"Derek Robinson illegally used an electric cattle prodder on two collapsed, distressed steers, to force them out a chute and into the arena for a roping competition, at rodeos in Whangārei in 2016 and 2017."
animal cruelty seems common in the far nth. in my short time living at whatuwhiwhi, two dog fighting rings were busted, kaitaia rodeo assoc were banned from having horses(?) and 100 cows were euthanised because the cocky was useless.there were other casual unthinking acts of animal cruelty that seemed common.
Were they collapsed, distressed steers? If they were, then that is bad treatment, the cattle prodding only made it worse. It seems a bit mixed up. The use of electric shock prodding should only be available to vets. But NZ has done away with limitations on many things, all that nuisance regulation, and most things are available to any jerk or jerkess, look at lasers and drones.
It should be remembered that have had cattle prodding electric jolts used on us in mental hospitals and regarded as legitimate treatment for interfering in patterns of suicidal behaviour, used illegitimately on people for just not behaving suitably.
The Far North has been another country, left to its own devices without government regional funding or interest for a long time. I hope this regional fund will have useful stuff for helping local business and jobs and Labour will see that it gets spent wisely this term.
The Far North has been another country, left to its own devices …
…and that's just the way we like it.
I hope this regional fund will have useful stuff for helping local business and jobs…
I am in the Far Far North…no shortage of jobs at all; horticultural development going gangbusters, traffic volumes increased to the point where urgent speed limit revision is required, holiday accommodation providers not complaining as workers are having to stay in campgrounds and B&Bs. Some local tradespeople would love to retire and go fishing but there's too much work…
Don't believe the doom and gloom reports the media .We're all good thanks.
I am in the Far North, and it is not all bad in a number of ways, but it can seem pretty bad, when you have the Mayor using a casting vote to stop Māori Wards! Mr Carter claimed a technical defence on that one, but the “Good ole Boys”, the white farmers and small businessmen of the North still like to think they run the place.
Traffic volume is up on East Coast (SH10) in particular due to the Mangamuka highway being closed!
There are things happening in the North like the massive Avocado developments set to rape the aquifers of the Aupouri Peninsula. Some of the Provincial Growth Projects are working out already if you scan the news and know a local community or two, and some are not, just Mr Jones hot air and patronage.
Yep, Carter's a hasbeen, should have relinquished the baubles long since. Quite of few of his mates in the Old Boys Club (and not all of the pale, male and stale persuasion) are definitely making hay from the horticultural developments…and boy have they been squealing…
We're in the heart of the avo takeover zone, although we did secure a reasonable buffer. We've sat through both of the commissioner hearings about the Aquifer, and one of the reasons we wanted to settle here is because we are truly in awe at the depth of local knowledge and expertise deployed in the fight to protect not only the Te Aupouri aquifer but the wetlands and the waterways on this thin strip of Aotearoa.
To see work on the avo developments continuing unabated, you'd think the consents had already been granted. Just like last time.
Heartening to see that a couple of the iwi led developments have, or are in the process of, constructing dams and containment ponds to collect rain and surface water so they are not dependent on the suck and see from the Aquifer.
It should be remembered that have had cattle prodding electric jolts used on us in mental hospitals and regarded as legitimate treatment for interfering in patterns of suicidal behaviour, used illegitimately on people for just not behaving suitably.
Oh..!..apologies…I should have said 'kill,cook and eat'…and seriously..!…falling off my chair here..so it.'s not 'casual unthinking cruelty' to those animals to cook and eat them…as long as you don't actually kill them..?. .is this your p.o.v..?..so you shed all responsibilities for the cruelties done to them during their short brutish lives ..and their eventual killing..as long as said animal is inert/deceased when it gets to you.. eh..?..that is some serious washing of the hands you are doing there ..eh..?…but you aren't alone..you have just articulated it for the others..'cos 'unthinking' is the key word there..eh..?
You can say what you like about whatever you like, even when you miss the whole point of the comment and resort to making things up.
But ignoring all that, I'm still okay with killing and eating my food where possible – It's always been humane and without ever causing the animal to suffer, mainly out of respect to the quarry, and also, after all is said and done, stressed meat isn't tender meat.
As Weka has noted, there is more to be done around animal husbandry, which is probably why organic free range food is undoubtedly the best eating.
Your 'point' was that animals to animals are cruel..so it's ok that we are cruel to them…and what did I ‘make up’. and ‘humane’..eh?..that is some serious self,-delusion you have going on there…eh..?
Sometimes you are like a surreal comedy routine..that was one of them…I have this image of you attacking/chowing down on a variety of live animals…I'm glad you think it is good that you don't do that..heh..!..shine on! etc..
I didn't really expect you to address the actual comment made, even with some helpful consideration points in order for you to formulate a credible counter, but at least it's clear which one of us tried and which one was just trying it on.
I have never thought that cows are as sentient as humans..so for you less/different sentience means it's ok to kill/eat them..?
If they can't know what's going to happen, and if most of their actions are basic stimulus:response events rather than abstract understanding of their environment, and especially if they don't even have a demonstrable concept of "self", then yeah, it sure lowers the moral dilemma faced when looking at a juicy steak.
otoh, humans, for all their sentience, are often stupid enough to believe that animals don't suffer or feel things.
(I'm ok with things dying, we all have to do it sometime, and I think the vegan argument fails to appreciate the animals that have a good life. Much to be done around animal husbandry, and the OP is a good example of how bad we still are at this. Money matters more).
Sure, it can definitely go both ways. Assuming no pain and thereby being callous to distress at one end (not counting the obviously cruel pricks like the farm hand caught breaking tails – no point to that unless they feel pain), and at the other end assuming every cattle truck is the equivalent of sending people to a death camp.
most of NZ's meat eating involves suffering that we pretty much ignore. It's the middle ground that interests me, the extent to which we are willing to ignore or make change.
We do try to minimise the physical distress and pain, though, and much of the "suffering" described by the likes of phil seems to rely on cows being as sentient as people. As in having long term memory, understanding exactly what is going on, communicating with each other, the full "Bright Eyes"/"Animal Farm" scenario.
Factory farming chickens, transporting sheep in trucks long distances to abattoirs are systems that have built in suffering. We're not that good at this tbh, and that's not even close to Phil's position.
I don't think most animals are sentient in the way you describe, but I don't think it's a black and white thing either. Obviously there are some species that are closer to what humans experience and others that are a long way from that. There is also a lot we still don't understand or perceive (ironic that the vegans dismiss the emerging science around plant communication and experience).
Our idea that most animals have no sentience (instead of sentience being a spectrum) allows us to do some pretty fucked up shit. I'm not talking the individuals who are cruel to animals so much as society and the systems we design (most of which could be changed).
But again, the plants "communicating" is in the sense of "chemical release -> chemical response", from what I've read. Nothing like the abstract conversation we're having here.
As for stress, I suspect most NZ farmed animals have significantly-net-positive lives, regardless of whether they're aware of it or not.
The animals I actually worry about whether I should eat are cephalopods. Gorillas can use a mirror (have a sense of self), but I don't eat gorillas anyway. Whales can teach each other skills and most definitely communicate in a human sense, but I don't eat whales either. But I like squid rings, even if some octopusses and squid show similar signs of self-awareness and memory.
the point of bringing plants into the conversation (apart from having a pop at vegan hypocrisy) is that it's a spectrum. Where do we draw the line? How do we draw the line?
The other point is that science understands plant communication in a certain way at the moment, but I don't think anyone is saying there isn't more to learn, more that we haven't conceived of yet. I remember when science was saying that animals didn't have feelings. Anyone who's spent time with a pet cat or dog knows this is a nonsense.
What is there to 'appreciate'..?what am I missing..?…and that ' they had a good life'…(albeit much shortened from their natural life-span..roast lamb..?..anyone..?)..so it's ok if I eat them' is a retelling of the sue kedgely defence…the 'i only eat free range and organic..so it's ok'..(must be said with a self-satisfied tone'…)..I call that the ',I'm a good slave-owner!'-defence..and it is somewhat surprising how many of the arguments made in defence of human slavery..'rights' to own..mistreat..kill..the economic importance of…are used to justify the slavery of all other living creatures..(save for those we keep as pets..)..and of course how we are superior to them so we can do what we like to them…black slaves were deemed to be sub-human…those arguments did not justify human slavery..and neither do they justify animal slavery…and this too will pass..
