45.3% and "Other" 2.2%. The offending rate for African Americans was almost eight times higher than Whites, and the victim rate six times higher. Most homicides were intraracial, with 84% of White victims killed by Whites and 93% of African American victims killed by African Americans
On this basis the simple rate comparisons above change to this:
58% of deaths are white, yet non-Hispanic whites commit 48% of the homicides.
37% of deaths are black, yet non-Hispanic blacks commit 52% of the homicides
On this basis the outcome is completely flipped, it looks like blacks are actually less likely to be shot by the police than whites. Have BLM sold the world a complete crock of shit?
In reality the truth is likely to be somewhere between these two highly simplified views. Many other factors can be introduced and the entire conversation is way more complex than one comment can possibly cover, but the more you look at the data the more McWhorter's conclusion looks to be pretty much on the money.
(This analysis is no substitute for a proper multi-factorial study, but I introduced one the other night, and no-one could be arsed reading it.)
Blacks are less likely to be shot by police than whites, you say? I suggest you ring up NewstalkZB, where there are people who are prepared to listen to such raving lunacy without laughing.
Using murder convictions as a proxy for contact with police to explain that systemic racism doesn't exist is more stupid than literally cut&pasting massive straw man arguments from a right-wing propaganda platform to do the same.
murder convictions as a proxy for contact with police to explain that systemic racism doesn't exist
I'm using murder convictions are a proxy for the likelihood of a particular ethnicity coming into contact with the police, and if that contact goes badly sideways, the possibility of being shot.
After all you still have no answer as to why the male 50% of the population are more than 95% of the police deaths. If population was the correct proxy then you would expect equal numbers of men and women to be killed regardless of ethnicity … but this is obviously not the case. Clearly the different rates of committing violent crime between the sexes is a highly relevant factor.
Yet BLM have used population as their sole proxy to convince the world there is a massive problem with systemic racism in the USA.
I'm using murder convictions are a proxy for the likelihood of a particular ethnicity coming into contact with the police.
After all you still have no answer as to why the male 50% of the population are more than 95% of the police deaths. If population was the correct proxy then you would expect equal numbers of men and women to be killed regardless of ethnicity … but this is obviously not the case.
"The correct proxy". 🙄
So in search of "the correct proxy" you latch onto another product determined by the bias of the system accused of bias.
As for your digression, any explanation of the role of ethnicity and toxic masculinity in a disfunctional society would have to involve a certain amount of intersectionality, and you've repeatedly shown you can't deal with that concept and frankly I have neither the time, inclinition, cache, or words small enough to explain it to you.
Especially when your straw men are big enough to be set fire to by a bunch of hippies at the end of a drugfest.
The theory of intersectionality, now widely embraced by activists, maintains that non-whites, women, and LGBT individuals face systemic oppression whose scope increases according to the number of minority statuses a person holds.
The fewer boxes you check (straight white men don’t check any) the more “privilege” you are deemed to possess. This privilege, which now serves as a sort of intersectional mark of original sin, is invoked to justify silencing any view you disagree with.
It may once have been an useful academic tool in some specialised contexts, but once it escaped into the wild the cult it morphed into something quite different.
So in search of "the correct proxy" you latch onto another product determined by the bias of the system accused of bias.
Which is why you have to do a proper multi-factorial analysis, but I've already shown there is no point in introducing that.
whatever, dude. Quibbling about the denominator tends to make your calls for further research looks like just another tactic to delay accepting the evidence repeatedly caught on camera.
I'm glad that you now know how to search for videos (and even filter out inconvenient search results). Only a few days ago you thought the ability to link to a relevant video was a sign of obsession with the topic.
On the contrary, I was merely responding to your suggestion about 'evidence repeatedly caught on camera'.
And judging by your flippant demeanor it would appear these white lives really didn't matter to you … and certainly not to any of the thousands of protesters tearing the USA apart right now on the basis of a lie.
Yes WW2 was altogether a lot closer than we imagine.
The same applies in the Desert War, that was an extremely close run thing as well.
The same applies in the Battle of the Atlantic. Churchhill at one point had determined to surrender within two weeks, but several last moment technical developments persuaded him not to.
This doesn't take away from the fact that the Russian people sacrificed an entire generation of men on the Eastern front and in doing so crushed the bulk of the German army.
12km … It could also be argued that the delay to the start of the campaign (because the Italians could not take Greece) was a factor.
But for mine the German problem was they could not take cities heavily defended – that would have applied to Moscow as with Leningrad and Stalingrad.
The Stuka and Panzer tag team stumbled against anti-tank and air defence concentrations. When the Russians could take this scenario out into the field – Kursk it was all over.
The Maginot Line might have worked, if the Germans were not able to go around it.
Even if they just laid seige to Moscow, that would have hindered the resupply that got through to Leningrad. And without UK/US supplies coming through Murmansk (because UK surrendered and didn't run the convoys), Leningrad falls. Which frees up the northern thrust to assist one of the other groups (oil or Moscow).
All because the guy who was PM at the time of Dunkirk chose to accept the advice around him and offer terms. Very few periods in history rest on one person's decision and character like that.
The conflict you describe is something I sort of struggle with in regards to artists.
Josh Homme, IMO, is one of the best guitarists, vocalists and songwriters going round at the moment. Great body of work and a fantastic collaborator (PJ Harvey, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones, Lady Gaga, Iggy Pop).
But there are many stories of him being a total arse of a person. Kicking a photographer in he mouth, tipping the rider table over backstage…
Spike Milligan, comic genius with occasional racist and anti-semite streaks through his work….
We should commission statues to commemorate Maori events as well. Ask Maori artists in each region to design and produce sculptures of famous members from their area….just saying.
That's a bit of an ironic statement, coming just after you have damned others for "painfully cartoonish" vilification.
I'm also uneasy about this move to pull down statues, but I recognise that the protestors are serious and moral thinkers. "Hooting mobs of ignoramuses" applies to certain groups, such as those thugs who gathered in Hamilton last year to heap abuse on the gypsy tourists. It does not apply to demonstrators that you don't approve of them.
TBH, I struggle to summon up a huge amount of sympathy for someone complaining that their two week all expenses paid, all meals supplied, break in the Crowne Plaza doesn't give them a lot of exercise opportunity – let alone put it on the front page of the Herald.
Middle class snowflake syndrome, with a huge helping of white privilege.
Talk about entitlement and "freezing cold " , in AUCKLAND ? . Oh for fucksake, ship her off to do some grape pruning in Central Otago to teach her some humility.
such a wide term then, "middle class" for such a narrow and particular sub-group "aspirational, stand on the poor, often self-employed, one month away from disaster"…
… exactly as I said gsays "sign of poor and confused thinking"
How many of the middle class would fit into your category gsays? Maybe 1%. 5% perhaps. 20% tops maybe? Don’t be so disparaging of the vast majority of our population mr bigot
Wayne, maybe, (I don't know 'cos I'm Pākehā), it's because the lady in question has such issues for her major problem/s, and non-whites have generally somewhat larger issues with which to contend.
I was reading a bit in the paper in which the issue of the death of fictional character, Tony Soprano, was being discussed.
Elsewhere, meanwhile, while I comfortably sit on my patio with my mid-morning coffee eying the news and weather……….. meanwhile, the world continues to dump unimaginable grief and harm and injustice on others because they are ‘other’.
At times like this I am reminded of my childhood, envying a boy at school who had tomato sauce sandwiches while I had ham, walnut and marmite, cheese and tomato. That wasn't white priviege. That was poverty.
Two things. I didn't know then what poverty was like. Secondly, it's analogous- my privilege as the son of a grocer, hence the ham sandwiches, and the privilege of having not to worry about the effects of racial stereotyping, bigotry and hatred.
Learning empathy would help us all.
At primary school I was bullied. The boy who backed me against the rest of the class-mates knew about empathy. He was mocked for his hair style, a 'pudding bowl', cut by his mother as a result of poverty.
well if we can provide prisoners with an hour of exercise we should be able to do this with people in quarantine.. i don't see the issue.
Like, i don't see why they can not have an hour outside – why this can not be organised – heck why this actually has not been implemented already.
Considering that this is an ongoing thing now for the forseeable future, i don't understand why 'outside time' has not been considered, planned for and is available to these guys.
But then yelling snow flake and 'middle class snowflake syndrome with a huge helping of white privilege' is just easier then admitting that locking up people in a room for 14 days with no 'outside' time would be considered cruel and inhumane treatment where this someone locked up in a prison.
I tend to agree. Maybe she is full of her own entitlement too, but nevertheless having to stay in one room for 14 days would be challenging for many. Personally I'd find having to eat catered food for two weeks hard. I hope they're doing better about the exercise for families with kids.
Welcome to CHAZ – the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
Protesters in Seattle have claimed around six city blocks and declared it a free zone. Police may enter for emergencies only. Trump is pissed, I am intrigued.
Having established territory, upon proving they are organised, and capable of committing war crimes of their own – the protesters may be in a position to use the Geneva convention to start charging the GOP and Police with war crimes?
This process may take years, and Trump may kill many people in the interim, but what else can one do in the face of overwhelming stupidity might?
I do think Trump's lost face hiding in his bunker, and his dingbat followers may have lost faith in his support after getting arrested for threatening protesters with chainsaw, longbow and bicycle shorts. But he's capable of anything, and would love to institute martial law.
The protests are far from over, just quieter, and global. I am rooting for the citizens of CHAZ to bring The Hague down on Slump's redneck racist ass.
This is what Labour said before the 2017 election:
“The Government claims it’s not safe to enter the drift and try to get any bodies in there out. That’s not true. Experts, both local and international, say the mine is now stable. We can get those men out, and secure evidence regarding the cause of the explosion. It can be done.
The National Government just wants to wash its hands of the whole thing, and move on. They don’t seem to care no-one has ever faced court for those 29 deaths, or that the families have never got the bodies back to bury.
That’s not the way Kiwis do things. We do right by people. We ensure that, when there is wrongdoing, there is justice. We keep our promises.”
Looks to me like you’re simply trolling here or the ‘oops’ meant that you submitted your comment in accident. Which one is it? You remind me of Judith Collins and I get irritated easily when that happens.
I spend far too much time thinking about covid-19 chronic lung disease might be seen in the years down track. I wonder if the countries that have been overwhelmed by the pandemic have a plan in place for managing the resultant chronic illness (if any). Could be expensive.
yes, had this discussion with the bloke. How many times do you need to get it before it gets you – our guess 3 – 5 years. So if the disease will continue running unfettered and is capable of infecting people more then once the worlds population could take a hit in about 3 – 5 years.
