MEDITATION: USEFUL TOOL OR FREAKY COP-OUT?
Severe conversations continue in our nation as we look for solutions to depression, suicide, obesity and the spiralling number of “sick days” reported by companies.
Whilst government solutions revolve around more counselling, more therapy, sugar tax and the like it is overlooked that by the time help is sought much damage has already been done. Has the adage “prevention is better than cure” ever been more apt?
For those who feel stressed it may be asked “is it possible to reset, – to default if you wish – a calm centre within one’s deepest self, a place where the myriad external stimuli of contemporary living lose their impact? A quiet spot all ones own that you can ‘visit’ regularly for restoration and refreshment? A centre of integration from where you step back into the world with poise and confidence?”
To address this issue Johns Hopkins University researchers reviewed 47 recently published clinical trials and found moderate evidence that meditation alleviates pain, anxiety and depression—the latter two to a similar degree as antidepressant drug therapy. A rudimentary web search reveals meditation has been trialled in schools in the UK and USA for decades as a tool to calm hyped kids and in some cases as a daily discipline.
Forget the ridiculous images of blissed out meditators on the edge of cliffs, cross legged (and probably cross-eyed) on beaches, or in the woods where branches stick you in the backside and the hum of sandflies muddle your mantra. Authentic meditation is the epitome of inwardness, undertaken for 20 minutes per day silently at home, allowing the re-discovery of a quiet and steady place, – the domain of memory fragments acting as touchstones to a long-forgotten sense of simplicity and childhood.
True our brains thrive on the stimulation provided by experience, diversity, and complexity but a little appreciated dimension of enrichment goes in the other direction, – towards abstraction, inwardness and degrees of subtlety. This aspect when reanimated brings fresh appreciation of the simplest experiences of day to day living, calming to a degree the inner dragon of material longing an outer conflict.
And now with LOVE getting a fresh airing in schools as principals grapple with student depression and suicide we are reminded that there are some simple qualities which neglected leave us poorer regardless of external stimuli.
Meditation may connect us with that which is deepest in ourselves and therefore with one another in trusting and supportive ways.
Meditation, great believer in it, fascinating subject, especially now we have the technology to scan the brain while a person is meditating. Science backs up meditation.
The brain is an incredible piece of our bio technology
They not only can scan the brain during meditation, they can measure the actual effects on the brain of practicing meditation over a (short) period of time.
A sensitive fair piece. The Media Report at 9 this morning on RNZ goes through the Meteria story. Well worth the listen.
I wonder if Materia will tell how the media and other agents, intruded on her family? My guess is that it was not the tough public interviews but what was happening off camera. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201854557
Here’s a question for you all.
When was MT going to pay the money back.?
After all she has had 15+ years of earning well over 100k. By definition she is part of the 1%. I think that is what pisses everyone off, not the amount or the fraud but the big f you up until this point.
nah, that is only something for rich people who can afford accountants do.
righ, like our Mr. Top guy, Gareth Morgan.
and housing fraud is only something for sitting PM’s who collect an Accomodation benefit on a million dollar house they own, err……their wifes owns, …..err that is in a trust……
right?
right?
for the record, considering that the min. rent in NZ now is something like 400$ for a dwelling of i would want the first 25.000 earned tax free. Cause that is a minimum that one needs to survive.
Progressive tax rates are for business people also.
In my experience, IRD are much more accommodating than WINZ, if illness makes you incapable of paying your bills.
Even in the current regime, if your business is not making money you do not pay tax. Unfortunately WINZ requires you to stop working at your business to get a benefit. Which seems to contradict Nationals stated aim of getting people into work.
Of course the system is designed so people have to take exploitative underpaid jobs.
Not to allow them to compete with Nationals mates, in business.
But a UBI would make entrepreneurship, something we want to encourage, less of a risk.
Not acceptable BM but I know that many who avoid full tax payments. I know some who remove cash from the till so that it is undeclared income. Unacceptable.
Why isn’t it acceptable? his/her family has to eat.
We’re not talking tax evasion because you don’t want to pay tax but because if you do you won’t have any money left to keep your family clothed and fed.
I think you have some gotcha facts to drop – please do so. Tough situation for business owner – could they sell their holiday home or a car or something to help if they have them. Not a long term solution but may help them short term while they sort out he day forward.
Well I’d imagine other options will have to be thought about because going to jail for tax evasion will not be pretty. Are you thinking of dobbing them in? – please don’t. Lots of us are stuggling mate.
My accountant has a simple analogy / story to solve this moral dilemma, and explain how IRD works.. It’s called the walk down the drive test. A hypothetical, or maybe real, IRD auditor walks down your drive and does a count up of the toys parked thereon. Does this match declared income?
But the more serious side to this is that petty (and not so petty) lying is an endemic, and accepted, part of our society. From a bennie maximising their benefit to tradies doing cashies to politicians having memory fades. It is accepted by a lot of our society and in a strange way kind of allows a sector of society to survive by avoiding conflict. The people who do it are seen to get ahead, so it becomes what you have to do to not be left behind.
And because everyone is doing it, when an individual calls it out they are going to get rat fucked. Hard
Pretty sure that tradies doing cashies is a far lesser sin than beneficiaries not being totally honest with WINZ. So in addition to what you describe there are all sorts of hierarchies of fairness.
Easiest solution all round is to run the economy so that people have both enough to live on and opportunity for a meaningful life. Then start rolling back the government’s push to make people selfish. If after that there are still some people who want to tell porkies, I probably don’t actually care except where it’s blatant.
My partner , a teacher administers NCEA for their school, there are two groups who get subsidised NCEA fees, some benificaries and members of the local Dairy farming community. One group is able to structure their incomes to the level of the other and its not the benificaries.
You can look at the tit pullers another way too. A lot of them actually aren’t making any money, not even close to break even without drawings. The only ones making any money are the banks (maybe) and the equipment suppliers (they get paid early before the operation starts showing a loss)
This is a looming disaster for the country where a good proportion of the dairy industry goes tits up. Group think where the answer was to go bigger and more intensive. Then they can’t meet consent conditions and it all gets really hard.
A friend tells a story about someone he went through Telford with, 5 yeas ago he had 300 cows and was getting new vehicles and an overseas holiday for the family every year, then he went big and is still driving the old vehicles and hasn’t had a day off since. But he’s got 1000 cows. They’re keeping a really close eye on him.
I gather for the same same reason that most of them did, it looked like a no brainer at the time. It’s only later they realise that the consultants, suppliers and bankers (who’ve all been paid, strange that) might not have been quite right. There may have been a bit of group think going on too, and definitely a few success stories getting it all going. Now we’re seeing stories about operations down sizing and getting more profit.
But that’s how the business process works, we’ve taken on debt to grow our business with very mixed success.
Another part to it is the way our tax system works, you’re incentivised to reinvest in your business to reduce tax liabilities, hence the new cars etc. Scale it up to the move from 300 to 1000 cows and it can get out of hand.