How did the unfortunate creatures enter their deceased state one wonders?
Do you mean the Elk that has been tailed by a pack of wolves for a couple of days before collapsing exhausted and then ripped apart alive? Or the deer felled with one shot totally oblivious to it's fate?
It is a long term stimulant going to a sector that is already hot. A sector that the Reserve Bank has just admitted it has failed to read:
"As recently as the August monetary policy statement, they were forecasting negative 7 percent house price inflation for the year ended December 2020," said Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens.
This font of wisdom reckons giving cheap money to Australian banks, less their handsome profit, makes that money available to developers, less their handsome profit, is the best way to control inflation and stimulate the economy.
How disconnected is the Landlord Labour Party from the rest of us? Increase benefits, spend the money at that end of the economy and try trickle up as a monetary theory.
As someone pointed out here recently, (sorry forgot who said it) Ardern is Blair in high heels.
Consider that they refuse loans to Jane/Joe Sixpack who have a. received the wage subsidy or work for company that applied for the wage subsidy due to 'not having a secure job', it seems that yes, all this Kabuki is for the profit of investors.
It may not be the best way to 'stimulate' the (real) economy but it may be considered the best way to stabilise the banking and exchange rate system …..those have far more potential to impact the economy than house prices (bad as it is).
It is all however a can kicking exercise and the end of the road approaches..
gsays so right. Let's get people having a life and be able to sing about what they will be able to get when they spend their wages from their regular job. This is a nice song and some fun for us ordinary folks upwardly mobile times – not the K economy! With tapdancing. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfywkvRq4Ns
the 'other' economy is not a fiction…it is the basis of trade and we dont (and cannot) operate in a removed bubble, or certainly not in any way we would recognise.
Soon the entire country will be wondering with you! Grant's rationalisation this morning won't be effective – yes, they're doing their job as specified by the neoliberalism ideology, but so what??
Economist Tony Alexander says the Reserve Bank seems to have forgotten the lesson that with monetary policy greater effectiveness comes from shock announcements. “With today’s call they have basically signalled to anyone buying property that they should get it done before March comes round and the LVRs are reapplied. By doing so, they have guaranteed that the boom we have been seeing in the housing market recently will go on throughout the summer.”
If the Labour party were true to their utterances in 2016 – child poverty, neo liberalism experiment has failed most of us, then the Reserve Bank wouldn't need to show its profound lack of imagination.
Yes taxes on petrol always went on straight away to stop too big a rush.
But hey perhaps we could treat ourselves to a banner headline here at the Standard and a small story. Something like Standard Posters wanted LVR to remain on Investors .
Give ourselves some street cred out there based on our previous discussions.
Feel free to doing a Guest Post but never claim or pretend that you’re speaking for or on behalf of Standard Posters; you can only speak for yourself. The Standard is not a living entity and does not have a voice as such, let alone a single voice.
The RBNZ needs to ensure that home owner occupiers continue to be able to access their mortgages as interest only for several more years at least. Why should they be pushed back into the rental market when they can afford the likely to be lessor amount of interest. Saves on accomodation supplements too.
Perhaps they could even cut owner occupiers a deal where if they have a minimal deposit they can do interest only for a few years.
This lending should be targeted at keeping owner occupiers on interest only if they need it and giving interest only loans to owner occupier purchasing on a minimal LVR. Likely to actually reduce government expenditure by unwinding in some small way the accommodation subsidies straight to the landlord racket that goes on.
If the accommodation subsidies could be gradually phased out – gradually! – that would be good.
Our local Council has just sold off for $2 million? $20m? previously owned housing for pensioners etc. to a social housing entity. I don't know how that will go. I can't forget the difficulties of the age 90 parents of a commenter here. And I have read reports of others who can't get their Housing Manager to show any interest in them as people deserving a pleasant home.
I can't see why housing of a simple sort, adequately maintained shouldn't be in a Council's remit. They take responsibility for sewerage and greywater and drinking water which usually comes from houses. People live in and need houses for which the services are provided, so why aren't houses for needy people part of the chain of requirement from Councils? The comfortably off can go into retirement villages and laugh, and ride bikes, and swim and it's eternal fun and stimulation for them. The poor have to rely on getting lucky perhaps.
Local Govt. housing should become part of the mix, as it once was, as social housing is hopefully reinstated in this country. But with the PM’s attitude to beneficiaries who knows if that is going to happen!
It just became trendy in line with neo liberal managerialism in the late 80s/90s, for Councils to flog off their pensioner housing. Which was a great shame as that seemed such a dignified activity for local authorities to be involved in.
To be fair councils were put in an invidious position with private landlords being subsidised through tax breaks and accommodation supplement and state housing subsidised through the state – even with successive governments taking out massive dividends from poor peoples rent and deferring maintenance and not building new homes as a result.
The refusal to assist councils to maintain and upgrade housing alongside appointing right wing wankers as mayors to sell off council housing e.g. John Banks while at the same time shifting the burden of response to homelessness to them was pretty fucked up.
In order to lift rents and to allow tenants to get accomadation supplement they were forced to transfer housing to hands off entities – which then set the houses up nicely to be sold off.
The original accord between councils and central government that the councils would take some responsibility for housing elderly and disabled while the state picked up the rest, including working class was broken by Roger Douglas and his ilk by starting with getting rid of worker housing in the railways, MOW, education, police and so on and has simply got worse ever since then.
I'm sure some councils have ultimately decided to sell off as a fuck you to central government – many have asked for help to upgrade and maintain their housing which ratepayers were effectively subsidising. Neither National nor Labour have helped councils.
All those councils who have held onto their housing should be rewarded by getting a big infrastructure payment for upgrading and building more. They should be helped and encouraged. The current model being used by Labour is Thatchers and the iwi and church groups are lapping it up – just as churches did in the past with poor houses and homes for unmarried mothers.
Cartoon idea: two panels…one showing j. ardern standing next to her opened-door (overflowing) fridge…the other showing a poor person standing next to their opened (empty) fridge….the banner reading 'the ardern years: year four'…
Former Trump aide Steve Bannon was banned from Twitter and Facebook last week after a horrific segment on his podcast War Room: Pandemic. Bannon said he wanted to go "back to the old times of Tudor England" where it would've been acceptable for the heads of Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray be put on pikes outside the White House.
Rather uncouth of Bannon, even if merely stage rhetoric. Dunno why he feels the need to do it, given that Trump fired him & called him "sloppy". Get a life, dude!
Sales asked when Fauci "realistically" expects mass vaccinations in the US, following the news from Pfizer and BioNTech that their vaccine candidate has at least 90 per cent efficacy. Fauci said it will be a "gradual process" but he expects vaccinations to start next month – "likely before the Christmas holidays". He told CNN earlier this week he expected low-risk Americans to receive the jab by April 2021, and those deemed to be at a higher risk to receive it earlier.
Once the various vaccines coming on stream get mass usage, first thing to look for will be effectiveness of preventing infection. Expect mass media exposure of failures. Then a focus on infection rates amongst antivaxers. Darwinian culling may happen.
Had a few real estate agents ring out of the blue in the last 10 days and say that they have someone who wants to put a offer on our house (which is not for sale). I have told them very impolitely to eff off and get a real job. Every money-grubbing scum-sucker about the place is in a high state of euphoria.
Here's an insight into how the Trump stonewalling strategy is dividing the rightist establishment:
Jones Day, one of the biggest law firms in the United States, has represented Big Tobacco and the family of Osama bin Laden, but its role in Trump's crusade to sow doubt in the 2020 election without any evidence has alarmed some senior attorneys. Some Jones Day lawyers told the Times they have had to endure "heckling from friends and others on social media" over their work, even though the firm has represented Trump for years.
Lawyers at the firm, which represents the Trump campaign and the Republican Party, worry "about the propriety and wisdom" of working for the president, according to the Times.
Some of the firm's senior lawyers are "worried" that Trump's lawsuits are "advancing arguments that lack evidence and may be helping Mr. Trump and his allies undermine the integrity of American elections," nine partners and associates told the outlet.
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Professor Jack Vowles briefly explores a few 2020 Flow-of-the-Vote stats from Vote Compass (the various swings & counter-swings going on beneath the surface of net vote movement at the Election):
Emphasises most National-to-Labour switchers in 2020 were self-identifying Centrists whose motivation was not, in fact, to keep the Greens out or prevent a Wealth Tax (indeed, two-thirds of these Nat switchers appear to be in favour of a Wealth Tax).
.
Meanwhile, based on Vowles %s … I've calculated the 2020 Raw Vote flow.
Of Labour's 1,443,546 votes in 2020 …. 780k were Lab Loyalists who had voted for the Party in 2017 as well … an extraordinary 270k were National Deserters (ie had voted Nat in 2017 & switched to Lab 2020) … an equally remarkable 175k had been attracted out of Non-Voting by Labour in 2020 (they'd stayed at home in 2017) … 72k were switchers from the Greens (which, in turn, suggests an on-going massive churn in support between the two main Parties of the Left … quite big numbers swinging from Green to Labour & even greater numbers moving in the opposite direction) … and 65k from NZF deserters (representing more than a third of NZF’s 2017 support base)..
Of NZF's 186,706 voters in 2017 … 65k moved to Labour in 2020 …. just 35k remained Loyal to NZF … 26k swung into Non-Voting … 22k swung to National (little more than a third of the number flowing to Labour) … & 15k swung to ACT (so much for the theory – resting solely on anecdotal evidence & always a bit dodgy IMO, that the Gun Lobby's re-alignment with ACT had caused the lion's share of NZF losses in Polls this year).
Of National's 1,152,075 voters in 2017 … just over 620k remained Loyal … 270k swung to Labour (can't stress enough how unprecedented those numbers are) … 160k to ACT (there was some speculation in the immediate wake of the Election as to who were more numerous – Nat-to-Lab switchers or Nat-to-ACT switchers … well, easily the former) … just 35k former (2017) Nats went into Non-Voting in 2020.
Thanks for that – interesting in your first para the switchers seem to be in favour of important remedial moves that the left would like the gummint to introduce. Like -'I'm higher taxes and I'll be at your service where most efficacious today' with a firm handshake and a steady grin. 'How nice to meet you, and won't you come right in', would be the response from almost all of us who still have our feet on the ground.
Fascinating. I wonder what Labour strategists looking at this will be thinking. Most likely it's how to hang on to as many of the 270k Nat switchers as possible, and convert the 175k 2017 non-voters into habitual Lab voters. And what policy or messaging conflicts (if any) are involved in doing those two things simultaneously.
The churn back and forth with the Greens won't figure as a major concern – having permanently lost your obstreperous left to another party that has no real alternative options, is actually a comfortable place to be.
Ooh that presses on a painful tender spot AB. Give me a double rainbow to look at any time when such unpalatable possible truths crop up. Look a double rainbow – what can it mean?
72k were switchers from the Greens (which, in turn, suggests an on-going massive churn in support between the two main Parties of the Left … quite big numbers swinging from Green to Labour & even greater numbers moving in the opposite direction)
I'd suspected that bothways thing. Would be interesting to compare the % of the electorate that moved each way!
Discouraging if it means the base support for the Greens hovers at the MMP threshold. When I joined after the 1990 election where they got 7% I assumed the movement would build public support. I was wrong.
I have to confess to jumping between Labour and the Greens and voted Labour this time because I was so scared National might get in and the Greens would be below the 5% threshhold. Daft in retrospect but my biggest fear was that National would play silly buggers with our successful covid lockdown.
1990: 6.85% for the Green party
1993: 18% for the Alliance (New Labour/Democratic/Mana Motuhake/Green)
1996: 10.1% for the Alliance
1999: 5.2% for the Green party
2002: 7.0%
2005: 5.3%
2008: 6.7%
2011: 11.1%
2014: 10.7%
2017: 6.3%
2020: 7.9%
Yeah but I was anticipating being up to 20% & more after 30 years. So I feel I was badly wrong! Few voters believe global warming warrants empowering the Greens.
Even that they are there means there has to be some main party attention to those issues. If they got 0% because the job was done I could be happy about that.
How might ‘the Green party‘ persuade more voters to shift (some of) their focus away from short-term self-interest? They've already tried a number of things – keep the faith and keep trying, I reckon. The need for greater societal and environment resilience becomes more obvious with every extreme weather event, GFC or pandemic – 20% might yet be possible.
The Silent Killer: Consequences of Climate Change and How to Survive Past the Year 2050
“We cannot compromise with the earth; we cannot compromise with the catastrophe of unchecked climate change, so we must compromise with one another.” – Gordon Brown, former UK PM
"Our guiding theoretical principle is that people face a conflict between short-term self-interest and longer-term collective interest, which, as noted earlier, is often referred to as a social dilemma. We illustrate that interventions at the level of individuals, communities, and governments are necessary." https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3757
"For all the talk of time running out and climate emergencies, voters remain as likely to be swayed by short-term self-interest and the promises of the two biggest parties (including on Brexit) as ever, rather than see the big picture the Greens are painting." https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/green-party-leader-interview
Yes, you've comprehensively identified the most relevant part of political psychology in the situation.
How might ‘the Green party‘ persuade more voters to shift (some of) their focus away from short-term self-interest?
In a word, advocacy. Persist in that. Use the technique the ad industry uses (repetition of message). You know the reason the Greens aren't doing it?
At the risk of irritating you, I'll point to a popular leftist syndrome. Assuming something is so evident that people know it already.
You can see how the link twixt climate change and politics implies the latter gets used to deal with the former, eh? Failed in geopolitics in the early years of the millennium. Then what? Nothing. No plan B.
Blame the Greens for giving up & joining the major parties in recycling 19th century politics as if the global problem can be avoided? Yes, I do. My membership renewal request has already arrived in the Windows trash bin…
‘The Greens‘, you and I are responsible for our decisions and their consequences. Making the best decisions we can (as we see things) and then acting on them is all any of us can do.
For example, it was a good political decision to strongly contest the Auckland Central electorate. Had it been my decision, I would have partitioned more resources towards garnering the party vote – just as well it wasn't my decision.
At the risk of irritating you, do you believe that "Assuming something is so evident that people know it already." is a particularly leftist syndrome? I can understand why it might be convenient to believe such, depending on the axe you grind.
No, tbh, it's equally evident amongst rightists. To elaborate, the original reason I decided to be neither left nor right in 1971 was realisation that the left were as establishment-focused as the right. Both wrong.
The yippies, my role models, originated as leftists but rebelled. They tried to create a third way but failed to follow through with a rationale for doing so.
Since that time I've tried to become aware of the psychology that drives political activism. Made plenty of progress with that but would prefer academics did social research to establish it as a discipline.
The thing about assumptions is that they are tacit, yet they warp decision-making. You know how sails catch the wind, so sailors rely primarily on them, yet ignoring currents in the water will get you off track fast. An holistic view includes the tacit drivers with the affecting circumstances in predicting likely behaviour…
Couldn't begin to guess how many of them might benefit from your experience and insights, and vice versa, but it must be a rewarding if challenging field of behavioural research.
I content myself with investigating the biochemistry underlying bacterial behaviour – no psychology, so no worries
‘The Greens‘, you and I are responsible for our decisions and their consequences. Making the best decisions we can (as we see things) and then acting on them is all any of us can do.
Indeed.
Relational politics is a two way street.
We can’t just sit around waiting for our leaders to fight these battles, to save the future for our children and grandchildren. That’s a responsibility shared with media, academia, business, farming and forestry, the civil service, iwi, regional government and the wider community. It’s time to get off our backsides, and play our part.
An interesting in depth article in stuff in The Press today by Steve Kilgallon. Buy The Press and see it – Ministry shuts the door on small firms oor it will no doubt be on PressReader sometime later. It pictures the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (or MoBIE as I cynically call it) and talks about procurement rules in NZ. This is a rather long discursive comment a bit tl:dr, but the subject is important so don't miss The Press article as an informative and important read.
It is about the way that government operations close the door on small NZ firms wishing to interact and do business with government and instead seeing a near impenetrable door behind which deals are done with large multi-national companies. The door is not a portcullis, which at least can be seen through. It is a barrier that it seems you have to throw yourself against many times before anything can happen.
(Probably the small-biz warriors vent their frustrations by playing those on-line games where you traverse hostile territory and look for supply points where you can gain health, weapons, food and water supplies or invisibility cloaks. After they have gained some mana on the game's league table they can go into the real world and try once again.)
We in NZ must fight for our survival. Once blasted Labour Lites opened the gates and let the horse of Troy in, the myriad of financial minions have poured out and will smother us. (They can not even be compared to leaches, which are valued for medical treatments.) Also we have been prevailed upon to sign up to agreements ensuring little us the right to trade with the world's billions. Equality eh, the level playing field, and a number of other folksy expressions that veil the truth, that we have let down our fellow citizens and our country's sovereignty to enable access to all the pretty things and manufactured that can be obtained overseas.
If you remember the folk tale from childhood, the young woman could marry the prince if she could turn straw into gold fibres, and Rumplestiltskin enabled that in exchange for her relinquishing her first-born son. That was only avoided by a lucky break. Smart people don't rely on luck. I mention this simple childish tale because it only appears simple, and we seem to have a mentality of children. It is right on the nail. We need straw, gold is an extra, and we need to have work for all NZs, not unhappy disenfranchised anomic drifters. We should not be manipulated by Australian and other banks, and by pension funds from all the world, and wealth-creating moguls from everywhere who will suck us dry of every resource if there is money in it. This is war, in a mild form, perhaps it is The Phony War of the Early 21st Century.
Past centuries' history shows us that our human behaviour tends to be cyclical. I thought of the Punic Wars ending in 146 BC. We could be in Sicily's place in a modern similar war. So get smart in our thinking and doing for ourselves.
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars between 264 and 146 BC fought by the states of Rome and Carthage. The First Punic War broke out in Sicily in 264 BC as a result of Rome's expansionary attitude combined with Carthage's proprietary approach to the island. Wikipedia
Preston in the UK was looking at strategies to rebuild it's local economy and one of the things places that received state money like the hospitals and schools did was break down the size of the contracts so that locals could compete easily. It's made a steady difference.
But hey this is Mobie – rumour around the 'hood suggests they long for the neo rightist days and act accordingly. A decent restructure would not go amiss – a lot of mid aged managers have never operated outside that sort of frame work and need fresh leads.
IMHO labour has been very remiss in not replacing a lot of nationals appointments just leaving them in place. More on tht some other time.
I've had a good read of the article. Mobie could have an application system that you can apply to join at any time and all you have to have is no negative strikes. e.g you register as overseas owned or local, you follow labour law, have climate change policies in place plus health and welfare options available to your staff or are based in a country that has these welfare and ethical settings, pay your Paye, pay local income taxes and ACC in proportion to your trading here , some requirements about the amounts remitted overseas to stop offshoring jobs unnecessarily. I have to give this some more thought but I'm sure the field could be nicely skewed in local favour without any violations of trade treaties. Other countries do it and we would be fools not too. Plus renegotiate those treaties to be trade not interference in local standards.
You say other countries already do it!! Let's start copying other countries good ideas instead of their dud ones.! I thought that instead of the panel that small people could gain gold or silver stars for their performance, if they met the NZ owned criteria ie so that the money stays here and is paid to NZ workers. I think that would come after your application idea.
Just let local managers make the decisions and use local firms.
Joyce's centralised purchasing across government could only benefit large firms to the detriment of local firms – many of whom get subcontracted now for a pittance cause the contract holder has no staff in the town that needs the work down. In some cases as education has found local firms are refusing to do repair work on school buildings that leak, etc as an out of town, often Auckland firm, built the building in the first place.
Motels however are busy with out of town tradesman doing annual visits to clean air conditioning units…….
Well the article raises good points. So time for in or exhaling is not yet. Things have to change if we want change. When we can see it happening then it is time to relax a little. But time is of the essence.
I read this on Scoop the other day which illustrates how time can pass away like water under the bridge. And a meeting happens. More water downstream. Another meeting to discuss matters not encompassed at the first meeting. etc.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=132264 Five years of not getting us moving November 5, 2020 But its five year history shows that research and consultation is followed only by more of the same. Having asked us this year what we wanted for the Golden Mile, LGWM admits that it had also asked us last year, when “… Wellingtonians told us what they wanted to see on the mile that runs from Lambton Quay to Courtenay Place.”
We told them this year. We told them last year. And it was the same in 2018 – after prolonged public consultation in 2017, the LGWM programme director announced that
“We’ll use the feedback to help guide our work as we develop a recommended programme of investment.”
Sicily didn't – it ended up a pawn, and it could happen to us all these years later. We could end up like Sicily – in the middle with bigger polities fighting for possession of us. It didn't turn out well for Sicily. They got the Mafia didn't they with dominance over the people. I'd be thinking of Danilo Dolci rather than Archimedes.
"All major public contracts ive seen have local and iwi hire requirements."
Seen any monitoring or accountability to see whether it happens? MBIE don't even have people, until recently where there is a few, out in the regions to check. Think about who put in your fibre for instance.
In fact that could be true – less progressive measures wanted. I think that all are looking for some sort of stability. The governments state or central, have delivered them uncertainty, cities that have gone bankrupt which was unheard of, and the ugly face of neolib appears everywhere in some form.
With their religious bent they have bent and twisted themselves in many different ways, without finding the way less trod! And so gone backwards. I've just put a song from Oklahoma 1955 up. That sort of image of the past could be very beguiling. What has modernity done for us could be the thought. The government has messed too many nests and left what for the occupants?
That one new community case with no known connection to the border or any cases isn't alarming by itself. Especially since that person has apparently had a somewhat solitary lifestyle lately.
The scary question is who did they get it from, and who else has got it or is gonna get it from that unknown source.
This is our government under the neolib evil spell. People have to fit into whatever the malign agency that runs things rules. They are contracted by a very casual government (about ordinary people).
…"They put 20 women, closely confined, all of them double bunked, only out of their cell for a couple hours a day, which they can do their washing in a wing with no facilities to wash the clothes including their undergarments."
The inmates were forced to use a communal bath to wash towels and clothes before stringing the dripping items along their cell window ledges.
Taylor said the women could also choose to use their allotted four-minute daily shower to wash both themselves and belongings.
"This includes not only their clothes but towels and items of that nature…
If all that is true, or even part of it, i do not consider that is the way that prisons should be run. Do better NZ Government and whoever is in charge of Corrections, make a bloody nuisance of yourself to these humanoid managers and get them to execute properly; perhaps hara-kiri would be appropriate.
Georgia's secretary of state announced Wednesday that the state will conduct an audit of the 2020 presidential race, recounting by hand the millions of ballots cast in the state … Raffensperger's announcement comes as he has faced pressure from President Donald Trump's campaign for a recount, calls from fellow Georgia Republicans to resign and accusations of mismanaging the election process.
Earlier this week, the two GOP senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, fighting for reelection, demanded Raffensperger resign from office, accusing him without evidence of failing to "deliver honest and transparent elections."
Raffensperger said he expects the recount to be done in time for Georgia's certification of the presidential results, which has a November 20 deadline.
It's funny how "personal responsibility" is a sacred thing in the abstract, but the authorities are to blame when it is put to the test.
Anyone who's worked in a large office/apartment building knows what happens when there's a fire alarm … many people patiently wait in the allotted place, but many others don't, or even ignore the alarm completely. They are not physically prevented from standing at point A instead of point B. They are expected to show that "personal responsibility" that they crave.
I suppose the police and NZDF could be controlling every crowd, with powers to enforce, arrest, fine, etc. Whereupon there would be cries of "Dictator Jacinda", "nanny state" and other witless whines, usually from the same people who say "shambolic"… and "personal responsibility".
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
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MPI…near useless…if not ineffectual.
"Derek Robinson illegally used an electric cattle prodder on two collapsed, distressed steers, to force them out a chute and into the arena for a roping competition, at rodeos in Whangārei in 2016 and 2017."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018772381/northland-farmer-guilty-of-mistreating-animals-at-rodeo
Good that someone took action….
Good that someone took action….
Nothing will change unless people take action.
animal cruelty seems common in the far nth. in my short time living at whatuwhiwhi, two dog fighting rings were busted, kaitaia rodeo assoc were banned from having horses(?) and 100 cows were euthanised because the cocky was useless.there were other casual unthinking acts of animal cruelty that seemed common.
Were they collapsed, distressed steers? If they were, then that is bad treatment, the cattle prodding only made it worse. It seems a bit mixed up. The use of electric shock prodding should only be available to vets. But NZ has done away with limitations on many things, all that nuisance regulation, and most things are available to any jerk or jerkess, look at lasers and drones.
It should be remembered that have had cattle prodding electric jolts used on us in mental hospitals and regarded as legitimate treatment for interfering in patterns of suicidal behaviour, used illegitimately on people for just not behaving suitably.
The Far North has been another country, left to its own devices without government regional funding or interest for a long time. I hope this regional fund will have useful stuff for helping local business and jobs and Labour will see that it gets spent wisely this term.
The Far North has been another country, left to its own devices …
…and that's just the way we like it.
I hope this regional fund will have useful stuff for helping local business and jobs…
I am in the Far Far North…no shortage of jobs at all; horticultural development going gangbusters, traffic volumes increased to the point where urgent speed limit revision is required, holiday accommodation providers not complaining as workers are having to stay in campgrounds and B&Bs. Some local tradespeople would love to retire and go fishing but there's too much work…
Don't believe the doom and gloom reports the media .We're all good thanks.
I am in the Far North, and it is not all bad in a number of ways, but it can seem pretty bad, when you have the Mayor using a casting vote to stop Māori Wards! Mr Carter claimed a technical defence on that one, but the “Good ole Boys”, the white farmers and small businessmen of the North still like to think they run the place.
Traffic volume is up on East Coast (SH10) in particular due to the Mangamuka highway being closed!
There are things happening in the North like the massive Avocado developments set to rape the aquifers of the Aupouri Peninsula. Some of the Provincial Growth Projects are working out already if you scan the news and know a local community or two, and some are not, just Mr Jones hot air and patronage.
Yep, Carter's a hasbeen, should have relinquished the baubles long since. Quite of few of his mates in the Old Boys Club (and not all of the pale, male and stale persuasion) are definitely making hay from the horticultural developments…and boy have they been squealing…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/northland-aquifer-consent-delays-costing-jobs-avocado-firm-says/UMZYCF7ZMAROLBEYBPPLF6BSWA/
We're in the heart of the avo takeover zone, although we did secure a reasonable buffer. We've sat through both of the commissioner hearings about the Aquifer, and one of the reasons we wanted to settle here is because we are truly in awe at the depth of local knowledge and expertise deployed in the fight to protect not only the Te Aupouri aquifer but the wetlands and the waterways on this thin strip of Aotearoa.
To see work on the avo developments continuing unabated, you'd think the consents had already been granted. Just like last time.
Heartening to see that a couple of the iwi led developments have, or are in the process of, constructing dams and containment ponds to collect rain and surface water so they are not dependent on the suck and see from the Aquifer.
Things have changed somewhat: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/electroconvulsive-therapy/about/pac-20393894
'casual unthinking acts of animal cruelty'….like cooking and eating them…?
Not really cruel when they're dead and not like those other carnivores and omnivores that eat their food alive
Oh..!..apologies…I should have said 'kill,cook and eat'…and seriously..!…falling off my chair here..so it.'s not 'casual unthinking cruelty' to those animals to cook and eat them…as long as you don't actually kill them..?. .is this your p.o.v..?..so you shed all responsibilities for the cruelties done to them during their short brutish lives ..and their eventual killing..as long as said animal is inert/deceased when it gets to you.. eh..?..that is some serious washing of the hands you are doing there ..eh..?…but you aren't alone..you have just articulated it for the others..'cos 'unthinking' is the key word there..eh..?
You can say what you like about whatever you like, even when you miss the whole point of the comment and resort to making things up.
But ignoring all that, I'm still okay with killing and eating my food where possible – It's always been humane and without ever causing the animal to suffer, mainly out of respect to the quarry, and also, after all is said and done, stressed meat isn't tender meat.
As Weka has noted, there is more to be done around animal husbandry, which is probably why organic free range food is undoubtedly the best eating.
Your 'point' was that animals to animals are cruel..so it's ok that we are cruel to them…and what did I ‘make up’. and ‘humane’..eh?..that is some serious self,-delusion you have going on there…eh..?
Try another attempt at it? Or just stay with falsely attributing something that never existed in what I clearly wrote? Entirely up to you.
To help you decide, here's several points you will need to consider whilst addressing what I actually wrote rather that which you think I did.
Sometimes you are like a surreal comedy routine..that was one of them…I have this image of you attacking/chowing down on a variety of live animals…I'm glad you think it is good that you don't do that..heh..!..shine on! etc..
I didn't really expect you to address the actual comment made, even with some helpful consideration points in order for you to formulate a credible counter, but at least it's clear which one of us tried and which one was just trying it on.
The image is in your head, it is not real. Please stick to the written comments and avoid getting (too) personal, thanks.
How did the unfortunate creatures enter their deceased state one wonders?
Meat remains murder–sentient beings slaughtered against their will.
Quite a lot of assumption in that last sentence.
“slaughtered without their obvious consent” how does that sound then?
Ever been in an abattoir McFlock? they do not go willingly.
Still a house of cards resting on the nature and validity of "sentient"
Do you need a dictionary..?
Nope.
If they can't know what's going to happen, and if most of their actions are basic stimulus:response events rather than abstract understanding of their environment, and especially if they don't even have a demonstrable concept of "self", then yeah, it sure lowers the moral dilemma faced when looking at a juicy steak.
otoh, humans, for all their sentience, are often stupid enough to believe that animals don't suffer or feel things.
(I'm ok with things dying, we all have to do it sometime, and I think the vegan argument fails to appreciate the animals that have a good life. Much to be done around animal husbandry, and the OP is a good example of how bad we still are at this. Money matters more).
Sure, it can definitely go both ways. Assuming no pain and thereby being callous to distress at one end (not counting the obviously cruel pricks like the farm hand caught breaking tails – no point to that unless they feel pain), and at the other end assuming every cattle truck is the equivalent of sending people to a death camp.
No..it's sending animals to a death-camp ..no need to over-egg it..the horrors there are enough .no exaggerations needed..
most of NZ's meat eating involves suffering that we pretty much ignore. It's the middle ground that interests me, the extent to which we are willing to ignore or make change.
We do try to minimise the physical distress and pain, though, and much of the "suffering" described by the likes of phil seems to rely on cows being as sentient as people. As in having long term memory, understanding exactly what is going on, communicating with each other, the full "Bright Eyes"/"Animal Farm" scenario.
I have never thought that cows are as sentient as humans..so for you less/different sentience means it's ok to kill/eat them..?
Factory farming chickens, transporting sheep in trucks long distances to abattoirs are systems that have built in suffering. We're not that good at this tbh, and that's not even close to Phil's position.
I don't think most animals are sentient in the way you describe, but I don't think it's a black and white thing either. Obviously there are some species that are closer to what humans experience and others that are a long way from that. There is also a lot we still don't understand or perceive (ironic that the vegans dismiss the emerging science around plant communication and experience).
Our idea that most animals have no sentience (instead of sentience being a spectrum) allows us to do some pretty fucked up shit. I'm not talking the individuals who are cruel to animals so much as society and the systems we design (most of which could be changed).
Just like to note that this vegan is fascinated by the science around plant communication…
But again, the plants "communicating" is in the sense of "chemical release -> chemical response", from what I've read. Nothing like the abstract conversation we're having here.
As for stress, I suspect most NZ farmed animals have significantly-net-positive lives, regardless of whether they're aware of it or not.
The animals I actually worry about whether I should eat are cephalopods. Gorillas can use a mirror (have a sense of self), but I don't eat gorillas anyway. Whales can teach each other skills and most definitely communicate in a human sense, but I don't eat whales either. But I like squid rings, even if some octopusses and squid show similar signs of self-awareness and memory.
the point of bringing plants into the conversation (apart from having a pop at vegan hypocrisy) is that it's a spectrum. Where do we draw the line? How do we draw the line?
The other point is that science understands plant communication in a certain way at the moment, but I don't think anyone is saying there isn't more to learn, more that we haven't conceived of yet. I remember when science was saying that animals didn't have feelings. Anyone who's spent time with a pet cat or dog knows this is a nonsense.
What is there to 'appreciate'..?what am I missing..?…and that ' they had a good life'…(albeit much shortened from their natural life-span..roast lamb..?..anyone..?)..so it's ok if I eat them' is a retelling of the sue kedgely defence…the 'i only eat free range and organic..so it's ok'..(must be said with a self-satisfied tone'…)..I call that the ',I'm a good slave-owner!'-defence..and it is somewhat surprising how many of the arguments made in defence of human slavery..'rights' to own..mistreat..kill..the economic importance of…are used to justify the slavery of all other living creatures..(save for those we keep as pets..)..and of course how we are superior to them so we can do what we like to them…black slaves were deemed to be sub-human…those arguments did not justify human slavery..and neither do they justify animal slavery…and this too will pass..
Are you sure you're on to something there?
Humans have been rearing animals for eating for longer than slavery has existed.
slavery became widespread only with the invention of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution about 11,000 years ago.[54]
Husbandry has a long history, starting with the Neolithic revolution when animals were first domesticated, from around 13,000 BC onwards
Or is it a free range chicken or egg first thing?
And your point is..?
That calling "the ',I'm a good slave-owner!'-defence.."
in reference to "it's ok if I eat them' is a retelling of the sue kedgely defence…the 'i only eat free range and organic..so it's ok'.."
seems a bit silly since people are thought to have been rearing meat for food a couple of thousand years before slavery became a widespread thing.
It's like attributing cream doughnuts to some people being fat, even though some people were fat before cream doughnuts existed.
It's nothing like that at all.i really haven't got a fucken clue what you are banging on about ..heh..!..and how it has any relevance..
Do you mean the Elk that has been tailed by a pack of wolves for a couple of days before collapsing exhausted and then ripped apart alive? Or the deer felled with one shot totally oblivious to it's fate?
when you put it like that… 😉
Nature is a beast.
https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1326644710245601281
That's pretty unsettling even if a fantastic example showing the brutality of the natural world
Reminds me of a movie …
Eelien?
😀
Very good. Bravo 😆
Very good, McF.
I am trying to understand this situation.
The Reserve Bank is implementing a Funding for Lending Programme.
"The FLP is essentially a way of pumping cheap money into banks in the expectation they will pass it on to businesses and households."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/430358/reserve-bank-holds-cash-rate-at-0-point-25-percent
It is a long term stimulant going to a sector that is already hot. A sector that the Reserve Bank has just admitted it has failed to read:
"As recently as the August monetary policy statement, they were forecasting negative 7 percent house price inflation for the year ended December 2020," said Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens.
"The latest data is clearly showing that we're going to get something more like positive 9 so they've had a 16 percentage point surprise …"
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/430360/rbnz-caught-offguard-by-house-prices-economist
This font of wisdom reckons giving cheap money to Australian banks, less their handsome profit, makes that money available to developers, less their handsome profit, is the best way to control inflation and stimulate the economy.
How disconnected is the
LandlordLabour Party from the rest of us? Increase benefits, spend the money at that end of the economy and try trickle up as a monetary theory.As someone pointed out here recently, (sorry forgot who said it) Ardern is Blair in high heels.
It seems to me they are making it very attractive for investors / landlords to purchase another rental property.
Consider that they refuse loans to Jane/Joe Sixpack who have a. received the wage subsidy or work for company that applied for the wage subsidy due to 'not having a secure job', it seems that yes, all this Kabuki is for the profit of investors.
It may not be the best way to 'stimulate' the (real) economy but it may be considered the best way to stabilise the banking and exchange rate system …..those have far more potential to impact the economy than house prices (bad as it is).
It is all however a can kicking exercise and the end of the road approaches..
So the 'real' economy is where the humans operate. If alleviating poverty is really a concern, spend money there.
The other economy is one of theories, exchange rates and other fictions. Fictions these gurus have shown time and time again to not understand.
gsays so right. Let's get people having a life and be able to sing about what they will be able to get when they spend their wages from their regular job. This is a nice song and some fun for us ordinary folks upwardly mobile times – not the K economy! With tapdancing. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfywkvRq4Ns
the 'other' economy is not a fiction…it is the basis of trade and we dont (and cannot) operate in a removed bubble, or certainly not in any way we would recognise.
Soon the entire country will be wondering with you! Grant's rationalisation this morning won't be effective – yes, they're doing their job as specified by the neoliberalism ideology, but so what??
If the Labour party were true to their utterances in 2016 – child poverty, neo liberalism experiment has failed most of us, then the Reserve Bank wouldn't need to show its profound lack of imagination.
Yes taxes on petrol always went on straight away to stop too big a rush.
But hey perhaps we could treat ourselves to a banner headline here at the Standard and a small story. Something like Standard Posters wanted LVR to remain on Investors .
Give ourselves some street cred out there based on our previous discussions.
If not, why not?
Feel free to doing a Guest Post but never claim or pretend that you’re speaking for or on behalf of Standard Posters; you can only speak for yourself. The Standard is not a living entity and does not have a voice as such, let alone a single voice.
The RBNZ needs to ensure that home owner occupiers continue to be able to access their mortgages as interest only for several more years at least. Why should they be pushed back into the rental market when they can afford the likely to be lessor amount of interest. Saves on accomodation supplements too.
Perhaps they could even cut owner occupiers a deal where if they have a minimal deposit they can do interest only for a few years.
This lending should be targeted at keeping owner occupiers on interest only if they need it and giving interest only loans to owner occupier purchasing on a minimal LVR. Likely to actually reduce government expenditure by unwinding in some small way the accommodation subsidies straight to the landlord racket that goes on.
If the accommodation subsidies could be gradually phased out – gradually! – that would be good.
Our local Council has just sold off for $2 million? $20m? previously owned housing for pensioners etc. to a social housing entity. I don't know how that will go. I can't forget the difficulties of the age 90 parents of a commenter here. And I have read reports of others who can't get their Housing Manager to show any interest in them as people deserving a pleasant home.
I can't see why housing of a simple sort, adequately maintained shouldn't be in a Council's remit. They take responsibility for sewerage and greywater and drinking water which usually comes from houses. People live in and need houses for which the services are provided, so why aren't houses for needy people part of the chain of requirement from Councils? The comfortably off can go into retirement villages and laugh, and ride bikes, and swim and it's eternal fun and stimulation for them. The poor have to rely on getting lucky perhaps.
Local Govt. housing should become part of the mix, as it once was, as social housing is hopefully reinstated in this country. But with the PM’s attitude to beneficiaries who knows if that is going to happen!
It just became trendy in line with neo liberal managerialism in the late 80s/90s, for Councils to flog off their pensioner housing. Which was a great shame as that seemed such a dignified activity for local authorities to be involved in.
To be fair councils were put in an invidious position with private landlords being subsidised through tax breaks and accommodation supplement and state housing subsidised through the state – even with successive governments taking out massive dividends from poor peoples rent and deferring maintenance and not building new homes as a result.
The refusal to assist councils to maintain and upgrade housing alongside appointing right wing wankers as mayors to sell off council housing e.g. John Banks while at the same time shifting the burden of response to homelessness to them was pretty fucked up.
In order to lift rents and to allow tenants to get accomadation supplement they were forced to transfer housing to hands off entities – which then set the houses up nicely to be sold off.
The original accord between councils and central government that the councils would take some responsibility for housing elderly and disabled while the state picked up the rest, including working class was broken by Roger Douglas and his ilk by starting with getting rid of worker housing in the railways, MOW, education, police and so on and has simply got worse ever since then.
I'm sure some councils have ultimately decided to sell off as a fuck you to central government – many have asked for help to upgrade and maintain their housing which ratepayers were effectively subsidising. Neither National nor Labour have helped councils.
All those councils who have held onto their housing should be rewarded by getting a big infrastructure payment for upgrading and building more. They should be helped and encouraged. The current model being used by Labour is Thatchers and the iwi and church groups are lapping it up – just as churches did in the past with poor houses and homes for unmarried mothers.
Cartoon idea: two panels…one showing j. ardern standing next to her opened-door (overflowing) fridge…the other showing a poor person standing next to their opened (empty) fridge….the banner reading 'the ardern years: year four'…
Especially if the 2nd fridge is a chilly bin in the boot of a car.
Rather uncouth of Bannon, even if merely stage rhetoric. Dunno why he feels the need to do it, given that Trump fired him & called him "sloppy". Get a life, dude!
Once the various vaccines coming on stream get mass usage, first thing to look for will be effectiveness of preventing infection. Expect mass media exposure of failures. Then a focus on infection rates amongst antivaxers. Darwinian culling may happen.
Dennis Frank anti vaxxers with out Obama Care would be more than Ironc.
You come across as somebody who’s proud of their education, culture, and general knowledge based on a lifelong subscription to Reader’s Digest.
Real estate is out of control.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123367067/reserve-bank-guaranteed-housing-boom-will-continue-over-summer-economist-says
Just the time for a stamp duty for investment purchases. Should've been a CGT of course.
Day late and a dollar short – if anything happens at all.
Had a few real estate agents ring out of the blue in the last 10 days and say that they have someone who wants to put a offer on our house (which is not for sale). I have told them very impolitely to eff off and get a real job. Every money-grubbing scum-sucker about the place is in a high state of euphoria.
I feel exactly the same. Get a glossy 6 page booklet with photos and info of local real estate – goes immediately into the recycling bin.
Here's an insight into how the Trump stonewalling strategy is dividing the rightist establishment:
.
Professor Jack Vowles briefly explores a few 2020 Flow-of-the-Vote stats from Vote Compass (the various swings & counter-swings going on beneath the surface of net vote movement at the Election):
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/politics/where-did-nationals-votes-go
Emphasises most National-to-Labour switchers in 2020 were self-identifying Centrists whose motivation was not, in fact, to keep the Greens out or prevent a Wealth Tax (indeed, two-thirds of these Nat switchers appear to be in favour of a Wealth Tax).
.
Meanwhile, based on Vowles %s … I've calculated the 2020 Raw Vote flow.
Of Labour's 1,443,546 votes in 2020 …. 780k were Lab Loyalists who had voted for the Party in 2017 as well … an extraordinary 270k were National Deserters (ie had voted Nat in 2017 & switched to Lab 2020) … an equally remarkable 175k had been attracted out of Non-Voting by Labour in 2020 (they'd stayed at home in 2017) … 72k were switchers from the Greens (which, in turn, suggests an on-going massive churn in support between the two main Parties of the Left … quite big numbers swinging from Green to Labour & even greater numbers moving in the opposite direction) … and 65k from NZF deserters (representing more than a third of NZF’s 2017 support base)..
Of NZF's 186,706 voters in 2017 … 65k moved to Labour in 2020 …. just 35k remained Loyal to NZF … 26k swung into Non-Voting … 22k swung to National (little more than a third of the number flowing to Labour) … & 15k swung to ACT (so much for the theory – resting solely on anecdotal evidence & always a bit dodgy IMO, that the Gun Lobby's re-alignment with ACT had caused the lion's share of NZF losses in Polls this year).
Of National's 1,152,075 voters in 2017 … just over 620k remained Loyal … 270k swung to Labour (can't stress enough how unprecedented those numbers are) … 160k to ACT (there was some speculation in the immediate wake of the Election as to who were more numerous – Nat-to-Lab switchers or Nat-to-ACT switchers … well, easily the former) … just 35k former (2017) Nats went into Non-Voting in 2020.
Thanks for that – interesting in your first para the switchers seem to be in favour of important remedial moves that the left would like the gummint to introduce. Like -'I'm higher taxes and I'll be at your service where most efficacious today' with a firm handshake and a steady grin. 'How nice to meet you, and won't you come right in', would be the response from almost all of us who still have our feet on the ground.
Thanks for that s.fish…very useful…
Fascinating. I wonder what Labour strategists looking at this will be thinking. Most likely it's how to hang on to as many of the 270k Nat switchers as possible, and convert the 175k 2017 non-voters into habitual Lab voters. And what policy or messaging conflicts (if any) are involved in doing those two things simultaneously.
The churn back and forth with the Greens won't figure as a major concern – having permanently lost your obstreperous left to another party that has no real alternative options, is actually a comfortable place to be.
Ooh that presses on a painful tender spot AB. Give me a double rainbow to look at any time when such unpalatable possible truths crop up. Look a double rainbow – what can it mean?
72k were switchers from the Greens (which, in turn, suggests an on-going massive churn in support between the two main Parties of the Left … quite big numbers swinging from Green to Labour & even greater numbers moving in the opposite direction)
I'd suspected that bothways thing. Would be interesting to compare the % of the electorate that moved each way!
Discouraging if it means the base support for the Greens hovers at the MMP threshold. When I joined after the 1990 election where they got 7% I assumed the movement would build public support. I was wrong.
I have to confess to jumping between Labour and the Greens and voted Labour this time because I was so scared National might get in and the Greens would be below the 5% threshhold. Daft in retrospect but my biggest fear was that National would play silly buggers with our successful covid lockdown.
Don't be too hard on yourself Dennis – you weren't badly wrong.
It's been an unsurprisingly bumpy ride. Compare the record of voter support for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand to that of the German Greens whose support was somewhere between 5% and 10.7% from 1983 to 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_90/The_Greens#Federal_Parliament_(Bundestag)
1990: 6.85% for the Green party
1993: 18% for the Alliance (New Labour/Democratic/Mana Motuhake/Green)
1996: 10.1% for the Alliance
1999: 5.2% for the Green party
2002: 7.0%
2005: 5.3%
2008: 6.7%
2011: 11.1%
2014: 10.7%
2017: 6.3%
2020: 7.9%
Yeah but I was anticipating being up to 20% & more after 30 years. So I feel I was badly wrong! Few voters believe global warming warrants empowering the Greens.
Even that they are there means there has to be some main party attention to those issues. If they got 0% because the job was done I could be happy about that.
How might ‘the Green party‘ persuade more voters to shift (some of) their focus away from short-term self-interest? They've already tried a number of things – keep the faith and keep trying, I reckon. The need for greater societal and environment resilience becomes more obvious with every extreme weather event, GFC or pandemic – 20% might yet be possible.
Yes, you've comprehensively identified the most relevant part of political psychology in the situation.
How might ‘the Green party‘ persuade more voters to shift (some of) their focus away from short-term self-interest?
In a word, advocacy. Persist in that. Use the technique the ad industry uses (repetition of message). You know the reason the Greens aren't doing it?
At the risk of irritating you, I'll point to a popular leftist syndrome. Assuming something is so evident that people know it already.
You can see how the link twixt climate change and politics implies the latter gets used to deal with the former, eh? Failed in geopolitics in the early years of the millennium. Then what? Nothing. No plan B.
Blame the Greens for giving up & joining the major parties in recycling 19th century politics as if the global problem can be avoided? Yes, I do. My membership renewal request has already arrived in the Windows trash bin…
Yes, "persist" – keep the faith and keep trying.
‘The Greens‘, you and I are responsible for our decisions and their consequences. Making the best decisions we can (as we see things) and then acting on them is all any of us can do.
For example, it was a good political decision to strongly contest the Auckland Central electorate. Had it been my decision, I would have partitioned more resources towards garnering the party vote – just as well it wasn't my decision.
At the risk of irritating you, do you believe that "Assuming something is so evident that people know it already." is a particularly leftist syndrome? I can understand why it might be convenient to believe such, depending on the axe you grind.
No, tbh, it's equally evident amongst rightists. To elaborate, the original reason I decided to be neither left nor right in 1971 was realisation that the left were as establishment-focused as the right. Both wrong.
The yippies, my role models, originated as leftists but rebelled. They tried to create a third way but failed to follow through with a rationale for doing so.
Since that time I've tried to become aware of the psychology that drives political activism. Made plenty of progress with that but would prefer academics did social research to establish it as a discipline.
The thing about assumptions is that they are tacit, yet they warp decision-making. You know how sails catch the wind, so sailors rely primarily on them, yet ignoring currents in the water will get you off track fast. An holistic view includes the tacit drivers with the affecting circumstances in predicting likely behaviour…
Knowledge versus activism – horses for courses, or leading the activist horse to knowledge? Knowledge-based activism is the ideal, IMHO.
https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/opinion/teach-subject-knowledge-not-activism
I suspect a few (thousand) academics are on to it Dennis.
Couldn't begin to guess how many of them might benefit from your experience and insights, and vice versa, but it must be a rewarding if challenging field of behavioural research.
I content myself with investigating the biochemistry underlying bacterial behaviour – no psychology, so no worries
Indeed.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/anne-salmond-beyond-the-binary
An interesting in depth article in stuff in The Press today by Steve Kilgallon. Buy The Press and see it – Ministry shuts the door on small firms o or it will no doubt be on PressReader sometime later. It pictures the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (or MoBIE as I cynically call it) and talks about procurement rules in NZ. This is a rather long discursive comment a bit tl:dr, but the subject is important so don't miss The Press article as an informative and important read.
It is about the way that government operations close the door on small NZ firms wishing to interact and do business with government and instead seeing a near impenetrable door behind which deals are done with large multi-national companies. The door is not a portcullis, which at least can be seen through. It is a barrier that it seems you have to throw yourself against many times before anything can happen.
(Probably the small-biz warriors vent their frustrations by playing those on-line games where you traverse hostile territory and look for supply points where you can gain health, weapons, food and water supplies or invisibility cloaks. After they have gained some mana on the game's league table they can go into the real world and try once again.)
We in NZ must fight for our survival. Once blasted Labour Lites opened the gates and let the horse of Troy in, the myriad of financial minions have poured out and will smother us. (They can not even be compared to leaches, which are valued for medical treatments.) Also we have been prevailed upon to sign up to agreements ensuring little us the right to trade with the world's billions. Equality eh, the level playing field, and a number of other folksy expressions that veil the truth, that we have let down our fellow citizens and our country's sovereignty to enable access to all the pretty things and manufactured that can be obtained overseas.
If you remember the folk tale from childhood, the young woman could marry the prince if she could turn straw into gold fibres, and Rumplestiltskin enabled that in exchange for her relinquishing her first-born son. That was only avoided by a lucky break. Smart people don't rely on luck. I mention this simple childish tale because it only appears simple, and we seem to have a mentality of children. It is right on the nail. We need straw, gold is an extra, and we need to have work for all NZs, not unhappy disenfranchised anomic drifters. We should not be manipulated by Australian and other banks, and by pension funds from all the world, and wealth-creating moguls from everywhere who will suck us dry of every resource if there is money in it. This is war, in a mild form, perhaps it is The Phony War of the Early 21st Century.
Past centuries' history shows us that our human behaviour tends to be cyclical. I thought of the Punic Wars ending in 146 BC. We could be in Sicily's place in a modern similar war. So get smart in our thinking and doing for ourselves.
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars between 264 and 146 BC fought by the states of Rome and Carthage. The First Punic War broke out in Sicily in 264 BC as a result of Rome's expansionary attitude combined with Carthage's proprietary approach to the island. Wikipedia
Preston in the UK was looking at strategies to rebuild it's local economy and one of the things places that received state money like the hospitals and schools did was break down the size of the contracts so that locals could compete easily. It's made a steady difference.
But hey this is Mobie – rumour around the 'hood suggests they long for the neo rightist days and act accordingly. A decent restructure would not go amiss – a lot of mid aged managers have never operated outside that sort of frame work and need fresh leads.
IMHO labour has been very remiss in not replacing a lot of nationals appointments just leaving them in place. More on tht some other time.
I've had a good read of the article. Mobie could have an application system that you can apply to join at any time and all you have to have is no negative strikes. e.g you register as overseas owned or local, you follow labour law, have climate change policies in place plus health and welfare options available to your staff or are based in a country that has these welfare and ethical settings, pay your Paye, pay local income taxes and ACC in proportion to your trading here , some requirements about the amounts remitted overseas to stop offshoring jobs unnecessarily. I have to give this some more thought but I'm sure the field could be nicely skewed in local favour without any violations of trade treaties. Other countries do it and we would be fools not too. Plus renegotiate those treaties to be trade not interference in local standards.
You say other countries already do it!! Let's start copying other countries good ideas instead of their dud ones.! I thought that instead of the panel that small people could gain gold or silver stars for their performance, if they met the NZ owned criteria ie so that the money stays here and is paid to NZ workers. I think that would come after your application idea.
Just let local managers make the decisions and use local firms.
Joyce's centralised purchasing across government could only benefit large firms to the detriment of local firms – many of whom get subcontracted now for a pittance cause the contract holder has no staff in the town that needs the work down. In some cases as education has found local firms are refusing to do repair work on school buildings that leak, etc as an out of town, often Auckland firm, built the building in the first place.
Motels however are busy with out of town tradesman doing annual visits to clean air conditioning units…….
Inhale into a paper bag for a bit.
All major public contracts ive seen have local and iwi hire requirements.
MBIE arent major capex procurers usually.
Well the article raises good points. So time for in or exhaling is not yet. Things have to change if we want change. When we can see it happening then it is time to relax a little. But time is of the essence.
I read this on Scoop the other day which illustrates how time can pass away like water under the bridge. And a meeting happens. More water downstream. Another meeting to discuss matters not encompassed at the first meeting. etc.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=132264
Five years of not getting us moving November 5, 2020
But its five year history shows that research and consultation is followed only by more of the same. Having asked us this year what we wanted for the Golden Mile, LGWM admits that it had also asked us last year, when “… Wellingtonians told us what they wanted to see on the mile that runs from Lambton Quay to Courtenay Place.”
We told them this year. We told them last year. And it was the same in 2018 – after prolonged public consultation in 2017, the LGWM programme director announced that
Your analogy… I don't quite see how Sicily benefitted from Roman invasion, and did not those Roman bastards slaughter Archimedes?
Sicily didn't – it ended up a pawn, and it could happen to us all these years later. We could end up like Sicily – in the middle with bigger polities fighting for possession of us. It didn't turn out well for Sicily. They got the Mafia didn't they with dominance over the people. I'd be thinking of Danilo Dolci rather than Archimedes.
"All major public contracts ive seen have local and iwi hire requirements."
Seen any monitoring or accountability to see whether it happens? MBIE don't even have people, until recently where there is a few, out in the regions to check. Think about who put in your fibre for instance.
Here's a familiar theme in this Independent article:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-biden-cabinet-b1721241.html
Apparently, voters wanted less progressive measures, and more of the same old. Just like the NZ Labour excuse this time round.
In fact that could be true – less progressive measures wanted. I think that all are looking for some sort of stability. The governments state or central, have delivered them uncertainty, cities that have gone bankrupt which was unheard of, and the ugly face of neolib appears everywhere in some form.
With their religious bent they have bent and twisted themselves in many different ways, without finding the way less trod! And so gone backwards. I've just put a song from Oklahoma 1955 up. That sort of image of the past could be very beguiling. What has modernity done for us could be the thought. The government has messed too many nests and left what for the occupants?
With Senate too tight for numbers, and plenty of marginal Congress seats, you cant pull them out to be in Cabinet.
So they will need older or non-elected Cabinet heads.
Shock maybe even public service heads!
The well isn't dry.
https://twitter.com/jbendery/status/1326301582607183874
There's a pretty good argument that Arizona going for Biden and Kelly owes a lot to the Native American vote.
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/2020-us-election-current-events.11439/page-3#post-242594
https://twitter.com/NewshubBreaking/status/1326666346407452672
That one new community case with no known connection to the border or any cases isn't alarming by itself. Especially since that person has apparently had a somewhat solitary lifestyle lately.
The scary question is who did they get it from, and who else has got it or is gonna get it from that unknown source.
The best people.
https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1326656808497319937
This is our government under the neolib evil spell. People have to fit into whatever the malign agency that runs things rules. They are contracted by a very casual government (about ordinary people).
…"They put 20 women, closely confined, all of them double bunked, only out of their cell for a couple hours a day, which they can do their washing in a wing with no facilities to wash the clothes including their undergarments."
The inmates were forced to use a communal bath to wash towels and clothes before stringing the dripping items along their cell window ledges.
Taylor said the women could also choose to use their allotted four-minute daily shower to wash both themselves and belongings.
"This includes not only their clothes but towels and items of that nature…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430428/auckland-region-women-s-corrections-facility-rejects-inmate-claims-about-broken-facilities
If all that is true, or even part of it, i do not consider that is the way that prisons should be run. Do better NZ Government and whoever is in charge of Corrections, make a bloody nuisance of yourself to these humanoid managers and get them to execute properly; perhaps hara-kiri would be appropriate.
Petty, needy little man .
https://twitter.com/kylieatwood/status/1326686604778475527
Maybe correspondence to Biden could be resent in a secure way somewhere else.
I saw something about Trump wanting to have his own TV station. What would he call it? He would become so absorbed in Biden and his policies.
Muppets or Keystone Cops ?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/123378320/covid19-miq-guests-mingled-with-tenants-of-apartment-linked-to-community-case
It's funny how "personal responsibility" is a sacred thing in the abstract, but the authorities are to blame when it is put to the test.
Anyone who's worked in a large office/apartment building knows what happens when there's a fire alarm … many people patiently wait in the allotted place, but many others don't, or even ignore the alarm completely. They are not physically prevented from standing at point A instead of point B. They are expected to show that "personal responsibility" that they crave.
I suppose the police and NZDF could be controlling every crowd, with powers to enforce, arrest, fine, etc. Whereupon there would be cries of "Dictator Jacinda", "nanny state" and other witless whines, usually from the same people who say "shambolic"… and "personal responsibility".