I am so happy i am not a young person trying to start life as an adult in the current shitshow.
Here's a thread about the new Federal Reserve programs that rely on credit ratings. I hope it's helpful to someone out there. I've included citations so it's easy to follow everything in one spot.
After months of living with the coronavirus pandemic, American citizens are well aware of the toll it has taken on the economy: broken supply chains, record unemployment, failing small businesses. All of these factors are serious and could mire the United States in a deep, prolonged recession. But there’s another threat to the economy, too. It lurks on the balance sheets of the big banks, and it could be cataclysmic. Imagine if, in addition to all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, you woke up one morning to find that the financial sector had collapsed.
[…]
To prevent the next crisis, Congress in 2010 passed the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the new rules, banks were supposed to borrow less, make fewer long-shot bets, and be more transparent about their holdings. The Federal Reserve began conducting “stress tests” to keep the banks in line. Congress also tried to reform the credit-rating agencies, which were widely blamed for enabling the meltdown by giving high marks to dubious CDOs, many of which were larded with subprime loans given to unqualified borrowers. Over the course of the crisis, more than 13,000 CDO investments that were rated AAA—the highest possible rating—defaulted.
The reforms were well intentioned, but, as we’ll see, they haven’t kept the banks from falling back into old, bad habits. After the housing crisis, subprime CDOs naturally fell out of favor. Demand shifted to a similar—and similarly risky—instrument, one that even has a similar name: the CLO, or collateralized loan obligation. A CLO walks and talks like a CDO, but in place of loans made to home buyers are loans made to businesses—specifically, troubled businesses. CLOs bundle together so-called leveraged loans, the subprime mortgages of the corporate world. These are loans made to companies that have maxed out their borrowing and can no longer sell bonds directly to investors or qualify for a traditional bank loan. There are more than $1 trillion worth of leveraged loans currently outstanding. The majority are held in CLOs.
Trump's first campaign rally, in the aftermath of positioning himself squarely against the Black Lives Matter protests, is in the city of the Tulsa race massacre that occurred 99 years ago… and takes place on Juneteenth.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) June 10, 2020
I'm no master political strategist, but I'd have thought that an opposition party desperately looking for votes could find more productive ideas than "let's immediately open the borders and bring in hundreds of international students to central Auckland, and stick them in quarantine, while there are reports right now of quarantine in central Auckland not working properly".
Removing statues of non-indigenous historical figures and putting them together somewhere as a theme park would be better than just getting rid of them. Like Coronation Park in India, but with more emphasis on the tourist dollar.
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I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
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Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
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A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections House Democrats have released a comprehensive report showing how – if they control the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives – they might move forward on climate change. Their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” released June 30 by the ...
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...
It started as a family story, about a step-father who went out one night to break into an embassy in Wadestown, Wellington. John Daniell wanted to understand what his family had been part of when his mother and then step-father work for New Zealand’s Security Intelligence. He wanted to know ...
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...
My house is currently supplied electricity by Meridian. As soon as I can change I will because Meridian spilled water to hike electricity prices. They got consumers to spend an extra $80 million on power unnecessarily. Clever them. The Electricity Authority has called their behaviour an “undesirable trading situation”, or ...
When Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became the Labour Party leader shortly before the 2017 general election, she promised to lead a government of transformation. After nearly three years occupying the Treasury benches, health professionals working in public hospitals have been keenly waiting for transformational progress, including in the capacity and quality ...
Last night, One News ran a follow-up story to its Colmar Brunton poll results on the cannabis referendum, headed here as Government accuses big American anti-cannabis group of interfering in NZ politics.In truth it wasn't just the government: Justice minister Andrew Little, National's Shane Reti and the Greens' Chloe Swarbrick ...
When the government refused to put cameras on fishing boats to ensure fishers obeyed the law, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash claimed that coalition partner NZ First (which has received large donations from the fishing industry) was not responsible for the decision. He has repeated that claim repeatedly since then. But ...
Heroic Evasions: Labour needs to be unequivocal in its communications with the electorate. Either it has a plan to prevent their fellow New Zealanders from falling off the economic cliff, or it doesn’t. Either it has a fiscal policy equal to the task of funding that plan, or it hasn’t. ...
Prof John Potter*Elimination has been an effective strategy for New Zealand in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic virus (SARS-CoV-2). Most other countries have not pursued this goal and are ignoring the opportunity even now. SARS-CoV-2 is not manageable by the influenza playbook; its longer incubation period makes tracing ...
This is a re-post from Weather Underground by Bob HensonAbove: This rainbow appears unusually low in the sky because it has formed early in the afternoon, rather than toward sunset. For a rainbow to form, water droplets must be present in the air in front of an observer ...
On Monday, Todd Muller gave an important speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, He spoke firmly about his belief in the need for foreign investment, for the public sector to partner with the private sector rather than boss it around and, crucially, demanded the government deliver a clear strategy ...
Todd Muller's first act on become party leader was to appoint an all-white front bench. This understandably raised eyebrows, so he is now apparently reconsidering caucus and list rankings. Which is obviously necessary, but there's still the underlying problem: National doesn't have a lot of Māori MP's. And the reason ...
Meridian energy has been caught manipulating the electricity market for fun and profit: Meridian Energy pushed up power prices by unnecessary spilling water from its south dams in December that could have been used for generation, the Electricity Authority has ruled in a preliminary decision. The authority said the ...
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...
Hearing the Prime Minister castigate the Warehouse for laying off 1,000 workers after receiving $52 million in wage subsidies reminds me of the fabled frog who agreed to carry a scorpion across a river. The scorpion stings the frog halfway across, dooming both to drown. The frog cries “Why on ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Prof Michael BakerCompared with other OECD countries NZ is a stand-out success story by ending community transmission of COVID-19. While there have been some well-publicised recent deficiencies (eg, quarantine organisation), there has still been no evidence of community transmission for many weeks. Nevertheless, ...
It’s June 30th, marked as Asteroid Day by many people of an astronomical bent around the globe. On this date in 1908, early in the morning in a remote part of central Siberia, the sky fell in. Well, not literally. What happened is a substantially-sized lump of cosmic detritus ...
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...
Don Franks Poverty, inequality – really – aren’t politicians paid to sort that stuff ? Why can’t they just get it together and come up with something fair and sensible? A cold rainy 2020 morning, a headline showed promise. “Green Party’s $8b plan would guarantee an income of $325 a ...
A guest repost by Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) staff attorney Augusta Wilson. Fundraising is not the objective of this article but readers may wish to know that CSLDF is currently conducting a summer fundraiser to support defense of research scientists and research integrity from anti-science interference by politicians and industrial interests. The COVID-19 pandemic ...
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...
The US state of Mississippi has finally voted to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag. Good. Its appalling that it was put there in the first place, but even more appalling that it took so long to remove it. Its basicly as if a German Länder still had ...
No one could have predicted when David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was passed by Parliament last November that the referendum required to bring the legislation into force would be held against the backdrop of a deadly global pandemic. Since then, the mounting tally of casualties around the world ...
Paul GoldsmithYou can often tell just how effective a progressive policy proposal will be by how much the right wing criticise it. The more socially beneficial, the more vitriolic and unhinged they seem to become.That was the case when the Green Party announced their Poverty Action Plan yesterday. The response ...
Back at the beginning of April, when we had much else on our minds, I wrote this post urging some caution in interpreting the results of the latest Horizon poll, conducted in February, on voting intentions in this year's cannabis referendum, which was paid for by Helius Therapeutics.I wrote that ...
Over the weekend the Greens made their first election policy announcement, and promised transformational change: a more progressive tax system, with new rates applying to incomes of $100,000 and $150,000; a new wealth tax on net wealth over $1 million; and a guaranteed minimum income to eliminate poverty. Its bold, ...
Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Global Warming Is Melting Our Sense of Time Satellite image of smoke from active fires burning near the ...
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...
The latest opinion poll forecasts a landslide win by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party, but when taken alongside other polling, it illustrates New Zealand politics remains volatile and the contest is still very open. According to the Colmar Brunton poll published by TVNZ last night, Labour would easily romp back ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 21 through Sat, June 27, 2020Editor's ChoiceFacebook creates fact-checking exemption for climate deniers Facebook is "aiding and abetting the spread of climate misinformation,” said Robert Brulle, an ...
The images and reports delivered to us by the world’s media leave us in no doubt that the rest of the world is still in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic that shows no signs of slackening, but is actually uncontrolled and picking up pace in many countries; and even ...
Minister of Health - David ClarkIf you follow politics at all in New Zealand, David Clark is likely a name you’re a bit familiar with. The current Minister of Health is perhaps the most disliked Member of Parliament at the moment, which amongst very stiff competition is really saying something. ...
SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). Judging by the tweets, which is probably a bad idea, over lockdown, all of New Zealand found itself in front of The Chase every night at 5pm. It is a brilliant fomat: hardly anyone wins any money ...
SATURDAY JUNE 27Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art (Sky Arts, Sky 017, 8.00pm). There was graffiti before Banksy, but perhaps his pungent political messages hit home a bit harder. Anyways, a doco about his influence on street art featuring a bunch of cool people.SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, ...
We have been assailed by Fox News-style headlines, lurid stories of “a breach!”. An almost nuclear level disaster on the horizon scream, “Fiasco!” here, “Hero to Zero!” there… Oh quick, panic everyone!This has fueled an unbelievably stupid environment of panic among some, and spurred useless, counterproductive political ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters A massive dust storm formed over the Sahara Desert last week and invaded the Caribbean over the June 20-21 weekend, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution and low visibility to the islands. The dust is accompanied by a large amount ...
Will the Covid Crisis lead to a dramatic redirection for New Zealand and the World? A hinge in history occurs where the past and present are connected but they point in different directions. Big hinges are rare but crucial in the development of humankind. Not in Narrow Seas identifies six. ...
RNZ reports that Refining NZ is considering shutting down Marsden Point and effectively turning itself into a fuel distribution service. The problem they're immediately trying to address is that running a refinery is expensive, and it is cheaper just to import processed fuel. But there's a longer-term problem too: climate ...
We all know that the COVID-19 virus is a terrible infectious disease that has already caused untold misery and numerous deaths around the world. Nearly half a million people have already died, and those are just the cases we know about.But how bad could things actually get exactly?Today, the NZ ...
