The Bill of Rights is not a set of absolutes. Context is still important – for example we had no problem with the NZ government effectively preventing me from associating with my frail and elderly father for over 2 years during the COVID crisis.
Nor do I imagine that criminal entities like the Mongrel Mob that actively repudiate the law enjoy quite the same protection under the Bill of Rights as say a political party or a union.
For an example of the way an association is banned overseas, you could look at the neo-Nazi groups in Germany. Where any and all associated symbolism is illegal to buy, sell or possess, and groups are legally not allowed to form.
It doesn't work in preventing the groups forming (haters will always hate), but it does give the police effective powers to raid and shut down groups: e.g.
These are political groupings (albeit, unsavoury ones to the majority of us), rather than criminal ones (by that I mean that they aren't engaged in full-scale drug dealing and associated criminal activity) – but the mechanism of suppression would be the same.
It doesn’t work in preventing the groups forming (haters will always hate), but it does give the police effective powers to raid and shut down groups:
Basically it doesn’t work in Germany (as you point out yourself). It won’t work here.
I’d bet that you can’t find a case where suppression of that kind has ever worked anywhere at any time over a timescale of a few generations. All it does is to push groups underground and typically makes it larger and longer lived. It is roughly the equivalent of putting makeup over a cyst to hide it…
I think that it's arguable that it doesn't work in Germany. It certainly doesn't work 100% – and nothing (apart from North Korean style social suppression) would or could.
I do believe that it has a suppressant effect, and a social stigma effect (people in general in Germany really, really dislike Nazi symbolism and disapprove of the people who choose to associate themselves with it).
Given that National have yet to release any details about how this would potentially work in the NZ legislative context; combined with the current resistance from Courts to impose serious sentences for actual crime (as opposed to a theoretical 'consorting with' crimes) – I don't believe that it's likely to be an effective policy in tackling gang crime in NZ.
But, it sure has popular appeal with a large swathe of the population who (rightly or wrongly) are feeling highly unsafe in the current gang warfare environment.
Please note, many of these are Labour supporters – or centrists who voted for Ardern in 2020. We're not talking about right-wing gun nuts – but ordinary people who are concerned that the next 'random' shooting is going to hit their house, car or kids; or ordinary small business owners who are getting to the point where their business is uninsurable because of the risk of ram raids.
In my own Auckland electorate, there have been two drive-by shootings, and 4 ram-raids on shops in the local (small) shopping centre 5 minutes walk from me. You bet that I'm not feeling anything like as safe as I did 3 years ago. I try not to do knee-jerk reactions – but I really do understand the visceral fear that some families are experiencing.
All you need to do is get the Attorney-General to state that, as David Parker has done in this link, "I have concluded that any limitation they pose on rights are reasonably justifiable under s 5 of the Bill of Rights Act.".
Hard times call for hard measures, Iprent. If Labour and successive governments had really gotten heads around L&O we wouldn't be in this situation.
Legal niceties aside, how will it be policed? We'd need a quasi citizens group with limited legal powers given present police numbers? National are just tinkering.
Why not just brand them domestic terrorists and move from there? Probably because it would cause too much pain in certain sections of society.
The man himself and the exceptions to Nationals tinkering and proposed gang legislation.
Why not just brand them domestic terrorists and move from there? Probably because it would cause too much pain in certain sections of society.
You haven’t read the NZBORA? It is really short and clear. Declaring them to be domestic terrorists makes very little differences to anyone’s rights within our legal system. It doesn’t give anyone an ability to trample over freedoms to association.
After all any such law wouldn’t be hard to take an reapply it to the domestic terrorism (as I see it) of Groundswell, or NZ Initiative.
Besides, I fail to see why this has the National party piddling in their bloomers. The police have dealt with exactly this kind of issue multiple times in the past. We still have various types of gangs, drug cartels, picket lines, rampant criminal capitalism, rebellious youth, synthetic drugs etc etc.
Society and the police deal with them over and over again despite the idiotic chicken-littles and their pathetic posturing.
The National party dickhead laws passed on each of those occasions that have done exactly nothing.
What works is to just deal with the problem using the usual processes with some time and patience. It isn’t like any of this is a new problem.
Legal niceties aside… We’d need a quasi citizens group with limited legal powers given present police numbers?
I’d be happy to demonstrate to any such body why they shouldn’t exist. I have a large set of resistance strategies for dealing with socially retarded wannabe brown-shirts that I have spent decades wanting to test. I have restrained myself from doing so – because of those legal niceties. Remove the legal niceties, and I’ll be happy to demonstrate why the legal niceties are something that is pretty essential to maintain.
I’m not exactly a pacifist. To learn some of the required techniques was among the three reasons that I joined the army in my youth. While I’m probably getting to be a bit old to be really active, I’m sure that I can help out any resistance with ideas and techniques.
Tighhtly framed laws like the RICO type seem to have some success in the US. There are serious predicate offences including 'Terrorism'. This makes me wonder if our terrorist laws could be used.
Looking at the success that joint ops – Customs, overseas justice & policing agencies and our own police seem to have against the importation of drugs does make me wonder if there is a key need for a tweak to our domestic laws. Perhaps going down the RICO way with investigations of criminal enterprises rather than individual crime might be a way. I am sure that many of these gangs would have little trouble in in fulfilling the predicate crime requirements.
Though the going after gangs has elements of a moral panic.
While we just cannot have drive-by shootings because of the risk to innocent people, when it comes to crime and impact on the wealth and welfare of the country the diversion away and starving of our tax system by various means has more impact on a Govt's ability to fund its programmes. Tax evasion. Some of these programmes may be ones that would nip in the bud, the conditions leading to gangs being seen as attractive.
I don't think so. National's argument is 'freedom' as in 'not compelled to'.
No one is compelled to belong to a gang (or any other social or political group). It's a choice you make. Even if you choose to belong, no one is compelled to wear affiliation patches, etc. – you can choose to *not* wear them. Choices have consequences.
Not at all the same argument.
In the oooold days public servants who actually interacted with the public (lots didn't, purely backroom boys and girls), were forbidden to wear any affiliation pins, jewellery, etc.) IIRC, this was originally instituted to stop the wearing of Masonic emblems (but am open to correction, here)
The reasoning was that the Public Service should be absolutely politically and socially neutral. It fell over in the 70s/80s, when employees wanted to 'express their solidarity' with various political causes – rainbow pins, anti-nuclear badges, pride emblems, etc.). I still feel it's wrong. Neutrality is an important principle.
So, there is some social history on the side of stopping people wearing insignia in public spaces.
Mitchell spokesman on National Law and Order is challenged by Jack to explain the detail of the Gang "solution." What a crash! Mitchell is a superficial empty vessel.
Yes! Presented with evidence that the Western Australian laws were not all that effective by Jack Tame, and upon which the Natz had based their ridiculous fear-mongering, he couldn't answer, so just ignored it.