I have difficulty getting my head around how we want a more prosperous society, but incentivise people through our tax system to not make any money.
Ok, I was thinking more about motivations like greed, or wanting a bigger project, or wanting the challenge etc. But if I’m understanding you right it’s more that this is just what everyone does because everyone does it. Plus the advisor thing.
“But that’s how the business process works, we’ve taken on debt to grow our business with very mixed success.”
Yeah, I’ve never really understood this. I once phoned a medium business in another city and asked about accessing their product. They told me that they liked the size they were and had no intentions of growing, so sorry, they would be selling to existing local customers first and that meant they could sell to me or where I was living. And of course that left space for other producers to start up, who would do things a bit differently and so everybody wins. I gather that’s not the norm 😉
We deal with businesses that have that level of confidence and security as well, who have no intention of pursuing a growth path. The ones that are on the aggressive growth thing we tend to avoid if it’s about more, but embrace if it’s about better or higher value. And we’ve also got a couple who are so glum and insecure we wonder if we’ll ever see them again.
I think the motivation to do better and improve our lot is a human thing, we as a species have been like it from the day we thought about walking upright, for better or worse. It’s when it’s looked on as a zero sum game that it all gets messy, and really isn’t getting better. I suppose it’s whether you see the world from a we or me perspective.
I know some do. Including one i had to laugh at. He complained bitterly, about his kids losing their student allowance, the year he stated his real income, for a mortgage.
He still goes on about bludging bennies. Go figure.
I know many, like i used to, let the customer think it is a cashy, though it all went through the books.
Several reasons.
You get paid cash every Friday.
No waiting for direct credits or dud checks.
You don’t get guarantee claims for the job.
Customers think they are getting it cheaper.
Unfortunately, competing on price with tax dodgers and cowboys, is hard.
We’re not talking tax evasion because you don’t want to pay tax but because if you do you won’t have any money left to keep your family clothed and fed.
Yes, and we can figure out if we’re honest with ourselves that a lot of people struggling to keep a business viable and have enough to live on find ways to evade tax. If one of them later in life becomes a politician and promotes a policy on tax reform by revealing that they had to do this themselves a couple of decades ago, would you like to see every detail of their private life turned over by oppo research teams and media gossip-mongers in an attempt to hound them from office and prevent tax reform? Or would you find that distasteful?
Business owners have a choice. They willingly go into business. They have funds sufficient to go into business. And don’t try the beneficiaries have chosen a “lifestyle” line. If life on a benefit was so cushy and attractive, everyone, including the small business owner, would be trying to get a benefit.
They willingly go into business. They have funds sufficient to go into business
Actually, you’ll find most new businesses are grossly underfunded.
Even if they have plenty of startup capital, what if the business hasn’t been that successful and the business owner has chewed through all his/her reserves, should they just starve?
The transition from small business / self employed to either a benefit or corporate employment is almost impossible.
Winz will want you to answer unanswerable questions about income and assets, and won’t be able to understand the difference between turnover and gross and net profit (that’s three very different things). If your average bennie feels like smacking the winz agent, spare a thought for the ex small business owner.
Applying for a job is equally fraught. After 20 odd years of self employment you will never pass the psychometric tests to get into a major employer. You’re not a submissive “team player” any more. No matter how much you bend over.
Yep for many once you go down the small business path that’s it for life.
Like you say, it’s next to impossible to get any decent employment if you wanted or needed to, you don’t tick any of the correct boxes so never make it past the HR filter.
The transition from small business / self employed to either a benefit or corporate employment is almost impossible.
They don’t make it easy to transition from anything to anything. That’s part of the point that Metiria was making – instead of helping they make it hard or even impossible.
I think BM is starting to realise that. About the little lies we all have to tell to make ends meet.
I am disappointed that Metiria and the Green Party hadn’t thought this through a lot better. The ensuing rat fucking was to be expected, unfortunately that’s the world we live in now, and responses should have been there before anything was said. It’s also disappointing that three careers have been destroyed in Green politics by this. That experience, compassion and knowledge isn’t easily replaced.
You’re exactly right about the attitude towards personal change, it’s made hard at all levels, employers, winz, and really all of our society. I’d like to hear from some of our personal responsibility types here how this squares with their freedom of choice beliefs.
BM – this is the difference between choosing to be an “entrepreneur” or being a worker having to do as told. I belief it is the latter that is actually the driving force rather than sound management skills that get many into starting a business.
The risk is to loose investment and the consequence can be severe if the commercial homework is neglected.
But the risk is taken by the individual whereas the severe consequences of starving because there is no job is by design of social and trade politics.
If a former self employed person needs to go to WINZ would the last tax statement of accounts and a letter of your accountants assessment not clarify the financial situation?
I belief the difficult part is the emotional and psychological consequence as such failure is seen as loss of dignity whereas it is just a means of measuring ones skill at this point in time. 2 choices: employment or acquiring skills to get another start. Perhaps both to get the funds.
I’m having a chuckle seeing you and draco defending how generous and compliant winz are to the ex self employed. I can assure you it’s actually the most Kafkaesque experience you can ever endure. Second only to earnings related compensation from ACC for the self employed.
Of my winz experience, I got referred to them by a business assistance programme at the start of GFC when we had a huge upheaval, one appointment was enough. I gave up on the business assistance programme as well.
As for ACC, the earnings related side is hardly worth applying for if you are self employed, and especially if you are partners in business and life. You get nothing, but still have to pay full earner premium.
I’m having a chuckle seeing you and draco defending how generous and compliant winz are to the ex self employed.
Many of my relatives are self-employed contractors and have, occasionally, found themselves reliant upon the mercy of WINZ. They complained about how bad WINZ was as well and I’m pretty sure that I’ll find at least some of them complaining that MT lied to WINZ.
I gave up on the business assistance programme as well.
Yep, so did I last time I looked. Figured I’d be better off trying to start a business fully under the table while on the EB than actually getting that.
As for ACC, the earnings related side is hardly worth applying for if you are self employed, and especially if you are partners in business and life.
Yeah, I also know that people who’ve been in business that complained that they didn’t get the full 80% of their income – but had been boasting not too long before that they weren’t paying tax or ACC because of awesome accountant.
Graeme, you are missing the point.
If a person chooses to go into self employment they also know that they are getting into. If you get a job, then you can get sacked after 90 days with essentially no explanation really.
And don’t be mistaken, I have been in partnership in a business subcontracting and retail. This was an eye opener.
There are real insidious people out there, sanctioned by the tax regime of this country, who use the goods and services delivered by small business and deny payment for long periods of time thus making cash flow the number one issue of concern. It is almost criminal how this works as it basically keeps contractors in bond, like modern slavery.
If there needs something charged, than it is the law that if subcontractors deliver the goods and services than they have a right to be paid – and only then can the tax department ask for their charge and not sooner.
If any of those flexing their muscle for the SM business community start were it counts.