This essay by Alex Hochuli examines the global phenomena of BLM protests . He is a freelance writer and research consultant based in São Paulo, Brazil. He is the co-host of the global politics podcast, Aufhebunga Bunga, and co-author of the forthcoming Politics at the End of the End of History (Zero ...
Are You Still Here? Just like his colleague, Phil Twyford – of KiwiBuild fame – David Clark juts out his chin and shamelessly apportions blame to everybody but himself. Even worse, he has turned viciously on Ashley Bloomfield, the nearest approximation to a competent, decent, humble and accountable public servant ...
. . 20 June The bad news: Aotearoa New Zealand has two new cases of covid-19. The good news: the two cases were picked up at an Auckland quarantine facility. The terrifying news: had the story of the two women leaving quarantine without testing not broken four days ...
Willing Victims: What would all those Americans in MAGA hats be left with if they abandoned Trump? Just the sick feeling of having been cheated. Just the knowledge that the man in the White House is nothing more than a shape-shifting New York grifter; and that they have always been ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Like an earthquake rumbling down the San Andreas Fault, Jeff Gibbs’ and Michael Moore’s controversial film “Planet of the Humans” tore a rift through the environmental movement, a rift its leaders would not yearn for in an election year. After activists have spent ...
There have been a number of articles written about the voting in the final statges of the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill, during which National MPs voted alongside the Green Party to force a change that would prevent the removal of sentenced prisoners from the Electoral Roll. You can ...
Last night should have been a cause for muted celebration in Parliament. The Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Bill’s final passage through the House partially erases a stain on New Zealand’s democratic system. It’s a drum I’ve been beatingfor thepast decade, but denying all sentenced prisoners the right to vote is a ...
Jordan WilliamsIt’s pretty obvious to all and sundry that the Taxpayers Union, run by Jordan Williams, isn’t really a union at all. Instead it’s a small lobby group for privileged white folk, namely the old fools behind the scenes of the corrupt and largely defunct Act Party.With an incorrectly attributed ...
Last year, I highlighted a secrecy problem with the government's Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill. The Bill would establish a new class of public entity, "special purpose vehicles", to hide debt from local government balance sheets fund infrastructure such as roads and sewers in "high-growth" councils. The SPVs would collect ...
Both the leader of the opposition Todd Muller and University of Auckland Professor Des Gorman have gone on the record as saying they suspect Covid-19 is spreading in the community in New Zealand once again. Let me explain why I don’t agree with them. As best I can tell there ...
By Geoffrey Miller A former MP and Associate Minister of Defence says that New Zealand’s Covid-19 border and quarantine issues illustrate why a new dedicated national security agency is needed. Heather Roy, a former deputy leader of the Act Party who held the associate defence portfolio from 2008-10, told the ...
Annual fishing report It's been about a year since we swapped out the Research News deckhand. It seems longer— particularly the past 4 months— and not because of this particular work. Over the course of the year somewhere in the neighborhood of 17,500 articles have been caught in our net, ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
Hon Shane Jones, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says. Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot ...
Our strong economic management prior to COVID-19 - with surpluses, low debt and near-record-low unemployment - put us in a good position to weather the impact of the virus and start to rebuild our economy much earlier than many other countries.Now we're putting our plan to recover and rebuild ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Law and Order Recently released Police fleeing driver statistics have shown yet another increase in incidents with another record-high in the latest quarter. “This new quarterly record-high is the latest in a string of record-high numbers since 2014. The data shows incidents ...
New Zealand First MP Fletcher Tabuteau is pleased to be confirmed today as the party’s candidate for the Rotorua electorate. Speaking at the Rotorua AGM for New Zealand First, Mr Tabuteau said this is an election that is incredibly important for the people of Rotorua. “The founding principles of New ...
The Human Rights Commission’s PRISM report on the issues impacting people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) provides an excellent programme of work for future governments to follow, say the Greens. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the trans-Tasman bubble had not been jeopardised after aborder botch-upresulted in New Zealand having two active cases of COVID-19. On Friday, Mr Peters told RNZ's Morning Report he had heard from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that borders for trans-Tasman travel would open by ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today he was pleased the army was now running the quarantine and isolation process - up until now it has been the Ministry of Health. Peters told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that the army knew how to introduce and follow protocols and instil discipline. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First MP and Minister for Defence and Veteran’s Affairs Ron Mark has confirmed his bid for the Wairarapa seat.“The Coalition Government has done a lot of good work throughout the Wairarapa, but many constituents have told ...
New Zealand First is pleased to release the names of its next tranche of candidates for the 2020 election. We’re proud to announce these hardworking New Zealanders that have put their hand up to fight for a commonsense and resilient future.Jamie Arbuckle – Kaikoura Mark Arneil – Christchurch Central Jackie ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence A massive joint effort between New Zealand Government agencies, employers, and the Vanuatu Government is underway to repatriate over 1000 Vanuatu nationals stranded in New Zealand, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
A new programme, which sets a firm course for the Building and Construction sector to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has been announced by the Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa. “A significant amount of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the building and construction sector. If we’re serious ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing more than $7.5 million in Northland ventures to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 virus, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment is going to the Northern Adventure Experience and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced significant funding for Auckland’s Northcote College as part of the first wave of a new nationwide school redevelopment programme to upgrade schools over the next 10 years. The $48.5 million project brings the total investment in Northcote College to ...
The Government has opened an urgent response fund to support schools and early learning services to get children and young people back on track after the Covid-19 lockdown. “While we are seeing improvements in attendance under Alert Level 1 Ministry of Education data shows that attendance rates in our schools ...
The law to boost the economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 by speeding up resource consenting on selected projects has passed its second and third readings in the House today. “Accelerating nationwide projects and activities by government, iwi and the private sector will help deliver faster economic recovery and ...
Five port-related projects in Whanganui will receive a $26.75 million Provincial Growth Fund investment to support local economic recovery and create new opportunities for growth, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This is a significant investment that will support the redevelopment of the Whanganui Port, a project governed ...
Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery will receive an investment of up to $12 million administered by the Provincial Growth Fund to support its redevelopment, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The project is included in a $3 billion infrastructure pipeline announced by Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Shane Jones yesterday. ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing nearly $2.5 million into three Te Ara Mahi programmes to support Manawatū-Whanganui jobseekers and employees to quickly train and upskill, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Up to 154 local people will be supported into employment within the first year by these ...
This morning I have formally tendered my resignation as Minister of Health, which was accepted by the Prime Minister. Serving as Minister of Health has been an absolute privilege – particularly through these extraordinary last few months. It’s no secret that Health is a challenging portfolio. I have given ...
Scholarships for 57 early-career agricultural emissions scientists from 20 developing countries is another example of New Zealand’s international leadership in primary sector sustainability, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor, announcing the scholarships today, says hundreds of applications were received for this fourth round of the CLIFF-GRADS programme (Climate, Food ...
A project to help rejuvenate the Horowhenua town of Foxton will receive a Provincial Growth Fund investment of $3.86 million, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This funding for the Foxton Regeneration project will be used to make the well-known holiday town even more attractive for visitors and ...
Moa bones and other sub-fossil remains of extinct species are set to have improved protection with proposals to prevent the trade in extinct species announced the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “We have lost too many of our native species, but these lost species, such as moa, remain an ...
The Government’s free and healthy school lunches programme moves south for the first time creating jobs for around 30 people in Otago and Southland. “Eighteen schools with 3000 students are joining the programme – 11 have already begun serving lunches, and seven are preparing to start during Term 3. This is ...
Thousands of Kiwi jobs and investment in New Zealand productions will be protected through a screen sector support package announced today by Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford and Minister for Broadcasting Kris Faafoi. The package also includes investment in broadcasting ...
The Government has established a new $10 million fund for the domestic events sector to help save jobs and protect incomes as it recovers from the impacts of COVID-19, Minister of Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. This funding from Budget 2020 follows talks with the event sector designed to ...
The Government has taken another step in its commitment to making sure New Zealanders get a fairer deal at the petrol pump with the introduction of legislation to improve competition in the retail fuel market, says Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods. “The fuel market study that this Government ordered ...
New Zealand has joined a global initiative that aims to enable all countries to access a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. The COVAX Facility was recently launched by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The Alliance includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank ...
From today new legislation takes effect to both restore the right to legal representation at the start of a Care of Children (CoCA) dispute in the Family Court, and allow parties to those proceedings to access legal aid where eligible. During a visit to the Family Court in Auckland today, ...
Home-based early childhood education (ECE) subsidised by the government will transition to a fully qualified workforce by 2025 to ensure better and more consistent quality, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “Quality early learning helps provide children with a strong foundation for their future,” Chris Hipkins said. From 1 January ...
The new Criminal Cases Review Commission | Te Kāhui Tātari Ture (CCRC) has started work and can now independently investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “Even though we have appeal rights and safeguards against unsafe convictions, from time to time our justice system does get things wrong. The design of the ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangatanga maha, tēnā koutou Ki a koutou Te Āti Awa, Taranaki Whānui, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, ngā mana whenua o te rohe nei, tēnā koutou Ko Te Whare Wānanga o Aotearoa ki ngā take o te Ao (NZIIA), Ko te Rōpū Tohu Tono ...
The Government’s increase to paid parental leave kicks in today with another 4 weeks taking New Zealand up to a full 6 months (26 weeks, up from 22 weeks) leave for new parents, and the maximum weekly payment will increase by $20pw, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. ...
A new package of infrastructure investments will help kick-start the post-COVID rebuild by creating more than 20,000 jobs and unlocking more than $5 billion of projects up and down New Zealand. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones today outlined how the $3 billion infrastructure fund in the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today expressed the New Zealand Government’s deep disappointment at the passage by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee of a national security law for Hong Kong. “New Zealand has consistently emphasised its serious concern about the imposition of this legislation on Hong Kong without inclusive ...
More jobs and more family time with newborns are the centrepiece of a suite of Government initiatives coming into effect today. July 1 is a milestone day for the Government as a host of key policies take effect, demonstrating the critical areas where progress has been made. “The Coalition Government ...
Environment Minister David Parker has today “called in” Auckland’s application to the Waikato Regional Council to take an extra 200 million litres of water a day from the lower reaches of the Waikato River for Auckland drinking water and other municipal uses. The call-in means the application has been referred ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker announced today that New Zealand’s hosting of APEC in 2021 will go ahead using virtual digital platforms. Mr Peters said the global disruption caused by COVID-19, including resultant border restrictions, had been the major factor in the ...