A train wreck of an interview – though I suspect the Natz were sensible to send Mercenary Mitchell rather than Luxon – he'd have been a complete disaster!
The new pop-up circuit is run by Saudi Arabia’s PIF as part of Vision 2030, the cultural project that is also a way of buying influence, outreach and soft power: art, music, sport, a football club.
[…]
So we watched as one by one players at the Centurion Club pretended to have sound reasons for joining the breakaway, and then just gave up and effectively said it was for the money. Phil Mickelson looked notably baffled and sweaty, projecting all the calm moral authority of an evangelical Republican presidential candidate squinting into the police cruiser headlights as he’s hauled out of a Las Vegas ditch in a rubber gimp vest.
Mickelson said he was, like, really worried about the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, because that was totally bad, and in the same breath talked about how he’s really enjoying hiking and skiing and improving his work-life balance. Lee Westwood talked about people being “scared of change”
Many golfers who are anti the Saudi deal (as am I) have come up with pearlers like this in the golf news comments…"should I lay up and use my wedge in, or use the bonesaw?,"
It looks like the vendor the Green Party paid to collect signatures for its petition to get on NC's US Senate ballot, First Choice Consulting, is the same one implicated in the massive Republican signature forgery scandal unfolding in Michigan.https://t.co/a8ETlVWA2S#ncpolpic.twitter.com/aE2ufVZevy
So it's at least… interesting… that the NC Greens, which are running a spoiler campaign to defeat the Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley in #ncsen, hired the same GOP firm to collect signatures for them.
I wanted to see where in Wellington is flooded at the moment. Like most of us I resorted to Uncle Google which offered me some stories. One of them was at this link from a radio station.
If you care to look you will notice that it doesn't have any date on the story. Never mind. It looked like quite a good review.
It seemed to be quite a full account and to tell me what I wanted to know. Anyone who reads it will probably get quite a long way into the story before they begin to get suspicious about it. You will realise that it isn't referring to today when you see reference to schools being closed but I just assumed the story was from Friday. It isn't until I read about a slip on SH1 at Pukerua Bay that I got intrigued. SH1 is now Transmission Gully and isn't anywhere the old road through Pukerua Bay. Further on I find comments from Kapiti Coast Mayor Ross Church! He hasn't been Mayor since 2016.
Shouldn't news outlets remove old stories from their websites? And shouldn't they date everything they put there? At least people like me won't worry about people who live up the coast from here based on a many year old story.
Would prefer old news items to remain available online – imho they're a useful source of searchable info; see Papers Past. "Those who cannot learn from history…" etc.
Yes, ideally old stories should be clearly date/time-stamped, just like comments here.
Suspect that the fact that there appears to be no vaccination offered to children under 12 in South Africa will be a factor, here. Teen vaccination rates are also way below adult ones.
Youth vaccination rates are concerning, with only 37 per cent of young people aged 18-34-years having taken a COVID-19 shot and nearly 30 per cent of 12–17-year-olds.
DoJ is waiting for all that evidence to come out through these Hearings, then they can go at them and it's far harder for anyone to 'plead the 5th' for Insurrection charges – but those charges are coming and they are coming for Trump himself.
'Only around one-tenth of those arrested—71 individuals—have received criminal sentences, while the rest are waiting for their trials or haven’t yet reached plea agreements.'
For God's sake man. Upon the goading of the President, they smashed their way into the seat of government in an attempt to lynch the Vice President and the leader of the house.
‘Gang crackdown’ wins votes, doesn’t solve problems [14 Oct. 2019]
As the number of gang members rises and meth floods the country, politicians are reverting to the well-worn promise to crack down on gangs. Laura Walters reports on why the discussion needs to change.
…
National leader Simon Bridges is calling for a crackdown on gangs, saying the Government has been “soft on crime”.
The rise and development of gangs in New Zealand [2010; PDF] The Political Response (excerpts from pages 680-684)
Despite their appearance within New Zealand cities since the 1950s, gangs
did not become an issue of distinct political concern until the early 1970s. This was most obviously demonstrated by populist calls before the 1974 election to ‘take the bikes off the bikies’. [And crush 'em?]
…
Under the assertive leadership Robert Muldoon, the National government introduced a series of laws giving police greater power to target gangs’ unruly behaviour, but it was social initiatives that were to define the era. Initially, Muldoon oversaw the implementation of detached youth workers to try and transform gangs from negative forces into pro social ones. Primarily this was done by encouraging gang efforts toward establishing
work cooperatives to make use of government funded work schemes that had been established to tackle rising unemployment.
…
Indeed, given political realities that exist with times of hardship, I believe that social policies targeting gangs may be more likely to occur in times of economic prosperity, when the wider public are more amenable to offering assistance to marginal groups. But, either way, the cancelling of the work schemes also signalled the collapse of the political belief that the gang situation needed social redress as well as a law and order focus; and the latter once again rose to monopolise the country’s gang response.
…
While the gangs had been difficult to counter, they had proven to be an effective means by which to garner electoral advantage. I argue that with a mix of good intentions and cynical politicking, political leaders have done more to create wider public fear of gangs than the actions of the gangs themselves.
…
The political response to the rise of LA-style street gangs in the new
millennium contrasted with this suppressive approach. With the government commissioning a study on the phenomenon – the first in more than two decades – the social causes of gang formation once again came to the fore. I have, however, suggested that this political change may prove temporary. Certainly, the politics around patched gangs have remained largely unchanged. Although certain legislative attempts at banning patches garnered a great deal more scrutiny than gang laws of the past, the broad cross party support for organised crime legislation is evidence that the perception of gang dominated organised criminal activity remains firmly entrenched. Any political turnaround to a more balanced and evidence-based appraisal and approach to patched gangs appears unlikely.
Penrose argument doesn't stack up to me. He says there is something quantum mechanical going on which produces consciousness, but we know there is no microscopic difference between human brains and most kinds of animal brains. They are both made up of the same kinds of cells.
What is different is the macroscopic structure of those brains and those differences should therefore explain the difference in intelligence between humans and animals. To me this suggests there is some quite significant part of intelligence which follows from human genome. Whereas if Penrose is correct and its about the microstructure of the brain then there should be a smaller intelligence gap between humans and animals than is present.
I also believe there is a certain very basic level of rudimentary intelligence in some creatures which has been simulated at the neurological level by computer. Again if Penrose is correct this should be insufficient to describe those creatures thinking.
The lead story on TV3 (Newshub) was the growing, disturbing threats to the PM online. Worth watching.
But they fudged the issue. Vaccine mandates are not the prime motivation. Nor is any other policy, like gun reform. These can be subject to robust debate, including protest, without death threats.
Christchurch councillor Sarah Templeton correctly identified the issue. Misogyny.
After all, she has been subject to the same online vitriol, and she has no role whatsoever in deciding government policy on anything. What she does have is a vagina.
