“Tony Blair’s presence in front of the Cenotaph is grotesque. It’s like having an arsonist attending the funeral of the victims of his fire starting. One million Iraqis dead, ME plunged into the abyss, Blair is a war criminal. ”
George Galloway.
“There is no Poppy large enough, no overcoat thick enough to hide the black evil hearts of the War Criminals amongst whom Corbyn was forced to linger in London this morning.”
“’ll use Twitter sparingly from now on, and only for either my latest column or when I’ve something I really want to say. Real life awaits. Given the planetary state of things, we’d all likely do better by spending more time with family, friends, animals & nature. Peace out.”
Some could infer that the govt has now moved regarding the teachers, to engaging in the PR war with the voter, placing a wedge between the teachers and the public. The phrasing of the $9,500 is of interest as it grosses 3 annual rises of 3% into 1, and has been used to destroy favourable public opinion towards teachers. That is something you could think another govt would use, the tactic shouldn’t employed by Labour 🤔
Hipkins said the proposed pay rise exceeded that of many other professions.
“I think that a $9500 pay rise is a pay rise that many other New Zealanders would certainly appreciate.” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12158332
Of course Hipkins is Labour Ed. Labour is a neoliberal party which seems to hope people will eventually forget that they unleashed neoliberalism in NZ and have never said sorry.
Didn’t you see the part where most new Teachers leave in the first few years, due to crippling workloads, unrealistic expectations from their employers, micro-management and the stultifying effect of Nationals dumbing down of education.
Before you even get into pay, about half of the earnings of a tradesman, or other equivalently educated, skilled trade. I.E. Lawyers, dentists and real estate agents.
The right wing say we should pay millions to managers and directors to ensure competence. Teachers are supposed to do it for love.
I know. I was one of them. I didn’t expect to earn the same as my real job, but I expected to earn enough to live on reasonably, and to go to the scale they told me I would be on, before I retrained for Teaching.
Not sure how big an issue it is, but I have heard in interviews and the mighty talk back radio, that one of the issues new teachers have is their obvious lack of experience.
Some schools being hesitant to hire too many newbies.
As I say, not sure how prevalent it is, as a lot of it seemed to be anecdotal
That’s across a lot of hiring practices – demanding two years experience. It makes things very hard for people who qualify in NZ because the job market is neither large nor extensive. Getting a job near one’s family and friends or your partner’s workplace is hard enough without such nonsense. Teachers used to have some protection in the first two years though – not sure if it’s still there.
A major problem is the requirement for continued training for the first two years. The Beginning Teacher had to be under a suitable Senior Teacher for two years as part of certification. That senior person was meant to broaden the junior teacher’s curriculum and classroom management strategies.
Many schools were caused headaches by Boards of Trustees failing to keep a balance of staff, through choosing younger staff… (close to their own age often).
Older Teachers were seen as costly, harder to manage and not progressive enough. That started a chain of failures and stressed teachers and boards.
Yeah, friend of mine did a midlife swap to teaching – gave notice in year one due to stress and was essentially saved by a good mentor teacher & principal. Now much in demand at a highend private school – one of the few who knows the NCEA stuff well enough to coach the younger & foreign imports – on top of her actual job.
But the systemic prejudice against kiwis is frankly huge, and not confined to teaching. The worthless English buffoons who’ve run the MSA for the last few decades pretty much killed the training path for kiwis – took me till I was thirty to get my coastal masters, not because I failed anything but because the useless deleted expletives wouldn’t recognize my seatime. Teaching in China, one of the blokes who owned the company I worked for had got his master foreign going by the time he was 19. He was from Hong Kong – which had the same UK descended qualification framework but without the obstructive culture that was allowed to ruin NZ’s system. And still does.
In the MSA’s case, now Maritime New Zealand, it was organizational incompetence, which seems to be intergenerational. Governments putting taxi drivers or real Estate agents in charge, and employing ex cops, doesn’t help. There are some good people in MNZ, but they tell me you have to keep your heads well down, if you have any real knowledge.
Having experience in New Zealand shipping, is a definite barrier to employment with MNZ.
The current international requirement for only one years sea time for a second mates certificate, and the like, is even more pandering to cost cutting shipowners.
Useless Management in NZ is systemic throughout the Public Service & Private Companies “the harder you suck the higher you get & it depends on who you know not what you know ?”.
Most Public Companies here in NZ have either been bankrupted through management incompetence or sold to offshore investors.
Government Departments and SOE’s run as little fiefdoms ?
“I can’t see how there can be a teacher shortage” – are you saying there isn’t one?
If so, where is your analysis to back that up?
If you don’t have that analysis – and I’m sure you don’t – or you are not saying there isn’t a shortage, then stop introducing distractions like this to every single discussion.
My dentist has just awarded himself a pay rise, of double that.
Average pay rises for top managers over 17%.
Civil service managers are now on hundreds of thousands.
Teachers used to be on the same as a backbencher.
I think they are being rather restrained, myself. Especially when you consider the rises are nowhere near that for all Teachers, and they are over several years.
Lastly. If you want to attract competent people from other jobs, you need to, at least, pay them enough to live in Auckland.
The time of expecting women with well paid husbands, to do the job for love and peanuts, is over.
Teachers are used as scapegoats, regularly chastised, blamed, painted as unsatisfactory servants just carrying on at a higher level from pre-school education. Their achievements and workload aren’t respected, and for decades also teach mentally unabled childre, those who are disturbed and mind-stressed from unhappy homes and from watching mind-warping television and videos, as well as those who are to be prepared for a regular working life if they can find that.
Just as government and leaders play games with them, expecting more but also increasing their difficulties, they do the same to the adults who have finished school, and they have difficulties finding that regular working life. All are easured all the time with forms to fill out. This is a society that is built around the idea that people are not good enough to be treated as satisfactory; niggling and fault-finding by those who have managed to climb the ladder is constant but those at the upper level somehow avoid much of it themselves.
“A University of Otago study shows CEO pay is increasing at almost five times the rate of the average worker.
Otago University Business School Accountancy and Finance researcher Dr Helen Roberts’ longitudinal study study, which adjusted for inflation, showed the proportion of CEOs paid over $500,000 per year had also increased approximately five-fold across three different compensation measures.
It showed chief executives were now paid 30 to 50 times more than the average wage of $60,000.”
“Chief executive pay packes often do not seem to relate to performance. Fonterra and Fletcher Building are good examples. Or CBL. The troubled insurer’s boss was paid $2.6 million in 2016 and the company was placed in voluntary administration in early 2018.
For context, the chief executive pay in the top 50 companies in New Zealand averaged average under NZ$2 million. That’s around 35 times the average worker pay.”
And that same CEO will have large investments in the stock market that has tripled in value in the last 9 years and he/she will own multiple houses that, as everybody knows, have gone up massively in value in the last 20 years.
The combination of massive salary increases and massive capital gains represents a huge shift in wealth to the top 5-10%.
at least you did not say capital gains where the ‘family home’ is tax free ha ha.
Problem with asset tax is, if you are not a CEO how the hell do you pay it on NZ wages? Can you imagine a teacher adding that tax on to their mortgage, rates and other expenses to pay?
Obviously fine if you work or have income from overseas and therefore can earn money in relation to cost of living. In NZ there is a disparity of wages including those middle class wages i.e. teachers and police which is why there is an issue with ‘asset’ taxes on NZ wages.
I’d prefer more targeted taxes aka stamp duty on assets over 5 million for example – business/farm/house. Even if it was the ‘family home’ you would still have to pay.
Also more investigation into ‘minimum’ turnover taxes aka comanies like Google that pay little taxes here have to pay a minimum of tax on turnovers over 10 million for example even if they make a ‘loss’.
And a financial transaction tax on banks and money coming into and out of NZ to get all those ‘profits’.
Some of the people inconvenienced by the teachers this week will be paid even less than teachers and work just as hard.
I have doubts about how far the model of individual unions seeking improvements for their members alone can be pushed. I would prefer to see increases in the ‘social wage’ that benefit all low and moderate income earners.
The rich and the powerful are pointing out the minor problems caused by people demanding to be paid enough while distracting from the major problems that they themselves cause such as under paying people.
Worse DTB, the rich demand private schools and suitable packages to attract the best teaching staff for their children. Further they take the funds from the General Education Budget, thus lowering the money for the rest.
Exactly. But the media now portray reasonable catch-up as beyond reasonable.. (Thanks, ERA..)
I have lived many years (I started in 1970) wishing that NZEI and my PPTA could actually work together. It appears that from the start of next year this may actually happen. The foolish promoters of the economy need to be taught that there are many things more important than what they think is good for the economy. Society matters far more than the economy, … the economy has to be a servant, not a master.
Worse DTB, the rich demand private schools and suitable packages to attract the best teaching staff for their children.
Oh yes, the rich believe in performance-based pay and meritocracy; the best get paid better, the better-paid are the best. They would say that, wouldn’t they?
This feeds into the urban myth that teachers in low-decile schools are generally inferior to teachers in high-decile ones with only the best carefully handpicked for private schools (the elite schools). Consequently, the low-decile schools are inferior too, which is obvious when you look at academic success of the students, now and in future.
This BS keeps self-perpetuating and even some of the poor are buying into it.
Don’t!
One’s pay (or wealth) is not a marker of one’s competence as a teacher.
But AB teachers aren’t unskilled and semi-skilled workers, and they are extensions of the socialising and informing role that parents do (if all is going well). Teachers are trained to carry out their role, unlike parents who struggle to get along with or without teachers strikes. Teachers are trying to maintain their numbers with training to expected levels of expertise in these difficult times. While we have teachers who care and try to help children through their school years to a level that enables them to manage in the world, we have some hope that they will be able to negotiate social wages for themselves as adults, if their parents have not learned enough to achieve that themselves.
‘Teach your children well, their parents hell will surely go by’.
Grey – I find comparisons between who is ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled’ a bit odious. And I don’t really like the idea of people’s economic wellbeing coming down to how well they can make the case that they are more skilled than someone else, who therefore deserves less than they do.
I would like to see a sort of cross-occupational solidarity that assumes the baseline of a decent economic life for everyone, then places some relatively modest skill differentials (insofar as these can be determined) on top of that. If people are in occupational silos trying to do the best for themselves alone, that plays into the individualistic habits of mind that are part of our current predicament.
We aren’t and can’t all be the same AB. Chance to realise the fullness of oneself through work and opportunities and decent conditions in one’s community and the world would be a fine thing. But life and self management has to be learned, just scrambling along, dragging oneself up with no wise and caring help rarely results in a well-balanced and wise person. Teachers are worthy, should be nurtured and respected and have reasonable expectations placed on them in return.
They, and informed and thinking people, know too well today that they are the first rather than the second stage of support and introduction to life skills for many children in our society. That is why these skilled people need to get more attention than the unskilled, who in turn should get better conditions offered for their living and advancement. I don’t agree with the theory of communism, and everyone getting the same if that is what is behind your thinking.
Certainly would not get many to do my present job, without a skills and responsibility premium. We offered to train some staff. The response was, “you couldn’t pay me enough to take the responsibility”.
The lifestyle which made it an adventure for young people in the past, are long gone.
However there is no justification for jobs that I regard as semi-skilled, such as management in large companies, getting 35 times the average wage.
How much did teachers pay rise under the Natz and how much now under Labour would be a good comparison.
My gut feeling is that maybe the Natz did not give the teachers enough pay rises, and now labour are being blamed for it.
Plus the neoliberal immigration policies of the last 12 years in particular mean that it sounds like teachers would not have enough pay for even Kiwibuild ‘affordable’ houses up to $180k dual income.
In addition the glut of spec houses being built in Auckland were based around a Ponzi scheme and Kiwis can’t afford or not interested in 1 million+ dollar McMansions and want/need that 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house with double garage and tiny section or 2 bedroom apartment with $13,000 a year body corporates and chance of leaks?
The ‘market driven’ developers have failed to build for the market of NZ and the high paid jobs were never created to keep the migrants or Kiwis in NZ with enough wages to live here without an overseas job to fund it? Aka once people get residency here, they leave their $20p/h insecure NZ job… NZ back where it started the ponzi but with much more liabilities and satellite families earning nothing but kids to teach, kids to give health care to, kids to commute to schools, WFF and tops ups to pay…
It would have to be a pretty flash apartment to have $13,000 body corporate fees. I have been looking at apartments around the $700,000 mark for a relative. Body corporate plus rates are around $5,000 to $6,000.
You have got to be joking Wayne! Just the insurance component on many apartments in Wellington exceeds $5000 to $6000. Now add $3000 p.a. for rates and varying amounts for future maintenance charges in the range of $1000 to five times that. One can be sure that $13,000 is not exceptional, particularly for older repurposed buildings. Also, you must realise that there are a number of apartments around that are at give-away prices as owners cannot afford the repair bills for earthquake and structural problems.
There are pockets of excellence in NZ in-between vast deserts of doubt and apathy. Many good ideas get buried by bureaucracy and/or suffocated by mediocre managers. Access to funding is like a 3,000-mile pilgrimage carrying a heavy load and with self-flagellation at each and every step, bare feet, I should add. It’s dire.
There are pockets of excellence in NZ in-between vast deserts of doubt and apathy.
Dear God is that such a true statement.
I’m sorry to say this; but it’s the one thing that becomes vividly apparent the moment you get on a plane and leave. If only NZ would learn to believe in itself the way our best rugby players and our world class sailors do … the country would be unstoppable.
Elite NZ athletes ‘learn to believe in themselves’ through expensive ongoing coaching and psychological support. Let’s invest in the equivalent for everyone else and reap the benefits.
Perhaps we could make lemonade out of something sour? The long spiritual walk of Spain the Carmino de Santiago is a selling point to meditative visitors and bucket-list tourists;, a spiritual and physical task that attracts thousands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_de_Santiago
Our pain and spiritual exercise of effort obtaining resources to try and save what is good in NZ from destruction and to nurture, build and develop better things in NZ, could be sold as a journey that attracts sympathetic tourists. Sell ourselves as a small green jewel in the world being threatened by the twin hazards of neoliberal freemarketing and runaway climate change. ‘Join us in our fevered attempts to rise above this tide’; better than an epic blockbuster.
/sarc or is it a step outside the square that could be the floating something that we grasp to save ourselves from drowning? I’ll leave you to conjecture what the something would be!
In 2010, Rocket Lab worked on a project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA, a US Department of Defense agency. The result of this work was passed on to the US military in 2012.
In 2013, Rocket Lab received funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. Around this time Rocket Lab moved its company registration to the US and opened a corporate office in Los Angeles. In a recent TV interview, Peter Beck stated that he now spends his time betwwen LA and NZ.
In 2014, the US military and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin invested an undisclosed amount in Rocket Lab. Lockheed Martin is one of the US largest defence contractors, $35.2 billion in US military contracts last year. Rocket lab have refused to discuss the amount of funding they recieve from Lockheed Martin.
Is naive little NZ developing military and surveillance technology for the US?
I don’t think cube satellites are of much interest to the military. Way too small for serious comms and data use, and way too small for aerial surveillance. The camera lens needs to at least 30 cm is diameter to be of any serious military use. Way too big for a cube sat.
LM will just want Rocket Lab to be in its overall portfolio. After all LM won’t want to be completely reliant on military contracts. For instance the F35 project (largest single military contract in the world) will be complete in 10 years, and that probably accounts for 30% of current LM revenue.
Fireblade that is what concerns me. One thing to notice is that every new finding and invention gets looked at by ‘defence’ to see if they can use it to advantage. And they very likely be funding the tech.
And the othr thing that anything is moral if it makes a profit to these things parading themselves as people. So what if we are dependent for jobs on making butterfly bombs, rocket parts with impregnated mine material into every sq cm. etc?
How come the Opposition is doing all this quizzing of every meeting of some Ministers? It is as if they have taken over the snooping job of those detectives Thomson and Clark? What is the task they should be doing in their role?
3000 questions they asked of just Shane Jones, let alone anyone else, and that was a ploy they signalled early in the term of the new government. I would like to know exactly what the questions were? Clearly by dint of the number of questions there would be “gaps”. Likewise when you see the range of people he spoke to that seemed entirely normal, I doubt the same can be said of opposition “meetings” both during this term and prior.
The more people in NZ meet and talk with genuine intention the better off the country will be in the longterm.
One thing that has been absent other that weasel worded, relentless and empty badgering from the entire opposition party is what they would do to improve NZ and the lives of NZers, prior, within this term by positive example and if they ever, god forbid, got themselves back on the government side of the house without a major shift in dedication and intentions for NZ.
Goldsmith is obsessed with trying to hang something on Shane Jones, it appears to be an obsessive delusional trait with the National Party at present, maybe they have private investigators following all the Government MP’s, National have plenty in their coffers from their Asian Backers ?
Goldsmith appears to be working from the John Key & Crosby Textor Dirty Tricks Handbook ?
I was scratching my head as to what a good/easy issue to practice bipartisanship.
Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
Ongoing, big budget (not one term fiscal responsibility) fairly apolitical.
Who knows what could come of it?
Every human is better when we cooperate.
Jacinda Ardern told NZ this would be the most open transparent government ever, a none too subtle dig at National, so when the present government is less than transparent you think National shouldn’t remind voters of what Jacinda Ardern said
PR We had to learn of some meetings by National with their funders and masters through a fallout between friends.
Don’t come to this forum spouting the current Government is not transparent.
The last National Government was totally hiding meetings and schemes.
That is now being reflected in their shrinking support.
They are trying to build an impression of holding the government to account – severely handicapped by their own cavalier behavior in office. They may fool some of their base by it, but not much more.
Goldsmith is obsessed with trying to hang something on Shane Jones, it appears to be an obsessive delusional trait with the National Party at present, maybe they have private investigators following all the Government MP’s, National have plenty in their coffers from their Asian Backers ?
Goldsmith appears to be working from the John Key & Crosby Textor Dirty Tricks Handbook ?
Clare Curran was an incompetent Minister whose downfall in part brought about by questioning about her ‘meetings’. It might be unpleasant, but it is a legitimate part of opposition.
Am I the only that is slightly cynical and amused that the teachers strikes “just happen” to give both Auckland and Wellington teachers a long weekend?
“The whole weekend was supposed to be a show of western solidarity, and ended up proving its absence. Trump showed himself ill at ease with most of his European counterparts and the fleeting encounter with Putin was a reminder of his much greater affinity for autocrats.
He has claimed warm, even affectionate, relations with Putin, Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, Mohammed bin Salman, Rodrigo Duterte and now Brazil’s president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump may have cut a lonely figure in Paris, but on the world stage, he is less and less isolated.”
Yes. This has been apparent from the outset and is alarming. The man is a god-awful lout and his election symptomatic of a deeply divided and troubled society.
Having said that, there may well be another side to this. In a world now increasingly dominated by dangerously authoritarian figures in places like Russia, China, Saudi, Brazil and so on … the liberal instincts of the west have proven an inadequate response.
It’s possibly worth remembering that just prior to WW2 Churchill was widely regarded with similar disdain by almost the entire educated, leadership class in Britain. They saw him too as an erratic, uncouth man with a patchy record. (The ‘appeasers’ were by no means confined to Chamberlain; if events had transpired just a little differently there is no doubt that Rudolf Hess’s attempt at a peace treaty might well have succeeded.)
Events play strange tricks with us, the leaders we need in peacetime are not necessarily the ones we need in times of trouble. I’m not trying to compare Trump with Churchill directly; but there are some parallels between the two men and their place in history that are worth thinking about.
I do think trump is a manifestation of his society, a consequence and predictable. To me he is dangerous, not just because of his ideas and beliefs but more because of the company he enjoys. He is like them and them ain’t good.
Churchill was the man of the times as was Hitler as is t.rump. The hardest thing for me in some ways is knowing that he is just the beginning and he will be far from the worst as the Empire crumbles little bit by little bit. T.rump is funny in some ways, amongst the carnage – other ones coming won’t be funny.
Yes. If I’m reading you correctly then I agree wholeheartedly. The potential for utter catastrophe is chilling and stalking us daily.
My optimism pivots on this one thing; that for fear of the consequences these leaders of the world will soon agree to set aside some portion of their unconstrained national sovereignty in favour of a wider common good. Events in Paris more than hint at this possibility:
Dozens of leaders, except Mr Trump, gathered in Paris later in the day for a peace forum.
Opening the event, Mrs Merkel said: “Most of the challenges today cannot be solved by one nation alone, but together. That’s why we need a common approach.
“If isolation wasn’t the solution 100 years ago, how can it be today in such an interconnected world?”
With US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin sitting in the nearby audience, Macron said that “old demons are reawakening” and warned against ignoring the past as a lesson to the danger of nationalist sentiments.
Yes there does appear to be attempts to bring people together as per macrons speech. T.rump is diametrically opposed to that and him and his supporters are proud of that. This is their agenda. Thus the delusions perpetuate.
There is a coalescing occurring around very fundamentally different ways of looking at things.
Thanks for posting that marty-superb article. What a nasty prat Trump is.
I think the mid-term results have been poorly reported. The democrats now look like taking 35-36 seats in the House where early results showed more like 25. This is close to the “blue-wave” 40-seat gain they were after. The Democrats won 7 important Governor races.
In Florida the Senate race is now within 0.14 percent where the Republican spent $60 million (NZ$90m) of his own fortune on trying to get elected. The recount will be interesting.
Meanwhile there was a massive increase in young voters. Bodes well for 2020.
“The purpose of my work was never to destroy but always to create, to construct bridges, because we must live in the hope that humankind will draw together and that the better we understand each other the easier this will become.”
Alphonse Mucha
As he was inaugurated for a second term this evening, President Michael D Higgins said “ideas matter” and “history tells us that anti-intellectualism” is the “the weapon of authoritarian and anti-democratic forces in so many parts of our shared, vulnerable planet” .
“Our choice must be to actively extend and deepen democracy, to express it in wider forms and in new ways,” he said.
Not alone was “the very existence of our planet in its bio-diversity threatened but we have not yet slowed the pace of that destruction. We live with ongoing violence against women which must be ended.
“We must confront and challenge any excuses offered for the denial of the irreducible rights, of women who make up, let us not forget, a majority of humanity on this planet. It is important that we recognize the rights and culture of indigenous peoples. It is also important that each person is free to express their sexuality, gender or relationship,” he said.
There should be a set curriculum at all schools in NZ with schools able to add to these, but not to forego important factual stuff we should all know and understand.
And religion should not be taught, it should be part of a philosophy based curricu,um teaching about culture and how values are established.
However, University of Canterbury School of Teacher Education senior lecturer Dr Richard Manning …
Difficulties arose because of “perceived white backlash”. He had encountered history teachers who pushed back on teaching Māori history saying it was “all political correctness”.
> There should be a set curriculum at all schools in NZ with schools able to add to these, but not to forego important factual stuff we should all know and understand.
Sorry dude, schools have taught very little ‘factual stuff’ of any sort for some time.
You have to teach your own kids facts, or hope they pick it up in books.
Well, I don’t think kids learn a lot of facts at primary school, even compared to in my day (the 80s).
This is based on a sample size of 1 (my kid) plus what I hear from others and read in the media.
If you have information to the contrary I would be pleased to hear it.
> Most of the kids these days seem pretty onto it.
I never said they weren’t ‘onto it’! I said they don’t learn a lot of facts at school! It doesn’t actually seem that controversial of a statement. I do not think many modern educators would seriously contend that they try to stuff kids’ heads with facts nowadays.
>Maybe the poor influence on your kids isn’t at school?
You seem like a decent bloke overall, I don’t know why you act like an asshole towards me. Should I just stop trying to engage you in conversation?
To sum up, I think Cleangreen thinks that the Ministry of Education in Wellington sets a list of information (not skills, not competencies, but facts) that kids must learn. I respond that if this was ever the case, it has not been so for decades.
“Onto it” as in knowing stuff. Facts. Their math seems pretty good. Same with basic NZ history and plants and stuff. Most of the sprogs I know love to interrupt discussions with vaguely-relevant crap they picked up somewhere.
Sure, there’s not so much rote learning, but this isn’t a bad thing. And in my day they just hit us if we didn’t remember whatever shit was being taught at the time.
I had a chat to a modern teacher in regards to rote learning vs enquiry learning (not sure what correct terminology is).
This was after watching my son get to a level at maths ok then largely struggle. From about year 8.
I came through with the times table, rote learnt in the 70s.
With that foundation, I found it easy to hold 2or 3 parts of the solution in mind before getting answer.
I don’t think the answer is one or the other but a combo, but we have a habit of throwing out all of the old when we have a new.
One interesting element is the ‘Key Competencies.’ Calls for teacher performance pay usually mention testing kids for how much the kids ‘know’ in subjects and paying teachers accordingly not on how essential competencies have been achieved and to what level.
In front of the world, America has shown everyone what a piss weak president they have. He would not walk a step to honour the American soldiers WWI. Because of rain drops.
In front of the great State of California the same piss weak president has poured out his piss weak insults on the devastated, the dead and dying in the fierce hell fires – fiddling like a mad man with his insipid tweets.
America is at its Weakest. Surely they can rid themselves of the current Whitehouse Fool.
Kia ora The Am Show It is alarming that the Pola Ice Cap’s could be melting faster than previously thought that will raze sea levels by mtr and not just cm there will be stronger storm and Hurricanes smashing the coastal community’s.
.Christina its cool that we are talking about Human Caused Climate Change its about time I have worked out what has happened a BLUE Tsunami thank’s for your word’s Christina.
Kiwi are kind when the telephon 24 hour TV fun razing money for to aid 3 world country’s was running Kiwi donated million’s we were one of the highest for donation’s per capital time’s were much easier in those day’s we had spear money.
That the internet correcting thing’s again the fuel community price app is a cool Idea that will keep the gas company’s honestest may be you could have other consumer good’s and services listed to your app will pump.
With our teachers strike they mone about there work load .
I will give a example of the kicks and work smarter theory its fact actually.
I was part of a organization that milked 5000.00 cow’s twice a day through one 80 bale shed the neighbour and the newbees could not milk 3500 2 80 bale sheds it was a finely run farming group .
Point the teacher have heap’s of tool at there disposal to teach tamariki with the internet at there disposal they just have to look outside of the square to come up with smart efficient teaching solution’s.
Also these strikes will hit the common poor tamariki the most if the parents have to take time off work to care for there tamariki the wealthy will just hire a carer
There is a glut of oil on the market and we have hundred’s of thousands of electric vehicles coming on stream and millions of solar panels wind turbines displacing oil Thanks to China’s manufacturing muscle and people like Mus .
Its good that the Anglican Church is backing the public inquiry into child abuse of
state care tamariki and the Religious groups that cared for tamariki . Ka kite ano P.S no flash video links I need some DIMP for my computer the sandflys keep attacking it
Here is the reason our fuel prices have dropped trump’s tricks have been countered
the world woke up to his moves to inflate oil prices his oil baron supporters net worth went up by billions
Also, the weekly estimates are not as accurate as the monthly figures, which are published on a roughly 2-month lag. As such, they should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the massive increase comes just days after the EIA reported a huge increase in production in the monthly data – at 11.346 mb/d in August, the U.S. oil industry has clearly been producing a lot more than previously thought. That lends some weight to the weekly figures.
Another previously-bullish factor was Iran. With Iran’s oil exports spiraling downwards at the end of the summer and into September, the oil market grew very concerned about adequate global supply and the rapidly dwindling volume of spare capacity. U.S. waivers on countries importing Iranian oil removed that threat. Washington still wants to tighten the screws – and in fact, the sudden bearishness in the market gives the Trump administration more leeway to do just that – but in the near-term, Iran will continue to export.
A third factor is OPEC+ production. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Russia and Libya have all increased production in recent months, offsetting the losses from Iran. Now, the group has a different problem on its hands. A technical committee to the OPEC+ coalition is set to meet this weekend where it will take stock of the oil market. They will also consider options going forward for managing the market, including the potential for a production cut in 2019 to avoid another market downturn. The 180-degree turn – from adding supply just a few months ago to now considering a cut – is a remarkable indicator that demonstrates how quickly the sentiment has turned.
Ka kite ano
Plunging Battery Costs To Trigger Energy Storage Boom YEA YES KA PAI
Bloomberg New Energy Finance has forecast a veritable boom in energy storage installations in the coming years with investments hitting US$1.2 trillion by 2040. Falling battery costs will be the driver behind this boom, with BNEF projecting a 52 percent drop in utility-scale lithium-ion systems by 2030. .
It is a fact that the cost of producing batteries for energy storage is falling. Cost reduction, after all, is a top priority for everyone from EV makers to utilities betting on energy storage as a future source of revenues
But what about energy storage installations’ effect on the grid? That should be all-round positive, except for utilities that generate power from non-renewable sources. They better start preparing because BNEF’s analysts projected energy storage may rise to 7 percent of the world’s total installed power generation capacity by 2040.
In more good news for renewables, while until about 2030 most energy storage installations will be utility-scale from about 2035 behind-the-meter facilities will begin to take over, which means they will probably be affordable by then, and Elon Musk’s concept of a household featuring a solar roof, a household battery pack, and an EV could become a reality not just for billionai Ka kite ano link below . P.S I could build a offgrid solar power system for a small family for $4000 all up .
I decided to wait and see what happened when I first seen reports on China lifting Ban on trade in endangered animal parts
The Chinese government announced on Monday that it would postpone a plan to lift the 25-year ban on the endangered animals, following a storm of international protest.
It’s important to send the strongest message that the value of wild populations of tigers and rhinos and their ecosystems is much greater than the value of their bones and horns. Ka pai China they get the big picture its te tangata its te tangata and we need Papatuanuku and all her creatures to be respected to have a prosperous future for all.
Link below ka kite ano
We need to protect OUR worlds forest and start planting billions of trees for our future
decedents to have a good life .There are many cases in OUR History that show’s a complete collapse of the environment and the society all because we did not respect mother nature .
The UK, France and Germany have called on the European commission to launch tough new action to halt deforestation by the end of the year.
A long-delayed EU action plan should be brought forward “as soon as possible”, says a letter to the commission sent by the Amsterdam Declaration group of countries, which also includes Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.
To help meet a UN goal of halting deforestation by 2020, the EU should show “a leadership role, mobilising its political and market leverage, and promoting broader international dialogue and cooperation”, the letter says.
Link below ka kite ano
Its people like Stan Lee who have provided us with fantastic comic books he has ignited
the imagination of billions of people and a lot have gone on to become the worlds greatest inventors condolences to his whano/family he will be missed he is in a higher place now
Stan Lee: Spider-Man, X-Men and Avengers creator dies aged 95
Born Stanley Martin Lieber on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 1922, Lee’s childhood was marked by the Great Depression. In his 2002 autobiography Excelsior!, Lee described how his father’s struggle to find a steady job had forever affected him: “It’s a feeling that the most important thing for a man to do is to have work to do, to be busy, to be needed,” he wrote.
At 17, Lee landed a job at a publishing company owned by his relative Martin Goodman, and began writing scripts for superhero and mystery comics. When Goodman fell out with his editor in 1941, Lee found himself editor-in-chief at just 19.
Link below ka kite ano. P.S my eldest grandson has a flash suit
Our Pacific cousins have a positive influence on Aotearoa society culturally and financially
“The [NZ Pacific Economy] report reveals Pacific peoples are contributing significantly to the economy despite some of the poor health, housing, education and employment outcomes experienced by many in their communities,” Robertson said.
Pasifika families and businesses are big contributors to NZ economy: Finance Minister Assets from about 1500 Pacific business employers and almost 500 not-for-profit organisations totalled up to $8.3b and, from those assets, the total value added was thought to be $3.1b annually. Ka kite ano link below.
ASB has joined the fray in the latest round of mortgage rate wars – dropping its one year fixed rate to match the record low 3.95 per cent offered by ANZ.
Its good to see ANZ bank start to the one year fixed interest rate drop that’s cool.
But I will still be after one of there board members /shonky but if you can save money go for it put all the saving on the mortgage .The low rate specials offered by ANZ, BNZ and Westpac are only available to home owners with a deposit or 20 per cent equity stake in their homes.
Its a buyers market now and about time thanks to the moves of our new Coalition Government. ka kite ano P.S we have other’s banks competing for your custom and the interest rate battle begins link below.
Kia ora Te Kaea I have to use my phone to get the post out the sandflys are attaking my other computer.
It will be a good trip for our Prime minister meeting all the heads of states talking about the Pacific relations and Climate change impacts on the Pacific and Aotearoa.
It been good seeing Te IWIs helping there tangata into housing that’s the best way to escape the poverty trap a lot of our tangata fall into.
Son of Zion are a cool banned music is good for te Wairua.
It would be nice if our government did advocate for Indigenous people consern.s at the gathering of our world leaders.
Ka kite ano P.S I will get some dimp tomorrow
Kia ora Newshub Paddy Andrew is letting the people go into the Pike River mine that will be of great relief for Berne and the family of all the people who have lost love ones in the mine.
Kate I have a post early on for the Great Comic writing legend Stan Lee.
Those fires in Northern Calafornia is a great desaster condolences to the people who have lost.
I say that the Shane Jones NZFirst billion tree program has had a minor hick up its what could happened to anyone when you have Papatuanukue and Tawhirirmate one can not pradict the weather.
It looks like they had a good day at the Addington race way in Christchurch Ra is shining to.
That’s what I wanted Sukieanne get her houners taken away for the atrocities that her government is doing to those poor people in Mayna.
We get half our meat from my sons they buy a beef so I dive into their freezers.
I do like my veggies to but I have to have some meat unprocessed we don’t eat as much meat as we used to.
That must have been a shock to SUE she is doing a fine job the new Auckland Prison told her that she needs to have a photo ID and finger print to she helps people who are having proroale problems we have seen a lot of people can’t get prole no fix abode if they can’t read a write
. Plastic water bottles leaching toxins well. I say know one has tested them for the effects on the fetus and the long term effects on anmials humans one to.
Ka kite ano P.S mind the spelling sandflys muppets
Some people try and play ECO MAORI they get the benefit of doubt they believe the lies the sandflys are spinning about ECO MAORI to them they get one chance.
I should listen to my instinct it’s always correct Ana to kai
The Crowd goes Wild Mulls and James.
Manu and Butterbean fight will be interesting. Monty ECO a South paw.
Mulls you lost weight can you still shuffle my moko is good at the shuffle they get their groove from the Wife my children give me shit when I have enough cups of tea to start to fluffel LOL.
The Addington races NZ trotting Cup was Winston there.
Butterbean has to get the message out drop the sugar us Pacific Islanders body’s are to effect at storing fat and sugar stuff up our health.
Ka kite ano P.S that’s the way guys support the Bowls teams and Showing heaps of Wahine Sports Stars on The Crowd goes Wild
Good morning The AM Show Azzes is having fun at the AMP Show.
There you go Winston Peters and Andrew Little The Coalition Government has helped the Pike River family to find the truth about the explosion.
This all happened because shonky made a unwise bet on COAL/Carbon. I have story that links shonky to Aotearoa losing 1 billion dollars of assets will tell when the time is right.
The road accidents =not enough investment in roads and a xtra 1 million people and cars = more accidents.
Lloyd the britexit I say it’s a can of worms they wish they never opened.
Robots are the future and AI Is a big threat to human kind and the World take it seriously one just. To see how the sandflys are behaveing with the technology tools help you to understand part of my concern of Artifical Intelligents every single thing we do will have computers integrated into it and if one App has that power we’ll people who make movies about this subject are warming US.
IF a person like trump gets the power of total control that AI can have we are in the SHIT.
It will be cool if Israel gets a title fight at the UFC.
There you go Berne Monk you want justice and accountability shonky was covering up the big mistake they made with the health and safety prosses at Pike River mine. Because the familys of the people who died are common people it’s worth the massive effort yous have put into getting justice a big WIN for the common tangata.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora The AM Show. The Pike River scandle is just one issue from shonky
The Britexit don’t count your chickens May I have read that Nigal Farr has been linked to the Muler Russian investorgation I smelt that far right money all over his actions.
I East Asia summit Tova I bet Mike Pence wanted to talk about more issues that the dumb trade tariff.??????????
It has been the reward of a lot of people’s hard work that has paid off with the Mountain Grilla coming of the most endangered list.
The Black Ferns are getting heaps of game time and coverage on TV
Ka kite ano. P.S flip flop
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...
It looks like the government has won over the public on its vehicle feebate scheme:A feebate scheme that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from buyers of higher-emission cars into the pockets of people buying EVs and other more fuel-efficient vehicles has been winning favour with submitters, the Government ...
When people suggest lowering the voting age, others argue that the young are too uneducated or silly to exercise the duties of citizenship. Australian John Quiggin has just blown that argument out of the water:Looking at the array of ignorant and vindictive old men attacking Greta Thunberg and other young ...
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...
Back in May, Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki launched another political party. Despite consisting entirely of followers of their religion, they grandly called it "Coalition New Zealand", in a vain effort to suggest it was something broader. But when they applied for registration, submitters opposed the name, as ...
The following article is excerpted and translated from two articles in recent issues of Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the revolutionary workers group active in France. We don’t necessarily agree with everything in it – for instance, the 1956-62 war for independence involved rather more revolutionary forces than ...
The Pacific is on the front line of climate change, and if we don't cut emissions quickly, some countries are literally going to be underwater. Because of this, small Pacific states had tried to use this week's Pacific Islands Forum meeting to get Pacific countries to agree to ending coal ...
To Limit Another's Rights Is To Limit One's Own: Is it too much to expect senior members of our Government to be capable of explaining that we protect the rights of human-beings precisely because not even the most depraved act can cancel-out the fact that its perpetrator is also a ...
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...
This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Rural communities are wailing about forestry conversions "taking land out of production" and putting it into locking up carbon. Its driven purely by economics: there's more money and lower costs in carbon than in sheep or beef, and if carbon prices rise, there'll be more net money than dairy even. ...
This week, the government introduced its (underwhelming) Abortion Legislation Bill. And despite having negotiated the text of the bill through the coalition process, Winston Peters is now suggesting that he will demand a referendum on it:NZ First leader Winston Peters has hinted that his party may only support the Government's ...
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...
Last night the police dramatically incresed their numbers at Ihumātao, shoving over protestors and threatening them with arrest. Despite police talk about the need to maintain "public order" and prevent a "breach of the peace", there appeared to be absolutely no justification for this: the protest camp is, was, and ...
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...
Today's abortion reform announcement is just the latest in a long line of disappointing decisions or outright failures from the Labour government. The 90-day law. KiwiBuild. A capital gains tax. Climate change. Every time they make one of those decisions, we hope for better next time. No repeal of the ...
The Greens used their party conference over the weekend to push for a rent-to-own scheme, where people would be able to work towards home ownership by renting from the government. Its a sensible policy, and one which could make a real difference to home ownership rates. But its also basicly ...
by Daphna Whitmore Over the past fortnight, thousands of people have come to the Ihumātao land protest in South Auckland. On 23 July police prepared to evict a few dozen people who had maintained the encampment at Ihumātao for the past three years. As hundreds of supporters arrived the ...
The following article is translated from an article in Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of the French revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle). The United States’ blacklisting of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, which took shape in Google’s ban on Huawei using its systems on its phones, marks a ...
There is a military phrase: “Full spectrum dominance”. It refers to the all-encompassing policy to dominate across all spheres of war. Lately, that has come to include the internet – in other words, cyberwarfare initiatives. That is in addition to land, sea, air and the like. Now, if ...
The IMF issued a Report on the state of the Economy as it is at present. Some of it points out significant issues that certainly warrant attention, but that we know already exist. Some of it is very much tied to the very obvious context of global concerns, that everyone ...
I'm glad to see the Lib Dems won.I had a moment of terror yesterday thinking that the Conservatives might cling on, due to a combination of Johnson's elevation to the premiership, the apparent uselessness of the Lib Dem candidate (who had failed to be elected in other constituencies) and the ...
. . Current Leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges gave the usual rah-rah speech to the Loyal & Faithful in Christchurch today (27 July). With National’s party polling and his own personal popularity sliding steadily in the polls, Mr Bridges has not much left to reverse his fortunes. ...
Those concerned for Langridge’s wellbeing say they hope he’ll change his mind when he sees the ocean coming. The protester who has vowed to stand outside Parliament every day until the Government announces a climate emergency says he accepts that his quest will most likely end in drowning. Ollie Langridge, ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the report of the Small Business Council will help maintain the momentum for innovation and improvements in the sector. Mr Nash has thanked the members of the Small Business Council (SBC) who this week handed over their report, Empowering small businesses to aspire, succeed ...
Extra Police officers are being deployed from Northland to Southland with the graduation of a new wing of recruits from the Royal New Zealand Police College. “The graduation of 78 constables today means that 1524 new constables have been deployed since the government took office,” says Police Minister Stuart Nash. ...
Ongoing drug-test sanctions contradicts Government’s rhetoric on drugs Reports that two-thirds of beneficiaries who fail drug tests are still having their benefit sanctioned contradicts the Government’s so-called health approach to drugs. Auckland ...
An Auckland Homelessness Collective is optimistic extra government support for sustaining tenancies signals a commitment to a multi-pronged approach to tackling homelessness. ...
Wanaka-based trust ONE New Zealand will be hosting six days of talks, workshops and hands-on activities with local and national experts to educate, inspire and enable grassroots action towards a sustainable future. ...
In last week’s episode of Politics in Full Sentences, David, Brooke and Ruwan discussed why Jacinda Ardern has been lecturing our friends overseas, why Andrew Little called ACT's three strikes law “fascism”, whether he will give prisoners the right to ...
“Community safety must be the paramount consideration when releasing an offender, and the only way for that to be achieved is for the offender to acknowledge their crimes.” ...
“District Health Boards are failing to foster a culture of distributed clinical leadership, despite its demonstrated benefits to the sector,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
Ratepayers around Auckland were spitting out their morning coffees listening to Phil Goff’s incredible claims on breakfast radio today that this election is about ‘honesty’ and that Aucklanders can trust him on his promises. Auckland Ratepayers’ ...
The Hōkai Rangi plan for reducing Māori reoffending announced today fails to fulfil the Waitangi Tribunal’s recommendations, says justice organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. Minister Kelvin Davis announced the plan this morning, which aims ...
Waatea News at the invitation of the North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency will exclusively broadcast the next Māori-led Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki starting today at 1pm. ...
Staff at the Ministry of Social Development say they are enthusiastic about the government’s $54 million investment in housing the homeless, with many describing it as a welcome change. ...
Today posters have gone up outside ANZ branches across New Zealand to expose ANZ’s sponsorship of an exclusive oil industry group, ‘The Petroleum Club’. The satirical posters play on ANZ’s recent ad campaigns, replacing the banks’ tagline ‘healthy ...
Imagine a country where children look forward to walking or cycling to school, parents arrive home safely, and the journeys we take for work or pleasure do more than leave us alive or uninjured, they also improve our lives. This is happening now in countries ...
Sunday, 18 August, 2019 - Environmental groups and well known New Zealanders are preparing to deliver a 55,000 strong petition to the steps of Parliament tomorrow, calling on the Government to protect the world’s smallest dolphin. ...
The Government’s proposed rescue plan must be strengthened because it is the last chance to save Māui dolphins from extinction and secure the future for Hector’s dolphins, Forest & Bird says. ...
Simon Shepherd: Roads, schools, hospitals, prisons, the building blocks that keep society functioning. And we don't have enough. It's called the infrastructure deficit and will be the focus of a major conference this coming week. The man charged with ...
New Zealand has been issued a stark challenge from Pacific leaders to dramatically upscale its action to address climate breakdown, Oxfam says, after a clear rallying cry from nations at this week’s Pacific Islands Forum. ...
Support for Recreational Dope Going ‘Up in Smoke’ Family First NZ is welcoming yet another poll showing plummeting support for legalising cannabis in New Zealand. The Horizon Research poll shows support for legalising has plummeted from 60% last ...
The prospect of ending wider cannabis prohibition looks increasingly unlikely. Over the last nine months, the percentage of New Zealanders who would vote for legalising the personal use of cannabis has declined at a near linear rate of around 10% per ...
“It’s disappointing that news out of the United States of hospitalisations linked to illegal street drugs is somehow seen as relevant to the New Zealand vaping scene,” says Ben Pryor, Director of Alt New Zealand – the largest Kiwi-owned vaping company. ...
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) welcomes the successful passing of Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill through parliament, by the New Zealand Government. ...
Today’s news from the Electoral Commission has provided the party with the clarity it was seeking around use of the word “Coalition” being used as the brand name of the party. ...
A recently released Otago University study has provided further evidence that low-quality housing is a significant problem in Aotearoa. This has prompted the Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACENZ) Paul Evans to question “why ...
With the BNZ-Business NZ PMI signaling manufacturing is contracting , the Government needs to seriously consider tax relief, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called for an overhaul of the Public Services executive ranks as the Corrections debacle shows mis-management and incompetence at the highest level. Matthew Tukaki, Executive Director of the New Zealand Maori Council has said ...
Findings from the 2018 New Zealand Consumer Survey have been released and the results are in; 48 per cent of respondents consider their purchases based on how ethically employees are treated. ...
The responsibility for the fact that Westland Milk Products is now in the hands of an overseas conglomerate 25% owned by the Chinese government can be laid fair and square at our government's doorstep. ...
As Fonterra is projecting multi million dollar losses for the second year in a row, it is clear the writing is on the wall for dairy as more and more Kiwis turn to plant milks. 22nd August is International Plant Milk Day and there is now a different plant ...
The $65,000 granted to Interislander so it can install electric vehicle chargers on its ferries is the most absurd waste of money yet to be delivered by the “Low Emissions” vehicle fund, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
Wellingtonians will have the chance to hear international child rights experts from Ireland, Scotland and Samoa speak at the Making Child Rights Real in Aotearoa New Zealand seminar to be held in the city on Wednesday 21 August. ...
Paul Evans, Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACENZ), is advocating a balanced approach to the development of productive land. ...
CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group) says that new research from the University of Otago provides a solid foundation for why the Government must not delay instating a comprehensive Warrant of Fitness for tenanted homes in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer drove carelessly during a pursuit and that this was the primary cause of a collision with a motorcycle that injured the rider. ...
Responding to the Prime Minister’s commitment of $150 million in funding for climate change response in the Pacific, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “It is no secret that many Pacific nations lack serious oversight when it ...
AUT research not only shows an increase in political affiliation, but that candidates affiliated to a central political party are more likely to win seats in Auckland local government. ...
On the 23rd of August School Strike NZ will join Ollie Langridge in his 100th day of sitting outside of New Zealand Parliament calling for the government to declare a climate emergency. School Strike 4 Climate NZ also demand that Parliament acknowledge ...
You have stood up for what is fair, and I am sure you will speak for over 7 million people who have been muted and rendered voiceless in Indian occupied Kashmir for more than a 10 days now. I am writing to bring to your notice the plight of Kashmiri ...
In the last 10 months alone, 11 petitions have been delivered to Parliament calling for medicines to be funded by Pharmac. Today, another nine petitions have been launched by Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA) members asking that life changing, saving and extending ...
When we were first working to get Miscanthus approved for import into New Zealand, the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) waived the fee for their work because they thought that having Miscanthus in New Zealand was so very much in the ...
PHARMAC’s recent decision to fund two additional drugs from December this year has been widely welcomed by patients and the general public alike. The drugs, Kadcyla and Ibrance, are used in the treatment of advanced lung and breast cancers and will ...
Animal rights organisation SAFE is urging the Government to include experts and advocates from outside the agriculture industry on its newly announced winter crop grazing taskforce. ...
The Government’s plans to prohibit housing on ‘productive’ farmland will serve as yet another regulatory tax on housing, and is a shameful breach of Jacinda Ardern’s promise to fix housing supply, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . ...
The latest round of the Ethnic Communities Development Fund opens today, supporting projects that grow the leadership and capability of ethnic groups, improve cultural understanding, and ensure our ethnic communities are a vibrant and celebrated part ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is warning of the dangers of hiking excise tax, in response to calls from a former Prime Minister for stronger action on alcohol harm. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It seems inevitable ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Rioting broke out in Manokwari, West Papua, today as local people – mostly university students – protested against racial abuse of Papuan students in East Java, reports TheJakarta Post. The protesters blocked a number of major streets in the city this morning, cutting down ...
By Ben Bilua in Suva Multimedia skills and innovation are key to adapting to the changing media landscape, said US academic Professor Debora Wenger as newsmakers around the world continue to grapple with challenges arising from the transformation of technology and social media. Speaking to journalists at a regional ...
The new RBNZ seems to crave the limelight and be known for advocacy of new causes, and that has not impressed macroeconomics professor Robert MacCulloch. ...
The new joint from the team behind one of Wellington’s favourite craft beer bars is dedicated to minimal-intervention, organic wine – and more exciting things are coming to the heritage building it’s housed in.Before the Cadbury factory opened in Dunedin in 1930, New Zealanders ate Cadbury chocolate made in England. ...
Alex Casey chats to Bree Tomasel about hosting Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, farting in the ZM studio and going viral on the regular. The most important thing you need to know about Bree Tomasel is not the fact that she peed her pants during Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, but the glee ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsAnalysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The election race is on. The nominations process for local government positions has now closed, and the political campaign is officially underway. But does the public care? Will many of us even vote for any of the various mayoral or council ...
At Eden Park on Saturday night, the Wallabies were on the receiving end of a ruthless players’ revenge, writes Scotty StevensonThe rain came. It always seems to at Eden Park, just as the Wallabies warm up on the pitch, dreaming of ending a drought. It came from the west, the ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Local government Michael Fallow (Stuff): Your council – what’s its job description? Dileepa Fonseka and ...
Protesters occupying land at Ihumātao will begin a four-hour hikoi to Mt Albert on Thursday to present a petition calling on the Prime Minister to visit the land. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Walvisch, Lecturer, Monash University This morning an Extinction Rebellion protester was arrested after hanging from a rope over the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane, blocking all lanes to peak hour traffic. And earlier this month in Brisbane, more than 70 climate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Jobson, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Monash University Many of us enjoy writing in a diary, reading autobiographies or nostalgically reflecting with others about past times. Why is remembering our past so important? Are there downsides? And what can we do ...
Roll Red Roll is a brutal, painfully illuminating documentary on the Steubenville High School rape case, a shocking crime that made headlines worldwide. Emily Writes reviews. This review discusses rape and sexual violenceAugust 11, 2012: two teenage boys rape an unconscious teenage girl as two of their peers watch and ...
By RNZ Pacific Tuvalu’s Prime Minister has condemned the Australian Prime Minister’s conduct at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum, calling Scott Morrison’s attitude “unfortunate” and “neo-colonial,” and questioning Australia’s future in the 18-member body. In an interview with RNZ on Sunday, Enele Sopoaga also threatened to pull Tuvaluan labour from ...
The second hui of the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki takes place in Hamilton today. Newsroom, in partnership with Radio Waatea, are broadcasting it live from 1pm. ...
Prolific, award-winning Palmerston North poet Paula Harris somehow manages to be stroppy and properly vulnerable all at once. Here, she writes about her first slam competition – and why she cried all the way home. I am old enough to have given birth to most of the people here.Sure, there’s a ...
High speed rail links between cities could play a massive role in revitalising regional New Zealand, says a visiting transport infrastructure expert. Professor Andrew McNaughton spoke to Alex Braae. Imagine commuting from Hamilton to Auckland, and it only taking an hour to get there. It’s a vision of how the right ...
On the good days, riding a bike is the best. But in Auckland there aren’t nearly enough of those days, and unless decision makers take urgent action, that’s not going to change.This piece originally appeared on Bike AucklandMy first bike crash in central Auckland happened on Symonds Street. I was ...
It's not since 1989 that a mayoralty campaign in the southern city has been so unpredictable - a record 14 candidates have put their names forward. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Mills, Hon Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney On the morning of the last Monday in April, 2019, federal election officials opened the doors of more than 500 pre-poll voting centres around Australia, and waited for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Veronica Alfano, Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University Memorising poetry was once common in classrooms. But it has, for the most part, gone out of style. There are good reasons for this. Memorisation can clash with creativity and analytical thought. Rote learning can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Paul Fisher, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University What do J.J. Abrams, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Shonda Rhimes, David Lynch, Aaron Sorkin, Donald Glover, Jenji Kohan, Jordan Peele, Tina Fey, and Joss Whedon have in common? They ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Mayors launch bids to return in Auckland and Wellington, Hamilton’s skyline could change significantly, and support for cannabis legalisation plummets in poll.Two incumbent mayors have launched their re-election campaigns over the weekend, with a bigger fight on their hands than ...
MediaWorks has been lobbying the Government to turn TVNZ 1 into a non-commercial channel to help stem its own financial bleeding. Frustrated, and getting nowhere, it’s decided to change tack. ...
Customs has cracked down on a GST rort, leaving Trade Me to pay back thousands of dollars to customers who had new cameras and smartphones seized at the border. ...
The 37-8 result meant the Black Ferns finished with a handy 5-1 record for the year, suggesting they are tracking well enough towards a successful defence of the 2021 World Cup. ...
New Zealand has long been the world’s imagined lifeboat – and increasingly for something more than just escape, writes Elle Hunt.One Friday morning in January 1847, Charles Dickens wrote to his friend John Forster that he was “disposed to go to New Zealand and start a magazine”. The quote was ...
New Zealand is one of only two developed countries, along with the US, that permits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, and it needs to stop, writes Dr David Menkes. It’s been a long time coming: a new Consumer report makes it clear that most New Zealanders want to see a ban ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison has a sharp lecture for bureaucrats about their KPIs, in a comprehensive speech laying down how he expects the Australian Public Service to operate under his government. Morrison stresses the service must be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has issued a timetable for the government’s dealing with the recommendations from the royal commission into banking, superannuation and financial services, which aims to have all measures needing legislation introduced by the ...
By Ghinan Salman in Surabaya As many as 43 Papuan students were taken to the district police headquarters after Indonesian police fired teargas and forced their way into a student dormitory in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya at the weekend. The Papuan students were forcibly removed from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute Each new generation of Australians since Federation has enjoyed a better standard of living than the one that came before it. Until now. Today’s young Australians are in danger of falling behind. A new Grattan Institute ...
Jamie Wall reviews Jonah, the two-part Three telefeature that follows the life of our most famous All Black, and finds it an effective but mixed retelling of the legend.Honestly, it’s a wee bit disappointing that the only notable on-screen dramatisation of the All Blacks in recent years was centred on replacement ...
Open Mike 12/11/2018 
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...9 hours ago
Last week, Australia sabotaged the Pacific Forum by opposing action on climate change. Their Deputy Prime Minister followed that up by saying that Pacific Peoples could always pick Australian fruit - just as they had done in the era of blackbirding. And now, that arrogant, tone-deaf approach has drawn a ...9 hours ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...1 day ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...2 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...3 days ago
4 days ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...4 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...5 days ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...5 days ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...5 days ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...5 days ago
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...6 days ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...6 days ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 6 days ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...7 days ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...1 week ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...1 week ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...1 week ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...2 weeks ago
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...2 weeks ago
There is a military phrase: “Full spectrum dominance”. It refers to the all-encompassing policy to dominate across all spheres of war. Lately, that has come to include the internet – in other words, cyberwarfare initiatives. That is in addition to land, sea, air and the like. Now, if ...2 weeks ago
The IMF issued a Report on the state of the Economy as it is at present. Some of it points out significant issues that certainly warrant attention, but that we know already exist. Some of it is very much tied to the very obvious context of global concerns, that everyone ...2 weeks ago
I'm glad to see the Lib Dems won.I had a moment of terror yesterday thinking that the Conservatives might cling on, due to a combination of Johnson's elevation to the premiership, the apparent uselessness of the Lib Dem candidate (who had failed to be elected in other constituencies) and the ...2 weeks ago
. . Current Leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges gave the usual rah-rah speech to the Loyal & Faithful in Christchurch today (27 July). With National’s party polling and his own personal popularity sliding steadily in the polls, Mr Bridges has not much left to reverse his fortunes. ...2 weeks ago
Those concerned for Langridge’s wellbeing say they hope he’ll change his mind when he sees the ocean coming. The protester who has vowed to stand outside Parliament every day until the Government announces a climate emergency says he accepts that his quest will most likely end in drowning. Ollie Langridge, ...2 weeks ago
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...2 weeks ago
Ongoing drug-test sanctions contradicts Government’s rhetoric on drugs Reports that two-thirds of beneficiaries who fail drug tests are still having their benefit sanctioned contradicts the Government’s so-called health approach to drugs. Auckland ...5 hours ago
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Rioting broke out in Manokwari, West Papua, today as local people – mostly university students – protested against racial abuse of Papuan students in East Java, reports The Jakarta Post. The protesters blocked a number of major streets in the city this morning, cutting down ...23 mins ago
By Ben Bilua in Suva Multimedia skills and innovation are key to adapting to the changing media landscape, said US academic Professor Debora Wenger as newsmakers around the world continue to grapple with challenges arising from the transformation of technology and social media. Speaking to journalists at a regional ...2 hours ago
The new RBNZ seems to crave the limelight and be known for advocacy of new causes, and that has not impressed macroeconomics professor Robert MacCulloch. ...3 hours ago
Pharmac’s model and budget is under intense scrutiny, as the Government prepares to announce its interim cancer action plan. ...4 hours ago
After alleged Christchurch terrorist wrote to a supporter, Jacinda Ardern says our laws may need an update for the digital age. ...5 hours ago
The Commerce Commission's first market study will wade into the complex fuel market - here's what you need to know. ...7 hours ago
The new joint from the team behind one of Wellington’s favourite craft beer bars is dedicated to minimal-intervention, organic wine – and more exciting things are coming to the heritage building it’s housed in.Before the Cadbury factory opened in Dunedin in 1930, New Zealanders ate Cadbury chocolate made in England. ...7 hours ago
A new five-year strategy comes with a new prison population reduction target from the minister. ...8 hours ago
Alex Casey chats to Bree Tomasel about hosting Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, farting in the ZM studio and going viral on the regular. The most important thing you need to know about Bree Tomasel is not the fact that she peed her pants during Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, but the glee ...8 hours ago
The way things are going, Germany may soon be 'the sick man of Europe' again. ...9 hours ago
9 hours ago
At Eden Park on Saturday night, the Wallabies were on the receiving end of a ruthless players’ revenge, writes Scotty StevensonThe rain came. It always seems to at Eden Park, just as the Wallabies warm up on the pitch, dreaming of ending a drought. It came from the west, the ...9 hours ago
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
Protesters occupying land at Ihumātao will begin a four-hour hikoi to Mt Albert on Thursday to present a petition calling on the Prime Minister to visit the land. ...9 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Walvisch, Lecturer, Monash University This morning an Extinction Rebellion protester was arrested after hanging from a rope over the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane, blocking all lanes to peak hour traffic. And earlier this month in Brisbane, more than 70 climate ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Jobson, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Monash University Many of us enjoy writing in a diary, reading autobiographies or nostalgically reflecting with others about past times. Why is remembering our past so important? Are there downsides? And what can we do ...10 hours ago
Roll Red Roll is a brutal, painfully illuminating documentary on the Steubenville High School rape case, a shocking crime that made headlines worldwide. Emily Writes reviews. This review discusses rape and sexual violenceAugust 11, 2012: two teenage boys rape an unconscious teenage girl as two of their peers watch and ...10 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific Tuvalu’s Prime Minister has condemned the Australian Prime Minister’s conduct at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum, calling Scott Morrison’s attitude “unfortunate” and “neo-colonial,” and questioning Australia’s future in the 18-member body. In an interview with RNZ on Sunday, Enele Sopoaga also threatened to pull Tuvaluan labour from ...10 hours ago
New Zealand's economy is not headed for recession, ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley says. ...12 hours ago
The second hui of the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki takes place in Hamilton today. Newsroom, in partnership with Radio Waatea, are broadcasting it live from 1pm. ...12 hours ago
We continue our series on bookstores around New Zealand as Wilma van den Bosch explains how she opened Petronella's in Lake Tekapo. ...12 hours ago
Prolific, award-winning Palmerston North poet Paula Harris somehow manages to be stroppy and properly vulnerable all at once. Here, she writes about her first slam competition – and why she cried all the way home. I am old enough to have given birth to most of the people here.Sure, there’s a ...12 hours ago
The country's wood processors say the international log price war and protected overseas economies are crippling the New Zealand trade. ...13 hours ago
On the good days, riding a bike is the best. But in Auckland there aren’t nearly enough of those days, and unless decision makers take urgent action, that’s not going to change.This piece originally appeared on Bike AucklandMy first bike crash in central Auckland happened on Symonds Street. I was ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Mills, Hon Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney On the morning of the last Monday in April, 2019, federal election officials opened the doors of more than 500 pre-poll voting centres around Australia, and waited for ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Hart, Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne Last week, federal health minister Greg Hunt announced that more than 60,000 Australians will be asked about their mental health and well-being as part of the Intergenerational Health and Mental Health Study. The mental ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Veronica Alfano, Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University Memorising poetry was once common in classrooms. But it has, for the most part, gone out of style. There are good reasons for this. Memorisation can clash with creativity and analytical thought. Rote learning can ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Paul Fisher, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University What do J.J. Abrams, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Shonda Rhimes, David Lynch, Aaron Sorkin, Donald Glover, Jenji Kohan, Jordan Peele, Tina Fey, and Joss Whedon have in common? They ...16 hours ago
The inverted yield curve is to economists what Voldemort was to Harry Potter - the dark lord whose name should never be mentioned. ...17 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Mayors launch bids to return in Auckland and Wellington, Hamilton’s skyline could change significantly, and support for cannabis legalisation plummets in poll.Two incumbent mayors have launched their re-election campaigns over the weekend, with a bigger fight on their hands than ...18 hours ago
MediaWorks has been lobbying the Government to turn TVNZ 1 into a non-commercial channel to help stem its own financial bleeding. Frustrated, and getting nowhere, it’s decided to change tack. ...19 hours ago
The Wallabies arrived in Auckland with one hand on the Bledisloe Cup and flew home with it amputated. ...19 hours ago
Customs has cracked down on a GST rort, leaving Trade Me to pay back thousands of dollars to customers who had new cameras and smartphones seized at the border. ...19 hours ago
The 37-8 result meant the Black Ferns finished with a handy 5-1 record for the year, suggesting they are tracking well enough towards a successful defence of the 2021 World Cup. ...19 hours ago
Nikki Mandow tells us why social procurement is more exciting than it sounds - and how it might change the world. ...19 hours ago
New Zealand is one of only two developed countries, along with the US, that permits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, and it needs to stop, writes Dr David Menkes. It’s been a long time coming: a new Consumer report makes it clear that most New Zealanders want to see a ban ...20 hours ago
A look at how our banks behave when the rules aren't tough enough. ...20 hours ago
By Ghinan Salman in Surabaya As many as 43 Papuan students were taken to the district police headquarters after Indonesian police fired teargas and forced their way into a student dormitory in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya at the weekend. The Papuan students were forcibly removed from ...1 day ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute Each new generation of Australians since Federation has enjoyed a better standard of living than the one that came before it. Until now. Today’s young Australians are in danger of falling behind. A new Grattan Institute ...1 day ago
Jamie Wall reviews Jonah, the two-part Three telefeature that follows the life of our most famous All Black, and finds it an effective but mixed retelling of the legend.Honestly, it’s a wee bit disappointing that the only notable on-screen dramatisation of the All Blacks in recent years was centred on replacement ...1 day ago
John Wight
“Tony Blair’s presence in front of the Cenotaph is grotesque. It’s like having an arsonist attending the funeral of the victims of his fire starting. One million Iraqis dead, ME plunged into the abyss, Blair is a war criminal. ”
George Galloway.
“There is no Poppy large enough, no overcoat thick enough to hide the black evil hearts of the War Criminals amongst whom Corbyn was forced to linger in London this morning.”
Rachel Stewart
“’ll use Twitter sparingly from now on, and only for either my latest column or when I’ve something I really want to say. Real life awaits. Given the planetary state of things, we’d all likely do better by spending more time with family, friends, animals & nature. Peace out.”
Some could infer that the govt has now moved regarding the teachers, to engaging in the PR war with the voter, placing a wedge between the teachers and the public. The phrasing of the $9,500 is of interest as it grosses 3 annual rises of 3% into 1, and has been used to destroy favourable public opinion towards teachers. That is something you could think another govt would use, the tactic shouldn’t employed by Labour 🤔
Hipkins said the proposed pay rise exceeded that of many other professions.
“I think that a $9500 pay rise is a pay rise that many other New Zealanders would certainly appreciate.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12158332
Hopkins is just another neoliberal politician.
He is no socialist.
He does not represent the working class.
He is not Labour.
Who is Hopkins?
Hipkins!
A member of the elite.
Of course Hipkins is Labour Ed. Labour is a neoliberal party which seems to hope people will eventually forget that they unleashed neoliberalism in NZ and have never said sorry.
Hipkins is right at home.
So that will solve the shortage!!!!
Yea Right
I can’t see how there can be a teacher shortage, we train thousands of new teachers every year.
Where do they all go? do they all have teaching jobs?
Didn’t you see the part where most new Teachers leave in the first few years, due to crippling workloads, unrealistic expectations from their employers, micro-management and the stultifying effect of Nationals dumbing down of education.
Before you even get into pay, about half of the earnings of a tradesman, or other equivalently educated, skilled trade. I.E. Lawyers, dentists and real estate agents.
The right wing say we should pay millions to managers and directors to ensure competence. Teachers are supposed to do it for love.
I know. I was one of them. I didn’t expect to earn the same as my real job, but I expected to earn enough to live on reasonably, and to go to the scale they told me I would be on, before I retrained for Teaching.
But hasn’t that all been changed under this Government ? There should be a massive increase in people wanting to train as teachers now.
Nope. Labour are still holding on to the delusional tradition that a new government doesn’t change the policies set by the previous government.
And the reality is that it’s going to take time to recognise the damage that the right-wing policies are doing and then fix them.
Not sure how big an issue it is, but I have heard in interviews and the mighty talk back radio, that one of the issues new teachers have is their obvious lack of experience.
Some schools being hesitant to hire too many newbies.
As I say, not sure how prevalent it is, as a lot of it seemed to be anecdotal
That’s across a lot of hiring practices – demanding two years experience. It makes things very hard for people who qualify in NZ because the job market is neither large nor extensive. Getting a job near one’s family and friends or your partner’s workplace is hard enough without such nonsense. Teachers used to have some protection in the first two years though – not sure if it’s still there.
A major problem is the requirement for continued training for the first two years. The Beginning Teacher had to be under a suitable Senior Teacher for two years as part of certification. That senior person was meant to broaden the junior teacher’s curriculum and classroom management strategies.
Many schools were caused headaches by Boards of Trustees failing to keep a balance of staff, through choosing younger staff… (close to their own age often).
Older Teachers were seen as costly, harder to manage and not progressive enough. That started a chain of failures and stressed teachers and boards.
Yeah, friend of mine did a midlife swap to teaching – gave notice in year one due to stress and was essentially saved by a good mentor teacher & principal. Now much in demand at a highend private school – one of the few who knows the NCEA stuff well enough to coach the younger & foreign imports – on top of her actual job.
But the systemic prejudice against kiwis is frankly huge, and not confined to teaching. The worthless English buffoons who’ve run the MSA for the last few decades pretty much killed the training path for kiwis – took me till I was thirty to get my coastal masters, not because I failed anything but because the useless deleted expletives wouldn’t recognize my seatime. Teaching in China, one of the blokes who owned the company I worked for had got his master foreign going by the time he was 19. He was from Hong Kong – which had the same UK descended qualification framework but without the obstructive culture that was allowed to ruin NZ’s system. And still does.
> the obstructive culture that was allowed to ruin NZ’s system
Do you think this is largely grounded in protectionism – those that are already ‘in’ pulling up the ladder after them?
A.
In the case of the MSA, yes.
Most cultures do this in their own country in fact – it’s a colonial legacy that this strange version of it remains so prevalent in NZ.
In the MSA’s case, now Maritime New Zealand, it was organizational incompetence, which seems to be intergenerational. Governments putting taxi drivers or real Estate agents in charge, and employing ex cops, doesn’t help. There are some good people in MNZ, but they tell me you have to keep your heads well down, if you have any real knowledge.
Having experience in New Zealand shipping, is a definite barrier to employment with MNZ.
The current international requirement for only one years sea time for a second mates certificate, and the like, is even more pandering to cost cutting shipowners.
All NZ companies, hate paying for training.
Experience, short term contracts and long trial periods.
Don’t forget, young. Skilled older tradespeople, who are often better with the stroppy kids, not wanted.
Only seems to apply to New Zealand trained Teachers?
Useless Management in NZ is systemic throughout the Public Service & Private Companies “the harder you suck the higher you get & it depends on who you know not what you know ?”.
Most Public Companies here in NZ have either been bankrupted through management incompetence or sold to offshore investors.
Government Departments and SOE’s run as little fiefdoms ?
In one word Management in NZ is “Useless” IMHO.
“I can’t see how there can be a teacher shortage” – are you saying there isn’t one?
If so, where is your analysis to back that up?
If you don’t have that analysis – and I’m sure you don’t – or you are not saying there isn’t a shortage, then stop introducing distractions like this to every single discussion.
A couple from my kids school shot the gap to Dubai as soon as there 1 1/2 ? Probation was up .
My dentist has just awarded himself a pay rise, of double that.
Average pay rises for top managers over 17%.
Civil service managers are now on hundreds of thousands.
Teachers used to be on the same as a backbencher.
I think they are being rather restrained, myself. Especially when you consider the rises are nowhere near that for all Teachers, and they are over several years.
Lastly. If you want to attract competent people from other jobs, you need to, at least, pay them enough to live in Auckland.
The time of expecting women with well paid husbands, to do the job for love and peanuts, is over.
Teachers are used as scapegoats, regularly chastised, blamed, painted as unsatisfactory servants just carrying on at a higher level from pre-school education. Their achievements and workload aren’t respected, and for decades also teach mentally unabled childre, those who are disturbed and mind-stressed from unhappy homes and from watching mind-warping television and videos, as well as those who are to be prepared for a regular working life if they can find that.
Just as government and leaders play games with them, expecting more but also increasing their difficulties, they do the same to the adults who have finished school, and they have difficulties finding that regular working life. All are easured all the time with forms to fill out. This is a society that is built around the idea that people are not good enough to be treated as satisfactory; niggling and fault-finding by those who have managed to climb the ladder is constant but those at the upper level somehow avoid much of it themselves.
“A University of Otago study shows CEO pay is increasing at almost five times the rate of the average worker.
Otago University Business School Accountancy and Finance researcher Dr Helen Roberts’ longitudinal study study, which adjusted for inflation, showed the proportion of CEOs paid over $500,000 per year had also increased approximately five-fold across three different compensation measures.
It showed chief executives were now paid 30 to 50 times more than the average wage of $60,000.”
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/ceo-pay-increases-five-times-average-rate
“Chief executive pay packes often do not seem to relate to performance. Fonterra and Fletcher Building are good examples. Or CBL. The troubled insurer’s boss was paid $2.6 million in 2016 and the company was placed in voluntary administration in early 2018.
For context, the chief executive pay in the top 50 companies in New Zealand averaged average under NZ$2 million. That’s around 35 times the average worker pay.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/106499178/what-to-do-about-the-everincreasing-rate-of-ceo-pay
And that same CEO will have large investments in the stock market that has tripled in value in the last 9 years and he/she will own multiple houses that, as everybody knows, have gone up massively in value in the last 20 years.
The combination of massive salary increases and massive capital gains represents a huge shift in wealth to the top 5-10%.
We need an asset tax and a land tax.
at least you did not say capital gains where the ‘family home’ is tax free ha ha.
Problem with asset tax is, if you are not a CEO how the hell do you pay it on NZ wages? Can you imagine a teacher adding that tax on to their mortgage, rates and other expenses to pay?
Obviously fine if you work or have income from overseas and therefore can earn money in relation to cost of living. In NZ there is a disparity of wages including those middle class wages i.e. teachers and police which is why there is an issue with ‘asset’ taxes on NZ wages.
I’d prefer more targeted taxes aka stamp duty on assets over 5 million for example – business/farm/house. Even if it was the ‘family home’ you would still have to pay.
Also more investigation into ‘minimum’ turnover taxes aka comanies like Google that pay little taxes here have to pay a minimum of tax on turnovers over 10 million for example even if they make a ‘loss’.
And a financial transaction tax on banks and money coming into and out of NZ to get all those ‘profits’.
yep agree….like the turnover tax but not set at a pathetically low token level like in the UK
Some of the people inconvenienced by the teachers this week will be paid even less than teachers and work just as hard.
I have doubts about how far the model of individual unions seeking improvements for their members alone can be pushed. I would prefer to see increases in the ‘social wage’ that benefit all low and moderate income earners.
That is how we got descent wages and welfare in the first place. Bit by bit. Mostly by striking. The horror.
Nationwide strikes in support are illegal. Otherwise you may find that many of the people you are so concerned about, support Teachers.
Increases in the social wage, means Government share of the economy must increase. Taxes on the rich may have to go up! Horrors.
Quality Teaching and education, is part of the “social wage”, by the way.
+111
Exactly.
The rich and the powerful are pointing out the minor problems caused by people demanding to be paid enough while distracting from the major problems that they themselves cause such as under paying people.
Worse DTB, the rich demand private schools and suitable packages to attract the best teaching staff for their children. Further they take the funds from the General Education Budget, thus lowering the money for the rest.
Exactly. But the media now portray reasonable catch-up as beyond reasonable.. (Thanks, ERA..)
I have lived many years (I started in 1970) wishing that NZEI and my PPTA could actually work together. It appears that from the start of next year this may actually happen. The foolish promoters of the economy need to be taught that there are many things more important than what they think is good for the economy. Society matters far more than the economy, … the economy has to be a servant, not a master.
NZEI have always been too terrified of upsetting parents and far too into self-sacrifice.
Oh yes, the rich believe in performance-based pay and meritocracy; the best get paid better, the better-paid are the best. They would say that, wouldn’t they?
This feeds into the urban myth that teachers in low-decile schools are generally inferior to teachers in high-decile ones with only the best carefully handpicked for private schools (the elite schools). Consequently, the low-decile schools are inferior too, which is obvious when you look at academic success of the students, now and in future.
This BS keeps self-perpetuating and even some of the poor are buying into it.
Don’t!
One’s pay (or wealth) is not a marker of one’s competence as a teacher.
But AB teachers aren’t unskilled and semi-skilled workers, and they are extensions of the socialising and informing role that parents do (if all is going well). Teachers are trained to carry out their role, unlike parents who struggle to get along with or without teachers strikes. Teachers are trying to maintain their numbers with training to expected levels of expertise in these difficult times. While we have teachers who care and try to help children through their school years to a level that enables them to manage in the world, we have some hope that they will be able to negotiate social wages for themselves as adults, if their parents have not learned enough to achieve that themselves.
‘Teach your children well, their parents hell will surely go by’.
Grey – I find comparisons between who is ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled’ a bit odious. And I don’t really like the idea of people’s economic wellbeing coming down to how well they can make the case that they are more skilled than someone else, who therefore deserves less than they do.
I would like to see a sort of cross-occupational solidarity that assumes the baseline of a decent economic life for everyone, then places some relatively modest skill differentials (insofar as these can be determined) on top of that. If people are in occupational silos trying to do the best for themselves alone, that plays into the individualistic habits of mind that are part of our current predicament.
We aren’t and can’t all be the same AB. Chance to realise the fullness of oneself through work and opportunities and decent conditions in one’s community and the world would be a fine thing. But life and self management has to be learned, just scrambling along, dragging oneself up with no wise and caring help rarely results in a well-balanced and wise person. Teachers are worthy, should be nurtured and respected and have reasonable expectations placed on them in return.
They, and informed and thinking people, know too well today that they are the first rather than the second stage of support and introduction to life skills for many children in our society. That is why these skilled people need to get more attention than the unskilled, who in turn should get better conditions offered for their living and advancement. I don’t agree with the theory of communism, and everyone getting the same if that is what is behind your thinking.
Certainly would not get many to do my present job, without a skills and responsibility premium. We offered to train some staff. The response was, “you couldn’t pay me enough to take the responsibility”.
The lifestyle which made it an adventure for young people in the past, are long gone.
However there is no justification for jobs that I regard as semi-skilled, such as management in large companies, getting 35 times the average wage.
How much did teachers pay rise under the Natz and how much now under Labour would be a good comparison.
My gut feeling is that maybe the Natz did not give the teachers enough pay rises, and now labour are being blamed for it.
Plus the neoliberal immigration policies of the last 12 years in particular mean that it sounds like teachers would not have enough pay for even Kiwibuild ‘affordable’ houses up to $180k dual income.
In addition the glut of spec houses being built in Auckland were based around a Ponzi scheme and Kiwis can’t afford or not interested in 1 million+ dollar McMansions and want/need that 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house with double garage and tiny section or 2 bedroom apartment with $13,000 a year body corporates and chance of leaks?
The ‘market driven’ developers have failed to build for the market of NZ and the high paid jobs were never created to keep the migrants or Kiwis in NZ with enough wages to live here without an overseas job to fund it? Aka once people get residency here, they leave their $20p/h insecure NZ job… NZ back where it started the ponzi but with much more liabilities and satellite families earning nothing but kids to teach, kids to give health care to, kids to commute to schools, WFF and tops ups to pay…
It would have to be a pretty flash apartment to have $13,000 body corporate fees. I have been looking at apartments around the $700,000 mark for a relative. Body corporate plus rates are around $5,000 to $6,000.
You have got to be joking Wayne! Just the insurance component on many apartments in Wellington exceeds $5000 to $6000. Now add $3000 p.a. for rates and varying amounts for future maintenance charges in the range of $1000 to five times that. One can be sure that $13,000 is not exceptional, particularly for older repurposed buildings. Also, you must realise that there are a number of apartments around that are at give-away prices as owners cannot afford the repair bills for earthquake and structural problems.
Hipkins use of that is bullshit and propaganda, an easily used line to be picked up by people like Michael Barnett.
Last week Hipkins had it at $10,000 so it’s already dropped!
Congratulations to Rocketlab on their successful launch of their rocket last night.
In New Zealand; who’da thought?
There are pockets of excellence in NZ in-between vast deserts of doubt and apathy. Many good ideas get buried by bureaucracy and/or suffocated by mediocre managers. Access to funding is like a 3,000-mile pilgrimage carrying a heavy load and with self-flagellation at each and every step, bare feet, I should add. It’s dire.
There are pockets of excellence in NZ in-between vast deserts of doubt and apathy.
Dear God is that such a true statement.
I’m sorry to say this; but it’s the one thing that becomes vividly apparent the moment you get on a plane and leave. If only NZ would learn to believe in itself the way our best rugby players and our world class sailors do … the country would be unstoppable.
And yes big congrats to RocketLab !!
Elite NZ athletes ‘learn to believe in themselves’ through expensive ongoing coaching and psychological support. Let’s invest in the equivalent for everyone else and reap the benefits.
Perhaps we could make lemonade out of something sour? The long spiritual walk of Spain the Carmino de Santiago is a selling point to meditative visitors and bucket-list tourists;, a spiritual and physical task that attracts thousands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_de_Santiago
Our pain and spiritual exercise of effort obtaining resources to try and save what is good in NZ from destruction and to nurture, build and develop better things in NZ, could be sold as a journey that attracts sympathetic tourists. Sell ourselves as a small green jewel in the world being threatened by the twin hazards of neoliberal freemarketing and runaway climate change. ‘Join us in our fevered attempts to rise above this tide’; better than an epic blockbuster.
/sarc or is it a step outside the square that could be the floating something that we grasp to save ourselves from drowning? I’ll leave you to conjecture what the something would be!
The Rocket Lab launch is interesting.
In 2010, Rocket Lab worked on a project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA, a US Department of Defense agency. The result of this work was passed on to the US military in 2012.
In 2013, Rocket Lab received funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. Around this time Rocket Lab moved its company registration to the US and opened a corporate office in Los Angeles. In a recent TV interview, Peter Beck stated that he now spends his time betwwen LA and NZ.
In 2014, the US military and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin invested an undisclosed amount in Rocket Lab. Lockheed Martin is one of the US largest defence contractors, $35.2 billion in US military contracts last year. Rocket lab have refused to discuss the amount of funding they recieve from Lockheed Martin.
Is naive little NZ developing military and surveillance technology for the US?
I don’t think cube satellites are of much interest to the military. Way too small for serious comms and data use, and way too small for aerial surveillance. The camera lens needs to at least 30 cm is diameter to be of any serious military use. Way too big for a cube sat.
LM will just want Rocket Lab to be in its overall portfolio. After all LM won’t want to be completely reliant on military contracts. For instance the F35 project (largest single military contract in the world) will be complete in 10 years, and that probably accounts for 30% of current LM revenue.
Fireblade that is what concerns me. One thing to notice is that every new finding and invention gets looked at by ‘defence’ to see if they can use it to advantage. And they very likely be funding the tech.
And the othr thing that anything is moral if it makes a profit to these things parading themselves as people. So what if we are dependent for jobs on making butterfly bombs, rocket parts with impregnated mine material into every sq cm. etc?
More information about the Rocket Lab, US and Lockheed Martin connections.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12159204
How come the Opposition is doing all this quizzing of every meeting of some Ministers? It is as if they have taken over the snooping job of those detectives Thomson and Clark? What is the task they should be doing in their role?
Deflecting away from their 3 terms of damage and the car crash that is bridges and Bennett’s handling of bagman JLR.
A full time job.
3000 questions they asked of just Shane Jones, let alone anyone else, and that was a ploy they signalled early in the term of the new government. I would like to know exactly what the questions were? Clearly by dint of the number of questions there would be “gaps”. Likewise when you see the range of people he spoke to that seemed entirely normal, I doubt the same can be said of opposition “meetings” both during this term and prior.
The more people in NZ meet and talk with genuine intention the better off the country will be in the longterm.
One thing that has been absent other that weasel worded, relentless and empty badgering from the entire opposition party is what they would do to improve NZ and the lives of NZers, prior, within this term by positive example and if they ever, god forbid, got themselves back on the government side of the house without a major shift in dedication and intentions for NZ.
Goldsmith is obsessed with trying to hang something on Shane Jones, it appears to be an obsessive delusional trait with the National Party at present, maybe they have private investigators following all the Government MP’s, National have plenty in their coffers from their Asian Backers ?
Goldsmith appears to be working from the John Key & Crosby Textor Dirty Tricks Handbook ?
Goldie will only ever get pompous crap out of that flatulating blowhard.
I was scratching my head as to what a good/easy issue to practice bipartisanship.
Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
Ongoing, big budget (not one term fiscal responsibility) fairly apolitical.
Who knows what could come of it?
Every human is better when we cooperate.
Well when you proclaim to wanting the most open and transparent government ever then you have to expect the opposition will hold you to that
What? The patently ridiculous and time wasting crap from National, has nothing to do with “holding the Government to account”.
It is just designed to prevent this Government achieving anything.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/watch-jacinda-ardern-admits-government-not-most-open-transparent-after-questioning-simon-bridges-in-parliament
Jacinda Ardern told NZ this would be the most open transparent government ever, a none too subtle dig at National, so when the present government is less than transparent you think National shouldn’t remind voters of what Jacinda Ardern said
PR We had to learn of some meetings by National with their funders and masters through a fallout between friends.
Don’t come to this forum spouting the current Government is not transparent.
The last National Government was totally hiding meetings and schemes.
That is now being reflected in their shrinking support.
Bbbut they had hats. The meetings were in other hats. It was all ok.
Wally Haumaha clean as a whistle according to the latest QC Report another Natzi beat up by the little worm Christopher Bishop down the shitter ?
I think ‘clean as a whistle’ is a bit of a stretch.
You mean the integrity of the process has been maintained.
They are trying to build an impression of holding the government to account – severely handicapped by their own cavalier behavior in office. They may fool some of their base by it, but not much more.
Goldsmith is obsessed with trying to hang something on Shane Jones, it appears to be an obsessive delusional trait with the National Party at present, maybe they have private investigators following all the Government MP’s, National have plenty in their coffers from their Asian Backers ?
Goldsmith appears to be working from the John Key & Crosby Textor Dirty Tricks Handbook ?
Clare Curran was an incompetent Minister whose downfall in part brought about by questioning about her ‘meetings’. It might be unpleasant, but it is a legitimate part of opposition.
National think that being in opposition involves getting back power at all costs..
Their MP’s are tasked as being snipers, taking endless shots at the coalition, in the hope of winging as many as possible.
Representing New Zealanders in Parliament is obviously not part of their job description.
Am I the only that is slightly cynical and amused that the teachers strikes “just happen” to give both Auckland and Wellington teachers a long weekend?
Yes
Yes except for the opposition party, that will be way up there to the level of any one of their 3000 questions, you’d fit right in there.
Go away christy
Also less disruptive for parents and children..
Parents tend to whinge that the least those stroppy commie teachers could do is strike on the edge of the weekend christy.
Good article on the t.rump debacle.
“The whole weekend was supposed to be a show of western solidarity, and ended up proving its absence. Trump showed himself ill at ease with most of his European counterparts and the fleeting encounter with Putin was a reminder of his much greater affinity for autocrats.
He has claimed warm, even affectionate, relations with Putin, Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, Mohammed bin Salman, Rodrigo Duterte and now Brazil’s president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump may have cut a lonely figure in Paris, but on the world stage, he is less and less isolated.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/thumbs-up-from-putin-as-trump-rains-on-armistice-parade
Yes. This has been apparent from the outset and is alarming. The man is a god-awful lout and his election symptomatic of a deeply divided and troubled society.
Having said that, there may well be another side to this. In a world now increasingly dominated by dangerously authoritarian figures in places like Russia, China, Saudi, Brazil and so on … the liberal instincts of the west have proven an inadequate response.
It’s possibly worth remembering that just prior to WW2 Churchill was widely regarded with similar disdain by almost the entire educated, leadership class in Britain. They saw him too as an erratic, uncouth man with a patchy record. (The ‘appeasers’ were by no means confined to Chamberlain; if events had transpired just a little differently there is no doubt that Rudolf Hess’s attempt at a peace treaty might well have succeeded.)
Events play strange tricks with us, the leaders we need in peacetime are not necessarily the ones we need in times of trouble. I’m not trying to compare Trump with Churchill directly; but there are some parallels between the two men and their place in history that are worth thinking about.
I do think trump is a manifestation of his society, a consequence and predictable. To me he is dangerous, not just because of his ideas and beliefs but more because of the company he enjoys. He is like them and them ain’t good.
Churchill was the man of the times as was Hitler as is t.rump. The hardest thing for me in some ways is knowing that he is just the beginning and he will be far from the worst as the Empire crumbles little bit by little bit. T.rump is funny in some ways, amongst the carnage – other ones coming won’t be funny.
Yes. If I’m reading you correctly then I agree wholeheartedly. The potential for utter catastrophe is chilling and stalking us daily.
My optimism pivots on this one thing; that for fear of the consequences these leaders of the world will soon agree to set aside some portion of their unconstrained national sovereignty in favour of a wider common good. Events in Paris more than hint at this possibility:
https://news.sky.com/story/armistice-day-in-europe-macron-warns-against-nationalism-as-wwi-remembered-11551693
Another link:
https://www.businessinsider.com/r-with-trump-sitting-nearby-macron-calls-nationalism-a-betrayal-2018-11/?r=AU&IR=T
Yes there does appear to be attempts to bring people together as per macrons speech. T.rump is diametrically opposed to that and him and his supporters are proud of that. This is their agenda. Thus the delusions perpetuate.
There is a coalescing occurring around very fundamentally different ways of looking at things.
Thanks for posting that marty-superb article. What a nasty prat Trump is.
I think the mid-term results have been poorly reported. The democrats now look like taking 35-36 seats in the House where early results showed more like 25. This is close to the “blue-wave” 40-seat gain they were after. The Democrats won 7 important Governor races.
In Florida the Senate race is now within 0.14 percent where the Republican spent $60 million (NZ$90m) of his own fortune on trying to get elected. The recount will be interesting.
Meanwhile there was a massive increase in young voters. Bodes well for 2020.
Sanders for president? (Corbyn for PM?).
A good thought from Alphonse Mucha 1860-1939
Ideas matter.
As he was inaugurated for a second term this evening, President Michael D Higgins said “ideas matter” and “history tells us that anti-intellectualism” is the “the weapon of authoritarian and anti-democratic forces in so many parts of our shared, vulnerable planet” .
“Our choice must be to actively extend and deepen democracy, to express it in wider forms and in new ways,” he said.
Not alone was “the very existence of our planet in its bio-diversity threatened but we have not yet slowed the pace of that destruction. We live with ongoing violence against women which must be ended.
“We must confront and challenge any excuses offered for the denial of the irreducible rights, of women who make up, let us not forget, a majority of humanity on this planet. It is important that we recognize the rights and culture of indigenous peoples. It is also important that each person is free to express their sexuality, gender or relationship,” he said.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/president-michael-d-higgins-says-ideas-matter-as-he-is-inaugurated-for-second-term-1.3694089
When is New Zealand going to have its own President. ?
There should be a set curriculum at all schools in NZ with schools able to add to these, but not to forego important factual stuff we should all know and understand.
And religion should not be taught, it should be part of a philosophy based curricu,um teaching about culture and how values are established.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/107206925/new-zealands-schooltaught-colonial-history-is-racist-and-needs-changing–say-teachers
However, University of Canterbury School of Teacher Education senior lecturer Dr Richard Manning …
Difficulties arose because of “perceived white backlash”. He had encountered history teachers who pushed back on teaching Māori history saying it was “all political correctness”.
> There should be a set curriculum at all schools in NZ with schools able to add to these, but not to forego important factual stuff we should all know and understand.
Sorry dude, schools have taught very little ‘factual stuff’ of any sort for some time.
You have to teach your own kids facts, or hope they pick it up in books.
A.
Maybe they just don’t teach “alternative facts”?
Have you got school age kids??
A.
I do, a 10 year old, she gets taught facts, thanks for your concern though.
Wasn’t talking to you,
Besides, I also have a primary school age kid and not a lot of facts going on. More emphasis on doing their own research…
A.
lol
Because possession grants more expertise than merely knowing a few through friends, maybe?
Most of the kids these days seem pretty onto it. Maybe the poor influence on your kids isn’t at school?
Well, I don’t think kids learn a lot of facts at primary school, even compared to in my day (the 80s).
This is based on a sample size of 1 (my kid) plus what I hear from others and read in the media.
If you have information to the contrary I would be pleased to hear it.
> Most of the kids these days seem pretty onto it.
I never said they weren’t ‘onto it’! I said they don’t learn a lot of facts at school! It doesn’t actually seem that controversial of a statement. I do not think many modern educators would seriously contend that they try to stuff kids’ heads with facts nowadays.
>Maybe the poor influence on your kids isn’t at school?
You seem like a decent bloke overall, I don’t know why you act like an asshole towards me. Should I just stop trying to engage you in conversation?
To sum up, I think Cleangreen thinks that the Ministry of Education in Wellington sets a list of information (not skills, not competencies, but facts) that kids must learn. I respond that if this was ever the case, it has not been so for decades.
A.
“Onto it” as in knowing stuff. Facts. Their math seems pretty good. Same with basic NZ history and plants and stuff. Most of the sprogs I know love to interrupt discussions with vaguely-relevant crap they picked up somewhere.
Sure, there’s not so much rote learning, but this isn’t a bad thing. And in my day they just hit us if we didn’t remember whatever shit was being taught at the time.
Heel yes I wish I was taught the new way . ..
Imagine being taught to think rather than remember .
> Most of the sprogs I know love to interrupt discussions with vaguely-relevant crap they picked up somewhere.
Bet it wasn’t at school
A.
Unless it’s about dinosaurs or superheroes, you’d probably lose that bet.
I had a chat to a modern teacher in regards to rote learning vs enquiry learning (not sure what correct terminology is).
This was after watching my son get to a level at maths ok then largely struggle. From about year 8.
I came through with the times table, rote learnt in the 70s.
With that foundation, I found it easy to hold 2or 3 parts of the solution in mind before getting answer.