The start of construction on a new link road between Matakana Road and State Highway 1 will create jobs and support the significant population growth expected in the Warkworth area, Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Mayor Phil Goff announced today. Transport Minister Phil Twyford said construction of the Matakana Link ...
The Government is prioritising its latest investment in PPE for frontline health workers, including staff at managed isolation and quarantine facilities, Health Minister David Clark says. “With no community transmission of COVID-19 our response now has a firm focus on keeping our border safe and secure. “We must ensure that ...
The Parihaka Papakāinga Trust in Taranaki will receive up to $14 million for a new visitor centre and other improvements at the historic settlement that will boost the local economy and provide much-needed jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little have ...
Protections for workers who are employees of one employer but working under the direction of another business or organisation have come into force, closing a gap in legislation that made the personal grievance process inaccessible for some workers, says Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “This Government is working hard to ...
A range of improvements are already underway to address issues identified in the rapid review of the Managed Isolation and Quarantine system released today, Housing Minister Megan Woods said. The review was commissioned just over a week ago to identify and understand current and emerging risks to ensure the end-to-end ...
The important brown kiwi habitat around Whakatāne will receive added protection through an Iwi-led predator free project announced by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. “The Government is investing nearly $5 million into Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa’s environmental projects with $2.5 ...
An extra 4,000 tonnes of offcuts and scraps of untreated wood per year will soon be able to be recycled into useful products such as horticultural and garden mulch, playground safety surfacing and animal bedding as a result of a $660,000 investment from the Waste Minimisation Fund, Associate Environment Minister ...
The Governor-General has referred Scott Watson’s convictions for murder back to the Court of Appeal, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Mr Watson was convicted in 1999 of the murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. His appeal to the Court of Appeal in 2000 was unsuccessful, as was his ...
A new five-year funding agreement for the Reserve Bank will mean it can boost its work to protect New Zealanders’ finances, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. “New Zealand has a strong and stable financial system. Financial stability is an area that we are not prepared to cut corners for, particularly ...
A law change has been introduced to make it easier for forgotten funds in institutional accounts to be returned more easily to their rightful owners. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash has introduced an amendment to the Unclaimed Money Act 1971. It will update the rules controlling forgotten sums of money held ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Days after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippines Anti-Terrorism Law, Vice-President Leni Robredo has pushed for safeguards so that the controversial measure would not be abused, reports Rappler. In her weekly radio show with co-host Ely Saludar, Robredo noted that she does not oppose the law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Developments in Melbourne on Saturday are more important, and certainly of more interest to the public, than what has happened in Eden-Monaro. Anthony Albanese is set to struggle over the line in the Labor seat, ...
The campaign to stop the Department of Conservation exterminating tahr in national parks is gathering increasing public support, with nearly 40,000 people signing the petition calling for a halt to DOC’s plans. The Change.org petition was started ...
DATE: Sunday, 5th July 2020 TIME: 15:00 LOCATION: Taylor Preston's, Centennial Highway, Wellington On Sunday, Wellington Animal Save will be bearing witness to animals on their way to slaughter, outside Taylor Preston's slaughterhouse. ...
Local Government’s Regional Sector are welcoming an announcement today of over $162 million in central government funding for 22 regional and unitary council Jobs for Nature projects, saying the strong support is an endorsement of the return on ...
Political editor Justin Giovannatti reports from Te Papa, where the prime minister today addressed Labour’s 2020 Congress.Jacinda Ardern looked to slap a Labour sticker on the team of five million with the launch today of the party’s Covid-19 recovery plan, at an event which serves as the unofficial kickoff to ...
Kelvin Davis stole the show at Labour’s 2019 conference with a hilarious speech about the formation of the coalition government. The party’s oft-underestimated deputy leader was again in the spotlight this year, but with a more solemn yet at times impassioned address outlining the country’s Covid-19 sacrifices. Here is the text: Anne Guenole. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Russo, Associate Professor, Director Cabrini Monash University Department of Nursing Research, Monash University The Victorian government’s decision to “close and contain” nine public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne represents a significant escalation in the fight against COVID-19. Under the ...
By Grace Auka-Salmang in Port Moresby Key findings from the 2016 to 2018 Papua New Guinea Demographic and Health Survey reveals that 56 percent of women aged 15 to 49 in PNG have experienced physical violence around the age of 15. And 28 percent have experienced sexual violence. Also 18 ...
The New Zealand Herald recently published a column which criticises its own record on race. Teuila Fuatai explains why she felt she had to call out the paper that commissioned her. In the column, freelance journalist Teuila Fuatai detailed her concerns about the Herald’s record on race and her efforts to ...
Dunedin writer Victor Billot farewells retiring National MP Paula Bennett.Working Class Hero I came up the hard way in Taupo, you see, surviving off Weetbix (just occasionally.) I waited tables then knocked off a degree, perhaps with the help of a state subsidy. Then a man with a ...
Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the sector and declared their support for cameras on fishing boats. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne This article was updated July 5. With 77% of enrolled voters counted at Saturday’s Eden-Monaro byelection, Labor’s Kristy McBain currently leads the Liberals’ Fiona Kotvojs by a 50.8-49.2 projected ...
The family of pioneering New Zealand suffragist Kate Sheppard kept an important secret – one that possibly explains a lot about her life, her beliefs and her motivation.Kate Sheppard’s secret involved her father, Andrew Wilson Malcolm, and what happened to him after she was born. An extensive and painstaking quest ...
Covid-19 or not, renewable energy is the future. That’s why one grassroots business is taking a leap of faith and trusting that the current downturn will eventually yield to an ecotourism boom.To launch an ecotourism business in rural Otago right now, you’d need to be either a visionary or just ...
Sam Brooks reviews Auckland writer Lil O’Brien’s memoir Not That I’d Kiss A Girl, and finds it a valuable yet unclear story of the author’s struggle with her own acceptance.As queer people, we can be unnecessarily harsh on media that is about us, and by us. I think of the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
In the wake of lockdown, Volunteering New Zealand is calling on people to reshape the way they think about volunteering. To unite with whānau, friends and workmates to make a group commitment to a community or cause that matters to them. Covid-19 ...
Mahesh Bindra has been a loyal member of NZ First for almost 15 years. But as an Indian-New Zealander, what does he make of members of his party attacking his community? Multicultural Times editor Gaurav Sharma reports.Winston Peters, deputy prime minister and leader of New Zealand First, likes to say ...
As Auckland suffers its worst drought in 27 years, many of the city’s self-service car washes are doing a roaring trade. Michael Andrew finds out how these businesses are getting around the strict water restrictions.Car washing may seem like a wasteful luxury in the middle of a drought, but take ...
Call it last, call it the foundation: Georgie Dansey is 84th on the Labour Party list for the 2020 election. Here she explains how she got there.What does it take to come last on the Labour list? It’s a bit of a story, so if you’re feeling tl;dr then just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne At Saturday’s Eden-Monaro byelection, Labor’s Kristy McBain currently leads the Liberals’ Fiona Kotvojs by a 50.7-49.3 projected margin in The Poll Bludger’s Eden-Monaro election page. This page has all the ...
The controversial MP says his former party put a target on the minister’s back, but Melissa Lee insists there was no concerted campaign.The MP who exited the National Party in a tailspin attack on former leader Simon Bridges has publicly apologised to Clare Curran for his role in the treatment ...
By Jane Patterson, political editor of RNZ News The State Services Minister says the government will do everything it can to track down who is responsible for a massive privacy breach relating to New Zealand’s active covid cases, and is not ruling out pursuing criminal charges. An investigation has been ...
The National editorial Hundreds walked the Sir John Guise drive on Thursday calling for justice for the brutal death of 19-year-old mother-of-two – Jenelyn Kennedy last week. Jenelyn’s battered lifeless body was taken into the Port Moresby General Hospital last Tuesday by four men (one believed to be the father ...
*Watch the full video in the player below*In the first 48 hours of life, blood from newborn New Zealand babies is taken and tested. Most parents will never hear back. For others, it’s life-changing, and life-saving. Frank Film investigates. Performed 48 hours after birth, it’s a medical procedure ...
Latest from the Beehive Shane Jones, the Minister of Munificence, in a joint statement with fellow Northlander and Deputy PM Winston Peters, wrapped up a week of handout investment announcements with news of more millions for the people of his patch in the Far North. This time it was a ...
By Rebecca Kuku in Port Moresby A passionate plea by men, women and children has echoed around the Papua New Guinean capital of Port Moresby – that it is time to turn the corner on addressing gender-based violence in the country. Gatherings, a peaceful march and a vigil were staged ...
Former Race Relations Commissioner Gregory Fortuin has called out National MP Hamish Walker for his racist comments towards people of colour. This follows Walker's press release objecting to people from Pakistan, India and Korea potentially being quarantined ...
Khruangbin have established their live reputation with spacious instrumentals, but the band’s third album, Mordechai, features prominent vocals and disco-funk jams. Andrew Drever interviews the Texas-based trio upon its release.While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage in the US, the situation has actually been a blessing in disguise for Khruangbin ...
The State Services Minister says the government will do everything it can to track down who is responsible for a massive privacy breach relating to New Zealand's active Covid cases, and is not ruling out pursuing criminal charges. ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
With the collapse of Bauer NZ resulting in Australian magazines flooding our shelves, Wendyl Nissen looks back at her battle to get homegrown content given the star billing it deserved.Thanks to some hard-fought battles 30 years ago, New Zealand women have been enjoying their own version of Woman’s Day and ...
Extending the franchise to prisoners is the latest in a series of contentious electoral reforms enacted by this government, but history suggests the ‘convention’ for consensual election reform is more imagined than real.The Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Act, passed last week and corrected this week, extends the franchise ...
Since publication of Newsroom’s extensive investigation into serious issues at Oranga Tamariki, our inbox has been flooded with stories from more current and former employees. In less than 48 hours after Newsroom’s in-depth inquiry into the children's ministry was published we received a high volume of correspondence from current and former ...
“She’d come into town on the bus. The photographer, so her mother had told her, was famous”: a short story by Wellington writer Elspeth Sandys. It was to be a present for her father who was dying. A photograph of her in her first ball gown. When she reached for ...
Those who can’t afford to travel will “attend” the terror sentencing via video link, the Immigration Minister says. David Williams reports The Immigration Minister is demanding officials give urgent help to overseas victims of the Christchurch terror attack and their families. Yesterday, High Court Justice Cameron Mander announced the terrorist, ...