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Dangerous Political Narrator? What this Labour Government risks is the emergence of what might be called a “super-narrative” in which all the negatives of co-governance, media capture, and Neo-Tribal Capitalism are rolled into one big story about the deliberate corruption of New Zealand democracy. The guilty parties would be an ...
In Mandarin, Taiwan is spelt U-K-R-A-I-N-E: It is all very well for President Joe Biden to pledge his country’s military intervention should China invade Taiwan, the real trick is making Beijing believe him. Why would it, when Washington has been so careful to ensure that its own forces, and those ...
One of the most appalling things about the current Official Information Act regime is how it is enforced. Or rather, how it is not enforced. Complaints about delays - agencies not responding within the statutory time limit - are one of the most common types of complaint. And yet, for ...
This week, we’ve marked a major milestone in our school upgrade programme. We've supported 4,500 projects across the country for schools to upgrade classrooms, sports facilities, playgrounds and more, so Kiwi kids have the best possible environments to learn in. ...
We’ve delivered on our election commitment to make Matariki a public holiday. For the first time this year, all New Zealanders will have the chance to enjoy a mid-winter holiday that is uniquely our own with family and friends. Try our quiz below, then challenge your whānau! To celebrate, we’ve ...
The Green Party says the removal of pre-departure testing for arrivals into New Zealand means the Government must step up domestic measures to protect communities most at risk. ...
The long overdue resumption of the Pacific Access Category and Samoan Quota must be followed by an overhaul of the Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) scheme, says the Green Party. ...
Lessons must be learned from the Government's response to the Delta outbreak, which the Ministry of Health confirmed today left Māori, Pacific, and disabled communities at greater risk. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to withdraw the proposed Oranga Tamariki oversight legislation which strips away independence and fails to put children at the heart. ...
As New Zealand reconnects with the world, we’re making the most of every opportunity to show we’re a great place to visit, trade with and invest in as part of our plan to grow our economy and build a secure future for all Kiwis. Just this week we saw further ...
The Greens welcome the Productivity Commission’s report into our immigration settings, reiterating the need to decouple work visas from single employers. ...
As part of our work to ease the cost of living, we’re taking action on supermarkets to make sure New Zealanders are paying a fair price at the supermarket checkout. We know competition in the supermarket industry isn’t working. New Zealanders aren’t getting a fair deal. People are fed up ...
The Government has delivered on its commitment to roll out the free methamphetamine harm reduction programme Te Ara Oranga to the eastern Bay of Plenty, with services now available in Murupara. “We’re building a whole new mental health system, and that includes expanding successful programmes like Te Ara Oranga,” Health ...
Kura and schools around New Zealand can start applying for Round 4 of the Creatives in Schools programme, Minister for Education Chris Hipkins and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni said today. Both ministers were at Auckland’s Rosehill Intermediate to meet with the ākonga, teachers and the professional ...
It is my pleasure to be here at MEETINGS 2022. I want to start by thanking Lisa and Steve from Business Events Industry Aotearoa and everyone that has been involved in organising and hosting this event. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to welcome you all here. It is ...
Aotearoa New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong, met in Wellington today for the biannual Australia - Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Minister Consultations. Minister Mahuta welcomed Minister Wong for her first official visit to Aotearoa New Zealand ...
The volatile global situation has been reflected in today’s quarterly GDP figures, although strong annual growth shows New Zealand is still well positioned to deal with the challenging global environment, Grant Robertson said. GDP fell 0.2 percent in the March quarter, as the global economic trends caused exports to fall ...
More than a million New Zealanders have already received their flu vaccine in time for winter, but we need lots more to get vaccinated to help relieve pressure on the health system, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “Getting to one million doses by June is a significant milestone and sits ...
It’s a pleasure to be here today in person “ka nohi ke te ka nohi, face to face as we look back on a very challenging two years when you as Principals, as leaders in education, have pivoted, and done what you needed to do, under challenging circumstances for your ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is successfully creating jobs and boosting regional economic growth, an independent evaluation report confirms. Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash announced the results of the report during a visit to the Mihiroa Marae in Hastings, which recently completed renovation work funded through the PGF. ...
Travellers to New Zealand will no longer need a COVID-19 pre-departure test from 11.59pm Monday 20 June, COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “We’ve taken a careful and staged approach to reopening our borders to ensure we aren’t overwhelmed with an influx of COVID-19 cases. Our strategy has ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will travel to Rwanda this week to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali. “This is the first CHOGM meeting since 2018 and I am delighted to be representing Aotearoa New Zealand,” Nanaia Mahuta said. “Reconnecting New Zealand with the ...
We, the Ministers for trade from Costa Rica, Fiji, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland, welcome the meeting of Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS) partners on 15 June 2022, in Geneva to discuss progress on negotiations for the ACCTS. Our meeting was chaired by Hon Damien O’Connor, New Zealand’s Minister for ...
Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti has today announced Caroline Flora as the new Chief Censor of Film and Literature, for a three-year term from 20 July. Ms Flora is a senior public servant who has recently held the role of Associate Deputy‑Director General System Strategy and Performance at the Ministry ...
Eleven projects are being funded as part of the Government’s efforts to prevent elder abuse, Minister for Seniors Dr Ayesha Verrall announced as part of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. “Sadly one in 10 older people experience elder abuse in New Zealand, that is simply unacceptable,” Ayesha Verrall said. “Our ...
More New Zealand homes, businesses and communities will soon benefit from fast and reliable connectivity, regardless of where they live, study and work,” Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications, David Clark said today. “The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us time and again how critical a reliable connection is for ...
Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Twyford will lead Aotearoa New Zealand’s delegation to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) First Meeting of States Parties in Austria later this month, following a visit to the Netherlands. The Nuclear Ban Treaty is the first global treaty to make nuclear ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will this week welcome Australian Foreign Minister, Senator the Hon. Penny Wong on her first official visit to Aotearoa New Zealand as Foreign Minister. “I am delighted to be able to welcome Senator Wong to Wellington for our first in-person bilateral foreign policy consultations, scheduled for ...
State schools have made thousands of site, infrastructure and classroom improvements, as well as upgrades to school sports facilities and playgrounds over the past two and a half years through a major government work programme, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. The School Investment Package announced in December 2019 gave ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had a warm and productive meeting with Samoa Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa in Wellington, today. The Prime Ministers reflected on the close and enduring relationship the two countries have shared in the 60 years since the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, and since Samoa ...
“Food price data shows New Zealanders pay too much for the basics and today’s figures provide more evidence of why we need to change the supermarket industry, and fast," Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark says. Stats NZ figures show food prices were 6.8% higher in May 2022 compared ...
An independent body to strengthen and protect the integrity of the sport and recreation system is to be established. “There have been a number of reports over the years into various sports where the athletes, from elite level to grassroots, have been let down by the system in one way ...