Hey, I’m trying to agree with you that dealing with these government agencies is a de-humanising process that is totally counter productive for our society. And it encourages / forces people to lie. This destroys good people.
Foreign Waka, for most small business people it’s not at all a choice at all, in my partner’s case it’s all she knows and in mine there were no employment options at the time and then I discovered it was a one way street. I had a good career in construction, NZCE, but came out the wrong side of a couple of recessions. Then ran up against the HR dept. No going back there.
It’s certainly got it’s good points, but dealing with lairs who can’t / won’t pay you is a pain. And they think they are so shit hot for doing it. You soon learn to keep out of their way.
Well, that’s the difference between the two, isn’t it.
For your business owner, going to winz is the last resort in acknowledging failure, and they would prefer to commit tax fraud.
If you are already at the last resort, and it still doesn’t pay the most basic bills, committing benefit fraud is really the only option if you want to eat.
Personally, I doubt that Metiria Turei is part of the top 1% by PAYE or by wealth but no doubt you have a ‘definition’ that supports your claim. Would you be so kind to provide a link for my edification?
I think you’ll find that she isn’t. IIRC, back in 2004, 100k put people into the top 3%. Considering inflation since and the way that the top salary packages have gone up that 100k has probably dropped down the scale some.
I think that is what pisses everyone off
You’re not everyone and I’m pretty sure that you’re only projecting your feelings onto everyone else thus I figure you’re talking out your arse.
While looking at the position of Germans in the USA pre WW2 I came across this bio of a German couple who immigrated mid 1800’s and became leaders of integrity with progressive and enlightened results that benefitted the USA greatly.
This is an example of the good side of immigration.
Let’s look at immigration from the point of what useful results to the social and skillsets of the country – large number of immigrants here have turned us into a wonderful, advanced country.
But now a large number of immigrants are more likely to be chosen for their money, or their willingness to tie themselves into debt for an unscrupulous, promised education and better future, not their useful additions of insight and beneficial ideas and proven positive skills at professional level, or proven outcomes.
Schurz and his wife arrived in the United States in 1852, eventually settling in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1855. They were quite well off financially. Margarethe’s dowry (the money a woman brings into a marriage) alone was enough to set Schurz up in business. His fame as a daring fighter for freedom in Germany, his solid education, his gifts as a writer and speaker, and his political ambition combined to make him a well-known figure almost immediately. Although he rarely stood for election himself, his persuasiveness with German American voters made him a force to be reckoned.
His wife, too, was active in bringing new ideas in education to the United States. In 1856 Margarethe Schurz founded what many consider the first kindergarten in the United States in Watertown. Like many German schools in the United States, the kindergarten was conducted in the German language until World War I (1914–18).
Schurz was antislavery and became an avid supporter of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) in the presidential campaign of 1860. He is said to have traveled more than twenty-one thousand miles campaigning for Lincoln, speaking in both English and German. He was credited with swinging much of the German American vote.
After the American Civil War (1861–65), in which he served as a general, Schurz settled in St. Louis, Missouri, and became a U.S. senator. In Washington, D.C., he turned to issues of corruption. Because of his criticisms of U.S. politicians, some alleged that he was not a patriotic American.
He responded with a phrase that has become famous:”My country right or wrong: if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
In 1876, Margarethe Schurz died, but by that time she had passed on her knowledge to others who established more kindergartens and set a standard for preschools in the nation. Schurz was made Secretary of the Interior that year. He attempted to initiate environmental controls, particularly over forestlands, and to follow a humanitarian (promoting human welfare) policy with respect to the Indians, but stronger powers within the nation overpowered his liberal idealism.
Schurz left government office for good in 1881 and began a second successful career as a journalist, author, and lecturer. He made New York his home, where he became editor-in-chief of the Evening Post and eventually Harper’s Weekly.
Schurz saw himself as a mediator between German and American culture. He continued to be equally fluent in German and English, writing his widely read memoirs in both languages. He traveled back and forth many times between the United States and Germany, filled with pride for both. When accused of mixed loyalties, he responded that he loved equally his “old mother” and his “new bride.”
“It has also killed off the notion of leader Winston Peters being in power sharing arrangement with Labour – as he could credibly have done if Andrew Little had delivered enough numbers for a coalition but with an embarrassingly suppressed voted.
(His best chance now would perhaps be in such circumstance that, were a Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of a mind to, she decided she wanted a few month’s parental leave).”
Who supported Trump and why? There has been lots of discussion and insight on that. They seem to like his full-on approach, his apparent anti-government,
anti-authoritarian stance, someone who stands big and criticises others who should be doing something else without much idea of what should or could be done. When there is enough rot the fine fabric of democracy starts to tear!
I remembered the great following of Hitler from some people in the USA pre WW2.
Seems similar – follow the loudmouth, the apparently strong man who inspires confidence. Some were right on to the Nazi message in the USA though it was felt that it was a connection of the settlers to their German heritage, but they still gave the raised arm salute, the same mass gatherings, marches etc. “Hitler is the friend of Germans everywhere,” noted a girl who attended Camp Hindenburg in Wisconsin. “And just as Christ wanted little children to come to him, Hitler wants German children to revere him.”
KJT
They certainly got something out of it, a parade, hats, camaraderie. Someone should have played 76 Trombones. Are they allowed to hand out free doughnuts in the USA or is that treating? Homer would have been there, dooh!
This is what they voted for with Trump, visualising something better and brighter!
More poverty bashing from the National Party. How does sending kids to the Army and fining their struggling parents for not being better ‘prison officers’ tie in with his so called ‘social investment’ policy?
That sounds bad. Freedom of movement?
14yo Children on the street can be arrested and taken to court? Crikey!
Suppose the justification is where they as mobs creating mayhem but all those under 14 get arrested where their companions over 14 will not be and that probably includes the group leader.
This is all about the individualist entitled Generation X or Y saying why do I have to do this? Why aren’t there laws just for other people? There needs to be a helmet law because we want to save the brains of those who don’t really have much up there anyway.
It is likely to be blokes who are leaders in this anti-law stir as men want to be FREE. And not have to worry about accidents, after all they can ride on the pavement now and use the safety component of that, shifting the risk of collision and injury to the pedestrian. And there is the state ACC to look after you if you survive. Put the effort into getting more safe cycling lanes. Offer Councils plans that show how to have separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists. That’s worthy of effort.
There needs to be a helmet law but one that isn’t so tough that people who have to travel somewhere and haven’t a helmet aren’t going to be spot fined a month’s rent or something. Just enough to nag you into putting one on your must-have list.
well, so far I’ve gotten through ten minutes of correlation=causation, “a study”, “widely acknowledged”, assumptions that the legislation was generated in a vacuum rather than wide campaigning, “trivial difference” (trivial head injuries?) and so on.
Nobody has ever said the only thing to effect cycling safety is wearing a helmet. A “trivial effect” is still an effect.
Here’s what they never said: why do helmet requirements lower cycling rates? It can’t be because they’re afraid of looking like a dick.