Controversy over Wellington's Shelly Bay has ensnared iwi, the council and politicians for years. Investigative journalist Nicky Hager uses official documents to lay out the roles of money, power and wheels-within-wheels on this most contentious of developments. Any time I am asked whether we have corruption in New Zealand, I ...
Is the answer to saving New Zealand's professional sports teams creating super-franchises? The Extra Time podcast asks sports leaders. Professional sport is slowly emerging from the grip of the pandemic but its financial future is far from certain. Covid-19 highlighted a weakness in the structure of professional sport in New ...
Before Covid-19, it’d take a long flight and half a grand to see Hamilton in the flesh. Now, the biggest musical of the past two decades is available to watch on Disney+. Sam Brooks takes stock of this extraordinary move. Right now, Broadway is a sleeping dragon. New York theatres ...
Sacked cabinet minister Clare Curran speaks for the first time about the brutal end to her political career – and what she calls the toxicity and bullying that marked her years in parliament. By Donna Chisholm.Of all the humiliations – often self-inflicted – that Clare Curran endured during her 12-year ...
On 03 July Children’s Commissioner was given additional responsibility by the Minister of Justice which extended its role as the independent monitor of the conditions and treatment of children and young people in secure detention centres. The Children’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, ARC Future Fellow, UNSW The term “heatwave” is no stranger to Australians. Defined as when conditions are excessively hot for at least three days in a row, these extreme temperature events have always punctuated our climate. With many of us ...
Pacific Media Watch A senior Indonesian government official and a New Zealand journalism professor have clashed over differing perspectives on access for journalists and media to the West Papua region. Speaking on a webinar organised by the Jubi newspaper in Jayapura, Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ director of the European affairs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Mintzes, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney To beat the coronavirus pandemic, countries need to collaborate. We need the best possible science to develop vaccines and drugs, and to test, track and contain the virus. If we’ve learned anything ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Russell Dean Christopher Bicknell, Post-doctoral researcher in Palaeobiology , University of New England Let’s turn back the hands of time. Before extinction knocked dinosaurs off their pillar, before the “Great Dying” extinction wiped out 95% of all organisms – we had the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Williams, Researcher at the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine (VELiM), University of Sydney Last week, outgoing chief medical officer Brendan Murphy announced all returned travellers would be tested for COVID-19 before and after quarantine. Some were surprised ...
A new package to help foreign nationals stuck in New Zealand due to Covid-19 is inadequate and needs to be supplemented with the emergency benefit, say Community Law Centres O Aotearoa (CLCA) and the Human Rights Commission (HRC). The assistance ...
With Shortland Street’s 7,000th episode screening tonight, Tara Ward salutes the soap for keeping calm and carrying on through level three lockdown. It’s been one heck of a week on Shortland Street. Leanne lost her winning $8 million Lotto ticket, Louis slipped over in a pile of vomit, and Desi tried ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Clift, Teaching Fellow and PhD candidate, University of Melbourne In recent days, the prime ministers of the UK and Australia each declared they are working toward providing safe haven visas for Hong Kong residents. In the US, lawmakers passed a bill ...
How two multi-millionaires, two pandemic futurists, Air NZ’s former boss, a dairy executive on a break, a retired anaesthetist (and a few others) nearly saved NZ. ...
A commitment from Labour to protect productive farmland from blanket afforestation if re-elected is a step in the right direction, Federated Farmers Meat & Wool Chairperson William Beetham says. "We’re really pleased there is now ...
Tomorrow, 4 July, will see protests in at least nine centres around New Zealand against Israeli plans to steal more Palestinian land (Details are at the end of this media release) “Virtually the entire international community is standing together ...
Pacific Media Watch Australia’s ABC has revealed the Australian Federal Police (AFP) recommendation regarding the Afghan Files investigative journalism report is for the Commonwealth DPP to consider charging journalist Dan Oakes for his role in the leak. The revelation has prompted a renewed call by the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom ...
While we’re growing in confidence that we are in the enviable position of basically eliminating Covid-19, our trading nation at the bottom of the world is also in the unenviable position of locking off our economy to the world. “No is not an answer ...
Netflix’s new adaptations of The Baby-Sitters Club makes long-time fan Tara Ward fall in love with the series all over again. When I was 12 years old, my class had to write a letter to a famous person. Some of my classmates wrote to an All Black, Tom Cruise or ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is questioning the scale and value of the Government’s $230m screen industry recovery package. Union spokesperson Jordan Williams says: “The official justification for this ‘recovery package’ is the impact of COVID-19 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Former Ambassador and Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland Chinese activity in Papua New Guinea was not the only factor behind Australia’s Pacific “Step-Up”. As a former high commissioner to PNG, I know it ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk A Papuan church leader and advocate for social justice has penned an open letter to the Indonesian government calling for justice and an end to racism to enable a genuine self-determination process for the Melanesian region. “The problem of Papua has become increasingly complex and severe ...
Latest from the Beehive – Nine press releases (when we checked this morning) had flowed from the Beehive since we last reported. Eight of them brayed about the money Ministers have been spending and (as they prefer to put it) investing. The sole exception came from Environment Minister David ...
CEAC pre-election review of National Party ‘climate change policy’, is lacking in substance without any clear policy, that will leave voters with no idea of what National Party plans for saving our climate, and glancing at their ‘Transport plans’, ...
Film crews can get exemptions to enter New Zealand, so why not the families and supporters of terror victims, David Williams asks. OPINION: If the public needs a sign last year’s terrorist attack has slipped off the Government’s radar, this is it. A sentencing date has been set for the ...
A new poem by Michaela Keeble.Only the ocean only the oceanturns me overlike this only the oceanturns meon like this only the oceangives warning: what will changeand when so it doesn’t comeacrosslike violence white capsdrift inon the rising tide i feel likeopening my legs i don’t wantto do anything elsetoday i don’t wantto goto work i want to lie downwith ...
As the Covid-19 pandemic rages round the world, New Zealanders are re-discovering food production is the fundamental engine of the economy. And farming is not a sunset industry. Instead of being rubbished by lobby groups for so-called “dirty dairying”, the country’s core export industry has the chance to transform itself ...
Open mike 12/06/2020 
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...13 hours ago
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A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020 Editor's Choice '2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentary A timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...1 day ago
Dave Heatley Zero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...2 days ago
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...2 days ago
Three years ago the ABC used leaked information to expose war crimes by Australian troops in Afghanistan. Since then the chief of Australia's special forces has admitted that his troops committed war crimes. But guess who the Australian government is prosecuting? Police have referred allegations against an ABC journalist relating ...3 days ago
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Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...4 days ago
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...5 days ago
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...6 days ago
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...6 days ago
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...6 days ago
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...7 days ago
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...7 days ago
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...7 days ago
The images and reports delivered to us by the world’s media leave us in no doubt that the rest of the world is still in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic that shows no signs of slackening, but is actually uncontrolled and picking up pace in many countries; and even ...1 week ago
We have been assailed by Fox News-style headlines, lurid stories of “a breach!”. An almost nuclear level disaster on the horizon scream, “Fiasco!” here, “Hero to Zero!” there… Oh quick, panic everyone! This has fueled an unbelievably stupid environment of panic among some, and spurred useless, counterproductive political ...1 week ago
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...15 hours ago
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...3 days ago
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...4 days ago
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...13 hours ago
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Days after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippines Anti-Terrorism Law, Vice-President Leni Robredo has pushed for safeguards so that the controversial measure would not be abused, reports Rappler. In her weekly radio show with co-host Ely Saludar, Robredo noted that she does not oppose the law ...4 hours ago
Justice Minister Andrew Little is committed to reviewing the legal aid threshold in the Family Court if re-elected. ...8 hours ago
The campaign to stop the Department of Conservation exterminating tahr in national parks is gathering increasing public support, with nearly 40,000 people signing the petition calling for a halt to DOC’s plans. The Change.org petition was started ...10 hours ago
Political editor Justin Giovannatti reports from Te Papa, where the prime minister today addressed Labour’s 2020 Congress.Jacinda Ardern looked to slap a Labour sticker on the team of five million with the launch today of the party’s Covid-19 recovery plan, at an event which serves as the unofficial kickoff to ...12 hours ago
Kelvin Davis stole the show at Labour’s 2019 conference with a hilarious speech about the formation of the coalition government. The party’s oft-underestimated deputy leader was again in the spotlight this year, but with a more solemn yet at times impassioned address outlining the country’s Covid-19 sacrifices. Here is the text: Anne Guenole. ...12 hours ago
Dunedin writer Victor Billot farewells retiring National MP Paula Bennett. Working Class Hero I came up the hard way in Taupo, you see, surviving off Weetbix (just occasionally.) I waited tables then knocked off a degree, perhaps with the help of a state subsidy. Then a man with a ...16 hours ago
*Watch the full video in the player below* In the first 48 hours of life, blood from newborn New Zealand babies is taken and tested. Most parents will never hear back. For others, it’s life-changing, and life-saving. Frank Film investigates. Performed 48 hours after birth, it’s a medical procedure ...2 days ago
Latest from the Beehive Shane Jones, the Minister of Munificence, in a joint statement with fellow Northlander and Deputy PM Winston Peters, wrapped up a week of handout investment announcements with news of more millions for the people of his patch in the Far North. This time it was a ...2 days ago
Since publication of Newsroom’s extensive investigation into serious issues at Oranga Tamariki, our inbox has been flooded with stories from more current and former employees. In less than 48 hours after Newsroom’s in-depth inquiry into the children's ministry was published we received a high volume of correspondence from current and former ...2 days ago
“She’d come into town on the bus. The photographer, so her mother had told her, was famous”: a short story by Wellington writer Elspeth Sandys. It was to be a present for her father who was dying. A photograph of her in her first ball gown. When she reached for ...2 days ago
Those who can’t afford to travel will “attend” the terror sentencing via video link, the Immigration Minister says. David Williams reports The Immigration Minister is demanding officials give urgent help to overseas victims of the Christchurch terror attack and their families. Yesterday, High Court Justice Cameron Mander announced the terrorist, ...2 days ago
Controversy over Wellington's Shelly Bay has ensnared iwi, the council and politicians for years. Investigative journalist Nicky Hager uses official documents to lay out the roles of money, power and wheels-within-wheels on this most contentious of developments. Any time I am asked whether we have corruption in New Zealand, I ...2 days ago
Is the answer to saving New Zealand's professional sports teams creating super-franchises? The Extra Time podcast asks sports leaders. Professional sport is slowly emerging from the grip of the pandemic but its financial future is far from certain. Covid-19 highlighted a weakness in the structure of professional sport in New ...2 days ago
How two multi-millionaires, two pandemic futurists, Air NZ’s former boss, a dairy executive on a break, a retired anaesthetist (and a few others) nearly saved NZ. ...3 days ago
Latest from the Beehive – Nine press releases (when we checked this morning) had flowed from the Beehive since we last reported. Eight of them brayed about the money Ministers have been spending and (as they prefer to put it) investing. The sole exception came from Environment Minister David ...3 days ago
Film crews can get exemptions to enter New Zealand, so why not the families and supporters of terror victims, David Williams asks. OPINION: If the public needs a sign last year’s terrorist attack has slipped off the Government’s radar, this is it. A sentencing date has been set for the ...3 days ago
As the Covid-19 pandemic rages round the world, New Zealanders are re-discovering food production is the fundamental engine of the economy. And farming is not a sunset industry. Instead of being rubbished by lobby groups for so-called “dirty dairying”, the country’s core export industry has the chance to transform itself ...3 days ago
National MP Chris Penk has written an extraordinary "book" (in reality, an online rant) about the government's response to Covid-19.