I don’t think the answer is one or the other but a combo, but we have a habit of throwing out all of the old when we have a new.
Yep. We have gone away from simply regurgitating long lists of facts, without understanding!
Rote recitation only works for times tables and the alphabet.
> Rote recitation only works for times tables and the alphabet.
That is just not so.
A.
Worked for me.
No, I mean you can learn other things through rote recitation, I have done it.
e.g. conjugation of verbs in a foreign language.
A.
The NZ curriculum for those who haven’t looked at it.
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/English/Learning-areas
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum#collapsible7
One interesting element is the ‘Key Competencies.’ Calls for teacher performance pay usually mention testing kids for how much the kids ‘know’ in subjects and paying teachers accordingly not on how essential competencies have been achieved and to what level.
These California wildfires are getting apocalyptic:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/officials-order-evacuations-camp-fire-threatens-8000-acres/story?id=59065896
And the lout in charge makes outrageous claims as usual:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/11/politics/california-wildfires-trump-tweets/index.html
they did not vote for him. So there.
Here’s a needle in a haystack, but it’s a start. Headline acknowledging climate change:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/11/la-fire-chief-climate-change-california-wildfires
Skyrocket consciousness. When your ass is on fire, you’ll move.
It’s A Pity
In front of the world, America has shown everyone what a piss weak president they have. He would not walk a step to honour the American soldiers WWI. Because of rain drops.
In front of the great State of California the same piss weak president has poured out his piss weak insults on the devastated, the dead and dying in the fierce hell fires – fiddling like a mad man with his insipid tweets.
America is at its Weakest. Surely they can rid themselves of the current Whitehouse Fool.
Kia ora The Am Show It is alarming that the Pola Ice Cap’s could be melting faster than previously thought that will raze sea levels by mtr and not just cm there will be stronger storm and Hurricanes smashing the coastal community’s.
.Christina its cool that we are talking about Human Caused Climate Change its about time I have worked out what has happened a BLUE Tsunami thank’s for your word’s Christina.
Kiwi are kind when the telephon 24 hour TV fun razing money for to aid 3 world country’s was running Kiwi donated million’s we were one of the highest for donation’s per capital time’s were much easier in those day’s we had spear money.
That the internet correcting thing’s again the fuel community price app is a cool Idea that will keep the gas company’s honestest may be you could have other consumer good’s and services listed to your app will pump.
With our teachers strike they mone about there work load .
I will give a example of the kicks and work smarter theory its fact actually.
I was part of a organization that milked 5000.00 cow’s twice a day through one 80 bale shed the neighbour and the newbees could not milk 3500 2 80 bale sheds it was a finely run farming group .
Point the teacher have heap’s of tool at there disposal to teach tamariki with the internet at there disposal they just have to look outside of the square to come up with smart efficient teaching solution’s.
Also these strikes will hit the common poor tamariki the most if the parents have to take time off work to care for there tamariki the wealthy will just hire a carer
There is a glut of oil on the market and we have hundred’s of thousands of electric vehicles coming on stream and millions of solar panels wind turbines displacing oil Thanks to China’s manufacturing muscle and people like Mus .
Its good that the Anglican Church is backing the public inquiry into child abuse of
state care tamariki and the Religious groups that cared for tamariki . Ka kite ano P.S no flash video links I need some DIMP for my computer the sandflys keep attacking it
Here is the reason our fuel prices have dropped trump’s tricks have been countered
the world woke up to his moves to inflate oil prices his oil baron supporters net worth went up by billions
Also, the weekly estimates are not as accurate as the monthly figures, which are published on a roughly 2-month lag. As such, they should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the massive increase comes just days after the EIA reported a huge increase in production in the monthly data – at 11.346 mb/d in August, the U.S. oil industry has clearly been producing a lot more than previously thought. That lends some weight to the weekly figures.
Another previously-bullish factor was Iran. With Iran’s oil exports spiraling downwards at the end of the summer and into September, the oil market grew very concerned about adequate global supply and the rapidly dwindling volume of spare capacity. U.S. waivers on countries importing Iranian oil removed that threat. Washington still wants to tighten the screws – and in fact, the sudden bearishness in the market gives the Trump administration more leeway to do just that – but in the near-term, Iran will continue to export.
A third factor is OPEC+ production. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Russia and Libya have all increased production in recent months, offsetting the losses from Iran. Now, the group has a different problem on its hands. A technical committee to the OPEC+ coalition is set to meet this weekend where it will take stock of the oil market. They will also consider options going forward for managing the market, including the potential for a production cut in 2019 to avoid another market downturn. The 180-degree turn – from adding supply just a few months ago to now considering a cut – is a remarkable indicator that demonstrates how quickly the sentiment has turned.
Ka kite ano
Plunging Battery Costs To Trigger Energy Storage Boom YEA YES KA PAI
Bloomberg New Energy Finance has forecast a veritable boom in energy storage installations in the coming years with investments hitting US$1.2 trillion by 2040. Falling battery costs will be the driver behind this boom, with BNEF projecting a 52 percent drop in utility-scale lithium-ion systems by 2030. .
It is a fact that the cost of producing batteries for energy storage is falling. Cost reduction, after all, is a top priority for everyone from EV makers to utilities betting on energy storage as a future source of revenues
But what about energy storage installations’ effect on the grid? That should be all-round positive, except for utilities that generate power from non-renewable sources. They better start preparing because BNEF’s analysts projected energy storage may rise to 7 percent of the world’s total installed power generation capacity by 2040.
In more good news for renewables, while until about 2030 most energy storage installations will be utility-scale from about 2035 behind-the-meter facilities will begin to take over, which means they will probably be affordable by then, and Elon Musk’s concept of a household featuring a solar roof, a household battery pack, and an EV could become a reality not just for billionai Ka kite ano link below . P.S I could build a offgrid solar power system for a small family for $4000 all up .
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Plunging-Battery-Costs-To-Trigger-Energy-Storage-Boom.html
I decided to wait and see what happened when I first seen reports on China lifting Ban on trade in endangered animal parts
The Chinese government announced on Monday that it would postpone a plan to lift the 25-year ban on the endangered animals, following a storm of international protest.
It’s important to send the strongest message that the value of wild populations of tigers and rhinos and their ecosystems is much greater than the value of their bones and horns. Ka pai China they get the big picture its te tangata its te tangata and we need Papatuanuku and all her creatures to be respected to have a prosperous future for all.
Link below ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/12/campaigners-welcome-china-u-turn-over-rhino-and-tiger-products
We need to protect OUR worlds forest and start planting billions of trees for our future
decedents to have a good life .There are many cases in OUR History that show’s a complete collapse of the environment and the society all because we did not respect mother nature .
The UK, France and Germany have called on the European commission to launch tough new action to halt deforestation by the end of the year.
A long-delayed EU action plan should be brought forward “as soon as possible”, says a letter to the commission sent by the Amsterdam Declaration group of countries, which also includes Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.
To help meet a UN goal of halting deforestation by 2020, the EU should show “a leadership role, mobilising its political and market leverage, and promoting broader international dialogue and cooperation”, the letter says.
Link below ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/12/eu-states-call-for-tough-action-on-deforestation-to-meet-2020-un-goal-amsterdam-declaration
Its people like Stan Lee who have provided us with fantastic comic books he has ignited
the imagination of billions of people and a lot have gone on to become the worlds greatest inventors condolences to his whano/family he will be missed he is in a higher place now
Stan Lee: Spider-Man, X-Men and Avengers creator dies aged 95
Born Stanley Martin Lieber on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 1922, Lee’s childhood was marked by the Great Depression. In his 2002 autobiography Excelsior!, Lee described how his father’s struggle to find a steady job had forever affected him: “It’s a feeling that the most important thing for a man to do is to have work to do, to be busy, to be needed,” he wrote.
At 17, Lee landed a job at a publishing company owned by his relative Martin Goodman, and began writing scripts for superhero and mystery comics. When Goodman fell out with his editor in 1941, Lee found himself editor-in-chief at just 19.
Link below ka kite ano. P.S my eldest grandson has a flash suit
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/12/stan-lee-spider-man-x-men-avengers-marvel-universe-dies
Our Pacific cousins have a positive influence on Aotearoa society culturally and financially
“The [NZ Pacific Economy] report reveals Pacific peoples are contributing significantly to the economy despite some of the poor health, housing, education and employment outcomes experienced by many in their communities,” Robertson said.
Pasifika families and businesses are big contributors to NZ economy: Finance Minister Assets from about 1500 Pacific business employers and almost 500 not-for-profit organisations totalled up to $8.3b and, from those assets, the total value added was thought to be $3.1b annually. Ka kite ano link below.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12159122
ASB has joined the fray in the latest round of mortgage rate wars – dropping its one year fixed rate to match the record low 3.95 per cent offered by ANZ.
Its good to see ANZ bank start to the one year fixed interest rate drop that’s cool.
But I will still be after one of there board members /shonky but if you can save money go for it put all the saving on the mortgage .The low rate specials offered by ANZ, BNZ and Westpac are only available to home owners with a deposit or 20 per cent equity stake in their homes.
Its a buyers market now and about time thanks to the moves of our new Coalition Government. ka kite ano P.S we have other’s banks competing for your custom and the interest rate battle begins link below.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12159386
Kia ora Te Kaea I have to use my phone to get the post out the sandflys are attaking my other computer.
It will be a good trip for our Prime minister meeting all the heads of states talking about the Pacific relations and Climate change impacts on the Pacific and Aotearoa.
It been good seeing Te IWIs helping there tangata into housing that’s the best way to escape the poverty trap a lot of our tangata fall into.
Son of Zion are a cool banned music is good for te Wairua.
It would be nice if our government did advocate for Indigenous people consern.s at the gathering of our world leaders.
Ka kite ano P.S I will get some dimp tomorrow
Kia ora Newshub Paddy Andrew is letting the people go into the Pike River mine that will be of great relief for Berne and the family of all the people who have lost love ones in the mine.
Kate I have a post early on for the Great Comic writing legend Stan Lee.
Those fires in Northern Calafornia is a great desaster condolences to the people who have lost.
I say that the Shane Jones NZFirst billion tree program has had a minor hick up its what could happened to anyone when you have Papatuanukue and Tawhirirmate one can not pradict the weather.
It looks like they had a good day at the Addington race way in Christchurch Ra is shining to.
That’s what I wanted Sukieanne get her houners taken away for the atrocities that her government is doing to those poor people in Mayna.
We get half our meat from my sons they buy a beef so I dive into their freezers.
I do like my veggies to but I have to have some meat unprocessed we don’t eat as much meat as we used to.
That must have been a shock to SUE she is doing a fine job the new Auckland Prison told her that she needs to have a photo ID and finger print to she helps people who are having proroale problems we have seen a lot of people can’t get prole no fix abode if they can’t read a write
. Plastic water bottles leaching toxins well. I say know one has tested them for the effects on the fetus and the long term effects on anmials humans one to.
Ka kite ano P.S mind the spelling sandflys muppets
Some people try and play ECO MAORI they get the benefit of doubt they believe the lies the sandflys are spinning about ECO MAORI to them they get one chance.
I should listen to my instinct it’s always correct Ana to kai
The Crowd goes Wild Mulls and James.
Manu and Butterbean fight will be interesting. Monty ECO a South paw.
Mulls you lost weight can you still shuffle my moko is good at the shuffle they get their groove from the Wife my children give me shit when I have enough cups of tea to start to fluffel LOL.
The Addington races NZ trotting Cup was Winston there.
Butterbean has to get the message out drop the sugar us Pacific Islanders body’s are to effect at storing fat and sugar stuff up our health.
Ka kite ano P.S that’s the way guys support the Bowls teams and Showing heaps of Wahine Sports Stars on The Crowd goes Wild
Good morning The AM Show Azzes is having fun at the AMP Show.
There you go Winston Peters and Andrew Little The Coalition Government has helped the Pike River family to find the truth about the explosion.
This all happened because shonky made a unwise bet on COAL/Carbon. I have story that links shonky to Aotearoa losing 1 billion dollars of assets will tell when the time is right.
The road accidents =not enough investment in roads and a xtra 1 million people and cars = more accidents.
Lloyd the britexit I say it’s a can of worms they wish they never opened.
Robots are the future and AI Is a big threat to human kind and the World take it seriously one just. To see how the sandflys are behaveing with the technology tools help you to understand part of my concern of Artifical Intelligents every single thing we do will have computers integrated into it and if one App has that power we’ll people who make movies about this subject are warming US.
IF a person like trump gets the power of total control that AI can have we are in the SHIT.
It will be cool if Israel gets a title fight at the UFC.
There you go Berne Monk you want justice and accountability shonky was covering up the big mistake they made with the health and safety prosses at Pike River mine. Because the familys of the people who died are common people it’s worth the massive effort yous have put into getting justice a big WIN for the common tangata.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora The AM Show. The Pike River scandle is just one issue from shonky
The Britexit don’t count your chickens May I have read that Nigal Farr has been linked to the Muler Russian investorgation I smelt that far right money all over his actions.
I East Asia summit Tova I bet Mike Pence wanted to talk about more issues that the dumb trade tariff.??????????
It has been the reward of a lot of people’s hard work that has paid off with the Mountain Grilla coming of the most endangered list.
The Black Ferns are getting heaps of game time and coverage on TV
Ka kite ano. P.S flip flop
You can talk muppet puppet