Holy fuck, it gets worse as it goes on lol. Some numpty got arrested for not paying her fines because she refused to wear a fucking helmet? 13min: Oh no, old white guy treated like criminal for breaking the law!
Oh no, they resent wearing helmets!
Nice propaganda. Shame it doesn’t back it up with the facts you promised. It’s a load of shit.
Having smacked my head on the road due to legislation that allows cars to be driven by cunts, I don’t give a shit what “research” tells us. If you smack your head into something, it helps if you’ve got a helmet on it.
The video makes the point that helmets should be mandatory in high risk areas but not so in low risk areas. I.e, if you’re commuting to work on the road then wear a helmet. If you’re out for a Sunday ride down the park/beach then maybe not.
You can still wear one if you want though.
I’ve never hit my head falling off a bicycle – even when I got run over by a car. Broken my ribs a time or two though.
11. Obligation to alleviate pain or distress of ill or injured animals
(1)The owner of an animal that is ill or injured, and every person in charge of such an animal, must ensure that the animal receives treatment that alleviates any unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress being suffered by the animal.
(2)This section does not—
(a) limit section 10; or
(b)require a person to keep an animal alive when it is in such a condition that it is suffering unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress.
Section 11(1): amended, on 10 May 2015, by section 12 of the Animal Welfare Amendment Act (No 2) 2015 (2015 No 49).
_____________________________
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.
Exposing the $1.6 BILLION Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM.
Genau. Actually, I cannot help but admire Hitler as he eyeballs down 40,000+ people at the Nuremburg rally … Yet he was a barbarian. Times are turbulent as usual, and Trump is an anathema, but here in NZ we act like none of this happened before.
Timing is supposed to be everything in politics – but the drama of the past few days has scuppered that old nostrum.
As did the baby of Labour’s Rangitikei candidate Heather Warren.
Her baby was scheduled for September 29, comfortably after the September 23 election day – but instead arrived a fortnight ago, at 31 weeks.
WTF If you are having a baby that should be the first priority for the next year.
It is an expectation that modern women will still be interested in looking after their offspring and trying to breast feed the child. That is in all the information available as being of top importance for health in the distant as well as near future.
Talk about trying to double dip. You can’t be thinking about political matters and giving your child all the attention and care it needs while a baby and toddler, and withdrawing for long periods to keep up with your constituency and party concerns. I think many women are trying to have everything, and not being fair to their children. In this case the political life should have waited till the next election, staying on the list would have been a reasonable start.
btw. women have birthed all of humanity since ages ago, actually since ever, and have always worked.
they might not have been payed, they might have been handmaids, they might have been slaves, they might have been single mothers or unfortunates, they might have been widows, they might have been young or old, they might have lived in peace time or in war time, but they have always worked.
So yeah, women can have it all.
and just for the record, let me fix this for you
Talk about trying to double dip. You can’t be thinking about political matters and giving your child all the attention and care it needs while a baby and toddler, and withdrawing for long periods to keep up with your constituency and party concerns. I think many man are trying to have everything, and not being fair to their children and are fully depending on their wifes to handle childcare, household care on their own, while they go about gallivanting in politics. In this case the political life should have waited till the next election, staying on the list would have been a reasonable start for any man whose wife has just given birth to a child.
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The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
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MEDITATION: USEFUL TOOL OR FREAKY COP-OUT?
Severe conversations continue in our nation as we look for solutions to depression, suicide, obesity and the spiralling number of “sick days” reported by companies.
Whilst government solutions revolve around more counselling, more therapy, sugar tax and the like it is overlooked that by the time help is sought much damage has already been done. Has the adage “prevention is better than cure” ever been more apt?
For those who feel stressed it may be asked “is it possible to reset, – to default if you wish – a calm centre within one’s deepest self, a place where the myriad external stimuli of contemporary living lose their impact? A quiet spot all ones own that you can ‘visit’ regularly for restoration and refreshment? A centre of integration from where you step back into the world with poise and confidence?”
To address this issue Johns Hopkins University researchers reviewed 47 recently published clinical trials and found moderate evidence that meditation alleviates pain, anxiety and depression—the latter two to a similar degree as antidepressant drug therapy. A rudimentary web search reveals meditation has been trialled in schools in the UK and USA for decades as a tool to calm hyped kids and in some cases as a daily discipline.
Forget the ridiculous images of blissed out meditators on the edge of cliffs, cross legged (and probably cross-eyed) on beaches, or in the woods where branches stick you in the backside and the hum of sandflies muddle your mantra. Authentic meditation is the epitome of inwardness, undertaken for 20 minutes per day silently at home, allowing the re-discovery of a quiet and steady place, – the domain of memory fragments acting as touchstones to a long-forgotten sense of simplicity and childhood.
True our brains thrive on the stimulation provided by experience, diversity, and complexity but a little appreciated dimension of enrichment goes in the other direction, – towards abstraction, inwardness and degrees of subtlety. This aspect when reanimated brings fresh appreciation of the simplest experiences of day to day living, calming to a degree the inner dragon of material longing an outer conflict.
And now with LOVE getting a fresh airing in schools as principals grapple with student depression and suicide we are reminded that there are some simple qualities which neglected leave us poorer regardless of external stimuli.
Meditation may connect us with that which is deepest in ourselves and therefore with one another in trusting and supportive ways.
Meditation, great believer in it, fascinating subject, especially now we have the technology to scan the brain while a person is meditating. Science backs up meditation.
The brain is an incredible piece of our bio technology
They not only can scan the brain during meditation, they can measure the actual effects on the brain of practicing meditation over a (short) period of time.
http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/articles/differential-pattern-of-functional-brain-plasticity-after-compassion-and-empathy-training
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/07/dalai-lama-neuroscience-compassion/397706/
BTW, meditation does not have to be Buddhist practice.
Well said ant.
Regular meditation has had the most profound effect on me as an adult.
At it’s essence is the lack of thought, from which we gain our idea of ourselves, which is almost always wrong.
Oscar Kightley has said it so right re Meteria. An excellent piece.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95719299/oscar-kightley-brave-tureis-main-mistake-was-to-be-so-honest
Yep. Well said that man.
A sensitive fair piece. The Media Report at 9 this morning on RNZ goes through the Meteria story. Well worth the listen.
I wonder if Materia will tell how the media and other agents, intruded on her family? My guess is that it was not the tough public interviews but what was happening off camera.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201854557
Here’s a question for you all.
When was MT going to pay the money back.?
After all she has had 15+ years of earning well over 100k. By definition she is part of the 1%. I think that is what pisses everyone off, not the amount or the fraud but the big f you up until this point.
Feeling personally affronted is the choice you Righties make, P4l. Enjoy!
Robert, do you think it’s acceptable for a struggling business owner to not pay tax so he/she can pay the family bills?
Is this a personal question, BM? Are you doing it hard? Is the IRD taking more from you than it should? If so, tautoko!
No.