He has done a copy and paste from every discredited source he could find (Taxpayers' Union, former ACT MP Muriel Newman, Simon "Sweden" Thornley, Kiwiblog (!) etc).
Too much nonsense to address in detail here, but the main point is that he has directly contradicted his own party leader. On his first day, Todd Muller described Ardern's handling of the crisis as "impressive", because they know they can't win by fighting public opinion at 90%. They really want to talk about something else.
Nobody told Penk, it seems.
This is not a mistake, it is the usual National tactic of covering all bases.
As long as one of them is saying it, then their party faithful who agree can be relied upon to support them.
In my opinion, the party faithful are pragmatic, they know that what is said in public is for public consumption, what matters is the intention behind. And that is often very different.
I disagree. Neale Jones sums it up.
National had a smooth machine for so long that many on the left will assume that there must be a "cunning plan", that they always know what they are doing.
It's often true. It isn't right now. This is definitely not the ground Muller wants to fight on.
OK. Happy to consider that National is just stupid.
it really is a choice between bad or stupid or a combination fo the two, innit…
Isn't Penk another member of the Rapture Right in National? Our big media outlets refuse to cover how much US-inspired fundamentalists have infiltrated the National party – but at the moment the only way to understand how inept they've suddenly become is to recognise the vanguardism of fundamentalist infiltration of the National party. But these people harbour some seriously loony beliefs and like their numbskull American hero in the White House, they get their information from Fox News.
Generally speaking, I strongly support our media’s policy of regarding MPs private lives as off limits. But these evangelicals use their beliefs to inform radical policy positions well outside the mainstream of NZ life, so to to me that makes them open to discussion. After all, if you were an avowed revolutionary Marxist in the Labour caucus the Herald wouldn’t hesitate to tell the world about that. The last thing the country needs is to wake up the day after an election and then discover a 2 seat majority National + ACT government is being controlled by prosperity doctrine fundies who want to remake NZ in the image of Florida, because the MSM didn't think to mention it before the election.
You have brought up a point worrying me Sanctuary. There is evidence of deep conservative Catholicism in our politics, I think that the most prominent person is Bill English. But how far has it gone through National – I think Jim Bolger is one. Whether he was of the excessive level of preachiness or not, they must support each other of the same religion. Also the Exclusive Brethren has revealed itself to be helpful to National as being the best to serve their own interests.
The various cults that have sprung up to make use of the tax-free status of religion are a worry as they undermine the democratic process of elevating individuals value and rights, and progressive moves to think for oneself and develop our own personality and life achievements. It is hard to free oneself from the oppressive control as the cultish religions seek to contain individuals from make their own life, thoughtfully formed and seeking self-realisation and the good values of humanity.
(Note – Gloriavale is very close to Amish style; very narrow and demanding as to personal freedom, and other cults marry their young ones off at say 17 years, and women can not develop wide skills to gain employment or have a career, as children and domestic life take precedence.)
Taking away the tax-free status of churches and treating them as not-for-profit charities would be a big advantage in retaining our democracy and being able to make rational moves to cope with climate change, a better education so we have informed and actively involved citizens in politics. A move to do this would uncover the depth and width that the semi-religious community has permeated our society, with results that do not lead to its well-being.
This removal of the ' tax free status" for religions is something I believe should happen.
It has often been used to push a particular point of view. Who else can promulgate their ideas at no cost?
I agree greywarshark… not an even playing field.
Oh dear…
Ron Mark is even more stupid after 3 yrs in govt he thinks the police shouldn't be armed and their training with arms is substandard after years in opposition questioning the use of police using the AR 4.
Heard of the 501's Ron the gangs are regularly being busted with large caches of guns including assault rifles.
NZ first is desperately sabotaging to get over 5%
He does have a point as to why an under-trained young constable needs to stand on a street outside a domestic dispute or traffic infringement with a gun that can fire almost a 1000 rounds a minute.
Yes, I heard the interview and I agreed with him.
At least get your fact straight when you try to make an argument.
NZ Police are only armed with semi auto guns not fully auto guns
Don't be dismissive about whether guns are semi auto or full auto. It's a slippery slide that responsible people are concerned about, rightly.
So they've not gone for the law enforcement selective fire version which would give them a three-round burst or fully automatic capability?
Tricledrown, we do not want Policing through fear mongering. It will end badly.
Training is hugely important.
Training for how to shoot and electrically shock people? Disarm them.
… the police shouldn't be armed
+1.
It's now becoming an open topic of conversation as to what to do if the DumpsterFuhrer refuses to leave when his time's up.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-remove-trump-from-the-white-house_n_5ee21f1ec5b6843ba6f808cf
I reckon it should be fairly easy to achieve peacefully. Just instruct the WH staff to ignore it when he presses his buttons summoning snacks and Diet Coke (btw, it's not working). Then after a couple of hours, send in a robot carrying hamberders and diet coke to loiter outside the Oval Office. When he starts coming for the bait, get the robot to lead him into a waiting limo. Sorted.
The chilling moment for me isn't anything like that – I mean the Pentagon heads couldn't have been clearer in the last week that they will protect the constitution faaaaar deeper than they will protect this current White House occupant.
To me the issue is that Donald Trump still has a reasonable chance of winning a second term as President, and of retaining a majority of the Senate.
That's the moment that the global standing of the United States starts to disintegrate fast, and after that the glaciers of the United Nations, World Trade Organisation, UNESCO, International Monetary Fund, World Bank et al really start to calve off.
It's not an unreasonable scenario to see a full and irreversible liquefaction of the structures that have sustained our relative peace and prosperity for decades.
That's the kind of stuff that really matters to us weeny countries with no power.
Ad, stop it! Please.
Considering the damage Vulgarmort has already wrought and the accelerating trendlines of all the various craptacles he's initiated, I find it all a bit too much to even contemplate the idea of another four years.
What about this scenario of the cold war type, with added nuclear possibilities between India and Pakistan, which looms as a result of Australia adopting Trump-like attitudes then.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/06/taking-back-our-eyes.html
We need to form new alliances and not give in to the lowest common denominator.
I was contemplating that likely scenario the other day and concluded the best way would be to lock him up inside the White house with no access to anything or anyone beyond its walls. When he finally goes troppo, they can remove him to an undisclosed location where he can remain in solitary confinement for the rest of his natural.
Ahhhh… beautiful dreams.
Fun fact: Chris Penk's dad was outed for running a letter writing campaign against assisted dying under a pseudonym and his brother runs the far right Maxim Institute. So yeah, we got a real set of bad eggs here.
http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/opinion/column/20190122/euthanasia-and-the-eighth-commandment/
P.S. Auckland University has really become a hothouse for right wing cranks, hasn't it!
You're not a crank because you're against the euthenasia bill.
It's a better bill than when it started, but it's still a pig.
Actually I will probably vote against the end of life bill in the referendum.
What makes him a candidate for right wing crankery is the clearly disingenuous attempts to hoodwink the public with his letter writing campaign.
You must know whether you will vote for or against the bill Sanc-why the “probably”?
Because I can see both sides of this debate. At the moment, my thinking doesn't support voting in favour of this proposal, but I am still thinking about it.
Both my brothers died horribly from cancer I hope the bill passes so that I have the option to not suffer as much as they did.
I am sorry to hear that. I watched my father die of aggressive lung cancer, he was a whisp of the strong man I knew as a child at his end. We've all got our own stories. How we interpret them informs how we will vote, I guess. I just hope the debate doesn't become a rancorous culture war.
It will be good if people with vote for euthanasia, controlled by good legal measures to ensure right behaviour all through. All it needs is for people to consider other people's wishes and see that it is wise to have that option. Being kind to other people will be of great importance in getting it through. It should not require unhappy experiences to be the reason. Accepting our human limit of time on this planet, and that it has been much extended by others who have improved health measures and have changed the pattern of earlier death, should enable us to make another rational change so that we can then decide when we want to pass on.
The changes made in the world have enabled longer and usually happier lives, though in NZ Maori have not had that full benefit. Now we could have happier deaths if others would just give us that freedom instead of imprisoning us on the planet when that is no longer our choice, or forcing us to take unpleasant decisions if we are forced to an illegal step and commit suicide. It is not fair or reasonable to refuse others their right to determine when and how they will die.
Strongly agree with you Barfly.
Yes Barfly. My Aunt had to go to hell and back with lung cancer. I know what I believe. We help animals, yet let humans suffer. It should be a choice.
Brassed-off journalist turns up the heat in Cook's kitchen.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/121794135/make-better-door-knobs-what-statues-of-old-victors-mean-to-me
Right, so where will this end? Shall we bulldoze the Savage memorial because he supported the British Empire? How about Truby King, the founder of Plunket? He was a eugenicist who had fairly strong views on the genetic superiority of the British people – should we demolish his mausoleum? How about Marx, should his grave have hs statue on it? Communism killed millions! Should the British destroy all memorials to Clement Attlee, on the grounds of his appalling behaviour in Britain’s African colonies? What about statues of Winston Churchill? Personally I find the current fashion of vilification of James Cook by the left painfully cartoonish and utterly bereft of context. Should I stand by while monuments to probably the greatest navigator of any age (and an enlightened man by the standards of his time) be puled down by hooting mobs of ignoramuses?