Parents of babies needing special care can now stay overnight at Waitakere Hospital, thanks to a new Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU), Health Minister Andrew Little said today. The new SCBU, which can care for 18 babies at a time and includes dedicated facilities for parents, was opened today by ...
The Trade Ministers of the European Union, Ecuador, Kenya and New Zealand have agreed to work jointly to forge an inclusive Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate. This reflects their shared commitment to bringing the fight against climate change to the forefront of trade policy. The Ministers want to enhance ...
The Government is interested in exploring with public sector unions a pay adjustment proposal, the Minister for the Public Service Chris Hipkins said today. This follows the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions writing to the Government proposing to enter into a process for a pay adjustment across the public ...
Kris Faafoi resigns from Parliament. Kiri Allan promoted to Justice Minister, Michael Wood picks up Immigration Speaker Trevor Mallard to end 35 year parliamentary career in mid-August as he prepares to take up a diplomatic post in Europe. Adrian Rurawhe to be nominated as Speaker Priyanca Radhakrishnan moves into ...
Kris Faafoi has today announced that he will be leaving Politics in the coming weeks. Kris Faafoi has thanked the Prime Minister for the privilege of serving as a Minister in her government. “It’s been an honour to serve New Zealander’s as a Minister and as a Member of Parliament, ...
Paid Parental leave entitlements will increase on 1 July, resulting in up to $40 extra a week for new parents, or up to an additional $1040 for those taking the full 26 weeks of parental leave, Workplace Relations and Safety Michael Wood has announced today. “We know things are tough ...
Rangatahi experiencing homelessness are being supported by the Government to find safe, warm, and affordable places to live, the Associate Minister of Housing (Homelessness) Marama Davidson announced today. “This Government is investing $40 million to support rangatahi and young people to find a safe, stable place to live, put down ...
Michael Wood has announced he will travel today to the International Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition (EVS), hosted by the European Association for Electromobility in Oslo, Norway. “EVS is the leading international gathering to address all the electromobility issues. The conference brings together government Ministers, policymakers, representatives from industry, relevant ...
Defence Minister Peeni Henare joined a panel of Defence Ministers to discuss climate security at the 19th Annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore today. He addressed the 2022 summit at a special session on “Climate Security and Green Defence”. The Minister was joined on the stage by his counterpart from Maldives and ...
In a first in advancing the interests of women in trade, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and New Zealand have published a review on trade and gender in New Zealand, Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor announced. The ‘Trade and Gender Review of New Zealand’ sheds light ...
The Government has welcomed the outcome of the International Labour Organisation’s consideration of New Zealand’s Fair Pay Agreements (FPA) system, following a complaint made to it by BusinessNZ. “Despite efforts by opponents to misrepresent the purpose of FPAs, the ILO's Committee on the Application of Standards has not found that ...
Ambassadors, representatives of your many countries it pleases me to convey a special greeting to you all on this sacred land of Waikato Tainui. Fa’afetai fa’apitoa ia te outou uma I le lau’ele’ele paiao Waikato Tainui Nga mihi nui ki koutou Nga Rangatira o te Ao i tēnei whenua o ...
Ambassadors, representatives of your many countries it pleases me to convey a special greeting to you all on this sacred land of Waikato Tainui. Fa’afetai fa’apitoa ia te outou uma I le lau’ele’ele paiao Waikato Tainui Nga mihi nui ki koutou Nga Rangatira o te Ao i tēnei whenua ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today held their first successful bilateral meeting in Sydney this morning. The Prime Minister was the first head of government to meet with Prime Minister Albanese in Australia since the he took office. “I was really delighted to meet Prime ...
Trade Minister Damien O’Connor travels to Europe today for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12). While at the WTO he will meet with ministerial counterparts from other countries to discuss bilateral and regional trade and economic issues, and progress New Zealand’s ongoing EU-NZ FTA negotiations. He will also ...
The Government’s lifesaving bowel-screening programme is now available across the whole country, Health Minister Andrew Little said today. The programme has been successfully rolled out across the country over five years. In that time, cancers have been detected in 1400 people as a result of screening. Thirty-five per cent of ...
Tēnā tātou katoa Kei ngā pou o te whare hauora ki Aotearoa, kei te mihi. Tēnā koutou i tā koutou pōwhiri mai i ahau. E mihi ana ki ngā taura tangata e hono ana i a tātou katoa, ko te kaupapa o te rā tērā. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ...
The new O Mahurangi Penlink transport connection in north Auckland has passed another milestone following the signing of the construction alliance agreement today, Transport Minister Michael Wood announced today. As part of the Government’s $8.7 billion New Zealand Upgrade Programme, O Mahurangi Penlink will provide growing communities in Silverdale, Whangaparāoa ...
Tena kotou katoa, It’s a pleasure to be here with you today. Thank you for inviting myself and my esteemed colleague Minister Sio. I do want to firstly extend the apologies of the Minister of Education Hon Chris Hipkins We have lots to catch up on! The past two and ...
Women will play a significant role in how New Zealanders farm for the future, and new Government funding will help them pave the way, Associate Agriculture Minister Meka Whaitiri said. “We’ve committed $473,261 over two years through the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI’s) Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund to ...
Point of Order looks forward to hearing from Dr Gaurav Sharma, MP for Hamilton West. Our interest in him and his sensibilities was whetted by a recent Parliamentary debate in which he indicated he had been upset by something National’s Simon O’Connor had said on the subject of academic freedom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne AAP/Darren England Buttons have now been pressed to electronically distribute preferences for the May 21 federal election in the Senate for South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland. I ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk The UK government’s decision to uphold the application by the US Department of Justice to extradite Australian publisher Julian Assange imperils journalists everywhere, says the union for Australia’s journalists. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance calls on the Australian government to take urgent steps to lobby ...
By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby Australia has gifted Papua New Guinea with 3000 ballistic vests and 3000 helmets which arrived at Jackson’s International Airport in Port Moresby today. They were flown in on a Royal Australian Airforce C17 Globemaster inbound from the United States. The ballistic vests and helmets ...
Kizzy Kalsakau and Anita Roberts in Port Vila Vanuatu’s opposition leader Ralph Regenvanu said Members of Parliament from the Opposition bloc would boycott the special Parliament sitting again today. “We think there are a number of amendments that are very bad for the country, and very dangerous for the Parliament ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Breadon, Program Director, Health and Aged Care, Grattan Institute Shutterstock At the urging of the premiers, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday agreed to extend current public hospital funding until the end of the year. The federal government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Phelan, Senior Lecturer, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle Shutterstock The clock is now ticking on New South Wales’ largest coal mine. BHP has announced it will close its Mount Arthur mine in the Hunter Valley ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katja Ignatieva, Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock News about the energy crisis engulfing Australia’s east coast seems inescapable. Terms such as “grid”, the “National Electricity Market” and “transmission” are being tossed around alongside the frightening prospect of soaring power bills ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wendy Boyd, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University Shutterstock Celebrations greeted Thursday’s co-ordinated announcement by the NSW and Victorian governments that they will invest $6 billion and $9 billion, respectively, to provide 30 hours a week of play-based ...