Is the IRD taking more from you than it should
How does that work, Robert? if you’re only making enough to survive you shouldn’t have to pay any tax?
nah, that is only something for rich people who can afford accountants do.
righ, like our Mr. Top guy, Gareth Morgan.
and housing fraud is only something for sitting PM’s who collect an Accomodation benefit on a million dollar house they own, err……their wifes owns, …..err that is in a trust……
right?
right?
for the record, considering that the min. rent in NZ now is something like 400$ for a dwelling of i would want the first 25.000 earned tax free. Cause that is a minimum that one needs to survive.
Progressive tax rates are for business people also.
In my experience, IRD are much more accommodating than WINZ, if illness makes you incapable of paying your bills.
Even in the current regime, if your business is not making money you do not pay tax. Unfortunately WINZ requires you to stop working at your business to get a benefit. Which seems to contradict Nationals stated aim of getting people into work.
Of course the system is designed so people have to take exploitative underpaid jobs.
Not to allow them to compete with Nationals mates, in business.
But a UBI would make entrepreneurship, something we want to encourage, less of a risk.
Yep and I’m pretty sure that National realise that and can see profits dropping if people could easily compete with entrenched businesses.
Removes the risk of other things as well such as a career change that requires retraining at tertiary level.
Not acceptable BM but I know that many who avoid full tax payments. I know some who remove cash from the till so that it is undeclared income. Unacceptable.
Why isn’t it acceptable? his/her family has to eat.
We’re not talking tax evasion because you don’t want to pay tax but because if you do you won’t have any money left to keep your family clothed and fed.
I think you have some gotcha facts to drop – please do so. Tough situation for business owner – could they sell their holiday home or a car or something to help if they have them. Not a long term solution but may help them short term while they sort out he day forward.
No gotchas, no holiday homes and they need the car for the family.
Well I’d imagine other options will have to be thought about because going to jail for tax evasion will not be pretty. Are you thinking of dobbing them in? – please don’t. Lots of us are stuggling mate.
[Citation Needed]
Well maybe they have to have somewhere to sleep?
My accountant has a simple analogy / story to solve this moral dilemma, and explain how IRD works.. It’s called the walk down the drive test. A hypothetical, or maybe real, IRD auditor walks down your drive and does a count up of the toys parked thereon. Does this match declared income?
But the more serious side to this is that petty (and not so petty) lying is an endemic, and accepted, part of our society. From a bennie maximising their benefit to tradies doing cashies to politicians having memory fades. It is accepted by a lot of our society and in a strange way kind of allows a sector of society to survive by avoiding conflict. The people who do it are seen to get ahead, so it becomes what you have to do to not be left behind.
And because everyone is doing it, when an individual calls it out they are going to get rat fucked. Hard
Pretty sure that tradies doing cashies is a far lesser sin than beneficiaries not being totally honest with WINZ. So in addition to what you describe there are all sorts of hierarchies of fairness.
Easiest solution all round is to run the economy so that people have both enough to live on and opportunity for a meaningful life. Then start rolling back the government’s push to make people selfish. If after that there are still some people who want to tell porkies, I probably don’t actually care except where it’s blatant.
My partner , a teacher administers NCEA for their school, there are two groups who get subsidised NCEA fees, some benificaries and members of the local Dairy farming community. One group is able to structure their incomes to the level of the other and its not the benificaries.
You can look at the tit pullers another way too. A lot of them actually aren’t making any money, not even close to break even without drawings. The only ones making any money are the banks (maybe) and the equipment suppliers (they get paid early before the operation starts showing a loss)
This is a looming disaster for the country where a good proportion of the dairy industry goes tits up. Group think where the answer was to go bigger and more intensive. Then they can’t meet consent conditions and it all gets really hard.
A friend tells a story about someone he went through Telford with, 5 yeas ago he had 300 cows and was getting new vehicles and an overseas holiday for the family every year, then he went big and is still driving the old vehicles and hasn’t had a day off since. But he’s got 1000 cows. They’re keeping a really close eye on him.
and are quietly managing the price down and drip feeding the sales into the market…..as usual the banks are unlikely to end up footing the bill.
A great many are farming capital gains, not cows!
why did he go big?
I gather for the same same reason that most of them did, it looked like a no brainer at the time. It’s only later they realise that the consultants, suppliers and bankers (who’ve all been paid, strange that) might not have been quite right. There may have been a bit of group think going on too, and definitely a few success stories getting it all going. Now we’re seeing stories about operations down sizing and getting more profit.
But that’s how the business process works, we’ve taken on debt to grow our business with very mixed success.
Another part to it is the way our tax system works, you’re incentivised to reinvest in your business to reduce tax liabilities, hence the new cars etc. Scale it up to the move from 300 to 1000 cows and it can get out of hand.
I have difficulty getting my head around how we want a more prosperous society, but incentivise people through our tax system to not make any money.
Ok, I was thinking more about motivations like greed, or wanting a bigger project, or wanting the challenge etc. But if I’m understanding you right it’s more that this is just what everyone does because everyone does it. Plus the advisor thing.
“But that’s how the business process works, we’ve taken on debt to grow our business with very mixed success.”
Yeah, I’ve never really understood this. I once phoned a medium business in another city and asked about accessing their product. They told me that they liked the size they were and had no intentions of growing, so sorry, they would be selling to existing local customers first and that meant they could sell to me or where I was living. And of course that left space for other producers to start up, who would do things a bit differently and so everybody wins. I gather that’s not the norm 😉
We deal with businesses that have that level of confidence and security as well, who have no intention of pursuing a growth path. The ones that are on the aggressive growth thing we tend to avoid if it’s about more, but embrace if it’s about better or higher value. And we’ve also got a couple who are so glum and insecure we wonder if we’ll ever see them again.
I think the motivation to do better and improve our lot is a human thing, we as a species have been like it from the day we thought about walking upright, for better or worse. It’s when it’s looked on as a zero sum game that it all gets messy, and really isn’t getting better. I suppose it’s whether you see the world from a we or me perspective.
How many tradies are actually doing cashies?
I know some do. Including one i had to laugh at. He complained bitterly, about his kids losing their student allowance, the year he stated his real income, for a mortgage.
He still goes on about bludging bennies. Go figure.
I know many, like i used to, let the customer think it is a cashy, though it all went through the books.
Several reasons.
You get paid cash every Friday.
No waiting for direct credits or dud checks.
You don’t get guarantee claims for the job.
Customers think they are getting it cheaper.
Unfortunately, competing on price with tax dodgers and cowboys, is hard.
We’re not talking tax evasion because you don’t want to pay tax but because if you do you won’t have any money left to keep your family clothed and fed.
Yes, and we can figure out if we’re honest with ourselves that a lot of people struggling to keep a business viable and have enough to live on find ways to evade tax. If one of them later in life becomes a politician and promotes a policy on tax reform by revealing that they had to do this themselves a couple of decades ago, would you like to see every detail of their private life turned over by oppo research teams and media gossip-mongers in an attempt to hound them from office and prevent tax reform? Or would you find that distasteful?