Practically ANY statue in NZ erected in the last 150+ years will upset someone. How about we just not go a route of a ridiculous culture war over inanimate objects, that will only ultimately hurt the progressive cause in NZ?
+100
Yup. Presentism.
But yes … hooting mobs of ignorami will prevail for the moment. City Councillors who appease these calls are probably not fools, they know in private that pulling down old statues is stupid, but most people will do anything for an easy life. When the mob labels you 'racist' people get sacked and cancelled. So down they will come.
Exactly, lets only make history about what happened since the last change of ideology.
It ends where where the evil that was interr'd with their bones doesn't outweigh the good that lives after them, in the eyes of the people.
They're not the Left … they're Intersectionals … entirely different kettle of fish.
I see the Woke as a small but highly influential Cult centred within segments of both the New Middle Professional Class & the Upper-Middle Class (amazing just how many are descended from old Establishment families … Auckland Business Elites & South Island Rural Gentry) … attempting to hi-jack the Left … by massively downplaying the centrality of socio-economic disparity while simultaneously comandeering traditional Left moral concerns … racism & so on … then grossly distorting & weaponizing those concerns (with the help of their Gurus like Bishop DiAngelo …. or does she call herself Archbishop now ?) – some are dogmatic true-believers, others are the bully-boys we know all too well on NZ social media … focussed in large part on pursuing their own power & self-interest … albeit assiduously dressed up with this thin veneer of (LOL) "self-less Altruism".
Bad Actors playing Saints. Personal power & prestige enhancement.
While I agree with the vibe of yr comment, the notion Cook was the greatest navigator of any age, seems to be a whitewashing of history.
The Pacifica navigators that got here before Cook did so without tools at his disposal.
Cook conflicts me. Probably more than a bit because I'm the son of a Yorkshireman 🙂
He was a great sailor and navigator, and advanced human knowledge (not just European – the actual observation of the transit of venus was a pretty difficult technical task given the optics of the day). But he was also responsible for a lot of bad shit. but then he was also quite progressive for the day, and I did hear a thing on RNZ ages ago that reckoned his behaviour on the third voyage showed all the signs of mental exhaustion and breakdown. So… complicated. Certainly not "good", but not fucking NB Forrest.
Churchill is a more extreme cause of ambivalence – a complete colonialist prick who gassed civilians and viewed hunting down Irish rebels almost as a game. But without him, Hitler could well have won.
No answers here – torn both ways.
About the only honest response you can have
No reason why he shouldn't be celebrated in his own place of birth though .
Maybe the important thing when looking at a statue of Cook could be , because of him my forebears came to NZ and could have a better life.At the expense of my other forebears.(referring to myself.)We all have a problematic history we need to be aware of
If we determine to visit the punishment for the sins of the fathers on generations of the sons, then everything gets torn down. Or at the very least, nothing is immune to the force of that argument.
And as can be easily seen, all cultures have problematic, traumatic history, there is probably no human alive who doesn't have some ancestors who benefited from invasion, slavery and genocide.
But the phrase "Black Lives Matter" is an overloaded message carrying multiple layers of meaning. One of which is it's really only the sins of white people that matter. Everyone else is excused.
I mean, we could just have pretty thorough discussions about whether we have lots of statues to fathers who sinned, but keep pushing that barrow. Not even NASCAR agrees with you.
Well I'd be a lot more convinced if BLM demonstrated the same anguish over the 5000 – 6000 blacks who kill each other annually, and the fact that blacks are 52% of all homicide perpetrators than the relative handful of unarmed black victims at the hands of the police … black and white:
So the Black Lives Matter protestors don't experience anguish over black violence? What evidence do you have to back up that remarkable allegation?
Actually rather than the tiresome point scoring, how about reading the article I linked to. John McWhorter isn't some random dude on the internet.
Actually rather than the tiresome point scoring
Ummm, never mind, as you were.
McWhorter is not a lot superior to "some random dude on the internet." He's an Obama cultist, and not a serious academic.
I'm not convinced you'd ever be convinced beyond your limitless whataboutism..
"Whataboutism"—another contribution to philosophical discourse, courtesy of the doomed Hillary Clinton campaign.
Also see “Russian bots”, “Russian masterminds”, “Steele Dossier”, “Luke Harding”, “resistance”.
Nope, it's 50-odd years old.
No, the actual term "whataboutism" and its equally witless variant "whataboutery" appeared in the last three and a half years. It was, and is still, used as a strategy—a failed strategy— to derail those people impertinent enough to point out that Democrats, especially those in the Clinton/Schumer/Pelosi faction that controls the party, have a history of racism and militarism and voter suppression as vile as the Republicans, and that the United States has not even the slightest moral right to criticise any country for interference in elections of another jurisdiction.
Jeebus mate, MF even did the homework and provided you with a link. 50+ years old and not a Clinton in sight.
The tu quoque diversion tactic is as old as the hills. The desperate and unconvincing "whataboutery" word is as old as…. Russiagate. And just as intellectually rigorous.
By the way, fifty years ago, a young Bill Clinton was indeed in sight—if you were at Oxford University, where the Rhodes “Scholar”—to use that word in the most generous and indulgent sense possible—-was a forlorn and by all accounts horribly unsuccessful suitor to dozens of young English women.
OK let's go back to the core BLM grievance, that racist white police are mass murdering blacks at a rate far higher than whites.
The question is what rate comparison are they using?
From the stats linked to for 2019 show a total of 634 office involved shootings. On a simple population basis
58% of deaths are white, yet non-Hispanic whites comprise 53% of the population.
37% of deaths are black, yet non-Hispanic blacks comprise 14% of the population.
This is the basis for the BLM claim that racist police kill blacks at a rate 2 -3 times higher than whites.
Yet obviously this is a dubious claim. People do not come into contact with the police at random, especially not in contexts of homicide and/or armed violence when police are very likely to respond with deadly force:
On this basis the simple rate comparisons above change to this:
58% of deaths are white, yet non-Hispanic whites commit 48% of the homicides.
37% of deaths are black, yet non-Hispanic blacks commit 52% of the homicides
On this basis the outcome is completely flipped, it looks like blacks are actually less likely to be shot by the police than whites. Have BLM sold the world a complete crock of shit?
In reality the truth is likely to be somewhere between these two highly simplified views. Many other factors can be introduced and the entire conversation is way more complex than one comment can possibly cover, but the more you look at the data the more McWhorter's conclusion looks to be pretty much on the money.
(This analysis is no substitute for a proper multi-factorial study, but I introduced one the other night, and no-one could be arsed reading it.)
Blacks are less likely to be shot by police than whites, you say? I suggest you ring up NewstalkZB, where there are people who are prepared to listen to such raving lunacy without laughing.
Using murder convictions as a proxy for contact with police to explain that systemic racism doesn't exist is more stupid than literally cut&pasting massive straw man arguments from a right-wing propaganda platform to do the same.
murder convictions as a proxy for contact with police to explain that systemic racism doesn't exist
I'm using murder convictions are a proxy for the likelihood of a particular ethnicity coming into contact with the police, and if that contact goes badly sideways, the possibility of being shot.
After all you still have no answer as to why the male 50% of the population are more than 95% of the police deaths. If population was the correct proxy then you would expect equal numbers of men and women to be killed regardless of ethnicity … but this is obviously not the case. Clearly the different rates of committing violent crime between the sexes is a highly relevant factor.
Yet BLM have used population as their sole proxy to convince the world there is a massive problem with systemic racism in the USA.
"The correct proxy". 🙄
So in search of "the correct proxy" you latch onto another product determined by the bias of the system accused of bias.
As for your digression, any explanation of the role of ethnicity and toxic masculinity in a disfunctional society would have to involve a certain amount of intersectionality, and you've repeatedly shown you can't deal with that concept and frankly I have neither the time, inclinition, cache, or words small enough to explain it to you.
Especially when your straw men are big enough to be set fire to by a bunch of hippies at the end of a drugfest.
Frankly, the thought of discussing gender and ethnicity with you at the same time is the fucking definition of futility.
The theory of intersectionality, now widely embraced by activists, maintains that non-whites, women, and LGBT individuals face systemic oppression whose scope increases according to the number of minority statuses a person holds.
The fewer boxes you check (straight white men don’t check any) the more “privilege” you are deemed to possess. This privilege, which now serves as a sort of intersectional mark of original sin, is invoked to justify silencing any view you disagree with.
It may once have been an useful academic tool in some specialised contexts, but once it escaped into the wild the cult it morphed into something quite different.
So in search of "the correct proxy" you latch onto another product determined by the bias of the system accused of bias.
Which is why you have to do a proper multi-factorial analysis, but I've already shown there is no point in introducing that.
whatever, dude. Quibbling about the denominator tends to make your calls for further research looks like just another tactic to delay accepting the evidence repeatedly caught on camera.
Video like this?
Or this?
I'm glad that you now know how to search for videos (and even filter out inconvenient search results). Only a few days ago you thought the ability to link to a relevant video was a sign of obsession with the topic.
In another 50 years you might even be "woke".
On the contrary, I was merely responding to your suggestion about 'evidence repeatedly caught on camera'.
And judging by your flippant demeanor it would appear these white lives really didn't matter to you … and certainly not to any of the thousands of protesters tearing the USA apart right now on the basis of a lie.
The ego you have to assume that someone's attitudes to you somehow reflects their attitudes on anything other than you is absolutely trumpian.
But without him, Hitler could well have won.
???? I think that if you did a little serious reading, you might find that the Russians were the decisive factor in the defeat of Hitler.
I think you'll find hitler might have taken moscow (and Stalin) if he was fighting a one-front war with no arctic convoys supplying the Soviets.
Wasn’t it something like 12km?
Yes WW2 was altogether a lot closer than we imagine.
The same applies in the Desert War, that was an extremely close run thing as well.
The same applies in the Battle of the Atlantic. Churchhill at one point had determined to surrender within two weeks, but several last moment technical developments persuaded him not to.
This doesn't take away from the fact that the Russian people sacrificed an entire generation of men on the Eastern front and in doing so crushed the bulk of the German army.
12km … It could also be argued that the delay to the start of the campaign (because the Italians could not take Greece) was a factor.
But for mine the German problem was they could not take cities heavily defended – that would have applied to Moscow as with Leningrad and Stalingrad.
The Stuka and Panzer tag team stumbled against anti-tank and air defence concentrations. When the Russians could take this scenario out into the field – Kursk it was all over.