Child Poverty Action Group commends the Select Committee’s recommendation to keep the crucial role of the Children’s Commissioner but is concerned that the process got this far. The independence of the Commissioner is critical if that role is to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Director of the Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis Dr Lain Dare discuss the week in politics. This week the pair discuss Australia’s escalating energy crisis – ...
This article was published today on Kal du Fresne’s blog (HERE). Newly promoted minister Kiritapu Allan has said what a lot of people think but feel unable to say. She lashed out in a tweet against “tokenistic” use of te reo by employees of DOC “as an attempt to show ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Bisley, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University, La Trobe University In its first month in power, foreign policy and national security have played a major part of the new government’s activities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Woods, Professor of Health Economics, University of Technology Sydney Getty The government costs of providing subsidised aged care for around 1.5 million seniors are set to blow out, while earnings for providers are dropping. Aged care delivers many ...
“Activists are targeting our children with harmful ideologies. They’re indoctrinating kids with anti-biology teaching on gender and are now attacking religious schools like Bethlehem College for their beliefs. This has to stop,“ says Helen Houghton, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Businesspeople gathered in Christchurch for a national trade show called MEETINGS were treated to a cheering-up speech from Stuart Nash, Minister of Economic and Regional Development and of Tourism. MEETINGS is described as the only national tradeshow in New Zealand for the business events ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As the energy crisis continues to grip Australia’s east coast with consumers told to limit their consumption and warnings of blackouts Tony Wood, director of the energy program at the Grattan Institute, speaks with Michelle ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Baron, Associate professor, Australian Catholic University Disney/PixarSpoiler alert: this article explains a key plot point, but we don’t give away anything you won’t see in trailers. Thanks to reader Florence, 7, for her questions. At the beginning ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Fuller, Charles Perkins Centre Research Program Leader, University of Sydney Shutterstock Australia’s regulator has banned FatBlaster Max, an over-the-counter pill that claimed (with no evidence) to be able to help you lose weight. FatBlaster Max can no longer be ...
The latest iteration of the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity (NPSIB) is a massive land grab on a scale not seen in New Zealand for 140 years, Groundswell NZ spokesman Jamie McFadden says. “This policy, as drafted, turns biodiversity ...
Extensive work in the criminal justice space by many has revealed that the systems - as they currently operate - cause harm. That’s why a group of independent organisations have created Aotearoa Justice Watch, a new platform for people with lived experience ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has a long way to go in enhancing its laws to protect child privacy rights in the age of sharenting, says privacy law expert Nikki Chamberlain. As parents and caregivers pepper social media with photos of their children's milestones ...
U niversity of Auckland Professor Ananish Chaudhuri on Covid-19 policy decisions, their implications, lockdowns and cognitive biases in pandemic decision-making. Professor Ananish Chaudhuri says that a single-minded focus on the pandemic may have prevented ...
A new nationwide poll has found significant opposition to gender ideology being taught to primary school students, and majority support for parents being informed of their own children exhibiting gender dysphoria at school. There is also more support ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nic Rawlence, Senior Lecturer in Ancient DNA, University of Otago Trilobites similar to those above have been found in 505 million-year-old rocks in New Zealand.Shutterstock It’s not often New Zealanders admit Australia is onto a good thing. Our long-running trans-Tasman rivalry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Under siege: Richard Nixon in his White House office in 1974Nixon Library via Wikimedia One of the more curious legacies of the Watergate scandal is so obvious that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Quilty, Senior Staff Specialist, Alice Springs Hospital. Purple House Medical Advisor. Honorary ANU., Australian National University Author provided In remote Indigenous communities that are already very hot and socioeconomically disadvantaged, climate change is driving inequities even further. Our new research, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Mortlock, Senior Analyst at Aon Reinsurance Solutions and Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University Durban, South AfricaGetty The world’s coastlines are at the forefront of climate change. That’s because they’re constantly changing, and respond quickly to changes in climate. They’re particularly important ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louis Lignereux, TBA, University of Adelaide WWF Australia The Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20 pushed a host of threatened species closer to extinction, including the critically endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart. And as our research released today shows, feral cats posed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nimish Biloria, Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney Monica Silvestre/Pexels, Author provided If you’re anything like me, you’re increasingly working from home, one that was built before energy efficiency measures were introduced in Australia. With temperatures along ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jess Harris, Associate Professor in Education, University of Newcastle Every student in every school in Australia has experienced unprecedented disruptions to their schooling over the past three years. On top of the disruptions and stress of COVID-19 lockdowns, isolation from their schools, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Edwards, Associate Professor in Management and Business, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The past year has been awash with suggestions countries such as Australia are experiencing a “great resignation” as workers previously loyal to their employers quit their jobs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra On Thursday Anthony Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen formally updated Australia’s international commitment for its proposed climate change action. It’s now a 43% reduction in emissions by 2030, in line with the policy Labor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeff Borland, Professor of Economics, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock The rate of unemployment remained steady at 3.9% between April and May. That Australia has now managed to keep a rate of unemployment below 4% for three consecutive months is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tina Soliman Hunter, Professor of Energy and Natural Resources Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock You can thank Margaret Thatcher for the gas supply crunch Australia’s east coast has been plunged into. As UK prime minister, Thatcher led the charge to kick ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohiuddin Ahmed, Lecturer of Computing & Security, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock After 27 years, Microsoft has finally bid farewell to the web browser Internet Explorer, and will redirect Explorer users to the latest version of its Edge browser. As ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Dargaville, Senior lecturer & Deputy Director Monash Energy Institute, Monash University If you aren’t a long term energy policy news junkie, you’d be forgiven for thinking today’s crisis arrived fairly suddenly. Indeed, Liberal leader Peter Dutton is framing it as a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danny C Price, Senior research fellow, Curtin University “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” – Carl Sagan (Cosmos, 1980) This phrase is the standard that astronomers will be applying to a curious signal captured with China’s “Sky Eye” telescope that might ...
From Monday night, people travelling into New Zealand will no longer be required to test before leaving. The Covid-19 Response Minister has confirmed the measure will be ditched earlier than planned because cases have continued to decline despite ...
Today’s GDP figures make tax relief even more pressing as the economy shrinks and householders do it tough, says New Zealand’s largest centre-right pressure group, the Taxpayers’ Union . Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: ...
Wong says Australia's new government came with a range of different priorities, including a "very different view on climate change to our predecessors". ...
For three years the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers has deliberately focused on the Canterbury region which was identified as New Zealand’s “front line” for public rivers degraded and or lost to irrigation. Dr Peter Trolove said ...
Buzz from the Beehive Rwanda is back in the headlines, not only for the role it is playing in the British Government’s highly controversial plans for ridding their country of asylum seekers (the first deportation flight was cancelled after a last-minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights, which ...
A View from Afar – In this podcast, political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning examine political events taking shape in South America. In particular, Buchanan and Manning detail how there is a presidential run-off election in Colombia this Saturday and examine the outcomes of recent elections in Chile, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brady Robards, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Monash University Shutterstock What you say and do on social media can affect your employment; it can prevent you from getting hired, stall career progression and may even get you fired. Is this fair ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Castan, Associate Professor, Law Faculty, Monash University Last week the Victorian government demonstrated its commitment to build an equal relationship with First Peoples. A new bill has been tabled in the Victorian parliament to advance the Victorian treaty processes. In 2018, ...
Your letter raises concerns in two areas. The first relates to the process of ordering RATs by the Government and, in particular, you refer to reported claims that the Government commandeered orders of RATs by the private sector. The questions you have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Bartos, Professor of Economics, University of Canberra The election of a record number of independents to the House of Representatives will undoubtedly increase pressure on parliament to change how it operates. Already the newly elected independent member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, ...
By Kolopu Waima in Mendi, Papua New Guinea She is brave — no other word can describe this Papua New Guinean woman. Ruth Undi Siwinu isn’t only challenging the norms and a huge field of male candidates in Southern Highlands, but knows the task ahead and she is prepared to ...
RNZ Pacific Switzerland will not allow visa-free entry for Vanuatu citizens whose passports were issued on or after May 25, 2015. The ban will stay in place until February 3, 2023. This follows a decision in March by the European Union’s Council to partially call off the visa waiver agreement ...
RNZ Pacific Samoa and China do not have any plans for military ties, Samoa Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa says. Fiamē — who is on a three-day trip to Aotearoa — is making her first official bilateral trip abroad since becoming leader last year. Her visit marks 60 years of ...
By Arieta Vakasukawaqa in Suva Former FijiFirst party member and parliamentarian Alifereti Nabulivou claims many Fijians across the country have only one thing in mind: “They no longer want the FijiFirst party in power.” A staunch supporter of the Unity Fiji party since 2018, Nabulivou highlighted this during a recent ...
An earlier post on Point of Order about farming and climate change attracted some interesting comments. The post itself contended that in view of the world facing a global food shortage the government should be doing everything in its power to lift food production — and not imposing taxes on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pamela McCalman, PhD Candidate and Midwife, La Trobe University shutterstock While Australia is one of the safest places in the world to give birth, First Nations women are three times more likely to die in childbirth than other Australian women ...
InsideOUT Kōaro are proud to celebrate Schools’ Pride Week - a nationwide rainbow pride campaign in schools, running June 13-17 2022 . Schools’ Pride Week is a celebratory week of events and activities to help foster a sense of belonging for rainbow young ...
The NZ CTU welcomes the indication from Minister Michael Wood that he will progress the recommendations from the Tripartite Working Group for Better Protections for Contractors. The recommendations include ensuring there is greater legal clarification ...
The experimental weekly series provides an early indicator of employment and labour market changes in a more timely manner than the monthly employment indicators series. Key facts The 6-day series includes jobs with a pay period equal to or less than ...
GDP fell 0.2 percent in the March 2022 quarter, following a rise of 3.0 percent in the December 2021 quarter, Stats NZ said today. Primary industries drove the decrease in GDP, down 1.2 percent in the quarter. Goods producing industries also experienced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Murray Goot, Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University Addressing the first meeting of Labor’s new caucus, Anthony Albanese held out the prospect of “back-to-back premierships”. But a second-term in government isn’t a given, he implied – it is something ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra McEwan, Lecturer: Law, CQUniversity Australia Tonia Kraakman/Unsplash, CC BY An e-petition against greyhound racing to the Tasmanian parliament reached a record number of signatures last week, with 13,519 people demanding the state government end public funding of the industry. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Mitchell, Associate Professor Health and Societal Outcomes, Macquarie University ShutterstockNAPLAN scores can tell us about a child’s learning, but can they also help us to support learners who have had a serious injury or a long-term chronic illness like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Lycett, NHMRC Early Career Fellow, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, Deakin University Since 2001 our research group has asked 2,000 Australians every year how they’re doing. Are they satisfied with their standard of living, their relationships, purpose in life, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony O’Donnell, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Law, La Trobe University Shutterstock When Labor leader Anthony Albanese couldn’t quote Australia’s unemployment rate in the first week of the election campaign, many said it didn’t matter: the Australian Bureau of Statistics figure ...
The Opposition intends to introduce non-consorting laws that would stop convicted gang members from associating with one another.
Apparently once issued, the specified gang offenders would be prohibited from associating or communicating with one another for up to three years.
Does that mean we can't have family get togethers at Christmas or funerals?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/national-party-favours-non-consorting-laws-to-disrupt-gangs-from-the-inside-out/QFJXAHQDYZEEIB7CCCTUCTQ2T4/
They're confused.
That is a ridiculous concept for law.
Are they also planning on repealing the Bill of Rights Act? Which is pretty much what they would have to do to pass this.
The Bill of Rights is not a set of absolutes. Context is still important – for example we had no problem with the NZ government effectively preventing me from associating with my frail and elderly father for over 2 years during the COVID crisis.
Nor do I imagine that criminal entities like the Mongrel Mob that actively repudiate the law enjoy quite the same protection under the Bill of Rights as say a political party or a union.
For an example of the way an association is banned overseas, you could look at the neo-Nazi groups in Germany. Where any and all associated symbolism is illegal to buy, sell or possess, and groups are legally not allowed to form.
It doesn't work in preventing the groups forming (haters will always hate), but it does give the police effective powers to raid and shut down groups: e.g.
https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-security-neo-nazi-idUSKBN28B4E9
These are political groupings (albeit, unsavoury ones to the majority of us), rather than criminal ones (by that I mean that they aren't engaged in full-scale drug dealing and associated criminal activity) – but the mechanism of suppression would be the same.
Basically it doesn’t work in Germany (as you point out yourself). It won’t work here.
I’d bet that you can’t find a case where suppression of that kind has ever worked anywhere at any time over a timescale of a few generations. All it does is to push groups underground and typically makes it larger and longer lived. It is roughly the equivalent of putting makeup over a cyst to hide it…
I think that it's arguable that it doesn't work in Germany. It certainly doesn't work 100% – and nothing (apart from North Korean style social suppression) would or could.
I do believe that it has a suppressant effect, and a social stigma effect (people in general in Germany really, really dislike Nazi symbolism and disapprove of the people who choose to associate themselves with it).
Given that National have yet to release any details about how this would potentially work in the NZ legislative context; combined with the current resistance from Courts to impose serious sentences for actual crime (as opposed to a theoretical 'consorting with' crimes) – I don't believe that it's likely to be an effective policy in tackling gang crime in NZ.
But, it sure has popular appeal with a large swathe of the population who (rightly or wrongly) are feeling highly unsafe in the current gang warfare environment.