Business owners have a choice. They willingly go into business. They have funds sufficient to go into business. And don’t try the beneficiaries have chosen a “lifestyle” line. If life on a benefit was so cushy and attractive, everyone, including the small business owner, would be trying to get a benefit.
They willingly go into business. They have funds sufficient to go into business
Actually, you’ll find most new businesses are grossly underfunded.
Even if they have plenty of startup capital, what if the business hasn’t been that successful and the business owner has chewed through all his/her reserves, should they just starve?
Stupid question. They can apply for a benefit like everyone else if they have insufficient income to avoid starving.
Maybe they don’t want to get hassled by the draconian winz.
Once you turn up and apply for a benefit you’ve got to then start looking for a job, I don’t think running your own business counts.
That’s the end of your business and all that money and hardwork down the drain.
The transition from small business / self employed to either a benefit or corporate employment is almost impossible.
Winz will want you to answer unanswerable questions about income and assets, and won’t be able to understand the difference between turnover and gross and net profit (that’s three very different things). If your average bennie feels like smacking the winz agent, spare a thought for the ex small business owner.
Applying for a job is equally fraught. After 20 odd years of self employment you will never pass the psychometric tests to get into a major employer. You’re not a submissive “team player” any more. No matter how much you bend over.
Yep for many once you go down the small business path that’s it for life.
Like you say, it’s next to impossible to get any decent employment if you wanted or needed to, you don’t tick any of the correct boxes so never make it past the HR filter.
They don’t make it easy to transition from anything to anything. That’s part of the point that Metiria was making – instead of helping they make it hard or even impossible.
I think BM is starting to realise that. About the little lies we all have to tell to make ends meet.
I am disappointed that Metiria and the Green Party hadn’t thought this through a lot better. The ensuing rat fucking was to be expected, unfortunately that’s the world we live in now, and responses should have been there before anything was said. It’s also disappointing that three careers have been destroyed in Green politics by this. That experience, compassion and knowledge isn’t easily replaced.
You’re exactly right about the attitude towards personal change, it’s made hard at all levels, employers, winz, and really all of our society. I’d like to hear from some of our personal responsibility types here how this squares with their freedom of choice beliefs.
BM – this is the difference between choosing to be an “entrepreneur” or being a worker having to do as told. I belief it is the latter that is actually the driving force rather than sound management skills that get many into starting a business.
The risk is to loose investment and the consequence can be severe if the commercial homework is neglected.
But the risk is taken by the individual whereas the severe consequences of starving because there is no job is by design of social and trade politics.
If a former self employed person needs to go to WINZ would the last tax statement of accounts and a letter of your accountants assessment not clarify the financial situation?
I belief the difficult part is the emotional and psychological consequence as such failure is seen as loss of dignity whereas it is just a means of measuring ones skill at this point in time. 2 choices: employment or acquiring skills to get another start. Perhaps both to get the funds.
I’m having a chuckle seeing you and draco defending how generous and compliant winz are to the ex self employed. I can assure you it’s actually the most Kafkaesque experience you can ever endure. Second only to earnings related compensation from ACC for the self employed.
Of my winz experience, I got referred to them by a business assistance programme at the start of GFC when we had a huge upheaval, one appointment was enough. I gave up on the business assistance programme as well.
As for ACC, the earnings related side is hardly worth applying for if you are self employed, and especially if you are partners in business and life. You get nothing, but still have to pay full earner premium.
Many of my relatives are self-employed contractors and have, occasionally, found themselves reliant upon the mercy of WINZ. They complained about how bad WINZ was as well and I’m pretty sure that I’ll find at least some of them complaining that MT lied to WINZ.
Yep, so did I last time I looked. Figured I’d be better off trying to start a business fully under the table while on the EB than actually getting that.
Yeah, I also know that people who’ve been in business that complained that they didn’t get the full 80% of their income – but had been boasting not too long before that they weren’t paying tax or ACC because of awesome accountant.
80% of zero is zero.
Graeme, you are missing the point.
If a person chooses to go into self employment they also know that they are getting into. If you get a job, then you can get sacked after 90 days with essentially no explanation really.
And don’t be mistaken, I have been in partnership in a business subcontracting and retail. This was an eye opener.
There are real insidious people out there, sanctioned by the tax regime of this country, who use the goods and services delivered by small business and deny payment for long periods of time thus making cash flow the number one issue of concern. It is almost criminal how this works as it basically keeps contractors in bond, like modern slavery.
If there needs something charged, than it is the law that if subcontractors deliver the goods and services than they have a right to be paid – and only then can the tax department ask for their charge and not sooner.
If any of those flexing their muscle for the SM business community start were it counts.
Hey, I’m trying to agree with you that dealing with these government agencies is a de-humanising process that is totally counter productive for our society. And it encourages / forces people to lie. This destroys good people.
There’s got to be a better way to do it.
Foreign Waka, for most small business people it’s not at all a choice at all, in my partner’s case it’s all she knows and in mine there were no employment options at the time and then I discovered it was a one way street. I had a good career in construction, NZCE, but came out the wrong side of a couple of recessions. Then ran up against the HR dept. No going back there.
It’s certainly got it’s good points, but dealing with lairs who can’t / won’t pay you is a pain. And they think they are so shit hot for doing it. You soon learn to keep out of their way.
Apparently, according to you, they don’t have a choice.
Wrong. In fact, WINZ actually has business startup assistance.
Isn’t that the risk that all the capitalists insists is the reason they’re worth so much?
They require you to cease all work on the business.
Which is counterproductive to the stated aims of getting you back into work.
Contrast with, say, breaking a leg while on ACC.
Well, that’s the difference between the two, isn’t it.
For your business owner, going to winz is the last resort in acknowledging failure, and they would prefer to commit tax fraud.
If you are already at the last resort, and it still doesn’t pay the most basic bills, committing benefit fraud is really the only option if you want to eat.
Actually, just drop your completely flawed argument.
Nah, stiff their unsecured creditors and hide behind their limited liability skirt.
/
That’s the wealthy business owners Joe.
The rest of us have to sign personal guarantees, to get supplier credit.
While the wealthy business owner we subcontracted to has it all in a family trust.
Hi BM
Do you think this is justified and makes sense?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/88924330/Benefit-fraud-v-tax-avoidance-why-is-one-dealt-with-more-harshly-by-courts
Personally, yes, and back when I worked for IRD, saw a lot of tax debt written off in those circumstances.
No but that business owner can go down to social welfare and get the same help that others can get to help pay their bills.
Personally, I doubt that Metiria Turei is part of the top 1% by PAYE or by wealth but no doubt you have a ‘definition’ that supports your claim. Would you be so kind to provide a link for my edification?
I think you’ll find that she isn’t. IIRC, back in 2004, 100k put people into the top 3%. Considering inflation since and the way that the top salary packages have gone up that 100k has probably dropped down the scale some.
You’re not everyone and I’m pretty sure that you’re only projecting your feelings onto everyone else thus I figure you’re talking out your arse.
Is this about corporate welfare?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11902858
They can’t organise their lives as best they would have wanted so we give them money as a handout as an investment for all of our futures.
Can individuals do the same thing?
“Peter Dunne is trailing Greg O’Connor in Ohariu.”
Brings to mind one of those pull-toys: the wobbling ducks or the Dachshund.
Is Michelle B off her head on Q&A?
Sure was entertaining.
Yep ,gone mad. Panic attack big time.
Michelle Boag is off her head full stop.What a harpie.
Morticia comes out of the crypt on occasion and frightens the life out of people. Brush her off like an irritating fly.
Classic. Made my afternoon.
I see the National Party have adopted a “me too” strategy.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/337045/national-s-donations-surge-after-ardern-s-promotion
They don’t like it up em do they.
Edit: They don’t like it up em. 😀
the faithful will be pooing that it’s all going to end and they’ll be chucked off the gravy train. Easy marks for the party machine
Yeah, hopefully the begging e-mails I have been getting from Joyce, Collins and Bennett will stop now they have such a big inflow. lol.
What happened with the Cabinet Club? Did Key take the customer database with him?
https://thestandard.org.nz/cabinet-club/
Billbomb about to go off?
Do you mean the Barclay Bomb Graeme?
Well we had billburger yesterday
Tried to access Q&A on Demand but they say no longer available. Damn.
Q and A screens again later tonight I think. It should be available on demand for a few days after that too.
Just tried again on Demand and it works. Michelle was predictable up until the water question when she became unhinged. Also chicken dressing?
While looking at the position of Germans in the USA pre WW2 I came across this bio of a German couple who immigrated mid 1800’s and became leaders of integrity with progressive and enlightened results that benefitted the USA greatly.
This is an example of the good side of immigration.
Let’s look at immigration from the point of what useful results to the social and skillsets of the country – large number of immigrants here have turned us into a wonderful, advanced country.
But now a large number of immigrants are more likely to be chosen for their money, or their willingness to tie themselves into debt for an unscrupulous, promised education and better future, not their useful additions of insight and beneficial ideas and proven positive skills at professional level, or proven outcomes.
Schurz and his wife arrived in the United States in 1852, eventually settling in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1855. They were quite well off financially. Margarethe’s dowry (the money a woman brings into a marriage) alone was enough to set Schurz up in business. His fame as a daring fighter for freedom in Germany, his solid education, his gifts as a writer and speaker, and his political ambition combined to make him a well-known figure almost immediately. Although he rarely stood for election himself, his persuasiveness with German American voters made him a force to be reckoned.
His wife, too, was active in bringing new ideas in education to the United States. In 1856 Margarethe Schurz founded what many consider the first kindergarten in the United States in Watertown. Like many German schools in the United States, the kindergarten was conducted in the German language until World War I (1914–18).
Schurz was antislavery and became an avid supporter of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) in the presidential campaign of 1860. He is said to have traveled more than twenty-one thousand miles campaigning for Lincoln, speaking in both English and German. He was credited with swinging much of the German American vote.
After the American Civil War (1861–65), in which he served as a general, Schurz settled in St. Louis, Missouri, and became a U.S. senator. In Washington, D.C., he turned to issues of corruption. Because of his criticisms of U.S. politicians, some alleged that he was not a patriotic American.
He responded with a phrase that has become famous:”My country right or wrong: if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
In 1876, Margarethe Schurz died, but by that time she had passed on her knowledge to others who established more kindergartens and set a standard for preschools in the nation. Schurz was made Secretary of the Interior that year. He attempted to initiate environmental controls, particularly over forestlands, and to follow a humanitarian (promoting human welfare) policy with respect to the Indians, but stronger powers within the nation overpowered his liberal idealism.
Schurz left government office for good in 1881 and began a second successful career as a journalist, author, and lecturer. He made New York his home, where he became editor-in-chief of the Evening Post and eventually Harper’s Weekly.
Schurz saw himself as a mediator between German and American culture. He continued to be equally fluent in German and English, writing his widely read memoirs in both languages. He traveled back and forth many times between the United States and Germany, filled with pride for both. When accused of mixed loyalties, he responded that he loved equally his “old mother” and his “new bride.”
Audrey Young plumbs new baby depths here:
“It has also killed off the notion of leader Winston Peters being in power sharing arrangement with Labour – as he could credibly have done if Andrew Little had delivered enough numbers for a coalition but with an embarrassingly suppressed voted.
(His best chance now would perhaps be in such circumstance that, were a Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of a mind to, she decided she wanted a few month’s parental leave).”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11902498
Audrey the Spiteful National Hack?
You gottit!
Nasty little woman with a forked tongue ?
Thats why she works for The Herald.
Who supported Trump and why? There has been lots of discussion and insight on that. They seem to like his full-on approach, his apparent anti-government,
anti-authoritarian stance, someone who stands big and criticises others who should be doing something else without much idea of what should or could be done. When there is enough rot the fine fabric of democracy starts to tear!
I remembered the great following of Hitler from some people in the USA pre WW2.
Seems similar – follow the loudmouth, the apparently strong man who inspires confidence. Some were right on to the Nazi message in the USA though it was felt that it was a connection of the settlers to their German heritage, but they still gave the raised arm salute, the same mass gatherings, marches etc.
“Hitler is the friend of Germans everywhere,” noted a girl who attended Camp Hindenburg in Wisconsin. “And just as Christ wanted little children to come to him, Hitler wants German children to revere him.”
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/11/how-american-nazis-used-summer-camps-to-indoctrinate-their-own-children/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/6-things-may-known-nazis-america/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/world-war-ii-before-the-war/100089/
In 1931, the U.S. authorised flying hero and known Nazi sympathiser Charles Lindbergh to be sent as a spy to Hudson Bay to look into using sea-planes for warfare and seek out points of low resistance as potential bridgeheads
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039453/How-America-planned-destroy-BRITAIN-1930-bombing-raids-chemical-weapons.html#ixzz4paZWJXBm
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
I think a lot of the Trump vote was from those whose circumstances were so bad, that almost any change gives some hope.
KJT
They certainly got something out of it, a parade, hats, camaraderie. Someone should have played 76 Trombones. Are they allowed to hand out free doughnuts in the USA or is that treating? Homer would have been there, dooh!
This is what they voted for with Trump, visualising something better and brighter!
More poverty bashing from the National Party. How does sending kids to the Army and fining their struggling parents for not being better ‘prison officers’ tie in with his so called ‘social investment’ policy?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95727988/special-bootcamp-for-youth-offenders-at-waiouru-army-camp-under-national
That sounds bad. Freedom of movement?
14yo Children on the street can be arrested and taken to court? Crikey!
Suppose the justification is where they as mobs creating mayhem but all those under 14 get arrested where their companions over 14 will not be and that probably includes the group leader.
The party of “individual responsibility” and personal freedom is sure keen on search, surveillance and restrictions on people meeting.
