Tuppence, why in your comment did you refer to the “kiwis who can enjoy Christmas” as being ‘honest, hard working”?
Are you insinuating that the engineers who work for Air New Zealand are not? It seems that you are using a meme often used by National now in constant referral to ‘hard-working kiwis’ which is actually a way of saying that our side are the good guys and those who disagree with us are lazy and corrupt.
The old reference used to be “decent law-abiding citizens” and before that ‘God-fearing people”.
It’s all smear tactics, Tuppence, and it’s dirty politics.
So you are saying that 41000 kiwis who had travel booked next friday shouldn’t be thought of as hard working? and that my mentioning of it is some kind of conspiracy?
are the 41000 people, who would have paid above a normal rate to travel next friday, somehow to blame for their travel getting in the way of a strike and the demands of 1000 top 10 percent salary earners”
Yes, I’m saying that. You used National party rhetoric, clichéd and false.
If you had meant that the ordinary public would have been inconvenienced, which is true, then you should have said that. Why typify these travellers as ‘hard-working and honest’? Conspiracy is not the same as insinuation, btw.
Their honesty and work ethic is not germane to the issue unless you were smearing the engineers.
And FFS how can you construe from my comments that I am blaming these travellers? That in itself points to your illogicality and your falseness in accusations, adding to the falseness of the implied accusation that the proposed strikers (remember they aren’t strikers until they have actually struck) are lazy and corrupt.
So Kiwi’s who have been working all year and are looking forward to a well earned break at christmas time aren’t germane to the conversation about striking engineers?
Why did the engineers choose the busiest time of year to strike then?
Tuppence, most travellers have been working all year. You haven’t answered why you chose that descriptor, along with ‘honest’, to describe them. Tuppence, why did you use the word honest?
Your second paragraph is an attempted distraction from your discredited smearing and illogicality.
And you still haven’t justified your language………..
Your debating behaviour is a bit like that worm on the hook that Paula Bennett is going fishing with in the Sroubek case- wriggle, wiggle, twist and turn.
“There has to be a connection” says Paula. I am trying to get you to admit that there is a connection between your thinking and the language that you use.
Let’s fact it, Tuppence, you regard workers who contemplate strike action in defence of their wages and conditions, and perhaps even their very jobs, as being the opposite to hard-working and honest.
This strike was dishonest. Ruining innocent travellers holiday plans so that the engineers could have more annual leave shows a callous disregard for the truth when e tu and yourself try to make this about fairness.
So you seem to know what dishonest means, Tuppence.
Now, why use honest to describe travellers? (And I’m not talking Irish gypsies here). As Anne points out, the word honest is not applicable to all travellers, nor I say to all kiwis.
Nor does hard-working.
But we know they are dog-whistle terms to denigrate and elicit support from fellow (heh!) travellers.
So, you’re claiming all travellers are hard working and honest. What a load of codswallop. Some are, some aren’t. Some earned their money honestly some didn’t. Some are decent people, some are ratbags. In other words travellers represent a cross section of people who can be good, bad and indifferent.
I notice how what should have been a discussion about the union and airnz has been derailed by a bloody RW lightweight. We would get further if we treated them all the time as just trolls who would rather argue with a leftie than stop them falling under a bus. DFTT they are enemies, not merely ignorant of facts and realities – and if they are ignorant it is the wilful kind, and NOTHING will ever improve with that mindset, concrete-set.
So back to Patricia at 1.
I guess the union were counting on Air NZ getting bowled over by the ramifications. And AirNZ have been low shits for sure. The engineers have to work long hours, keep themselves to high standards of work, and we all love them for the safety of travel that results. Then to try and save money on those extra-long hours by reducing the overtime rates, when they are making large profits is just unconscionable. That sort of thing is why unions are so important. Unions are to help safeguard employees against the machinations of Big Business and also the sneaky, nasty types of Small Business that do exist.
But unions need people to see them as good jokers, not self-centred people who will adopt business tactics and walk all over the people further down the ladder, the customers of their employers. Going on strike in January, that would have caused disruption, but Christmas is family time and we need to have lives and families to make life worth living.
Was there some reason that the two unions ( E tū and the Aviation and Marine Engineers Association – AMEA) could not have waited till January to make their protest? It would still have brought leverage on our national airline. And AirNZ don’t think of going overseas for all your engineering checks, we want quality NZ workers, to be treated fairly, and in turn, for them and their unions to treat us fairly and thoughtfully.
Probably due to substantial rebuilding of their facilities around that time at a cost of in excess of $100 million. The capital expenditure then feeds into the annual capital charge (about 7% of the capital), which is part of fixed overhead.
Thanks Wayne. Archives have built a new Christchurch repository at Wigram.
But I still find it hard to understand how the new capital charge deriving from this initiative could almost quadruple the agency’s total overhead in 5 years.
As far as I know, DIA/Archives still has some fairly substantial project(s) underway – even though they may be over-burdened with countless meetings and bean counting
I have not actually checked the annual accounts on the increase in capital charge. But I do know National Library and Archives had some big capital projects, mostly approved in 2009 and actually started in 2010. At that stage well over $100 million initially on the National Library with Archives to follow. I would imagine a lot more than $100 million by now.
As an aside one of the ways NZDF buys new assets is to use the depreciation allowance. With all the stuff bought over the last decade (helicopters, upgrades to aircraft, upgrades to ships, new buildings, new Army weapons and vehicles) there is at least $200 million annual depreciation. This is used to buy new stuff, so a fair chunk of the $2.3 billion on the new maritime surveillance aircraft comes from accumulated depreciation.
I don’t know about other libraries around the country, but our local libraries in Napier and Hastings, (both of which were very good provincial libraries) have been absolutely destroyed and gutted over the past 2-3 years, huge book sales, including many very rare local history books, the shelves are now only half full, and a majority of the few replacement books are lackluster coffee table books rather than serious reference books,
I hardly go to either library now, I find them too depressing witnessing in real time the dumbing down of out communities, as if there wasn’t enough dumbing down going on everywhere else anyway.
Totally whacked out on the meme that digital is everything and books and paper and passe’.Digital as ephemeral as the brains that only briefly touch on an understanding of knowledge and how it is used to achieve wisdom. I am reading Penguins printed shortly after i was born. They are available, accessible, and don’t require a machine.
It’s also a weird inverted privilege issue. With a Kindle I can carry an entire library of books with me wherever I go. To have paper versions of the ebooks I have in my backpack 24/7 I would need to buy a big house with entire rooms devoted to book storage. Who can afford that these days?
Visited Ōtara library in Auckland recently after several months, the library has been deliberately gutted by Auckland Council to make room for “community space”.
This was achieved by initially putting out a survey in Ōtara asking the public if they wanted more community space. When the results were collated, Auckland Council then used those results to remove about 80% of the books from the library, which now has plenty of open space and beanbags.
The really vindictive nature of this move is that the library is part of the shopping and parking complex near to Manukau Technical Institute. Auckland Council owns and manages the large Ōtara Community Centre, the Ōtara Music Centre, and the aquatic complex within the same area. These community spaces, particularly the Community Centre, are available for public use if required, but the use of fees prohibits use.
This is in indication of the stealth with which Auckland Council will go to remove one of the best accesses a community and individual, regardless of age or ability, can have to a free education.
Down here in Hastings, I had a member of the local ‘Friends of the Library’ inform me with great pride that they used the money from the endless all encompassing book sales to buy a new couch for the Flaxmere Library.
yipee.
4 years latter the couch is looking suitably sad…and the libraries are even emptier.
What especially irritates me is the claim that books being sold are either unborrowed titles, or books that are about to be superceded. Yet I have seen recent books on, NZ Tapa; NZ Tussock Moths and NZ State Houses, all in pristine condition, on the sales table. They are not redundant titles.
I presume that the term ‘friends of the Library’ is purely ironic.
meantime…
“,i>There are 178 New Zealand schools that don’t have a dedicated library, while 330 schools have less library space than they’re entitled to.”
I spoke to one of the librarians at the time, and asked what had happened.
He seemed fairly accepting of the process. I said that I considered libraries to be the one public place that is accessible to all; regardless of age, income, physical impairment and education. That physical browsing can expose you to ideas and interests that are not likely in internet browsing, and the editing and publishing process ensures a degree of quality that is not necessarily true of online sources. I honestly believe that access to well-resourced libraries is access to education, and the value of libraries is social.
If local authorities want to get more financial value of of library investment, use financial tools such as SROI (social return on investment) to see what they provide. Include in libraries – social enterprise cafes that train people to employment while providing a gathering place for users. Add programmes that genuinely bring together community.
The dependence on the current financial methods of cost/benefit produce four-year old saggy sofas. The value of libraries is more than that.
We didn’t have a library at school till I was eight. When we got a prefab library I nearly read the whole lot. I’d already read everything my parents owned. Then it was off to Hamilton. Bored, I’d skip school and go to the public library and study plants, insects and fungi…
Both those libraries, when I first walked into them and saw the books: at school the smell of new carpet and print, with more books than I’d ever seen before; and then Hamilton, this massive building with mezzanine floor holding row after row of shelves that stretched beyond the walking bridges criss-crossed overhead… it was like finding hallowed ground. All the worlds were in those rooms.
Libraries should be hallowed ground.
Officials in charge of libraries should be total geeks who’d live onsite if allowed. They are the gatekeepers of knowledge. I know people who’ve worked very hard just to be librarians, they love books like crazy. Why aren’t they in charge?
Business heads qualified to be managerial material’. Meddling in education and the arts. No f’n idea. If we have x books and y book lenders…
Just re-read Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ (1932)
‘There isn’t any need for civilised man to bear anything that’s seriously unpleasant. And as for doing things, Ford forbid that he should get the idea into his head. It would upset the whole social order if men started doing things on their own.
What about self-denial, then? If you had a God, you’d have a reason for self denial.
But industrial civilisation is only possible when there is no self denial. Self-indulgence up to the very limits imposed by hygeine and economics. Otherwise the wheels stop turning.’
WTB
Libraries, banks of thought and imagination and facts. Stacked up on shelves, each book long in the making, the planning, the choice of words for meaning and impact. Jewels of the brain’s electricity crystallised into physical form.
Go into a bank which represents fantastical power. Where is the money, the documents, the trapped electrical impulses that carry this weight of value. The product isn’t to be seen. If it is physical, it must be stowed away safely. If it is driven by impulses, it must be protected, even though it is merely based on imagination, feeling, marks on a screen that can change, double or vanish as one watches.
But a book is an artifact, it has been made from different components, and each aspect is the result of skilled tradespeople working together, consulting and then going forward with their portion of the whole. And these magic objects can be touched and handled, and will last for many lifetimes with care, and an understanding of the marks on the page.
The book is human communication reaching out to others of like mind, and those who want to explore that line of thinking. It is a little piece of society, wrapped up in a sort of ravioli case, ready for the mind’s delectation. It talks to us and may give us strength and comradeship as in the last verse of 1 September 1939, W.H.Auden.
Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
+1 millsy, sad, it’s not just the local history, but not having to rely on an internet connection which as we all know in NZ, is hardly reliable or even fast. Not sure how many low income families are also allowing their kids internet access when they can’t even keep the power or phone on.
Adrian Thornton,
In 1989, I began saving books that I thought were important, because I could see what was going to happen when greed and asset sales and betraying New Zealanders’ rights and histories began to swirl under extreme right philosophies that are incapable of appreciating the beauty of books AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, the need for all New Zealanders to access them. I now have my own library. Perhaps you can start your own. Good luck.