The Maginot Line might have worked, if the Germans were not able to go around it.
Even if they just laid seige to Moscow, that would have hindered the resupply that got through to Leningrad. And without UK/US supplies coming through Murmansk (because UK surrendered and didn't run the convoys), Leningrad falls. Which frees up the northern thrust to assist one of the other groups (oil or Moscow).
All because the guy who was PM at the time of Dunkirk chose to accept the advice around him and offer terms. Very few periods in history rest on one person's decision and character like that.
The conflict you describe is something I sort of struggle with in regards to artists.
Josh Homme, IMO, is one of the best guitarists, vocalists and songwriters going round at the moment. Great body of work and a fantastic collaborator (PJ Harvey, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones, Lady Gaga, Iggy Pop).
But there are many stories of him being a total arse of a person. Kicking a photographer in he mouth, tipping the rider table over backstage…
Spike Milligan, comic genius with occasional racist and anti-semite streaks through his work….
We should commission statues to commemorate Maori events as well. Ask Maori artists in each region to design and produce sculptures of famous members from their area….just saying.
… hooting mobs of ignoramuses…
That's a bit of an ironic statement, coming just after you have damned others for "painfully cartoonish" vilification.
I'm also uneasy about this move to pull down statues, but I recognise that the protestors are serious and moral thinkers. "Hooting mobs of ignoramuses" applies to certain groups, such as those thugs who gathered in Hamilton last year to heap abuse on the gypsy tourists. It does not apply to demonstrators that you don't approve of them.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-relentless-taunting-of-gypsy.html
White privilege in action example #45,981,098:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12339243
TBH, I struggle to summon up a huge amount of sympathy for someone complaining that their two week all expenses paid, all meals supplied, break in the Crowne Plaza doesn't give them a lot of exercise opportunity – let alone put it on the front page of the Herald.
Middle class snowflake syndrome, with a huge helping of white privilege.
Talk about entitlement and "freezing cold " , in AUCKLAND ? . Oh for fucksake, ship her off to do some grape pruning in Central Otago to teach her some humility.
You sound a little cranky yourself this morning.
It's bloody cold outside pruning and only going to get colder. I hate winter.
She was given a platform on Morning Report today as well. She has a sort of "Don't You Know who I Am!" quality about her. Poor little muppet.
Middle Class snowflake maybe, but why is it also "white privilege"?
but lower class and upper class in particular are also snowflakes… why always pick on the middle class? sign of poor and confused thinking i think
I like to use the middle class term to describe the aspirational, stand on the poor, often self-employed members of the precariat.
Those that are just one month or one contract away from falling amongst those that they so readily dismiss.
such a wide term then, "middle class" for such a narrow and particular sub-group "aspirational, stand on the poor, often self-employed, one month away from disaster"…
… exactly as I said gsays "sign of poor and confused thinking"
How many of the middle class would fit into your category gsays? Maybe 1%. 5% perhaps. 20% tops maybe? Don’t be so disparaging of the vast majority of our population mr bigot
Judging by the amount of votes the Nats and act get, the number is way over 20%.
The reaction and dumping of Metira Turei showed the 'Me first and the gimmee gimmee' attitude is common amongst us.
Greed or unwillingness to share is one of the biggest challenges we face.
"Don’t be so disparaging of the vast majority of our population mr bigot" Irony much.
Wayne, maybe, (I don't know 'cos I'm Pākehā), it's because the lady in question has such issues for her major problem/s, and non-whites have generally somewhat larger issues with which to contend.
I was reading a bit in the paper in which the issue of the death of fictional character, Tony Soprano, was being discussed.
Elsewhere, meanwhile, while I comfortably sit on my patio with my mid-morning coffee eying the news and weather……….. meanwhile, the world continues to dump unimaginable grief and harm and injustice on others because they are ‘other’.
At times like this I am reminded of my childhood, envying a boy at school who had tomato sauce sandwiches while I had ham, walnut and marmite, cheese and tomato. That wasn't white priviege. That was poverty.
Two things. I didn't know then what poverty was like. Secondly, it's analogous- my privilege as the son of a grocer, hence the ham sandwiches, and the privilege of having not to worry about the effects of racial stereotyping, bigotry and hatred.
Learning empathy would help us all.
At primary school I was bullied. The boy who backed me against the rest of the class-mates knew about empathy. He was mocked for his hair style, a 'pudding bowl', cut by his mother as a result of poverty.
I see the connection.
But she got dizzy walking in circles, poor dear.
well if we can provide prisoners with an hour of exercise we should be able to do this with people in quarantine.. i don't see the issue.
Like, i don't see why they can not have an hour outside – why this can not be organised – heck why this actually has not been implemented already.
Considering that this is an ongoing thing now for the forseeable future, i don't understand why 'outside time' has not been considered, planned for and is available to these guys.
But then yelling snow flake and 'middle class snowflake syndrome with a huge helping of white privilege' is just easier then admitting that locking up people in a room for 14 days with no 'outside' time would be considered cruel and inhumane treatment where this someone locked up in a prison.
I tend to agree. Maybe she is full of her own entitlement too, but nevertheless having to stay in one room for 14 days would be challenging for many. Personally I'd find having to eat catered food for two weeks hard. I hope they're doing better about the exercise for families with kids.
Welcome to CHAZ – the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
Protesters in Seattle have claimed around six city blocks and declared it a free zone. Police may enter for emergencies only. Trump is pissed, I am intrigued.
Having established territory, upon proving they are organised, and capable of committing war crimes of their own – the protesters may be in a position to use the Geneva convention to start charging the GOP and Police with war crimes?
This process may take years, and Trump may kill many people in the interim, but what else can one do in the face of overwhelming
stupiditymight?I do think Trump's lost face hiding in his bunker, and his dingbat followers may have lost faith in his support after getting arrested for threatening protesters with chainsaw, longbow and bicycle shorts. But he's capable of anything, and would love to institute martial law.
The protests are far from over, just quieter, and global. I am rooting for the citizens of CHAZ to bring The Hague down on Slump's redneck racist ass.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/06/12/on-the-seattle-commune/
Looks like it might be all over
Faster than the Berlin Spartacists
This is what Labour said before the 2017 election:
“The Government claims it’s not safe to enter the drift and try to get any bodies in there out. That’s not true. Experts, both local and international, say the mine is now stable. We can get those men out, and secure evidence regarding the cause of the explosion. It can be done.
The National Government just wants to wash its hands of the whole thing, and move on. They don’t seem to care no-one has ever faced court for those 29 deaths, or that the families have never got the bodies back to bury.
That’s not the way Kiwis do things. We do right by people. We ensure that, when there is wrongdoing, there is justice. We keep our promises.”
https://www.labour.org.nz/promises_to_pike_families_must_be_kept
Oooops !!!!!!!
Looks to me like you’re simply trolling here or the ‘oops’ meant that you submitted your comment in accident. Which one is it? You remind me of Judith Collins and I get irritated easily when that happens.
ouch
https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/06/11/disturbing-photo-shows-what-coronavirus-can-do-to-your-lungs/
the pic of the lung is quite something.
I second that "ouch" with a "ewww – bubbles? How bubbles?"
Nasty!
I spend far too much time thinking about covid-19 chronic lung disease might be seen in the years down track. I wonder if the countries that have been overwhelmed by the pandemic have a plan in place for managing the resultant chronic illness (if any). Could be expensive.
yes, had this discussion with the bloke. How many times do you need to get it before it gets you – our guess 3 – 5 years. So if the disease will continue running unfettered and is capable of infecting people more then once the worlds population could take a hit in about 3 – 5 years.
I am so happy i am not a young person trying to start life as an adult in the current shitshow.
The banks have done it again.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1248321023407034368.html
After months of living with the coronavirus pandemic, American citizens are well aware of the toll it has taken on the economy: broken supply chains, record unemployment, failing small businesses. All of these factors are serious and could mire the United States in a deep, prolonged recession. But there’s another threat to the economy, too. It lurks on the balance sheets of the big banks, and it could be cataclysmic. Imagine if, in addition to all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, you woke up one morning to find that the financial sector had collapsed.
[…]
To prevent the next crisis, Congress in 2010 passed the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the new rules, banks were supposed to borrow less, make fewer long-shot bets, and be more transparent about their holdings. The Federal Reserve began conducting “stress tests” to keep the banks in line. Congress also tried to reform the credit-rating agencies, which were widely blamed for enabling the meltdown by giving high marks to dubious CDOs, many of which were larded with subprime loans given to unqualified borrowers. Over the course of the crisis, more than 13,000 CDO investments that were rated AAA—the highest possible rating—defaulted.
The reforms were well intentioned, but, as we’ll see, they haven’t kept the banks from falling back into old, bad habits. After the housing crisis, subprime CDOs naturally fell out of favor. Demand shifted to a similar—and similarly risky—instrument, one that even has a similar name: the CLO, or collateralized loan obligation. A CLO walks and talks like a CDO, but in place of loans made to home buyers are loans made to businesses—specifically, troubled businesses. CLOs bundle together so-called leveraged loans, the subprime mortgages of the corporate world. These are loans made to companies that have maxed out their borrowing and can no longer sell bonds directly to investors or qualify for a traditional bank loan. There are more than $1 trillion worth of leveraged loans currently outstanding. The majority are held in CLOs.
http://archive.li/sckLP (The Atlantic)
Loud and clear.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/trump-juneteenth-tulsa-rally-is-worlds-least-subtle-dog-whistle
I'm no master political strategist, but I'd have thought that an opposition party desperately looking for votes could find more productive ideas than "let's immediately open the borders and bring in hundreds of international students to central Auckland, and stick them in quarantine, while there are reports right now of quarantine in central Auckland not working properly".
Repeat: "immediately".
National's "plan", announced today
Hmm if we were to believe the current daily figures out of China we should be looking to open up a 'bubble' very shortly…
Of course if you believe those figures, I've got a very nice bridge going cheap…
How do you spell racism? Answer: NYPD.
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2020/06/04/rage-against-the-machine/
Removing statues of non-indigenous historical figures and putting them together somewhere as a theme park would be better than just getting rid of them. Like Coronation Park in India, but with more emphasis on the tourist dollar.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lseih/2019/06/20/coronation-park-and-the-forgotten-statues-of-the-british-raj/
Brilliant! Put Captain Hamilton and the rest of those anti-heroes in to a Kiwi version of Mme Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors.