Nakba Day marks the day in 1948 when over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes and lands my Israeli colonists.
This Sunday Nakba Day is especially poignant coming as it does after the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh, who dedicated her life to documenting the ongoing persecution of the Palestinians by the Israeli State. And was silenced forever by the occupation foreces.
Even the most ferocious advocates of constitutional monarchy would struggle to explain why a bedazzled hat should get its own car so that an elected parliament can get on with its business. https://t.co/39gQV28FL9
Have you never been to Te Papa or Wellington Hospital and stopped to put your hand on the great pounamu boulder in one or other of those foyers? Or been moved to tears in front of Roimata Pounamu, Tears on Greenstone, the largest jade (nephrite) structure in the Southern Hemisphere, at Waiouru's National Army Museum? https://www.armymuseum.co.nz/visit/exhibitions/memorial-area-tears-on-greenstone/
Symbolism thing given the circumstances, I would think.
Obviously a waste of money as imagine it is a replica used for media, so doesn't need the security, but kind of understandable if you happen to be into the royals.
Following advanced war strategy that seems to have been gleaned by watching episodes of Blackadder goes forth the Russians are making multiple unsuccessful attempts to lay a pontoon bridge across the Siverskyi Donets river in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian troops in the Donbas.
The rinse and repeat strategy for the Ukrainians appears to be to allow the Russians to lay down a pontoon bridge and get some troops and armour across. The pound the pontoon bridge with artillery, cutting off the troops that have just crossed and causing massive Russian losses on both sides of the river. And, just as in the Blackadder episode, the Russians appear to think that doing the same thing again gives them the element of surprise because no-one would expect them to be so stupid again.
Russia can't blame the west for their appalling performance in this war. It is the brainless strategy and tactics from the Russians more than anything else that explains why things are going so badly for them.
This is a horrible war, but this represents genuine innovation and lateral thinking in IT & GIS
I would reccommend reading the entire Trent Telenko tweet roll, but TL;DR is as follows:
"…Ukraine has developed and refined a groundbreaking artillery targeting solution that is, in many ways, better than anything else out there. It’s not U.S. tech. It’s not Israeli tech. It’s homegrown.
At the heart of it is Ukraine’s “GIS Art for Artillery” software package, written by Yaroslav Sherstyuk — one of many talented earth observation / geospatial (GIS) specialists working in Ukraine.
Sherstyuk's software is reminiscent of Uber or Lyft's taxi software. It’s a true distributed software environment that assigns targets to the nearest gun, mortar, rocket launcher, drone or SF team.
The software can coordinate targeting among a distributed group of multiple guns, with multiple trajectories, spanning a whole front, all focused on hitting one target at one time.
Just like Uber can get you a ride much faster than calling a cab company switchboard, “GIS Art for Artillery” can dramatically reduce the time “from call to trigger pull” — from around 20 minutes, to around 30 seconds (!)…"
This is going to be a long thread🧵 on Ukraine's unique 21st century fighting style based on Uber style C3I software, why Western intelligence is plug ignorant of it due to CROWDSTRIKE cybersecurity firm, & the implications of SpaceX's Starlink satcom for the future…
This is not the only example of Russians doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For instance, they keep sending ships across to Snake Island, just off the Ukrainian coast, and the Ukrainians keep hitting them.
That is an interesting article, btw. I had the impression that the Ukrainians were a lot more accurate with their artillery, though hard to know whether it was just selection bias.
Ukraine's 'GIS Art for Artillery' app combined with Starlink actually gives the Ukrainian military measurably better than US Military standard artillery command and control.
The Ukraine War is the first Starlink War & the side with Starlink is beating the side without.
37/
There are a lot of implications in that thought.
Now comes the kicker. When the lasercom equipped SpaceX Gen 1.5 & 2.0 satellites come on-line.
38/
The ability to move huge amounts of bandwidth with zero ground based infrastructure will utterly subvert the ability of national governments & corporations to block or surveil Starlink communications.
39/
The only way the US Government will be able to monitor Starlink communications is with @elonmusk active cooperation.
The power shift involved in that fact is…profound…and something for another thread
40/
Meanwhile, a whole lot of very powerful people are going to have to rethink their place in the world as the Starlink juggernaut remakes the world by helping Ukraine win "The 1st Starlink War."
I don't think Russia can afford to lose this. So how does one translate the words "fat man" and "little boy" into Russian. Perhaps the Ukranians are being too smart for their own good.
[Please check and correct your user name in the next comment, thanks]
Whether Russia can afford to lose or not. Russia are losing.
Mikesh,your reference to the nuclear weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and your slight that by winning the Ukrainians are being too smart for their own good.
Your claim that Russia cannot afford to lose, and your implication that if the Russian Federation cannot win with conventional weapons they will turn to nuclear weapons, and so Ukraine would be better to surrender now if they were smart.
Spoken like a true bully.
If Germany had had the nuclear weapon and threatened to use it if they Allies were to intervene in stopping the Nazi genocide and occupation of Europe. Would the Allies leave the Nazis to commit genocide and occupation?
I don't think so.
Everyone knows that you appease a bully, their violence and intimidation and blackmail will only increase.
We now have the highest petrol price we've ever had.
By itself this could sink this government, let alone the supermarkets.
What is particularly dark for those who want a carbon Zero future is that the rush-hour traffic grind is still there, indicating that there is very little elasticity in total petrol use at all.
Yep. PT options are simply not present (or ridiculously time consuming and therefore not practicable) for the majority of the people currently driving in Auckland's rush hour.
Of course, there are some (SAHM or nanny driving Tristan and Athena to private school) for whom neither time nor money are an issue.
But the majority of the people on the roads simply have no other alternative.
PT, where it's viable to use, is already significantly cheaper than driving a single-user car and paying for parking in the CBD.
Many many children if not most in akl are driven to their public schools too and elsewhere, as literally that is the cheaper option, and faster in many cases. And to be fair, there are also walking buses, car pooling etc. But a nice cheap shot at those that must be the reason for the problem we have, Stay at home Mothers (SAHM) and the kids they take to school for whom money and time may or may not be an issue, or is an issue and they are taking the kids to school before continuing on to work because they are too poor to be a Stay at home Mother. Also, sperm donators also drive their kids to school, and many do walk/bus.
The fact is that AKL has public transport and while it could be better and more varied it is not a bad coverage, but it is too expensive, and does not run on time most of the time. Which makes it unattractive if you have to be in school or work on time. In fact, it can be a detriment to ones job prospects if they are dependend on public transport. 🙂
And Yes, yes, i know the half price fare…..lol, set to expire in a few days, still waiting on the glorious announcement that this will be extended for another three month, while the fare structure should be overhauled and reconsidered and re-thought.
Set public transport at 1 NZD each – per trip, advertise the heck out of that, and watch kids may tell mum that they rather take the bus with their mates or Mum tell the bigger kids to take the bus dear. If they live in an area that is served and with a good time table.
Both cost for PT and availability of PT are the result of decades of not giving a shit by official on all level. By everyone, a nice buslane here and there is not a fix in a town that is huge and has over a million + people living there.
But hey, buy an electric car if you are rich enough, you will get a nice juicy several thousand dollar subsidy so that that Stay at Home Mother of Athena and Tristan can now drive teir children to private school in a tax payer subsidized EV. Now that is winning!
And were it is viable to use, it is ONLY significantly cheaper using PT then driving a single user car if only one person is in that car. And even then, depending on the time used – if you were to apply the 21.20 NZD(plus HP, SP, KWS) min wage per hour spend in traffic in a bus or in a train from Hamilton that only leaves twice a day, you might be still better of using a car, single serve.
disclaimer: have no car, never had a car, walked from Grey Lynn to New Market or Down town as it was faster. Have used bus for all other travel if needed. Rode a bicycle in Auckland in 98 when it was unfashionable and Lycra was still unheard of in NZ.
Sabine. That wasn't intended to be a cheap shot – but a recognition that for some families neither time nor money are a deterrent to driving.
In Auckland, at least in the city and suburbs (recognize that 'Auckland' also encompasses a significant rural area) – most kids can walk or bus to school. There is an extensive school bus network (my son uses it regularly), and primary schools (at least) are mostly within reasonable walking distance for the kids in their zone.
And, just saying – none of the kids I know who use PT to go to school would 'prefer' it over being driven….
Of course, if you are out of zone – then your transport needs may vary.
Auckland's bus system (which is most of the PT) only works if you are travelling into the CBD (or stopping along the route). It's pretty useless if you're going elsewhere – and a heck of a lot of people are going 'elsewhere' – especially with the hollowing out of the CBD post Covid and with the CRL disruptions.
In Auckland, unless you have 'free' parking at your work – you'd have to have 2-3 people in the car for driving (including CBD parking and petrol costs – but excluding depreciation – since no one counts that anyway) to be cheaper than PT.
However, the 'one-person' driving trips is significant – since it's the number of them that we continually have drummed in our ears as examples of 'selfish car drivers'. No one is interviewing these drivers to see if there are (realistic) alternatives….
My disclaimer: I have a car. Drive to work (15 min against the traffic) because there are no viable PT options across suburbs in Auckland. When I worked in the CBD I used PT regularly. My son uses PT to go to school (unless he's taking the bari sax – in which case I drive him)
At the moment the same people that can afford neither a car or the bus are subsidizing the very expensive green washed EV cars for the rich. Just saying.
I lived in Auckland and i worked in Auckland. I know Auckland. I am also raised on public transport so don't have the obsession that kiwis have with their cars to the point where they feel they are incomplete if they don't have one.
As for Stay at home Mums, or Mum who work, Woman just can't do it correctly so for some. Drive your kids to school – lazy polluting rich mum, don't drive your kids to school – lazy poor mum. Never mind that i would guess most women drive their kids to school and then themselves to work. And many do a hybrid version of kids take themselves and sometimes are driven to school – and that is irrespective of income.
What about the one person driving trips of men to the booze store? Or to the pup? or the rugby game? Could they not take the bus? How many people drive to the dairy? Do you need to drive to the supermarket? Or do you need to do that holiday trip with the boat and the gadgets to go cycling several hundreds of kilometres from where one lives to dash around a mountain bike ruining some lovely mountainside?
If we really want to be serious we need to make public transport cheap, fast, often, safe, – even at night time, specifically for those that are not be-penised, and that is what we don't do. We would need to build bus shelters, run buses every 10 min during rush hour and every 20 min for the rest of the day. Maybe run smaller shuttles during the low use times etc. Have decent drivers that are trained, actually know the stops on their route and who are paid a decent wage. But that thinking is not yet being done out lout. WE celebrate a train that runs twice a day and costs up to 30 NZD half price for both trips or 60 NZD full price for both trips from Hamilton to AKL and that does not include kids, it is cheaper and faster to drive a bloody car then. https://www.tehuiatrain.co.nz/fares/
But we really believe that tinkering on the edges with full price – unaffordable to anyone who is not in full time position well over the min wage, is the way to go and that is why we are here in this postion. Not because some men and non men n use their private vehicle the way they see fit or must.
So personally i believe that the fault of the public transport misery in AKL and the rest of NZ for that matter is not the fault of an individual that may be too rich for some, or too lazy for some others, but the fault of Polititans that have no vision, no guts, no spine, and above all no idea of how to get something like this even up and running. We like cheap band aids, and that is what we get in all cases.
A good percentage of children are not driven by car to school and use other modes of transport. Why would it be cheaper to drive your child to school if you have a School Bus that does the same thing and you won’t even have to get out of your PJs?
I think there are 2 things going on here.
Convenience. It's just easier for Mum (and it usually is Mum) to drive the kids, than organize them to get up on time for the bus. [I speak from experience – the leave-the-house-to-catch-the-bus-deadline is a constant struggle in my household]
Stranger danger. Parents (especially upper-middle-class parents) have had stranger danger drummed into them as a huge and significant risk – which shapes their willingness to let their kids out of their sight in public.
Real-life story. When my son was 6 he asked me to let him walk home alone from the school bus stop – about a 5 minute walk. Up to then, I'd been meeting him as he had to cross a major road. I agreed, and we decided I'd shadow him the first time, to make sure he was safe crossing the intersection. He demonstrated excellent safety skills (so cute! Mama heart beating with pride)- and I was happy for him to fly solo. In that first fortnight – I must have had 20 calls from concerned parents and friends asking me if I knew he was walking home alone – with the very strong subtext being that I was a bad mother for letting him do this.
Stranger-danger is a thing but how and when are our children meant to get the social skills to navigate safely and survive in ‘the jungle’? Are we going to drop them off and pick them up from uni, from work, and from rugby practice forever? Of course not!
Oh, I agree that kids need to develop life skills- and it's best to do that within reasonably expanding boundaries from the time they are small.
I'm just pointing out what's going on in the parents' minds.
FWIW – I think stranger danger is way overhyped – kids are statistically at hugely greater risk from family or close personal friends – but that's not a point that's easy to make 😉
Agreed. Some parents though are not doing their children any favours by being over-protective and warping [Edit: I meant wrapping] them in cotton wool. And I’m not referring to just physical protection either. With the increased use of and time spent on-line I believe that people’s social/people skills will deteriorate. Swipe left or swipe right, that’s the question
I also believe that people & society have become less tolerant and considerate of others because of these diminishing social interactions and skills.
"I also believe that people & society have become less tolerant and considerate of others because of these diminishing social interactions and skills."
It would appear so, but what is the remedy, when no one (or very few) appear willing to abandon or even curtail its use?….it may be like housing affordability, the widespread calls for remedy will only occur when the damage is done and the remedies so painful their adoption are still resisted until they occur by force of nature.
No remedy necessary when it has not been officially and formally declared a problem by the authorities, which is usually preceded by experts & others raising the alarm for years if not decades.
Due to Covid I spent a long time working from home and I don’t think it was beneficial to my ‘social energy’. Banter, chats, OTC exchanges, et cetera, are a glue that binds and holds us together, the ‘weak forces’ of human nature (love & sex being among the ‘strong forces’, obviously).
That's an excellent point, and one I have made in ECan submissions before – the cost issue is not hugely relevant for single users who live in walking distance of major routes, it's people with limited access and families where the issues/costs lie.
Auckland has plenty of bus stops, but wait times are too long, new research has found.
The research, published by The Lancet Global Health, found just 56 per cent of Aucklanders have access to public transport running every 20 minutes or less.
Erica Hinckson, professor of physical activity and the environment at AUT, said Auckland was doing well with bus stops every 500m, but that was not enough.
"There needs to be a regular service. People are not going to use public transport because it is not convenient.
"You hear the stories of people saying 'I waited at the bus stop for an hour and then I was late for everything'," Hinckson said.
Make sure you keep smiling at us all when floods smash peoples' houses, seas crash through their doors, northern forests die from drought, and fuel-driven food inflation hits supermarkets at an annual 10%.
You seem to miss the point Ad. These things are less likely to happen if the price of fuel goes so high that people can't afford to use much of it, which is what I support…..except the inflation bit of course, but even that will wane.
You clearly have no idea how little elasticity there actually is in our petrol and diesel use.
Even Auckland which has the best public transport system in New Zealand, you would be lucky to ever find Aucklanders taking more than 15% of trips taken by non-car means. Hey maybe in a dream state we'll get to 20%.
Even for Auckland's small percentage who do take public transport, it's on diesel buses.
There one quarter of Auckland where public transport truly competes against the car is the North Shore. Auckland's wealthiest quarter. Done on diesel buses.
Outside of Auckland and Wellington there is no useful public transport in New Zealand and mostly it's only used by the very, very poor and the Gold Card people. Barely 5% of trips taken pre-COVID. Now it's worse.
Those who laugh at suffering as you do have no place in any reform movement.
But with high petrol prices if people can't take PT they will buy cars that use much less fuel and they will cut down on journeys and even bicycle short distances.
3 years ago I bought a new Suzuki Swift that uses less than half of the petrol of my previous car which was made in 2006.
Incidentally fuel is only 40% of the cost of running a car.
Here is a very interesting BBC video on how the current conflict is changing the nature of war. One of the key points is how the all-seeing nature of war now makes it very difficult for attacking forces to make progress, and a likely move to more autonomous attack methods. As Sanctuary points out above, the Ukrainians appear to be adapting better to modern technological advances in term of targeting for instance.
Anyone else starting to feel sorry for poor old Bob Harvey? He is becoming that silly old duffer with name recognition who gets wheeled out whenever some transport snake oil salesmen come to town…
This government ditched an $800m shared path, failed to give even 1 bridge lane to cyclists, and has spent over $100m designing the full bridge replacement without 1 wheelbarrow of concrete down.
NZTA's efficiency is not measured at all by the size of its Comms team.
If you want to try and find a comms person to put into ATOC, WTOC, or CTOC, or indeed to put into CRL, Te Ara Tuhono, Waikato Expressway System, or any of the others, and price them under $100k, then my friend as ever you will get what you pay for. And it won't be pretty.
If you are really implying that communications staff are by definition non-productive, and also are therefore somehow inflationary, you should spell out why that is.
The astonishing pig ignorance of what the public service actually does continues.
Transport comms does pretty things like AT Hop Card, responds to Ministerial inquiries and all media inquiries, operational changes like road detours via ATOC, formal documents like RLTP and Annual Plans and Annual Reports, Te Reo in all train announcements, street sign standardisation, all engagement with the public whether that be digital or in-person, all advertising across the city, marketing programmes to persuade people out of cars, public announcements of fare changes, and all the other pretty things that they are tasked with doing.
Ah yeah, the hop card. wow. that technological invention that came in 2012 and it sure needs a PR person now in 2022 to be published?
Some secretary who answers letters and emails? So innovative and never heard of before.
A PR person to announce detours for road works? really? And at a high wage too?
Annual plans and Annual reports, would that not be departmental, or do they all have a few PR persons per department, and are there more PR persons then actual analysts and doers? And will each report have their own PR person?
Te Reo in train announcement, that is grand indeed it is, and they then need a different PR person to announce it in english too or is done by a bilingual PR person? And do they just get paid when they tape the announcements or do they get royalties ever time the train announcements run? And will the person who wrote the announcements also be paid a full PR salary, if it is a different person to the one that reads the announcement?
Yeah, nah, nah, you do not need "public relations' persons, you need office staff that does their jobs, i.e. updates webpages, fare pages, digital or in person, bus drivers that know where they drive, and so on.
But is sure sounds like a good job program for the kids of the well to do that did Gender studies, arts and cookery for 10 years between 20 – 30 and now have a student loan they would want forgiven and who are otherwise unemployable. Give them a job at AT or another Government department, such as Alphabetsoup ambassador to the Pacific.
This is why you are such a poor commenter. You have no idea how the public service upon which you and the rest of the population actually relies. You simply have no experience so you just rely in jeering.
You need to shut up your keyboard because dripping bile and foolishness just makes you look more pig ignorant about how any part of the system actually functions.
It's pretty sad how the current inflationary economy is resulting in resentment against public servants and a surge in popularity for the gNats. Public sentiment is completely divorced from the actual causes.
Blaming the government for inflation is like blaming the police for white collar crime. They are trying to stop it but the perps are slippery bastards and the issues are systemic, so there is no easy fix like pulling a few levers at the Reserve Bank.
Only harsh medicine (i.e. tough regulations on capitalist thievery) would actually fix the problem, but that is not something the public will swallow. So the government kicks the can down the road and tries to mitigate the worst examples.
It’s not. Every fuel company has a pricing team, those figures are either sent to the store using internal comms and then updated from site, or they are centralised and updated at head office.
Arguing that waka kotahi needs twice as many comms people when we’ve had the largest reduction in road traffic ever due to covid is mental.
Arguing that people who don’t think waka kotahi need twice as many comms people are somehow ignorant of everything to do with the public service is laughable. It shows that the public service will be voracious is chewing up large amounts of tax payers money for little benefit if allowed. Helping fuel inflation
The tabloid press, bolstered by a sudden efflorescence of Twitter diagnosticians, certainly seems to think so. Since his Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine got underway, the 69-year-old Russian president’s deteriorating health has been a subject of frenzied speculation — speculation that press secretary Dmitry Peskov has downplayed, citing Putin’s “excellent” health.
With over 200 billion(us)$ lost in crypto in a day,will there be effects in electricity demand globally.
The electricity consumption from crypto mining is equivalent to around the 20th largest country in the world. A plunging Bitcoin price is capable of having a demonstrative effect on power consumption. Where the effect occurs is trickier to determine, as mining is so fluid. https://t.co/W0xxymaZlM
Nelson did this because he wanted to do that. The identifying as a female is just a thing to maybe get some 'stunning' 'brave' and 'most vulnerable marginalised' group discount and pity wave.
Nelson is a male, who entered a restaurant through the back door and ended up stabbing several people, one of whom is his expartner.
Nothing more then a bit spiced up domestic male on female violence.
But as Anker says, some rainbow lanyard will happily write this up as a female on female crime and lock the dude and his testicles up with non males in a womens prison.
Who cares why Nelson did it. It is irrelevant. Do the crime now do the time, and as Nelson was born a man, it's off to a mens prison for him. There all sorted.
Jimmy, I am not so sure whether Nelson is off to a men's prison.
And I wage money on it that his lawyer will appeal for a lighter sentence, because you know he's trans and they are the most marginalized etc etc. Just like Ashley Winter's lawyers did.
For those who haven't read about Ashley Winters crime I would issue a trigger warning (which is rare for me to do). It involved prolonged and sadistic torture and eventual murder of a vulnerable teen woman. The most horrific crime i have read of in NZ. And no one knows where he is imprissoned (at least I haven't heard about that)
Thanks for posting Muttornbird. Why people are violent is always complex, but what we do know is the men who identify as women retain male patterns of criminality. Obviously not all men who identify as women are criminals, but the pattern is the same for all natal males.
Idenifying as a women will mean Nelson may be housed in a women's prison. With self ID Nelson will be able to enter female change rooms, toilets, sporting competitions, female rape crisis services etc etc. It was a former partner Nelson stabbed as well as 2 workers. I am speculating here but we know a lot of women leave their partners when they start identifying as women and their are harrowing accounts of what some of these women have been through if their partners are autogynaphyles. They are referred to as Trans widows if you want to read about it.
Lastly its possible Nelson's crimes may be counted as an offence committed by a female. This is problematic for all the obvious reasons.
This morning there was an anti-mandate protest in Feilding. Why you need an anti-mandate protest anymore when the mandates are just about all gone suggests that many people don't ever read or listen to the news but there was one interesting point.
One protestor was holding a placard that suggested if you got the vaccine then you were somehow injected with a computer chip that allowed the state to spy on you. Like nanno technology – you will become Borg!
An elderly lady (nearly 90 years ago) told me that she questioned this person and asked them if they also believed the earth was flat, and apparently this person had to think about that for a while before they realised this lady was taking taking the mickey out of them. That made my morning!
When I looked at all the faces in the protest group I had to agree with her that the average IQ would likely be depressingly low.
Focused on masks in Wellington. Kind of annoying as the most available people to hastle are using public transport, so they expect commuters to create friction with the train guards or them.
Also showing how strong their convictions are, exactly one of the signs suggested using "masks might be harmful", in some undescribed way.
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Over the weekend, the US Supreme Court followed through on its threat, and overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively outlawing abortion in much of the United States. People were outraged, in America and around the world. And in Aotearoa, this meant a lot of sudden questions for the National Party, which ...
Nothing is evil in the beginning… #TheRingsOfPowerpic.twitter.com/XffZtqp8Yw— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) June 27, 2022 We have ourselves a new breadcrumb (not a leak!) out of The Rings of Power. It is a fifteen second collection of clips from the original teaser-trailer, together ...
The repeal of Roe vs Wade by the US Supreme Court is part of a broader “New Conservative” agenda financed by reactionary billionaires like Peter Thiel, Elon Mush, the Kochs and Murdochs (and others), organised by agitators like Steve Bannon and Rodger Stone and legally weaponised by Conservative (often Catholic) ...
A Dangerous Leap Backwards: A United States forced to live by the beliefs and values of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries cannot hope to go on leading the “Free World”, or compete economically with nations focused fearlessly on the future. The revocation of Roe v. Wade represents the American republic’s most ...
Now that the right of US women to abortion (formerly protected by Roe vWade) has been abolished, the important role of medication-induced abortion will come even more to the fore. Already, research by the Guttmacher Institute reproductive rights centre shows that over half of US abortions are obtained ...
The government is finally moving to improve transparency over party finances, lowering the donation disclosure threshold to $5,000. This is a good move, though it doesn't go as far as it should. And of course, there's a nasty twist: The rules for larger donations are also changing. Presently parties ...
A rare exposure in Western media of the fact that many residents of the Donbass prefer Russian rule to Ukrainian ultranationalist rule. I don’t know why anyone would take advice from UK’s lame duck Prime Minister and well-known buffoon Boris Johnson seriously, but he ...
Jacinda Ardern will need to deploy every aspect of her starpower if she is to have any hope of rescuing New Zealand’s faltering free trade negotiations with the European Union (EU). The Prime Minister has branded each of her four foreign trips so far this year as ‘trade missions’ – ...
It was sometime in the late 1990s that I first interviewed Alan Webster about New Zealand’s part in a global Values Study. It’s a fascinating snapshot of values in countries all over the world and I still remember seeing America grouped with many developing countries on a spectrum that had ...
Today marks Matariki, the first “new” New Zealand public holiday since Waitangi Day was added in 1974. Officially the start of the Maori New Year, this is one of those moveable beasties – much like Easter, the dates will vary from year to year, anywhere from mid-June to ...
The takeaways from the just released data are:1. Any estimate of GDP is subject to error.2. The 0.2 percent decrease in the March 2022 quarter is not precise and will be revised, with the mild likelihood that it will eventually be higher.3. New Zealand has no ‘official' definition of a ...
Guided By The Stars? This gift of Matariki, then, what will be made of it? Can a people spiritually unconnected to anything other than their digital devices truly appreciate the relentless progress of gods and heroes across the heavens? The elders of Maoridom must wonder. Can Te Ao Māori be ...
The internet is a wonderful thing sometimes. Yesterday, I ran across an AI program that generates images via prompt: https://huggingface.co/spaces/dalle-mini/dalle-mini So I have been doing the logical thing with it. Getting it to generate Silmarillion characters in bizarre situations. Morgoth playing golf, and so forth. But one thing I ...
Stashing renewable energy Do a little internet sleuthing on renewable energy via your favorite search engine and you'll find some honest critique and much more dishonest misinformation (aka disinformation) to the effect that photovoltaic and wind generation are fickle energy supplies, over-abundant in some periods and absent in others. There's ...
The current New Zealand First Foundation trial in the High Court continues to show why reform is required when it comes to money in politics. The juicy details coming out each day show private wealth being funnelled into some peculiar schemes in an attempt to circumvent the Electoral Act. Yet ...
As in so many other areas of public policy, attitudes towards overseas investment in New Zealand – and anywhere, for that matter – boil down in the end to ideology. For proponents of the “free market”, there is really no issue. The market, in their view, must never be second-guessed; ...
Selwyn Manning and I discussed the upcoming NATO Leader’s summit (to which NZ Prime Minister Ardern is invited), the rival BRICS Leader’s summit and what they could mean for the Ruso-Ukrainian Wa and beyond. ...
New Zealand’s Most Profitable“Friend” Dangerous “Threat”: This country’s “Five Eyes” partners, heedless of the economic consequences for New Zealand, have cajoled and bullied its political class into becoming Sinophobes. They simply do not care that close to 40 percent of this country’s trade is with China. As far as Washington, London, ...
I have seen some natter around about how The Rings of Power represents the undue and unholy corporatisation of J.R.R. Tolkien. I won’t point out examples, but anyone who has seen YouTube commentary has a pretty good grasp of what I am talking about – the sentiment that ...
2017’s Queenmaker: Five years ago, Winston Peters’ choice ran counter to New Zealand’s informal, No. 8 wire, post-MMP constitution, which, up until 2017, had decreed that the party with the most votes got to supply the next prime minister. Had National not been in power for the previous 9 years, it ...
I've read some bad stuff about long covid recently, and Marc Daalder's recent Newsroom piece about what endemic covid means for Aotearoa got me wondering about whether the government was thinking about it. Mass-disability due to long covid has obvious implications for health and welfare spending, as well as for ...
Last year, a stranded kiwi criticised the MIQ system. Covid Minister Chris Hipkins responded by doxxing and defaming her. Now, he's been forced to apologise for that: Minister Chris Hipkins has admitted he released incorrect and personal information about journalist Charlotte Bellis, after she criticised the managed isolation system. ...
Gil-galad is an Elven Chad Gil-galad is an Elven Chad But Celebrimbor makes them mad Digesting leaks from Amazon Of Isildur and Pharazôn. The hair is short? The knives are keen. The beardless face of Dwarven Queen? With meteor and man-not-named The fandom temper is inflamed. Of Annatar ...
From the desk of Keir "Patriotic Duty" Starmer:“We have robust lines. We do not want to see these strikes to go ahead with the resulting disruption to the public. The government have failed to engage in any negotiations.“However, we also must show leadership and to that end, please be reminded ...
Has swapping Scott Morrison for Anthony Albanese made any discernible difference to Australia’s relations with the US, China, the Pacific and New Zealand ? Not so far. For example: Albanese has asked for more time to “consider” his response to New Zealand’s long running complaints about the so called “501” ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The Biden administration in April 2021 dramatically ratcheted up the country’s greenhouse gas emissions reductions pledge under the Paris target, also known as its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). The Obama administration in 2014 had announced a commitment to cut U.S. emissions 26-28% below 2005 levels ...
Something I missed: the Central African Republic has abolished the death penalty: The National Assembly of the Central African Republic (CAR) passed a law abolishing the death penalty in the CAR on May 27, 2022. Once CAR President Touadéra promulgates the bill, the CAR will become the 24th abolitionist ...
Walking On Sunshine: National’s Sam Uffindell cantered home in the Tauranga By-Election, but the Outdoors & Freedom Party’s Sue Grey attracted an ominous level of support.THE RIGHT’S gadfly commentator, Matthew Hooton, summed up the Tauranga by-election in his usual pithy fashion. “Tonight’s result is poor for the National Party, catastrophic for ...
Te reo Māori is Dr. Anaha Hiini’s life purpose. Raised by his grandparents, Kepa and Maata Hiini, Anaha of Ngāti Tarāwhai, Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue descent made a promise at the age of six to his late grandmother, Maata Hiini. “I’ve always had a passion for Māori culture. My first inspiration ...
Dr Carwyn Jones’ vision is to see Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the law given equal mana. Carwyn who holds a PhD in law and society and currently teaches Ahunga Tikanga (Māori Laws and Philosophy) at Te Wānanga o Raukawa after 15 years at Victoria University of Wellington has devoted ...
Jacinda Ardern’s decision to attend the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Spain – but to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda – symbolises the changes she is making to New Zealand foreign policy. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) starts today in ...
The outlook does not look that promising. Forecasting an economy is a mug’s game. The database on which the forecasts are founded is incomplete, out-of-date, and subject to errors, some of which will be revised after the forecasts are published. (No wonder weather-forecasting is easier.) One often has to adopt ...
by Don Franks It seems that almost each day now another ram raid shatters someone’s shop front and loots the premises. Prestigious Queen street is not immune, while attacks on small dairies have long stopped being headline news. Those of us not directly affected are becoming numbed to this form ...
It’s hard to believe that when we created Sciblogs in 2009, the iPhone was only two years old, being a ‘Youtuber’ wasn’t really a thing and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok didn’t exist. But Science blogging was a big thing, particularly in the United States, where a number of scientists had ...
For 13 years, Sciblogs has been a staple in New Zealand’s science-writing landscape. Our bloggers have written about a vast variety of topics from climate change to covid, and from nanotechnology to household gadgets.But sadly, it’s time to close shop. Sciblogs will be shutting down on 30 June.When ...
Radical Options: By allocating the Broadcasting portfolio to the irrepressible, occasionally truculent, leader of Labour’s Māori caucus, Willie Jackson, the Prime Minister has, at the very least, confirmed that her appointment of Kiri Allan was no one-off. There are many words that could be used to describe Ardern’s placement of ...
A Delicate Juggler? The new Chief Censor, Ms Caroline Flora, owes New Zealand a comprehensive explanation of how she sees, and how she proposes to carry out, her role. Where, for example, is her duty to respect and protect the citizen’s right to freedom of expression positioned in relation to ...
Good grief. Has foreign policy commentary really devolved to the point where our diplomatic effort is being measured by how many overseas trips have been taken by our Foreign Minister? Weird, but apparently so. All this week, a series of media policy wonks have been invidiously comparing how many trips ...
Where we've been Time flies. This coming summer will mark 15 years of Skeptical Science focusing its effort on "traditional" climate science denial. Leaving aside frivolities, we've devoted most of our effort to combatting "serious" denial falling into a handful of broad categories of fairly crisp misconceptions: "radiative physics is wrong,""geophysics is ...
Mercenary army of bogus skeptics on parade Because they're both squarely centered in the Skeptical Science wheelhouse, this week we're highlighting two articles from our government and NGO section, where we collect high-quality articles not originating in academic research but featuring many of the important attributes of journal publications. Our mission ...
In the latest episode of AVFA Selwyn Manning and I discuss the evolution of Latin American politics and macroeconomic policy since the 1970s as well as US-Latin American relations during that time period. We use recent elections and the 2022 Summit of the Americas as anchor points. ...
The Scottish government has announced plans for another independence referendum: Nicola Sturgeon plans to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence in October next year if her government secures the legal approval to stage it. Angus Robertson, the Scottish government’s constitution secretary, said that provided ample time to pass ...
So far, the closer military relationship envisaged by Jacinda Ardern and Joseph Biden at their recent White House meeting has been analysed mainly in terms of what this means for our supposedly “independent” foreign policy. Not much attention has been paid to what having more interoperable defence forces might mean ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters For those puzzling over the various hurricane computer forecast models to figure out which one to believe, the best answer is: Don’t believe any of them. Put your trust in the National Hurricane Center, or NHC, forecast. Although an individual ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Scott Denning The excellent Julia Steinberger essay posted at this site in May provides a disturbing window into the psychology of teaching climate change to young people. It’s critically important to talk with youth about hard topics: love and sex, deadly contagion, school shootings, vicious ...
By Imogen Foote (Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington) A lack of consensus among international conservation regimes regarding albatross taxonomy makes management of these ocean roaming birds tricky. My PhD research aims to generate whole genome data for some of our most threatened albatrosses in a first attempt ...
Well, if that’s “minor” I’d be interested to see what a major reshuffle looks like.Jacinda Ardern has reminded New Zealand of the steel behind the spin in her cabinet refresh announced today. While the Prime Minister stressed that the changes were “triggered” by Kris Faafoi and Trevor Mallard and their ...
We’ve secured a major free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) – a move that’s set to boost exports by $1.8 billion per annum, enhance our economic security, and enable New Zealand businesses to grow, by unlocking one of the world’s biggest and high value markets. The new ...
Our Government is committed to making sure that our health system works for all New Zealanders, no matter who you are or where you live. Transformation of our health system will take time, and the step we’re taking today – establishing Health New Zealand and the Māori Health Authority – ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to announce its support urgently for a moratorium on deep sea mining under the high seas, after Pacific nations joined forces this week to demand change. ...
We’re committed to ensuring that there is every opportunity for women and girls to succeed in Aotearoa New Zealand, with fewer barriers. Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to support women and girls, by improving services like healthcare and tackling issues like the gender pay gap. Here are just ...
Political pressure from the Green Party has pushed the Government to supply free masks to kids and teachers in schools across Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand and the European Greens have published a joint statement calling for the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement to support climate action, phase out fossil fuel subsidies, cut agriculture emissions, protect human rights, and uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to guarantee that it will complete light rail and improve walking, cycling, and bus journeys across Wellington before digging new high-carbon tunnels. ...
The Green Party is urging Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker to commit to stronger ocean protection around Aotearoa and on the high seas while at the United Nations Oceans Conference in Portugal this week. ...
A strong Green voice in Parliament has helped reduce the influence large secret money will have in future elections and finally ensured overseas New Zealanders will retain the right to vote even while stranded by the Pandemic. But, the Government needs to go further to ensure our democracy works for ...
A new poll shows that the majority of people back the Greens’ call on the Government to overhaul the country’s criminally punitive, anti-evidence drug law. ...
The US Supreme Court’s decision on abortion is a reminder that we must take nothing for granted in Aotearoa, the Green Party says. “Aotearoa should be a place where everyone, no matter where they are from, or who they love, can choose what is right for their body and their ...
We’re proud to have delivered on our election commitment to establish a public holiday to celebrate Matariki. For the first time this year, New Zealanders will have the chance to enjoy a mid-winter holiday that is uniquely our own. ...
Proposed new legislation to reduce the risk that timber imported into Aotearoa New Zealand is sourced from illegal logging is a positive first step but it should go further, the Green Party says. ...
On World Refugee Day, the Green Party is calling on the new Minister for Immigration, Michael Wood to make up for the support that was not provided to people forced to leave their home countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
This week, we’ve marked a major milestone in our school upgrade programme. We've supported 4,500 projects across the country for schools to upgrade classrooms, sports facilities, playgrounds and more, so Kiwi kids have the best possible environments to learn in. ...
We’ve delivered on our election commitment to make Matariki a public holiday. For the first time this year, all New Zealanders will have the chance to enjoy a mid-winter holiday that is uniquely our own with family and friends. Try our quiz below, then challenge your whānau! To celebrate, we’ve ...
The Green Party says the removal of pre-departure testing for arrivals into New Zealand means the Government must step up domestic measures to protect communities most at risk. ...
The long overdue resumption of the Pacific Access Category and Samoan Quota must be followed by an overhaul of the Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) scheme, says the Green Party. ...
Lessons must be learned from the Government's response to the Delta outbreak, which the Ministry of Health confirmed today left Māori, Pacific, and disabled communities at greater risk. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to withdraw the proposed Oranga Tamariki oversight legislation which strips away independence and fails to put children at the heart. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London overnight, and together took a number of steps to strengthen the already close ties between our two countries, and promote our common interests in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. “The UK is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s oldest and closest friends and ...
Building a more secure, sustainable and prosperous future together: Joint Statement – Prime Ministers Jacinda Ardern and Boris Johnson 1. New Zealand and the United Kingdom are old friends and close partners. Our relationship rests on a bedrock of history, shared values, and deep people-to-people links, extending across almost all ...
Director Sir Robin Niblett, distinguished guests. What an honour it is to be back in London, and to be here at Chatham house. This visit represents much for me. The reopening of borders and resumption of travel after a difficult few years. The chance to bring life to the UK ...
Manawa maiea te pūtanga o Matariki Manawa maiea te ariki o te rangi Manawa maiea te mātahi o te tau! Introduction I’m pleased to join you for my second address at the 56th Annual Otago Foreign Policy School. The topic for this year is Space. Given that we are in ...
New Ministry will officially be called Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People Public Service Commission have appointed Geraldine Woods as Interim Chief Executive Office for Disability Issues to be folded into the new Ministry In what is a milestone day, the Government has launched Aotearoa New Zealand’s first Whaikaha ...
Nine new He Poutama Rangatahi programmes have been approved funding. These programmes will provide work-readiness, training and employment initiatives for over 820 rangatahi NEETS (not in education, employment or training), across Aotearoa New Zealand. "He Poutama Rangatahi has proven to be a very successful initiative which supports rangatahi to overcome ...
Minister for Māori Development Willie Jackson today announced the appointment of Crown representatives, Dr Charlotte Severne and Mr Bernie O’Donnell, to the Steering Committee that will determine the future of the Ihumātao land. “I’m pleased to have made the Crown appointments. Both Dr Severne and Mr O’Donnell have extensive ...
I begin by thanking each of you for accepting appointment to these boards. You’ve each been on the Ministerial committee that established Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand and Te Aka Whai Ora - the Māori Health Authority and I express my appreciation for the enormous task you collectively ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has reiterated its concerns over the continued erosion of rights, freedom and autonomy in Hong Kong. On the second anniversary of the introduction of the Hong Kong National Security Law, the Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta says developments in Hong Kong remain a cause for worry. “Two years ...
The Europol Agreement signed is a significant milestone for New Zealand and the European Union’s relationship, and reflects our shared principles of democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The Prime Minister attended a signature ceremony in Brussels, as part of ...
· New nationwide public health system · 20 district health boards disestablished and deficits wiped · 82,000 health employees directly employed by Health New Zealand · $24 billion health budget this year – up 43% since Labour took office in 2017 – in addition to separate funding for the new ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins has announced appointments to the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand and the Board of Trustees of Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura). “Robyn Baker ONZM has been appointed as the chair of the Teaching Council. She has considerable governance experience and is a ...
European Commission President von der Leyen and Prime Minister of New Zealand Ardern met in Brussels on 30 June 2022. The encounter provided an opportunity to reaffirm that the European Union and Aotearoa New Zealand are longstanding partners with shared democratic values and interests, aligned positions on key international and ...
Export revenue to the EU to grow by up to $1.8 billion annually on full implementation. Duty-free access on 97% of New Zealand’s current exports to the EU; with over 91% being removed the day the FTA comes into force. NZ exporters set to save approx. $110 million per annum ...
57,000 EVs and Hybrid registered in first year of clean car scheme, 56% increase on previous year EVs and Non Plug-in Hybrids made up 20% of new passenger car sales in March/April 2022 The Government’s Clean Car Discount Scheme has been a success, with more than 57,000 light-electric and ...
Police Minister Chris Hipkins congratulates the newest Police wing – wing 355 – which graduated today in Porirua. “These 70 new constables heading for the frontline bring the total number of new officers since Labour took office to 3,303 and is the latest mark of our commitment to the Police ...
Members with a range of governance, financial and technical skills have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Board as part of the shift to strengthen the Bank’s decision-making and accountability arrangements. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 2021 comes into force on 1 July 2022, with the establishment of ...
New Zealand to remain at Orange as case numbers start to creep up 50 child-size masks made available to every year 4-7 student in New Zealand 20,000-30,000 masks provided a week to all other students and school staff Extra funding to schools and early childhood services to supports better ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will join Ukraine’s case against Russia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which challenges Russia’s spurious attempt to justify its invasion under international law. Ukraine filed a case at the ICJ in February arguing Russia has falsely claimed genocide had occurred in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, as ...
The Government has taken another step forward in its work to eliminate family violence and sexual violence with the announcement today of a new Tangata Whenua Ministerial Advisory Group. A team of 11 experts in whānau Māori wellbeing will provide the Government independent advice on shaping family violence and sexual ...
Te Mahere Whai Mahi Wāhine: Women’s Employment Action Plan was launched today by Minister for Women Jan Tinetti – with the goal of ensuring New Zealand is a great place for women to work. “This Government is committed to improving women’s working lives. The current reality is that women have ...
The food and fibre sector acknowledged its people and leadership at last night’s 2022 Primary Industries Good Employer Awards, a time to celebrate their passion towards supporting employees by putting their health, welfare and wellbeing first,” Acting Minister of Agriculture Meka Whairiti said. “Award winners were selected from an extraordinary ...
Kia ora koutou katoa. It is a rare thing to have New Zealand represented at a NATO Summit. While we have worked together in theatres such as Afghanistan, and have been partners for just on a decade, today represents an important moment for our Pacific nation. New Zealand is ...
Te Arataki mō te Hauora Ngākau mō ngā Mōrehu a Tū me ō rātou Whānau, The Veteran, Family and Whānau Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy Framework “We ask a lot of those who serve in the military – and we ask a lot of the families and whānau who support ...
Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Aupito William Sio has been appointed by the United Nations and Commonwealth as Aotearoa New Zealand’s advocacy champion for Small Island States. “Aotearoa New Zealand as a Pacific country is particularly focused on the interests of Pacific Small Island Developing States in our region. “This is a ...
An estimated 100,000 low income households will be eligible for increased support to pay their council rates, with changes to the rates rebate scheme taking effect from 1 July. Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has announced increases to both the maximum value of the rates rebate, and the income threshold ...
A long-standing physical activity programme that focuses on outcomes for Maori has been expanded to four new regions with Government investment almost doubled to increase its reach. He Oranga Poutama is managed by a combination of hapū, iwi, hauora and regional providers. An increase in funding from $1.8 million ...
The Government is progressing a preferred option for LGWM which will see Wellington’s transport links strengthened with light rail from Wellington Station to Island Bay, a new tunnel through Mt Victoria for public transport, and walking and cycling, and upgrades to improve traffic flow at the Basin Reserve. “Where previous ...
To Provost Muniz, to the Organisers at the Instituto de Empresa buenas tardes and as we would say in New Zealand, kia ora kotou katoa. To colleagues from the State Department, from Academia, and Civil Society Groups, to all our distinguished guests - kia ora tatou katoa. It’s a pleasure ...
On June 28, 2022, a meeting took place in Madrid between the President of the Government of the Kingdom of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who was visiting Spain to participate in the Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as one ...
A six-fold increase in the Aotearoa New Zealand-Spain working holiday scheme gives a huge boost to the number of young people who can live and work in each other’s countries, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says. Jacinda Ardern and Spanish President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón made the Working Holiday/Youth Mobility Scheme announcement ...
A significant barrier has been removed for people who want to stand in local government elections, with a change to the requirement to publish personal details in election advertising. The Associate Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty has taken the Local Electoral (Advertising) Amendment Bill through its final stages in Parliament ...
New financial conduct scheme will ensure customers are treated fairly Banks, insurers and non-bank deposit takers to be licensed by the FMA in relation to their general conduct Sales incentives based on volume or value targets like bonuses for selling a certain number of financial products banned The Government ...
Legislation that bans major supermarkets from blocking their competitors’ access to land to set up new stores paves the way for greater competition in the sector, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Dr David Clark said. The new law is the first in a suite of measures the Government is ...
The Government has announced an end to the requirement for border workers and corrections staff to be fully vaccinated. This will come into place from 2 July 2022. 100 per cent of corrections staff in prisons, and as of 23 June 2022 97 per cent of active border workers were ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has concluded a visit to Rwanda reaffirming Aotearoa New Zealand’s engagement in the Commonwealth and meeting with key counterparts. “I would like to thank President Kagame and the people of Rwanda for their manaakitanga and expert hosting of this important meeting,” Nanaia Mahuta said. “CHOGM ...
Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty officially launched the new Monitoring, Alerting and Reporting (MAR) Centre at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) today. The Government has stood up the centre in response to recommendations from the 2018 Ministerial Review following the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake and 2017 Port Hills fire, ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has welcomed the announcement that a 110km/hr speed limit has been set for the SH1 Waikato Expressway, between Hampton Downs and Tamahere. “The Waikato Expressway is a key transport route for the Waikato region, connecting Auckland to the agricultural and business centres of the central North ...
Following feedback from the sector, Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti, today confirmed that new literacy and numeracy | te reo matatini me te pāngarau standards will be aligned with wider NCEA changes. “The education sector has asked for more time to put the literacy and numeracy | te reo ...
$4.5 million to provide Ukraine with additional non-lethal equipment and supplies such as medical kit for the Ukrainian Army Deployments extended for New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) intelligence, logistics and liaison officers in the UK, Germany, and Belgium Secondment of a senior New Zealand military officer to support International ...
Green Party candidate for Wellington's Motukairangi-Eastern Ward Luana Scowcroft is launching her campaign at Hataitai Centre (the former Hataitai Bowling Club) at 7pm tonight, Saturday July 2nd. Luana says that council's short-term thinking, and ...
The government has just announced the conclusion of a free trade agreement with the European Union. One Māori entity operating in the trade space, Ngā Toki Whakarururanga, is not celebrating. “We are aware that New Zealand negotiators genuinely sought ...
Buzz from the Beehive Down here on Earth – more particularly, in Ihumātao – progress on doing whatever is going to be done to that disputed patch of land has been glacial. Newsroom drew attention to the dawdling in an article in April which noted that Māori Development Minister Willie ...
PNG Post-Courier Today is officially the last day of campaigning in Papua New Guinea’s 2022 National General Election. Count tomorrow until Monday as rest days, but in politically charged PNG, anything is possible, including illegal last-minute clandestine campaigning. Polling is set to begin Tuesday, July 4, when millions will exercise ...
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk Greenpeace Aotearoa has condemned New Zealand for “standing by” while “deep wounds are inflicted on its Pacific neighbours” by silence over deep sea mining. Greenpeace’s seabed mining campaigner James Hita made the critical statement today after a dramatic shift at the UN Oceans conference in Lisbon ...
Buzz from the Beehive Numbers, quotas and ratios have been high in ministerial considerations over the past 24 hours or so. Export revenue to the EU will grow by up to $1.8 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Harris Rimmer, Professor and Director of the Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith Business School, Griffith University Prime Minister Anthony Albanese admitted at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Public Forum that some Australians may not understand why he’s at a NATO meeting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jared Mondschein, Senior Research Fellow, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney When colonial Americans declared their independence on July 4 1776, they rejected more than British rule. They explicitly denounced the British form of government and the unlegislated norms, traditions and conventions ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Emma Larouche, from the University of Canberra’s Media and Communications team discuss the week in politics. They canvass the crossbenchers’ stoush with the Prime Minister over ...
"Aotearoa New Zealand remains concerned by the steady erosion of rights, freedoms, and autonomy that has occurred in Hong Kong as a result," the foreign minister said. ...
With one month to go until the closure of the 2021 Resident Visa, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) encourages those who are eligible for the 2021 Resident Visa to submit their applications before the category closes at 11:59pm on 31 July 2022. INZ has ...
Analysis - National's Christopher Luxon moves to defuse a potentially vote-losing disaster, the Health Minister's problems keep piling up and the PM speaks at a NATO summit and unveils an historic free trade agreement with the EU. ...
The government's signing of an Europol Agreement significant reflects shared principles of democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Tolbert, Associate Professor of Science and Environmental Education, University of Canterbury GettyImagesPlastic Free July has rolled around again and we’ll all be hearing about reducing plastic use in our daily lives. Much of the messaging is targeted toward young ...
Cost, sexism and racism are barriers to ethnic women entering Aotearoa New Zealand politics, a University of Auckland researcher says A University of Auckland researcher shedding light on the unseen and unheard stories of ethnic women in New Zealand politics ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roderick Neilsen, Associate Professor TESOL/Languages Education, Deakin University Burned-out teachers in Australian primary and secondary schools are quitting in droves, while the majority of surveyed teachers are thinking about it. There are similar fears about Australia’s early childhood educators. However, there ...
Unions representing care and support workers are lodging a pay equity claim today to raise pay rates for a majority female workforce that has always been undervalued. The pay equity claim is a crucial step in stemming the crisis the care and support ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Lavender, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, Federation University Australia Shutterstock I am sure you’ve been told you should stand up and move away from your work stations or use a standing desk where possible. One of the ...
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From Auckland Peace Action
Sunday May 15 – Nakba Day
Rally for Palestine
Auckland Aotea Sq. 2pm
Nakba Day marks the day in 1948 when over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes and lands my Israeli colonists.
This Sunday Nakba Day is especially poignant coming as it does after the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh, who dedicated her life to documenting the ongoing persecution of the Palestinians by the Israeli State. And was silenced forever by the occupation foreces.
From Auckland Peace Action
Auckland Anti-War March June 5, 2022, 12pm
March from Aotea Sq. to the Auckland Domain where a 40 to 45 minute public meeting will be held.
In any weather, join this march from Aotea Sq to Auckland Domain.
March for peace and self-determination for the Ukrainian people, against war and authoritarian regimes!
Organised by the Auckland Ukrainian community.
Ash Sarkar sums up the UK so well…
I should have thought as a country we would understand the value of both symbolism and taonga.
Have you never been to Te Papa or Wellington Hospital and stopped to put your hand on the great pounamu boulder in one or other of those foyers? Or been moved to tears in front of Roimata Pounamu, Tears on Greenstone, the largest jade (nephrite) structure in the Southern Hemisphere, at Waiouru's National Army Museum? https://www.armymuseum.co.nz/visit/exhibitions/memorial-area-tears-on-greenstone/
Symbolism thing given the circumstances, I would think.
Obviously a waste of money as imagine it is a replica used for media, so doesn't need the security, but kind of understandable if you happen to be into the royals.
A world without ceremony, ritual, pageantry and symbolism would be a very boring one indeed.
Following advanced war strategy that seems to have been gleaned by watching episodes of Blackadder goes forth the Russians are making multiple unsuccessful attempts to lay a pontoon bridge across the Siverskyi Donets river in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian troops in the Donbas.
The rinse and repeat strategy for the Ukrainians appears to be to allow the Russians to lay down a pontoon bridge and get some troops and armour across. The pound the pontoon bridge with artillery, cutting off the troops that have just crossed and causing massive Russian losses on both sides of the river. And, just as in the Blackadder episode, the Russians appear to think that doing the same thing again gives them the element of surprise because no-one would expect them to be so stupid again.
Russia can't blame the west for their appalling performance in this war. It is the brainless strategy and tactics from the Russians more than anything else that explains why things are going so badly for them.
This is a horrible war, but this represents genuine innovation and lateral thinking in IT & GIS
I would reccommend reading the entire Trent Telenko tweet roll, but TL;DR is as follows:
"…Ukraine has developed and refined a groundbreaking artillery targeting solution that is, in many ways, better than anything else out there. It’s not U.S. tech. It’s not Israeli tech. It’s homegrown.
At the heart of it is Ukraine’s “GIS Art for Artillery” software package, written by Yaroslav Sherstyuk — one of many talented earth observation / geospatial (GIS) specialists working in Ukraine.
Sherstyuk's software is reminiscent of Uber or Lyft's taxi software. It’s a true distributed software environment that assigns targets to the nearest gun, mortar, rocket launcher, drone or SF team.
The software can coordinate targeting among a distributed group of multiple guns, with multiple trajectories, spanning a whole front, all focused on hitting one target at one time.
Just like Uber can get you a ride much faster than calling a cab company switchboard, “GIS Art for Artillery” can dramatically reduce the time “from call to trigger pull” — from around 20 minutes, to around 30 seconds (!)…"
This is not the only example of Russians doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For instance, they keep sending ships across to Snake Island, just off the Ukrainian coast, and the Ukrainians keep hitting them.
And it's just been deja vu all over again with another ship being hit.
I think that is at least four Russian vessels lost in that area now.
That is an interesting article, btw. I had the impression that the Ukrainians were a lot more accurate with their artillery, though hard to know whether it was just selection bias.
Hey smithers, don't the Ukrainians know they are… winning?
Startling implications here.
Ukraine's 'GIS Art for Artillery' app combined with Starlink actually gives the Ukrainian military measurably better than US Military standard artillery command and control.
The Ukraine War is the first Starlink War & the side with Starlink is beating the side without.
37/
There are a lot of implications in that thought.
Now comes the kicker. When the lasercom equipped SpaceX Gen 1.5 & 2.0 satellites come on-line.
38/
The ability to move huge amounts of bandwidth with zero ground based infrastructure will utterly subvert the ability of national governments & corporations to block or surveil Starlink communications.
39/
The only way the US Government will be able to monitor Starlink communications is with @elonmusk active cooperation.
The power shift involved in that fact is…profound…and something for another thread
40/
Meanwhile, a whole lot of very powerful people are going to have to rethink their place in the world as the Starlink juggernaut remakes the world by helping Ukraine win "The 1st Starlink War."
41/End
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1523828149288583168.html
I don't think Russia can afford to lose this. So how does one translate the words "fat man" and "little boy" into Russian. Perhaps the Ukranians are being too smart for their own good.
[Please check and correct your user name in the next comment, thanks]
Mod note
Whether Russia can afford to lose or not. Russia are losing.
Mikesh,your reference to the nuclear weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and your slight that by winning the Ukrainians are being too smart for their own good.
Your claim that Russia cannot afford to lose, and your implication that if the Russian Federation cannot win with conventional weapons they will turn to nuclear weapons, and so Ukraine would be better to surrender now if they were smart.
Spoken like a true bully.
If Germany had had the nuclear weapon and threatened to use it if they Allies were to intervene in stopping the Nazi genocide and occupation of Europe. Would the Allies leave the Nazis to commit genocide and occupation?
I don't think so.
Everyone knows that you appease a bully, their violence and intimidation and blackmail will only increase.
Ukraine are fighting for all of us.
Please explain how they are fighting for 'all of us'!
I'm not sure, but apparently "useful idiot", disappointingly not coined by Lenin but by Italian journalists, is "Полезный идиот".
Alternate view for you smithfield !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKX1MKW5wjE
We now have the highest petrol price we've ever had.
By itself this could sink this government, let alone the supermarkets.
What is particularly dark for those who want a carbon Zero future is that the rush-hour traffic grind is still there, indicating that there is very little elasticity in total petrol use at all.
Yep. PT options are simply not present (or ridiculously time consuming and therefore not practicable) for the majority of the people currently driving in Auckland's rush hour.
Of course, there are some (SAHM or nanny driving Tristan and Athena to private school) for whom neither time nor money are an issue.
But the majority of the people on the roads simply have no other alternative.
PT, where it's viable to use, is already significantly cheaper than driving a single-user car and paying for parking in the CBD.
Many many children if not most in akl are driven to their public schools too and elsewhere, as literally that is the cheaper option, and faster in many cases. And to be fair, there are also walking buses, car pooling etc. But a nice cheap shot at those that must be the reason for the problem we have, Stay at home Mothers (SAHM) and the kids they take to school for whom money and time may or may not be an issue, or is an issue and they are taking the kids to school before continuing on to work because they are too poor to be a Stay at home Mother. Also, sperm donators also drive their kids to school, and many do walk/bus.
The fact is that AKL has public transport and while it could be better and more varied it is not a bad coverage, but it is too expensive, and does not run on time most of the time. Which makes it unattractive if you have to be in school or work on time. In fact, it can be a detriment to ones job prospects if they are dependend on public transport. 🙂
And Yes, yes, i know the half price fare…..lol, set to expire in a few days, still waiting on the glorious announcement that this will be extended for another three month, while the fare structure should be overhauled and reconsidered and re-thought.
Set public transport at 1 NZD each – per trip, advertise the heck out of that, and watch kids may tell mum that they rather take the bus with their mates or Mum tell the bigger kids to take the bus dear. If they live in an area that is served and with a good time table.
Both cost for PT and availability of PT are the result of decades of not giving a shit by official on all level. By everyone, a nice buslane here and there is not a fix in a town that is huge and has over a million + people living there.
But hey, buy an electric car if you are rich enough, you will get a nice juicy several thousand dollar subsidy so that that Stay at Home Mother of Athena and Tristan can now drive teir children to private school in a tax payer subsidized EV. Now that is winning!
And were it is viable to use, it is ONLY significantly cheaper using PT then driving a single user car if only one person is in that car. And even then, depending on the time used – if you were to apply the 21.20 NZD(plus HP, SP, KWS) min wage per hour spend in traffic in a bus or in a train from Hamilton that only leaves twice a day, you might be still better of using a car, single serve.
disclaimer: have no car, never had a car, walked from Grey Lynn to New Market or Down town as it was faster. Have used bus for all other travel if needed. Rode a bicycle in Auckland in 98 when it was unfashionable and Lycra was still unheard of in NZ.
Sabine. That wasn't intended to be a cheap shot – but a recognition that for some families neither time nor money are a deterrent to driving.
In Auckland, at least in the city and suburbs (recognize that 'Auckland' also encompasses a significant rural area) – most kids can walk or bus to school. There is an extensive school bus network (my son uses it regularly), and primary schools (at least) are mostly within reasonable walking distance for the kids in their zone.
And, just saying – none of the kids I know who use PT to go to school would 'prefer' it over being driven….
Of course, if you are out of zone – then your transport needs may vary.
Auckland's bus system (which is most of the PT) only works if you are travelling into the CBD (or stopping along the route). It's pretty useless if you're going elsewhere – and a heck of a lot of people are going 'elsewhere' – especially with the hollowing out of the CBD post Covid and with the CRL disruptions.
In Auckland, unless you have 'free' parking at your work – you'd have to have 2-3 people in the car for driving (including CBD parking and petrol costs – but excluding depreciation – since no one counts that anyway) to be cheaper than PT.
However, the 'one-person' driving trips is significant – since it's the number of them that we continually have drummed in our ears as examples of 'selfish car drivers'. No one is interviewing these drivers to see if there are (realistic) alternatives….
My disclaimer: I have a car. Drive to work (15 min against the traffic) because there are no viable PT options across suburbs in Auckland. When I worked in the CBD I used PT regularly. My son uses PT to go to school (unless he's taking the bari sax – in which case I drive him)
At the moment the same people that can afford neither a car or the bus are subsidizing the very expensive green washed EV cars for the rich. Just saying.
I lived in Auckland and i worked in Auckland. I know Auckland. I am also raised on public transport so don't have the obsession that kiwis have with their cars to the point where they feel they are incomplete if they don't have one.
As for Stay at home Mums, or Mum who work, Woman just can't do it correctly so for some. Drive your kids to school – lazy polluting rich mum, don't drive your kids to school – lazy poor mum. Never mind that i would guess most women drive their kids to school and then themselves to work. And many do a hybrid version of kids take themselves and sometimes are driven to school – and that is irrespective of income.
What about the one person driving trips of men to the booze store? Or to the pup? or the rugby game? Could they not take the bus? How many people drive to the dairy? Do you need to drive to the supermarket? Or do you need to do that holiday trip with the boat and the gadgets to go cycling several hundreds of kilometres from where one lives to dash around a mountain bike ruining some lovely mountainside?
If we really want to be serious we need to make public transport cheap, fast, often, safe, – even at night time, specifically for those that are not be-penised, and that is what we don't do. We would need to build bus shelters, run buses every 10 min during rush hour and every 20 min for the rest of the day. Maybe run smaller shuttles during the low use times etc. Have decent drivers that are trained, actually know the stops on their route and who are paid a decent wage. But that thinking is not yet being done out lout. WE celebrate a train that runs twice a day and costs up to 30 NZD half price for both trips or 60 NZD full price for both trips from Hamilton to AKL and that does not include kids, it is cheaper and faster to drive a bloody car then. https://www.tehuiatrain.co.nz/fares/
We could do what done in Nice France, build the network, connect the town, help businesses affected by the build, make it a thing of pride and then keep the price to 1.50 NZD (in their case its Euro) and integrate this with the train system at a similar price.https://frenchriviera.travel/public-transport-nice/#:~:text=Public%20transport%20in%20Nice%20is,such%20as%20Cannes%20and%20Monaco.
But we really believe that tinkering on the edges with full price – unaffordable to anyone who is not in full time position well over the min wage, is the way to go and that is why we are here in this postion. Not because some men and non men n use their private vehicle the way they see fit or must.
So personally i believe that the fault of the public transport misery in AKL and the rest of NZ for that matter is not the fault of an individual that may be too rich for some, or too lazy for some others, but the fault of Polititans that have no vision, no guts, no spine, and above all no idea of how to get something like this even up and running. We like cheap band aids, and that is what we get in all cases.
Btw, the build of the PT system in Nice was actioned by a conservative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Estrosi
A good percentage of children are not driven by car to school and use other modes of transport. Why would it be cheaper to drive your child to school if you have a School Bus that does the same thing and you won’t even have to get out of your PJs?
I think there are 2 things going on here.
Convenience. It's just easier for Mum (and it usually is Mum) to drive the kids, than organize them to get up on time for the bus. [I speak from experience – the leave-the-house-to-catch-the-bus-deadline is a constant struggle in my household]
Stranger danger. Parents (especially upper-middle-class parents) have had stranger danger drummed into them as a huge and significant risk – which shapes their willingness to let their kids out of their sight in public.
Real-life story. When my son was 6 he asked me to let him walk home alone from the school bus stop – about a 5 minute walk. Up to then, I'd been meeting him as he had to cross a major road. I agreed, and we decided I'd shadow him the first time, to make sure he was safe crossing the intersection. He demonstrated excellent safety skills (so cute! Mama heart beating with pride)- and I was happy for him to fly solo. In that first fortnight – I must have had 20 calls from concerned parents and friends asking me if I knew he was walking home alone – with the very strong subtext being that I was a bad mother for letting him do this.
Convenience is often a euphemism for laziness.
Stranger-danger is a thing but how and when are our children meant to get the social skills to navigate safely and survive in ‘the jungle’? Are we going to drop them off and pick them up from uni, from work, and from rugby practice forever? Of course not!
Oh, I agree that kids need to develop life skills- and it's best to do that within reasonably expanding boundaries from the time they are small.
I'm just pointing out what's going on in the parents' minds.
FWIW – I think stranger danger is way overhyped – kids are statistically at hugely greater risk from family or close personal friends – but that's not a point that's easy to make 😉
Agreed. Some parents though are not doing their children any favours by being over-protective and warping [Edit: I meant wrapping] them in cotton wool. And I’m not referring to just physical protection either. With the increased use of and time spent on-line I believe that people’s social/people skills will deteriorate. Swipe left or swipe right, that’s the question
I also believe that people & society have become less tolerant and considerate of others because of these diminishing social interactions and skills.
@Incognito
"I also believe that people & society have become less tolerant and considerate of others because of these diminishing social interactions and skills."
It would appear so, but what is the remedy, when no one (or very few) appear willing to abandon or even curtail its use?….it may be like housing affordability, the widespread calls for remedy will only occur when the damage is done and the remedies so painful their adoption are still resisted until they occur by force of nature.
No remedy necessary when it has not been officially and formally declared a problem by the authorities, which is usually preceded by experts & others raising the alarm for years if not decades.
Due to Covid I spent a long time working from home and I don’t think it was beneficial to my ‘social energy’. Banter, chats, OTC exchanges, et cetera, are a glue that binds and holds us together, the ‘weak forces’ of human nature (love & sex being among the ‘strong forces’, obviously).
What then is the Christchurch Call?
Pro Kathleen Stock speaks for an hour to Kim Hill tomorrow morning 9-10.
That's an excellent point, and one I have made in ECan submissions before – the cost issue is not hugely relevant for single users who live in walking distance of major routes, it's people with limited access and families where the issues/costs lie.
It's a repetitive failure to not consider those with limited options and no financial excess when coming up with such policies.
An assumption is made that people are driving because they are too snobbish or lazy to use public transport.
For many it is unaffordable, unreliable and not connecting them to where they need to go with any kind of efficiency.
+1
Indeed it should…for all
"Funding should be available to support Iwi/Māori that are not economically able to transition equitably."
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/115680/chief-executive-jo-hendy-sets-out-climate-change-commission%E2%80%99s-expectations
today in the Herald
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/transport-survey-aucklanders-waiting-too-long-for-buses-research-finds/R33ONDLC5KM7AFMEOXTWENJ7LM/
A global diesel shortage looms – the distribution implications are obvious.
June 25th the cyclway from New Lynn into town opens and I'll have to get off my ass and leave the Peugeot at home.
Disaster capitalism at it's best. Every cloud has a silver lining (for the few)
https://www.salon.com/2022/04/29/big-oil-is-intentionally-profiteering-from-the-war-exxon-profits-double-after-putins-invasion_partner/
$$$$$$=WAR… Congress is giving another $33 billion in 'aid' to Ukraine.
Of course that $33billion goes to U. S arms manufacturers.
All done.. in the best possible taste.
And we're losing the Marsden Point refinery.
Ad-the petrol price should be far higher than it is now to reflect the damage it is doing to our planet.
I smile every time it goes up.
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2022/05/climate-change-betting-on-disaster.html
Make sure you keep smiling at us all when floods smash peoples' houses, seas crash through their doors, northern forests die from drought, and fuel-driven food inflation hits supermarkets at an annual 10%.
You seem to miss the point Ad. These things are less likely to happen if the price of fuel goes so high that people can't afford to use much of it, which is what I support…..except the inflation bit of course, but even that will wane.
Utter bullshit.
You clearly have no idea how little elasticity there actually is in our petrol and diesel use.
Even Auckland which has the best public transport system in New Zealand, you would be lucky to ever find Aucklanders taking more than 15% of trips taken by non-car means. Hey maybe in a dream state we'll get to 20%.
Even for Auckland's small percentage who do take public transport, it's on diesel buses.
There one quarter of Auckland where public transport truly competes against the car is the North Shore. Auckland's wealthiest quarter. Done on diesel buses.
Outside of Auckland and Wellington there is no useful public transport in New Zealand and mostly it's only used by the very, very poor and the Gold Card people. Barely 5% of trips taken pre-COVID. Now it's worse.
Those who laugh at suffering as you do have no place in any reform movement.
I agree entirely that PT needs major investment.
But with high petrol prices if people can't take PT they will buy cars that use much less fuel and they will cut down on journeys and even bicycle short distances.
3 years ago I bought a new Suzuki Swift that uses less than half of the petrol of my previous car which was made in 2006.
Incidentally fuel is only 40% of the cost of running a car.
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/buying-and-running-a-car/how-to-find-the-right-car-for-your-budget
Here is a very interesting BBC video on how the current conflict is changing the nature of war. One of the key points is how the all-seeing nature of war now makes it very difficult for attacking forces to make progress, and a likely move to more autonomous attack methods. As Sanctuary points out above, the Ukrainians appear to be adapting better to modern technological advances in term of targeting for instance.
BTW, it looks like the Russians lost a whole battalion in the bridging attempt I mentioned above. Incredible and tragic losses of life.
Anyone else starting to feel sorry for poor old Bob Harvey? He is becoming that silly old duffer with name recognition who gets wheeled out whenever some transport snake oil salesmen come to town…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018841547/bob-harvey-backs-auckland-gondola-idea
No harbour crossing idea should be ignored.
This government ditched an $800m shared path, failed to give even 1 bridge lane to cyclists, and has spent over $100m designing the full bridge replacement without 1 wheelbarrow of concrete down.
I agree. If it's proven to work successfully in other cities around the world it should not be rejected out of hand.
But Waka Kotahi have great PR. Lots of 'huey', not much 'doey'.
'Genuinely quite shocked': AM hosts hit out at surge in PR staff at Waka Kotahi, $10,000 spend on campaign signs (msn.com)
Actually they and their contractors do more to support this country than any other part of government – outside perhaps Transpower.
That NZTA have a large Comms department to support this massive network should not surprise you.
But they have more than doubled the number of PR staff since 2017, and the majority of them are earning in excess of $100k!!!!!
So they are not very efficient.
NZTA's efficiency is not measured at all by the size of its Comms team.
If you want to try and find a comms person to put into ATOC, WTOC, or CTOC, or indeed to put into CRL, Te Ara Tuhono, Waikato Expressway System, or any of the others, and price them under $100k, then my friend as ever you will get what you pay for. And it won't be pretty.
Non productive costs are inflationary
If you are really implying that communications staff are by definition non-productive, and also are therefore somehow inflationary, you should spell out why that is.
lol…seriously?
What do they produce…apart from spin?
If you think you can run a transport system without what I have just provided, then you are simply ignorant about how the transport system works.
You would do well to stop the emotion and take time to figure out how each Department inside a major Crown entity actually works.
You have provided exactly what the PR employees have provided
If they are making others more productive – they themselves will be productive. It's a total sum game.
And how exactly do you suggest they are making others more productive?
and what pretty things will we have thanks to all the PR woos at AT?
The astonishing pig ignorance of what the public service actually does continues.
Transport comms does pretty things like AT Hop Card, responds to Ministerial inquiries and all media inquiries, operational changes like road detours via ATOC, formal documents like RLTP and Annual Plans and Annual Reports, Te Reo in all train announcements, street sign standardisation, all engagement with the public whether that be digital or in-person, all advertising across the city, marketing programmes to persuade people out of cars, public announcements of fare changes, and all the other pretty things that they are tasked with doing.
Ah yeah, the hop card. wow. that technological invention that came in 2012 and it sure needs a PR person now in 2022 to be published?
Some secretary who answers letters and emails? So innovative and never heard of before.
A PR person to announce detours for road works? really? And at a high wage too?
Annual plans and Annual reports, would that not be departmental, or do they all have a few PR persons per department, and are there more PR persons then actual analysts and doers? And will each report have their own PR person?
Te Reo in train announcement, that is grand indeed it is, and they then need a different PR person to announce it in english too or is done by a bilingual PR person? And do they just get paid when they tape the announcements or do they get royalties ever time the train announcements run? And will the person who wrote the announcements also be paid a full PR salary, if it is a different person to the one that reads the announcement?
Yeah, nah, nah, you do not need "public relations' persons, you need office staff that does their jobs, i.e. updates webpages, fare pages, digital or in person, bus drivers that know where they drive, and so on.
But is sure sounds like a good job program for the kids of the well to do that did Gender studies, arts and cookery for 10 years between 20 – 30 and now have a student loan they would want forgiven and who are otherwise unemployable. Give them a job at AT or another Government department, such as Alphabetsoup ambassador to the Pacific.
This is why you are such a poor commenter. You have no idea how the public service upon which you and the rest of the population actually relies. You simply have no experience so you just rely in jeering.
You need to shut up your keyboard because dripping bile and foolishness just makes you look more pig ignorant about how any part of the system actually functions.
It's pretty sad how the current inflationary economy is resulting in resentment against public servants and a surge in popularity for the gNats. Public sentiment is completely divorced from the actual causes.
Blaming the government for inflation is like blaming the police for white collar crime. They are trying to stop it but the perps are slippery bastards and the issues are systemic, so there is no easy fix like pulling a few levers at the Reserve Bank.
Only harsh medicine (i.e. tough regulations on capitalist thievery) would actually fix the problem, but that is not something the public will swallow. So the government kicks the can down the road and tries to mitigate the worst examples.
I take it you are a fan of consultants.. as well.
[Please check and correct your e-mail address in the next comment, thanks]
Mod note
$2.62 for 91 at NPD in chch this afternoon,no PR or marketing dept.
How did you hear of that?
They have big mandatory signs outside with the price on.
That's organised by their Comms team.
Granted if you're a price bottom-feeder you let your price do your PR for you.
It’s not. Every fuel company has a pricing team, those figures are either sent to the store using internal comms and then updated from site, or they are centralised and updated at head office.
Arguing that waka kotahi needs twice as many comms people when we’ve had the largest reduction in road traffic ever due to covid is mental.
Arguing that people who don’t think waka kotahi need twice as many comms people are somehow ignorant of everything to do with the public service is laughable. It shows that the public service will be voracious is chewing up large amounts of tax payers money for little benefit if allowed. Helping fuel inflation
Reminds me of a song along the same lines
[yb]ZDOI0cq6GZM[/yb]
Why have a gondola when you can have a monorail?
YES
..a monorail, that'll solve all our problems…,price (or effectiveness) no object.
He certainly doesn't look too flash.
Is Vladimir Putin sick or even dying?
The tabloid press, bolstered by a sudden efflorescence of Twitter diagnosticians, certainly seems to think so. Since his Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine got underway, the 69-year-old Russian president’s deteriorating health has been a subject of frenzied speculation — speculation that press secretary Dmitry Peskov has downplayed, citing Putin’s “excellent” health.
https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/is-putin-sick-or-are-we-meant-to-think-he-is/
Then there's…'
Is Joe Biden OK? Health fears grow for 'confused' POTUS
Increasingly looking weak, the Delaware Democrat has continued to make gaffes and exhibited moments of confusion.
Is Joe Biden OK? Health fears grow for 'confused' POTUS | MEAWW
Yep. The state of the world. The two people in the positions of greatest power should both be in a rest home.
What is going on?
Right wing concern trolling from the usual suspects.
The ironic faultline….crack…appears.
With over 200 billion(us)$ lost in crypto in a day,will there be effects in electricity demand globally.
Any luck and the demise of these mining schemes will shave a couple of points off rising global temperatures.
It will remove unnecessary electricity usage as global prices rocket.
It will also have effects in Mexico with the cartels estimated to launder 25$b through crypto.Very nervous accountants down there today.
So many questions:
Did Nelson do this because she was born a man?
Did Nelson do this because she self identifies as female?
Did name suppression lapse because Nelson didn't direct her lawyer to appeal?
Why did Nelson do this?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/128622831/name-suppression-lapses-for-cambridge-triple-stabbing-accused
Nelson did this because he wanted to do that. The identifying as a female is just a thing to maybe get some 'stunning' 'brave' and 'most vulnerable marginalised' group discount and pity wave.
Nelson is a male, who entered a restaurant through the back door and ended up stabbing several people, one of whom is his expartner.
Nothing more then a bit spiced up domestic male on female violence.
But as Anker says, some rainbow lanyard will happily write this up as a female on female crime and lock the dude and his testicles up with non males in a womens prison.
Who cares why Nelson did it. It is irrelevant. Do the crime now do the time, and as Nelson was born a man, it's off to a mens prison for him. There all sorted.
Jimmy, I am not so sure whether Nelson is off to a men's prison.
And I wage money on it that his lawyer will appeal for a lighter sentence, because you know he's trans and they are the most marginalized etc etc. Just like Ashley Winter's lawyers did.
For those who haven't read about Ashley Winters crime I would issue a trigger warning (which is rare for me to do). It involved prolonged and sadistic torture and eventual murder of a vulnerable teen woman. The most horrific crime i have read of in NZ. And no one knows where he is imprissoned (at least I haven't heard about that)
Thanks for posting Muttornbird. Why people are violent is always complex, but what we do know is the men who identify as women retain male patterns of criminality. Obviously not all men who identify as women are criminals, but the pattern is the same for all natal males.
Idenifying as a women will mean Nelson may be housed in a women's prison. With self ID Nelson will be able to enter female change rooms, toilets, sporting competitions, female rape crisis services etc etc. It was a former partner Nelson stabbed as well as 2 workers. I am speculating here but we know a lot of women leave their partners when they start identifying as women and their are harrowing accounts of what some of these women have been through if their partners are autogynaphyles. They are referred to as Trans widows if you want to read about it.
Lastly its possible Nelson's crimes may be counted as an offence committed by a female. This is problematic for all the obvious reasons.
With any luck – if convicted he will be sharing a cell in Paremoremo with "Ashley" Winter. These are not women and these are not women's crimes.
This morning there was an anti-mandate protest in Feilding. Why you need an anti-mandate protest anymore when the mandates are just about all gone suggests that many people don't ever read or listen to the news but there was one interesting point.
One protestor was holding a placard that suggested if you got the vaccine then you were somehow injected with a computer chip that allowed the state to spy on you. Like nanno technology – you will become Borg!
An elderly lady (nearly 90 years ago) told me that she questioned this person and asked them if they also believed the earth was flat, and apparently this person had to think about that for a while before they realised this lady was taking taking the mickey out of them. That made my morning!
When I looked at all the faces in the protest group I had to agree with her that the average IQ would likely be depressingly low.
Focused on masks in Wellington. Kind of annoying as the most available people to hastle are using public transport, so they expect commuters to create friction with the train guards or them.
Also showing how strong their convictions are, exactly one of the signs suggested using "masks might be harmful", in some undescribed way.
Pretty funny
Now we have Kiwis as both captain and coach of the England cricket test team.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/300587344/get-ready-for-the-ride-brendon-mccullum-named-new-england-test-coach
Wonder if I can get a job as a kiwi bringing the orange juice and sausage rolls on between innings?