+1 Me, but it is not just the right who seem to now hate books, the third way Rogernomic lefties seem to hate books too. And the Auckland university specialist libraries were closed with a Labour government in, with Chloe from the Greens who I think did art history there, did not seem to be making any protest about the libraries demise and the jobs lost, while the university were also paying the Chancellor over $700k, the third highest public servant apparently.
I think the idea is that Kiwis don’t read because then they can be better low paid workers, have less critical thinking and be blind donors to political parties to get things done.
I hear there is a very good secondhand bookshop in Hastings called “The Little Red Bookshop” …. LOL
“Their huge collection of affordable books is a local treasure. As their website puts it, they are “proprietors of the best little second hand bookshop in Hastings, New Zealand. We may, on occasion, seem a touch irreverent, but hopefully in the nicest possible way”.
…
Behind the book shop and chocolate shop is a warren of fascinating rooms. It’s like something out of Being John Malkovich. There are rooms filled to brimming with books and puzzles, a music studio (home of the seven-ten piece Revolutionary Arts Ensemble, …), and a large collection of classic racing bicycles and memorabilia. This collection is a penchant of (name removed), to which he welcomes like minds by appointment.”
Really? I am not in the Bay, but will check it out sometime. Hope I did not overstep in my comment above! Did not put link …… but AT and partner and their wonderful shop are well known outside the Bay as well.
I’m sure it’ll be fine with Adrian, any publicity is good publicity, as the marketers say.
Bay FM can be found on Simple radio and via their website. The first time I heard the station I was driving into Hastings and resetting the radio. I couldn’t believe it when I heard Lou Reed’s Coney Island Baby. They followed that up with a Joy Division track and that was me hooked!
But never forget, the mandarin manutang’s opponent won almost 3 million more votes than he did. It was just an anachronistic quirk of the electoral system that delivered the presidency to Dementia Don. Coupled with the way the Electoral College failed to fulfill one of the duties it was expected to do when it was set up: it was intended that the Electors would assess the fitness for office of the candidates and if somehow someone totally unsuitable conned the general public, the Electors would exercise their better judgement and choose a candidate that actually was fit. Check out the Federalist Papers 68. In this case, the Electors overrode the good sense of the popular vote and installed the Tangerine Tantrum.
Not really an anachronistic quirk. It is built in to the constitution ensure that each state has their say in the final result. So that huge majorities in say New York or California don’t drown out narrow victories in smaller states.
We tend to forget in New Zealand that the United States has a federal constitution, designed to give a substantial say to each of the 50 states.
Not much likelihood of changing the constitution on this point. What the next democratic candidate has to do is win states like Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Been done plenty of times in the past.
At the time it was set up, communication across the country was extremely slow and unreliable. Times have moved on.
At the time it was set up, how to account for the proportion of a state’s population that were slaves was an issue. Women and non-landowning males couldn’t vote either. Times and human rights views have moved on.
Should the decisions around setting up the Electoral College be redone today, I’d be astonished if choosing the presidency would be anything other than one person, one equal vote. The composition of the Senate with 2 senators from each state would then be the sufficient safeguard of the smaller states’ interests.
But yeah, changing the Constitution ain’t gonna happen. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact sidestepping the Electoral College is only a tiny bit more likely to happen.
Anachronistic is correct. There was a link on here detailing how the system, set up to achieve what you say, now actively prevents it. It needs to be changed but the chances of that happening are between slim and none. The US constitution is preventing that necessary change because of the requirements needed to change the constitution.
Wayne what you say is true to some extent but there are tremendous inequalities built into the current system of Government in the States where, for example, the value of a vote in California is only a fraction of the vote in Wyoming. This was exemplified in the recent appointment of Judge Kavenaugh where the number of votes behind the senators who voted for him was around 11million less than the votes represented by those who voted against.
I’m sure you would find this opinion piece by John Dingell the longest serving, and recently retired Senator, (he represented Michigan for 59 years) highly interesting.
Informative input you make Andre. I can recall reading somewhere years ago something suggesting that it is lawful for an official (?) to throw a state’s electoral college vote tally in favour of a presidential candidate who did not receive a majority of the votes in that state. Thinking about that now it seems unlikely, even as a legal possibility. Do you know anything of that Andre ?
Going from memory, there’s nothing in the US constitution that says an Elector is in any way constrained in who they vote for. Almost every presidential election there are a few faithless electors that vote for someone other than who they were “supposed to” vote for. But so far, the only election where faithless electors have changed the outcome was 1796.
States set their own laws about how to apportion their electors and penalties for faithless electors. 48 states have winner-take-all for all of their electors. Maine and Nebraska have winner-take-all for two of their electors (corresponding to the 2 senators) and then the electors corresponding to the House seats are pledged to the popular vote winner of that district.
I reckon May will step down in June. There will be an open contest so that will take a couple of months. I reckon Dominic Raab or Sajid Javid will be the finalists. Something flawed about Boris.
As for a snap election. Won’t happen. The only way it can occur is if the DUP switch sides, and they won’t.
i suppose the new PM could call a new election, but given what happened to May, that won’t be very appealing.
Looks like May has won the no confidence vote. Helps that she has decided to stand down before the next election so took the wind out of her opponents sails
I missed this article by Rachel Stewart yesterday.
Absolutely superb. Read it and share it with all your friends.
I see she is also talking to Derrick Jensen on Christmas Day.
That will be well worth a listen.
Rachel isn’t scared to tel us the truth.
A rare commodity today.
An excerpt of her wisdom.
“As this is my last column for 2018, I thought it timely to review the big news stories that point to an even better 2019.
Except, there are none.
So, instead, here’s a selection of this year’s news stories that sent a shiver down
my spine. I write it for those of us who aren’t stupid enough to believe that the planet is doing anything other than hurtling to its doom.
First cab off the rank must be climate change. You know, the biggest threat to the continuation of our species since Donald Trump was inaugurated. Not only is the news all bad, there’s no sign of any global consensus on the way forward. The chances of reversing the situation in any meaningful way are about as high as my dog reversing my Jeep into a spare parallel park on Queen St during Christmas week.
Too many people living on an overheating capitalist planet means that our oceans are awash with plastic, our rivers – the ones that still flow – are awash with nitrates, our soils are awash with chemicals, and our media is awash with greenwash. Whatever pays the bills, right?
Only when our biodiversity is gone, and we reach the point of biological breakdown, will we realise what we’ve done. Even then, someone will find a way to spin a buck out of it. Profit is everything, and the earth will provide. Until it won’t.”
Since July the government’s family package has been giving low-income families an extra $75 a week. Yet, the Auckland City Mission has had an unprecedented increase in demand for food parcels and will double its Christmas efforts as a result.
City missioner Chris Farrelly said “we’ve identified very clearly that we have got a growth in food insecurity and food poverty in New Zealand.
The prime minister plans to visit the Auckland City Mission before Christmas to “drill into” why an increasing number of families are struggling to make ends meet.
She is hoping the rise in demand is a case of more people in need feeling they can ask for help. However, even if it is a case of more people in need feeling they can ask for help, clearly the government’s family package isn’t doing enough to help them.
Could it merely be a case of more people in need feeling they can ask for help or is the growth in demand (as City missioner Chris Farrelly pointed out above) more likely a case of the government’s family package not going far enough?
The benefit of the government’s family package would have been largely offset by the new charges/taxes the government has also introduced since in power.
How long will it take for the government to establish what is driving the increase in demand and more importantly, when are they going to act to correct it? One would like to think people going hungry is a priority for this government. So again, when are they going to correct it?
When you have huge increase in low paid workers and and fake students with fake financials, you get a spike in poorer people into NZ, which then can make the exisiting poor even poorer as they are all competing for the same resources.
A spike in people with money also drives up the prices of luxury housing, while spikes of poorer people drives up the affordable housing prices. Not rocket science!
Before the government capitulated to business interests and ran their lazy immigration scams to the maximum, they might have worked out how much it was going to cost to upgrade all the housing, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, roads and how they were going to pay for the top up of so many low paid wages, WFF or asset rich, cash poor satellite families based in NZ.
When they decided to do it through further taxation like petrol taxes, rates and user pays charges what effects that might have on poorer folks based here that don’t have family to fed X over tens of thousands of family money for the increased cost of living.
The thirty year NZ experiment, first Rogernomics then immigration led neoliberalism has made NZ a worse place to live for many people and reduced the opportunities for our youth born here, made productivity static, lowered wages in real terms, driven up the prices of set costs of living and create a bigger inequality divide.
Do you think Labour will do enough over the coming year to make a significant difference in turning around the large number queuing at the City Mission next Christmas?
@The Chairman, nope. It is not so much Labour’s fault as the legacy of National party policy on immigration and welfare but Labour don’t seem to be keeping their election promises of reducing immigration to 15000, which judging by the amount of new housing they are whooping about for Kiwibuild does not even cover it. aka 100,000 over 10 years is approx 10,000 houses per year.
The types of migrants coming are of a lower skill level than 5 years ago. Hard to see where the tax money will come from for the future when our big plan for immigration is more nickel and dime store owners with 100% profits on liquor, bad restaurant food and plastic goods stores and how to be a third party rip off merchant on labour and more nurses and doctors and teachers to pay for the population growth on the back of it and people’s 11 day relationships when they get lonely or jailed criminals coming here on ‘compassionate’ grounds .
Landlords who want more money, and who can ask for more money, ask for more money, driving up costs for many. And considering that we still have a rental shortage, and that people don’t really like living in ditches, Landlord can virtually ask for what ever they like and still rent out their investments.
Rents have always gone up since… forever havn’t they? Or are right wingers suddenly wanting rent controls? I do, I actually bought my first home a couple years ago, way cheaper than renting ironically, though I was very lucky with a Super scheme through my (heavily unionised) job.
Apparently the people who are the largest group in poverty is Pakeha parents with a mortgage. Aka not renters. I think you can look back and realise that certain things like housing don’t seem to go down over time but increase, and I very much doubt the government can do much to stem that. What is not rising enough is people’s incomes.
It is the role of the Reserve Bank and the Government to ensure price stability in the housing market. But it’s not just the price of houses that has been excessively exceeding, putting more into hardship.
Generally, landlords want more money due to their costs rising – i.e. rates, insurance, etc. And Labour policy (like the recent change in letting fees) is driving up their costs.
Part of the problem is a build up of poverty and debt during the last 9/10 years.
The payments made helped many, but others have reached the end of their resilience, and debts are growing. Repaying MSD, student debt, rental debts. etc.
To imply that Jacinda Ardern and her Government have caused this is such deliberate misdirection that I despair of your “concern”
When the previous Government was in power, I did not read anything from you telling that government to alleviate hunger.
Further, when some ideas were put forward there was a huge out cry about choices self help and I did not see any effort by any politician to find out what was happening.
The PM says she will visit to discover where the problems lie. Because she cares.
I wasn’t implying Jacinda Ardern and her Government have caused this, Patricia. But it is evident that she and her coalition Government aren’t doing enough to turn the numbers around.
Thanks Maui.
I listen to his show every week.
It’s the University of the airwaves, as GG puts it.
8 a.m Saturday NZ time.
Three hours of brilliant radio.
I’m no lawyer but Marie Dryberg’s stance seems a sensible one to me:
“Sharing the name is a publication,” defence lawyer Marie Dyhrberg QC said.
“I don’t think anyone rowed out of New Zealand waters and called a newsroom and then rowed back.”
….. and that said, wouldn’t it have been an opportunity to put that before the judiciary, get some sort of precedent set, so that we can see if and what sort of changes need to be made?
If the guy is guilty, it’d be a shame if the case failed on some technicality
Thoughts???
I reckon Marie Dyhrberg is wrong and Chris Finlayson is right on how the appeal should be dealt with. There should be no automatic 20 days for an appeal. In a case like this, it should be accelerated through the High Court, say by end of business/court year.
The District Court Judge could see no grounds at all for name suppression, but of course the right to an appeal is automatic, whether to not the appeal has any merit. I am not suggesting any change to the right of appeal since that right is fundamental. But I do think that an appeal like this should be expedited, and not automatically stall everything for 20 days.
There is almost nil circumstance where the naming of the accused in the UK press will have any effect in the accused going through a full trial. Little was at best exaggerating that it would.
By the way Wayne, I have a different perspective, and that is that is actually none of my bloody business, or the public’s who the defendant is UNTIL a verdict has been given.
The only people who need know are the Police, Judiciary, Jurors, the family and various Counsel.
Justice being seen to be done does not have to be immediate just to serve whatever voyeuristic tendencies I might have. I could either attend Court, or perhaps look at a recording of proceedings AFTER a verdict has been delivered.
It seems to me that one of the reasons faith is being lost in judicial processes (and the Police sometimes) is that all the hype and sensationalism that goes on just serves to make people lose faith in the system (especially when you get Lackwit Larry’s, and Hoskings, and Leighton’s rarking it all up)
I saw a photo and heard the name discussed as I negotiated my way through a group of butch, fluro-vested blokes blocking the footpath just near Courtenay Place when they were on their tablet.
The look on their face was almost like one of disappointment when the image popped up (presumably because, AND judging by the discussion – the defendant was neither brown, nor apparently gang-related).
I’m of course making assumptions there, but even then, as I managed to get past I could hear the “fucking scumbag” , and “I’d ……..” and “If someone did that to my missus”…… etc.
Whoar! they were tuff!
Out of curiosity to see just how simple it was to find out, I did a Google search and blimey up came the UK Telegraph with name and photo. I quickly got out of it. I suppose I’m now one of the thousands who did just that. “The look on their face was almost like one of disappointment when the image popped up (presumably because, AND judging by the discussion – the defendant was neither brown, nor apparently gang-related).” My reaction was relief actually.
Can’t possibly agree. The idea that every trial of every defendant would not have the name of the defendant disclosed seems to be a gross breach of the concept of open and public justice.
In any event it is not going to happen. No conceivable parliament would vote for it.
If I may say so, that’s fairly lame (even coming from you. And I mean that because you are really quite a fuddy duddy – sorry I couldn’t find a better way of saying it).
You’ll have to agree that there are often suppression orders and for good reason. After a verdict is reached, the details are usually public, “Open and Public” justice is still done and seen to have been done. The only difference is immediacy, which in the new era, is proving to be a problem – as in Millane case and with the likes of Google. We’ll likely see more of this kind of stuff
Sorry @ Wayne….. at the time I posted, it had been a long day, and the word I was looking for was ‘traditionalist’ – despite all that spin you’ve learned about not being ‘change averse’. (We’ll fight them in the trenches till the bitter end! For our agenda and vision is sacrosanct and righteous – and of course we do know better. ‘We’ were BORN to rule and preserve decency and we’ll fight to the death)
So, tell me, should all the investigations that the police engage in also be on public display during the investigation so as to prevent a gross breach of open and public justice?
IMO, the court is the end part of that investigation and it is only afterwards that the public should see it.
Edmonton also saw a large protest, with hundreds marching from the Legislature to Churchill Square, carrying signs, some reading “No Global Climate Pact. Suicide.”
Multiple posts on Canada’s yellow jackets Facebook page called for more drastic action.
“Look at France today. After four weeks of burning the cities, the French government cut the carbon tax. So what do we want? 90 years or four weeks until something changes?” wrote Robb Kerr on the group’s page. “If you want to crush a government, you have to play their game … You want to see them jump? Then burn down City Hall.”
The protests were jointly against the provincial and federal carbon taxes, and Canada’s plan to endorse the United Nations’ migration pact, which outlines objectives for treating global migrants humanely and efficiently.
Jenny Shipley – China Bank director? Joind at the hip?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/68435306/null
Richard Meadows 11 May 2015 – (good stuff Richard.) The first disclosure statement for China Construction Bank (CCB) NZ, of which Shipley is chairman, reveals she was paid $50,769 between June and December last year, which works out to about $90,000 on a yearly basis.
In an interview with Stuff.co.nz last week, Shipley declined to reveal her director’s fees, though hinted that she had taken a substantial pay-cut.
Even so, Shipley’s earnings dwarf that of her fellow former politician, with Brash earning just $65,000 as chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)’s local arm.
The Bank of China, which is the third banking behemoth to enter New Zealand in the last two years, has yet to disclose its financial records.
That means the salaries of its directors Ruth Richardson and Chris Tremain, also both former National MPs, are as yet unknown.
Shipley
Brash
Richardson
Tremain
Being a NZ government minister is a good CV point.
I think we should bring the salaries down for MPs as they apparently regard it as apprenticeship training, or an alternative to a politics university degree which others have to pay to get.
+1 (especially the bit about apprenticeship training)
I’m wondering where Nafe might end up. Most of the rest of them could get a pozzy at Harcourts Real Estate – without even having to change their uniforms – exceptions being Gerry the big boy, and Finlayson of course, and there are others looking for a pozzy in a High Commission somewhere.
Paula’s going to be a problem. She does have impeccable credentials as an actress or maybe a mime artist though.
Paula has presumably had advice on changing her image, and has succeeded. She looks quite tasty – an actress would be good, Maori presenter as she would be a good role model for the star-struck teenager. Has she ever been on Shortland Street? They could find a spot for her I should think. She follows along similar lines to Donna Awatere Huata who has found her feet in management.
Finlayson slagging off Maori because they persist in wanting their own way, but Ngapuhi can’t work out how many ways there are! He needs to get into something where they call a spade a spade and no mucking about.
Yes yes. As Maggie might say – Paula has come a long way but she still has a wee way to go to shake off some of that rabble around her. She has scrubbed up well and its hard not having gone to a finishing school. She’ll have to learn not to use those ‘P’- like eyes when she gets angry and when cameras are present.
It’s all about perceptions and ‘the look’ darling, which I’m becoming increasingly concerned about poor old Chris.
I am of course of the same vintage and I’m not sure whether his bro feels the same, but he is starting to look more like a dried up old prune and could end up like our friend Moz. Or things could go the other way and he’ll land on his feet at Palmer and Chen maybe
I love how quietly this immense slapdown is delivered to @ABridgen and what a supremely important point it is. “You can’t have what you want” is the one concept Brexiters cannot seems to grasp. Give that woman a big hug @joannaccherry. pic.twitter.com/peOD3uwmaZ— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) December 11, 2018
…in fact it would be very un-New Zealand of us, if we didn’t try to rort the system, especially when the policies are designed/loaded with unintended circumstances.
At the very least they could have given it to third year students or grad students or something, of course they shouldn’t have done it in the first place
There is always a percentage of first year students that withdraw, don’t engage or fail in the first year of tertiary study. The article would be more informative if it compared last year’s rate to the usual, but as far as I can see – it did not. In any real way, this withdrawal rate should have been anticipated by the government.
As for the rest, I think tertiary education should be free, but if this is the best that can be done. I agree with PR below. There would have been a greater benefit to graduate students, and the attrition rate would have been much lower.
It’s better because it does get people educated. Yes, even people who fail a course have better education and by failing they will probably understand how to succeed next time. In fact, calling it ‘failing’ is a misnomer. They didn’t learn what the course taught but they learned so much else. Here’s a few links on the subject:
Admittedly, our thoughts on falling forward or failing forward get a little cynical here, but then we sat down with Gregg Fairbrothers – a Dartmouth College grad, founder of the Dartmouth Entrepreneur Network, and serial entrepreneur – who brought some reasonable perspective. A pretty savvy guy involved in at least a half dozen successful startups, Fairbrothers argues, ‘When you succeed you often don’t know why. Often it is pure luck.’ He points out what do you learn from that except it’s good to be lucky? Whereas he believes ‘mistakes are a terrific teacher.’ Looking at the collective experience of many founders, it’s hard to disagree with the luck factor. Sure, you can have a competent founder who makes all the right decisions but they also get lucky – maybe it’s lucky timing like good market trends. On the flipside, lucky timing can also cover up mistakes, gives you wiggle room, so what are you really learning?
There’s nothing wrong with the spend on helping people be better. They tried. Now we need to support them into picking themselves up and trying again.
It’s only idiots that expect everything to go perfectly every time. They seem to all vote National.
Where’s the rort?
~12% fail usually.
We have another ~6% who withdrew.
The students don’t get any money if they withdraw. They don’t have a motive to rort the system for the institutions. And most courses would do a refund if you withdraw, depending on how much of the course you were there for.
If there was a spike in people enrolling then withdrawing, that just means that the policy has at least identified the need for education to be more accessible. In that case we need to know what other barriers exist for those 2600 people.
If we’re not failing we’re not trying hard enough.
The path way to equality needs to be paved with opportunity. Providing opportunities for people to try university study that are otherwise unable to do so is exactly the right thing to be doing. Some establish it’s not for them, fabulous, reset their compasses. Others flourish, equally fine.
Lasting equality will not come about by slopping grants around. It will come through the creation of opportunities. Opportunities for Mothers to receive a tertiary education, opportunities for poor kids to learn to sail. A vast and enticing tsunami of opportunity available to all.
After leaving school at 15 and having 3 kids at 21, I would never have my tertiary education with out the opportunity to try and not manage, then try again and achieve.
Obviously that was before the last NAct government.
I still reckon it is a good thing that I stopped coding an hour earlier and then biked there.
Better than today. I didn’t have whatever biological bug which my body is fighting off today. I really hate being sick. Makes it hard to concentrate on the site theme upgrade.
Open your Christmas whisky early! Hope you recover soon – don’t be sick with bugs at Christmas, keep it for hangovers if you get those. Perhaps your trouble is the sudden change to fresh air from being in a coding-coop. You need to get off your perch more often. Anyway Merry Christmas when it comes and regards to Lyn.
Picked up 3×1 litre bottles of Tullamore Dew duty free when I came back from Singapore a few weeks ago. I was working long hours outside for 7 weeks there because when you play with radio frequencies you need to suffer the weather. Fresh air I can live without hummph! Give me air-conditioning any day.
But I may have to drag myself out to find some food before self-medicating as the cupboard is a bit bare. After a few days of diminished appetite has left me a bit hungry.
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven….
Asked whether it’d been an adjustment to his lifestyle, the legendary guitarist quipped: “You can call it that, yeah”
The Rolling Stones‘ Keith Richards has revealed that he has cut back drastically on his drinking, admitting in a new interview that “it was time to quit”.
What’s the joke? After an atomic apocalypse all that will be left alive are the cock roaches … and Keith Richards. I’m glad he’s cut down, he’s a great guitarist and a very funny guy.
Probably for the same reason that RW trolls still can come here and be objectionable, and never change despite protests. Once a thought settles into the brain of someone who thinks they are entitled, everything else gets rationalised away – they are teflon-coated.
The Catholic church does so much good, but it’s the old saying which applies to all:
‘Power tends to corrupt; and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely’.
Yep court orders obtained in Aussie can apply here if they are asked to be observed by the courts there and yes, I’d be the person in the gun.
Besides I agree with the underlying precepts of court orders – which is why I don’t break them or allow them to be broken on my server. I’ll let published information and information that doesn’t appear to break the published detail of a court order through (obviously I’m not in court to get the detailed orders) including speculation through. Anything else gets warnings and if required some painful moderation.
Any time that I need to understand exactly why, I only have to look at the travesty of the open court American lynch system, the conviction rates of high media cases, and their incredibly high ratio of overturned criminal convictions when and only when someone actually funds the collection and presentation of basic evidence presented to judge only appeals. Basically if you are black or hispanic and not wealthy, having a highly public trial appear to ensure convictions.
To be fair it isn’t your arse that such dimwits legally risk, it is mine. I’m not put at risk if it isn’t on my server. And I’m perfectly happy making an example of any arsehole who deliberately puts my server at risk. In fact I’d be prepared to add an exception to our privacy rules and lay a complaint and give assistance to the police against any arsehole that violates the court orders on this site.
I’ve already spend almost 40k because the legally ignorant criminal blogger Dermot Nottingham falsely accused me of breaking name suppression orders on his case where he was charged and eventually convicted of deliberately breaking name suppression and harassment on his blog. He brought a private prosecution against me.
He failed to even prove after 15 months that I was associated with The Standard or that APN were associated with the Herald – which really demonstrates his level of legal stupidity. Since he seems to have spent a lot of time assisting Cameron Slater, I guess it is pretty obvious why Cameron is in so much legal shit. Dermot is now wearing a bracelet and home detention, and as he lost futile appeals I assisted him into bankruptcy along others who’d been dragged through his insane legal vendettas.
Besides, it wouldn’t surprise me if the courts ask the courts and the police in the UK to find out what local scumbag journalist leaked the information from court documents here to the yellow rags in the UK.
I hope when they find out who it is that they use the full-force of the sentences and toss the scumsucker into jail as a lesson in journalistic ethics.
“Russian media say a contraption presented by Russian state television as a high- tech robot was in fact a man in a commercially available robot costume.”
NZ media say a man presented by the gnashional party as its leader Simon bridges is in fact a robotic contraption in a commercially available man costume.
Meanwhile ,… while we are all fighting among ourselves , having wars, getting drunk and celebrating Christmas… somewhere out there ( perhaps ) is something truly creepy… or maybe they think we are creepy…
He should ask his friends….oh, that’s right, he stiffed them on the bail money.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appears via video at a Quito court hearing as he appeals against new protocols – Ecuador will no longer pay for his food and medical care, etc. – governing his stay at the Embassy in London pic.twitter.com/UbIw5qxTiF— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 13, 2018
Turkey will launch a military operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria “within a matter of days,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, prompting warnings from the Pentagon and State Department.
Washington backs the Kurds with thousands of service members, special forces and contractors who maintain a presence east of the Euphrates River, while Turkey and its coalition of Syrian rebels have mainly stayed to the west.
Turkey will target the east to “save the area from the separatist terrorist movement,” Erdogan said, using his routine term for Kurdish militias.
Kia ora The Am Show
Kendra deserved to win NZ Rugby Player of the year prize she had a good season
ka pai.
That what a wahine would say Ingrid funny my partner would have said the same on the Rugby.
The thing about the sandflys discretion on who they bust for drugs and billy said they did so last year when he was in the lead is they let Europeans off and lock up the brown people I hope that has changed I have warned the Tangata of that reality .So in reality there has been little changes on that front.
Grant I see the Maori Party and Tops party are going to cooperate a .
Eco Maori for Tangata Whenua of the year.
MPI are full of your m8 duncan I served the official information act on them and the statements they sent me were mostly false.
Fontera did not deliver they lost billions in China and just added 50% more admin cost.
Aretha Franklin death was a sad loss to she fought for equal rights to .
The theft of the Mangere Bridge kindy play ground is stupid why don’t you start a give alittle page then the mokopunas will get brand new jungle jim and slides .
judy your neo libreal capitalist m8 around Papatuanuku are crashing out they are all greedy climate change deniers who can not think about there childrens FUTURE .
King Home Boy giving his prize to charity ka pai
I do support looking after the well being of our new foreign workers paying and treating them fairly mai chen ?????? & her m8 shrilly from 7 blunt tried to underarm bowl me out but they just gave me more mana.
I tau toko the #METO movement Ka kite ano P.S what happened to the poll??????????
To the Am Show team have a good holiday have not been able to afford one of those in ten years with that monkey on Eco Maori’s back playing with my fortunes
Ka kite ano
The cafe I could support Credit Simple I just need to get my communication encrypt I have seen the Eco Maori effect in action but I will only use it to benefit all Te tangata positively ka kite ano
Many thank’s to the American Senators that voted to curb support to the Saudi war machine and for putting the children’s lives first ka pai
US Senate approves resolutions to curb Saudi support and condemn Khashoggi murder – liveSenate votes 56-41 to pass the War Powers Resolution that would halt US military assistance to Saudis in Yemen Ka kite ano links below.
I can see that this will become a reality very soon the world’s financial crash and in trumps own word’s he did not care because it would happen when he has retired .
Global investors managing $32tn issued a stark warning to governments at the UN climate summit on Monday, demanding urgent cuts in carbon emissions and the phasing out of all coal burning. Without these, the world faces a financial crash several times worse than the 2008 crisis, they said.
The investors include some of the world’s biggest pension funds, insurers and asset managers and marks the largest such intervention to date. They say fossil fuel subsidies must end and substantial taxes on carbon be introduced.
Eco Maori is proactive for a positive future for all the humans on Mother Earth .
Ka kite ano. links below. P.S Just 3 % of the worlds GDP is need to combat climate change shear with thy neighbors
Eco Maori agrees strongly with John Kerry’s words
John Kerry: Forget Trump. We All Must Act on Climate Change.
If we fail, it won’t be just the president’s fault.
This week is the third anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. The Trump administration marked it by working with Russia and Gulf oil nations to sideline science and undermine the accord at climate talks underway in Katowice, Poland.
While I was in New Delhi this week, where I met with solar energy advocates, a comment made thousands of miles away by the journalist Bob Woodward almost jumped off my iPad: The president, he said, “makes decisions often without a factual basis.” This isn’t a mere personality quirk of the leader of the free world. It is profoundly dangerous for the entire planet.
Scientists tell us we must act now to avoid the ravages of climate change. The collision of facts and alternative facts has hurt America’s efforts to confront this existential crisis. Ever since Mr. Trump announced that he would pull America out of the Paris accord, those of us in the fight have worked to demonstrate that the American people are still in. Links Below
You know I remember when I was a young fella my Mama /Greatgrandmother told me be loyal to those that help you and don’t bite the hand that feed’s you.
There have been some that Eco MaoriTau toko’s and next minute these people are biting me WTF.
You know that the sandflys are breaking mine and my immediate whano’s human right’s every day 24/7 I know every move they make against me but I get pissed when they target my whano. The justice system does stuff all for the poor but try to stuff us up .But there are consequences to biting Eco Maori Ka kite ano
Kia ora Piripi from Tekaea yes tangata whenua have the highest rate of heart attacks and lowest survival rates te tangata need to go to the doctors more and look after Our health to look after the Mokopunas
Carmen I say the culture is much better now than it was last time I was in Winz the wait was short and there were not a lot of people in the office and they were not stressed .
Maori interactive video games ki ora that is awesome maori can generate a lot of jobs and money from video game’s .The industry is way bigger than Hollywood.
Eco Maori tau toko’s the Maori Santa some people cannot put there prejudices
Ka pai to the maori modular whare with the money saved with time
That was cool Jason Momoa doing the Haka and his movie Aquaman will be one I am going to watch at the Cinema.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub
Steve Hansen is retiring he does not mince word’s all the best on your new journey Coach. I have my pick for your replacement but I will keep that to myself .
That hurricane hitting Australia looks like it will cause problems I hope no one gets hurt.
People searching on Google for good thing’s is cool some in the media need to do they same .
It show how deprived some people are in America if they will risk there lives going to get copper wire in a mine to survive.
Virgin Galactic is getting close to there goals of passenger space flights I wish Richard all the best .
Sawn the Sun bear dying is sad
There you go Russia has taken a leaf out of someone else old book with the man posing as a robot lol . Ka kite ano
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
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This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
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Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
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A successful outcome for the Union negotiators.
Air NZ spotting backlash in opinions and insurance problems.
Where’s the statement of what the union has achieved from e tu?
Unions blinked, realised the masses hold more power than the few, and now honest hard working kiwis can enjoy Christmas
Tuppence, why in your comment did you refer to the “kiwis who can enjoy Christmas” as being ‘honest, hard working”?
Are you insinuating that the engineers who work for Air New Zealand are not? It seems that you are using a meme often used by National now in constant referral to ‘hard-working kiwis’ which is actually a way of saying that our side are the good guys and those who disagree with us are lazy and corrupt.
The old reference used to be “decent law-abiding citizens” and before that ‘God-fearing people”.
It’s all smear tactics, Tuppence, and it’s dirty politics.
So you are saying that 41000 kiwis who had travel booked next friday shouldn’t be thought of as hard working? and that my mentioning of it is some kind of conspiracy?
are the 41000 people, who would have paid above a normal rate to travel next friday, somehow to blame for their travel getting in the way of a strike and the demands of 1000 top 10 percent salary earners”
Yes, I’m saying that. You used National party rhetoric, clichéd and false.
If you had meant that the ordinary public would have been inconvenienced, which is true, then you should have said that. Why typify these travellers as ‘hard-working and honest’? Conspiracy is not the same as insinuation, btw.
Their honesty and work ethic is not germane to the issue unless you were smearing the engineers.
And FFS how can you construe from my comments that I am blaming these travellers? That in itself points to your illogicality and your falseness in accusations, adding to the falseness of the implied accusation that the proposed strikers (remember they aren’t strikers until they have actually struck) are lazy and corrupt.
So Kiwi’s who have been working all year and are looking forward to a well earned break at christmas time aren’t germane to the conversation about striking engineers?
Why did the engineers choose the busiest time of year to strike then?
Tuppence, most travellers have been working all year. You haven’t answered why you chose that descriptor, along with ‘honest’, to describe them. Tuppence, why did you use the word honest?
Your second paragraph is an attempted distraction from your discredited smearing and illogicality.
Thanks for agreeing with me. it was hard to see how you could try impugn that travellers aren’t hard working.
as they go about in an honest attempt to enjoy christmas with their families on their limited holiday with minimal disruption
And you still haven’t justified your language………..
Your debating behaviour is a bit like that worm on the hook that Paula Bennett is going fishing with in the Sroubek case- wriggle, wiggle, twist and turn.
“There has to be a connection” says Paula. I am trying to get you to admit that there is a connection between your thinking and the language that you use.
Let’s fact it, Tuppence, you regard workers who contemplate strike action in defence of their wages and conditions, and perhaps even their very jobs, as being the opposite to hard-working and honest.
Which is why you used the language that you used.
This strike was dishonest. Ruining innocent travellers holiday plans so that the engineers could have more annual leave shows a callous disregard for the truth when e tu and yourself try to make this about fairness.
So you seem to know what dishonest means, Tuppence.
Now, why use honest to describe travellers? (And I’m not talking Irish gypsies here). As Anne points out, the word honest is not applicable to all travellers, nor I say to all kiwis.
Nor does hard-working.
But we know they are dog-whistle terms to denigrate and elicit support from fellow (heh!) travellers.
So, you’re claiming all travellers are hard working and honest. What a load of codswallop. Some are, some aren’t. Some earned their money honestly some didn’t. Some are decent people, some are ratbags. In other words travellers represent a cross section of people who can be good, bad and indifferent.
Hi Tuppence
You wanted the people who keep the Aircraft maintained to have their pay and conditions cut.
You are one nice fellow Miss Tuppence.
I think Tuppence deserves a long flight on an aeroplane that hasn’t been well-maintained by the honest, hard-working aviation engineers at Air NZ.
You are such a shill Tuppence and couldn’t make a straight truthful statement about anything – it all gets skewed as it runs past your crooked mind.
Our Tuppence shilling? We don’t get our full bobs-worth………
Sparking well mac1
You get what you pay for ..
And I’d put money on his pushing on all the holes in the biscuits when he doesn’t get his way, then putting them back at the packet
I notice how what should have been a discussion about the union and airnz has been derailed by a bloody RW lightweight. We would get further if we treated them all the time as just trolls who would rather argue with a leftie than stop them falling under a bus. DFTT they are enemies, not merely ignorant of facts and realities – and if they are ignorant it is the wilful kind, and NOTHING will ever improve with that mindset, concrete-set.
So back to Patricia at 1.
I guess the union were counting on Air NZ getting bowled over by the ramifications. And AirNZ have been low shits for sure. The engineers have to work long hours, keep themselves to high standards of work, and we all love them for the safety of travel that results. Then to try and save money on those extra-long hours by reducing the overtime rates, when they are making large profits is just unconscionable. That sort of thing is why unions are so important. Unions are to help safeguard employees against the machinations of Big Business and also the sneaky, nasty types of Small Business that do exist.
But unions need people to see them as good jokers, not self-centred people who will adopt business tactics and walk all over the people further down the ladder, the customers of their employers. Going on strike in January, that would have caused disruption, but Christmas is family time and we need to have lives and families to make life worth living.
Was there some reason that the two unions ( E tū and the Aviation and Marine Engineers Association – AMEA) could not have waited till January to make their protest? It would still have brought leverage on our national airline. And AirNZ don’t think of going overseas for all your engineering checks, we want quality NZ workers, to be treated fairly, and in turn, for them and their unions to treat us fairly and thoughtfully.
Note: Employers and Manufacturers Association heads-up on new workplace access bill.
https://www.ema.co.nz/newsandmedia/news/Pages/Workplace-Bill-proposes-changes-to-union-access.aspx
II agree tuppy, Sirponyboy was always going to enjoy xmas. Private jet dewnchinew.
including the honest hard working engineers, baggage loaders and other support crew who have had an offer from their employer to vote on
An update on how DIA appears to have been stripping out the budgets of the National Library and Archives NZ:
https://turnbullfriends.org.nz/numbers-tell-the-story/
Quite curious how Archive NZ’s overheads somehow increased 279% between 2013 and 2018.
Probably due to substantial rebuilding of their facilities around that time at a cost of in excess of $100 million. The capital expenditure then feeds into the annual capital charge (about 7% of the capital), which is part of fixed overhead.
Thanks Wayne. Archives have built a new Christchurch repository at Wigram.
But I still find it hard to understand how the new capital charge deriving from this initiative could almost quadruple the agency’s total overhead in 5 years.
How would that work?
As far as I know, DIA/Archives still has some fairly substantial project(s) underway – even though they may be over-burdened with countless meetings and bean counting
Increase in value of asset a brand new asset is worth more than a rundown asset.
I have not actually checked the annual accounts on the increase in capital charge. But I do know National Library and Archives had some big capital projects, mostly approved in 2009 and actually started in 2010. At that stage well over $100 million initially on the National Library with Archives to follow. I would imagine a lot more than $100 million by now.
As an aside one of the ways NZDF buys new assets is to use the depreciation allowance. With all the stuff bought over the last decade (helicopters, upgrades to aircraft, upgrades to ships, new buildings, new Army weapons and vehicles) there is at least $200 million annual depreciation. This is used to buy new stuff, so a fair chunk of the $2.3 billion on the new maritime surveillance aircraft comes from accumulated depreciation.
I don’t know about other libraries around the country, but our local libraries in Napier and Hastings, (both of which were very good provincial libraries) have been absolutely destroyed and gutted over the past 2-3 years, huge book sales, including many very rare local history books, the shelves are now only half full, and a majority of the few replacement books are lackluster coffee table books rather than serious reference books,
I hardly go to either library now, I find them too depressing witnessing in real time the dumbing down of out communities, as if there wasn’t enough dumbing down going on everywhere else anyway.
@Adrian, Sad. Our poorly stocked libraries and sales of out of print books, a national shame.
Totally whacked out on the meme that digital is everything and books and paper and passe’.Digital as ephemeral as the brains that only briefly touch on an understanding of knowledge and how it is used to achieve wisdom. I am reading Penguins printed shortly after i was born. They are available, accessible, and don’t require a machine.
It’s also a weird inverted privilege issue. With a Kindle I can carry an entire library of books with me wherever I go. To have paper versions of the ebooks I have in my backpack 24/7 I would need to buy a big house with entire rooms devoted to book storage. Who can afford that these days?
Visited Ōtara library in Auckland recently after several months, the library has been deliberately gutted by Auckland Council to make room for “community space”.
This was achieved by initially putting out a survey in Ōtara asking the public if they wanted more community space. When the results were collated, Auckland Council then used those results to remove about 80% of the books from the library, which now has plenty of open space and beanbags.
The really vindictive nature of this move is that the library is part of the shopping and parking complex near to Manukau Technical Institute. Auckland Council owns and manages the large Ōtara Community Centre, the Ōtara Music Centre, and the aquatic complex within the same area. These community spaces, particularly the Community Centre, are available for public use if required, but the use of fees prohibits use.
This is in indication of the stealth with which Auckland Council will go to remove one of the best accesses a community and individual, regardless of age or ability, can have to a free education.
+1 Molly
Down here in Hastings, I had a member of the local ‘Friends of the Library’ inform me with great pride that they used the money from the endless all encompassing book sales to buy a new couch for the Flaxmere Library.
yipee.
4 years latter the couch is looking suitably sad…and the libraries are even emptier.
What especially irritates me is the claim that books being sold are either unborrowed titles, or books that are about to be superceded. Yet I have seen recent books on, NZ Tapa; NZ Tussock Moths and NZ State Houses, all in pristine condition, on the sales table. They are not redundant titles.
I presume that the term ‘friends of the Library’ is purely ironic.
meantime…
“,i>There are 178 New Zealand schools that don’t have a dedicated library, while 330 schools have less library space than they’re entitled to.”
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/overcrowding-forces-178-nz-schools-go-without-library?utm_variant=taboola_visible_1
I spoke to one of the librarians at the time, and asked what had happened.
He seemed fairly accepting of the process. I said that I considered libraries to be the one public place that is accessible to all; regardless of age, income, physical impairment and education. That physical browsing can expose you to ideas and interests that are not likely in internet browsing, and the editing and publishing process ensures a degree of quality that is not necessarily true of online sources. I honestly believe that access to well-resourced libraries is access to education, and the value of libraries is social.
If local authorities want to get more financial value of of library investment, use financial tools such as SROI (social return on investment) to see what they provide. Include in libraries – social enterprise cafes that train people to employment while providing a gathering place for users. Add programmes that genuinely bring together community.
The dependence on the current financial methods of cost/benefit produce four-year old saggy sofas. The value of libraries is more than that.
We didn’t have a library at school till I was eight. When we got a prefab library I nearly read the whole lot. I’d already read everything my parents owned. Then it was off to Hamilton. Bored, I’d skip school and go to the public library and study plants, insects and fungi…
Both those libraries, when I first walked into them and saw the books: at school the smell of new carpet and print, with more books than I’d ever seen before; and then Hamilton, this massive building with mezzanine floor holding row after row of shelves that stretched beyond the walking bridges criss-crossed overhead… it was like finding hallowed ground. All the worlds were in those rooms.
Libraries should be hallowed ground.
Officials in charge of libraries should be total geeks who’d live onsite if allowed. They are the gatekeepers of knowledge. I know people who’ve worked very hard just to be librarians, they love books like crazy. Why aren’t they in charge?
Business heads qualified to be managerial material’. Meddling in education and the arts. No f’n idea. If we have x books and y book lenders…
Just re-read Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ (1932)
‘There isn’t any need for civilised man to bear anything that’s seriously unpleasant. And as for doing things, Ford forbid that he should get the idea into his head. It would upset the whole social order if men started doing things on their own.
What about self-denial, then? If you had a God, you’d have a reason for self denial.
But industrial civilisation is only possible when there is no self denial. Self-indulgence up to the very limits imposed by hygeine and economics. Otherwise the wheels stop turning.’
WTB
Libraries, banks of thought and imagination and facts. Stacked up on shelves, each book long in the making, the planning, the choice of words for meaning and impact. Jewels of the brain’s electricity crystallised into physical form.
Go into a bank which represents fantastical power. Where is the money, the documents, the trapped electrical impulses that carry this weight of value. The product isn’t to be seen. If it is physical, it must be stowed away safely. If it is driven by impulses, it must be protected, even though it is merely based on imagination, feeling, marks on a screen that can change, double or vanish as one watches.
But a book is an artifact, it has been made from different components, and each aspect is the result of skilled tradespeople working together, consulting and then going forward with their portion of the whole. And these magic objects can be touched and handled, and will last for many lifetimes with care, and an understanding of the marks on the page.
The book is human communication reaching out to others of like mind, and those who want to explore that line of thinking. It is a little piece of society, wrapped up in a sort of ravioli case, ready for the mind’s delectation. It talks to us and may give us strength and comradeship as in the last verse of 1 September 1939, W.H.Auden.
Same thing is happening in New Plymouth here. People need to realise you cannot Google a lot of stuff that relates to local history.
+1 millsy, sad, it’s not just the local history, but not having to rely on an internet connection which as we all know in NZ, is hardly reliable or even fast. Not sure how many low income families are also allowing their kids internet access when they can’t even keep the power or phone on.
Are they removing local history materials?
Adrian Thornton,
In 1989, I began saving books that I thought were important, because I could see what was going to happen when greed and asset sales and betraying New Zealanders’ rights and histories began to swirl under extreme right philosophies that are incapable of appreciating the beauty of books AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, the need for all New Zealanders to access them. I now have my own library. Perhaps you can start your own. Good luck.
+1 Me, but it is not just the right who seem to now hate books, the third way Rogernomic lefties seem to hate books too. And the Auckland university specialist libraries were closed with a Labour government in, with Chloe from the Greens who I think did art history there, did not seem to be making any protest about the libraries demise and the jobs lost, while the university were also paying the Chancellor over $700k, the third highest public servant apparently.
https://www.facebook.com/AUSAStudents/posts/we-are-stoked-to-have-chloe-swarbrick-on-board-for-our-campaign-against-the-libr/1848243215194337/
I think the idea is that Kiwis don’t read because then they can be better low paid workers, have less critical thinking and be blind donors to political parties to get things done.
I hear there is a very good secondhand bookshop in Hastings called “The Little Red Bookshop” …. LOL
“Their huge collection of affordable books is a local treasure. As their website puts it, they are “proprietors of the best little second hand bookshop in Hastings, New Zealand. We may, on occasion, seem a touch irreverent, but hopefully in the nicest possible way”.
…
Behind the book shop and chocolate shop is a warren of fascinating rooms. It’s like something out of Being John Malkovich. There are rooms filled to brimming with books and puzzles, a music studio (home of the seven-ten piece Revolutionary Arts Ensemble, …), and a large collection of classic racing bicycles and memorabilia. This collection is a penchant of (name removed), to which he welcomes like minds by appointment.”
Shout out to Bay FM, NZ’s best indy station!
Really? I am not in the Bay, but will check it out sometime. Hope I did not overstep in my comment above! Did not put link …… but AT and partner and their wonderful shop are well known outside the Bay as well.
I’m sure it’ll be fine with Adrian, any publicity is good publicity, as the marketers say.
Bay FM can be found on Simple radio and via their website. The first time I heard the station I was driving into Hastings and resetting the radio. I couldn’t believe it when I heard Lou Reed’s Coney Island Baby. They followed that up with a Joy Division track and that was me hooked!
You need Brian in your life.
http://brianfm.com/
Ah, yes, Springvale’s finest. I regularly pick Brian FM up in the strangest places as I travel around. Great wee network.
PEEOTUS isn’t denying campaign contacts with Russia anymore, now he’s calling them “peanut stuff”.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/12/politics/donald-trump-russia-contacts-peanut-stuff/index.html
Geeez, Cohen just got three years jail for lying to congress over it, peanuts huh?
Oh well USA voted for their peanut president.
Lotsa peanuts. Lotsa monkeys. Bananas galore.
But never forget, the mandarin manutang’s opponent won almost 3 million more votes than he did. It was just an anachronistic quirk of the electoral system that delivered the presidency to Dementia Don. Coupled with the way the Electoral College failed to fulfill one of the duties it was expected to do when it was set up: it was intended that the Electors would assess the fitness for office of the candidates and if somehow someone totally unsuitable conned the general public, the Electors would exercise their better judgement and choose a candidate that actually was fit. Check out the Federalist Papers 68. In this case, the Electors overrode the good sense of the popular vote and installed the Tangerine Tantrum.
Not really an anachronistic quirk. It is built in to the constitution ensure that each state has their say in the final result. So that huge majorities in say New York or California don’t drown out narrow victories in smaller states.
We tend to forget in New Zealand that the United States has a federal constitution, designed to give a substantial say to each of the 50 states.
Not much likelihood of changing the constitution on this point. What the next democratic candidate has to do is win states like Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Been done plenty of times in the past.
I’ll stick with anachronistic.
At the time it was set up, communication across the country was extremely slow and unreliable. Times have moved on.
At the time it was set up, how to account for the proportion of a state’s population that were slaves was an issue. Women and non-landowning males couldn’t vote either. Times and human rights views have moved on.
Should the decisions around setting up the Electoral College be redone today, I’d be astonished if choosing the presidency would be anything other than one person, one equal vote. The composition of the Senate with 2 senators from each state would then be the sufficient safeguard of the smaller states’ interests.
But yeah, changing the Constitution ain’t gonna happen. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact sidestepping the Electoral College is only a tiny bit more likely to happen.
Anachronistic is correct. There was a link on here detailing how the system, set up to achieve what you say, now actively prevents it. It needs to be changed but the chances of that happening are between slim and none. The US constitution is preventing that necessary change because of the requirements needed to change the constitution.
Wayne what you say is true to some extent but there are tremendous inequalities built into the current system of Government in the States where, for example, the value of a vote in California is only a fraction of the vote in Wyoming. This was exemplified in the recent appointment of Judge Kavenaugh where the number of votes behind the senators who voted for him was around 11million less than the votes represented by those who voted against.
I’m sure you would find this opinion piece by John Dingell the longest serving, and recently retired Senator, (he represented Michigan for 59 years) highly interesting.
Andre, you’ve made me laugh so much, thanks for the giggles this morning…. the mandarin manutang, dementia don, peeotus, tangerine tantrum. Lmao
Just a reminder, he never actually got around to proving that … errrm … he doesn’t have a genetic heritage unusually rich in species diversity.
https://www.reuters.com/article/entertainment-us-usa-trump-lawsuit/trump-withdraws-orangutan-lawsuit-against-comic-bill-maher-idUSBRE9310PL20130402
Informative input you make Andre. I can recall reading somewhere years ago something suggesting that it is lawful for an official (?) to throw a state’s electoral college vote tally in favour of a presidential candidate who did not receive a majority of the votes in that state. Thinking about that now it seems unlikely, even as a legal possibility. Do you know anything of that Andre ?
Going from memory, there’s nothing in the US constitution that says an Elector is in any way constrained in who they vote for. Almost every presidential election there are a few faithless electors that vote for someone other than who they were “supposed to” vote for. But so far, the only election where faithless electors have changed the outcome was 1796.
States set their own laws about how to apportion their electors and penalties for faithless electors. 48 states have winner-take-all for all of their electors. Maine and Nebraska have winner-take-all for two of their electors (corresponding to the 2 senators) and then the electors corresponding to the House seats are pledged to the popular vote winner of that district.
There were between 7 and 10 faithless electors in the last election. Some swapping one way, others the other.
https://dqydj.com/how-many-faithless-electors-2016/
Who will take over from May? Snap election in the UK? Or will she win her party over?
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46535739
I reckon May will step down in June. There will be an open contest so that will take a couple of months. I reckon Dominic Raab or Sajid Javid will be the finalists. Something flawed about Boris.
As for a snap election. Won’t happen. The only way it can occur is if the DUP switch sides, and they won’t.
i suppose the new PM could call a new election, but given what happened to May, that won’t be very appealing.
There are times when politics should be put to one side, so this is a genuine question for you Wayne.
Have you had a look at what Graeme Edgeler has proposed on name suppression here on Public Address?
And what are your views on what he is suggesting in his draft bill?
https://publicaddress.net/legalbeagle/name-suppression-appeals/
I agree entirely with him. I noted this point in a comment earlier in another post on The Standard.
Looks like May has won the no confidence vote. Helps that she has decided to stand down before the next election so took the wind out of her opponents sails
I missed this article by Rachel Stewart yesterday.
Absolutely superb. Read it and share it with all your friends.
I see she is also talking to Derrick Jensen on Christmas Day.
That will be well worth a listen.
Rachel isn’t scared to tel us the truth.
A rare commodity today.
An excerpt of her wisdom.
“As this is my last column for 2018, I thought it timely to review the big news stories that point to an even better 2019.
Except, there are none.
So, instead, here’s a selection of this year’s news stories that sent a shiver down
my spine. I write it for those of us who aren’t stupid enough to believe that the planet is doing anything other than hurtling to its doom.
First cab off the rank must be climate change. You know, the biggest threat to the continuation of our species since Donald Trump was inaugurated. Not only is the news all bad, there’s no sign of any global consensus on the way forward. The chances of reversing the situation in any meaningful way are about as high as my dog reversing my Jeep into a spare parallel park on Queen St during Christmas week.
Too many people living on an overheating capitalist planet means that our oceans are awash with plastic, our rivers – the ones that still flow – are awash with nitrates, our soils are awash with chemicals, and our media is awash with greenwash. Whatever pays the bills, right?
Only when our biodiversity is gone, and we reach the point of biological breakdown, will we realise what we’ve done. Even then, someone will find a way to spin a buck out of it. Profit is everything, and the earth will provide. Until it won’t.”
https://t.co/LhbjvYLhqQ?amp=1
As always Ed, thank you. Both you and Rachael are gems.
Derrick Jensen is sure to rock a few yachts.
I enjoyed his Endgame books.
Has influenced my thinking.
Sustainability defined as leaving the soil in better condition than last season.
Haven’t gotten round to blowing up any dams yet though.
Love his books and Philosophy.
Since July the government’s family package has been giving low-income families an extra $75 a week. Yet, the Auckland City Mission has had an unprecedented increase in demand for food parcels and will double its Christmas efforts as a result.
City missioner Chris Farrelly said “we’ve identified very clearly that we have got a growth in food insecurity and food poverty in New Zealand.
The prime minister plans to visit the Auckland City Mission before Christmas to “drill into” why an increasing number of families are struggling to make ends meet.
She is hoping the rise in demand is a case of more people in need feeling they can ask for help. However, even if it is a case of more people in need feeling they can ask for help, clearly the government’s family package isn’t doing enough to help them.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/377945/city-mission-to-double-efforts-for-christmas-due-to-unprecedented-demand
Could it merely be a case of more people in need feeling they can ask for help or is the growth in demand (as City missioner Chris Farrelly pointed out above) more likely a case of the government’s family package not going far enough?
The benefit of the government’s family package would have been largely offset by the new charges/taxes the government has also introduced since in power.
How long will it take for the government to establish what is driving the increase in demand and more importantly, when are they going to act to correct it? One would like to think people going hungry is a priority for this government. So again, when are they going to correct it?
When you have huge increase in low paid workers and and fake students with fake financials, you get a spike in poorer people into NZ, which then can make the exisiting poor even poorer as they are all competing for the same resources.
A spike in people with money also drives up the prices of luxury housing, while spikes of poorer people drives up the affordable housing prices. Not rocket science!
Before the government capitulated to business interests and ran their lazy immigration scams to the maximum, they might have worked out how much it was going to cost to upgrade all the housing, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, roads and how they were going to pay for the top up of so many low paid wages, WFF or asset rich, cash poor satellite families based in NZ.
When they decided to do it through further taxation like petrol taxes, rates and user pays charges what effects that might have on poorer folks based here that don’t have family to fed X over tens of thousands of family money for the increased cost of living.
The thirty year NZ experiment, first Rogernomics then immigration led neoliberalism has made NZ a worse place to live for many people and reduced the opportunities for our youth born here, made productivity static, lowered wages in real terms, driven up the prices of set costs of living and create a bigger inequality divide.
Do you think Labour will do enough over the coming year to make a significant difference in turning around the large number queuing at the City Mission next Christmas?
@The Chairman, nope. It is not so much Labour’s fault as the legacy of National party policy on immigration and welfare but Labour don’t seem to be keeping their election promises of reducing immigration to 15000, which judging by the amount of new housing they are whooping about for Kiwibuild does not even cover it. aka 100,000 over 10 years is approx 10,000 houses per year.
The types of migrants coming are of a lower skill level than 5 years ago. Hard to see where the tax money will come from for the future when our big plan for immigration is more nickel and dime store owners with 100% profits on liquor, bad restaurant food and plastic goods stores and how to be a third party rip off merchant on labour and more nurses and doctors and teachers to pay for the population growth on the back of it and people’s 11 day relationships when they get lonely or jailed criminals coming here on ‘compassionate’ grounds .
Landlords upping rents again.
Rents are another area where Labour policy is driving up costs.
In my humble opinion
Get housing right and most other issues in directly would be resolved.
The rise of those in need form my observation has mirrored the increasing level of affordability of housing and then the flow on with rental prices, which leaves a reduced disposable income after housing costs are deducted
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11894842
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/research-and-publications/speeches/2013/speech2013-10-15
No, Labour are not driving up costs,
Landlords who want more money, and who can ask for more money, ask for more money, driving up costs for many. And considering that we still have a rental shortage, and that people don’t really like living in ditches, Landlord can virtually ask for what ever they like and still rent out their investments.
Good grief, can’t you do better?
Rents have always gone up since… forever havn’t they? Or are right wingers suddenly wanting rent controls? I do, I actually bought my first home a couple years ago, way cheaper than renting ironically, though I was very lucky with a Super scheme through my (heavily unionised) job.
Apparently the people who are the largest group in poverty is Pakeha parents with a mortgage. Aka not renters. I think you can look back and realise that certain things like housing don’t seem to go down over time but increase, and I very much doubt the government can do much to stem that. What is not rising enough is people’s incomes.
It is the role of the Reserve Bank and the Government to ensure price stability in the housing market. But it’s not just the price of houses that has been excessively exceeding, putting more into hardship.
@Sabine
Generally, landlords want more money due to their costs rising – i.e. rates, insurance, etc. And Labour policy (like the recent change in letting fees) is driving up their costs.
You started off right:
Generally, landlords want more money
Part of the problem is a build up of poverty and debt during the last 9/10 years.
The payments made helped many, but others have reached the end of their resilience, and debts are growing. Repaying MSD, student debt, rental debts. etc.
To imply that Jacinda Ardern and her Government have caused this is such deliberate misdirection that I despair of your “concern”
When the previous Government was in power, I did not read anything from you telling that government to alleviate hunger.
Further, when some ideas were put forward there was a huge out cry about choices self help and I did not see any effort by any politician to find out what was happening.
The PM says she will visit to discover where the problems lie. Because she cares.
I wasn’t implying Jacinda Ardern and her Government have caused this, Patricia. But it is evident that she and her coalition Government aren’t doing enough to turn the numbers around.
As for you despairing my concern, Patricia, I despair more on the left aren’t making noise about this.
We on the left should be calling out in numbers for the Government to do more.
The glorious George Galloway on the “Gilet Jaune” demonstrators in France and of course May.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3BL2SaCAx4
I prefer his cat videos
Half man, half cat. It was a stunning impression. Thank you George.
Thanks Maui.
I listen to his show every week.
It’s the University of the airwaves, as GG puts it.
8 a.m Saturday NZ time.
Three hours of brilliant radio.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/109294166/grace-millane-case-accuseds-name-searched-more-than-100000-times-on-google-despite-it-being-suppressed
I’m no lawyer but Marie Dryberg’s stance seems a sensible one to me:
“Sharing the name is a publication,” defence lawyer Marie Dyhrberg QC said.
“I don’t think anyone rowed out of New Zealand waters and called a newsroom and then rowed back.”
….. and that said, wouldn’t it have been an opportunity to put that before the judiciary, get some sort of precedent set, so that we can see if and what sort of changes need to be made?
If the guy is guilty, it’d be a shame if the case failed on some technicality
Thoughts???
I reckon Marie Dyhrberg is wrong and Chris Finlayson is right on how the appeal should be dealt with. There should be no automatic 20 days for an appeal. In a case like this, it should be accelerated through the High Court, say by end of business/court year.
The District Court Judge could see no grounds at all for name suppression, but of course the right to an appeal is automatic, whether to not the appeal has any merit. I am not suggesting any change to the right of appeal since that right is fundamental. But I do think that an appeal like this should be expedited, and not automatically stall everything for 20 days.
There is almost nil circumstance where the naming of the accused in the UK press will have any effect in the accused going through a full trial. Little was at best exaggerating that it would.
Well we’ve yet to see what sort of a defence will be put up, so going through a full trial is one thing, going through a fair trial might be another.
But….. in any event, THEN there is this:
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/13-12-2018/google-emailed-out-the-name-of-the-man-accused-of-killing-grace-millane-and-they-dont-even-care/
The name probably would not even have got to Google had members of the Brit Media not been on the ground (sharing/publishing it).
By the way Wayne, I have a different perspective, and that is that is actually none of my bloody business, or the public’s who the defendant is UNTIL a verdict has been given.
The only people who need know are the Police, Judiciary, Jurors, the family and various Counsel.
Justice being seen to be done does not have to be immediate just to serve whatever voyeuristic tendencies I might have. I could either attend Court, or perhaps look at a recording of proceedings AFTER a verdict has been delivered.
It seems to me that one of the reasons faith is being lost in judicial processes (and the Police sometimes) is that all the hype and sensationalism that goes on just serves to make people lose faith in the system (especially when you get Lackwit Larry’s, and Hoskings, and Leighton’s rarking it all up)
I could not agree more
I saw a photo and heard the name discussed as I negotiated my way through a group of butch, fluro-vested blokes blocking the footpath just near Courtenay Place when they were on their tablet.
The look on their face was almost like one of disappointment when the image popped up (presumably because, AND judging by the discussion – the defendant was neither brown, nor apparently gang-related).
I’m of course making assumptions there, but even then, as I managed to get past I could hear the “fucking scumbag” , and “I’d ……..” and “If someone did that to my missus”…… etc.
Whoar! they were tuff!
Out of curiosity to see just how simple it was to find out, I did a Google search and blimey up came the UK Telegraph with name and photo. I quickly got out of it. I suppose I’m now one of the thousands who did just that. “The look on their face was almost like one of disappointment when the image popped up (presumably because, AND judging by the discussion – the defendant was neither brown, nor apparently gang-related).” My reaction was relief actually.
/agreed
Agree. Even if I knew the name what difference would it make? I also am presuming he’s innocent til judge decides otherwise.
Can’t possibly agree. The idea that every trial of every defendant would not have the name of the defendant disclosed seems to be a gross breach of the concept of open and public justice.
In any event it is not going to happen. No conceivable parliament would vote for it.
If I may say so, that’s fairly lame (even coming from you. And I mean that because you are really quite a fuddy duddy – sorry I couldn’t find a better way of saying it).
You’ll have to agree that there are often suppression orders and for good reason. After a verdict is reached, the details are usually public, “Open and Public” justice is still done and seen to have been done. The only difference is immediacy, which in the new era, is proving to be a problem – as in Millane case and with the likes of Google. We’ll likely see more of this kind of stuff
Sorry @ Wayne….. at the time I posted, it had been a long day, and the word I was looking for was ‘traditionalist’ – despite all that spin you’ve learned about not being ‘change averse’. (We’ll fight them in the trenches till the bitter end! For our agenda and vision is sacrosanct and righteous – and of course we do know better. ‘We’ were BORN to rule and preserve decency and we’ll fight to the death)
Justice is blind.
So, tell me, should all the investigations that the police engage in also be on public display during the investigation so as to prevent a gross breach of open and public justice?
IMO, the court is the end part of that investigation and it is only afterwards that the public should see it.
Yay, yellow vests for carbon.
/
Edmonton also saw a large protest, with hundreds marching from the Legislature to Churchill Square, carrying signs, some reading “No Global Climate Pact. Suicide.”
Multiple posts on Canada’s yellow jackets Facebook page called for more drastic action.
“Look at France today. After four weeks of burning the cities, the French government cut the carbon tax. So what do we want? 90 years or four weeks until something changes?” wrote Robb Kerr on the group’s page. “If you want to crush a government, you have to play their game … You want to see them jump? Then burn down City Hall.”
The protests were jointly against the provincial and federal carbon taxes, and Canada’s plan to endorse the United Nations’ migration pact, which outlines objectives for treating global migrants humanely and efficiently.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-yellow-vest-protests-1.4938333
A tale of two steels: Auckland’s Seascape vs Wellington’s Dixon St project
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378085/a-tale-of-two-steels-auckland-s-seascape-vs-wellington-s-dixon-st-project
P>S> Doesn’t Jenny Shipley have a place on the board of China Construction company? That alone after Mainzeal is a huge worry.
Jenny Shipley – China Bank director? Joind at the hip?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/68435306/null
Richard Meadows 11 May 2015 – (good stuff Richard.)
The first disclosure statement for China Construction Bank (CCB) NZ, of which Shipley is chairman, reveals she was paid $50,769 between June and December last year, which works out to about $90,000 on a yearly basis.
In an interview with Stuff.co.nz last week, Shipley declined to reveal her director’s fees, though hinted that she had taken a substantial pay-cut.
Even so, Shipley’s earnings dwarf that of her fellow former politician, with Brash earning just $65,000 as chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)’s local arm.
The Bank of China, which is the third banking behemoth to enter New Zealand in the last two years, has yet to disclose its financial records.
That means the salaries of its directors Ruth Richardson and Chris Tremain, also both former National MPs, are as yet unknown.
Shipley
Brash
Richardson
Tremain
Being a NZ government minister is a good CV point.
I think we should bring the salaries down for MPs as they apparently regard it as apprenticeship training, or an alternative to a politics university degree which others have to pay to get.
+1 (especially the bit about apprenticeship training)
I’m wondering where Nafe might end up. Most of the rest of them could get a pozzy at Harcourts Real Estate – without even having to change their uniforms – exceptions being Gerry the big boy, and Finlayson of course, and there are others looking for a pozzy in a High Commission somewhere.
Paula’s going to be a problem. She does have impeccable credentials as an actress or maybe a mime artist though.
Paula has presumably had advice on changing her image, and has succeeded. She looks quite tasty – an actress would be good, Maori presenter as she would be a good role model for the star-struck teenager. Has she ever been on Shortland Street? They could find a spot for her I should think. She follows along similar lines to Donna Awatere Huata who has found her feet in management.
Finlayson slagging off Maori because they persist in wanting their own way, but Ngapuhi can’t work out how many ways there are! He needs to get into something where they call a spade a spade and no mucking about.
Yes yes. As Maggie might say – Paula has come a long way but she still has a wee way to go to shake off some of that rabble around her. She has scrubbed up well and its hard not having gone to a finishing school. She’ll have to learn not to use those ‘P’- like eyes when she gets angry and when cameras are present.
It’s all about perceptions and ‘the look’ darling, which I’m becoming increasingly concerned about poor old Chris.
I am of course of the same vintage and I’m not sure whether his bro feels the same, but he is starting to look more like a dried up old prune and could end up like our friend Moz. Or things could go the other way and he’ll land on his feet at Palmer and Chen maybe
A hug and a chocolate fish.
https://twitter.com/sturdyAlex/status/1072444378231255040
edit:
https://screenshotscdn.firefoxusercontent.com/images/1b838bec-2c7f-4371-82a9-69dc79eb5b43.png
https://twitter.com/_abbylouisee_
The Milky Bars are on us!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12175719
…in fact it would be very un-New Zealand of us, if we didn’t try to rort the system, especially when the policies are designed/loaded with unintended circumstances.
At the very least they could have given it to third year students or grad students or something, of course they shouldn’t have done it in the first place
One more sleep?
Que?
Resolved as per our other conversation. 14 Jan not 14 Dec.
There is always a percentage of first year students that withdraw, don’t engage or fail in the first year of tertiary study. The article would be more informative if it compared last year’s rate to the usual, but as far as I can see – it did not. In any real way, this withdrawal rate should have been anticipated by the government.
As for the rest, I think tertiary education should be free, but if this is the best that can be done. I agree with PR below. There would have been a greater benefit to graduate students, and the attrition rate would have been much lower.
It’s still a better spend than $26m on a flag.
It’s better because it does get people educated. Yes, even people who fail a course have better education and by failing they will probably understand how to succeed next time. In fact, calling it ‘failing’ is a misnomer. They didn’t learn what the course taught but they learned so much else. Here’s a few links on the subject:
https://www.elitedaily.com/life/failure-more-beneficial-than-success/1824857
https://blog.bufferapp.com/why-highly-successful-people-crave-failure-and-mistakes
I especially liked this one:
There’s nothing wrong with the spend on helping people be better. They tried. Now we need to support them into picking themselves up and trying again.
It’s only idiots that expect everything to go perfectly every time. They seem to all vote National.
Where’s the rort?
~12% fail usually.
We have another ~6% who withdrew.
The students don’t get any money if they withdraw. They don’t have a motive to rort the system for the institutions. And most courses would do a refund if you withdraw, depending on how much of the course you were there for.
If there was a spike in people enrolling then withdrawing, that just means that the policy has at least identified the need for education to be more accessible. In that case we need to know what other barriers exist for those 2600 people.
If we’re not failing we’re not trying hard enough.
The path way to equality needs to be paved with opportunity. Providing opportunities for people to try university study that are otherwise unable to do so is exactly the right thing to be doing. Some establish it’s not for them, fabulous, reset their compasses. Others flourish, equally fine.
Lasting equality will not come about by slopping grants around. It will come through the creation of opportunities. Opportunities for Mothers to receive a tertiary education, opportunities for poor kids to learn to sail. A vast and enticing tsunami of opportunity available to all.
Thanks for that comment David Mac.
After leaving school at 15 and having 3 kids at 21, I would never have my tertiary education with out the opportunity to try and not manage, then try again and achieve.
Obviously that was before the last NAct government.
I did one of my very rare media appearances last week with Greg Presland on Planet FM
https://www.planetaudio.org.nz/listen/red-alert-radio/political-current-affairs/455254
Always an issue talking after I’ve been programming. But I wasn’t too inarticulate.
Sounded good. It was interesting hearing the brief resume’ of the history.
Only half an hour and voice is a slow medium.
I still reckon it is a good thing that I stopped coding an hour earlier and then biked there.
Better than today. I didn’t have whatever biological bug which my body is fighting off today. I really hate being sick. Makes it hard to concentrate on the site theme upgrade.
Open your Christmas whisky early! Hope you recover soon – don’t be sick with bugs at Christmas, keep it for hangovers if you get those. Perhaps your trouble is the sudden change to fresh air from being in a coding-coop. You need to get off your perch more often. Anyway Merry Christmas when it comes and regards to Lyn.
Picked up 3×1 litre bottles of Tullamore Dew duty free when I came back from Singapore a few weeks ago. I was working long hours outside for 7 weeks there because when you play with radio frequencies you need to suffer the weather. Fresh air I can live without hummph! Give me air-conditioning any day.
But I may have to drag myself out to find some food before self-medicating as the cupboard is a bit bare. After a few days of diminished appetite has left me a bit hungry.
“site theme upgrade”
applause!
I have a few weeks off over xmas. WordPress has had some significiant changes and it has been more than 8 years since the last major update.
Yes, I also need to get up to speed with Gutenberg over the break.
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven….
https://www.nme.com/news/music/keith-richards-cut-back-on-drinking-rolling-stones-interview-2419801
What’s the joke? After an atomic apocalypse all that will be left alive are the cock roaches … and Keith Richards. I’m glad he’s cut down, he’s a great guitarist and a very funny guy.
[lprent: deleted. Still subject to a court orders in Australia. I’d suggest not doing that again. ]
The Catholic Church is a centuries-old child-rape cult. Why it is allowed to continue to exist is beyond me.
Probably for the same reason that RW trolls still can come here and be objectionable, and never change despite protests. Once a thought settles into the brain of someone who thinks they are entitled, everything else gets rationalised away – they are teflon-coated.
The Catholic church does so much good, but it’s the old saying which applies to all:
‘Power tends to corrupt; and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely’.
And that is truly one of the absolutes in life.
So much good? I’ll let Hitch handle this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMRuCS7MCG8
Orders issued in Australia apply here?.
Because it’s Lynn who gets the legal in the neck not you.
Yep court orders obtained in Aussie can apply here if they are asked to be observed by the courts there and yes, I’d be the person in the gun.
Besides I agree with the underlying precepts of court orders – which is why I don’t break them or allow them to be broken on my server. I’ll let published information and information that doesn’t appear to break the published detail of a court order through (obviously I’m not in court to get the detailed orders) including speculation through. Anything else gets warnings and if required some painful moderation.
Any time that I need to understand exactly why, I only have to look at the travesty of the open court American lynch system, the conviction rates of high media cases, and their incredibly high ratio of overturned criminal convictions when and only when someone actually funds the collection and presentation of basic evidence presented to judge only appeals. Basically if you are black or hispanic and not wealthy, having a highly public trial appear to ensure convictions.
And tbf it is a bit pointless with the risk putting his name here as everyone knows who he is any way.
Bit of similar situation to that other scumbag who killed the UK girl
To be fair it isn’t your arse that such dimwits legally risk, it is mine. I’m not put at risk if it isn’t on my server. And I’m perfectly happy making an example of any arsehole who deliberately puts my server at risk. In fact I’d be prepared to add an exception to our privacy rules and lay a complaint and give assistance to the police against any arsehole that violates the court orders on this site.
I’ve already spend almost 40k because the legally ignorant criminal blogger Dermot Nottingham falsely accused me of breaking name suppression orders on his case where he was charged and eventually convicted of deliberately breaking name suppression and harassment on his blog. He brought a private prosecution against me.
He failed to even prove after 15 months that I was associated with The Standard or that APN were associated with the Herald – which really demonstrates his level of legal stupidity. Since he seems to have spent a lot of time assisting Cameron Slater, I guess it is pretty obvious why Cameron is in so much legal shit. Dermot is now wearing a bracelet and home detention, and as he lost futile appeals I assisted him into bankruptcy along others who’d been dragged through his insane legal vendettas.
Besides, it wouldn’t surprise me if the courts ask the courts and the police in the UK to find out what local scumbag journalist leaked the information from court documents here to the yellow rags in the UK.
I hope when they find out who it is that they use the full-force of the sentences and toss the scumsucker into jail as a lesson in journalistic ethics.
I know that I would.
Don’t know how true it is, but I have heard Google just didn’t bother removing it in one of their latest global news alerts to the world’s media.
Which is probably what Little was meeting them about today
ReNews
“Russian media say a contraption presented by Russian state television as a high- tech robot was in fact a man in a commercially available robot costume.”
NZ media say a man presented by the gnashional party as its leader Simon bridges is in fact a robotic contraption in a commercially available man costume.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/109324993/robot-shown-on-russian-tv-turns-out-to-be-man-in-suit
Great to see [deleted] reported as convicted for historic sex crimes against minors:
[deleted]
[lprent: Still under court orders ]
Good! No wonder we haven’t heard of it here because of name suppression in Australia. Sentencing next year.
Meanwhile ,… while we are all fighting among ourselves , having wars, getting drunk and celebrating Christmas… somewhere out there ( perhaps ) is something truly creepy… or maybe they think we are creepy…
Is Bigfoot a Neanderthal? (ThinkerThunker) – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk6dPSiIG54
He should ask his friends….oh, that’s right, he stiffed them on the bail money.
Donald Trump huh.
On sorry, “Crooked” Donald
What was that saying? Something like, um…
…”lock him up! lock him up! lock him up”
Erdogan’s dead set on remaking the empire.
Turkey will launch a military operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria “within a matter of days,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, prompting warnings from the Pentagon and State Department.
Washington backs the Kurds with thousands of service members, special forces and contractors who maintain a presence east of the Euphrates River, while Turkey and its coalition of Syrian rebels have mainly stayed to the west.
Turkey will target the east to “save the area from the separatist terrorist movement,” Erdogan said, using his routine term for Kurdish militias.
https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-turkey-operation-20181212-story.html
Kia ora The Am Show
Kendra deserved to win NZ Rugby Player of the year prize she had a good season
ka pai.
That what a wahine would say Ingrid funny my partner would have said the same on the Rugby.
The thing about the sandflys discretion on who they bust for drugs and billy said they did so last year when he was in the lead is they let Europeans off and lock up the brown people I hope that has changed I have warned the Tangata of that reality .So in reality there has been little changes on that front.
Grant I see the Maori Party and Tops party are going to cooperate a .
Eco Maori for Tangata Whenua of the year.
MPI are full of your m8 duncan I served the official information act on them and the statements they sent me were mostly false.
Fontera did not deliver they lost billions in China and just added 50% more admin cost.
Aretha Franklin death was a sad loss to she fought for equal rights to .
The theft of the Mangere Bridge kindy play ground is stupid why don’t you start a give alittle page then the mokopunas will get brand new jungle jim and slides .
judy your neo libreal capitalist m8 around Papatuanuku are crashing out they are all greedy climate change deniers who can not think about there childrens FUTURE .
King Home Boy giving his prize to charity ka pai
I do support looking after the well being of our new foreign workers paying and treating them fairly mai chen ?????? & her m8 shrilly from 7 blunt tried to underarm bowl me out but they just gave me more mana.
I tau toko the #METO movement Ka kite ano P.S what happened to the poll??????????
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKopy74weus
To the Am Show team have a good holiday have not been able to afford one of those in ten years with that monkey on Eco Maori’s back playing with my fortunes
Ka kite ano
The cafe I could support Credit Simple I just need to get my communication encrypt I have seen the Eco Maori effect in action but I will only use it to benefit all Te tangata positively ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_nvWreIhg
Many thank’s to the American Senators that voted to curb support to the Saudi war machine and for putting the children’s lives first ka pai
US Senate approves resolutions to curb Saudi support and condemn Khashoggi murder – liveSenate votes 56-41 to pass the War Powers Resolution that would halt US military assistance to Saudis in Yemen Ka kite ano links below.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2018/dec/13/trump-michael-cohen-mueller-investigation-pelosi-latest-live-updates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LanCLS_hIo4
I can see that this will become a reality very soon the world’s financial crash and in trumps own word’s he did not care because it would happen when he has retired .
Global investors managing $32tn issued a stark warning to governments at the UN climate summit on Monday, demanding urgent cuts in carbon emissions and the phasing out of all coal burning. Without these, the world faces a financial crash several times worse than the 2008 crisis, they said.
The investors include some of the world’s biggest pension funds, insurers and asset managers and marks the largest such intervention to date. They say fossil fuel subsidies must end and substantial taxes on carbon be introduced.
Eco Maori is proactive for a positive future for all the humans on Mother Earth .
Ka kite ano. links below. P.S Just 3 % of the worlds GDP is need to combat climate change shear with thy neighbors
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/10/tackle-climate-or-face-financial-crash-say-worlds-biggest-investors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3UJ6yMaM4A
Eco Maori agrees strongly with John Kerry’s words
John Kerry: Forget Trump. We All Must Act on Climate Change.
If we fail, it won’t be just the president’s fault.
This week is the third anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. The Trump administration marked it by working with Russia and Gulf oil nations to sideline science and undermine the accord at climate talks underway in Katowice, Poland.
While I was in New Delhi this week, where I met with solar energy advocates, a comment made thousands of miles away by the journalist Bob Woodward almost jumped off my iPad: The president, he said, “makes decisions often without a factual basis.” This isn’t a mere personality quirk of the leader of the free world. It is profoundly dangerous for the entire planet.
Scientists tell us we must act now to avoid the ravages of climate change. The collision of facts and alternative facts has hurt America’s efforts to confront this existential crisis. Ever since Mr. Trump announced that he would pull America out of the Paris accord, those of us in the fight have worked to demonstrate that the American people are still in. Links Below
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/opinion/kerry-climate-change-trump.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cve4bLDrlM
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Na4j8AVgA
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWoDSGfSu6o
You know I remember when I was a young fella my Mama /Greatgrandmother told me be loyal to those that help you and don’t bite the hand that feed’s you.
There have been some that Eco MaoriTau toko’s and next minute these people are biting me WTF.
You know that the sandflys are breaking mine and my immediate whano’s human right’s every day 24/7 I know every move they make against me but I get pissed when they target my whano. The justice system does stuff all for the poor but try to stuff us up .But there are consequences to biting Eco Maori Ka kite ano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU
Kia ora Piripi from Tekaea yes tangata whenua have the highest rate of heart attacks and lowest survival rates te tangata need to go to the doctors more and look after Our health to look after the Mokopunas
Carmen I say the culture is much better now than it was last time I was in Winz the wait was short and there were not a lot of people in the office and they were not stressed .
Maori interactive video games ki ora that is awesome maori can generate a lot of jobs and money from video game’s .The industry is way bigger than Hollywood.
Eco Maori tau toko’s the Maori Santa some people cannot put there prejudices
Ka pai to the maori modular whare with the money saved with time
That was cool Jason Momoa doing the Haka and his movie Aquaman will be one I am going to watch at the Cinema.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub
Steve Hansen is retiring he does not mince word’s all the best on your new journey Coach. I have my pick for your replacement but I will keep that to myself .
That hurricane hitting Australia looks like it will cause problems I hope no one gets hurt.
People searching on Google for good thing’s is cool some in the media need to do they same .
It show how deprived some people are in America if they will risk there lives going to get copper wire in a mine to survive.
Virgin Galactic is getting close to there goals of passenger space flights I wish Richard all the best .
Sawn the Sun bear dying is sad
There you go Russia has taken a leaf out of someone else old book with the man posing as a robot lol . Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR0fQ6wJb6A