The party of “individual responsibility” and “personal freedom” is sure keen on search, surveillance and restricting people.
Bicycle helmet laws – not really worth the effort
This is all about the individualist entitled Generation X or Y saying why do I have to do this? Why aren’t there laws just for other people? There needs to be a helmet law because we want to save the brains of those who don’t really have much up there anyway.
It is likely to be blokes who are leaders in this anti-law stir as men want to be FREE. And not have to worry about accidents, after all they can ride on the pavement now and use the safety component of that, shifting the risk of collision and injury to the pedestrian. And there is the state ACC to look after you if you survive. Put the effort into getting more safe cycling lanes. Offer Councils plans that show how to have separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists. That’s worthy of effort.
There needs to be a helmet law but one that isn’t so tough that people who have to travel somewhere and haven’t a helmet aren’t going to be spot fined a month’s rent or something. Just enough to nag you into putting one on your must-have list.
I suggest you actually watch it.
Sorry I haven’t got 22 minutes for whining. Can you tell m whereabouts the meat of the item is?
There’s no whining – just facts backed by research.
The only whining so far is from you.
well, so far I’ve gotten through ten minutes of correlation=causation, “a study”, “widely acknowledged”, assumptions that the legislation was generated in a vacuum rather than wide campaigning, “trivial difference” (trivial head injuries?) and so on.
Nobody has ever said the only thing to effect cycling safety is wearing a helmet. A “trivial effect” is still an effect.
Here’s what they never said: why do helmet requirements lower cycling rates? It can’t be because they’re afraid of looking like a dick.
Holy fuck, it gets worse as it goes on lol. Some numpty got arrested for not paying her fines because she refused to wear a fucking helmet? 13min: Oh no, old white guy treated like criminal for breaking the law!
Oh no, they resent wearing helmets!
Nice propaganda. Shame it doesn’t back it up with the facts you promised. It’s a load of shit.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/recreational-cycling/11979540/Bike-helmet-laws-do-not-prevent-head-injuries.html
Having smacked my head on the road due to legislation that allows cars to be driven by cunts, I don’t give a shit what “research” tells us. If you smack your head into something, it helps if you’ve got a helmet on it.
The video makes the point that helmets should be mandatory in high risk areas but not so in low risk areas. I.e, if you’re commuting to work on the road then wear a helmet. If you’re out for a Sunday ride down the park/beach then maybe not.
You can still wear one if you want though.
I’ve never hit my head falling off a bicycle – even when I got run over by a car. Broken my ribs a time or two though.
Yeah, the old “in general it might be a good idea, but I’m safe and don’t need it”.
Or, more precisely, “bike helmet laws do not prevent people being admitted overnight with some manner of head injury on their list of diagnoses”.
Nothing about severity or even primary cause of admission in that study.
Murdoch on doing anything for kids
Probably needs to be embedded or something.
ARE SOME NZ HUMAN BEINGS TREATED WORSE THAN ANIMALS?
http://nzh.tw/11902374
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1999/0142/latest/DLM50299.html
11. Obligation to alleviate pain or distress of ill or injured animals
(1)The owner of an animal that is ill or injured, and every person in charge of such an animal, must ensure that the animal receives treatment that alleviates any unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress being suffered by the animal.
(2)This section does not—
(a) limit section 10; or
(b)require a person to keep an animal alive when it is in such a condition that it is suffering unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress.
Section 11(1): amended, on 10 May 2015, by section 12 of the Animal Welfare Amendment Act (No 2) 2015 (2015 No 49).
_____________________________
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.
Exposing the $1.6 BILLION Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM.
You can be prosecuted for not feeding and housing an animal properly.
Apparently keeping 300 thousand children in poverty, is legal!
And. Highlighting the fact, is grounds for dismissal.
No, it is grounds for Trial by Media with the ‘Honourable Justice’ Patrick Gower presiding.
Staggering.
Yup, emboldened KKK, Neo-Nazis, and anti-Semitic White Nationalists.
Hate as a family thing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/it-wasnt-just-white-men-who-participated-in-the-unite-the-right-rally_us_598f55b4e4b09071f69a0381?ncid=APPLENEWS00001
even more staggering
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017-chicago-murders
this weekend to be added.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-1-wounded-in-south-side-shooting-20170812-story.html
Must be a new Roy Morgan poll out soon. Anyone got any ideas?
Can anyone tell me the contact email address for The Standard?
This one: thestandardnz@gmail.com gets returned to sender.
Aha. On the contribute page the email address has a dot after .com so the message is now sent!
still relevant today
The sadness runs deep.
it does. 77 years and nothing really has changed.
Genau. Actually, I cannot help but admire Hitler as he eyeballs down 40,000+ people at the Nuremburg rally … Yet he was a barbarian. Times are turbulent as usual, and Trump is an anathema, but here in NZ we act like none of this happened before.
why oh why is David Parker not Labours finance spokesman (any more)?….
Parker chose not to be but Grant is doing a pretty good job. Easily edged ahead of Nationals SS Joyce, the BS merchant, on Q & A this morning.
Agree. Dildo came second.
pleased to hear that….but with Parker its effortless.
The media have been slated for asking Jacinda about baby possibilities.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/95700222/a-baby-and-a-campaign-at-the-same-time
But this Labour candidate was expecting her baby to come a week after the election and is disappointed that it didn’t stick to its timetable.
Timing is supposed to be everything in politics – but the drama of the past few days has scuppered that old nostrum.
As did the baby of Labour’s Rangitikei candidate Heather Warren.
Her baby was scheduled for September 29, comfortably after the September 23 election day – but instead arrived a fortnight ago, at 31 weeks.
WTF If you are having a baby that should be the first priority for the next year.
It is an expectation that modern women will still be interested in looking after their offspring and trying to breast feed the child. That is in all the information available as being of top importance for health in the distant as well as near future.
Talk about trying to double dip. You can’t be thinking about political matters and giving your child all the attention and care it needs while a baby and toddler, and withdrawing for long periods to keep up with your constituency and party concerns. I think many women are trying to have everything, and not being fair to their children. In this case the political life should have waited till the next election, staying on the list would have been a reasonable start.
yes. dear.
btw. women have birthed all of humanity since ages ago, actually since ever, and have always worked.
they might not have been payed, they might have been handmaids, they might have been slaves, they might have been single mothers or unfortunates, they might have been widows, they might have been young or old, they might have lived in peace time or in war time, but they have always worked.
So yeah, women can have it all.
and just for the record, let me fix this for you
Talk about trying to double dip. You can’t be thinking about political matters and giving your child all the attention and care it needs while a baby and toddler, and withdrawing for long periods to keep up with your constituency and party concerns. I think many man are trying to have everything, and not being fair to their children and are fully depending on their wifes to handle childcare, household care on their own, while they go about gallivanting in politics. In this case the political life should have waited till the next election, staying on the list would have been a reasonable start for any man whose wife has just given birth to a child.
Yay Sabine!