Please note, many of these are Labour supporters – or centrists who voted for Ardern in 2020. We're not talking about right-wing gun nuts – but ordinary people who are concerned that the next 'random' shooting is going to hit their house, car or kids; or ordinary small business owners who are getting to the point where their business is uninsurable because of the risk of ram raids.
In my own Auckland electorate, there have been two drive-by shootings, and 4 ram-raids on shops in the local (small) shopping centre 5 minutes walk from me. You bet that I'm not feeling anything like as safe as I did 3 years ago. I try not to do knee-jerk reactions – but I really do understand the visceral fear that some families are experiencing.
Why would you have to do that?
All you need to do is get the Attorney-General to state that, as David Parker has done in this link, "I have concluded that any limitation they pose on rights are reasonably justifiable under s 5 of the Bill of Rights Act.".
That's all, now just move along.
https://www.justice.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/20210914-NZ-BORA-Advice-COVID-19-Public-Health-Response-Amendment-Bill.pdf
Hard times call for hard measures, Iprent. If Labour and successive governments had really gotten heads around L&O we wouldn't be in this situation.
Legal niceties aside, how will it be policed? We'd need a quasi citizens group with limited legal powers given present police numbers? National are just tinkering.
Why not just brand them domestic terrorists and move from there? Probably because it would cause too much pain in certain sections of society.
The man himself and the exceptions to Nationals tinkering and proposed gang legislation.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/the-sunday-session/audio/christopher-luxon-our-objective-here-is-to-dismantle-and-disrupt-gangs/
You haven’t read the NZBORA? It is really short and clear. Declaring them to be domestic terrorists makes very little differences to anyone’s rights within our legal system. It doesn’t give anyone an ability to trample over freedoms to association.
After all any such law wouldn’t be hard to take an reapply it to the domestic terrorism (as I see it) of Groundswell, or NZ Initiative.
Besides, I fail to see why this has the National party piddling in their bloomers. The police have dealt with exactly this kind of issue multiple times in the past. We still have various types of gangs, drug cartels, picket lines, rampant criminal capitalism, rebellious youth, synthetic drugs etc etc.
Society and the police deal with them over and over again despite the idiotic chicken-littles and their pathetic posturing.
The National party dickhead laws passed on each of those occasions that have done exactly nothing.
What works is to just deal with the problem using the usual processes with some time and patience. It isn’t like any of this is a new problem.
I’d be happy to demonstrate to any such body why they shouldn’t exist. I have a large set of resistance strategies for dealing with socially retarded wannabe brown-shirts that I have spent decades wanting to test. I have restrained myself from doing so – because of those legal niceties. Remove the legal niceties, and I’ll be happy to demonstrate why the legal niceties are something that is pretty essential to maintain.
I’m not exactly a pacifist. To learn some of the required techniques was among the three reasons that I joined the army in my youth. While I’m probably getting to be a bit old to be really active, I’m sure that I can help out any resistance with ideas and techniques.
I am aware of the US anti consorting law RICO.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act
Tighhtly framed laws like the RICO type seem to have some success in the US. There are serious predicate offences including 'Terrorism'. This makes me wonder if our terrorist laws could be used.
Looking at the success that joint ops – Customs, overseas justice & policing agencies and our own police seem to have against the importation of drugs does make me wonder if there is a key need for a tweak to our domestic laws. Perhaps going down the RICO way with investigations of criminal enterprises rather than individual crime might be a way. I am sure that many of these gangs would have little trouble in in fulfilling the predicate crime requirements.
Though the going after gangs has elements of a moral panic.
While we just cannot have drive-by shootings because of the risk to innocent people, when it comes to crime and impact on the wealth and welfare of the country the diversion away and starving of our tax system by various means has more impact on a Govt's ability to fund its programmes. Tax evasion. Some of these programmes may be ones that would nip in the bud, the conditions leading to gangs being seen as attractive.
What happened to"freedom of association"?
Nationals stated rational for removing compulsory Union membership.
Mind you I have long given up expecting moral consistency from National.
I think that you'll find that National were arguing there that no one should be required to join an association (union in that case).
It really is a completely separate issue from banning 'criminal' associations, which is what they are discussing here.
No lack of consistency.
Please note, this doesn't imply I agree with National – but I don't believe your comparison holds water.
Well said. Two separate issues.
Freedom of association.
Cuts both ways.
I don't think so. National's argument is 'freedom' as in 'not compelled to'.
No one is compelled to belong to a gang (or any other social or political group). It's a choice you make. Even if you choose to belong, no one is compelled to wear affiliation patches, etc. – you can choose to *not* wear them. Choices have consequences.
Not at all the same argument.
In the oooold days public servants who actually interacted with the public (lots didn't, purely backroom boys and girls), were forbidden to wear any affiliation pins, jewellery, etc.) IIRC, this was originally instituted to stop the wearing of Masonic emblems (but am open to correction, here)
The reasoning was that the Public Service should be absolutely politically and socially neutral. It fell over in the 70s/80s, when employees wanted to 'express their solidarity' with various political causes – rainbow pins, anti-nuclear badges, pride emblems, etc.). I still feel it's wrong. Neutrality is an important principle.
So, there is some social history on the side of stopping people wearing insignia in public spaces.
Mitchell spokesman on National Law and Order is challenged by Jack to explain the detail of the Gang "solution." What a crash! Mitchell is a superficial empty vessel.
From 6:45 minutes.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/live
Yes! Presented with evidence that the Western Australian laws were not all that effective by Jack Tame, and upon which the Natz had based their ridiculous fear-mongering, he couldn't answer, so just ignored it.
A train wreck of an interview – though I suspect the Natz were sensible to send Mercenary Mitchell rather than Luxon – he'd have been a complete disaster!
Pommy snark is the best snark.
The new pop-up circuit is run by Saudi Arabia’s PIF as part of Vision 2030, the cultural project that is also a way of buying influence, outreach and soft power: art, music, sport, a football club.
[…]
So we watched as one by one players at the Centurion Club pretended to have sound reasons for joining the breakaway, and then just gave up and effectively said it was for the money. Phil Mickelson looked notably baffled and sweaty, projecting all the calm moral authority of an evangelical Republican presidential candidate squinting into the police cruiser headlights as he’s hauled out of a Las Vegas ditch in a rubber gimp vest.
Mickelson said he was, like, really worried about the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, because that was totally bad, and in the same breath talked about how he’s really enjoying hiking and skiing and improving his work-life balance. Lee Westwood talked about people being “scared of change”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2022/jun/11/in-their-naked-self-interest-liv-golfers-are-being-refreshingly-true-to-the-sports-roots
Many golfers who are anti the Saudi deal (as am I) have come up with pearlers like this in the golf news comments…"should I lay up and use my wedge in, or use the bonesaw?,"
Non denominational electoral fuckery.
/
I wanted to see where in Wellington is flooded at the moment. Like most of us I resorted to Uncle Google which offered me some stories. One of them was at this link from a radio station.
https://www.thehits.co.nz/news/wellington-dealing-with-serious-flooding-event-following-torrential-rain/
If you care to look you will notice that it doesn't have any date on the story. Never mind. It looked like quite a good review.
It seemed to be quite a full account and to tell me what I wanted to know. Anyone who reads it will probably get quite a long way into the story before they begin to get suspicious about it. You will realise that it isn't referring to today when you see reference to schools being closed but I just assumed the story was from Friday. It isn't until I read about a slip on SH1 at Pukerua Bay that I got intrigued. SH1 is now Transmission Gully and isn't anywhere the old road through Pukerua Bay. Further on I find comments from Kapiti Coast Mayor Ross Church! He hasn't been Mayor since 2016.
Shouldn't news outlets remove old stories from their websites? And shouldn't they date everything they put there? At least people like me won't worry about people who live up the coast from here based on a many year old story.
Would prefer old news items to remain available online – imho they're a useful source of searchable info; see Papers Past. "Those who cannot learn from history…" etc.
Yes, ideally old stories should be clearly date/time-stamped, just like comments here.
On second thoughts I agree with keeping them.
They should date them though, and preferably highlight the date. Mana seems to get flooded a couple of times a year.
SLIP ON 58. Below Seaview.
Mana new world flooded.
And here we are. New variants nailing more kids than over eighties.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-09/child-covid-19-cases-jump-in-south-africa-discovery-health-says#xj4y7vzkg
Suspect that the fact that there appears to be no vaccination offered to children under 12 in South Africa will be a factor, here. Teen vaccination rates are also way below adult ones.
https://www.unicef.org/southafrica/press-releases/unicef-welcomes-50-cent-covid19-vaccination-coverage-south-africa
If anyone else is tuning into the January 6th Congressional Hearings the good question to be answered is this:
– Where did the money come from?
– Who paid for this over two-month effort to reverse the results of an election that President Joe Biden won by over eight million votes?
– And who paid for what almost became a military coup as well as a violent insurrection?
C'mon Dems: Follow The Money.
It was more a protest that got out of hand by a bunch of idiots.
Insurrection indeed.
You'd be the last one I'd have expected to defend these criminals who attempted to overthrow an elected government.
I guess you take it easy on any of your clients if they'e right wingers.
Did I say they shouldn't be charged?
They should absolutely be charged but throwing words around like insurrection and coup is just giving them more credit then they deserve.
Compare Jan 6th to the Capital Hill protests, I know which one was more dangerous yet where are the arrests?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_Occupied_Protest#Shootings
DoJ is waiting for all that evidence to come out through these Hearings, then they can go at them and it's far harder for anyone to 'plead the 5th' for Insurrection charges – but those charges are coming and they are coming for Trump himself.
Hopefully they can hurry it up:
https://time.com/6133336/jan-6-capitol-riot-arrests-sentences/
'Only around one-tenth of those arrested—71 individuals—have received criminal sentences, while the rest are waiting for their trials or haven’t yet reached plea agreements.'
For God's sake man. Upon the goading of the President, they smashed their way into the seat of government in an attempt to lynch the Vice President and the leader of the house.
Insurrection? Indeed!
Goading:
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-trump-say-peacefully-patriotically-march-capitol-1561718
"I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard"
You really think think that a bunch of unarmed yahoos led by this guy was going to somehow take control of the government?
Hes been charged and convicted, as it should be
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/qanon-shaman-key-figure-jan-attack-sentenced-wednesday/story?id=81203981
This is all the Democratic party has and they're going to milk it for all its worth
Unarmed my arse. The treasonous clowns arrived tooled up and ready to kill.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/stun-guns-stinger-whips-crossbow-what-police-found-capitol-protesters-n1254127
https://www.everytown.org/were-guns-present-at-the-january-6th-capitol-insurrection/
How many people did the protestors kills?
None, because everyone eacuated
Yes it looks like everyones evacuated, I especially like the masked guy leaning up against the wall obviously in fear for life
https://opb-opb-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/8_iUz3LQZBTcErxi3li2UuQGN9I=/767×0/smart/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/opb/MSZ7XS2RJZA7POOO3VDIHJ4Q2I.jpg
fear for his life
Fuck…
And the next time you snap one of your keeps with a weapon you'll ask how many screws did they stab before deciding whether or not to charge them.
lol
Whats a keeps and whats a screw?
I'll have a go. A keep is an inmate and a screw is a prison officer.
Whats a prison officer?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_officer
From the link you provided:
'The term "corrections officer" or "correction officer" is used in the U.S. and New Zealand.'
I'm interested to know why you are so sensitive about the use of the term, prison officer.
It is in common usage and everyone knows what it means.
I'm interested to know why you don't seem to care about being wrong, even when corrected.
Weren't you a teacher at some point?
Perhaps you are captured by this quaint idea prison officers are correcting people rather than just locking them up in prison.
Or that my work contact says Corrections Officer or that I work for the Department of Corrections or that my boss is the Minister Of Corrections
So you were the type of teacher that didn't bother with checking if the information you were passing onto your students was actually correct?
Close enough is good enough eh
work contact? work contract
Fuck…
kills? Fuck…
Never mind, even a corrector can't be correct all the time..
^*my work contRact
This is getting beyond a joke.
I'm off to bed.
""I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard""
You took that statement at face value, Puckish?
Gracious!
At least they're having a go…
The more things change…
Fascinating yarn about a Google engineer who'd been conversing with AI chat bot LaMDA. He reckoned LaMDA was becoming sentient.
https://archive.ph/qgVxc (wapo)
Without taking a firm position on this, Roger Penrose argues that consciousness is not a computation.
Penrose argument doesn't stack up to me. He says there is something quantum mechanical going on which produces consciousness, but we know there is no microscopic difference between human brains and most kinds of animal brains. They are both made up of the same kinds of cells.
What is different is the macroscopic structure of those brains and those differences should therefore explain the difference in intelligence between humans and animals. To me this suggests there is some quite significant part of intelligence which follows from human genome. Whereas if Penrose is correct and its about the microstructure of the brain then there should be a smaller intelligence gap between humans and animals than is present.
I also believe there is a certain very basic level of rudimentary intelligence in some creatures which has been simulated at the neurological level by computer. Again if Penrose is correct this should be insufficient to describe those creatures thinking.
The lead story on TV3 (Newshub) was the growing, disturbing threats to the PM online. Worth watching.
But they fudged the issue. Vaccine mandates are not the prime motivation. Nor is any other policy, like gun reform. These can be subject to robust debate, including protest, without death threats.
Christchurch councillor Sarah Templeton correctly identified the issue. Misogyny.
After all, she has been subject to the same online vitriol, and she has no role whatsoever in deciding government policy on anything. What she does have is a vagina.